First Sermon at Apologia Kauai!

The Church in Redemptive History and the Promise of the Messiah

It's interesting that if you were to ask Christians when the church started, I think the response that you would get out of many people would be the book of Acts. That's right where we would point to when we would say, look at the beginning of the church.

And that would be the response that I would give. And quite frankly, when we read through redemptive history, we read through scripture, that's exactly where we see the church starting is right in the book of Acts.

Well, what's interesting is that though that's where the start of the church that we see, or the beginning of the church that we see, there was preparations and promises prior to that, right? This church didn't just drop out of the sky at one point in history.

There was preparation, there was promise, and really it started in the garden, is really where it started, by the sovereign will of God. And he's moved us along through redemptive history, really starting with the patriarchs, right?

From Abel onward, the church militant, which is us, the church here on earth, and the church triumphant, we're united together, right? Those that have gone before us, we're united together through the blood of Christ.

And so we're one large community, one large church, and we're the bride of Christ. Again, we're a combination of really two groups of people, but we're a community of believers, we're united together, and we're eagerly anticipating, excuse me, the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

However, until that time, the church militant has a mission, right? God has set forth a mission for the church. And in our scripture reading today in Matthew, chapter 16, verse 18, as for the words of the living God, I'll read this verse.

And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock, I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we're, again, so grateful for this moment, for this time, God, where we can come together, we can, God, as corporately come together, worship you, God.

I pray, Lord, that this message that goes forth today, God, it's not me, that it's you that goes forth in the midst of this message, God, that you remove me out of the way, that, God, it's you that we focus on today.

God, I pray that as this message goes forth, that, God, this message, it's not just an intellectual exercise, God, that this touches our heart, and it touches our heart in such a way that we go forth into this community, God, with a willingness to not compromise with the gospel, God, that we're able to go into every aspect of life with the gospel, God, and stand firm in what we believe.

We're just so, again, grateful and thankful for this moment in time, God, as we pray this again for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ, amen. So, church triumphant, church militant, that's us here on earth.

Genesis 3, the Seed of the Woman, and the First Promise of Redemption

But as I alluded to earlier, Genesis chapter 3 is really where we start to see this shadow, this picture of what's ultimately going to be redemption, but it's building to a place and to a time. And what we see in Genesis chapter 3 really is, quite frankly, it's remarkable.

We're seeing mercy and grace in the midst of judgment and the promise of the coming Messiah. Though our first parents warned by God about the punishment of death, Adam and Eve commit cosmic treason in the garden, desiring to be like God.

They took of the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Their eyes opened to the deception, opened to the loss of privilege, blessing, and communion with God. Purity and holiness lost.

They brought ruin and destruction upon themselves. They were exposed to the wrath of God, naked and ashamed. That's the position that they were in. But God, this is interesting, and it's really important, showing great mercy, pursued and interrogated our first parents prior to exacting judgment upon them.

And what we see is, we see when God comes and He levels the curse in Genesis chapter 3, He starts with the serpent first, then the woman, then Adam, and finally creation. But in the midst of this judgment, God reveals this enmity that will be between the serpent and the woman.

And God says something really interesting, that with the offspring of the woman, that the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent, and the serpent shall bruise his heel. It's a simultaneous act.

It's the picture that's being portrayed there. And it's a foreshadowing of what's going to happen on the cross. That's what it is. And moreover, God gives them really a reprieve. And if you follow it, if you look at it through Scripture, instead of God, what He ought to have done, what He should have done, is He should have ended it right then and there, right?

But He gives them a reprieve. He shows them grace. He shows them mercy. And because of this reprieve, Adam has a response to this. And he has a response to it in faith by naming the woman. Up to that point, she's just known as woman.

He calls her Eve. And he gives her name, Eve, that she would be the mother of all living, because he knows of God's promise of the seed. And thus, God, by His sovereign grace and mercy, clothes them in their nakedness with garments of skin.

He literally makes a sacrifice to cover their skin. And that's where the plot starts, right? You see it all there, wrapped up in Genesis chapter 3. It's all wrapped up in Genesis chapter 3. And that you have cosmic treason.

You have eyes that are opened. They have a lost providence. Their purity and holiness gone, exposed to God's wrath. God curses. But He also brings this foreshadowing of cross, promise of a Messiah. Adam responds in faith.

Grace, mercy. You see it all there in God covering their sins. As we move forward through history, we see Abraham. And so we're moving about 2 ,000 years from when we see Adam and Eve to Abraham. We're going through a huge chunk of time here.

But God chooses. He calls out this obscure man, Abram, that we know as we read through the story. But He promises that what He's going to do with Abraham is He's going to make out of Abraham a great nation.

That His descendants will be as numerous as the stars. Kings are going to come from Him. Hebrews explains this the best, I think. And I'll read Hebrews chapter 11, verses 8 through 13. It says, By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive an inheritance.

And he went out not knowing where he was going. By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.

By faith Sarah received herself power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised. Therefore, from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants, as many as the stars of heaven, and as many as the innumerable grains of sand on the seashore.

These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them, and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. So he was dying without seeing all that was promised.

That's what's amazing about that with Abraham, is that God promises these things to Abraham that are going to occur. And Abraham was sanctified through that experience of his life. He was made to feel that here on earth, like a stranger, because he was content with the promises given by God, the God of glory.

So Abraham showed himself to be a heavenly citizen, but Abraham lived in trust, and he died in trust. He died with the only promise of a grave in the new land. That's the only thing that he was really promised, Abraham.

And he was content with that. And though they were not fulfilled in his days, he believed that they would be fulfilled, and died in faith of them. He found peace in a life that was a life of faith, believing that the one who was to come, the Messiah in his kingdom.

And so this picture in history is starting to take shape. We see Adam in the garden, grace, mercy, fast forward 2 ,000 years, Abraham. And so what we're beginning to see is God starting to create this picture.

He started to, this picture started to come into view of this coming kingdom and this coming Messiah. And so when we move forward from roughly about 1 ,300 BC to about 400 BC, things really start to take shape.

We start to really start hitting the ground. We've moved from Abraham as a family, right? And so we're looking now, instead of Abraham as a family, we're looking actually at the family of Israel, a nation.

And the picture of the preparations and promises, the kingdom, the Messiah, once more, there were outlines and sketches. Now they're starting to become in vivid detail. We have Moses, who is chosen by God to be the leader of his people.

They're an oppressed people. We know the story, rescued by God. God gives the Jews Passover, where the blood of the sacrificial lamb would save his chosen people from death. And God does something really, really interesting in that he also reveals this universally binding law through Moses.

Probably one of the most powerful places in scripture that we see where God and Moses interacting. And we begin to see this common administration, a common structure. And this law, it wasn't meant for just this small little tribe in Israel.

This law reflects God's holy character and his purpose for creating humanity. God's law commands what he pleases, right? And he commands what he pleases and what he forbids, what offends him. It's a standard for righteousness and a standard for life.

So this law wasn't simply, again, binding on Israel. It has universal implications. And Greg Bonson said this concerning God's law and this universal implication. He says, the revelation of God's law, which the Jews identified with as the law of Moses, was not simply a matter of a narrow tribal morality.

This Mosaic law was their wisdom in the eyes of the Gentiles. And the justice of God's law made Israel a light to the Gentiles. Because Jehovah created all men in all nations, because he was their governor and judge, all nations were subject to God's holy word and direction and liable to be punished for violating it.

God's law was universal in its application. This universality of God's law was presupposed in the preaching and writing of the Old Testament prophets. The prophets longed for the Gentile nations to turn unto him, or to hear him and submit to God's law, the Torah, which would be proclaimed from Jerusalem to all the world.

So there's the significance of the law, God's law. And it's interesting, the message of the law in this, and again, the prophets were painting this picture of this coming kingdom, coming Messiah, the one who would bring blessing, judgment, reconciliation, and dominion with complete victorious consummation.

That's the picture that they're beginning to paint. And it could be seen all through the ceremonies, the rituals, the construction of the temple, the tabernacle, the inner sanctuaries, the outer courts, feasts, festivals, everything pointed to Messiah.

And what's really neat about the Old Testament, and again, in vivid detail, his ancestry, his birth, character, ministry, his dual nature, his death, resurrection, ascension, his exaltation, and his second advent, all painted in vivid color in the Old Testament.

In the Old Testament. And the really neat thing about it is it wasn't just a coming kingdom and a coming Messiah. It was this dominion that Christ would have, that all nations, tongues, tribes would worship him.

And you can go through the Old Testament. And I mean, I've got literally verse after verse here, and I'll give you a few of these. And this is in the Lord's covenant with David. This comes out of 1 Chronicles 17, verses 11 through 14.

And I'm going to read a few of these. You can mark them down and look at them later. But this is what it says. It says, when your days are fulfilled to walk with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, one of your own sons, and I will establish his kingdom.

He shall build a house for me, and I will establish his throne forever. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. I will not take care of my steadfast love for him, as I took it from him who was before you, but I will confirm him in my house and in my kingdom forever, and his throne shall be established forever.

Psalm chapter 2. This is one of our favorites at Apology of Church.

Ready?

Why do the nations rage in the people's plot in vain? The kings of the earth shall set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.

He who sits in the heavenly laughs, the Lord holds them in derision. Then he will speak to them in his wrath and terrify them in his fury, saying, As for me, I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill. I will tell of the decree the Lord said to me, You are my son, today I have begotten you.

Ask of me, and I will make you the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possessions. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like potter's vessels. Now therefore, O kings, be wise, be warned, O rulers of the earth.

Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way. For his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him. See the picture?

Kingdom Messiah. Go on further. Psalm 72, verse 8. May he have dominion from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth. One of the most quoted verses in the Old Testament, or the most quoted verse in the New Testament of the Old Testament is Psalm 110 .1.

I'll read Psalm 110 .1 through 3. It says, The Lord says to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool. The Lord sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter. Rule in the midst of your enemies.

Your people will offer themselves freely on the day of your power, and holy garments from the womb of the morning. The dew of your youth will be yours. So we can go on and on and on. One last one. Let's do this one.

This is probably one of the most famous ones. You like to read this around Christmas time. Isaiah chapter 9, verses 6 and 7. For unto us a child is born, a son is given, and the government should be upon his shoulders, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

And of the increase of his government and of peace, there will be no end on the throne of David and over his kingdom. To establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore.

The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. That's the picture. That's what's coming, right? And so it hits a fever pitch. When we get to this place, again, we can go on and we can just keep going through verse after verse after verse, but the picture is becoming clearer.

The preparations have been made. The promises have been given. There's anticipation, right? So you have to go, if you were to go back and you were to look at the Jews of the time, much like people today are looking towards the second advent of Christ, the Jews were looking for the first one, right?

They're waiting in anticipation. They're anticipating. Anticipating. Anticipating. And God does something interesting, right? That the intertestimonial period, he just, he shuts his mouth, doesn't say a word, shuts his mouth.

So there's this time that's just, the Jews are just sitting and just, I don't know what you would want to call it. They're just, they're just in, they're just sitting there. Nothing's going on. No prophets are speaking.

Everything's dead silent. Then, and we know the story, and according to the counsel of God's will, he condescends, he takes on flesh, and he enters into history through Christ Jesus, right? The Messiah and his king arrive.

The Coming of Christ, John the Baptist, and the Temptation in the Wilderness

The announcement was made in such a way, and it's, this is, I really like this picture that has been painted for me in my mind, but I'll read this and I'll tell you where I'm going with this. It's in Luke chapter 2, verses 8 through 11, and verses 13 and 14.

And in the same region where the shepherds were out in the field keeping watch over the flock by night, and of an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone all around them, and they were filled with great fear.

And the angel said to them, fear not, behold, I bring you good news of the great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you in this day in the city of David a savior, who is Christ the Lord. And suddenly, verse 13, and suddenly there was the angel and a multitude of heavenly hosts praising God and saying glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased.

One of, not now, one of my probably favorite authors of all, N .D. Wilson, he did an interview. And I don't, Jeff, I can't remember if he did it with you or he, nonetheless, I recall hearing an interview from him.

And the way Nate Wilson thinks is just remarkable, but he kind of paints this picture of this moment in time when Messiah comes and you see these heavenly hosts who are, who come to this field and they're proclaiming the Messiah has come.

What's really interesting about that picture is you've got just a handful of shepherds. The brunt of that proclamation is going out to probably hundreds of sheep, right? To literally hundreds of sheep.

So what's amazing about the picture though, if you really think about it, what's Christ coming to redeem? It's mankind, but it's creation also. So this idea that they would come to a place where you have hundreds of sheep and a handful of men, God's being consistent with what he was going to promise.

He's gonna redeem the earth, but he's gonna redeem people also. But I just love that idea and that picture that he planted in my mind. But just as the Messiah was predicted, so was his forerunner, right?

John the Baptist. One of the favorite verses is Malachi chapter three, verse one, right? Behold, I send my messenger to prepare the way for me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight.

Behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. Another one, Isaiah chapter 40, verse three, a voice cries in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make straight the desert a highway for God. So John came preaching, right?

And what he was preaching was what? We all know it, repent for what? The kingdom of God is at hand. He's telling the people, repent, the kingdom is here. It's at our fingertips. It's right here. It's right here.

And the verses that I showed you earlier, where again, the Old Testament prophets painting a picture of Messiah and kingdom, and they're painting this picture of what's gonna happen as the nations are gonna rise, nations are gonna come, right?

And so what we know is before Christ, excuse me, John the Baptist comes into the picture, repentance, right? Essentially what John is saying is wash yourself, the king is coming. That's what he's telling the people.

Cleanse yourself, the king is coming. And so we see Christ enter into the picture, right? And it's interesting because Christ, we know that the Holy Spirit takes him into the desert and he's tempted, but there's a reason, part of the reason why Christ is taken into the desert and he's tempted, if you really look at it and you look at the arrival of the kingdom and the significance and the consequences and the implications of all of this, we'll take a look at something really quick here.

And again, I said, John telling the people, cleanse yourself, the king is coming. And so what we see in Matthew chapter four, we see this epic confrontation between Satan and Christ. And I'll read this starting in Matthew chapter four, verse one, I wanna read through you.

I'm gonna show it, give you a really good example of this. Then Jesus was led up by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting 40 days and 40 nights, he was hungry and the tempter came to him and said, if you are the son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.

But he answered, it is written, man should not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, if you are the son of God, throw yourself down for it is written, he will command his angels concerning you and on their hands, they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.

Jesus said to him, again, it's written, you shall not put the Lord your God to the test. And this is the part I want you to see. And again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.

And he said to him, all these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me. Then Jesus said to him, be gone Satan for it is written, you shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.

Then the devil left him and behold, the angels came and were ministering to him. Satan is orthodox, all right? Just get that in your mind, in your head, he is, he knows what's going on. There are implications to the kingdom coming, there are implications to Messiah.

Henry, again, taking on flesh, coming into history. Once Christ returns from this temptation, he's baptized by John. It's not for repentance, what's going on with Christ, this is his priestly anointing, right?

That's why he's being baptized. But the first thing that he says in Matthew chapter 14, 17 is repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. He's saying the same thing John was saying, right? This idea that this coming Messiah is dropped into history.

And that as said before, through the Old Testament, God told you ask, the son asked the father, you want the nations, I'll give them to you. There's a reason why Satan took him to the place that he took him and sat the nations before him in temptation, there's a reason for that because there's something that's occurring through redemptive history, this ultimate consummation of nations, every tongue, every tribe coming to God.

And so through his earthly ministry, that's what Christ does, he reveals the kingdom, right? Teaching, healing, confronting those who would claim God yet practice unrighteousness. He would often say when preaching and teaching, the kingdom of God is like, and then he would give, he would give a parable.

The kingdom of God is like, and he would give an example of what the kingdom is like. He's revealing the kingdom to the people. But this message, it builds to a point where Christ reveals and it's interesting in Matthew, he's in the midst of a confrontation with the Pharisees.

They're falsely accusing him of healing by the power of Satan. And he reveals the present reality of the kingdom. And you see him do this in Matthew chapter 12, verse 28. He says, if it is by the spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

And he's telling them the kingdom of God is a present reality. This isn't something that's coming in the great, late, near future, it's right now. This is happening right now. The kingdom of God is before you.

The Coronation of the Son and the Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem

What's even, I think, more beautiful in this picture of what God's doing through redemptive history, as he's getting to a place where he's building his church, you see this and I titled it the coronation of the son.

The coronation of Jesus Christ was the most glorious ceremony ever witnessed on the face of the earth. And in the case of Christ, everything in redemptive history has been building to this moment. Everything we just highlighted is coming into, it's coming to a great climax.

And it begins really about five days before the crucifixion where Christ rides triumphantly into Jerusalem. What we see there, and I'm not gonna read all of it, but we get to a place where we see Christ.

He tells the disciples, go into the town. There'll be an ass waiting there. And we know the story and they find it, they bring it to Christ and throwing their cloaks, as scripture says, on the colt, they set Jesus on it.

And as he rode along, they spread their cloaks on the road, as he was drawing near already on the way down the Mount of Olives, those multitudes of his disciples began rejoicing and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that he is seeing saying, blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord, peace in heaven and glory in the highest.

I want to contrast something here real quick for you. It was June 2nd, 1953, Queen Elizabeth was coronated. And at that time, it was the most, it was the first televised event in history that was televised at that magnitude.

It was just, the whole world was waiting in anticipation of seeing the coronation of Elizabeth. And what's interesting is when they left the palace, when they left the palace, they started making their way towards Westminster Abbey.

They passed, estimates are upwards of 3 million onlookers that were just cheering and rejoicing because Elizabeth was going to be crowned. And it was just this glorious event. Elizabeth, and again, from in route from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Abbey, she rode in this royal carriage and she, all the ladies will like this, she wore a white silk gown and it was embroidered with the floral emblems of all the countries of the Commonwealth.

It was just a beautiful garment. And attached to her dress, she wore this, it was a six yard long hand woven silk velvet cloak that was lined with fur. She needed seven maids of honor just to carry this thing.

And she was crowned with the St. Edward's crown. It's a crown made of solid gold with a purple velvet capped. It's trimmed again with fur and it's set with 444 precious stones. So you see this coronation, this banquet, this jewels, horses, carriages, dignitaries, all this stuff, right?

For Christ and his procession right into Jerusalem, it's very simple, right? But there's something that's being said that's really amazing. They're proclaiming the King. He's coming, he's here, he's entering in, right?

And so not unlike what you see in that picture of Elizabeth riding and getting to Westminster Abbey, for Christ, again, his procession is witnessed by some of the very people who eventually condemned him to death, right?

He, they ended up not just condemning him but those that would deny him also. He was given a crown of thorns. His ceremony, it was a crucible of pain and agony. He was despised, ridiculed, his flesh was torn, pierced, beaten to the point of where his fleshly image was unrecognizable, okay?

Imagine somebody close to you that you know and they're beaten to a point when you were to look at them and you have no clue that's who they are. I mean, he's just, he's beaten to that place. And the beauty of it all, and this is the beauty of it all, what came from that, we know through scriptures, the resurrection, right?

Christ defeating death. He was the cornerstone, right? That's what scripture tells us. The first stone that's set, Luke knows this, in construction to set a masonry wall or foundation, you set that first stone and all the other stones that are built around that, they set, they're the reference for how that house is gonna be built or how that building's gonna be built.

It determines the position of the entire structure. So he was the first and he commands us to go and do likewise, right? He's risen and ascended and is seated at the right hand of the Father, ruling and reigning, placing his enemies under his feet.

That's where Christ is now, but he's the cornerstone of the church. That's where it starts. So it brings us to our passage today. Again, Matthew chapter 17, or excuse me, 16 verses 18. I'm gonna start in verse 13 and I'll read this.

It says, Matthew chapter 16 verses eight, excuse me, chapter 16 verses 13 through 18. Now, when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, who do you people say that the son of man is?

And they said, some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah and others say Jeremiah or one of the prophets. He said to them, but who do you say that I am? Simon Peter replied, you are the Christ, the son of the living God.

And Jesus answered him, the blessed are you, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

So we get to this place in history again, Christ murdered, dies on a cross, is buried, resurrected, ascends, seated at the right hand of God, ruling and reigning. So before this all takes place, we see this interaction between Paul and Christ Jesus.

And Paul, this is interesting, Rome, as we all know, has taken this and really built this whole idea of a Pope upon this verse. But what's interesting about this is Paul, he represents the disciples. And when Peter spoke back in the verse, prior to this, that you are the Christ, the son of the living God, Peter and all the apostles became, and according to Ephesians chapter two, they became, or they were part of, along with the prophets, the foundation of the church.

That's what the church rests upon, what Peter says to them, that you are the Christ, the son of the living God. That's what the church hangs on. I love John Calvin in the sense that when he comments on these verses, he says that the church was built on the foundation of the apostle and the prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the cornerstone.

He says where Rome gets confused is that rank is a different thing from power. And because he knows the Roman view of these verses. And so Peter being the first to confess and the first apostle to extend the gospel to the Gentiles in Acts 10, Peter wasn't given the power over the church.

However, Peter in his apostolic rank, he's the first among equals, and that's what you have to understand. And that title, if you will, that he has his first among equals, it was legitimate. His leadership and teaching, it set the foundation for the expansion of the church, not authority over it, right?

He didn't have authority over it. He just set, he was the initial one. Christ tells him, you're essentially, you're gonna be the one, Peter, that's gonna start this thing rolling. You're gonna be the one that's gonna start it, we'll build the foundation from that point.

He doesn't give Peter authority over the church, right? Peter's confession is really, it's the confession of the church universal. It's the foundation of all believers, a foundation that cannot be broken and that nothing in hell can destroy the work of Christ.

So Peter being the one saying it, Christ saying, you're gonna be the one starting it, so the foundation is set. And so with that foundation, the church has a mission. Yes, we're to go into the world as Christ says, proclaim the gospel, making disciples as commanded in Matthew 28, baptizing, teaching them to obey.

That's a command, it's a call to action. But the actions are meant to have consequences, and it's meant to have kingdom consequences. So the mission of the church, the mission for, as I said earlier, the church militant is very important.

As in studying this, I came across a few different commentaries. One in particular says the church or in the Greek, ekklesia, it's simply meaning assembly. It's the term, it's a compound of the Greek ekk, out from, and the verb kaleo, to call.

So the most simple definition that's given, it comes out of Thayer's Greek lexicon and watch this. It says, it's a gathering of citizens called out from their homes into some public place. So it's a citizenry that has a public calling, not just a private calling.

So the picture of the New Testament church is that of a universal body of believers with many members in Christ as the head of the body. So the church is a universal living and growing body of regenerate believers, a new citizenry, who have been reconciled to God through Christ.

The body is called out to serve their king and local assemblies of God's kingdom people. That's the picture. This sending out or calling out means that we have the duty to proclaim to sinners the terms of God's mercy and reconciliation and to urge them to comply.

That's what it is. That's what it is. And so we see this in 2 Corinthians 5, verses 18 and 19. All of this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.

That is in Christ God, we, excuse me, that in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. So the message of God is based on the character and the triune nature of God.

Everything is done to the counsel of his sovereign will and for his glory. So the father sends the son, the father and the son send the person of the Holy Spirit. So there's sending, calling out. So God sends out his citizens, his royal priesthood, ordained by the spirit to participate in this reconciliation of all things through the son.

That's how it works. That's how it's meant to work. So we go forth with the gospel, this gospel of reconciliation. Colossians chapter one, verses 15 through 20 says, he's the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, for by him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through him and for him.

And he is before all things and in him, all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He's the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.

For in him, all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. So those who are born again by the spirit of God are now joiners with Christ and watch, this is important, we're ambassadors of his kingdom.