Sunday School - Living In God's Kingdom Part 6

Thankful for the rain. We pray, Lord, that as your saints travel, that you would grant them safe travel mercies to your house.

We pray, Lord, for those who are not well this morning. We pray, God, your healing hand to come over them. And we do ask that you now grant us thy spirit to be able to receive the implanted word, which is able to make us strong unto salvation.

We thank you for the word that's before us in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, brethren.

Well, let's look at what the scriptures teach, continue to teach. Will you be joining us? Hey, come on in.

Now, are you doing pastor comments? Yeah, pastor comments can be found there. Okay. So we've been going through kind of a small series called

Living in God's Kingdom. And one of the things that we're looking at is the last area of the economy of God's kingdom is worship.

Now, what did we learn about worship last week if you were here? What is a unique attribute of worship?

What does the word worship mean? It's a physical display, right? That's right. It's a physical response to authority, right?

That's what worship actually is. There's a physical component to it. Contrary to what we find in a lot of evangelical circles today, where worship is something that's more of a matter of the heart.

While that's true, there's a, obviously the heart is a component of worship, of true worship. Jesus said this of true worship in John chapter four.

He says that the day is coming and is even now when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, not on this mountain, but essentially wherever they may be.

Now, why was that an important distinction that Jesus made there in John four? About not on this mountain or that mountain?

Yes. Well, the spirit is worship. That's right. They once had a temple there that the Jews destroyed. Yeah. So essentially you had two kind of prevailing worldviews.

You had the Sumerians and the Jews. Both claimed to be representatives of true worship, with Jerusalem being the headquarters of one place of worship,

Mount Zion, the temple. And then the Sumerians had another place of worship, a temple dedicated to Yahweh.

And there was these competing worldviews that were opposed to each other, which is why there's a lot of beef between these two people groups.

A lot of tension. But Jesus says the hour's coming where true worshipers won't worship on either of these mountains, right?

It's not a matter of location, but it's gonna be a matter of God transforming the human heart.

As we see in the scriptures in Jeremiah and Ezekiel, God promises to give his people a new heart that loves to obey his commands, that worships

God. Jesus puts it this way in John three, that you must be born again. This is the new heart that is received through regeneration.

But worship does not simply mean, you know, it's, oh, it's just something

I do in my heart. You know, I can be, you know, doing anything, anywhere, at any time, and it's worship.

No, worship actually is a physical demonstration to an object or person that you recognize it as being authority over you, which is why we went over so many of the scriptures, and we'll continue to as well this morning, to look at some of the scriptures where it shows a clear connection between a worship and a physical response associated with that worship.

In regard to false worship, Isaiah 46 .6 says, the craftsman takes wood and he makes it a god.

They fall down, yea, they worship. These are quotations from the King James. Daniel chapter three, verse five, that at what time you hear all kinds of music, fall down and worship.

This is the pagan worship that we saw in Daniel. Regarding the birth of our

Savior, Jesus Christ, Matthew 2 .11 says, and when the wise men were coming to the house, they saw the young child of Mary, his mother, and fell down and worshiped him.

So you see, there's often a physical response to worship.

And again, this is important because worship is a recognition of authority. And what greater recognition of authority can one demonstrate than prostrating yourself forward?

Which is why, again, I shared with you last week when I lived in Canada for four years, and the legal system there, when you go into a court, you have to bow before the magistrate.

And you can never turn your back to the magistrate. You have to walk in forward, and then you have to walk out backwards like this.

You can never turn your back to the magistrate because it's representative. The magistrate, it's the queen's bench at that time, now it's the king's bench, was representative of the majesty, of the queen, of the king.

And so because of that, you had to give it due and proper honor. And same we see in scripture.

God's people, when they worship, often it is in a prostrate, it is in a, there's a physical response.

Now, the question that was raised last week to some extent was, well, why don't we do that?

Should we begin prostrating ourselves in our worship? And you see that in some Christian circles, and certainly there is a, in the liturgy of the

Roman Catholic Church, for instance, there is more of a stand up, sit down, kneel aspect to it.

If you look at how Muslims worship, when they go into the mosques, they're often prostrate forward on the ground, or their face towards the ground as they do their

Islamic prayers. Should we then also begin doing this? What are your thoughts?

Yeah, yeah, they do. There are Baptist churches that do that, yeah.

And Pentecostal churches, they kind of do the, Pentecostals do it a little bit the opposite way. Instead of falling forward, they fall backwards.

So, but is this something that should be part of our regulative worship?

Okay, interesting. Oh, well, it's optional, it's not regulative.

Yeah, we don't have, in the New Testament, we don't have, we don't have that.

A direct description of what worship looks like. We have some do's and don'ts, and that's not even the regular principle.

That's right. But we don't have the stand up, the sit down, the kneel, the prostrate. We don't, they may have, but we don't have it described.

So it's not, that's right, it's not prescribed for us in the New Testament. Now, when we do see the people of God worship, like in Matthew chapter two, the wise men, when they fell down and worshiped before him,

Matthew chapter 14 also gives us a similar description when the disciples are in a boat and they,

Jesus calms the storm and says they fell down and worshiped him. We're gonna see later on in Revelation that they also, in numerous places in the

New Testament, people, they still fall down and worship God. And so there is this description in the

New Testament. But these are not things that are prescribed for us, per se.

But the imagery serves a purpose. And the imagery is, again, is demonstrating the authority of God over his people.

And a lot of this could also just be cultural. Obviously, we don't live in a culture where bowing down is something that we do regularly.

But there is still a physical response to our worship. And one of those physical responses is the fact that we're here today in the

Lord's day. This is a physical response to authority. The Lord says gather, therefore we gather.

We are under his authority, under his lordship. We're recognizing his right to rule, his right to set the parameters of true worship.

These are all things that are very important for us and are prescribed for us in God's word.

Now, notice what Jesus, what happens in the encounter between Satan and Jesus. In Matthew chapter four, verse nine, it says, and saying unto him, all these things

I will give you if you fall down and worship me. So you know what

Satan wanted Jesus to do? To prostrate, but also in that prostrating, in that worship, to say, to recognize

Satan as the authority. And this is why that was a problem for Jesus.

Now, what's interesting about the text is that Satan offers Jesus something tangible. What did he offer Jesus? He takes him to a high, lofty mountain, and what does he show him?

All the kingdoms of the world. That raises an important question. Was Satan bluffing, or did he actually, was he actually showing

Jesus something that he could give him? Yeah, well, the Bible says about Satan the devil that he is a god of this age who has blinded the minds of the unbelievers who may not see the glorious light of the gospel of Christ.

Scripture says in first John chapter five, verse 19, that the whole world is lying in the hand of the wicked one, okay?

The Bible refers to Satan as a prince, as a principality of power and authority, and so certainly

Satan has authority. Bible, in Ephesians chapter two, calls him the prince of the power of the air, okay?

And so certainly Satan the devil has a measure of power and authority, and Satan was offering

Jesus the nations, which is interesting because in Psalm 2, what is it that the

Lord God promises his anointed son? The nations, he says the nations shall be your inheritance.

But Satan is trying to usurp the purpose and plan of God, usurp the kingdom of God by saying, well, you don't have to go through the sufferings of the cross, you don't have to go through, you know, your death and exaltation,

I can just give it to you, this is what you want, right? The nations will be your inheritance, I'll just give it to you. And that's the easy way out.

And Jesus, of course, rebukes the devil, and the devil flees.

And so Satan wanted Jesus to acknowledge him as the authority, because Satan is an authority,

Satan is a God, remember, what does the word God mean? What's that? Rule maker, exactly right.

Now when we think of God, again, that word is loaded today because we live in a culture that, for the most part, has a monotheistic tendency and leniency towards a monotheistic worldview.

We don't live in a polytheistic society, we kind of actually do, but for cultural sake, we tend to think of God as singular, which is a good thing, whereas most

Eastern cultures mostly think of God in a pluralistic way, and Hinduism and Shaoism, and all these other religions that have many deities.

But when we think of the word God, we usually think almighty creator, the only true

God. And that would not be an accurate representation of the Hebrew and Greek words that are used in the scriptures to refer to the true deity.

God just means the one strong enough to make the rules. When you look at the word in Hebrew for El Elohim, the word for God just really simply just means strong one.

But when you dig deeper into the word, it means the one strong enough to make the rules by which you live by, which is, again, why anyone who has authority in scripture is often referred to as a

God. In Exodus chapter seven, verse one, Moses is referred to as God, did you know that?

Yahweh says, I will make you as unto God, unto Pharaoh. I will make you as God unto

Pharaoh, he says. Because who was making the rules? God through Moses, right?

And so Pharaoh had to follow Moses' rules, okay? It's authority, right?

In scripture we see Psalm 82, there's debate whether this is a reference to angels or a reference to judges, but regardless, both would be proving the same point.

Angels or men are called gods in Psalm 82, okay? In fact, in Psalm chapter eight, verse five, angels are called gods in the

Septuagint, okay? And so you have made them a little lower than the angels, well, in the

Septuagint it says gods, you've made them a little lower than the gods. And so anyone who has authority in scripture is referred to as a god.

Even false gods, even men, even angels in principality, these are all referred to as gods because they have authority.

Now, does that contradict monotheism? Why does it not contradict monotheism?

Because authority is a spirit that's been given, it can make you worse. That's right. But that's an authority that's been given.

That's right, that's right. And so when Yahweh says in Isaiah chapter 44, verse six,

I am Yahweh, that is my name, and he says, before me there is no god, and after me there will continue to be none.

What Yahweh is saying, he's exclusively the only true God who brings things into existence, right?

So all these other gods are, again, lowercase gods who may have authority, but none of them can speak a prophetic word.

In fact, in Isaiah, God rebukes the dumb idols of the nations because they can't bring forth prophecy, right?

And certainly they cannot create things. They're the ones who are actually created and fashioned by human hands, but the one who fashioned the human hand is

Yahweh. So God is always comparing and contrasting himself in scripture with the false gods, and saying, you know,

I'm the true God. When you think of the story in Kings of Elijah and the false prophets of Baal, Mark Carmel, what's interesting about that arrangement is that when

Yahweh consumed the offering, what did the people begin to say? Do you remember? In Kings, where Elijah, the prophet, contends with the false prophets of Baal?

The Lord is God. So they begin to say, Yahweh is God, Yahweh is God, right?

Because the question is, who's God? Is it Baal, or is it Yahweh? And so when the false prophets of Baal start wailing and blaming themselves, and Elijah just laughs and calls down the

Lord, and he consumes the offering that was made, all the people at that moment acknowledge who was the true authority, and they begin to say,

Yahweh is the true God, Yahweh is the true God, as opposed to Baal, who was a false god, masquerading as the true

God. Any questions so far? So God is the rulemaker, he's the only true rulemaker, which is why it's important that we acknowledge him in our worship as the true, proper authority, which is where the physical components of this comes in.

Remember, a person doesn't have to literally prostrate and bow, but I think in heaven we will.

I think in heaven we will. I think there's plenty of scriptural evidence for that, and we'll go into that in a moment.

Notice how in Matthew 28, verse nine, this is after the resurrection of Christ.

It says, and when they went and behold, Jesus met them, saying, all hail, and they came and held him by the feet and worshiped him.

So again, physical response. They see the Lord, they fall to their feet, and they worship him. Acts chapter 10, verse 25, and as Peter was coming in,

Cornelius met him, fell down at his feet, and worshiped him. Now that was bad, because Cornelius shouldn't be worshiping a man.

Now the word here in the Greek is proskeneo. Proskeneo means, literally does mean to prostrate, to worship, to do obeisance, to worship.

So that's why sometimes if you look at different translations in Acts chapter 10, verse 25, it may not say worship.

It may say he prostrated himself, or he bowed, something to that effect.

But usually proskeneo is in the religious sense. It means that there is a religious type of worship going on.

Yeah, I don't know, I'd have to look at that. Yeah, I'd have to look at that story. Where is that, in Genesis? Yeah, yeah,

I'd have to look at that. In 1 Corinthians chapter 14, the next page over, verse 25, and thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest.

This is a statement on essentially regular worship.

Paul is talking about prophecy. And thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest, and so falling down his face, he will worship

God. And so, okay, in the New Testament, there is still a physical response to worshiping

God. In the setting of the church, this is Acts, I mean, 1

Corinthians 14 is a text referring to the gathering of the saints and the prophetic words that are given.

What does heaven look like? Well, Revelation chapter four, verse 10 says, the four and 20 elders, or 24 elders, this is the

King James I'm quoting from, fall down before him and sat on the throne and worshiped him that lives forever and ever.

So how do the 24 elders worship God? They bow down.

Now, we see another instance where they even cast their crowns before him.

Now, the identity of the 24 elders, I think I shared with you last week a little bit too, there's likely a twofold meaning to the 24 elders in Revelation.

I'm fairly convinced that there is a literal and a figurative truth behind the 24 elders, namely that I think that there are 24 elders, namely the 12 tribes of Israel and the 12 apostles.

When you look at Revelation chapter 22, there's 12 foundations and there's 12 pillars after the 12 apostles and the 12 tribes of Israel.

And so 12 plus 12, last time I checked was 24, isn't it? So you got your 24 elders there, but I also think it's representative of the entire breadth of God's redemptive people, both

Old Covenant and New Covenant. So it's a representative of God's people from the two dispensations, of the

Old Covenant and the New Covenant. And so it's representative of the church, of the entirety of the church, of the congregation, the ecclesia of God's people, okay?

That's pretty cool, isn't it? And so I think that in heaven, there is still gonna be a physical response to authority, to the worship of the true

God. Isaiah, Revelation chapter five, verse 14, referring to the 24 elders again.

Now actually, I wanna go there for a moment. Let's go to Revelation chapter five if you have a Bible. Revelation chapter five.

And I wanna start in verse six. Now, if you didn't know,

I really wanna teach you guys Revelation. This is, I spent four years studying the book of Revelation, and then my previous church, we spent almost a year and a half going through it in a

Bible study series. And so I look forward to going through this book with you. Let's start in verse six.

It says, and between the throne and the four living creatures, and among the elders, I saw a lamb standing as though it had been slain with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out to all the earth.

Do you know what the seven spirits of God are? What's that?

Yeah. Yes, it is a reference to the Holy Spirit, particularly the sevenfold ministry of the spirit, which is what we see in Isaiah chapter 11, the spirit of the

Lord, the spirit of the Lord will rest upon him, the anointed one, and he should be a spirit of power and of peace and of righteousness and all these things, and it's seven.

And so seven is the number of perfection, the seven spirits of God, not that God has seven individual spirits or something like that.

This is a reference to the completeness, the wholeness of the person of the Holy Spirit. And so this is showing that the

Messiah, the lamb has the entirety of the anointing of the spirit of God, has the mantle of the prophetic word from Isaiah chapter 11.

And it says in verse seven, and he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who is seated on the throne.

And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the lamb, each holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.

Let's stop there for a second. What's the physical response from the elders to the lamb?

Falling down. Now, what does that usually mean? Worship, okay? So if you ever talked to a

Jehovah's Witness or to a Unitarian or someone who denies the divinity of Jesus Christ, here's a good text to take them through because Jesus is clearly worshiped here.

There's no way around it. And if that's not enough, what do they fall down before Jesus with?

What's in their hands? And the instance is what?

Prayers, the prayers of the saints, okay? They're bringing forth the prayer of the saints to the lamb.

Totally inappropriate if he is not God. It was too much of an excursus to think more of it.

What are the living creatures they're worshiping? Yes. Again, I think men. The living creatures are described in Isaiah and Daniel and in Ezekiel.

And the living creatures are the cherubims that stand before the presence of God. There's four of them. And they all have different unique features.

One of them has the head of a man, one of them has the head of an eagle, one of them has the head of a bull, and the other of a lion. And they have six wings, two by which they fly, two by which they protect themselves, and two by which they prostrate.

And so there is a lot of debate about this. If you look at the ancient

Middle Eastern context, if you look at, for instance, Samarican Babylonian descriptions and pictures of the throne room of the king, they had these beasts that had the face of a man, but the body of an animal with wings.

These were very common depictions of essentially the citadels, the protectors of the king.

And so scripture often uses some of that imagery in order to bring forth a spiritual reality.

So does God actually have four creatures around the throne flying with the head of a bull and the head of a man and the head of an eagle, the head of a lion?

We don't really know. It could be just a description to hearken in people's mind the protectors of the throne room, right?

But the living creatures are powerful creatures. Still creatures are not divine in that sense where they demand worship.

But certainly a thing of interest. We'll go deeper into that if we ever get to the Revelation series here.

But the worship that is happening in heaven centers around Jesus Christ, as we see here in Revelation chapter five.

Let's continue to read. It says in verse nine, "'And they,' that's the 24 elders, "'began to sing a new song, saying, "'Worthy are you to take the scroll "'and to open its seals, "'for you were slain and by your blood "'you ransomed people for God "'from every tribe and language "'and people and nation, "'and you have made them a kingdom "'and priests to our

God, "'and they shall reign on the earth.'" Okay, very important here. Who are they singing to?

To the lamb. Now, I don't know. If someone started bowing down before me and singing to me how great

I was and how worthy I was, I would consider that worship, wouldn't you? Now, the

Jehovah's Witnesses, for instance, say that Jesus is not worshiped in the scriptures. Matter of fact, every time the Greek word proskuneo is used in reference to Jesus, they translate it as obeisance.

Obeisance is actually a derivative of a French word, which means just to bow down. And so, they think that it's appropriate to do obeisance to Jesus, to kind of kneel before him because he's a person of authority and he's

God's son, but he's never actually worshiped in the religious sense of the word. But this would begin to disprove that pretty clearly, wouldn't it?

Because not only is he bowed down to, there's a physical response, but he has brought forth the prayers of the saints.

He's a mediator. And then he's also, there's songs of exaltation that are being sung to him and about him, okay?

That would be worship, which is ironic because I grew up Jehovah's Witness when

I was a kid. But they didn't let us do the Pledge of Allegiance in school. And the

Pledge of Allegiance, you put your hand over your heart and you pledge allegiance to the flag. And the reasoning behind that was because they considered that to be worship.

And they said that anything that resembles worship to the state is unbiblical. And I would say that's kind of, that sentiment is correct, but if something as simple as standing up and putting your hand over your heart is considered an act of worship, how could this not be considered an act of worship, right?

Because to me, yeah, if you're singing, to them, the reasoning was, well, you're making, there's a physical response, and you're singing or you're saying words about the flag.

So that'd be idolatry to them. But how is this not worship then, when Jesus is being sung about and praised and exalted in heaven?

And the things that is being sung about him is that worthy are you to take the scroll.

He's worthy. And notice what it continues on to say. It says, and then I looked, in verse 11, and I heard around the throne the living creatures and the elders, the voice of many angels, numbering myriads and myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice.

So now you've got all of heaven joined in in this heavenly chorus. Worthy is the lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.

That's pretty comprehensive, isn't it? You almost can't add anything to that. And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth.

So now you got all the realms joined in to the song of praise and exaltation to the lamb.

And under the earth, that's hell, and in the sea and all that is in them, saying to him who sits on the throne and to the lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever.

And get this, verse 14, and the four living creatures said amen, and the elders fell down and worshiped.

Worshiped. So is Jesus worshiped here? Yes, not only is he worshiped, but he's worshiped alongside the father, the one who's seated on the throne.

He's worshiped alongside the father. You get the trinity in this text, Jesus being filled with the sevenfold spirit of God, and you have the worship of the triune

God happening in this very text of scripture in Revelation 5. Pretty, you can't get around it.

You just can't get around it. Any thoughts or questions on the text? And again, there's a physical response.

There's falling down, there's, this worship is dynamic, and it's in recognition of the lordship and sovereignty of the almighty.

And so again, you see the response from the 24 elders, and really all of the heavenly hosts and those on the earth, and it reminds us of a text in scripture in Philippians chapter two, where you have in verse nine, and through verse 11, it says that God highly exalted

Jesus and gave him the name that is above every name, so that the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that he's lord unto the glory of God the father.

See, Jesus is gonna be, every person that's alive, and has ever lived, will acknowledge the true sovereignty of Jesus Christ.

And Psalm two teaches us a very important lesson. Psalm two is probably one of the most important verses of the Bible, because it teaches us, it gives us really the gospel, the prophetic message of the scriptures in one chapter.

And one of the things that it ends with in Psalm two is kiss the son, lest he be what?

Lest he be angry. Kiss the son. He's coming with an iron scepter.

We see that imagery, actually, in Revelation chapter two and three, that Jesus comes with an iron scepter, and he comes to dash the nations like pottery, it says, and that's from Psalm two.

And the reason why that's so important is because the scripture says, while it is still called today, do not harden your hearts as in the days of rebellion.

The Bible says that as long as it is called today, there's an opportunity for repentance. There's an opportunity for us to willingly bow the knee, bend the knee to King Jesus.

If not, there will come a day in which your knees will be made to bend. He will smash them like pottery, and you will sing and you will confess that he is

Lord to the glory of God the Father, either onto your glorification or onto your damnation.

But your knees will bow, and your tongue will confess. Every person, every atheist, every agnostic, every

Jehovah's Witness, every Muslim, every Mormon, every single person who has ever lived will confess the

Lordship of Jesus Christ. The question is, will you do so even now? Will you do so today while it is still called today?

Will you worship him? Will you bow and prostrate before your King before he comes to damn the wicked?

We don't talk about that enough. We don't talk about the consequences of not worshiping God, and there are consequences associated with not worshiping the true

God. In Revelation chapter seven, verse 11, it says, and the angels stood around the throne, and the elders and the four beasts, and they all fell before the throne on their faces and worshiped

God. We see the same response in Revelation 11, 16. And the 24 elders which sat before God on their seats fell upon their faces and worshiped

God. Physical response. So when we come together on the

Lord's day, again, there is a physical response there, just by virtue of us coming into the space that God has commanded us to do so on the

Lord's day. And we do see in scripture that there are times in which people lift up holy hands in prayer.

We do see, obviously, times in which people will fall down to their face and worship.

But I want us to get into the space of mind and heart that is being displayed here.

When we come together, are we just going through the motions? Are we just here because we wanna check this off the list and we don't wanna get a call from pastor during the week?

Or do we come because we wanna truly recognize the one who has authority over us?

Is there a recognition of that? Is there a gratitude for the sovereignty and the grandeur of the

God that we worship? And it really should fill us with awe. It is awe -inspiring when we come before the

Lord in worship. And it's not dependent, and I wanna make this, I want this to be the cry of our hearts.

It's not dependent upon the quality of the music or even the quality of the preaching.

These are great things to consider, and they may help us draw to closer appreciation to the true

God, but just by virtue of us gathering and doing what scripture has prescribed and has told us and has commanded us, it should fill us with awe, and we should truly worship out of the heart, as it says in 1

Corinthians 14 .25, that thus the secrets of his hearts will be made manifest, and so falling down on his face, he will worship

God. Just by virtue of us gathering, we should be excited. Doesn't that fill you with excitement?

Does it not fill you with gratitude when we come together? It ought to, it truly ought to be. What a privilege it is for us to gather and to worship the

Lord. It's not just a duty. It's not just something that we do out of obligation. It truly should be out of joy, and that physical response that we have by gathering should be one of joy.

Thoughts or questions so far? I must be doing a real good job. You guys are just getting it all.

Go for it, Pastor. I was just thinking in chapter 11, the revelation that they worship

God, and where you were before in chapter seven, I just wonder how a

Jehovah's Witness would get around that, where God and Jesus are literally interchangeable. Yeah. I know there's a distinction of purpose, if you all believe that, but worship

God, worship Jesus. He just says both very naturally. That's right. As if, you know, it's kind of like, what?

Yeah, and Revelation's a tough book for them. You know,

I have a book in my office. It's their book on Revelation called Revelation's Grand Climax at Hand, and it's their interpretations of Revelation, and you'd be hard -pressed to find a more heretical book on Revelation in the world.

It is just damnable, the stuff that they say, and how they interpret some of the scriptures in Revelation, it's just really bad.

I mean, worse than the Dispensationalists. I mean, way worse, and I put the Dispensationalists up there, so.

But the Dispensationalists, at least deal with the scriptures as it's been handed down. Right. What you were saying is they change some of the words to fit their presupposition.

Yeah, and sometimes - What were you gonna say about obeisance? Obeisance, yeah. Yeah. I mean, the

Dispensationalists. No, they wouldn't do that. I agree they're wrong. Right, right, yeah. They don't, they have at least the right

Christology, which is important, obviously. The Jehovah Witnesses don't have the right Christology. They obviously don't believe

Jesus is God. Matter of fact, they believe he's Michael the archangel. So in Revelation 12, where you have

Michael and Satan, you know, battling, they think that's Jesus. And so, yeah, pretty dangerous teachings and heresies taught by the

Jehovah's Witnesses. Yes. Can you discuss, I guess, in light of what you're saying about Jehovah's Witnesses about Jesus?

Yeah. You know, what's interesting about that is that, you know, they'll acknowledge that Jehovah is the

Alpha and the Omega. And so they acknowledge that there's only one Alpha and Omega and that that should be

God. But in the scriptures, they clearly don't, they don't believe that it's

Jesus. But it's very clear that we can demonstrate that it is. I'm tempted to do this, and I think we have a little bit of time.

So I'll just do that. Why don't we go to Revelation one? Yeah, Revelation chapter one. Let's look at verse seven.

Now the Jehovah Witness Bible only makes a couple changes here in the New World Translation. I'll highlight those changes.

Revelation chapter one, starting verse seven. Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, and even those who pierced him, and all the tribes will wail on account of him, even so, amen.

So it says he's coming. Who's coming? Okay, it's easy for us to say Jesus, but let's look at the text.

He is pierced. He's a pierced one, which is hearkening back to Zechariah chapter 12, verse 10, hearkening back to the cross.

So if you said Jesus, you're right, okay? But notice what it says in the next verse.

I am the Alpha and Omega, says the Lord God, and the New World Translation says

Jehovah God, who is, who was, and who is to what?

Come, the Almighty, okay? Verse seven. He is coming with the clouds, and every eye shall see him, even those who pierced him.

Well, the one who is coming identifies himself as the Lord God Almighty, the

Alpha and the Omega, the one who is, who was, and who is to come, okay?

Now, Alpha and Omega means what? Beginning or end, or first and last.

It's the first letters of the Greek alphabet and the last letters, Alpha being first, Omega being last.

It's like us saying the A to Z. He's the A to Z, or if you're Canadian, A to Zed. They don't say

Z, they say Zed, like the British. And so Jesus is the

A to Z. He's the Alpha and the Omega, but okay, maybe that's not strong enough. Maybe that's not clear enough.

Well, let's look in verse, let's start with verse 13. In the midst of the lampstands, one like a son of man, we've seen this description before, clothed of a long robe and a golden sash around his chest, and the hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow.

His eyes were like a flame of fire. His feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters.

In his right hand, he held seven stars from his mouth and came a sharp two -edged sword, and his face was like the sun, shining in full strength.

We have a description here that is very akin to the description we see in Daniel of the

Ancient of Days. If you read Daniel's description of the Ancient of Days of God, of Yahweh, it's almost identical, in fact.

And so when Daniel sees Yahweh, he gives the same description. When John is seeing this figure, he likens to someone like a son of man, son of man being the most common description that Jesus gives, or title that Jesus gives of himself in the

New Testament. He calls himself son of man. Clearly, this is showing that Jesus, the son of man, is

Yahweh, but it goes even further in the next couple of verses. Verse 17, it says, and when I saw him, John says,

I fell at his feet as though dead. Here's a physical response again. Here's worship, okay?

You see that he is responding to the authority that he is seeing by falling down as though dead.

But he laid his right hand on me, saying, fear not. I am the first and the last, the living one.

I died, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades, okay?

So Jesus, this is Jesus, right? And Jesus says, I am the first and I am the last, okay?

What does that mean again? Alpha and omega, first and last.

It's very clear. It could not be clearer, could it, you know? Verse seven, he's coming with the clouds.

Every eye will see him. He's coming. Verse eight, the one coming identifies himself as alpha and omega, first and last, as the almighty.

And then this almighty appears before John. John falls to his feet as though dead because he's seeing

God. It's very curious because it says he fell to his feet as though dead. You know why it says that?

Scripture says in Exodus chapter 33 that no man can see God and live, okay?

Just why his response is to fall to his feet as though dead. It's very, I've always wondered why it says as though dead, and that's the reason why, because no man can see

God and live. And so he knew he was seeing God. He knew he was seeing God. He falls to his feet as though dead, and yet Christ says,

I am the living one. I'm the first and the last. I died. So you gotta ask a

Jehovah Witness, when did Yahweh, when did Jehovah die, right?

Because it says he died, and he's alive forevermore, and he has the keys of death and of Hades.

So very important text there that shows the strength of the divinity of Jesus Christ. Revelation chapter 22 also does the same thing very strongly.

Let's just turn there for a moment. Last chapter of the book of Revelation. And we're gonna start with verse six.

And he said to me, these words are trustworthy and true, the words of the prophecy. And it says, and the

Lord, that's Yahweh, the God of the spirits of the prophets has sent it to his angel to show his servants what must soon take place.

And behold, I am coming soon. Okay, so the God that was just appealed to, the

Lord, the God of the spirits, is speaking. Behold, I am coming soon. Blessed is one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.

Okay, and then it goes on to say in verse, let's see, verse 12, let's go there.

Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me to repay each one for what he has done.

I am the alpha and the omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.

Okay, now here's what we miss though, because we haven't gone through the entire book of Revelation. In Revelation chapter two, in Revelation chapter one,

Jesus is referred to as alpha and omega. In chapter one, he's also referred to as the first and last. Did you know in chapter two and three, he's referred to as the beginning and the end in Revelation?

Okay, he's the beginning and the end. So he's wrapping up all those titles in Christ here by saying

I am the alpha and the omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. So that's important, because all those titles are used of Jesus elsewhere in Revelation, okay?

And also what's interesting is in Revelation chapter two, I think it's verse 22 and 23, Jesus says about one of the churches that he's going to bring recompense to the church, okay?

He's the one who brings recompense. He's the one who brings judgment. So the one who is speaking here is Christ.

I behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me to repay each one for what he has done.

Bible says in 2 Corinthians chapter five, verse 10, that Jesus Christ is the judge of the world, that everyone will stand before the tribunal of Christ and receive what they have done in the body, whether good or evil.

So clearly this is Jesus. Verse 14, blessed are those who wash their robes so that they may have the right to the tree of life, that they may enter the city by the gates, enter the city by the gates.

Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers and the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood, okay?

So who's speaking? If we have any doubt about who's speaking, look at who identifies himself in verse 16. I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches.

I am the root and the descendant of David and the bright morning star, okay?

Verse six, these are the words, these words are trustworthy and true because the Lord, the

God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent his angel. Who sent the angel?

Jesus says he's the one who sent the angel. I, Jesus, have sent my angel, okay?

Who's Jesus? He's the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets. He's the true

God. He's the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. He is the one who is coming.

This is the Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't this amazing? It's awesome.

And look what it says, and it just concludes with this in verse 20 and 21. He who testifies to these things say surely

I am coming soon, amen. Come who? Lord Jesus.

In the grace of the Lord Jesus be with all, amen. So Jesus Christ, without a shadow of a doubt, is

God. There's just no doubt. Look how plainly the scripture lays it out for us in the concluding verses of Holy Scripture.

Indisputable. And these are texts that you can show to anyone who is a Jehovah Witness or anyone who denies the divinity of Jesus.

It is, this is an irontight argument here. You can't come against it.

Matter of fact, I know many Jehovah's Witnesses have come to faith in Jesus through this text.

It is ironclad. What's the objection to it? If I was a JW, what would I say?

Oh, but here's what you missed. What would be the answer to that? They would be, their minds would be in a pretzel right now.

And they don't have a good answer. The only answer that they would have would be, well, no, the one who's speaking verses six through 15, that's

Jehovah, and then in verse 16, it's Jesus. Right, so they have to do that. But I just demonstrate how that can't be, because in verse six, the one, the

Lord God of the spirits sent his angel, Jesus identifies himself as the one who sent the angel, right?

And then the Alpha and the Omega, who's set in verse 13, who brings recompense, well, Jesus, those same words are used of Jesus in Revelation chapter two and three.

Okay, in the first three chapters of Revelation, those are the very same titles and words attributed to Jesus, and yet at the conclusion, it's all wrapped into Christ.

So they have no good hermeneutical, exegetical response to this. Because they can't, because it's the word.

The rabbis teach from Isaiah 53 that the suffering servant is Israel. Israel, yeah. And they say, okay, so that's not a singular

Messiah, so it's not Jesus, but they at least have a reason for it that you can discuss.

Yeah. They're using the same text we do, and you can discuss it, because they have an answer. Right. A wrong answer, but they have.

That's right. You're saying that. There's no good answer. They don't have an answer. No, not a good one.

Yeah. I was gonna say, when I talked with my friend about the passages about Alpha and Omega, I didn't do as good a job as you, for sure, but she said,

I think I need to bring two friends with me next time to talk with you, because you know, you've stumped me.

And then she said, but I think you're okay. I think you're gonna be okay. Yeah. Yeah, I think you will be okay.

I'm not so sure about you, though. And so, all this to conclude, to wrap up the

Living in God's Kingdom, the series we've been doing, and in the last page,

I kind of just wrap it up with this recap here. Now, faith, of course, we've learned throughout this series that faith isn't just a simple meant -to -acknowledgement.

It's, you know, faith about works is dead. There is a response to true and saving faith that brings forth good works.

Not that our works save us, but that our works are an evidence of true and saving faith, right?

And so, faith is very important in the Kingdom of God. You cannot be in the Kingdom of God apart from faith. But faith also works out through law and grace.

Now, what did we learn about law and grace over the series? What is law? What is law?

Well, we used two words. We looked at two Hebrew words, right? Mitzvah and Torah. Now, what's the difference between mitzvah and Torah?

Mitzvah is command or law, and Torah means what?

Instruction, okay? So, we receive instruction, and we receive mitzvah, commandment, laws.

So, the Ten Commandments, is that Torah or mitzvah? It's mitzvah, it's commandment.

And we know they're commands because there's consequences associated with them as well. Remember, instructions don't have consequences usually associated with them, but commandments do.

If you do this, you will live. If you don't do this, you'll die. Those are the contrasting natures of mitzvah and Torah.

Then there's servants and slaves. Jesus says, I've not come to call you slaves,

I've come to call you my what? My friends, my friends.

I've not come to call you slaves, I've come to call you friends. In the kingdom of God, we are, in a sense, slaves.

We're slaves of Jesus Christ. But it says that a bond servant or a slave of Jesus is actually the

Lord's free man, right? So, those who are under servitude to Jesus are actually free, and that's the beauty of the gospel.

We're set free from sin and death, we're set free from the bondage of the law, we're set free onto eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ and the gospel.

God means the rule maker. Remember that, it's very important. So, everyone has a

God. Every atheist, every agnostic, every person that's alive has a

God, and it's simple. Who makes the rules in their lives? And that's their God.

Whoever's rules they follow, that's their God. We as Christians, we follow

God. This is why in Acts chapter five, verse 29, the apostle

Peter says we must obey God as ruler rather than man, okay?

We must obey God as ruler. And so, one thing, for all of his faults President Trump had, one of the things that I heard him say that I really liked is that in America we worship

God, not government, okay? And it's so, the religion of the left is the state.

It is the state. The state becomes God. Whoever makes the rules is their

God. Whoever's rules they follow is God. So, when they shut down the whole world in the last several years, and they were so gung -ho about it, it really shows, and then they closed down church, it shows who their rule maker is, okay?

And every church had a different response, and our church in Wisconsin at the time, we gave the government the benefit of the doubt, and we said, okay, we don't know if this is gonna be the 1918 flu, so we're gonna try to be as safe as possible.

But once we saw that things were not transpiring as the government was saying, we made a decision.

We're gonna obey God rather than man. And so, we began to meet in person before the government even lifted the restrictions.

And I think that was the right thing to do. In every church I do things a little bit differently, but still, whoever's rules you follow, that's your

God, which is why, again, I think 2020 was a test for the church.

It was a huge test for the church, and a lot of things should have been learned from that. And then worship, of course, is a recognition of that true authority.

And so, as Christians, when we come together, we must recognize the true, proper authority over us, and that's the Lord God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Any thoughts or questions? Questions? Yes. So, if you have hindsight, what do you say to somebody?

Well, I mean, I think, just like today, like my son woke up throwing up, so they're probably gonna stay home.

It's not because we're hurt, we just wanna make sure he's fine, we wanna make sure he doesn't get anyone else sick, maybe, if he has something.

It's not wrong to be prudent. It's not wrong to be responsible and to be level -headed when it comes to matters of health.

The question is, should government have the authority to tell us how and when to worship

God? And that's not their realm, right? So, I would look at it from more of a macro perspective, more so than the micro, where I think every person has to make individual decisions regarding their health.

I think that's perfectly fine. At the same time, I don't think government has a right to tell us how we are to worship

God. And that's the heart of the argument and of the crucible of 2020, in my mind, at least.

So, but anyways, let me pray, and if you wanna continue chatting, we'll chat. God, thank you so much,

Lord, that you've given us your word, which gives us instruction. It gives us mitzvah, it gives us commandments that we are to follow.

We thank you for the clear instructions that are in your word, the truth that is in your word, and how we are to worship you in spirit and truth.

We thank you, Lord God, that you are indeed a trium God, Father, Son, and Spirit, in the fullness of time, you sent forth your son,

Jesus, to live the life that we could not live, that a death that we deserve, so that we may have eternal life through faith in you.

We thank you, Lord, for all that you have done for the advancement of your kingdom in this world. We pray, Lord, now, that as we turn our attention to our main service,

Lord, that you would be glorified, magnified, and Lord, that your people would also be encouraged by the words that you would bring forward through the preaching, the teaching, that you have in store for us.

We pray, Lord, that all these things would be done decently and in order, for your glory and your kingdom's sake. In Jesus' name, amen.