Israel and the Church - My Body: The Church - Chuck Missler

[Music] well we're doing sort of a two-part series and what I tend to call the prodigal airs to groups that are heirs to God's blessings and both groups doing it poorly in in many respects we had one last night about my people Israel and we unabashedly went through that from the scripture and got the views from the scripture of Stephen and Jesus himself and so forth and the short comings and things that need attention this morning we're going to talk about the other group that is often missed they're mistaken for each other and so forth my body of the church that's the way he refers to the church and so it's first mentioned the word church is first mentioned in Matthew chapter 16 when Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi he asked his disciples saying whom do men say that I the Son of Man in and they said some say that thou art John the Baptist others Elijah and others Jeremias or one of the prophets those are the speculations and he said to them no but whom say ye that I am and that led to Peter's finest hour in some respects Simon Peter answered and said thou art the Christ the Son of the Living God and jesus answered and said unto Him blessed art thou simon barjona for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee but my father which is in heaven and so we're familiar with that passage and it leads to some areas that little misunderstanding says I say unto thee thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it and the Lord is introducing a pun here between Petra and Petros and Peter the stone and Petra the rock was a pun here and out of which there has been many misconceptions going forward you know the idea that Peter was infallible is not this card will you follow his career you realize he you as far from infallible and he knew he was not guilty of the mistakes other people are making about the inferences from this verse but what we want to take a look at here see Petros is a part of Iraq it's hewn out of a rock or a stone Petra is the rock from which the stone is used so there's a pun involved here but I don't want to spend a lot of time on that who is the rock anyone Jesus Christ absolutely so Peter and upon this rock I'll build my church not on Peter on the rock is Christ but now it's interesting the first use of the word church appears here in Matthew 16:18 and which Jesus I will build my church what you notice he says I and I Christ alone if you will that's what it really means and that I will build my church that's a prophetic aspect it did not exist before or when Christ was speaking it was forthcoming if you will and it's and incidentally this does not include is not included expressly in the 70th week of Daniel so we talked about that last night a bit I will build my church building it's a process being built is the literal translation here in several other places and whose church my church his church why he purchased it with his blood and we could spend time on these issues very easily obviously I'll build my church and this is establishing a distinction if you will would you exists between this heavenly body and every other classification of human beings very distinctive and he's and slugged of course to an infinite degree and there's plenty of verses on that we don't have to badger that one this morning the church versus Israel they are distinct they are different not to be confused there are five fold covenants with Israel are still everlasting in every respect a national identity the land in perpetuity just 1350 a throne a king and a kingdom are all embodied in this and they have aspects in common between the church and Israel they are kosh errors in the in purpose if you will in the Incarnation they're both obviously subjects of his ministry and they're both objects of his death and resurrection and they both beneficiaries of his second Advent both benefit from that and they are related again with him in the kingdom we'll be touching on these things but there's also some distinctions between these two and the extent of Revelation four-fifths of the scripture are dedicated to Israel in less than one-fifth - the church they're not equivalent and the divine purpose every covenant promise and provision of Israel is earthly on the earth every promise to the church is heavenly heavenly reality it's interesting that the seed of Abraham is in two figures the dust of the earth justice 13 16 and of the stars those are two contrasts word pictures they're not equivalent they're they're parallel interestingly enough there is a vital distinction that's drawn between Israel after the flesh and that port in that portion of Israel within which is was saved and they're styled the Israel of God and Glacius 616 and the same distinction appears in the statement that they are not all Israel which are of Israel there is a distinction that we should need be sensitive to but let's talk about origins you know it's interesting we know we talked last night about the origin of Israel they went down into Egypt as a family and came out a nation so the origin of Israel of course is in Exodus 3 and 4 and so on the origin of the church was born in Acts chapter 2 the Feast of Shevat and we get that echoed if you will by Peter explanation of that in the early chapters of Acts where he quotes from Joel chapter 2 when he's explaining the tongues and so forth this is that which Joel the Prophet Joel mentioned which he identifies what's going on with the gift of tongues there in acts 2 but it's interesting because what Joel is talking about is an evidence of the end times and Peter is alluding to that in terms of the experience in Acts chapter 2 there's a subtlety there that many people miss there are major seminaries that miss the significance of what Peter said because the way he expressed it implies there's no cessation of those gifts the gifts are for the end times but they started in acts 2 and will continue there's no argument that they should be curtailed or ended and many it's amazing how many theological theological works fail to to note that the uniqueness of the church is highlighted in some many many ways I'm skipping dozens of ways who could deal with it let me just take one example and that's John the Baptist in two places in the scripture in Matthew 11 and also Luke 16 Jesus makes a very strange remark about John the Baptist he says no man born of woman is greater than John Wow think about that for a minute obviously accepting Christ himself no man born of woman is greater than John but then in the next breath he says he that's least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than John what that means John's not saved of course not but what he explains a few verses later is the law and the prophets were until John John the Baptist closes the Old Testament not Malachi or Malachy the Italian book no I'm kidding the Old Testament closed with John the Baptist he speaks himself as a friend of the bridegroom not the bride interestingly enough now the other uniqueness there's many but the other one we should not can't touch on uniqueness without mentioning is there something unique about the sealing role of the Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit was very act of all through the Old Testament the Holy Spirit will be very very active after the rapture but between acts 2 and the harpazo of the rapture the Holy Spirit is in a very unique position that could not start while Jesus was on the it was an on the earth he had to be removed before the Holy Spirit could come he mentions that in the number of places the sealing role the you know the Holy Spirit that was something that Paul was flabbergasted by Paul knew his stuff he was to treat he was not only a a treated to the best Greek schools in the in the Tarsus outclassed Alexandria in those days he was taught well but he was also taught by Gamaliel himself as a Pharisee he understood the Word of God in that day and for him to discover that the Holy Spirit is given without repentance that he indwells and feels the believer is something that blew his mind and as he hammers those themes especially in fusions 3 and elsewhere we don't sometimes get it that we don't understand the answer because we don't understand the question the Holy Spirit is sealing us absolutely incredible and so those have to be now with all that we could spend a lot of time extolling the role of the church its uniqueness as gifts and all of that we want to look at the other side of it too to compare of what we did last night are there cracks in the foundation is my question we discover as we examine history the fruits of anti-semitism were astonishingly rampant in the early church anti-semitism we talked about that a little bit last night too but there's one thought that still Hammerson I might every time I go to Israel I go twice a year with two different groups whenever I'm in Israel I always make a voyage a pilgrimage to the Yad Vashem the Holocaust Memorial is just something I i benefit been doing and as I go through this incredible Museum on all of that I decided to really study the rise and that career of Nazism and as I looked at the records I was startled in a recent this for me it was a recent discovery during World War two when after the Normandy invasion and we started beginning that really address Berlin you would think that the German High Command would pull their strongest resources to headquarters to protect the to defend Berlin when you look at the records you discovered they did something very bizarre in the camps dozens of them all over they increased the commitments to just exterminate the Jews they didn't back off or bring their best officers back or whatever no they tax them heavier you discover that the priority of exterminating Jews ranked higher than their protecting their own headquarters their own survival and as you encounter that you begin to realize something that's demonic that's demonic that's not just a political judgment that's not just something cash that is demonic and we need to understand that anti-semitism in all its forms is something more than just bad taste or poor manners or whatever it's demonic and we discovered the early church was plagued by that in some surprising ways they ended up with an eschatology a view a a Thea theology called amillennialism that was a byproduct of first of all a guy by name Origen developed a a form of Bible interpretation that treated it allegorically allegories are useful for illustration but they are licenses to invent they're not reliable dr. Lee origen leaned on allegorical interpretations very heavily and he influenced a guy by the name of Agustin now Agustin did some remarkably profound things for the early church I'm not here to knock him but the one thing he unfortunately did he embraced the allegorize ations of origin and developed an eschatology that we know today is amillennialism and it's under it's easy to understand why because the church in that day started to become the state religion and the pastors were on the state payroll can you imagine a pastor from the pulpit preaching how jesus is going to come back to rid the earth of its evil rulers that didn't sit well with the world's evil rulers so Agustin fashioned a an attitude and approach a viewpoint well he's going to come back to rule in our hearts and he developed a whole way of thinking that we know today is amillennialism we get and obviously when the church gets to the time of the Reformation they did a fantastic job in the field of soteriology the field of salvation salvation by faith alone they willingly were burned at the stake in their commitment to Sola scriptura fabulous incredible saga that we know is the Reformation unfortunately as you examine that period you discover they did well in many respects dramatically so but they fail to re-examine their eschatology and so the amillennial attitude of Augustine gets carried forward in the among the denominations that came out of the Reformation and so most churches I'll be I want to say many I think more than half maybe nine out of ten churches at Eastern America or amillennial in their perspectives and some of the things I'm going to show you today would be to them heresy it's the other way around I'll show you why out of that amillennialism came something else a very specific form of it we know today as replacement theology now we're not here to sell doctrinal issues but we are here to declare what's non biblical and those attitudes or viewpoints that end up making God a liar and replacement theology is one of them what is it replacement theology that's a view that the promises covenants and blessings that they're ascribed to Israel in the Bible have been taken away from the Jews given to the church which now has someway superseded Israel in God's program that's an anathema that's I know what my friend hell is he would say that's out of the pit of hell I'm going to give you just a selection of research that I'm indebted to my partner Ron Matson doing the laboring oar of went through the early church fathers and as you read now the each one of these guys are phenomenal in many of the things they did but we're selecting their attitudes having to do with these topics Ignatius of Antioch he taught that those who partake of the Passover are partakers with those who kill Jesus you keep getting that theme while they killed Jesus who you wouldn't know who killed Jesus that's my fault I did it it's my sins that were nailed on that cross 2,000 years ago Justin Martyr proud name in the church history but he said he claimed God's covenant with Israel is no longer valid and that the Gentiles had replaced the Jew he these people leaders though they were in the early church and though they accomplished many positive things they did share a bizarre view towards Judaism Irenaeus declared that the Jews were disinherited from the grace of God Tertullian these are all famous names that you read about among the church fathers he blamed the Jews for the death of Jesus and argue that they had been rejected by God origen himself that he was responsible much of the anti-semitism all of which was based on an assertion that the Jews were responsible for killing Jesus the counts of oh these are just selections by the way Matt the Council of are prohibited Christians from sharing a meal with a Jew marrying a Jew and blessing that you are observing the Sabbath the early church we discover by examining it more carefully is astonishingly anti-semitic that influence you know that was tragic for the Jews of course because you won't really understand Jewish attitudes unless you really understand the history of abuse that they've endured under the banner of Christ the Crusaders had contests of how many Jewish babies they could get on a sword and on it goes that the story come the history is really a shock to get into the Council of Nicaea change the celebration of the resurrection from the Jewish feast of the firstfruits which of course it was to Easter in an attempt to disassociate it from the Jewish feasts they they wanted to get together to shed all the Jewishness of their roots so they didn't just not observe the feast of firstfruits they made sure that their observations wouldn't even accidentally fall on that day the council said it for it is becoming beyond measure there that on this holiest of festivals we should follow the customs of the Jews henceforth let us have nothing in common with this odious people and on it goes Eusebius taught that the promise of Scripture were meant for the Gentiles and the curses were meant for the Jews in a certain that the church was the true Israel see these ideas have their roots in the Santhosh semitism Hillary approach is says Jews are a perverse people a curse Peck you can go on and on with these things gregory of nyssa said that of the bishop of cappadocia the jews are a brood of vipers and haters of goodness this stuff isn't in nazi propaganda and this is in publications of the church in those early centuries st. jerome describes do the serpents wearing the image of Judas their Psalms and prayers are the braying of donkeys that sounds like these vicious tracks that the Nazis published in the in their 30s st. Augustine themselves asserted that the Jews it deserved death but were destined to wander the church to witness the victory of the church over the synagogue this is what's influencing the early church there is a group of people that you I was astonished to discover that long ago and you can go to any reliable encyclopedia and look up the term Quattro decimas that's Latin for for teens but that's what they designated a particular kind of biblical believer if a believer attempted to observe the resurrection based on Passover the 14th of Nisan in other words Passover is always on the 14th of Nisan three days later is the resurrection why should say the Sunday following Passover would be the Resurrection Sunday that's the feast of firstfruits that's when you would biblically observe commemorate the resurrection of Christ if you as a biblical believer attempted to do that back then you would be excommunicated from the church you were called a Quattro decimas that was a pejorative phrase you were doing something that was forbidden by the bishops in fact they attempted to adopt a date for what they call Easter Resurrection Sunday they tried to create a formula that would not only not be the biblical day it wouldn't even by accident fall on the biblical day and that's why if you study the history of calendars every denomination struggles for centuries trying to pick a date for Easter that works it was hard to avoid it happening by accident and that's why you've got these weird formulas for what we in the secular world call Easter so when you get to the Middle Ages by the way passion plays a and they were used to cultivate hatred toward the Jewish people in 1478 Pope Sixtus the fourth granted the monarchs of Spain Ferdinand and Isabella that was Castile and Aragon when they merged and through their marriages over the right to establish a special Inquisition in Spain to deal with baptized Jews who were suspected of remaining faithful to Judaism heaven forbid huh thousands were burned at the stake by order of the Spanish Inquisition if you wanted as an amazing amount of his literature around that period the famed Spanish Inquisition because this is the fascinating one for us in 1492 King Ferdinand decided that all Spanish Jews should be banned from Spain it was feared that the Jews were a danger to Christianity so he issued his Edict of expulsion and there expired on the ninth of innocent it was not only August 3rd of 1492 that happened on the Jewish calendar be the ninth of of if you know anything about the Jewish County the 9th evolved is when the temple came down ninth of all was when Babel and took him almost every major event in Jewish history follows them on the ninth of odd interestingly approximately 150,000 views were forced to leave Spain and interestingly up on August 3rd boarding before midnight but sailing before sunrise a guy about a Columbus and his crew set out on the voyage how many of you knew they were Jewish well it's enough of all this I just want to I just we tend to be pretty hard sometimes as we read the Old Testament we see how again and again and again Israel fails initially at least to do what God wants them to do and that's what Stephen hammered away as we went through x7 his whole presentation of the Sanhedrin spoiled they always blow it the first time they get it right the second time and he's setting that stage for his talk because he's going to say gee you missed the Messiah the first time you'll get him on the second time but they interrupt this thing and martyrdom you need to outline his speech we your notes and you'll note you'll see where he's headed it's a very interesting interesting little study well let's shift gears enough of opinions of Augustine or whoever somebody asks you how many you know the epistles are there in the New Testament most people say 21 14 Pauline and 7 others no no because there's seven everybody forgets to account by the Lord Himself we have seven epistles by the Messiah let's take a look at those they're very revealing we know them as the seven letters and seven churches in Revelation chapter 2 and 3 the things that are and one of the questions we need to ask is why did Jesus pick those seven to send letters to because most of them you've never heard of before emphasis of course you heard a lot of but all the rest of them you probably had never heard of but for those letters you know where is the Church of Jerusalem Antioch which was the base for the Gentile work where was where is the church at Rome and so forth and so we yb7 each letter has a concluding phrase that sort of ties it off he that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches a little phrase that caps each one of those it turns out to be a marker of some kind we look at that first of all we discover when we study these letters carefully they have at least four levels of interpretation understanding the first is local they were real churches that had real problems and Sir William Ramsay studied those and discovered much as a surprise that the elements that are dealing with had literal local practical application no surprise okay fair enough but we also discovered their admonitory meaning they're there for instruction and correction see each one says he that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches all of them you see the so each letter is addressed to a church each letter has a particular theme and that theme is relevant to every Church to some degree so there at Lana Torre every Church can learn from those seven letters do you follow it that the logic that's called it military but there's also another level it says he that hath an ear let him hear how many of you have an earlobe that's about ninety percent well okay alright you see it's also personal he that half an ear that's you and me not just the pastor's or whatever just us guys and gals he that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches but so those first three are pretty straightforward typical sermon fodder you know local admonitory homiletic whoops wait a minute there is a fourth that is astonishing and that they each one are prophetic each one lays out a period of church history well that's just contrived you're forced to know put them in any other order and it doesn't work they turn out too poor to profile the history of the church and we're gonna take a look at that we also did before we get into that I want you to be sensitive to the fact that the lessons are very carefully organized each one has seven parts and they have the name of the church that's relevant to the theme of the church each name of each church also has a meaning that relates to its led to the meaning of the letter each letter has a main primary theme and the name of the church triggers what that is in each letter Jesus picks a title of himself he selects him from chapter one in the first chapter of elation you see 24 different titles of Jesus Christ alluded there he picks one of those to identify himself and he picks the one that's relevant to the theme of that letter so you get you you get sense of the fact that these are being designed by the Holy Spirit if I may each one has a commendation and it has a concern it's like a report card you did something well you did but you got to fix this oh you're doing fine over here but you better deal with this over here Bellamy a report card it has a commendation and it has a concern and in that spirit there's also an exhortation here's what I want you to do as a result your meeting with the boss doing pretty good here got a little problem over here so I want you to do this this this get the flavor once you realize the structure that they all have you get very sensitized to places where there's of something missing and what's missing is often more relevant to your understanding than what's included I'll show you what I mean each one concludes with a special promise to the overcomer the presumption and all of them that you're saved but there's still something there hoping you'll do and that's overcome not be overtaken do we overcome and there's a whole study there and of course they have this closing phrase that ties it off it's sort of like a a terminal marker of some kind he did heven ear let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches I'll give you a little footnote assignment that phrase occurs seven other times in the Gospels and I mean the rest should say the rest of the New Testament and you might want to explore that because it has a clue about the churches each place it appears but let's take a tally of these things if we go through the churches are Ephesus Smyrna Pergamum Thyatira Sardis Philadelphia and Laodicea and we'll talk about the meaning those names in a minute but the each ever name they each have a title we notice that all but to have something been said about them all but to have something good said about them we noticed that all but to have something to correct really yeah there are two that have no commendation really it's interesting that the Protestant common taters have had a field day with Thyatira because so clearly identifies with the medieval church Catholicism and all of that and they have a field name when it's the longest of all the letters and there's plenty to talk about well if I if I at IRA represents the medieval church what is Sardis represent it's a church that's in name only but is spiritually dead Oh oh is that the period subsequent to the medieval church is that in the era that's characterized by denominational agendas rather than working for our King and of course the last ones late Asiya the apostate Church we'll get to that it's interesting there are two letter two letters that have nothing bad said about them only to Smyrna is having pretty tough time because I don't expect anything else just hang in there nothing bad said about them and the other one is philadelphia joe phocion who's the pastor of Calvary Chapel Philadelphia loves that particular letter everybody is Philadelphia obviously but I want to know something else each one of these have this closing phrase he that Avenue witness hear what the Spirit says in the churches but we notice strangely enough the first three letters have the promise to the overcomer appended as a postscript it's not the body the letter it's an afterthought sort of that's kind of weird because we notice the last four have the promise to the overcomer in the body of the letter why I don't know but I am convinced from 65 years of study that there's nothing trivial in the scripture everything there is specifically designed by the Holy Spirit for some reason the first three are grouped and the last for our group differentially ooh that's interesting so we go back and look at the last four the first three in the last four and we discover something else that's interesting and I'll show you that here in a minute let's back up and take a look at provoke profile we have Smyrna Pergamum Thyatira Sardis Philadelphia and Laodicea and it's been widely noted by many commentators that they seemed a profile if you understand the letter and get into the details you discover they very amazingly profile the ear the periods of the church throughout the last two thousand years if you put them in any other order doesn't happen ephesus pretty much is the definitive of that first century church the apostolic church paul warned the next twenty be careful you're gonna have false teachers arise from with it from inside and they apparently were very diligent because jesus led her to ephesus says hey you did well they're not abiding those who very strict on doctrine but nevertheless i have something against thee that you've lost your first love they're so diligent about doctrine they were deficient on devotion so busy on the business of the kingdom they didn't have time for the king so we learn a lot from ephesus partly because there's so much instruction by paul and and so forth smyrna is the persecuted church that where they really suffered serious serious persecutions in that period of the history what satan couldn't accomplish by persecution he did this smarter strategy what he married the church to the world and that leads to the married george pergamus seat by the way ephesus means darling loved one shmurda is a synonym for myrrh which is a bomb an embalming ornament that gives fragrance pain being crushed it's the persecuted church pergamus we all know what bigamy is or monogamy you know mixture single marriages pergamus is a perverted marriage marriage of the church with the world and that's what obviously occurred in the third century on as the church became the state religion of the world empire and so forth and you had it filled with officials that were not regenerated they're just in there for politics and money and what-have-you so that leads us to fight IRA which has to do with the we'll get into the whole origin of that but clearly would you get into it I'm going to call it B I'm going to be kind and called the medieval church very clearly dealing with Queen Jezebel the Queen of Heaven and all of that and the fear the the commentators had a field day with it at the cost to the deficiency of the Vatican and all of that but if that's then we have Sardis the denominational Church and it's the first of two that have nothing good said about them that you have a name only and you're dead whew but it succeeded by Philadelphia the Missionary Church and there's a lot of very positive things there and I'll come more to that and then we've layered a seeing Laodicea it's a rule of the people that's a place where the sermons are generated by market surveys and so forth now we notice that the first three are grouped by having the promised the overcome or post scripted so they in some sense are closed off here for some reason the last four have the prompts the overcomer in the body of the letter so that catches our attention we noticed something else about the last four only and the last four have explicit references as the second coming of Christ included in the letter that's interesting in fact the first of those last four has an explicit promise that if they don't get the wrap together they're going to go into the Great Tribulation that's a promise given to the church at Thyatira it's a very interesting promise though because it implies that if you do get your act together you won't be in the Great Tribulation now there's an abundance of Scripture which makes it very clear that the church will not it'll be removed from the very time of the grid not just from the tribulation from the very time of the tribulation we'll get to in fact that's the letter to Philadelphia in contrast letter Thyatira has that explicit promise that they will be removed prior to the time of the tribulation that's pretty cool well okay that places that what about these other two we don't know that's problematic so that's a prophetic profile from which we could learn a lot we could spend easily spend a good full day's study of each of the seven letters to our great prophet and those materials around if you're interested but I want to know do I want you to notice something else about eschatology study of the last things eschatology is a very difficult subject because it imposes on the student a grasp of God's whole plan it's not just about the end times it's God's whole plan in in perspective so that's why it's challenging and so now if you get into eschatology your first choice is are you going to be how do you feel about the Millennium if you take the Bible seriously you know you're premillennial do you believe there's really going to be a millennium if you're certain another point of view which includes a lot of various impressive scholars they may have an al millennial point of view I'm guessing that maybe eight or nine out of ten churches in America at least are really a millennial that's your first choice if you will now there used to be people that believed that we're already in the Millennium but the 20th century pretty much eliminated that point of view it's the bloodiest history in the his the bloodiest muddiest century in the history of man things aren't getting better collectively so that's not a serious contender these days there's a close cousin of that called preterism in which the scholars try to argue that all the prophecy has already been fulfilled in some way but that turns out to be a close cousin to amillennialism because they they really have two allegorize passages to make that work now if you are prey millennial and most of us I believe would be in that camp you also could be one of three flavors as to what how you feel about the tribulation does the church get removed before the tribulation at the end of the material or someone in between and so we call those post-trib midrib preprint pre-trib additional most reformed a Reformation the nominations would be on the left side of this chart they would be amillennial and if and they would believe that the church will be raptured if at all right the resurrection will occur at the end of the tribulation period that's that goes together pretty well most of us I think because we're very have a different point of view our premillennial and pre-trib we not only is there a millennium but we also believe the rapture will occur prior to even the tribulation now the reason I'm getting into this isn't is simply to categorize these views because if I know your theory of your attitude towards the text your theory of interpretation I can predict your eschatology if you're willing to allegorize text well that's just an allegory you'll be on the left side of this chart if you take the Bible very seriously very strictly and push on precision and all that you'll drift to the right side of this chart if I know you're asked about your hermeneutics I can predict your eschatology because one will derive from the other you with me so far okay changing the subject a little bit what Bible what Bible do you lean on okay and there there there if you're going to translate the Bible you've got two choices if you're good whether you're going to be go for a verbal equivalency or dynamic equivalency if you're going to try to be as strict as you can to the original that's on the left side of the chart the Masoretic Texas Receptus Septuagint all and the Dead Sea Scrolls are obviously that had done that boundary to some extent if you're willing to deal with paraphrases because they're more comfortable because words have changed their meaning and you try to put it in modern slang that's called a paraphrase it's not real ation to paraphrase that's on the right side of that chart and again where where you come from what defense what you're comfortable with now what I'm going to get at here there's a very interesting cycle here if I know your hermeneutics I can predict your eschatology and that's what I showed you by that little chart okay if I know your eschatology I can I will know a lot about your ecclesiology one of the things I've discovered and a lot of these debates in eschatology people arguing about tribulation this in tribulation that their problem isn't eschatology they're confused about what the church is in other words you'll it turns out you learn a great deal about the role of the church from your eschatology and a good example of that is what we just went through with the seven letters as we understand the prophecy of the church we'll begin to understand more the nature of the church's challenges and so forth okay if I know your ecclesiology that will also impact your hermeneutics as it'll tell me what cut what versions of the Bible you're comfortable with if you really want precision and so well you'll drift in the direction of the new American Standard or even better maybe the International Standard Version Bible and which which makes the Dead Sea Scrolls the primary base because that they pick up a thousand year advantage over all the other modern translations by that alone and so and the IFV is is is emerging they'll be others like I'm sure as we go so the point is what's interesting about this your Homer makes determines your eschatology your eschatology will influence your understanding of the church and that will influence your appreciation for manuscript evidence which impacts your hermeneutics and all this tends to drive you in the direction of precision and respect for the text it's a spiral one each one feeds the other in a positive construction you with me that's why I call it the Epistle biston ology is a study of knowledge at scope and its limits and the epistemology here is and by the way I don't waste your time taking that course in college because if fist Amala G is given by the philosophy department and just as a study of the meaning of words through the years does there are no tools or resources there your resources are probably in your lap right now but all of these things obviously should give you a deeper oppression not for a denomination not for a particular hermeneutic not for a particular eschatology or a particular ecclesiology you know to give you a greater appreciation of a person the Messiah well I want to touch on some unconditional covenants most of us realize that the foundational covenants for all of us as Gentiles is the bruh hammock covenant Genesis 12 there's also a key covenant these are these are the unconditional covenants that there's four of them the Bible the Lamb covenant given to Abraham in Genesis not 12 but 15 and 17 in that area and then we have the Davidic covenant from 2nd Samuel 7 and finally the everlasting covenant did you know that each one of these covenants at least the first three are under direct attack who is attacking the Abrahamic covenant today the world the United Nations your philosophy instructors in school you name it the world who is the Prince of this world Satan what's his primary weapon to see who is challenging the Abrahamic covenant the world every that's anti-semitism that's why it's so dangerous you have the land covenant challenged by Islam who's challenging the Davidic covenant the church probably not one Church in 10 has any grasp that we are aspiring to the fulfillment of the Davidic covenant let's take a quick look at this because what you pray the Lord's Prayer thy kingdom come Thy will be done on earth as how many prayed that prayer how many of you know what you're praying for in this church I think most of you do but that's where most most Christians haven't thought about it and I came come why we do it because it's an order a No why what are you praying for nothing is more certain than heaven or earth than this prayer my king become now every Christmas we see this as a Christmas card for unto us a child is born unto us a son is given the government shall be upon his shoulder really and his name shall be called wonderful counsellor the mighty God the everlasting father the Prince of Peace Wow interesting a child is born and a son is given I'm convinced they're no synonyms in the scripture those are not synonymous a child is born is human that took place in a place called Bethlehem the son is given as divine and that took place at Golgotha see these things are pregnant words but the next verse goes on of the increase of his government shall PNP shall be no end upon the throne of David upon his kingdom to order it to establish with judgment and justice henceforth Emperor we and the sealed lordship before us upon the throne of David when was there a throne of David in recent years not so you'd notice huh let's talk about the new Ted that's Old Testament stuff oh no wait a minute let's take a look at Newton's murder look at the Annunciation the Ascension the Council for Jerusalem and the king in the kingdom parables of Matthew 13 because briefly and then of course the Millennium revelation 20 start about the Annunciation Gabriel visits Mary and B says and says to her and behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb and bring forth his son and call his name Jesus he shall be great and she'll be called the son of the highest and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David that's an Old Testament phrase when did that happen when did he get it did it exist in that day no Rome ruled things in those days and he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever and his kingdom of his kingdom shall be no end of his father throne of his father David Wow let's look at the Ascension we shift in the first chapter of the book of Acts Jesus is about to ascend right when they therefore were coming together they asked of him Lord wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel good question he said unto them it is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the father has put in his own power he says none of your business as to the timing do you realize that answer confirms that he will you just don't know the timing he confirmed that that's yet his destiny not for you know the time the seasons let's shift to the count the pivotal event in the gospel in the book of Acts the council for Jerusalem and x-15 challenging two questions the obvious one is what does a Gentile have to do to become saved that's the main thing they're talking about but there's another lurking question implied in all that that they also are troubled by if a Gentile doesn't have to become a Jew to be saved what's to become of Israel and James the half-brother of Jesus Christ the who's chairing the thing quotes Amos 9 in response to that and to disagreed the words of the prophets changed speaking as it is written he's recording from Amos chapter 9 verse 11 and 12 after this I will return that's God speaking in Amos after I'm always fascinating where God says I'm going to return does that means he's left it he apparently left his places after this I will return and build again the tabernacle of David don't confuse that with the Temple of Solomon they're different ones the temple was the palace they're different the tabernacle of David which has fallen down and I will build again the ruins thereof and I will set it up that the residue of men might seek after the Lord and all the Gentiles will really upon whom my name is called saith the Lord who do with all these things known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world after this I will return and build again that tabernacle of David which is fall down you know Hosea 5:15 Jesus unlocks the whole thing by pointing out something else he says I will go and return to my place till they acknowledge their offence and seek my face in the reflection they will seek me earnestly we talked about that yesterday a little bit but I love these until zai will return which means he's left it and I'm going to leave until they acknowledge their offence singular and specific and to seek my face okay then we have the kingdom parables Matthew 13 and we'll go through all those by one just notice one thing it speaks there of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven the seven kingdoms in Matthew 13 it's given to you to know the mysteries of this strange word kingdom of heaven I want to talk about that for a minute it's a very key term and these are truths that were not revealed in the Old Testament revealed knew that's what the subject of Matthew 13 is I want to talk about resolving Prower you buy a cheap telescope and look at a star you see a bright spot big deal you go to the same store and spend a lot of money and get a very fancy telescope and look at that same star you discover it's actually two stars that ability to discern two things that are close together is called resolving power it's a property of optics that has mathematics to it it's also a property of language two words can be synonymous meaning almost the same thing watch out for that word almost I don't believe there's any true synonyms really we find two words being used in the Gospels the kingdom of God and kingdom of heaven and nine out of ten Buffy 90 out 99 out of 100 commentators regard those as synonymous because only Matthew uses kingdom I'm going to suggest to you that they're not synonymous the kingdom of God is all-inclusive within that there's the kingdom of heaven matthew is being more precise Mathi uses kingdom of heaven 33 times and he's the only guy that uses that phrase and he uses kingdom of God five times so he's being discerning he sometimes uses the more precise most often uses the more precise term and that's something else you need say you did three or 33 times but you notice something else in Hebrew both Hebrew and German of and from the same word it reach to be translated the kingdom from heaven why because it's a genitive of source not a genitive of that position when I say kingdom of heaven you think what's heaven you think of heaven Orson no it's a kingdom from heaven it's on the earth you understand it more clearly if I say a kingdom from heaven it's clear and it fits you'll discover and so anyway moving on here we have of course this kingdom is the Millennium we talked a little bit about yesterday there's promised to David it's all in the Psalms promised to marry it's throughout the Bible as the point you can't dismiss it you can't allegorize it it's for real and the Lord's Prayer of course deals with it the return of Christ to rule over eighteen hundred and forty-five references in the Old Testament alone seventeen books to give prominence to the event 318 references in the New Testament 216 chapters see this issue is germane to both Israel and the church because we've both been there that's where we get come co-mingled here again and for every prophecy of Christ's first coming there are at least eight of a second coming and of course we've all been through the four empires in Daniel in Nebuchadnezzar's dream in Daniel chapter 2 what we all forget is there five empires and the fifth one is going to supersede the others in the days of these Kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom shall never be destroyed and the Kingdom shall not be left to other people but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms stand forever this is a kingdom in the same sense of three is four it has geography it has a king it has a it has subjects the reserve sauce the stone that was cut out of the mountain without hands that break in pieces the iron the brass the clay and the silver and the gold those were the others the great God have made known to the king what it shall come to pass the dream is certain the interpretation they were sure now I do want to give you a little surprise before we leave because the most consistent most Augustus seminaries in the world I'll put Dallas at the high on that list will argue vigorously that the rapture does not occur in the Old Testament the raptures a New Testament concept and and controversial at that I want to show you something you be the judge we're gonna look at four verses here quickly Isaiah 26 I want you just to read this and come to your own conclusions Isaiah 26 it starts out in verse 17 like as a woman with child that draws near at the time of her delivery is in pain like a one's in pain I call these birth pangs and cries out in our pangs and so we have been in thy sight O Lord we have been with child and have been in pain we have wrought forth wind but we have not brought any deliverance in the earth neither have the inhabitants to work for good here's where the passage really starts verse 19 my dead men shall live together with my dead body shall they arise awake and sing he that dwell in the dust for thy due is as the dew of herbs and the earth shall cast out the dead get this verse come my people enter thou in thy chambers and shut thy doors about thee hide thyself as it were for a little moment until the indignation be passed lay that alongside John 14 where Jesus's I go to prepare a place for you and so on it's interesting you can for behold the Lord on the southern by the way a couple of quick questions who is he talking to come my people who are his people whose chambers are we talking about my chambers up there shut that is about the for how long for a little moment until what has till the Egon League nation the tribulations past sounds like pre trib to me let's move on for behold the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity the earth also shall disclose her blood and shall no more cover her slain Psalm 27 verse 5 for in the time of crumble he shall hide me in his pavilion in the secret of his Tabernacle shellye hide me he shall set me up upon a rock that sounds like Matthew 16 to me but we can go on here let's look at Zephaniah 2:3 seeking the Lord all ye meek of the earth which he which have wrought his judgment seek righteousness seek meekness it may be he shall be hid in the day of the Lord's anger being hid in the day of the Lord's anger I think that's the rapture well one less thing about his birthday John the Baptist predicted the baptism the spirit we all know that and Peter clearly identifies the day of Pentecost as the day of the birth of the church some groups that have different views this is the biblical one but is it possible the Feast of Pentecost isn't through yet how many people were saved from the flood of Noah anybody and floods know how many people were saved oh nice do you list it how many saved we had four ham Shem Noah and his three sons and their four wives right that's eight right plus one everybody forgets there were nine saved one that we here's where they line up we have the three groups were involved with the flood of Noah those that perished in the flood obviously those that were preserved through the flood by being aboard that barge and those that were removed prior to the flood I'm going to suggest that Enoch was not post flood or mid flood he was pre flood okay now what's interesting there is a Jewish belief and I have not been able to find the roots of it that Enoch was translated on his birthday that's a belief throughout Judah is among the rabbis I can't find out why they believed that nothing in the scripture about it but that is a tradition somehow the Jewish traditions that enix birthday is celebrated on the Feast of Shevat well if Enoch is a type of the church as apparently it's implied that he is from from the flood of Noah is it possible that the church will be translated on its birthday also I don't know I leave that with you just to give you something to think about all the way home there's another verse that might be a Old Testament rapture passage and that Psalm 83 verse 3 and we talked about that last night I was going to include a summary in that but I really run out of time I pray let's bow our hearts for a word prayer father we thank you for who you are and we thank you that in your kingdom there are no accidents no coincidences that we're all here right now about your divine appointment and it's our prayer father that your purpose in each of our lives be accomplished that you would help each of us to identify our personal callings that week might be more responsive to your will in our lives that we might grow in grace in the knowledge of our coming King we ask all these things that we might be more pleasing in thy sight as we commit ourselves into your hands in the name of Yeshua our coming King indeed amen [Music] you

Channel: Koinonia House

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Length: 59min 46sec (3586 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 15 2020