It's All About the King by Anton Bosch

[Music] luke chapter 17 and we're coming to a new section and a rather difficult section speaking about the kingdom and i'm going to read the whole passage from 20 through the end of the chapter 37 but i'm only going to deal with the first two verses this morning so luke chapter 17 reading from 20 through 37 now when he was asked by the pharisees when the kingdom of god would come he answered them and said the kingdom of god does not come with observation nor will they say see here or see there for indeed the kingdom of god is within you then he said to the disciples the days will come when you will desire to see one of the days of the son of man and you will not see it and they will say to you look here or look there do not go after them or follow them for as the lightning that flashes out of one part under heaven shines to the other part under heaven so also the son of man will be in his day but first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation and as it was in the days of noah so it will be in the days of the son of man they ate they drank they married wives they were given in marriage until the day that noah entered the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all likewise as it was also in the days of lot they ate they drank they bought they sold they planted they built but on the day that the lot went out of sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all even so will it be in the day when the son of man is revealed in that day he is on the housetop and his goods are in the house let him not come down to take them away and likewise the one who is in the field let him not turn back remember lot's wife whoever seeks to save his life will lose it whoever loses his life will preserve it i tell you in that night there will be two men in one bed and one will be taken the other will be left two women will be grinding together the one will be taken and the other left two men will be in the field one will be taken and the other left and they answered and said to him where lord and so he said to them wherever the body is there the eagles will be gathered together so what i want to do this morning is to deal with the first two verses and then deal with the concepts around the kingdom because that's really what this passage is all about um we have so many and and the reason i need to do that is because there are so many different ideas as to what the kingdom is all about um the the kingdom of god is a is a buzzword that everybody seems to be using and throwing about in all sorts of careless ways without understanding what it is really all about and so i want to dedicate some time to it please pray for me because i have many many thoughts i need to share with you this morning and i've struggled to get them in some kind of logical order and so we trust that the holy spirit will lead us so that we don't go away more confused than we than we began so let's have a look at these these two verses first and then we'll move from there now when he was asked by the pharisees when the kingdom of god would come he answered them and said the kingdom of god does not come with observation so the the idea of the kingdom is a very old idea it goes right through the old testament and in the jewish mind the coming of the kingdom and the coming of the messiah were the same thing the messiah would come and he would set up his kingdom which would be centered around israel he would set them free of their persecutors and of the romans and others that hated them and he would fulfill the prophecies in the old testament that they would be the head and not the tale and so on and so forth and so they were they were really looking for this kingdom to come and it was something that they would debate and they would discuss um as to the signs of the kingdom is this the messiah is that the messiah and of course jesus is the messiah and yet they didn't see him and they rejected him and so the the problem was that they were and this is the point that i want to drive home this morning they were not looking for the messiah they were looking for the kingdom and there is a difference between the two so their question is what are the signs how do we know the kingdom will come and he said the kingdom of god does not come with observation in both of these verses we have a translation difficulty the kingdom of god does not come by observation is the king james and the new king james translation but the i think this is the yeah this is the new american standard um which uh which is what most of the other translations say let's look at the last uh part of the verse the kingdom of god is not coming with signs to be observed see the problem is with the uh with the new king james translation you can easily come to the conclusion that um and in fact some people do come to the conclusion that jesus is saying you you you don't get the kingdom by looking for it um that's not what jesus is saying you know it's like trying to get the kettle to boil by watching it uh he's saying the kettle won't boil by watching it jesus is not going to come by observation that's not really what the what he intended to say what he was saying is the kingdom of god is not coming with signs to be observed with signs to be observed and we've spoken about these things before and yet at the same time we need to remind ourselves and pull these things all together in the context of the kingdom the problem is that we live in exactly the same kind of time today everybody is about signs and i've shared with you before that if you posted a message on youtube that had something to do with the last day something to do with the signs and it can be the same preacher if he's going to preach about jesus he'll he'll get say 300 or 400 views but if he's going to preach about the antichrist he can get 5 000 6 000 views and and it happens over and over and over it's something i observe all the time and i try to steer clear of of attaching titles simply for the sake of getting people to watch the video and yet there are other preachers who who thrive on that and will only preach on things that have to do with the signs of the second coming that have to do with the antichrist that have to do with the tribulation and all of these kinds of things there is a fascination with these signs and the the problem is that it it becomes a fascination with the signs and not with the with jesus it's it's about the second coming and not so much about jesus it becomes an intellectual thing and and we do these calculations and you know i've grown up with these calculations in christianity and those of us who've been christians for a long time have seen over and over and over all sorts of calculations 1948 plus 40 years 1988 well 1988 has come and gone and um and so the list goes on and on and on i've seen i've seen guys run a series for four five six weeks with these elaborate calculations um just on on a board and it just goes on and on and on and on calculating these sabbaths and these feasts and this and that and the other thing trying to do to calculate when when jesus is coming and jesus is saying he he is not coming with signs to be observed now it doesn't mean that we don't recognize the season in which we are remember that jesus also taught that you're able to look at the sky and you're able to form an idea as to what the weather is going to be like now we don't know exactly what it's going to be like i can't tell you and even the weather forecasters can't tell you within the degree how hot it's going to be or how not hot it's going to be tomorrow or how much it's going to rain you'll notice they some of them are brave and they'll tell you you know we'll we'll we'll get a quarter inch or we'll get uh you know 10 hundredths well i mean obviously that's ridiculous there's no way you can predict to to that kind of but you have an idea maybe it's going to be a good day tomorrow maybe it's going to be raining and so the same applies to the signs we need to understand the season and the time in which we are living do i believe that we're close to the coming of the lord yes i believe that very very strongly but at the same time we can't say it's going to be tomorrow we need to live as though it's going to be today that's the way we need to live that's how they lived in the new testament that's how we still need to be living today because he could come today but can it be another 10 years it can be another 10 years could it be another 20 years it could be another 20 years we just don't know all we know is that this time is ready sometime this week it turns to fall wednesday it's fall well does fall happen on wednesday well according to the calendar it does but wednesday i don't know but wednesday may be a summer day and thursday may still be very summer and another two weeks may still be very summer but what we do know is that the season is changing and we're moving from summer into fall and into winter and we know that things are changing in the world and that jesus is coming is close but the obsession with signs is very very dangerous they not only are they dangerous but they are counterproductive because the moment we put ourselves out there we say well jesus is coming on such and such a time and remember jesus said you can't establish he says luke 17 21 sorry i'm in the [Music] got the wrong verse mark 13 33 take heed watch and pray for you do not know when the time is and so we don't know the verse before that sorry i've got all my slides mixed up but of that day and hour no one knows not even the angels in heaven nor the son but only the father i remember jesus is saying this in his humiliation while he is a man and as a man he had set aside his divine knowledge and his divine prerogatives and he only knew what the father revealed to him during that time they didn't cease to be god we're not saying that at all and so at that point jesus he now knows when he ascended on high he was glorified and he returned to his full position as the as the second person in the trinity and he knows all things now but for that short period as a man he did not know anything other than what was revealed to him by the father and what he had learned from the scriptures and so at that point even he didn't know he says the angels don't know only the father does and so we don't know the hour and and i know how people get around this they say well you know we're not predicting the the day of the hour we're predicting the week no you're you're you're you're trying to be a lawyer trying to find loopholes where there aren't loopholes when jesus says you don't know the day or the hour you do not know the precise time and if you're gonna if you can get to a day or a week or a month you're still in that in that ballpark right now let me see where are we with the slides again all right so the kingdom of god is not coming with signs to be observed be careful of prophetic teachers and i don't mean prophetic in the sense that they have a prophetic ministry but to focus on prophetic signs on sites prophetic updates um and i'm sorry but i call them pathetic updates um because they they read the headlines and everything in the headlines and folk it's been like this since since i first became a christian 50 years ago they read their headlines and everything in their headlines is a sign that jesus is coming now jesus is coming there are signs but but when you build your whole ministry and that's the problem when you build your whole ministry on a weekly prophecy update you are forced to to stretch things that do not necessarily mean anything and uh and let's let's leave it there let's move to the next verse nor will they say see here or see there for indeed the kingdom of god is within you now this idea of see here and see there you'll see that in the next section which we'll deal with in the next couple of weeks i'm not sure how long it's going to take us to get through this passage you know just reminded me that we've been in luke now for three years and three months or something and and i'm not stretching it out on purpose i'm simply trying to go as fast as as the text allows all right so see here or see there we'll we'll leave that for now and we'll come to the bottom line here for indeed the kingdom of god is within you another translation problem only the king james and the new king james translates it the kingdom of god is within you based on that the there's a lot of teaching that the kingdom of god is within us um now i do believe the kingdom of god is within us but i don't believe that that's what this verse is saying remember who jesus is speaking to who is he speaking to the pharisees is the kingdom of god in the pharisees no they opposed the kingdom of god so jesus is not saying the kingdom of god is in you but what he is saying and again this is the american standard and every other translation translated this way behold the kingdom of god is in your midst or among you some translations say is in your midst you can see why the difficulty with the translation in your midst or in you are very similar ideas but they are not clearly not the same now here's the here's the point and i believe that this is the point of what is on my heart this morning when jesus said the kingdom of god is in your midst or among you what is he saying and it's very simple who was among them jesus so what is he saying about the kingdom he's saying i am the kingdom i am the kingdom i'll explain that in a moment i am the kingdom and i'm among you what he is not saying but inferring is and you don't even recognize that so you're looking for signs but you don't even know me and folk again when we speak about the the obsession with signs it is easy to get so obsessed with the signs that we don't even see jesus remember we spoke about this on thursday night from hebrews chapter 2 but we see jesus but we see jesus we must see him and it's all about him that is the point that jesus is making here now let me just deal with a couple more technical things and then let me get back to to what is on my heart so what jesus is saying here first of all is the kingdom is not what you want it to be it is something different what are they looking for they're looking for a a realm they're looking for a kingdom uh of which yeah sure he can be the head he can be on the throne of david but it's really about us and about us dominating the world and about us being uh our rights being um being uh restored about us prospering as a nation and all of those kinds of things that was really what it was about for them it wasn't about the king but jesus is saying a kingdom is not a kingdom without a king it's about the king not about the kingdom that's really what jesus is saying and then he's saying two other things in the passage the one is that the kingdom is now and not yet for those who were with us on thursday we learned that very big word yet meaning not now but it's coming so there are those two aspects so and you'll see in the passage that these first two verses he addresses to the pharisees and he's basically saying to them the kingdom is not now but then he speaks to the disciples the rest of that passage and he is saying the kingdom is coming sorry sorry he's saying to the pharisees the kingdom is here the kingdom is here it's it's now the the king is among you but to the disciples he says but it is coming so obviously both of these things are simultaneously true the kingdom is here and the kingdom is coming and just to simplify that the kingdom is invisible now it will be visible then and the best way i can describe this is that and and remember this is an analogy this is a a parable if you will and it is incomplete it is imperfect as all parables are but there have been many times in the past that there have been kings in exile jesus is not in exile but he is not with us he has gone away to prepare a place for us elsewhere he says he has gone to receive a kingdom he is waiting for his enemies to be made his footstool so he's not with us but while the king speaking about the parable now wild the king well the not a parable from the bible my own parable while the king is in exile what happens in the homeland well in the homeland he has his loyal followers otherwise he's never going to be able to come back and we've had instances of this happening in history and so the king is exiled because somebody else rises up and takes his place and someone else has risen in the world and taken the place of jesus that is the devil and the spirit of antichrist and so he is no longer here not because he's been pushed out but because because this is the problem with a with a parable but he's not here but he still has his people and his people are underground if you will they they're not in your face you can't see them in in a very real sense but they're there and they're waiting and they're waiting for the king to come back and for the king not for them to establish the kingdom but for him to establish his kingdom and then he takes over we've seen that happen in history this is exactly what jesus is doing so the kingdom is exists right now in the world but it is underground it is it is not visible as as much as we would like it to be visible it's certainly not having any influence because there is an enemy force that is in control but he is waiting for his enemies to be made his footstool once that has happened he's going to come and he's going to establish his kingdom all right so let's talk about the kingdom the idea of a kingdom is not something that is popular today because we all believe that democracy is really what it's all about there are many kingdoms in the world still today some of those kingdoms are what we call constitutional monarchies in other words the king really is just a or the queen in the case of the united kingdom is really just a figurehead but it is run by a constitution incidentally in england or the united kingdom doesn't even have a constitution but we call them constitutional monarchies there are still absolute kingdoms real kingdoms and those are all in the arab world islamic countries qatar united arab emirates places like that they they're all true monarchies where the king is sovereign and he rules he makes the rules he runs the place um there is no democracy of of any kind all right so but here's the thing god has always been about a kingdom and as i said it's an idea we don't like very much because how come one guy gets to call all the shots and everybody else has to submit to that but that's god's plan you know it's interesting as i was meditating on this that at the time of jesus and the time of paul democracy had already been established in the world the greeks had understood the principles and had taught the principles of democracy and way back when i studied political science i discovered that the greeks had formulated many of the ideas of democracy that we apply today that was 500 years before jesus came remember that the roman empire was really more in name than anything else but the principles of it was it was a republic and and so democracy was in operation in the world today in the world then but just think about this jesus never spoke about the church as a democracy he never used that word or even those ideas or the fact that that god's kingdom is a democracy where it's about the people if that was to be true as we believe today folk here's the problem is that the vast majority of christians today believe that god's work is should be democratic and we have different forms of church government and for those who are are interested in these things uh let me just do a sidebar here we we we have an episcopalian kind of church government which means that the church is run by bishops and i'm not going to go into that in great detail the anglican church or episcopalian church and the catholic church are examples of that we have presbyterian type churches and i don't mean the presbyterian church but presbytery elders churches are run by elders probably many baptist churches are run by elders we have pastor-run churches where there is nothing else except a pastor he makes all the decisions he runs the show and so on we have congregational churches which is the closest thing to a to a democracy that you can get congregational meaning the congregation again i'm not meaning the denomination so the congregation makes the decisions about what uh about what goes on and then you you have churches that strive particularly in the house church movement to be purely democratic truly democratic where everybody gets to have a say everybody has a say on doctrine everybody has a say on every issue in the church everybody has an equal say when it comes to establishing truth from the word of god and and and you know to be quite blunt that's just another word for mob rule but jesus never established the church on any of those grounds he never when you read the new testament yes there are elements of congregationalism there are elements of presbyterianism there are elements of episcopalianism there are elements of these things but the church is has always been designed to be a kingdom meaning that i the pastor am the king you got it no he is the king and it's particularly not a democracy even as a teacher i don't get to establish my own ideas i don't get to preach the sermon i want to preach i have to preach what he tells me to preach i have to believe what he tells me to believe and as a congregation we need to make the decisions that he wants us to make because he is the sovereign he is the king now let's talk about the kingdom i've been promising to get there and i'm not getting there kingdom i'm still going to be a long time the kingdom obviously has a king and in god's kingdom that's all it's about it's about jesus he is the king it has subjects what does that word mean they are subject they are subject they are under the king now you see again our modern ideas of personal liberty and all of those kinds of things mitigate against us we say well you know i don't like that idea but in a kingdom i am a subject i'm not a participant really i'm a subject i'm subject to my sovereign liege i'm sovereign i'm subject to my lord to the king he calls the shots i live my life under his authority in fact here's where we where the church goes wrong and this is where most christians go wrong because every one of us wants to be his own boss and we struggle with this idea that god is my boss that he is the lord he is the master he is the sovereign he is the king he gets to make the rules and he doesn't have to ask me for my opinion we don't like those ideas and yet that is the essence of a kingdom a kingdom has territory and here's where many christians today go wrong oh america is god's kingdom god's territory now god has no territory in this world today he will have when he comes then all of it will be his territory and in the new jerusalem it will all be his but right now he has control over no land the devil in fact has control the god of this world so there is no land right now but there is a king and there are subjects and then the other aspect of a kingdom is that it has laws or rules and again we just don't like that idea we're living in an increasing a time right across the world where there's a rebellion against just the concept of laws and of rules and yet that's the essence of the kingdom and very from the very beginning he makes the laws he makes the rules now we're not speaking about salvation we're not saved by those rules we understand that but once we get into the kingdom and then how do we get into the kingdom well we get born into the kingdom you you can't be you you can't you can't become a citizen we've spoken about this before you can't become a citizen of heaven or of the kingdom of god the way i became a citizen of america according to god's rules i can never become a citizen of america because i was not born in america i'm a south african by those rules but god allows us to be born again into his kingdom that's the only way you you you can't you you can't fill out a form and learn to speak the language and unfortunately this is exactly what people are doing today they learn to speak the language what language does the christian does the church speak christian needs so we learn to speak christian needs we learn the customs we learn the traditions we know how to when to stand and when to sit and when to say amen and when not to say oh man especially when you doze off you don't say i mean when you wake up because it may just be the wrong thing oh so now i'm a christian no you were not born into the kingdom so the kingdom is is real where is the kingdom well the kingdom is first of all needs to be in my own heart you see if the kingdom is not working in my life it's not going to work anywhere i can't you know the thing of the crusades and and it's very much becoming a thing again in in the world today that we we can force people to become members of the kingdom by the edge of the sword no you cannot people can only become part of the kingdom and participate in the kingdom when they are born again and they willingly submit to the lordship of the king i can't force you to be a citizen i can't force you to be a good citizen even even if you are born into the kingdom only you can choose to submit to the king and so the question simply is is is the kingdom real in your life are you living under the headship of the king or are you the king are you living by his rules or your rules needs to begin in my life needs to extend to our families our families need to operate as little cells remember when when a king is in exile one of the things that happens is that they establish cells that represent the king and and and and promote the king's business um in this enemy territory and and our families need to be little cells of the kingdom where the king is honored where the king is central where the king's rules apply where the king's principles of governance apply in our in our homes and then of course it needs to extend to our churches that's as far as it goes denominations are not extensions of the kingdom and nations certainly are not extensions of the kingdom it only finds its representation in your heart in your family and in the local church whatever shape or form that takes and so that's where the kingdom's at the problem is if the kingdom's not working in your life in your family and your church then how is it going to work anywhere else we cannot we said this so many times we we cannot force every american to subject themselves to the laws of the kingdom because it just doesn't work that way only when they are when people are born again and then once they are born again willingly submit to the king do these things become central now let me get back to the point as i try to draw to a close at the beginning we spoke about the fact that the king jesus says the kingdom is among you meaning himself and folk we i i said this by way of introduction i want to emphasize this the kingdom is not about control us controlling anything we want to be we want to be part of the kingdom so that we can so we can extend our influence the kingdom is not about financial prosperity so we want to be part of the kingdom so we can prosper financially as they did in the old testament we the kingdom is not about domination of the world we spoke about that on thursday the kingdom is about one thing and that is about the king it all revolves around him and folk here's the problem many christians want to be part of the kingdom but there is no room for jesus the church of laodicea we've got it together we're rich and increased with goods we're influential we're having an impact on our society but where's jesus where's jesus and folk i'm i'm concerned that that that churches have their emphases and and and this is just something that's current right now with something that i've been struggling with but some churches emphasize doctrine and you know that i'm all about doctrine some churches emphasize blessings some churches emphasize church structure and church order oh we've got to find the biblical pattern and we need to get that in in operation and that's what it's all about some churches emphasize unity folk all of those things are good but if they if they in any way detract from the centrality of jesus it's a deception and he said but brother doctrine cannot be a deception yes it can be a deception because i get involved in the doctrine without getting involved with jesus and folk it doesn't matter how good of a model church we may have which we don't but even if we became the most biblically sound church in every way in terms of doctrine and lifestyle in behavior in structure in order in in everything that we did we could still miss the point and still not be part of the kingdom in the sense that we have rejected the king because these other things have become more important now you know there's an example of this in the scripture the book of revelation chapter 2 the church of ephesus had it all together they knew the difference between a true and false apostle their doctrine was good the way that they operated was good because there is no indictment against them the the lord jesus does not hold anything against them in fact he gives them 11 things for which they are commanded their work their purity they didn't worship idols they had it all together it was a good church and in fact of all those churches it's probably the church that many of us would feel most at home at and yet you know the story they had left their first love wasn't about jesus anymore it was about the church and the folk the moment your christianity revolves around anything other than jesus you've left your first love and he says i will remove the lampstand of that church i will withdraw its franchise remember hebrews chapter 2 that we looked at thursday but we see jesus and folk my my prayer and my desire for us as individuals and for our families and specifically for our church is that when people come amongst us they will see jesus not the preacher not the exposition of scripture thank god they don't see the worship because it's not that great but not the building but jesus and that they would go away and say we want to be there because jesus is there the king is in their midst the king is among them like that's what it's all about we can have everything in place we can do everything right 100 if the king is not present amongst us we're wasting our time i want to close on a positive note and as i said to you the kingdom is now and not yet and what we saw on thursday was a real blessing to me personally because we see the failure of man we see the failure of churches we see the failure of christianity to such a degree that many of us no longer want to be known as evangelical christians because that name has become to mean something totally different to what it was intended but even that even that even if if evangelicalism isn't what it has become but what it used to be an emphasis on the preaching of the gospel that can become a snare if it's not about jesus and so we're looking at a situation where things don't look so rosy but the king is coming when i was a young christian it was a very popular chorus the king is coming and he is coming and this is how he's going to come revelation 19 11 i'm just going to read the passage and try not to comment now i saw heaven opened and behold a white horse and he who sat on him was called faithful and true and in righteousness he judges and makes war his eyes were like a flame of fire on his head were many crowns he had a name written that no one knew except himself he was clothed with a robe dipped in blood and his name is called the word of god and the armies of heaven clothed in fine linen and white and clean followed him on white horses and out of his mouth goes a sharp sword with that with it he should strike the nations and he himself will rule them with the rod of iron he himself trades the wine press of the fierceness and wrath of an almighty god and he has on his name on his robe and on his messiah name written king of kings and lord of lords father we pray that this may be real lord we talk about these things and yet lord when push comes to shove we are our own masters but lord we pray that jesus may indeed be the king of kings and the lord of lords that he would be the one before whom every knee will bow and lord that we would bow our knee before you today in those areas lord in which we are rebelling in those areas in which we are disobedient and lord in those areas in which we do not fairly represent you because we are ambassadors for you but lord that you may indeed be the king of our lives lord forgive us for focusing on so many other things and neglecting jesus but lord i pray that he may be central in my preaching lord that he may be central in our worship that he may be central in our living that he may be central in every area of our church and of our families and of our lives because the king is among us and lord i pray that as the world would look upon us they may indeed say they have been with jesus they've met him they know him they walk with him lord indeed your name has been blasphemed among the gentiles indeed lord the world is looking at the church with scorn and disdain sometimes even with pity but lord i pray that we may exemplify those who know jesus who walk with him who live with him in him and in him we live and move and have our being lord i pray that these things may be a real lord it's easy to talk about them it's easy to agree to them as we come together on sunday morning it's another thing when we have to go to work tomorrow lord i pray that you will help us to be those whose lives are focused on jesus not ourselves lord we live in a self-centered world we live in a time when christianity has been tailored to the wants and needs of individuals and of people lord help us to understand we're not a democracy but we're a kingdom and you're the king and we're your subjects help us to understand we pray lord pray that you'd go with us now keep us protect us bring us together again safely on thursday we pray in jesus name amen [Music] you

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Keywords: Revival, Character Of God, Free Sermons, Video Sermons, Jesus Christ, What Is The Gospel, SermonIndex, What Is The Truth, Anton Bosch

Id: 6UYm0AbznJY

Length: 45min 23sec (2723 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 25 2021