The Book of ACTS | The Kingdom of God

Hello out there. My name is Jeremiah Nortier. I'm the Apologetic Dog. And if this is your first time tuning in, this is an apologetics ministry meant to contend for the gospel of grace. And so the Apologetic Dog, this is just simply a reminder that all Christians are supposed to guard the gospel of grace.

And so in the logo, hopefully you'll see 1 Timothy 6, verse 20, where Timothy is told by the Apostle Paul, oh, Timothy, guard the deposit that's entrusted to you. Do this by avoiding irreverent battle.

Do this by avoiding contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge. And so that's my heart here at the Apologetic Dog is I want us to stand firm on truth. Where do we get truth? Well, we get truth from God, and he reveals truth to us through his life-giving word.

And so I also serve as pastor and elder at 12 Five Church amongst a plurality of elders with Pastor Nathan Hargrave and Pastor Keith Hennick. We are in the Northeast Arkansas area, Jonesboro. And so if you're looking for Reformed Baptist Church, we're the only one in the town.

We love our Reformed Presby brothers. We do many things with them, fill their pulpits. We preach for each other. And so that's a little bit of where I'm coming from. Just wanna thank you so much, 12 Five Church, for your support.

That's the name of the church, and you can find us at 12fivechurch .com. And so people ask, what's a 12 Five? Well, it's a reference to Romans 12, verse five that talks about all the saints, we are one together in the body of Christ.

So with that being said, I really wanna show off this new shirt that I have. Tell me if you can see it okay. Hey, have you read Romans 9? A dear brother sent this to me and said, hey, I got some merchandise that I'd like for you to make people more known about.

My good friend Jerry Duckworth, the Twitchy Theologian. And so after the live stream, I'll post a link for where you can find some more of this merchandise. I just wanna tell you that there's something on the back that you'll just have to click the link and find out.

It's really cool what he has to say, but it's letting people know, hey, you gotta check out Romans chapter nine. All scripture is God-breathed and profitable. So also just go check out the Twitchy Theologian YouTube channel.

Like I said, a dear brother, contending for the gospel of grace, getting in the debate dojo, and I've seen him participate on Marlon's channel, The Gospel Truth, and he did a great job. And so that is the Twitchy Theologian.

So go check him out. And like I said, I'll eventually post his link in the show notes below where you can go check him out. Some other things down the pipeline before I get into this evening's livestream is I do debates also.

So coming up is August 23rd. Me and the fishbone, Trey Fisher, we are going to be on Marlon's channel, The Gospel Truth, debating that and talking about is baptism necessary? Necessary for what? We have to go check it out.

Well, essentially this will be a baptism debate. What's interesting about the full proposition is asking the question, is water baptism necessary to forgive all your sin? And it's interesting because the gentleman you see on the graphic there, they're going to be saying, yes, it forgives all of your sin.

Well, we'll see if they will be able to consistently say that by the end of the debate. Thank you so much. Gotta get some coffee going. So you wanna check out that debate. I believe it's gonna be August 23rd.

And so it's coming up around the corner. Let's see what else we got in the pipeline. That was the wrong button. Let's see here. In February, I will be speaking at a conference in Tullahoma, Tennessee.

I just wanna let everybody know, it has proved very difficult to find a debate opponent. Every single person I've asked has told me, ah, I can't make it for this reason or that reason. And what I'm on the lookout for, so if you see this episode and you think, hey, I know somebody that's interested, is I really want to debate someone that would represent the church of Christ.

So this debate is called War. And we're gonna be talking about the spirit versus the flesh. And so this whole conference will be talking about a believer's sanctification. And so you see me in this graphic right here.

I want to represent the conference in terms of a debate against a person that wants to challenge the idea that a believer can lose their sanctification, lose their salvation. And for those of us that are Reformed, we understand that God is absolutely sovereign and he who begins that good work in you is sure to bring it to completion.

He started the good work and God cannot fail to accomplish what he intends to do. So I'm looking for a church of Christ representative that would like to either affirm the position that a believer can lose their salvation.

Like I said, I'll do some more podcast, live stream episodes with Trey and tell you about some of the bizarre encounters I've had with people trying to get them to commit to come to Tullahoma, Tennessee.

But I imagine something will work out soon. But anyway, this will be in February and hopefully recognize some faces from the speakers last year. Jeff Rice is hosting. Keith Foskey will be there again this year.

Andrew Rappaport, Sam Waldron, and the rest of the gang. So you don't want to miss out on them. Okay, so this evening, I realize maybe Donald Trump will be giving an important speech, the biggest one he's ever given, as I've seen some thumbnails say on YouTube.

In a few hours or so, I thought, man, I really want to do a live stream. I want to connect with y 'all. And hopefully we'll be done before the whole world listens to perhaps one of the greatest speeches ever, ever given.

But something I'm doing here at the Apologetic Dog is I am going through the book of Acts. And the more I thought about this, I got excited because I want to show y 'all my heart. Yes, I do interviews, I get interviewed a lot, especially in how to apologetically and evangelize the church Christ and full preterism and things like that.

But I also want to show people that, hey, we should be able to step into scripture and go line by line and examine context. And so I've already done two live streams. I think the first one was about O Theophilus, who the author of the book of Acts is and who Theophilus is and what's the intent of the book of Acts.

And so we made it for that live stream. We talked about how historically the person Luke, the traveling physician and companion and blessed brother of the Apostle Paul wrote two volumes, the Gospel of Luke, and then wrote volume two or book two, the book of Acts.

And so the second live stream I did, we talked a lot about John the Baptist, how he's an important backdrop to the book of Acts as we see pointing to what Jesus accomplished in his earthly ministry and he ascended on high.

And so in future live streams, we'll get into who can replace Judas Iscariot as an apostle. They had to witness essentially John's baptism and him baptizing Jesus and giving an eyewitness account of his entire earthly ministry.

So this is the third live stream. And I wanna back up to kind of looking at this prologue in Acts. And if you saw the thumbnail, this live stream is going to be about the kingdom of God. So I wanna thank you out there on YouTube.

Thank you for letting me know that you love the shirt. Like I said, I plan on posting the link where if you want some of the merchandise to support Jerry Duckworth, the Twitchy Theologian, you can easily type in the Twitchy Theologian and find the link that way, but I will post that as well.

Yes, love the shirt. I just wanna let everybody know, I already got a thumbs down. I didn't even get started yet. But we gotta counteract the thumbs down with some thumbs up. So if you appreciate Christian apologetics contending for the gospel of grace apart from works in King Jesus, the second person of the triune God who took on flesh and dwelt among us, then please like, share, and subscribe this content.

That really helps my content get out there more and it opens up more opportunities for me to speak and perhaps do this full time one day. I have a Patreon and I have a new website. I'll try to remember to post a link so you can check that out as well.

But if you ever wanna support the Apologetic Dog, you can always support me by praying for me. Praying that I would represent the truth and that God's truth would ultimately vindicate the saints. Another way you can support is by liking the content, sharing it, subscribing, and hitting the notification bell.

Oh, I got a thumbs up. Thank you out there to counteract that thumbs down. I'm telling you, the YouTube world is brutal. So anyway, back to the book of Acts. Something that I want to once again highlight is I want us to go slow.

We will make some headway this episode because I wanna talk about the kingdom of God and I want us to look at the question that the disciples asked Jesus here in verse six. So let's look at the opening prologue of the book of Acts.

The Prologue of Acts and Jesus' Teaching on the Kingdom

And so we've talked about in past live streams, the book of Acts is named that historically because this is the act of the apostles indwelt by the Holy Spirit all under the sovereign hand of God as he is building his temple, the church.

The Holy Spirit indwells believers. And so here in the prologue, we read, in the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day when he was taken up after he had given the commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen.

He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs appearing to them during 40 days and speaking about the kingdom of God. So I wanna keep reading, but I do want to highlight this to just let you know is this is what I really want to key in on this evening.

So we continue to read. And while staying with them, he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the father, which he said, you heard from me for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.

Who Are the Citizens of the Kingdom of God?

Okay. So the kingdom of God, I wanna tackle this question and I wanna tackle it by asking who, what, when, where, and why? And so essentially, what is the kingdom of God? Who are the citizens that make up the kingdom of God?

Where is it? What does it look like? What's the nature? And the reason why we're going through slow through the book of Acts is because the way I want to essentially tackle this is the book of Acts is volume two of volume one.

And so I just wanna remind those just now tuning in that if you ever have any questions along the way, please send them in the side chat. And I would love to interact with your questions, especially as we talk about the kingdom of God that inevitably will relate to eschatology, everyone's favorite subject.

And we're gonna see how the kingdom of God also involves soteriology, the method of salvation. So if you've been around for the apologetic dog content for any length of time, then you know that I deal with the church Christ and hyper-preterist.

And so I wanna show you along the way how to ultimately engage in context with these cult groups. So that being said, Acts is volume two of volume one of the gospel of Luke. And it was the gospel of Luke that I want to show you that the whole theme of that gospel is the kingdom of God.

And so in Luke chapter four, starting verse 43, I hope you can see it okay on your end. Jesus is speaking and says, I must preach the gospel, the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well for I was sent for this purpose.

And so that kind of kickstarts the whole theme to the gospel of Luke. Salvation ultimately can be understood as how can one see the kingdom of God? How can one be a citizen of the kingdom of heaven? And so before we continue to answer the who, what, when, where, and why question, one verse that immediately comes to mind, I'm gonna cheat a little bit and get outside of the gospel of Luke a little bit, even though that's gonna be primarily where we're gonna hang out, is Romans 14, 17.

And so when we're asking about the kingdom of God, one of the most concise verses that we could look to to answer most of the questions, the apostle Paul tells us, for the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

And so that's gonna be key for us this evening is I want us to continue to dip back, if you will, into this verse. So maybe as people join in a little bit late, that'll be a good time for me to say, hey, what is the kingdom of God?

It's righteousness, it's joy, it's peace in the Holy Spirit. Okay, so with that being said, Jesus, once again, in the gospel of Luke, tells us the whole reason why he was sent was to preach the gospel, the good news of the kingdom of God.

And so as we cheat a little bit more, one of my favorite verses, Mark 1, 15, and perhaps we can look at Mark 1, 14 and 15, because once again, we're gonna see the gospel, the kingdom, all this is very closely tied together.

And so we did talk about John's ministry, how he was preparing the way of Messiah for King Jesus. And so now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee proclaiming the kingdom of heaven, the gospel of God, and saying, the time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe the gospel.

And so the gospel is essentially the good news that the kingdom of God is here, it's at hand, it can be entered into, as we're gonna talk about, by repentance and believing in Christ. And so it can be entered into by faith.

We can't see it with our physical eye, but we can see the kingdom with the eye of faith. Okay, so with that, let's kind of begin to tackle the first question, which once again, is when we're talking about the kingdom of God, who is the kingdom of God?

Or better, we could say, who makes up the kingdom of God? And I wanna just simply say believers. Believers are citizens of the kingdom of God. And when you hear me say kingdom of God, kingdom of heaven, we're talking about the same place, the sphere of salvation.

Now we're gonna get more into that, this location of where it is at. But the kingdom of God is made up of citizens. And so in the gospel of Luke, which we're kind of gonna be hanging out in mainly because we're gonna see this theme, and we're gonna kind of hop all over the place.

But if it's true for the gospel of Luke, then it is true for the book of Acts volume two. And like I said, Acts chapter one, verse five, when it talks about the kingdom of God, there's something already pre-established in the writer Luke's mind.

And so we go to his gospel. This is the citizens of the kingdom. So when we look at the Beatitudes that are in Matthew's gospel, we see it right here in Luke as well. And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, Jesus is talking with the disciples here, and said, blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.

Okay, and so if you're familiar with the Beatitudes, there's a list, there's a longer list in Matthew's gospel, but it's talking about who the blessed man is, right? The blessed man and woman who has peace with God, who has true joy and contentment in Christ.

And so once again, what is the kingdom of God? The kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. And so that's essentially what we see being true of the Beatitudes, blessed are the poor.

The world tells you, oh, you want happiness? Search after wealth, search after influence and power and dominate. But then Jesus comes in and says, actually, life is being poor in spirit, understanding that you cannot work your way to God with your accomplishments and your obedience to a list of commands.

No, those who are spiritually poor, meaning that we have no righteousness of our own to offer God, we need a savior in our stead. That is the poor in spirit. For those that look to King Jesus in faith apart from their works, for yours is the kingdom of God.

And so we have a list of Beatitudes. And so as we read through these, I'll read kind of the last two here. Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil on account of the son of man.

Now listen to this, rejoice, citizens of the kingdom of heaven. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy for behold, your reward is great in heaven for so their fathers did to the prophets. And so what Jesus is getting at is we can be blessed.

We can have true contentment and joy even in the midst of persecution because we are looking forward to a heavenly dwelling place. Our reward is to see Jesus. Our reward is getting to be with him for all eternity.

And so this is important when we're talking about the kingdom of heaven or the kingdom of God. And even though we're talking about the who question, believers that look to Christ by faith alone apart from their works, this is giving us a clue that the kingdom is above, okay?

So also as we continue to answer the who is the kingdom of heaven, I believe the Apostle Paul also weighs in here in Philippians 3, verses 20 and 21. He says, but our citizenship is in heaven and from it we await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.

And so what I wanna highlight here is a believer's citizenship is in heaven. Paul also talks about how we don't get entangled as soldiers of Christ enlisted for war with the things of this world. Now does that mean that we have potentially an earthly citizenship in a certain country, we need to abide by the laws of the land?

Absolutely we do, but ultimately where our heart rests, where we're putting our faith in is our true citizenship which is heavenward. And as we begin to talk about the kingdom of God more and more and more, yes it is above, right?

It is also within, right? The church, the saints that have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. But we're gonna talk about how this kingdom, even though it is here, it is not fully consummated and realized yet.

So I want us to be thinking about that. And this verse that Paul is getting at, our citizenship is in heaven, as we await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, he is going to return. And what he is talking about here is our blessed hope, right, Jesus came the first time and he said, oh, I'm sending a helper.

I'm sending the Holy Spirit as a down payment, as a guarantee that I am coming back. And so as we go back to Acts chapter one in a little bit, we will perhaps touch on that he was sent on high and there were two angelic beings there.

It says, what are you doing, apostles? Go share the message of the kingdom of God because the way that you saw Jesus leave, that is the same way that he will return. And so once again, our citizenship as believers is in heaven, okay?

And so returning back to Luke's gospel, as we're answering the who, this is believers. In the parable of the sower, the four soils, if you will, Jesus says to you, believers, the apostles in his midst, to you, it, the kingdom of heaven, has been given to you to know the secrets of the kingdom of God.

But for others, they are in parables so that seeing they may not see and hearing they may not understand. And so once again, not only are believers, the citizens of the kingdom, but the kingdom of God, as we're gonna transition to in a moment, is salvation, right, to you, to know who the Messiah is, the good soil, it has been revealed to you to know the secrets of the kingdom of God.

And so Jesus gives many parables about the kingdom, but it's cryptic for those that love their sin, and this is obviously a judgment on Israel. If you've followed the Flower Patch Kids, that is Layton Flowers and them, I have a lot of love for them.

This is a passage that I think oftentimes gets misunderstood, maybe from the Reform Camp, because we do acknowledge that these parables are multifaceted. These parables are given to Israel as a form of judgment.

But we understand that Israel, being ultimately God-haters and enemies, especially after the distortion of the Torah during the intertestamental period, Jesus now comes, and this is a type of judgment to speak in parables.

So that doesn't compromise anything about the absolute sovereignty of God. God can choose how he will administer judgment, since he is king and ruler over all. And so if you have any questions about that, just let me know.

That being said, we will continue to move on, because, like I said, the big takeaway that I want us to see is that citizens of the kingdom are believers. In this next passage in the Gospel of Luke, maybe you recognize this, but there was an individual that said, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom, okay?

Now, the whole context here is this is the thief on the cross. The thief on the cross was not baptized. He was in the new covenant. He was still alive when Jesus died at Calvary. And if we read the book of Hebrews, we understand that the new covenant was inaugurated by his blood, by his death.

But Jesus not only is a suffering savior, but he's a victorious savior that resurrected from the dead three days later. And so the reason why this verse is so important is because I have talked with Anglicans, I've talked with Church of Christ, and some people have said that this is an exception, Jeremiah, the thief on the cross is not an example of the faith, of how we are to be reconciled with God.

I've even heard someone say, are you telling me that I have to go be crucified on a cross in order to be saved? And I say, yeah, we are to carry our cross daily. That's what Jesus said. And so the thief on the cross is a vivid picture of someone that does not deserve salvation, that is being judged for thievery, right?

The thief on the cross. And yet in his dying moments, he looks to Jesus, no doubt in saving faith, and says, remember me into your kingdom. And so I wanna elaborate a little bit more on this, but got somebody out there.

We have Mrs. Allie. Oh, she said, hey, I commented. That was her way of saying, hey, acknowledge me out there. She's watching the Apologetic Puppy, baby JJ. Allie, when's his birthday again? Is it coming up?

Yeah, we have a beautiful baby boy that's coming, going to be two years old coming up in October 21st. So keep us in prayer as we raise that baby boy to raise him in the fear and admonition of the Lord.

Thanks so much, babe. She's texting me, that's funny. All right, we have some more people joining in. We have Christ Rescued Me. This is the great Leanne Ferguson, but she always wants me to remind people, she's not great because of what she has done.

I say the great Leanne because she has been saved by a mighty savior, and she wrote the book Christ Rescued Me from the Church of Christ. And Leanne, you tuned in at a really good time because look at a verse I'm talking about.

The thief on the cross said, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. If Leanne wants to post why this verse might be important to her and some of the things that are coming up in the future, just post something about that so maybe I can let people know a little bit.

Oh, oh, we got a mod in the house, finally. Sparky, Sparky, I was wondering when you were gonna come in. You never know when I may need a mod to tell people to behave over there in the side chat. Oh, and Georgia, thank you so much for joining us.

Yes, so just to catch a little bit of y 'all up to speed, we are going through Acts, and you better believe it's gonna take a decade to get through the entire book because I go at a snail's pace. I go at the pace of Anthony Rogers.

If you don't know what I mean, go watch some of his live streams. Love Anthony so much. Leanne, what did I ask again? Oh, look at the verse on the screen because I'm talking about the thief on the cross said Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.

I didn't know if you wanted to tell us why this verse is so meaningful to you, and if you wanna let people know, we'll kinda let them know some of the projects that you have going on. So if you're just tuning in, we're going through the book of Acts, and we just went through the opening five verses, which is the prologue, and this live stream is about the kingdom of God.

And so as we're talking about the kingdom of God in the book of Acts, the writer Luke would have already had so many things in mind when he mentions the kingdom of God. And so we are in the gospel of Luke looking at the highlights of who gets to make up the kingdom of God.

So we're gonna look at the who, the what is the kingdom of God, when is the kingdom of God. That question was actually asked to Jesus. Where is it and why? What's the big deal about the kingdom of God?

So also if you're tuning in, someone, let's see, says, hello everybody. If you're just now tuning in, please hit the like button. That helps the algorithm, it helps the circulation of the content. And please like, share, and subscribe.

You know what to do. So thank y 'all for joining in. I want y 'all to know that as soon as I hit go live, someone hit the thumbs down. So someone is not a fan of the apologetic dog. And if I had to guess, it is more than likely someone that is Church of Christ.

And as we're talking about who makes up the kingdom of God, who are the citizens of the kingdom of God, it has always been believers. And I'm talking about the thief on the cross here because that is exactly what I wanna touch on for a moment is the thief on the cross was a citizen of the kingdom of God by faith, okay?

He says, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And that text goes on. Jesus says, today you will be with me in paradise. So how is the thief on the cross an example of one of the citizens of the kingdom of heaven?

He put his faith in Christ. And so it doesn't matter if he was baptized, which it is easy to show that Jesus died before the thief on the cross and he wasn't baptized. And yet he had a promise that he was going to see the kingdom, but that's not an exception to the rule.

That is the rule. That is how anyone has always entered into the kingdom. In Hebrews chapter 11, Abraham was looking heavenly. He was looking towards heaven. That's where he knew his citizenship ultimately was at.

He was not looking to this earthly domain, but he was looking by faith to heaven. And so he was able to be a citizens of the kingdom by promise. Okay, so let's see here. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. So this is where I wanted to give Ms. Leanne a chance to mention this, if she wanted to.

She says, coming soon, Christ rescued the thief's testimony. This is another book that Ms. Leanne has been working on. She wrote this book, which has been an absolute blessing to me. Christ rescued me from the church of Christ.

Please go check that out. And she let me interview her a number of months ago, so please check that out. And she's working on another book called The Thief's Testimony. And so she gets into how the church of Christ have, well, you'll just have to check it out, but it's an incredible book so far.

How's that, Leanne, for a book plug? Okay, so yeah, be on the lookout for that book. And I have a feeling that Leanne, she won't quit cranking out those books. So I want to move on now to answering the question, what is the kingdom of God, right?

What Is the Kingdom of God?

We know the who, it's believers. Always has been, always will be. Old Testament saints became members of the kingdom of heaven by faith in the promise that was to come. Something else that we might can delve a little bit deeper into, especially if we have any questions.

In 2 Samuel chapter seven, God promised, made a covenant with King David that he would establish an everlasting kingdom. I want to submit to you, we see the fulfillment, the ongoing fulfillment of that covenant in the book of Acts.

But Old Testament saints, by faith in the promise of this coming kingdom, looked forward to what was in store for them. And yes, Abraham saw that day and was glad, and he saw Jesus. So as we move now to answering the what, what is the kingdom of heaven, something that we began the live stream is saying Romans 14, 17 is kind of one of the best verses to answer all the who, what, when, where, and why questions.

For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. So we're saying, what is the kingdom of God? This simply is righteousness, peace, joy in the Holy Spirit.

In a word, I want to say the kingdom of God is salvation. It's the sphere of salvation. The kingdom of God right now is heavenly, okay? We can't see that, right? We can't see past the world that we currently are living in, but we see it by faith, meaning that we have tasted and seen that the Lord is gracious, who cannot fail to accomplish his promises.

The kingdom of God is also, I would say, within, okay? So even though we're in the gospel of Luke and we're gonna be getting into Jesus brought his kingdom with him because he's a king and he has a rule, and right now when he sits at the right hand of the father, the kingdom is where the king is on his throne.

But in a very real and practical sense for believers today, not only is the kingdom above, heavenly, but it's also within because the Holy Spirit indwells the saints, for the kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, joy in the Holy Spirit.

Okay, I gotta take a few sips of coffee on that one. So as we're continuing to answer all these questions in the side chat, let me know, how would you explain to someone what is the kingdom of God? How would you go about explaining that?

There's so many wonderful verses throughout. I will actually say Old and New Testament of what that looks like. But just to kind of repeat a little bit, the way that I wanna do this is saying, as we're going through Acts, we have to have in mind the human author, Luke.