Rulership of the King of the Kingdom of God on Earth - Part 1 — Art Katz

Well while they're adjusting The books if anyone will not be here tomorrow night and wants this or any of these See me, and so I'll just say What shall I say? Outstanding anointed rich things given of God.

Spirit of truth. The title speaks for itself Reality. I People commend it who read it annually. Apostolic conversion, what is? The nature of conversion of the anatomy of conversion. And last but not least and most recently.

Devastating book coming out both in German and in French this fall. The Holocaust. Where was God I? Have received my first scathing letter from an Israeli official to whom the book had come and I think there'll be other scathing letters to follow.

So they'll be angry before they'll be blessed, but it's a word that They cannot gainsay Nor reject and I trust that it's one of the Lord. I know it is and that will have its purpose. It may some of you as a Christian to read it and some of your categories and even your understanding of God will be vitally and profoundly affected by this book.

The Kingdom of God as the Central Theme of Faith

Okay. So I can understand that I think I have an important theme and How shall they introduce it? Maybe just a little quiz question? What would you say? If someone were to ask for the one theme That is central to the entire Christian faith.

What one? Thing what one consummation? What what is the whole thing about? That eventuates that the conclusion of the age. Which at the same time is more Conspicuously absent from the consideration of the church today.

What one thing would you finger? Maybe Jesus in a very Particular focus as I hope to share as we go on. Anybody else want to take a stab at one statement one phrase one the Christ cross. Certainly central and certainly evaded.

That's for sure. Redemption. Well, I'm just gonna have to tell you. And my topic my theme Subsumes and includes everything that has been expressed by you. It is and you're going to be disappointed when I mention it you say oh that I know that I've heard of that I speak that.

But we don't know as we ought to know and we don't speak it with the comprehension that we ought. Here's a lady That's got to. It all is included. When Christ was crucified. What one mocking statement was nailed over his head on the cross in?

Three languages. How did they disfigure the crucified one to add insult to his injury? By thrusting a crown upon his head of thorns and a robe. What was all that? Calculated to mock to intimidate and to negate that is the answer of What the entire faith is about?

Namely Jesus Christ as king and the one thing for which the whole faith Tends and will be realized is the kingdom of God the kingdom of God. And I used to preach about it and I haven't in a number of years Taken up with other themes about Israel.

But just recently on this trip last overseas trip in East Germany I'm rubbing my head. You can pray for me. I'm Headache II. I had the opportunity to visit to East German pastors whom I had not seen in 20 years and And in that time they were still under communist authority and One man was threatened with imprisonment even for bringing up the subject of Israel all true believers lived under a certain kind of fear of repercussion of threat of intimidation of imprisonment.

It's not easy to be a believer in an atheistic regime. That is threatening and There was a certain tension to the faith in those days when a man like myself came there was an excitement people leaned forward.

All of that is gone. The wall is down between East and West Germany. The communist regime no longer exists the standard of living is risen. I could see that visibly In the homes that we had that we visited.

But I think something had gone out. That was no longer with them. That impressed me those 20 years ago a kind of living on the sharp edge of faith. Where to be a believer was costly threatening. There was a significance of the faith that somehow departed and So my question to these pastors on the same day was What has substituted? for the Communist threat under which you lived 20 years ago that would give to your present faith and ministry the same quality of significance and alertness and sharp edgedness that Communism had provided and they had they had no answer for me.

It was clear to me that Whatever that distinctive sharp thing was it was gone and nothing had replaced it. When I came up to the second home, there was a kid the son of the household for whom I had prayed 20 years ago.

The mother then pregnant had been told by the authorities She should not give birth to this child who would come out Deformed that she her own life would be threatened by that birth that she should have an abortion.

What do you think God? And so I thought quickly and I said have this child and She had it and there it was standing in front of the house as I came up 20 years later with spiked hair. What do you call it tinted earth?

I would say tainted. Everything but the nose ring. He was a real punk rock kid of his generation. The son that I prayed for 20 years ago. Did I miss the Lord? He Was a kind of a visible statement That something indeed had gone out and had not been replaced with the significance that would compel his attention and keep him from being sucked into the orbit of Teen culture rock music and all other kind of stuff.

And so he was in agony for his parents and so the both pastors I Asked the question What what could replace this? Living under the sharp edge of communist threat that would continue to give your ministry and congregation a sense of significance reason for coming that had been yours 20 years before and They had no answer.

I said, how about the kingdom of God? What about the kingdom of God? Oh Yes, yeah, that's that's nice. Yeah, the kingdom of God is within us and The kingdom we're living by kingdom. I don't know how they said it but they both did not understand what I was getting at and I have not been able to Spit out what the Lord sowed in my spirit from that day.

It was clear that they had a kind of conventional sense of the kingdom. That is individualistic and subjective the kingdom of God within and That's true and There's a kingdom of God principles by which we conduct church life.

But what I was getting at and that what was unknown to them and these I believe to be profoundly restored. Is the kingdom of God as the kingdom of God? Not a subjective Dimension that we speak about him in a vague kind of way that doesn't have a really distinctive meaning.

But the kingdom of God in its political sense of rule in the earth. In a word the kingdom of God as a theocratic reality. That's what we're tending toward. It's the rule of God over his own creation and That has been violently opposed by the nations and the spirits that rule and jerk the nations there will be a final climactic and Devastating Conflict at the end of the age as I think there was at the beginning of the church history.

Over this issue of a kingdom come when Jesus was asked by his disciples. How shall we pray? The one prayer that he gave them was pray this Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come in earth as it is in heaven.

Jesus was profoundly Kingdom-conscious. His message from the very inception of his earthly ministry was the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Repent, it's about to break in upon you. These miracles and demonstrations of power that you're seeing are the evidence of that kingdom.

That was the message of John the Baptist. And you don't find any explanation. His heroes did not say well, what do you mean by the kingdom? The those who heard him evidently understood what it meant. They were Jews.

There was a biblical expectation of a kingdom that would conclude the age and Restore the glory of Israel and it was a Davidic kingdom. It had to be established on the throne of David and that even though in the time of Jesus Israel was in a sorry condition and plight.

The tabernacle of David had fallen down a Gentile Nation ruled over it. They were in bondage. There was four centuries without a prophet. Yet their hope was at the conclusion of the age and it's a right hope and a biblical hope and a prophetic hope.

That the kingdom of God would come the kingdom of God was even the reward for faithfulness. And when Jesus spoke with John 3 with Nicodemus Nicodemus. Though Nicodemus asked him. What must I do to inherit eternal life?

Jesus said except that you are born by the Spirit. You cannot see nor enter the kingdom of God. He was asking about eternal life. Jesus was answering in the context of the kingdom of God and there was no disparity between those two things.

For the issue of eternal life was and is the issue of the kingdom and the reward of faithful Obedience in this life is the reward of the kingdom and participation in the kingdom. This is entirely absent from our present consciousness.

And I believe has disfigured the church and needs to be restored. You cannot understand the issue of Israel. Outside the issue of the kingdom that comes with Israel's restoration. Israel will be honored after a final time of dishonoring a chastisement and humbling by being the nexus and the nation out of whose holy city and Holy hill of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord out of Jerusalem we have Spiritualized those statements.

Zion has become to us a symbol of an ambiguous kind and We have missed the specific literal intent of God. That accounts for I believe the unhappy condition of the church today that lacks its kingdom consciousness and the greatest motivation that God gives.

For fidelity and walk of an uncommon kind to which we are called Paul says him to the Thessalonians newly saved out of primitive paganism. Who have forsaken their idols to serve the living God walk worthy of?

The Lord and the glory and the kingdom to which you are called. That's not Paul in a kind of Apostolic rhetoric that's a man indicating that the True incentive for walk of a walk of that kind is the incentive of the kingdom and its glory not to have that incentive is to assure us that our walk is going to be something other and less than That to which Paul called These Thessalonians in his apostolic ministry.

The Kingdom as an Alternative to Human Rule

Got the picture. Let me pray Lord. If I have a headache and hot flashes and physical discomfort because powers of darkness hate this subject and want to diminish my God this speaking and the faith that comes by the hearing of it and the Restoration of that which has been lost to the church that accounts for the petty kingdoms of Religious men and and the whole mentality my God that is something less than other than that Which your faithful Hebrews have long waited and is the climax of the age of the issue of your coming as?

King and ruling upon the throne of David and Bringing equity and justice and righteousness in the earth if the powers of darkness hate that kingdom hate that coming hate that reality and want even to diminish the Speaking of it that would it would again restore the the anticipation of it and give us of the incentive for the kind of holy living and walk my God that Presages such a kingdom and gives indication of what it is.

That is to come then Rule Lord rule. You're already on the throne my God all authority has been given to you in heaven and in earth. You're a reigning God, and we ask that you would prevail tonight my God prevail over my infirmity.

Prevail my God over the powers of darkness that want in every way to bring this Subject and it's speaking to north. Come my God only you soon-coming King have the right and the ability to set forth the glory of that kingdom and that we're Barking up the wrong tree and we're reduced to mindless choruses about the majesty of God.

Except that we understand you in the majesty of your kingdom that the king of glory is waiting to come in even into the consciousness of his church as king and Lord. We North Americans, especially from the USA are not responsive to monarchy.

We're with democratic rather than theocratic. We don't like the idea of a God who rules. It's offensive to our egalitarian Sympathies and we don't and we want to all go to the same heaven. We don't like the idea that some will rule over five cities in some of them and that Paul was Deeply distressed to find two Corinthians going to the Court of the world in order to resolve the difference between them and said don't you know?

You're going to rule over angels and over nations. And they didn't know and we don't know and it shows in the way, which we're living our life presently. We're not living in the anticipation of that kingdom.

We're not preparing for our part for our part in it. We don't really expect it. It's become a kind of a buzzword. It's the kingdom the kingdom that has subjective Individualistic Meanings, but we've lost the greater meaning and I'm asking in Jesus name.

You're surely the anointed one anointed for kingdom rule. That you would convey to us my God what has been lost. May it may it blaze in our hearts my God. May we anticipate it? May we have a restored eschatology of expectation of what it is for which we're moving.

That saves one Sunday from being like another. Give us a direction my God and alert us for what the last Opposition will be to this rule which the powers of darkness dread. These false usurpers. Come my God leaders in an excursion through your word and show us the central theme of the entire faith.

That needs to be restored. In Jesus name we pray. You want to pray for me, yeah. I have a couple of brothers. Some kind of Ambiguous phrase that's what it has become. It's lost its cogency its power. Even the word government and rule.

Have taken on unsavory Connotations because of the way in which men rule. One woman said I don't even desire to rule and reign with Christ that it doesn't appeal to me. Well, if it's only the continuation of human government of the kind that we have unhappily been suffering.

Especially in my country under Clinton. I can well understand that but the government of God is not bureaucracy. It's not paper shuffling. It's not lining your pockets with self-aggrandizing. What is the kingdom of God?

What why is it to be so desired why have saints been willing over the centuries to die for it and Expect it in a very literal way. Because it's equity justice righteousness in the earth. Oh my that that there would not be victims who are crunched because they have not a Political voice so they have not an economic weight or a coalition of forces in their behalf.

God will rule with absolute equity justice and righteousness between nations. Just think of the promise in Isaiah chapter 2. Repeated exactly. I think word for word in Micah chapter 4. Not because the one whispered to the other but that the two prophets received Independently by the same spirit the same statement that the mountain that of the Lord's house will be higher than the mountains of the world and of the nation's mountain is always the symbol of government and rule and That the mountain that the nations despise is the holy hill of Zion.

Psalm 2 why do the nation's rage? Why do the heathen rage and imagine a vain thing? That they can break asunder the courts of the Lord and his anointed. Why why why are they in such a fury that they foam at the mouth?

But God holds them in derision and he has declared the decree this. Now what my son and I have established you on the holy hill of Zion. And giving you the nation's and the heathen for your inheritance.

Dear Saints. Intensely preoccupy yourself with psalm 2 it is a gem that zeros into the whole profound Controversy over the issue of who's going to rule in God's creation the heathen the nations the Kings and the rulers take thought against the Lord and against his anointed and By the way, the whole issue of anointing is the issue of the kingdom.

Kings were anointed to rule the Christ. That's the Christos is the anointed one. We are the little anointed ones, but for the very same reason for those things that Pertain to and relate to the coming of this kingdom.

We need an unction. Because the world and its powers mightily resist that rule, you know that the we have suffered so greatly. For Spiritualizing these references away and so you take a text like Isaiah 2 that the law shall go forth out of Zion and The law of the Lord out of Zion the word of Lord out of Jerusalem.

Somehow it loses its its power and we don't expect anything. We think it's a kind of a poetic reference. We don't Let it smite us in its literalness. Not the least of the reason is is the historic anti-semitism that is in the church.

That they don't fancy a kingdom whose nexus Is to be found in the nation and land of Israel. That would not be their choice. They would have chosen Geneva or New York City or some other appropriate Mount Olympus to be the locus of God's rule In the earth, but the holy hill of Zion is still a hill.

Anyone who goes to Jerusalem today can see it. The City of David it's nothing that is awesome. In fact, it's chosen because it's not awesome. It's chosen because it is modest. It's chosen because it's the place in which a king shall dwell have a sanctuary and his rule.

Who came to Israel in fulfillment of Zechariah chapter 9 your king shall come to you lowly and meek Riding on the back of an ass a cult upon which never man sat. This king is born in the stable. This king dies in the dung keep in Outside the city little little wonder that Jews have had little stomach for a king of this kind whom they Expected in grandeur and to dispossess Roman rule, etc, etc.

They didn't understand the genius of this king the character of this king the humility of this king and I don't know that we understand it and So God chooses a foolish nation whose track record is a stench in its infidelity caught to God and and its history of broken covenant faithfulness.

He chooses a city that has been ravaged time and time again by invaders and one that even now I would take no delight in visiting. It's painful for me to visit Israel and especially Jerusalem. Because it is so evidently inappropriate for the coming of the king.

I Things in neon lights and grass and they're growing in the cracks of the streets and just a whole spirited atmosphere. It is not conducive or appropriate to a king. That's not the least of the reasons why that present city will in one day soon be reduced to rubble together with other cities in Israel and will be rebuilt as Unto the Lord and for the Lord and the kind of millennial glory that such a king deserves and must have not only the architecture of the city, but in the character of the people in whose land and Principle city his law will go forth.

They will be the emissaries the ambassadors of such a kingdom. They will be going into the nations and the nations will be coming to them not in their present arrogance but in the meekness that will be theirs when God will have chastised them and Brought them down before he exalts them as the locusts of his eternal rule.

You know what the whole kind of the kingdom I'll put it this way if you don't understand Israel in the context of the kingdom of God you don't understand Israel you will necessarily Sentimentalize or see Israel or have an affinity for present Israel in a way that this figures actually God's intention for you and that people.

The way that to see and understand Israel are right is to understand God's intention for in the context of his coming kingdom and his millennial rule out of the nexus of a Restored nation and a transformed people.

If you don't understand that you will be offended by God with God at The chastisement and the severity of the dealings that are yet future for that nation because of their kingdom call. I was just noticing last night that the book of Acts both begins and ends with the reference to the kingdom.

Once you get into this I was thinking my cats. Why why haven't you written this up? Why don't why don't you? Come with a formal outline and show us, you know In a ordered way this thing well It's for others, but I have to do it with spasms and jerks.

It has to come Prophetically the Lord has to put it together on this occasion as you will choose it. Which will be different from others. In chapter 1 of the book of Acts written to Theophilus notice the word Theo Prefix Theo Theocratic and I'm using a word like that when I know that you probably don't understand it.

You know what democratic means? Both the preface and the suffix are Greek demo and demos is people and Cratic is rule. So demo cratic is rule of the people, but what then is feel cratic? It's the rule of God.

Do you have the faith to believe for that? Do you have a heart to desire that? Are you sick to the teeth with the human Equivalent? Are you chafed in your spirit and your righteous spirits for the injustice of human government?

That necessarily must be so because only God being God can rule in righteousness. We should at least desire that. Because we've desired and anticipated it ought to be reflected in our present life. Interesting that this is written for Theophilus who is a lover of Theo God.

Of all that Jesus didn't talk from the beginning until the day when he was taken up to heaven. After giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the Apostles whom he had chosen. After his suffering he presented himself alive to them by many convincing proofs appearing to them during 40 days and speaking Exclusively I'm adding that about the kingdom of God 40 days in his resurrection body.

Before he could ascend to the father and take the place of honor. That was his. Because he was obedient unto death God had given him a name and a place above everything. But before he could ascend to it He had to remain in the earth.

In order to expedite and facilitate that coming he spoke to them on one subject 40 days the kingdom of God. I don't know that there's one among us who has ever had that privilege in a lifetime of believing.

I don't know that I've had four hours of instruction let alone 40 days of it there hardly anyone speaks of it and Very few have the audacity of faith to believe for it. That there will be a kingdom and a rule and it will emanate from one place In the earth that God himself has chosen.

Now some hotshots and wise guys say God is not interested in real estate. The kingdom is some kind of Ambiguous thing that is everywhere. It's not that doesn't have any one specific locus. Well, they're wrong.

If God is not the God who chooses The particular thing he's not God. He's chosen Israel. He's chosen a land. He's chosen the city. He's chosen a hill. Because that's what makes God. God Is the distinctive the ability of the right to choose what he will choose and have mercy.

Upon whom he will have mercy and elect what he will elect. But have you noticed that every time he does it His choice is something contrary and other than what we as Anglo-Saxons would have chosen something Semitic and offensive something different from us People in a place that would not have impressed us is his choice.

That's the stumbling stone of Zion that God sets in the path of the church. To test and to reveal its secret heart. That though we say Jesus Jesus Jesus and all those kinds of things. Are we really in agreement with the God who has chosen Zion?

Or Will we find ourselves with those that rage and fume against him? This is the scandal of Particularity it's the express and thing that God has chosen and The saint is a saint who rejoices and agrees with God in his chosenness.

For that is the very issue of God. And that issue is going to be affected and established in a point of time and will carry on Millennially and eternally he's going to rule from the throne of David. Remember that He was passing through Jericho and there was a blind beggar Who cried out and all of the din of the noise and they tried to stop his mouth and he kept crying out Jesus thou son of David Jesus thou son of David and Jesus stopped the moment.

He heard that who said that was that coming from a beggar blind beggar because Son of David is altogether theocratic in its significance. God had promised David that out of his loins one would rule Who was descended from him upon his very throne and rule?

Forever. And this blind man recognized in this itinerant Preacher the son of David the one spoken of who will rule from his throne and rule forever. And Jesus stopped all Israel could not recognize their king and Lampooned and ridiculed him and put on that sign over his cross as a mock.

But the blind beggar intuitively and instinctively understood Who this anointed one is The son of David the promised ruler the Messiah the anointed one the coming King. You look if I had the time I would show you but look in the Psalms.

As I'm seeing it now and I'm marking it with a yellow marking pen to every reference to King Majesty. You'll see the king in his beauty. I don't you know, I'm a little suspicious about the this Charismatic emphasis today on love with loving Jesus and Passionate love.

I get a little icky feeling like it borders on the romantic. I I mean I Understand the intent of it, but there's something about it. That doesn't quite strike my kosher heart rightly. It's almost like a sensual love the love of Jesus.

What I'm Thinking is that what God is waiting for and wanting Is a love and appreciation of him that has to do with his being king that until we come into the loftiness and the majesty the Elevation that has to do exclusively with kingship that our reference to Jesus is So somehow marred out of whack and somewhat deformed.

That it can only be corrected by this thing seeing the Lord high and lifted. So it took 40 days to instruct him about the kingdom of God. And it's interesting that there one question before he departed from them was is it time now to restore the kingdom to Israel?

What a supreme opportunity Jesus had for all the generations to follow. To say hey, when are you guys going to grow up? Are you still preoccupied with your narrow Jewish? Nationalistic interest don't you understand that the kingdom of God is an all-embracing term that has to do with the subjective influence of God.

That will make life and relationship Cordial pleasant, but you still think of it as some political thing that is going to be the distinction of your Hebrew nation. He did not speak one word of rebuke he Accepted everything that he knows in their hearts that there's a kingdom that was promised Israel Divided from their city that would be their eternal distinction.

The question is is it coming now? Is it time now to restore the kingdom to Israel? When you read Amos chapter 9 In one summary of the whole Process by which God shakes the nation in the last days. I will sift you through all nations.

That's coming sense. That's why I'm here. That's why I think Canada is so significant. There's going to be a movement. Maybe I'll speak of this tomorrow night of Jews in the last days, and I'm not just talking about Canadian Jews.

I don't know how they're going to get here. But some way they're going to be sifted and sieved through here and down to Washington, Minnesota and on. And he says in that day in the day of their sifting the day of the time of Jacob's trouble I will restore and build up again the tabernacle of David that has fallen down.

He's not talking about the restoration of Hebraic worship. However, lovely that might be he's talking about the tabernacle of David as a symbolic statement of the throne of David. The rule of David the kingdom of God shall be established again.

Because the next verse says and Edom and the nations that will be called by my name will be submitted unto it. He's not talking about a form of worship. He's talking about a form of rule when you come to the end of the book of Acts.

There's Paul In his facility there in Rome before he's beheaded Talking to his kinsmen as many as would come to him about the salvation of God. And it says in the very last verse he lived there two whole years at his own expense, that's always poor and Welcomed all who came to him proclaiming the kingdom of God and Teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance.

Petty Kingdoms, Christian Leadership, and Correction

I don't think that we can rightly teach about the Lord Jesus Christ apart from the context of the kingdom. So as being to believe in our 35 years and having opportunity to visit the exposed and touch other ministries and the whole tenor of our present Christianity, I Can't help but observe the proliferation of the petty kingdoms of men.

Have you observed? I've even said to one brother or at least the thought came to me in a little tension between us. He was unable to receive a prophetic word of correction From a man whom he honors in that office and of whom he publicly speaks of having been Significant influence in his own life and ministry, but when a corrective word had to come from me for him He could not bear to hear it or to receive it.

And later on I pondered that I thought well His Ministry has leaped gone forth and leaps and bounds. I mean, it's he's now not just nationally known He's internationally known people run to hear him and buy his books and all of these things and I thought that a young man is particularly defensive of his own ministry.

He can't have the magnanimity of older men who have been tempered by God and can receive a corrective word. There's something about their ambition something about the necessity for young men to succeed in an age in which Identity and security and recognition have become so all-important even among Christians.

And so I thought the only safety for a man like that with such successful ministry is to cut it off at a certain level. When it reaches a certain development where your religious establishment and your ministry has become so All-encompassing for you that you need to protect it and defend it and cannot receive a corrective word.

You've gone too far. Limit it don't allow it to reach such proportion as to disqualify you from hearing a word that would be corrective lest later on Your end will be less happy. What I'm saying is and suspect that in the absence of the real recognition of the kingdom of God That what invariably will Fulfill that space is the raising up of the petty kingdoms of men even in the name of Jesus that God's safeguard is That we should be so taken up with his kingdom his coming and his rule that that removes the possibility even of Developing for ourselves the pettiness of our own smaller kingdoms, so I just Invite you to Share this growing concern with me.

That something is grievously out of whack with our contemporary Christianity. And I believe that the root of it is the loss of this conception this Principle this heart of the matter this thing toward which everything in our faith tends and will be fulfilled by the coming of the Lord as King His kingdom come pray this will anything else hallow the father the name of the father in heaven, but this Hallowed be thy name.

And for the want of this kingdom by which his name is hallowed the name of God is not Hallowed and more likely to be Dishonored and disfigured. It's the kingdom that gives to God his eminence his glory his majesty His stature his respect his reverence is all Hebrews chapters 12 and 13.

Sonship, Discipline, and Qualification to Rule

If you can just look for quickly there where chapter 12 speaks about the Chastising that is intrinsic and necessary for sons and That Jesus himself had to bear. Who is seated now in verse 2 of chapter 12 at the right hand of the throne of God?

Sonship maturity. Qualification for rules is altogether in the context of the kingdom to talk about Coming of age or becoming the sons of God outside of this context. Gives it a warp and a disfiguring that only the correct alignment with the kingdom will provide.

The kingdom of God is is his provision. It's our safety even in this present life as well as our incentive. And our willingness to bear the chastisements of the disciplines of God that we might share in his holiness.

Because without holiness no man shall see God and if we can't see God, how shall we rule with God? Even from his throne. This is the reward for overcoming and for enduring. You'll be seated with me upon my throne and that when he comes he gives to every man Their reward for their labors and that reward is his place in their place in his kingdom.

This thing about some shall rule over five cities and some over ten. Shows that we We're not all coming to the same place and that we're not going to share the same kind of eternal distinction. It's relative to what was the quality and character of all In this present world and by the way that that is an apostolic phrase this present world.

That the Apostle who coined that indicates that this is the transient thing. This is the preparatory thing. This is not the enduring thing. It's only this present thing. The thing that really comes is the thing that is eternal and it is for that that our eyes should be set.

And then we're willing to bear in this present world the suffering the humiliations the indignities the misunderstandings and worse that must necessarily proceed that kingdom and glory. It changes your whole view.

It removes any reason for self-pity and why we're suffering this or why why that it's all a preparation for that which is to come and That was the definitive understanding of the church that was groomed by the Apostles.

When Paul did not withhold the whole counsel of God when he was speaking to them was the reality of a kingdom. For which this present life was preparation. That's the peaceable fruit of righteousness that will be Given later to those who have been trained by the chastisements and the dealings of God.

Little further into that chapter it speaks about. You have not come to a mountain of blaze with fire and so on as was Israel's experience that They trembled with fear but in verse 22 you have come to Mount Zion you've come to the locus of God's Millennial and eternal rule to the city of the Living God the heavenly Jerusalem.