The End Of The World: What You Need To Know

Apologia Studios

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:00

The Bible tells you when the Messiah's kingdom is coming. Jesus came in saying,

00:05

I've brought it. John the Baptist says, here it is. The apostles believed that Jesus had brought the kingdom.

00:11

They say that he's the ruler of the kings of the earth in Revelation 1, 5. In that day, with Caesar there and all these pagan gods and all the idolatry and all the pagan forms of government, it says that Jesus is the ruler of the kings of the earth.

00:35

Good evening, how are you? Excellent, what an honor to be here at the Bonson Conference. If you'd have told me this two decades ago, that this would be my second time,

00:44

I wouldn't have believed you. All glory to God, he does speak through the mouth of asses. Everyone thinks

00:51

I use dirty words, so I just gave you a biblical one, so. And speaking of, it's interesting,

00:59

I do believe that it'd be good for me to put something to print and to write. At some point in my ministry, especially with cancel culture and canceling and shutting down platforms,

01:10

I think it'd be valuable to put things down. But I mean this at the start. People have asked me, well, why don't you write about apologetics or write about eschatology?

01:18

And I have truly felt, and it's my post -millennialism that drives this, there are already enough really great, amazing men who have written on this before.

01:29

You just need to read them and then get into the fight. I think that's what we're missing now is

01:35

I'd rather be the guy who goes down in Christian history as not the man who put out all the great works.

01:40

We already have those guys. I mean, stuff I could never even touch what they've done. I wanna get into the fight and start winning the world for Christ.

01:48

And so that's what I hope this short message does for you.

01:54

No, see, here's the thing. Doug is after me and I can't step on Doug's toes, so I have my phone right here.

02:01

So I wanna say, if I start going over seven o 'clock too far, relax. But if I go too far, say something,

02:08

Paul, like wave your hands or something, okay, because I really don't care. So the title that was assigned to me is the most important things to understand about the end of the world.

02:20

And Chris messaged me this week and he's like, well, how do you wanna work the title? I said, well, I'll just kind of go off what you gave.

02:25

And as I've been thinking about the title, I would like to sort of rephrase it the most important things to understand about before the resurrection, right?

02:40

Because in terms of how we think largely in Western evangelical culture, because of really bad eschatologies and I think

02:49

Paul did such an amazing job. I love Paul. I always learn so much when I listen to him. An amazing job to talking about just the destructive nature of eschatology.

02:59

Years ago, my mentor, my hero of the faith, my spiritual father in the faith, Dr. James White, sort of popularized the terminology theology matters, right?

03:08

It's on t -shirts and hats and cups and women knit it and things like that.

03:14

But I think you could also add to it and it's as valuable, eschatology matters. Eschatology, your eschatological position has consequences.

03:23

And I think the bad eschatologies of today, the popular eschatologies of today, the eschatology of defeat, the eschatology of pessimism has driven a lot of the cultural decay and darkness that we see all around us.

03:36

Because if you pull Christians out of the fight and let them think that the world's going to hell in a handbasket, why bother polishing brass on a sinking ship?

03:46

All this is for not. The best thing for us is to get sort of pulled out of here to leave our underwear and shoes behind so that we can go to this better, higher story, this spiritual experience out there.

03:57

All this is a throwaway anyways. The world's gonna end and be destroyed. It's a throwaway and then

04:03

God's gonna make a new one. I don't agree with any of that. I don't agree with any of that.

04:08

I don't think it's biblical. I think there's tinges of Gnosticism in that and it's deadly, it's serious.

04:14

The Gnostics were the arch enemies of the early Christian church. John writes about them,

04:20

Paul writes about them. They were arch enemies of the Christian church in the first century, in the second century. We've been fighting

04:25

Gnosticism since the beginning. And not that it's explicit always in Western Christian thinking, but Gnosticism is still deadly to the church and it is believed by many in the church that this is all a throwaway.

04:39

Sin entered the world, this is all corrupt now and so God's just gonna throw it away and just sort of take us away into this gassy, airy experience out there.

04:46

We wanna get to that higher spiritual level and higher story out there where there's fat babies and harps and clouds. That's where we wanna go.

04:53

That's really the purpose of it all. But in reality, the scriptures tell a redemptive story of an

04:59

Adam that falls and the perfect Adam who comes to restore all things. I agree with Paul.

05:04

One of my favorite songs, Joy to the World. We sing it throughout the year at Apologia Church because it originally wasn't a

05:10

Christmas song, but I love that terminology as far as the curse is found.

05:16

The story of redemption in scripture really from the beginning to end is a story of death and a fall and then

05:22

God bringing us back to this garden city. God redeeming and restoring what was broken in rebellion and the fall.

05:29

And that really summarizes really the mission of the Messiah and I wanna say at the start, when you think about post -millennialism, there's so much that could be said.

05:38

I'd love to sit here for four hours, but Doug is staring at me right now, okay? When you think about post -millennialism,

05:44

I think that what expresses post -millennialism in terms of biblical terminology is just the simple words that Jesus is preaching when he comes out of the temptation in the wilderness and he's preaching and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom.

05:58

It's the good news of the kingdom and I've often said, as you talk about this subject of the most important things to understand about the end of the world and Christian eschatology, that we have forgotten today as Christians in the

06:08

West what that means. Why are they preaching that in the beginning of Jesus's ministry?

06:16

Why are they saying that? And why, pray tell, is the kingdom of the Messiah, the rule of the

06:21

Messiah in the world, good news? We are actually reformed folks.

06:27

We're quite good at sort of distilling down the essentials of reconciliation and peace with God.

06:33

And so when we say today, commonly, we say gospel, what do we typically mean as reformed folks or even evangelicals?

06:40

When we say gospel, we mean justification by faith. That's, you know, typically we say the gospel.

06:46

We say, well, Jesus is God in the flesh. He lived righteously and blamelessly. He's the perfect law keeper. He dies a death we deserve.

06:53

He rises again from the grave. And so through repentance and faith in him, you're reconciled to God.

06:58

You have peace with God. Salvation is a gift apart from any work of the law. Sola fide, sola gratia, sola

07:04

Christi. We all know that story and we sort of take and we truncate the story of redemption, the gospel itself to really one thing, justification.

07:15

But when Jesus comes out of the wilderness, it says that he's preaching the gospel of the kingdom.

07:23

Now for us, most of the time we say in the West, we say, I don't even know what that means. Why is the kingdom good news? They understood it.

07:29

And that's why they were so excited for him because the story of the Mashiach coming into the world was a story that was larger than their own private romantic relationship with the

07:38

Messiah. The story of the Messiah was good news for the world because that story from the

07:44

Old Testament scriptures was a story that contained not only that beautiful truth of salvation for the nations, reconciliation and peace with God, but it was a story that actually told about righteousness and justice and the

07:57

Torah, the law of God going forth from the people of God to bless the world.

08:03

You see the story of the Messiah was descendants as numerous as the stars and the sand. That's a heck of a lot of descendants.

08:08

And I don't know why we think Jesus loses in history when we see that. And it's a story of justice and righteousness and the

08:14

Messiah who will not grow faint or weary until he's established it. You see, they see the world, the

08:20

Jewish people, they see it, they have covenant relationship they have with Yahweh. They know the law, word of God.

08:25

They know his standards of justice. They see the oppression, they see the evil around them. And this Messiah is gonna come into the world.

08:31

He's gonna bring salvation, redemption to the entire world and establish God's justice,

08:38

God's peace, God's righteousness, God's standards in the world. That was supposed to be good news, a gift to the world.

08:45

We tend to think of the gospel simply as just that heart of the gospel justification through faith in Christ alone.

08:52

But the gospel is much better news than that. It's more comprehensive, it's larger, it's fuller.

08:59

And it's something that actually is gonna lead to the blessing of the entire world and resound to the glory of God for all eternity.

09:06

And so here's, I'm talking like this now. And if you would have told me in say 1996, if you would have told me, this is what you're gonna be saying to people,

09:16

I probably would have said, well, then I somehow become a heretic and I'm gonna go to hell forever.

09:22

Because when I first made a profession of faith in Jesus Christ, I had no experience in the

09:27

Christian church. I wasn't raised in a Christian home, wasn't raised going to church every Sunday. We had a dusty Bible on my parents' shelf that collected dust wherever we were at in the world.

09:37

I was an Air Force brat. And so I just knew that was the place of that Bible. We never read it. And I just knew there was a story of a guy named

09:43

Jesus who died and rose again. That's what people say. And that's his book. So when I first heard the gospel and made a profession of faith in Jesus, I have no experience.

09:52

I meet my first Christian. His dad's actually a pastor. And I go to my first Bible study.

09:57

Now the Bible study, I'll never forget it. I went there at night, I walk into the room and the Bible study was actually not a

10:03

Bible study, it was watching a movie. And the movie was this terrifying, awfully made, typical

10:09

Christian film about the rapture. And so I want you to know that this was the start of my conversation in theology and eschatology.

10:20

It was watching this horribly done film about the rapture. And so really that was my thing early on was eschatology.

10:27

How Lindsay was not, he was my homeboy. He was my favorite.

10:33

I mean, I didn't tell you how much a fiend I was for dispensational premillennialism. I've got all the books. I've read all the books.

10:40

I went and made sure I picked up a copy of the Jerusalem Post as often as I could. I was not thinking that I was gonna be here for maybe about a couple more months.

10:49

I used to sit down at the pool in the summertime reading the Left Behind series, and I would close the book and just wish myself into rapture.

10:57

Like just now, now. That, and if you think I'm exaggerating, just ask my wife.

11:05

Every time she was like, I don't know if we're gonna be here in the morning, babe. I hope you make it, right?

11:11

And I do wanna say I was messaging Kirk Cameron recently. We were talking, and I think it's an amazing thing of God's providence that the poster boy for the worst eschatological system in the history of Christianity is now

11:25

Post Mill. So take that. So I went to Bible college.

11:34

Eschatology class was my very favorite class. I got an A, so you know I'm good, okay? It was because it's all

11:40

I talked about. I didn't think we were gonna be here for very much longer. And then, and then, I started talking about Revelation in ways where I felt conviction, like I'm saying something wrong.

11:51

Like talking with friends, and I would say, oh, it's this, and that's locusts with men's faces. Maybe that's an

11:56

Apache helicopter. You know, these manhoppers. Maybe they saw Apache, I was doing the whole thing, right?

12:03

I mean, my son, my firstborn son, his middle name, are you ready for this? It tells you where I was in 1999, and my son,

12:10

I want to forgive me to this day. My son's middle name is Israel, because that's all

12:16

I could think about. And I'm not gonna say that I didn't send money to get Jews back into Israel, okay?

12:24

But it's interesting, too, in terms of like the eschatologies and like consequences. I believed

12:29

I wanted to get them back into the land so they could be slaughtered, right?

12:37

Post -millennialism is so much better, guys. It's so much better. It's a better thing for the Jews. It's so much better.

12:45

We need to help Kanye. So what

12:52

I started to do is feel like conviction, like I'm saying things that I'm not really getting from the text, it's all conjecture.

13:00

Sort of feeling that. Like here's this amazing book, the book of Revelation, and I'm handling it like a fool.

13:06

I'm just going to the word of God, and I'm saying, yeah, it's probably this, and he probably saw this guy, and he probably saw this guy, and I'm handling it like a fool, and I felt conviction.

13:15

And so for the first time, after talking to a couple of brothers, and I'm in the book of Revelation, and I'm saying things, and I'm feeling like I'm sinning,

13:23

I go home, and I said, Lord, what was that? Why am

13:28

I feeling this? And so I just committed, I was like, all right, Lord, whatever it is, whatever I'm doing wrong,

13:33

I want you to correct me. Because I was taught this from early on. I was taught it in Bible college,

13:38

I was taught it in Bible study, I'm reading the books, and it was a tradition I had adopted, and I got kind of fearful, and I thought, well, what is the truth?

13:47

And so I start, I say, okay, Lord, I'll read the book of Revelation once a day, every day, for 30 days. That's my commitment.

13:53

So I'm reading the book of Revelation once a day, every day, and I get to day four, and I'll never forget, I'm sitting in a

13:59

Starbucks, forgive me, and I finish reading the book of Revelation, fourth day,

14:04

I close the Bible, I put it down, and I think, some of this had to have already happened.

14:10

So I started to get kind of fearful. Is this how heretics are born? They're just seeing things in the

14:17

Bible that no one else sees? When I was in Bible college, I remember the day of my eschatology class where we talked about amel, postmel, premel.

14:23

We talked about that, and my professor of the class, I'll never forget how he did it, he'd amel, postmel, premel.

14:29

He said, premel, this is the historic position of the church. He said, amillennialism, postmillennialism, that's just liberalism.

14:35

Now, back to premel, and that's what I got. So I didn't really learn. Of course,

14:40

I learned where they place the coming of Christ and all the rest, but it was just, that's theological liberalism.

14:46

These are the vestiges of a theological liberalism, and so we're premel, that's the historic position of the church. And so, as I close the

14:54

Bible and I say, I think I'm wrong, I commit to take the blinders off and just let Scripture speak.

15:01

And as I let Scripture speak, I start discovering that not only am I seeing something very different and very victorious and something very hopeful,

15:08

I learned that there were also giants in history before me who saw exactly the same thing and taught exactly the same thing.

15:15

I was part of a tradition of eschatology that was actually a theological novum in history.

15:21

It's new, it's very, very new. Popular as it is, it's new in church history.

15:27

And what's amazing here is I got into Dr. Bonson because the same way most of us did, it was through the

15:34

Gordonstein -Dr. Bonson debate. Now, I remember that I listened to that debate and I thought to myself,

15:39

I don't know most of what I just heard, but that guy just got destroyed and I don't know what any of that meant.

15:48

And so I listened to it again and again and again and I fell in love with Dr. Bonson and so I went to Bonson Theological Seminary and I started studying.

15:56

And as I'm starting to study and get to know more and I'm like, this guy's a giant of the faith and look how he handles the scripture and look how rigorous he is and how solid he is and just commitment to exegesis and what does the text say?

16:07

And I hear him debating mathematics on the radio and I hear him doing all his debates. I'm like, this man is a giant, praise

16:13

God for him. And then I'm like, wait, what does he believe on eschatology? And then I discovered, glory to God, Dr.

16:20

Bonson was post -mill. And I was like, of course he is. Of course he is.

16:26

And then I found out he was Presbyterian and I went, oh, dang it. No. I'm just kidding.

16:34

I had to throw at least one out. No. Yeah, yeah.

16:41

I was so, and I learned so much from him and I thought to myself, of course, someone who just has such a rigorous commitment to the word of God as the ultimate standard and it's the foundation and it's the reference point.

16:55

And in this area of eschatology, of course he would fall there. And it just really, it was a big blessing in my life to just learn from Dr.

17:03

Bonson. And again, my entrance into post -millennialism happened before I even knew who Bonson was.

17:10

But what's interesting here is, when you think about the story of the most important things to understand about the end of the world, we know what we mean here by that phrasing.

17:22

This is really important. This story for me began when

17:29

I first made a profession of faith in Jesus. I experienced new life and peace and it was radical.

17:37

I mean, it was shocking to my family, to my parents and to my sister. And it was a dramatic switch at a young age.

17:46

And I immediately got into a place where God was forcing me to actually defend what

17:54

I believed, but I knew almost nothing about the Bible. And so one of the things that was a challenge to me early on was, well, how do

18:02

I know that Jesus really is the Messiah? How do I even know that? And so I began to study books that actually explained all the messianic prophecies fulfilled in Jesus.

18:13

And there was actually a book by D. James Kennedy and all it really was, it was a small book, the messianic prophecies of Jesus fulfilled, a small book and it was just the verses.

18:21

It was just on his identity, on where he's from, on when he's coming, on the salvation that he brings.

18:27

And it was just this amazing, powerful little book that blew my mind that all of this, how come the whole world doesn't trust in Jesus?

18:34

Look at all that's here. And one of the things that I discovered early on even is that one of the places of emphasis when we talk about the messianic prophecies of Jesus is of course, on what we naturally or normally hear within the church context, we hear about his identity in the messianic prophecies.

18:53

The identity of the Messiah, Isaiah chapter nine, verses six through seven, that he is El Gabor, he is the mighty

19:00

God. That's a title that actually in the next chapter, Isaiah chapter 10 is used for Yahweh himself.

19:07

And so this one who's coming, this son who's given, this child, he is the mighty God. He is the father of eternity.

19:14

He's the eternal God coming as a son and as a child, the identity of the Messiah. We see that in the scriptures, where he's coming from, from Bethlehem.

19:23

Micah chapter five, verse two. We see the timing of his coming. You can look at Daniel chapter nine, as complicated as it is, you can clearly see the

19:31

Mashiach is gonna come into the world. He's gonna be cut off and then the second temple is gonna be destroyed.

19:38

So the timing of the Messiah is there. And we tend to focus in upon those beautiful passages and we should, we can't neglect them.

19:45

Those beautiful passages that talk about the passion of the Messiah in Psalm chapter 22. The passion of the

19:51

Messiah that he'd be pierced through. He had hands and feet pierced, that he'd be poured out like water, that his heart like wax melted within him, that they would surround him and cast lots for his clothing.

20:04

We emphasize Isaiah 53, that he was gonna be crushed for our iniquities. The chastisement for our wellbeing was gonna be laid upon him and by his wounds, we are healed.

20:15

That the Lord was pleased to crush him, putting him to grief, that he was gonna be this offering for sin.

20:21

He was gonna be pierced through for our transgressions. We tend to emphasize these and again, we ought to because they are powerful.

20:29

But one of the things that we usually leave out and I think that if we didn't leave them out, it would lead to a world of Christian post -millennialism as the norm is we leave out the other part of the story.

20:40

That story that we're almost fearful to talk about, right? That story that talks about the nations coming to God, the knowledge of God covering the earth like the waters cover the sea, that he shall have dominion, that all of God's enemies are gonna go under his feet, that the law of God was gonna go forth from the people of God, Isaiah chapter two, that he wouldn't grow faint or weary until he established justice in the earth,

21:04

Isaiah chapter 42. Those are also part of that story of the Messiah. And here's what

21:09

I think we should emphasize as we jump into this. I'm gonna give you sort of the scatter today, okay? I'm gonna throw a lot of verses at you and so you have to forgive me because I wanna make sure that you have these in your toolbox.

21:20

But as we start this discussion, I wanna have us think about what happens in Jesus' ministry after the resurrection in Luke.

21:30

Luke, there's no Bibles turning in here, I can hear that. Okay, in Luke chapter 24, verse 13, it's the famous scene, the road to Emmaus.

21:39

I love this section of scripture because I wish I could have witnessed this Bible study.

21:46

I mean, Jesus explaining all the prophecies from the Old Testament that speak about him, that had to be the most epic

21:52

Bible study in the history of the world. But in this section, you've got these sad saps, these disciples that are walking on the road, they thought that Jesus was the

22:02

Messiah and they think that it's all over now. And so Jesus is there and he's walking alongside of them.

22:07

And so he's asking them basically what's wrong. And in verse 19, it says, and he said to them what things?

22:15

And they said to him concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet, mighty indeed and word before God and all the people and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death and crucified him.

22:26

But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened.

22:35

Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the morning and when they did not find his body, they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive.

22:47

Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see.

22:53

Now they're describing what the scriptures foretold was gonna take place.

23:01

So they're sad, they're on this road, they think everything's done. They can't understand what's going on.

23:09

They're walking with Jesus right next to them. And they're describing a resurrection from the dead event that the scriptures actually foretold.

23:20

And so Jesus responds to this in verse 25. And he said to them, oh, foolish ones and slow of heart to believe all of the prophets have spoken.

23:31

Did you capture that? And slow of heart to believe all of the prophets have spoken. Was it not necessary that the

23:39

Messiah should suffer these things and enter into his glory? And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them all the scriptures, the things concerning himself.

23:49

So here you have a moment where they have this aspect of messianic prophecy that they just misunderstood.

23:55

They missed whatever was going on. They couldn't understand it. They saw Jesus actually crucified, physically dead, murdered on a tree.

24:03

And it just seems too big for them, too large for him that he'd actually conquer that death.

24:09

That's all they can understand. Humanly speaking, we can say we can have sympathy for them and understand them. Yes, I get it.

24:14

He was tortured and brutalized, really dead, murdered on a tree. They saw that.

24:19

And now they're walking on this road thinking, what now, what do we do? This is a failure.

24:25

And Jesus chastises them for what? Slow of heart to believe all, all, all that the prophets have spoken.

24:38

Now that all the prophets have spoken is not just resurrection. It's not just atonement.

24:46

There is so much more to the story than that. And on that road, Jesus chastises these believers for not believing all that the prophets have spoken about him.

25:00

Was, he says this, he says, was it not necessary that the

25:06

Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory? And then he begins to explicate all the prophets and what they said concerning him.

25:13

So in other words, in Jesus' mind, you're foolish, slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.

25:19

This is something you should know. You should understand this. And then he says, what, was it not necessary?

25:25

In other words, in the decree of God and the sovereign God and his plan of redemption, this was necessary.

25:31

It had to happen. But there's more to the story of Messiah than just the atonement and the resurrection.

25:40

There's more to the story, amen. More to the story in terms of the kingdom of God and the nations coming to God and justice and righteousness flourishing.

25:49

Salvation, redemption to the ends of the earth, amen. But there's more to the story. And I think we should take seriously the chastisement of Jesus with his followers when they fail to believe all that the prophets have spoken.

26:07

It is necessary because God is a faithful God. God cannot lie. God does not change.

26:14

Here's the word. He has given a word on what the future of the world is gonna look like.

26:21

My position is this. We should believe it. We should believe it even when it doesn't appear at the moment like that's actually true.

26:30

You know, people often say about post -millennialism, like you actually think like the whole entire world, it's

26:35

Christian, well, that's, you're talking about the Great Commission, so yes. You think the whole world's gonna just be victory and then resurrection?

26:42

Well, you're talking about all of his enemies under his feet and then death is destroyed, so yes. And they'll typically say that they can't understand how you could think that way when like there's so much evil around us in the world today.

26:56

I would say, yeah, and let's not forget how this started. It started with a murdered, crucified

27:01

Messiah in a nothing little part of the world. And at the ascension, he has the audacity to say to a handful of followers in Palestine, a handful of followers, all authority is mine in heaven and on earth.

27:17

If he had said that in that day, and he did, it would have offended Caesar. Caesar would have had something to say to Jesus when

27:24

Jesus says, all authority on earth is mine. Caesar would have something to say. That's by the way, why there was so much conflict.

27:31

One of the reasons there's so much conflict between the early church and Rome, they didn't care what you worshiped. It was that the

27:37

Christians were saying, Jesus is Lord. I can't say Kaiser Kurios. I can't say Caesar is ultimate.

27:42

And why do they believe that? Because there's a handful of very confused disciples in a nothing part of the world that were given charge by Jesus.

27:50

I'm the ruler of the world. I'm in charge of everything in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go get the world.

27:57

Baptize, and he says, do what? Teach them to obey. So when someone says to me,

28:03

I just don't see it. I can't see out there into the world. I'm like, there's more Christians in this room right now than were standing in front of Jesus probably at that moment.

28:11

He said, now go get the world. There's Christians all over the world now, people who love Jesus and worship the Lord God of Israel because of Jesus Christ than any time in history.

28:20

We've gotten the gospel now to more places in the world than any time in history. What do you mean we're losing?

28:27

What do you mean we're losing? Yeah, there's suffering, there's difficulty, and there's toil, that's all part of the process.

28:33

That's all part of the process. But that process, God uses as a means to win the world to himself.

28:40

And so emphasizing the salvific messianic prophecies and leaving out the rest,

28:49

I think is something that we have to actually get over. We have to heal out of that. We leave out his total victory.

28:57

So, okay, so Chris says, title, what would you like to do? Okay, I'll stick with that. The most important things to understand about the end of the world.

29:03

Here, I believe, in terms of where we're at as the Christian church in the West, here's what we have to make sure we understand, and that is that he shall have dominion.

29:15

He shall have dominion. So what I think we need to understand about the end of the world,

29:21

I'm gonna say the resurrection, we need to understand that the story of redemption in the

29:26

Old Testament and moving into the New Testament itself tells us a story of a victorious Messiah who wins the world to glorify

29:35

God. Total victory, total victory. So, of course, we're familiar, again, with the messianic prophecies, prophecies that tell us about his identity, his particular person, prophecies that tell us about the timing of his coming, that they cannot be subverted, they speak specific.

29:53

It may just say this, if Jesus isn't the Messiah, there isn't a Messiah. Do you understand that? Everyone got that?

29:59

I was talking to a Jewish rabbi once who held an event in Scottsdale. I saw it in a Jewish newspaper in Scottsdale.

30:05

It said, like, you know, there's gonna be a Jews Against Jesus seminar and how we know Jesus isn't the Messiah. And I thought, that's fantastic,

30:12

I'm Jewish. And so, in circumcised of the heart sort of thing. And so I'm gonna show up.

30:17

And so I go and I put the, I got to go in the synagogue and put the yarmulke on. It was amazing. But we were the only people in this entire place, in the entire synagogue that had a

30:25

Bible with us. The only ones. And as we're there, everyone's looking at us, looking at us like flipping through the Bible looking at us, looking at us.

30:32

And so when this rabbi, he looked like Mahdosh Yahu, when he was done talking, the old

30:37

Mahdosh Yahu, okay? When he was done talking, he had the whole thing and the row, it was amazing. And so when he was done talking,

30:43

I stand up and I walked to the front. I take a beeline towards him to ask him a question and the entire synagogue descended.

30:50

I mean, here's the rabbi and here's this young kid and they're on us and everyone's just panting and they're ready for this rabbi to slaughter this

30:58

Christian. And so I said, rabbi, thank you for having us. I appreciate your graciousness and having us here.

31:04

I said, but rabbi, it's interesting to me, you didn't bring up any of the prophecies that Christians in history or even myself would bring up to you to demonstrate that Jesus is actually

31:13

Mashiach, he's the Messiah. He said, well, I handled all of them. I said, actually, you didn't bring up even one that I would do.

31:20

He said, well, he said, like what? Now, mind you, everyone's giddy, they're like, watch this, watch this. I said, well, like Daniel chapter nine, rabbi.

31:27

Daniel chapter nine, for all the complexities of it, it clearly teaches that Mashiach is gonna come.

31:33

He's gonna make atonement for sin. He's gonna reconcile, he's gonna do all these things and he's gonna be cut off before the second temple is destroyed.

31:42

And he goes, okay. And I said, so rabbi, when was the second temple destroyed?

31:49

And he said, well, everybody knows it was destroyed in 70 AD. I said, right. I said, so rabbi, if Jesus isn't

31:56

Mashiach, who is? And so he has Daniel nine opened up now and he looks down at the text and he's putting his finger through, flipping the page and looks down.

32:06

He looks up and looks around and everyone's like, watch this, watch this. Looks down, looks up and he says,

32:11

I'll tell you what, listen, give me your email address, I'll get back to you on this. Because there's no way out of it.

32:19

There's no way, this is why, of course, you see in our New Testament, Paul is taking beelines for the synagogue and he's arguing with the

32:25

Jews in the synagogue, proving that Jesus is Mashiach. And also in Acts 17, you look at 18, you look at Apollos, where Apollos is mighty in the scriptures and he's eloquent and he refutes the

32:35

Jews publicly, proving that Jesus is Messiah. There's no way out of it, it's clear.

32:42

It's totally God, it's clearly divine. It's his identity, his birthplace, the timing of his coming, the details of his death.

32:49

That's all there, we understand that. We could talk about the original life of Jesus in terms of his sinlessness, his understanding people's thoughts from afar, searching their hearts, all the details of Jesus, showing that he has command over his own creation, walking on water, raising a little dead girl from the grave, raising his friend from the grave.

33:14

Jesus shows us with his original life, unparalleled in history, that he is who he claimed to be.

33:22

The symbols, the symbols of the Messiah are, I actually believe some of the most amazing things about the

33:29

Bible that show God's divine handprints all over them. When you look at the

33:34

Old Testament itself, we don't have just direct prophecies of Messiah, his identity, where he's coming from, when he's coming, how he's gonna die, what he's gonna accomplish, but we also have the symbols that are powerful, they're just embedded and they're given to people, let's be honest, that are kind of clueless about exactly why.

33:53

Like, why are we doing it like this? Why are we doing it on this day? Why exactly is this happening? You've got stories in redemptive history about a

34:00

Passover and they're just living this. They're in bondage, they're in slavery.

34:06

God says, my judgment's gonna come down on Egypt and I will pass over the house with the blood of the lamb, no spot, no blemish, by the way, don't break its bones.

34:15

And they're like, okay, don't break its bones. They don't really understand exactly, okay, don't break its bones.

34:22

And I'll pass over that house in judgment, you'll be freed from your bondage and slavery to enter into that promised land of that relationship with God.

34:29

No clue, no clue that in the ministry of Jesus, John the

34:35

Baptist says, behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, Jesus is the lamb of God with no spot, no blemish, he is sinless.

34:42

He can say in front of a crowd of his enemies and peers, he can say, which of you accuses me of sin and it's silence.

34:51

Now you try that with your friends, right? Or I like to try that with my family members, like which of you accuses me of sin in my home?

34:59

Like, I mean, come on, my family would be like, oh, dad, let's have a seat. But Jesus can do that, right?

35:10

Jesus can do that. How much time do I have here? Boy, okay, I'm in trouble. All right, here we go.

35:17

The symbols of the Messiah, that Jesus, he goes to that cross, it's Passover. Jesus receives in himself the wrath of God, the judgment that is due to his people.

35:26

The wrath of God passes over us. We escape our bondage, our slavery to sin.

35:31

If the son sets you free, you'll be free indeed. All those things are embedded there. Abraham taking his son, his only son to this place of the sacrifice.

35:40

It's not just around the corner. It's a three -day journey. He goes to that place and he says, you know, me and the boy will go, we'll worship and we'll come back.

35:47

He fully expected to come back, even though he was told what was gonna take place on that mountain. And then he goes there, but he goes with his son, the son of his love, who carries the wood.

35:58

His son carries the wood to the place of the sacrifice. And when they get there, his son says, okay,

36:03

I see the fire, I see the wood, but where's the lamb? And Abraham says,

36:08

God will provide for himself the lamb, my son. And when he's about to slay his son, the angel of the

36:15

Lord shows up and he says, stop, don't do it. You haven't withheld your only son from me.

36:20

And then they find a ram, not a lamb, caught in the thicket. And then Abraham names that place.

36:27

This is the place the Lord will provide it. And it was far, far later when

36:33

God, his son, the son of his love, carried the wood to the place of the sacrifice himself.

36:40

Only God did not withhold his hand that day. And that's where the lamb of God was actually provided.

36:47

Do you see how deep this is? It's powerful, it's glorious. You've got the temple itself and the priesthood and the sacrifices all pointing towards our sin, the holiness of God, this veil between us, this offering and this sacrifice that is necessary, only it's ongoing.

37:01

It keeps going and it keeps going. And then Jesus comes as that perfect sacrifice and only he offers himself and he offers himself once for all.

37:10

So you've got specific prophecy, you've got symbolism pointing to Jesus, but here is the thing we need to be,

37:17

I think, firmed up in, in our commitments. And that is the prophecies of the

37:23

Messiah, all those prophecies, the prophets had foretold, the things that are necessary, the prophecies that speak about the transformation of the world, the transformation of the world.

37:34

So here's the scatter. In Genesis 49, 10, it's amazing.

37:39

Genesis 49, 10, single verse, mostly gets skipped over. How many of us just read Genesis, got to that and thought, no, no, move on, right?

37:47

It talks about this one who is coming. Some have translations that say Shiloh is coming, but here's what it says.

37:53

"'And to him shall be the obedience of the nations.'" Now, mind you, this is the beginning of the

38:01

Bible, it's the very same book that gives us the promises to Father Abraham. Those promises to Father Abraham, Genesis 26, 4, that you'll have descendants as numerous as the stars.

38:14

Genesis 32, 12, you will have descendants like the sand of the sea, it cannot be counted.

38:20

And then Genesis 49, 10, someone is coming, again, this is Genesis, written by Moses, beginning of the

38:27

Bible, someone is coming, "'And to him shall be the obedience of the nations.'"

38:32

Here's the question, are we slow of heart to believe that? Are we slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken, like Genesis 49, 10, that this one who is coming shall have the obedience of the nations?

38:44

You know who else believed that? The Apostle Paul. When the Apostle Paul gave to the world, through inspiration, the most beautiful, powerful explanation of the gospel itself, he opens up Romans chapter one with the same story as Genesis 49, 10, and he closes his book,

39:08

Romans 16, with the same words. So here's what I'm saying to you. How clear is this in the mind of the apostles?

39:15

Well, when the Apostle Paul is explaining the gospel, when he's giving us the systematic overview of the gospel itself, in the book, he bookends it, opens up with the story of Genesis 49, 10, and he closes it with it.

39:31

I want you to see it. Go there quickly. In Romans chapter one, the Apostle Paul, in verses five through six, he says this, "'Through whom,'' this is

39:41

Jesus, "'Through whom we have received grace and apostleship "'to bring about the obedience of faith "'for the sake of his name among all the nations, "'including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.'"

39:54

That's how he opens up Romans chapter one, that this is all about the obedience of faith among all the nations.

40:01

And in Romans 16, verses 26 through 27, the Apostle Paul, again, under inspiration, says this, "'But has now been disclosed, "'and through the prophetic writings,'' mark it down, put a pin in it, "'and through the prophetic writings "'has been made known to all nations, "'according to the,'' what's that word?

40:24

"'Command of the eternal God "'to bring about the obedience of faith.'"

40:30

Among who? Among all the nations, for the sake of his name. So this is something that is in the prophetic writings.

40:39

It's something that's close to the Apostle Paul's heart and mind as he's writing this. And he says, "'According to the command of the eternal

40:45

God "'to bring about the obedience of faith.'" So the Apostle Paul clearly has an understanding of the gospel itself, that the goal of the gospel is to win the nations to Jesus Christ.

40:58

That is the optimistic perspective of the post -millennial system. It's very simple,

41:04

Jesus died, Jesus rose again, Jesus is ascended, he's the King of kings and Lord of lords, he has all authority in heaven and on earth, and the call is to go and preach the gospel, repent and believe the gospel, because Christ is king, he rules the world, you need to come under submission to Jesus Christ, experience his peace and salvation, the entire world is coming, come to, you're invited.

41:25

That's the call. So those promises from Genesis 26, four, Genesis 32, 12, is that he's gonna have descendants like the stars and the sands, whoever suggested that we're gonna lose in history after reading those.

41:39

Daniel chapter seven, verses 13 through 14, there's this, of course, famous scene in Daniel where Daniel has this vision of a son of man coming up to the ancient of days, coming up to the ancient of days, and he's given a kingdom, authority, dominion, a kingdom that will never pass away, that all peoples of every tribe, tongue, people, and nation would come to him and would serve him.

42:04

It's an everlasting kingdom that will never be destroyed. Where do we ever get the idea of defeat?

42:11

I mean, there's a certain aspect here that we sort of have to say to our evangelical brothers and sisters, with grace and mercy and humility, can you just for a moment here in just a nation we're in, peel back your eyelids for just a second?

42:24

Because when you read a prophecy like Daniel chapter seven, verses 13 through 14, that says that the Messiah comes up to the ancient of days, he's presented before him, and then he is given the nations, when you read that, all you need to do in this context, let's just say just this room, is look around.

42:43

Look in this room. This room is filled with believers. Most of us don't know each other personally.

42:49

We all love the same Savior. We know what we believe about him. We would all, I suspect, if someone came in here persecuting us for our faith in Christ right now, persecuting us for our submission to his

43:00

Lordship, we would all join together saying, Jesus is Lord. Nothing else matters, he's ultimate.

43:09

And look in this room today, and I would say, how many of us in this room are of Jewish ethnicity, descent, physically?

43:17

So we've got Scott Solomon, of course, okay? Okay, keep your hands up again.

43:24

Just hold them up for a second. So we've got, here we got one, two, three, four.

43:30

Okay, there you go, okay. So a handful of you in this room are descended physically from Israel, okay,

43:39

Jewish. And the rest of us are sons and daughters of pagan parents.

43:45

Look at the different colors in this room. Look at the different colors.

43:51

Look at the beauty of what God has done here. Is you've got people in this room gathered together, 2 ,000 years after the

43:57

Messiah ascends, gathered in this room together, worshiping and loving and serving the Lord God of Israel and from all the tribes, tongue, peoples, and nations.

44:05

Whoever said that Jesus is losing in history? Daniel 7 through 13, 13 to 14,

44:11

Isaiah chapter two. Go read Isaiah chapter two. You have this beautiful portrait in Isaiah chapter two of Yahweh drawing the nations up to his mountain.

44:23

Something that's been pointed out is that water tends to flow downward, but in Isaiah two, in that vision, the nations are streaming upwards.

44:33

They're being drawn by God, the nations. And it says they're being drawn up to God and it says that the law goes forth from Zion.

44:43

The law goes forth from that place of the people of God into the world. That's what they were expecting.

44:48

So when Jesus comes and says, here's the good news of the kingdom, the kingdom has arrived in history. It's a fingertip reach.

44:54

It's good news to them because they know what the world's gonna look like. They know what the prophets had said about the shape of history because Yahweh does all that he pleases.

45:05

In the heavens above and on the earth below, their expectation was Mashiach was going to bring salvation and redemption to the world.

45:13

Justice and righteousness and peace is what they were gonna look forward to. And so Daniel 7, 13 through 14,

45:21

Isaiah two, Isaiah chapter nine, you know it. It's the famous Christmas verse. The child, the son,

45:28

El Gabor, the mighty God. And it says, what about that Messiah? Upon the throne of David to establish it with justice and righteousness forevermore.

45:40

You see, it's good news of a kingdom because when this king receives this, he actually brings salvation.

45:47

He brings justice and righteousness. And if you say how, like how do we do that today with intersectionality and all this attack upon the family and upon gender and all those attacks upon marriage and the abandonment of the

46:02

Christian worldview that provided a ground for all this. How can you say that this is gonna be accomplished? It looks like right now at this point in history, be honest, it looks on the surface like we're losing, right?

46:14

I mean, it looks like we're losing on the surface. By the way, that's the kind of God that we worship.

46:19

Like he looks like he's losing on the cross. And then that's how he destroys sin and death, amen?

46:27

And so we live with, we look at the things that are unseen, amen? But someone says, how can this actually be victorious?

46:35

It looks like it's too far gone. There's too much darkness. What I would say is read that same promise of that good news of a kingdom in Isaiah 9 where it says, how?

46:46

The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this. This is God's kingdom. It's his story of redemption.

46:53

It's to his glory. He's going to accomplish it. He will. The question is, are we slow of heart to believe it?

47:00

Are we a bunch of sad sap evangelicals with our heads down while God's made promises that this world is his under his authority and he's going to win it?

47:11

So you can keep going. And I think I want to just, I want to put a pin in this one and Isaiah chapter 42. This is one of my favorite prophecies from the

47:17

Old Testament. It's one of those things that they were hanging on in terms of the identity of the

47:23

Messiah. What was he going to accomplish? Isaiah chapter 42, total victory,

47:29

Isaiah chapter 42. And by the way, I think this was the final verse that converted Dr. James White.

47:35

And it was frustrating when he told me it. I'll tell you why in a second.

47:43

Isaiah chapter 42, behold my servant whom I uphold, my chosen and whom my soul delights. I have put my spirit upon him.

47:50

He will bring forth justice to the nations. There it is. He will bring forth what? Justice to the nations.

47:57

He will bring forth justice to the nations. That is what he, it is necessary that he brings justice to the nations.

48:04

Why? Because God cannot lie. He needs to make a promise. This is what he's gonna do in the world. By the way, this is quoted in the

48:10

New Testament as applying to Jesus Christ. And it says about Jesus that he will bring forth justice to the nations.

48:20

He will bring forth justice to the nations. It's one of the things Paul pointed out earlier. I think it's an excellent observation.

48:26

When we talk about amillennialism and premillennialism, you'll see the amillennialist making very good arguments that are the same as ours, that the kingdom had a particular time that it had to come, okay?

48:38

The Bible tells you when the Messiah's kingdom is coming. Jesus came in saying,

48:44

I've brought it. John the Baptist says, here it is. The apostles believed that Jesus had brought the kingdom.

48:50

They say that he's the ruler of the kings of the earth in Revelation 1 .5. In that day, with Caesar there and all these pagan gods and all the idolatry and all the pagan forms of government, it says that Jesus is the ruler of the kings of the earth.

49:05

King of kings and Lord of lords, they teach clearly in the New Testament. Now here, I'll give you one.

49:10

This is the one that knocked me back on my heels. I said, no, the kingdom's coming later. I'm premill, it's coming, that's arriving later.

49:18

Jesus says to the Jews in his day, Isaiah 10, he says, if I cast out demons by the spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

49:31

So answer the question, did he do it by the spirit of God? Then the kingdom of God had come upon them. That's what

49:36

Jesus taught. So our amillennial brothers and sisters will very clearly say, hey, he said he had to bring the kingdom.

49:43

It came at that time. They taught that he brought it and so we can't be expecting it later to drop later.

49:48

Powerful arguments. And then the premillennialists would say, yeah, but if you believe that he's ruling and reigning now, there's some stuff you're ignoring in this book.

49:59

There's promises in Isaiah 42 that say, he'll bring forth justice to the nations. The law of God's gonna rule, righteousness, justice.

50:08

There's some physical stuff, physical world stuff talked about in those prophecies. And so if you as an amillennialist say, if you're saying that the kingdom has arrived, then the question is, how come you're saying that this stuff isn't necessarily gonna happen?

50:21

Now we sit back as postmillennialists and go, you're both right. In postmillennialism, we get both.

50:30

We get the kingdom hasn't arrived, reality, and we also get the fact that these things are true.

50:37

They are happening in the world and they're not finished. This is where the world is going.

50:43

We get both. The premillennialists said, there are promises here that affect the real world. We say amen to that. The amillennialist says, yeah, but the kingdom has already arrived.

50:50

We say amen to that. Why don't you guys come jump in? The water's warm. Join the team, guys, okay?

50:57

But Isaiah chapter 42, it says, he will not cry aloud or lift up his voice or make it heard in the street.

51:02

A bruised reed he will not break and a faintly burning wick he will not quench. It speaks to the nature of his rule.

51:09

It's very different. It's very, very different than Kim Jong -un. It's very different than the

51:15

CCP. It's a very different kind of rule. It says this, he will faithfully bring forth justice.

51:23

He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth, and here it is, and the coastlands wait for his law.

51:35

There's that pesky theonomy again. Can't shake it, okay. But here's the point.

51:42

Promise is about justice. He's not gonna grow faint or weary. Now, I wanted to say to somebody, again,

51:47

Pastor White, Dr. James White, my hero. I love him, brother in the faith and my spiritual father in the faith.

51:53

And for, I mean, since I was 18 years old and we first met, we've had so many conversations and there's even times where we'd have lunch together and there's a place where James wasn't, you know, he's just like,

52:03

I'm all meal and I don't wanna talk about it. That's basically what James was. I'm all meal, I don't wanna talk about it, right?

52:09

But when we would get together and we would eat or something, he would just sort of say, hey, what would you do with this verse?

52:16

And so I would say, well, here's what I would say and, you know, here's what you've said before and this is why you're inconsistent here and so this, and he would go back to eating his chips and quesadillas.

52:25

He'd say, okay. And that's kind of how our eschatology discussions would go. It was like, what would you say about this?

52:31

And I'd say, well, this. And I gotta tell you, I've talked about Isaiah 42 so many times in Apologia Church that I felt like I think

52:38

I'm abusing them now. Like I'm saying it so much, I'm driving it into the ground.

52:43

They're like, we got it, Pastor Jeff, justice and righteousness. He's not gonna grow faint or weary. And I'm like, I'm probably saying it too much.

52:49

And then, what is it, a year ago or a year and a half ago, I hit Isaiah 42 because we're in Matthew.

52:56

I hit Isaiah 42 and then James, I look over, he's not even paying attention. He's not even watching me and I'm his fault.

53:06

Okay, like you should be watching, okay. But after service, he walks up to me, he says, hey, so I kind of checked out.

53:13

And I was like, yeah, I saw that, okay. He goes, I kind of checked out there for a little bit because when you went to Isaiah 42,

53:19

I noticed that he said, did you notice in the text that it says he will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth?

53:28

I said, yeah. He goes, so that means it's a process, but it's going to happen.

53:36

And I said, yeah, he goes, okay. He's like, yeah, he's like, wow. And I was like,

53:42

I've preached on that so many times. I don't know, I'm doing something wrong. I'm just a bad teacher or something.

53:49

You know, it takes time for the spirit of God to work in our hearts and minds, but that's where Pastor James will say, for him, becoming a post -millennialist and believing in the victory of the

53:58

Messiah in history before the resurrection is about these big ticket items.

54:04

The overarching theme of the Old Testament prophecy is about the, of course, salvation brought by the

54:12

Messiah, but about also the total victory over sin and death in the world,

54:17

God establishing justice and righteousness. Those overarching themes are consistent through and through, brothers and sisters.

54:25

We can have debates, even as post -millennialists, like what are you, a partial preterist? What are you, an idealist?

54:31

What are you, a historicist? We can have those debates even in -house as post -millennialists. You can have debates over side texts here or there, but even for Pastor James, he said, those debates are their debates, but the overarching theme throughout the entire

54:45

Bible is the victory of the Messiah and all enemies under his feet, and that he will accomplish it, and so that's how he finally came to that place.

54:54

Psalm chapter two, you know, probably by heart by now, what does the father say to the son?

55:01

Ask of me and I'll give you the nations for your what? Dr. Bonson used to say, do you think Jesus forgot to ask?

55:07

Clearly, he didn't forget to ask because what did he say when he ascended? Go get them, right?

55:13

I'll give you the nations for your inheritance, the very ends of the earth for your possession. That is what the promises are of the prophets for Messiah.

55:22

That is what is necessary to happen because God has promised the world to Jesus, and he clearly didn't forget to ask because he told us when he ascended, go and get the world.

55:36

Psalm 22, we're famous as Christians to go to, because of the passion of the

55:42

Messiah, all the details about his hands and his feet pierced, them surrounding him, all of those promises there, but if you read the last part of that psalm, what does it say?

55:53

It goes from depressing, brokenness, and despair till it says, and all the families of the earth will return to worship

56:02

Yahweh. So the very psalm that speaks of the passion of the Messiah ends with the victory of the

56:10

Messiah because of this passion, you will have all the families of the earth returning to worship

56:16

Yahweh. There's a promise. Psalm 72, eight, he shall have dominion from sea to sea, from the river to the ends of the earth.

56:22

And then of course, the most popular of the Bible verses in the New Testament from the Old Testament is what?

56:29

Psalm 110, one, the Lord said unto my Lord, what? Sit at my right hand until what?

56:35

Make your enemies a footstool for your feet. How did the apostle Paul understand that? As something that was happening in his day.

56:43

If you read his explanation of the gospel in 1 Corinthians 15, as an inspired apostle, he says, here's the gospel, this is what

56:51

Jesus accomplished, and he says that Jesus is reigning in his day. He's reigning in his day.

56:59

That kingdom had arrived, it was a reality, Christ was ruling, and he said about Jesus in his day, he must reign until what?

57:10

He makes his enemies a footstool for his feet, and he says this, the last enemy is death.

57:16

So what I try to say, to encourage brothers and sisters who are asking questions on this, is just do this.

57:24

Go to 1 Corinthians 15, where the apostle Paul gives you a timeline of history. And get a blank piece of paper and write it down.

57:32

Just timeline, what does Paul say there? Jesus is reigning, and he must reign until all enemies are placed under his feet as a footstool for his feet, and the last enemy will be death.

57:39

So what is it? It's all enemies, and then what? Death. What is it, everyone? All enemies, and then what?

57:45

Death. So before we get to that place of the end of the world and the resurrection, we have to have all enemies under the feet of Jesus.

57:54

That's a lot of enemies, amen? So you have to go slay some dragons. I took that from you,

57:59

Doug. You have to do some fighting. You have to lay your lives down.

58:06

You have to be prophetic. You have to be bold, you have to be humble, but you have to preach the truth.

58:11

That's how God transforms the world. How did he transform you? Through the truth.

58:17

Didn't you feel a conviction of your own sin? Weren't you confronted with the law of God and your own sin and your own need for Jesus Christ?

58:22

Isn't that how the spirit of God brought you to life? That's the same way the world's gonna come to Jesus. Through a faithful proclamation of the gospel, the apostle

58:31

Paul clearly sees Jesus is reigning now, and he says he's putting all of his enemies under his feet now.

58:38

That was in the first century, and that's what's been happening in history. How did Jesus view his own ministry?

58:44

How did Jesus clearly understand the Messianic prophecies about the transformation of the world? Well, I'll just do this quickly.

58:50

We know how Jesus understood the Messianic prophecies. The Lord's Prayer. What did

58:56

Jesus say to his people about praying? Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

59:05

That's beautiful, yes, but what's it mean? Jesus says, pray like this.

59:12

Father in heaven, may your name be holied, right? So that's

59:18

Jesus telling his people to pray like this. Father, may they holy your name in Canada.

59:25

Yes, even Canada. Father, may they holy your name in Australia.

59:34

Father, may they holy your name in the White House. Father, may they holy your name.

59:40

You're saying, God, may this world revere you as holy.

59:46

Holy your name. And then Jesus says, after holy be your name, he says, your kingdom come, your will be done, where?

59:59

On earth. How? As it is in heaven. So I'd like to ask this question because it was a challenging question that was brought to me.

01:00:08

Just how rigorously do you think the will of God is kept to in heaven?

01:00:15

Pretty rigorous, pretty intense commitments, pretty robust commitments. So Jesus is telling us as a

01:00:23

Savior and as Lord and as the promised Messiah, here's how I want you to talk to the Father.

01:00:28

You say to him, may your name be holy and may your will be done on earth like it is in heaven.

01:00:38

That's why we're fighting the battles that we are against the cults. That's why we're fighting the battles that we are against every ideology and thinking that raises itself against the knowledge of Jesus Christ.

01:00:49

That's why we're fighting the fight we are in the area of abortion, bringing the law of God into that context with the gospel itself, because our hope and our confidence is, is that all of this is going under Jesus' feet.

01:01:04

So for example, in the area of abortion, we're preaching the gospel as the church in that area and we're doing it without compromise and we're doing it standing on the word of God.

01:01:12

And some people might say, yeah, but you should try some stuff that's a little more practical. You're doing it in a way that's gonna offend a lot of people.

01:01:19

You don't have a lot of people on your side right now. I'm like, yeah, it sounds like 12 disciples. So I'm gonna keep going. That's how

01:01:24

God changes the world, through truth, not through massive numbers and compromise, amen. And I know for a fact that abortion's going under the feet of Jesus.

01:01:33

Maybe we're just the mustard seeds, but after us, a tree is gonna be here and that tree is gonna have a lot of fruit of justice and righteousness.

01:01:42

So Jesus tells us how to pray in a way that's consistent with the transforming passages of the

01:01:48

Old Testament scriptures. And Jesus tells us this word, and it's a word for us.

01:01:54

Are you ready? The meek shall inherit the earth. It's not the wicked that inherit this. It's not the evil.

01:02:01

It's not the unbelievers. It's not the atheists. It's the meek that inherit the earth.

01:02:07

This world belongs to God. Jesus has all authority over it. It belongs to God.

01:02:13

And the people that are gonna be here in it will be the meek. Do you believe that? That's the promise that we have going forward.

01:02:20

And ultimately, did Jesus believe that he owned the world, ruled the world, and the goal was all the nations?

01:02:27

Well, he believed all the Messianic prophecies, of course, about himself. Obviously, he pointed people to them and he taught them.

01:02:33

But Jesus said in Matthew 28, 18 through 20, Jesus says, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

01:02:39

And he says, therefore, because that's true, go. And he says to make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the

01:02:45

Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. And he says, teaching them to observe all that I've commanded you.

01:02:50

So did Jesus believe that the goal was all the nations? Yes. Did he believe the world was gonna be transformed?

01:02:57

He told us to pray for it. But I wanna say one last word, Doug. I don't think I'm going over your time, am

01:03:03

I? I'll go quickly. This, to me, was another beautiful aspect that just preaches this story.

01:03:12

You have the direct prophecies that tell you about the transformation of the world, that hope that we have. The prophet spoke this, don't be slow of heart to believe it.

01:03:20

It's necessary that it happens. You have all the specifics. I gave you specifics here. He will not grow faint or weary.

01:03:27

He will establish justice on the earth. The coastlands are waiting for his Torah. All of that. But there's more depth to the word of God that just shows the divine nature of scripture in the life of Jesus in this total redemptive story.

01:03:41

You see, we know the story. God creates man, the imago dei, in his image. He places him in a garden.

01:03:47

Man rebels against God. Death enters the garden. Our representative in humanity fails, sins against God, doesn't do the will of God, doesn't obey

01:03:59

God's law. He fails and death enters in a garden. God immediately promises, he immediately promises when that fall occurs that there's gonna be one coming that will crush the head of the serpent.

01:04:13

So we see that it's already there, the marks of it there at the very beginning, but they can't even understand what does all that mean and how is that actually gonna be accomplished?

01:04:22

And then enter Jesus. And I love Matthew's gospel. It only took me like 10 years to preach through, but Matthew's gospel is a beautiful story because Matthew understands that this is the story of the kingdom.

01:04:32

So he opens up with what most of us ignore, and that's the genealogy of Jesus, which we say, why is that there?

01:04:39

That has to be there to show us that he actually has the royal right to the throne.

01:04:44

It mattered. So when Matthew opens his gospel with the boring genealogy, he's giving you the facts.

01:04:50

He's the royal king. Here's his genealogy. So Matthew opens his gospel, shouting to you about the king.

01:04:59

Here's his genealogy. He has a right to the throne. And then we see that he starts to recapitulate and tell the story of Israel and in the life of Jesus, where Jesus, they're after the lives of the babies.

01:05:11

And of course they come after the life of Jesus. And Jesus goes into Egypt. And you have all that story of Jesus sort of walking out that story of Israel.

01:05:19

He's the true and perfect Israel. And of course he goes through the waters in the baptism with John the

01:05:26

Baptist, just like Israel through the waters in the Red Sea. And then he goes into the wilderness. The spirit of God brings him into the wilderness.

01:05:33

And he does in the wilderness what Israel failed to do, and that's stand on the rock of God's word, to believe

01:05:41

God, to stand on his word, not to rebel against God. He does what Adam didn't do and what

01:05:48

Israel didn't do. Jesus is faithful. And so Jesus has victory over Satan in the wilderness.

01:05:54

Satan says what? He says, I'll give you all the kingdoms of the world. All you have to do is bow and worship me.

01:06:01

Now stop for a moment. Why is Satan offering

01:06:06

Jesus all the kingdoms of the world? What's the answer? Because that's what he came for.

01:06:13

And so Satan is offering a temptation to say, I'll give you what you came for, and that's the entire world and no suffering, no cost, right?

01:06:24

No cross, no bleeding, no death for sin. I'll give it to you now if you just worship me.

01:06:31

And Jesus, of course, is the true and perfect Israel. And as the perfect Adam, he says, you shall worship the

01:06:36

Lord your God and him only shall you serve. What did Adam fail to do? He failed to stand on God's revelation.

01:06:45

What does Jesus do? He stands on God's revelation. After he defeats Satan in the wilderness, standing on God's revelation, he then comes out of the wilderness, proclaiming what?

01:06:56

The gospel of the kingdom. And the story moves on. It moves on into a garden where when

01:07:03

Jesus is presented in the garden, an opportunity to turn away or to fail, he says what

01:07:10

Adam didn't say in the garden. He says, not my will, Father, your will be done.

01:07:18

And then Jesus goes and he is crucified and he's killed and he dies on the cross.

01:07:24

And when he's buried, where is he buried? He's buried in a garden tomb.

01:07:30

So death enters in a garden. Jesus dies and goes to a garden and then death is defeated in a garden.

01:07:39

And then when Jesus, the Messiah, the promised Messiah comes out of that tomb, I think this is the most spectacular little sidebar ever thrown into the gospels.

01:07:50

It's only in John's gospel. And be honest, most of us have missed it. It says when the women arrive and they can't see

01:07:58

Jesus there, they had mistaken Jesus as a what? As a gardener.

01:08:05

Like he's just sort of thrown in there. They thought he was the gardener. You gotta stop and say, what would someone have to be doing for someone to think that they're a gardener?

01:08:18

Working the ground. Isn't it amazing that the resurrection of Jesus Christ, death is defeated in a garden, he's raised in the garden, and the first thing the perfect Adam does is he starts to work the ground.

01:08:32

Work the ground, take dominion. He shall have dominion. He shall have dominion.

01:08:39

That gives you goosebumps, doesn't it? Yeah, that's from God right there. Yeah, doesn't it though?

01:08:46

That's how you know it's from God. It's a story from God. I'm not Pentecostal or weird now, okay? I was giving you scripture.

01:08:52

That's why you, the first time that was brought to me, I thought to myself, this story is so divine, it's terrifying.

01:08:58

And I think that should motivate us to get to work. And I'll say one last word on this. This is truly just a quick word on this.

01:09:04

One of the things people often say to me as I travel around the country, even came in today, and a few people have said, Pastor Jeff, I listened to your stuff,

01:09:10

I listened to your sermons on the post -millennialism, and now I'm a post -millennialist. Here's what

01:09:15

I always say when people tell me that. I'm not trying to get people on my team. I'm really not.

01:09:22

Join my club, get in my clique. That's not what we're doing here. What I always say is simply this. When someone says, you helped me,

01:09:28

I'm now post -mill, as I say, praise God, let's get to work. Because if you really believe this, we have so much work to do, and it's gonna take a lot of dying, and a lot of striving, and a lot of fighting for the truth.

01:09:42

So let's get to work. Let's pray. Father, please bless the word that was given today. I pray that you heal and transform your church, and use us for your glory and kingdom.