The Kingdom of God

and men what a great start to the night let me introduce our speaker for the night dr. Jonathan Pennington serves as professor of New Testament interpretation at Southern Theological Seminary in Louisville Kentucky Jesus PhD from the University of st. Andrews in Scotland he currently serves as the director of research doctoral studies at Southern Seminary sue oversees the PhD program he's the author of a few books specifically the two that we've already highlighted tonight REE how to read the Gospels wisely and the Sermon on the Mount and human flourishing one of the things I love about dr. Pennington I guess two things I love about dr. Pennington is he's not just an academic he serves in the context of the church he preaches regularly and serves regularly regularly at sojourn Community Church which is where my wife and I were members when we were in Louisville Kentucky he's a wonderful preacher as well as teacher but he's also a family man he has a beautiful wife Tracy and a lovely lovely group of kids as well I'm also grateful for his warm friendship he served as a confidante for me for a long time as a warm warm friend so I could not be more pleased to introduce you to Johnathan Pennington would you please come around applause hey well it is great to be here I've come down here last few January's and it's gonna sound like a comedian you know coming to town this is my favorite city or something I don't mean that but it is actually might one of my very favorite places to go and speak and teach because of the just absolutely beautiful people that are here so thank you for having me and thank you for not just bringing your kids for the free childcare and then going on a date night thanks for coming to this instead maybe this is your date night for some of you that's pretty awesome so that's great good so anyways we are gonna be talking about the kingdom of God tonight but to introduce it I want to think with you for a minute about some maps okay here's a map that you're probably familiar with and maybe frustrated with driving around sometimes here's one map of DFW area here's another sort of version of it a more kind of cartoon version that's highlighting different things here's a map of zip codes little blurry sorry but same area done in zip codes here's a map of the rail system in the Dallas area here's a map in case you're interested of the drought monitoring areas and here as a map of all the IHOP's in the area in case you're interested as well and then finally here's a map of the various places that the Fort Worth health inspections part of the government is required to visit marked by different things so here's the question which of these maps of the DFW area is true alright and which one is the right map well what's obvious is that there are many many different maps you could make of any area and I just showed you a few of them an almost an infinite number of ways that you could map out an area or approach describing an area and really the the question is not which of them is true which is them right but what does each kind of map give you what kind of information does it give you and I start with that illustration because tonight we are going to be talking about a massive area a massive topic a massive idea that we call the kingdom of God and really there's not just one map to get at it there are many many different ways to think about this and if you have a handout I think the the section is the multiplicity maps and the second one is a shout-out to I've got six kids a lot of teenagers that means a lot of video games go on in my house including me as well I'm just the fodder for them to beat up in and video games basically and one of the things from video games is maps that you haven't unlocked yet you know there's like levels you have unlocked I think of that as an analogy of what we're gonna do tonight tonight I am gonna talk about the kingdom of God for our time together but I'm very aware that there are all different levels of the kingdom of God or different areas of the kingdom of God we're not gonna be able to talk about or different maps different ways that we could approach it for example and we could talk about the kingdom of God in terms of Christology or what it tells us about who Jesus is as king that would be one sort of map of it we could talk about it in Trinitarian ways we could talk about the kingdom of God in connection with what it means for God to be Father Son and Holy Spirit we could talk about the map in theological ways like or the kingdom of God like how does it relate to the cross and the idea of atonement or ecclesiology in the church how does the kingdom of God intersect with those other theological ideas we could talk about the map of the kingdom of God in historical terms how have different Christians appropriated and thought about what the kingdom of God is in ancient times as well as today and we get to talk about in terms of contemporary applications the issues of how do we as Christians relate as members of the kingdom to society etc all of those are different maps that are all valuable to do all different avenues of getting out this massively beautiful and important topic and I mentioned those not to overwhelm you about all the things we're not going to do but just to give you a sense that what we are gonna do tonight is only one slice of this beautiful beautiful subject of the kingdom of God and what we're gonna do though I think is probably the best place to start we're gonna focus on the biblical witness to what the idea of the kingdom of God is I want us to really listen to what the Bible's voice has to say about this acknowledging that though those other approaches our wealth is also very valuable the theological broses approaches but I think it's very important to start here and so my plane for tonight is to bring the heat and bring the meat as I told JT on the way here I've got a lot of things to say and we're gonna I'm gonna have a lot of content from the biblical witness about this but then at the end we're also going to have some time for Q&A as JT said and kind of address a little bit of implications and applications as well so where we are in the next stage then is stepping on to the road in the first point here of getting on to the roadmap of understanding the kingdom is just to have some comments and have some thoughts together about the centrality of this idea of the kingdom because so far I've said all this stuff but I kind of need to back up and say why this topic why the kingdom of God and after all I thought Christianity some of you might be saying was the story or the message about God forgiving my sins through Jesus death on the cross and then me telling other people about that and seeing other people come into that knowledge of God and forgiveness as well what in the world does that have to do with the kingdom of God and so what I'm gonna do is try to explain to you that actually those are not unrelated and in fact that the kingdom of God is in some ways even a more central to the whole message of the Bible than what I just said although the idea of forgiveness sins is absolutely essential as well the reason we're gonna spend a whole evening together thinking about the kingdom of God is because I'd like to suggest to you that the kingdom of God is an absolutely essential and central idea to the whole understanding of the message of holy scripture and really of God Himself this is not just an image that's of secondary importance this is not just biblical theologians and scholars having something new to talk about I'm gonna suggest to you that this is actually central the kingdom of God to the whole witness of Scripture itself let me just put a couple of quotes before you I think these might be on your handout as well the concept of the kingdom of God involves in a very real sense the total message of the Bible John bright has said the unique idea of the rule of God over creation over all creatures over the kingdoms of the world in a unique and special way over is chosen and redeemed people is the very heart of the message of the Hebrew Scriptures this expectation of the coming of God's king the future has such a prominent importance in the scope of the prophetic divine revelation that it may be called the center of the whole Old Testament promise of salvation and finally since all of Yahweh's activity can be subsumed under the idea of the kingdom of God this one immature idea has good credentials for being a comprehensive designation of God's relationship with his creatures so that's most that's about the Old Testament some of that's more broad than that but also when you think about the New Testament it's very easy to see the dominance of the kingdom of God theme after all what does Jesus say right when he enters into his ministry he says repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand and we'll come back to that the question though to start is what about the Old Testament is the kingdom the main theme there and in fact I think you can easily argue that and I'm going to show you this in a couple of ways but just at the basic level to acknowledge that even though the phrase the kingdom of God doesn't appear very often in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament God is actually referred to as King a lot of times in the Old Testament many words for God's kingdom as well and then of course and we'll come back to this here in a little bit but of course the idea of the Davidic Kingdom and David as the Great King is going to be the first thing that should come to mind when we think about the kingdom of the Old Testament and that's certainly what should come to mind for us as well as the Psalms talk a lot about God as king but I'm just kind of casting some lines because we're gonna get back to this here in a minute the first point the point here right at the beginning is just simply to suggest to you that again the kingdom of God is worth our study tonight because it truly is a central idea but let's drill down a little bit more though and ask what does that even mean to talk about the kingdom of God and after all in our current time and especially here in the United States and really all of North America our associations for a king or a queen are not very strong and I was just you probably not very biblical I mean we all love the Queen of England the crown rocks were all into it that's fine God saved the Queen all that and the only other kings and queens we probably have are like homecoming kings and queens which aren't exactly visitors of great authority except for in the currency of high school popularity even no real authority and then I know from having enough Texas friends that then you have this added crazy mom element to it right and afterwards you can all show me your crazy mom pictures I've seen plenty of those I know there's that but really kings and queens are not something that make a lot of sense to us so what does the Bible mean by the kingdom of God well let's think for a minute about nouns okay let's think about concrete versus abstract nouns think about for example a jar of pickles right as soon as we put those words up there a concrete image of a jar of pickles came to mind for you and when we think about concrete nouns like that those phrases especially ovate evoke images in us and they also especially focus on what we'd say the denotative the pointing out part of language not as much of the connotative there might be some connotative element maybe somebody threw a jar of pickles at you once and you're still mad about it so you have like a connotative element of it or something but mostly concrete nouns focus on the reference this refers to something else but then if you think about abstract nouns like economics or justice or love something different happening your brain there you weren't able to sort of come up with an image as much and these kind of abstract nouns more or more on the connotative side they they have they sort of evoke a bigger idea that isn't always totally definable in your mind you'd have to kind of talk more specifically about what it means well I'd like to suggest you I use this example because when we think about the kingdom of God we might first think of it in some sort of denotative sense or concrete sense but really the kingdom of God is one of these bigger abstract things that's hard to get our mind around and when we hear it there are certain things that go on in our minds that are probably again maybe not really well-defined and probably not specifically biblical and let me explain what I mean um in the field a few one of the fields I work in is called cognitive linguistics and in this field one of the things that has talked about is the fact that when our brains and when we encounter language one of the ways it's described is that scripts run for us that in other words when you and I encounter language and in fact it varies quite a bit across all of us there are things that happen in our brains and our bodies that are related to what we what we would associate with that word so for example if I say the word house something happened you envision something and then there's a whole bunch of things that went along with that in your body and in your brain when I envision house and then there's a whole bunch of things that were not triggered for you I bet when I said house most of you did not think of an igloo for example because your cultural encyclopedia or your cultural scripts are not that and most of us did probably probably also when I said house did not think of place where we put our dead loved ones before we buried them right that's probably not a sort of cultural thing although that's a script that would have been that would have run for house for many people today and in much of history you probably also didn't think of the place where we have our children we birth our children some of you did think of that maybe you had home birth when we lived in Scotland which is the home of midwifery that's like a strong Midwife place a lot of people at home birth so in Scotland home or house might run scripts of home birthing more than it does for most people probably in the United States that's the point every kind of image concrete or abstract run scripts for us we we have a way of understanding the world that's part of our own cultural embeddedness that is evoked when wait when we hear something now that's okay there's no problem with that it just that means that when we study the Bible and we read the Bible and when we talk in church about certain things even things we hear a lot like kingdom of God there's no guarantee in fact I can guarantee the opposite that the scripts that run for you and me are probably not exactly what the scripts that would run for someone in the Hebrew times or in Jesus day as well and part of our work as students of the Bible and followers of Jesus today 2,000 years later is to try to understand by examining Scripture by examining how theologians have talked what are the best scripts what are the best ways to understand what's being evoked with this massive idea of the kingdom of God and I think we kind of have our work cut out for us because we don't have associations again for kings and queens that are like the biblical ones at all and so that's what we're gonna try to get at in fact when we think about the game of God I'd suggest to you that it's best to think of it like what's called a tensive symbol as you're kind of fancy phrase for tonight as opposed to a steno symbol something like the Greek letter pi that's what we would call a steno symbol it equals something for 3.14159 etc that's a symbol that evokes a one direct thing the kingdom of God is not a symbol that evokes one thing it actually is a symbol that evokes a whole range of ideas a whole range of visions of who God is that are consistent but also varied as well and for those of you will be with me tomorrow this is what we're gonna do in the Training Institute we're gonna go through each of the Gospels and say how do each of these Gospels contribute to this very elaborate picture of what the kingdom of God is but for tonight I want to give you a strong sense of the biblical symbol that the kingdom of God is and I give you here on your handout then a couple of definitions before we get to that one from an excellent book by Jeremy treat on the kingdom and atonement and he defines the kingdom this big idea in two phases that are really helpful the first phase he says is about the design of the creation itself the the kingdom the creation itself is designed as a kingdom idea we'll come back to this in a moment but his argument is point is that from Genesis 1 and 2 on from the creation accounts the goal of creation is God reigning over the earth through humanity through his vice Regents we'll come back to that and then the second phase of it is that the coming of the kingdom in Redemption that after the fall from Genesis 3 on then God's work in the world really from just 3 3 on to the end of Revelation can be described as the kingdom coming in Redemption so that's a helpful way to get at it to kind of hint that the whole message of the Bible can be understood this way here's another definition by as older scholar named Eugene boring which feel really bad that's you know I've got professor boring for classes afternoon I mean that's never be a horrible thing to have to say but he was a very good scholar I'm sure I know he was I've read quite a bit of stuff but that's his name the kingdom of God is he says the tensive symbol this idea that it's evoking a whole image that evokes the story of God the Creator first who's been active in history to preserve his people and who'll soon act definitively at the day numa or the penultimate part of history to defeat the powers which he's hitherto permitted to operate in the cosmos to reassert his rule over his rebellious creation which is at present du jour and I'll explain that his kingdom but will become de facto his kingdom only through this s collage achill acts that's a little fancier way of saying it but it's actually quite similar the idea is God rules and has always ruled and he's at work in the Bible and in real history of humans establishing his kingdom and those those two phrases are important God does rule by right as you're right now but he will fully rule when he brings his kingdom on the earth de-facto in complete fact right so that sort of tension between God reigning now in design and creation but yet not reigning fully but we could still ask okay so know there's kind of circling towards it what does this really look like to talk about the kingdom of God in the Bible well the best way to do it is actually to turn to the text and to kind of trace the story through of what how God works out his reign upon the earth okay and so to do that I'm going to gladly gladly acknowledge that I'm getting a lot of help here from an excellent book that I think many of you have read I read but I'd recommend to all of you it's by Craig Bartholomew and Michael go Hien it's called the drama of Scripture and I'm sure JT can give you information about that if you like and it's a really nice way of thinking about the Bible and I was so many kind of using some of their ideas and filling in some others with my own I want to show you what's going on in this theme of the kingdom of God and what they do is they put the whole Bible together in this series of what they call six acts like a play six different acts you can see it here on the screen that trace through the whole Bible and what they do before before they walk through this they ask a very good question they say is the kingdom of God really the best way to put the whole Bible Tibet together because actually there's some other candidates that might work well for example how about the idea of covenant covenants a really good idea a good way to think about putting the whole Bible together because after all God makes covenant with Adam and Eve these relationships these contractual relationships he makes covenant with Moses with Abraham before that with Isaac and Jacob with Moses with David with Solomon and it goes on and on Noah earlier so a lot of people would think about putting the whole Bible together as covenant but then when you get to the New Testament it becomes really clear that Again's uses main ministries Kingdom well part of the genius of what Bartholomew and go heenes show is that those two ideas of covenant and Kingdom are not really in competition because even though they don't sound like similar ideas to us those are really two sides of the same coin or two sides of the same door into Holy Scripture because you see the idea again it's a it's a different script that runs for you and me but the idea in the ancient world of a king and a kingdom was someone who would rescue a people gather them together deliver them and protect them and make a covenant elationship with them this is what a king's relationship to a people in the ancient world was it was one where someone provided services of rescue and protection and wisdom and and legal issues and and social issues often the king was considered a philosopher a sage a wise person and the deal was that the King and his sons or the Queen would provide that service provide that protection and wisdom and the result is that the people would provide obedience or fealty or loyalty or Allegiance and so you see the idea that is very different for us when we think about a homecoming king or queen or just a ceremonial Queen of England or something very different idea the idea of a kingdom and a covenant are deeply embedded with each other and they're real in getting at that will help us understand what's going on in the Bible in other words when God talks about making covenants he's doing that as a king and when he talks about being King that understanding of that is that that's in a covenant or relationship so this is why I along with Greg and Mike and others think that this is a very good way to put the whole Bible together and so these six acts are super helpful God establishing his kingdom and creation rebellion choosing Israel waiting for an ending and then to the New Testament in act four and five and six so what I want to do is just kind of do a very fast but with some details run-through of what these six acts look like in our Bibles now if you're gonna if you're trying to keep up it's gonna be too fast I'm not gonna be landing a lot of text tomorrow for those of you Abboud's tomorrow I'll go more in depth into a lot of texts but today I want to kind of give the the big overview of the whole thing so here is a brief and fast keep your hats on overview of the theme of the kingdom of God in the Bible using this sort of 6 act scheme so here we go first of all act 1 in the creation we see that God is the one who created and then sustains everything this is a big part of the claim of Genesis that in the beginning God was at work no other gods he was the sole God who did all this and he establishes his rule and we understand him as the sovereign one or the king of creation and why do we get that well it's no accident that the image of the creation takes place where just shout it out a garden okay now again the scripts that run for garden for you and me are carrots tomatoes maybe something like that garden in England means what we would call a front yard or yard the yard and British English means like junkyards they wouldn't say that right so garden is a little different script in British English but in ancient course it's not English in the ancient world but the world that we would translate his garden today is a is again a very different script the construe or the understanding within ancient cultures was that a garden was not the place where average people like you and me grow carrots and tomatoes a garden was something that a king has only a king has a garden it's more like if you maybe see on a Jane Austen you know really fancy estate or something but even more like the Babylonian famous Babylonian Hanging Gardens one of the seven wonders of the world in other words the very image of a garden which to you and me doesn't sound like a royal image for sure in the ancient world any person reading the Hebrew Bible or the the New Testament as well would understand that the image of a garden is very much a royal image and so it's not an accident right in the beginning that God creates Adam and Eve and puts them in a garden that's an image first of God as a king ruling over creation but then it also is an image of Adam and Eve as kings and queens because a king and queen and then their descendants as well because the people that are in the garden are there serving granted God is the ultimate king but we like to use the word vice Regent's Adam and Eve are depicted as ones who are not-- first made in the image of god and are given authority to what to rule over creation now they're gonna blow it right and we continue to blow it as well but the idea is that Adam and Eve are very created as Vice Regents set in a garden all of that is deeply royal imagery and this idea of the image of God is a very beautiful complex one and theologians will point out a lot of different things that the image of God means well one of them for sure means the idea that God is stamping himself into this clay he's breathing his own life into this dirt and this rib by which he makes humanity his own image being on it means that the things that are true about God as a ruler particular are put on to Adam and Eve the images that the first humans and us as well all the way down although are the image in a God of us is very broken still the idea is that we are his sub rulers he is the king of the universe places us in the garden gives us a mandate to it to control and order be wise and Shepherd the animals in a sense and tend the garden and cultivate it all of that is beautiful royal imagery that comes from God's authority himself but then of course act 2 happens the tragic rebellion the tragic story of rebellion the Viceroy Adam and his helpmate Eve abdicate their responsibility they fall into rebellion against God and the result is twofold first there's judgment they're banished from the garden and separated from God but secondly there's also Grace and rather than destroying them completely God gives them a new Albia lower and harder life but a new life that is outside of the garden there the image of God in us is cracked and yet he promises a future Redemption and so as Genesis continues then God increasingly reveals himself even while the world is increasingly rebellious against him that from chapter 3 through 11 of Genesis is just a spiraling down as you know if we've read it spiraling down towards worse and worse finally God even floods the whole earth and starts over with Noah but still it is just wickedness upon wickedness until finally we meet a very important man Abraham and although Abraham was no one of particular importance God sets Abraham apart and calls him into a unique cover dental relationship with himself and he gives Abraham what are the greatest promises of Scripture that God will bless or multiply him super abundantly to be a blessing to be God's kingly covenant relationship to spread it to all the nations so from dealing with the universally with the world God now brings it down to one man and says through you I'm going to do what a king does to his people bless I'm gonna bless all the world all the nations will be blessed through you through one person and that begins from Genesis 12 on the great story of Israel the result after many trials and tribulations then Abraham Isaac and Jacob is finally the creation of what we would call the people of Israel Abraham receives his son of the promise you probably mostly know and remember the story Isaac Isaac passes the same kind of kingly blessing onto his son Jacob God renames Jacob Israel Jacob has twelve sons and they form the twelve tribes of Israel and all the while every generation of these Jewish people is looking backward to the promises of Abraham and forward to the time when God will fulfill them there's a hope that God is going to restore his reign upon the earth through these people and through the remarkable provision of God Israel and as 12 sons end up in Egypt because there's this horrible famine they end up under another king the greatest king of the day the Pharaoh and what happens in this beautiful image Joseph ends up being the vice regent of the Pharaoh through this amazing twists and turns of through prison he ends up second-in-command and ends up sparing Israel from destruction but as the generations proceeded the book of end of Genesis and the Nexus tells us the years past the Israelites finally find themselves no longer ruling over Egypt and a position of power but instead at the bottom there now slaves to the Egyptians and that continues for about four centuries so longer than the United States has existed as a country right they're slaves in Egypt and they're longing for God to be their king not the Pharaoh and finally so you know the story God raises up then still here in we're in act 3 now God raises up the great man Moses and who was Moses he was Pharaoh's adopted son right a very high Viceroy in in Egypt as well but then he goes from being that because one day he kills an Egyptian who he sees striking a fellow Jew so he has to flee and for 40 years he goes from this height of being a Viceroy in Egypt to being a nobody Shepherd on the backside of a nowhere mountain and then God calls him back you know the story of the burning bush calls him back to be the greatest leader of these multiplied millions of the Israelites and God shows forth his kingly power through Moses over all of nature over every human king by finally bringing the Pharaoh to his knees the King boughs down and finally says go your God is more powerful go and that's the most important historical event of the Jewish history the Israel history is what we call the Exodus it's when God brings his people out of Egypt heading toward the promised land and promises to be their God he brings them out and you see the image of a king he rescues his people and he brings them out and what does he do well he takes them to a mountain and he makes a covenant with them right and along the way he rescues them the famous Red Sea do you remember what they say when he rescues them remember the words that they sing to him that they sing they they say in celebration the Lord shall reign forever and ever Exodus 15 18 so the image is he's their king he rescues them and he takes them then to Mount Sinai and gives them a covenant elationship I will be your God the idea is I will be your king and you will be my people I will provide for you protect you bless you give you wisdom and my law on how to live together and how to live in relationship with me and what do these réalité say Oh him loyalty allegiance love you can sum it up with loving the Lord your God with all your heart soul mind and strength and loving your neighbor as yourself but of course all sounds great they also blow it they while he's on the mountain getting the Covenant old King law he comes down and finds they've made a golden statue right so they don't even get a day into the Covenant and they've already blown it right sounds familiar how your new year's resolution is doing really well alright just like Adam and Eve God responds in this twofold way judgment many of them die in fact a whole generation doesn't get to enter the promised land they're laid waste in the wilderness and yet there's grace God promises to still bless them and he preserves for the next generation faithful ones to himself and it's at this point in Israel's history that the reality of God's kingdom being established through the descendants of Abraham is actually almost completely lost so it seems because there's this 40-year period where most all these realized I basically the next their children enter into the promised land but even under Joshua there's some brief successes Battle of Jericho etc but there's a lots of disaster as well and then comes this horrible time of the judges the time when the Israelites as the book of Judges finally say do whatever is right in their own eyes they forget God as their king they fall under his judgment then they get really down they ask for help God raises up a ruler or a leader over them that's what a judge is like we think of you know somebody we'd love to just makes decisions behind a in a fancy room a judge in the Old Testament is a warrior king they raise up it restores the land for peace for a little to peace for a little while and then they fall back into rebellion and worshiping other gods the cycle repeats itself rinse and repeat over and over each time right each time God redeems them through various judges Deborah and Gideon and others but they always blow it and they exist like that for generations really until finally an enemy people like no none other rises up and that's the Philistines and it's actually the reason we call it Palestine today that's actually a just a derivation over centuries of the word Philistine that's where because the Philistines were the really important people who ended up being a great threat to the Jewish people's existence very organized military people they got nine-foot warriors right like Goliath I mean they're they're legit right and so they constantly oppress the Israelites up to the point where the Israelites lose the Ark of the Covenant I mean of all things the place where the royal deal is sealed right where you have this Ark of the Covenant and the Israelites are so bad in all this thing that they finally lose it in battles of the Philistines this is how much the the Philistines are the great enemies the one that was made by Moses they've been carrying around all these years and storing they finally lose it and you may remember those stories from the early part of First Samuel the result of all this is Israel says not God we repent but Israel says you know what we need a king the Philistines have a king all these other nations have a king we need a king and so they appeal to God through the prophet Samuel to have a king and gods response again is twofold first its judgment because it's wrong for them to want a king other than God because God is their king he was already their king and now they're wanting to trust in a human king to lead them so this judgment and there's also grace he's willing to give them a king if they will trust in him so we responds in judgment because their desire for a king is really in many ways the sins a sin against God as for Samuel says but he also graciously gives them one and thereby we form really the Kingdom of Israel for the first time with a real king the first king of course is who Saul he doesn't do too well he's tall he's handsome he's a warrior that's all they want turns out he has a fundamental heart problem he cares for the praise of others he's a fearful person more than one who is wholehearted devoted to God and he ends up blowing it and then in what are my favorite books of the Old Testament and certainly almost of the whole Bible besides the Gospels in 1st and 2nd samuel which are just absolutely delight to read they blow me away every time you see this amazing story of Saul it's a tale of two men two kings Saul blowing it while David becomes this amazing King he's a man a young man whose whole hearted in every way he's all sold out for God from the Dave and Goliath story to harp playing to skinning foreskins off of hundreds of Philistines you name it all the things you'd want in a king right he does it all right writes the salt much of many of the Psalms he's a musician he's everything he's handsome right multiple wives we're not encouraging that but all of this he he is the great king he's the man after God's own heart and it is under David that Israel reaches its highest point as a kingdom it's about a thousand years before Jesus's day it's about 3,000 years ago Israel reaches its apex he takes over this city that was owned by some other people and names it and it becomes what we know as Jerusalem to this day still debated of course and its ownership but it is it becomes the City of David and it is the place where the palace is and he has plans and hopes to build the temple of God there as well God tells him know you're a man of bloodshed so you can't build my temple but you can say up in your son will and so david hands off the kingdom whose son solomon of course David's very imperfect you remember the story of Bathsheba Solomon is the child of Bathsheba but Solomon promises to be a great king it's consolidating the Israel to its highest point wealth and all the nations around her and fear the Ethiopian Queen travels to meet Solomon because he's so wise he's the true kind of philosopher king or sage king the Egyptians honor him everything is great it's the apex of the kingdom it's finally arrived so it seems all the promises going way back to Adam and Eve seem to arrive and then what happens Solomon the greatest King son of David the first son of David then goes the way of the world and is led away in his heart after other gods and then even worse than that under his son Rhea Boehm he causes a civil war and the ten tribes and the North break apart from the two tribes in the south and were never reunited and then what happens in the the centuries and decades to follow the ten tribes you read about this in 1st and 2nd chronicles and for second Kings they have no good Kings they're all kings of Israel and they're all horrible worse and worse some really notorious ones like Ahab and his wife Jezebel they kill prophets they're worshipping idols openly all kinds of problems the ten tribes finally God completely destroys them by the Assyrians the two southern tribes which include Judah David's tribe they have some good Kings some bad Kings some really bad Kings but they have some good ones people like Josiah and others who reign well for a while but it's really a time period that is just declining more and more and it's at this time that God really begins to send prophets he their prophets before but he sends prophets to speak and say remember God is your true king remember the Covenant God has made with you it is worth pursuing him some of them many of them are killed and finally the two southern tribes because of their wickedness come under God's judgment as well and are captured by the great world power of that day then Babylon in the modern day Iran area in the Middle East yet and all that loss and grief and all that tragic history that really goes on in act 3 God is present and God is giving hope listen to some of the words that he speaks through his prophets from Isaiah listen o heavens in here o earth for the Lord speaks sons I have reared and brought up but they've revolted against me and ox knows its owner and a donkey knows its masters manger but Israel does not know my people did not understand a last sinful nation people weighed down with iniquity offspring of evildoers sons who act corruptly they have abandoned the Lord they've despised the Holy One of Israel they've turned away from him this is the prophetic word but then a few chapters later we hear these words of hope but there will be no more gloom for her who was in anguish in earlier times he treated the land with contempt but later on he shall make it glorious by the way of the sea on the other side of the Jordan Galilee of the Gentiles the people who walk in darkness will see a great light those who live in a dark land the light will shine on them you shall multiply the nation you'll increase their gladness they will be glad in your presence as with the gladness of harvest has men rejoice when they divide the spoil he shall break the yoke of their burden and the staff on their shoulders for a child to be born to us a son will be given to us the government will rest on his shoulders his name will be called wonderful counselor mighty God Eternal Father Prince of Peace there will be no end to the increase of his government or of his peace his reign on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and I've hold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore the zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this incredible words and I know when I was reading that gingerbread houses were scripting for you right you were thinking Christmas and you should think of Christmas because those are texts that the New Testament uses and applies to Jews but before that script runs for you I want to feel it and what's going on before this is a time of amazing tragedy and in generations of up and down but an increasing tragedy of bad Kings and disobedience to God's covenant with the kingdom covenant with his people and then he speaks these words that there is going to be a king coming who will be perfect sit on the throne of David and be the perfect Prince of Peace the perfect one this is the great hope and the words of encouragement even in the midst of all this darkness just judgment is coming so beware but in my grace I will provide a hope and a future and and establish my promise to David for there always to be one to reign because God is still raining now that person came to be known be still not New Testament but that person came to be known as the Messiah or the Messiah The Anointed One the one whose anointed in the line of David that's the great hope David had been anointed and the hope was that of them was another was to come and one of the places you see this notion of the hope for the future is in one of the later prophets in the book that we call Daniel where you have judgment and grace he's in Babylon he's in the place that has captured the remaining tribes and what happens to Daniel he becomes the Viceroy of the whole place of Babylon do you see a pattern right this is intentional have you ever considered how the story of Joseph at the end of Genesis and the story of Daniel are exactly parallel the very same thing happens in both stories that they at the beginning of the biblical story and at the end of the biblical story that's not an accident it's the same pattern God has captures his his people are captured and under suffering and then he raises up an unlikely person who goes in prison and interprets dreams it's the exact same story it's quite remarkable that's intentional God is tying together the whole story in these different historical events right and listen to these words that Daniel has in this vision as he looks forward to the hope of God returning Daniel 7:13 and 14 I saw in the night visions and behold with the clouds of heaven came one like a son of man like Adam and he came to the Ancient of Days he comes before God's throne himself and was presented before him that's a very royal image and to him this the son of man so the Ancient of Days is there is the king but then to the son of man who approaches the Ancient of Days is given Dominion that is Kingdom and glory and a kingdom and that so that all peoples nations and languages should serve him and this son of man that's gonna that comes before the Ancient of Days his Dominion is an everlasting Dominion it won't pass away and his kingdom is one that won't be destroyed again this amazing hope an image that's looking forward to a time coming that is promised from God a couple of things that happen as we wrap up this sort of phase then we need to be aware of is that the promises of this coming Anointed One this Messiah the son of man they're actually not given to all of Israel in this sense that already in the prophets you begin to get this discussion of the idea that not everyone who's in the Jewish people is truly aligned with God that's obvious but this idea of what we call a remnant that the prophets start talking about that within the bigger people of Israel God has a remnant of faithful people whose hearts are his like the diverse between David and Saul and so this is one thing that is beginning to be due to appear in the prophets it's going to be important for the New Testament and then secondly there's a revelation in the prophets we heard it in those that Isaiah chapter 9 reading that when God reestablishes his kingdom on the earth it's actually going to go all the way back to Abraham and it's going to bless all the nations and that sounds like a really good idea to you and me but you have to put yourself into the mindset of a Jewish person here in you know several hundred years later after the fall of David and Solomon they have spent centuries longer than the United States has been a country centuries being oppressed by one kingdom after another another the Assyrians the Babylonians all kinds of other finally the Greeks and then the Romans and they are oppressed and beaten up and taxed and killed and enslaved and so when the prophets say God's gonna raise up a king their primary sense of that is yes and destroy all of our enemies but the prophets like Isaiah and Dan and others say God's gonna raise up a king for you yes he's gonna fulfill this promise but you are gonna be a blessing to all nations and even the Gentiles the the outsiders the oppressors are going to receive the blessings of God that was in that Isaiah nine quote go back and look at it a light to the Gentiles will shine upon them and alot of the Jews did not like that and you can understand not throwing them under the bus if you and I were completely taken over let's say next year some foreign country North Korea or whatever over an America completely and for decades centuries even we're overrun and enslaved and heavily taxed and oppressed we don't have rights or dignity for centuries and then somebody rise up among us and says hey God's gonna rescue us and we are gonna bless our enemies most of us will not be very keen on that right and this is where Jewish people find themselves as we get into this interlude this time then the last part of Israel's history is recorded and the later prophets and then we have this time these few hundred years where God is at work we don't have any authoritative scriptures although they're still Jewish writings from this time period but God is at work a number of Kings rise up among the Israelites they are among the Jewish people all of them end up being corrupt there are times of oppression times of success under what I call the Maccabee ins we had a time where they came back from Babylon with Ezra and Nehemiah and then following after that it's a very mixed time and basically the Old Testament and then the what we call the Second Temple period of the intertestamental period it really ends on a rather disappointing kind of whimper but with some hope but it's it's a very dark and depressed time longing for a king longing for God to return and wondering is he really going to return what I've tried to do in this whirlwind tour of the Old Testament is show you that the idea of the kingdom makes sense and really drives what's going on here it's the promise and the hope that God it's the truth that God is a king and the his work in the world to establish and then finally return to come as the king to the earth and this brings us right then up to the text that were maybe a little bit more familiar with and that is the New Testament and on the first pages of the New Testament rightly called act for here the coming of the King on the very first page we meet this Harry Keith Green kind of lookin figure John the Baptist Jay the B and what are the first words that come out of his mouth right I'm proclaiming the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven repent because it's finally here now if you and I don't have that kind of background of the Old Testament story like I just gave you quickly there when we open the New Testament that may just sound like kind of a nice idea right again homecoming king and queen god save the queen of england whatever not sure what it means but I hope that once you sort of get this run up and realize this is what God's been about from creation and a Redemption all the way through then when John the Baptist opens his mouth and says repent because actually the Kingdom of Heaven or the kingdom of God is here that runs amazingly important scripts for people that means all the worlds of the Jewish people well at least the ones that aren't in cahoots with the Romans there's only one group of Jewish people or they don't really like John the Baptist message that's the ones that are in political power who are or sellouts with the Romans who are ruling over them but all the other Jews the regular people the AMA Haaretz the people of the land and the religious people even are curious the more devout religious people like the Pharisees and they all go streaming out into the wilderness to the Jordan the place that's symbolic of them entering the Promised Land the river that had been split in part not the Great Sea but mimicking that the the river that have been split apart so that Joshua could lead his people in the promised land that's where John the Baptist decides to have his ministry but God sends him there and everyone streams to him and what is he saying he's not saying justification by faith even though that's important we'll come back to that he's saying the message that makes sense to the whole story of the Bible repent for the kingdom of God is at hand turn away just like the prophets did turn away from finding your hope and your identity and your life and things other than God in his reign over you because now he is finally coming and then what does Jesus say the exact same thing repent for the kingdom of heavens at hand repent for the kingdom of God is here and then all through Jesus is teaching all his parables are parables about what the kingdom of God is like in unexpected ways his teaching his I mean his healings and if you ever consider why does Jesus heal all these people that then get sick and die later again was it just like a you know magic tricks or something no the point of him healing people is first of all that he loves people he's compassionate but it's because healing is a sign of the kingdom age coming the great hope is go back to the prophets that a time is coming a time in a place when God will reign with justice and life and the lion will lie down with the lamb and the child will play by the Vipers den and there will be no more sickness and no more tears and no we're crying that's the hope when God actually comes to restore to this land flowing with milk and honey and health and relationships and life and greenness in every way that's why jesus heals people because those are pictures of a time coming when the kingdom is there this is why Jesus exercises rulership over creation itself he walks on water he fields he feeds people miraculously these are images of a time in a place when God will reign perfectly a great way to get at this in the modern time is to read the last battle but I see his Lois you got to get some of these images of the same kind of thing and then Jesus's call he he does Kingdom work he's called the king and one of the most the clearest places where he is proclaimed and shown to be a king is at the last week of his life when he enters the City of David Jerusalem and what do the people say when he comes in Hosanna to the son of David and they put palm branches they wave them and they're singing and they're praising him and he comes in just the way David had humbly on the on the foal of a donkey he comes in to praise and honor and then the most unexpected thing he's crucified one of the most topsy-turvy aspects of the entire message of the kingdom is that the king is then crucified and then he raises he rises from the dead and rules and there's more that we could say of course about all that and I point here is just to show you that the kingdom idea of Jesus Jesus King and his teaching and his actions are entirely in line with what the whole story the Bible's been about here's a great quote from Herman bobbing for Jesus the Keena of God was the purpose of all of his activity the main content and central idea of his teaching whose essence expansion development of fulfillment were presented by him in the most variegated way with and without parables and moving outward from his own person he established this kingdom in the hearts of his disciples and it goes on we don't have time to look at it in detail but we could see the same thing in the Gospel of John we could see the same thing in the book of Acts when the Kingdom goes forth through the church juice goes from being the preacher to the one preached and all throughout right in acts 1:3 after Jesus rises from the dead he spends 40 days with his disciples and what does it say it says he's taught them for forty days about the kingdom of God and then they say to him in acts 1:6 is this the time you're going to restore the kingdom to Israel this is how they're thinking right and it goes on at the very last verse of the book of Acts describes Paul's preaching in Rome and house imprisonment as preaching the kingdom of God to all who would listen right this is the consistent theme and that it goes on through Paul's letters through Peter and James the book of Revelation pictures a time when God is going to come and finally bring his kingdom from heaven to earth and it seamlessly goes into the into the early church as well beyond the book of Acts and beyond the writing of the New Testament where the Church Fathers constantly think about and talk about Jesus as king even though you and I that isn't the primary image we use now even though we wouldn't deny it this was understood in the New Testament in the early church this is the way to make sense of the whole Bible and here's a really nice concluding quote if the New Testament is right Christ did not come to pluck souls from an evil and worthless creation and transport them to an angelic existence and Cain instead he came to announce the beginning of the world's renewal and what that is that's talking about God coming and fulfilling his promises of his just and good reign upon the earth through the king now that's the story of the Bible going out even all the way through in the book of Revelation act six we now need to turn and address what I like to call the Protestant elephant in the kingdom room here and that is if it's clear that the message of the Old Testament is the kingdom of God and the message of Jesus and the rest of the New Testament is thinking of God it's a whole Bible reality but if you and I have been in church at all however you probably realize that rarely if ever do we define the gospel in terms of the kingdom of God we don't usually do that in fact most of us would define the gospel as forgiveness of sins maybe atonement if we want to use a fancy word or we'll think about the cross of Jesus or again maybe a little fancier terminology justification by faith what's going on there if we're right if what I'm saying tonight is right that the kingdom of God is what sort of makes sense of the whole Bible why is it that in the church our primary way of thinking about what the gospel is and what we're about is in these terms of what an older terminology we might call the Romans Road you know your sinful separated from God and God now can forgive you through Jesus and now you trust in him if you trust in him and turn to him you'll become part of the children of God and have eternal life where's the kingdom and all of that maybe that's maybe you're like me September 20th 1988 someone shared the four spiritual laws with me right freshman long-haired pot-smoking freshman on the campus of a state university so make sure the four spiritual laws with me that was the message and I became a Christian maybe that's your story as well how in the world does that fit in with what we're just saying about the kingdom of God let me push it even a little bit more I've already sort of said that it Paul but if you read Paul I'll suggest to you that the kingdom of God is clearly there in Paul but primarily Paul's language isn't about the kingdom primarily he is talking about this language of faith and forgiveness of sins and justification by faith so is there a difference between Paul and Jesus and that's how some people would read the Bible not you know believing Christians usually but some people would say yeah Paul and Jesus are actually have different messages there's a famous line from the early 20th century by a scholar Jesus preached the kingdom Paul established the church in this kind of contrastive way was there a loss is there a change and why is our understanding the Gospels so different than the sort of whole Bible Kingdom idea well the first thing I'd say to that is I do think Paul is very much about the kingdom I think it's very clear from his own writings as well as things are said about him and acts so I think that's a misunderstanding and let me help you think about that especially when we think of Paul we often just think of Romans and what he says there it's interesting that the end of Romans actually references the kingdom of God ultimately after all that discussion in chapter 14 but when you read Paul's letters like Colossians or Ephesians I think you'll be amazed to see once in light of what we've just said tonight there's a lot of emphasis on Christ as the cosmic King the one who rules over all think of Colossians 1 when he defines the gospel as he's transferred us from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of his beloved son there's that kind of language for example so I think it actually is there and Paul quite a bit if we have ears to hear and eyes to see and again I mentioned the book of Acts where it's Luke describes Paul's ministry as preaching the kingdom of God so what's going on what why this seeming disconnect I like to suggest to you that really just like kingdom and covenant are two sides of one coin we can and should see that this message of forgiveness justification by faith atonement is not in any way in conflict with Kingdom but actually are two sides of one coin that go together and that there's actually a very consistent message between the Gospels and Jesus and Paul one great scholar Simon Gaither Cole distills kind of a common message between Paul and the Gospels and Jesus in these three points so I'll just read them quickly Jesus was the promised messianic King and son of God who came to earth as a servant in human form secondly Jesus by his death and resurrection atoned for our sin and secured our justification by grace certainly the Gospels teach that as well and then Jesus will return and complete what he began by renewing the entire creation through the resurrection of our bodies it's one way to get at it other scholars Tom right so how can I put these things together here's how I put it together in a way that I hope makes sense I would sum it up with this two pairs of words that when we read Jesus and Paul together what we're kind of more used to more Pauline language but hopefully now we're adding to it a little bit more kingdom language I would say that the gospel can be defined with these two sets of words that it's both cruciform and creational both personal and panoramic and what I mean is this that the gospel that we understand that we preach and we teach and base our lives on is absolutely cruciform it is cross-shaped any gospel message that does not have that is not the gospel and this is entirely consistent between Jesus the one who's preaching the kingdom who's the crucified King the Gospels show and put great emphasis on the cross and resurrection of Jesus and it's certainly clear in all the language or used to from Paul as well and yet at the same time it is creational and this is where probably we as the evangelical church probably need to read our whole Bibles a little bit more and when I say creational here I'm tying it into the whole from creation to new creation theme of God reigning and I'd suggest you that that is consistent between the Old Testament and Jesus and Paul we have tended to focus on the cruciform part but I'd suggest see that we should need to fill that out with this don't lose that but fill that out with the creational and on a kind of nother access we can access we can think of it as both personal and panoramic when you and I think about the gospel we probably primarily think about it in personal terms my forgiveness of sins my relationship with God and that's not wrong that's absolutely true but I think suggest you in light of what we've seen tonight about the kingdom of God as a whole theme that it's God I would describe the Bible's message as God reestablishing is rain from heaven to earth from creation to new creation heaven to earth creation and new creation that image of the whole Bible's message is more than just personal includes personal but it's panoramic it's the whole scope of things and I was just to you when you read the Old Testament that's clear you read the Gospels that's clear and that's really clear and Paul as well think of say Romans 8 where after all the discussions he's made about forgiveness of sins he puts the whole thing into the context of God redeeming all of creation itself so I think these two sets of words can help us and I think they do challenge us that if we only have a cruciform and personal gospel maybe we are missing something I don't want to lose those but we need to expand that and connect it into this bigger picture of God's redeeming work in the world from creation and new creation reestablishing his kingdom from heaven to earth okay so in our last few minutes then here I wanted to concentrate tonight on the biblical witness in our last few minutes I want to turn then and say what does this mean for us today and there's a lot of other things we could say I just want to give a sketch to conclude tonight four points that should be on your handout as well of what if we are to sort of embrace this whole Bible vision of the kingdom of God what are some things this means for us first thing I'd like to point out that the primary theology of the Bible is a story it's the story of the triune God's relational activity with his creation when you and I think theology we probably think doctrinal statements maybe village churches confession of faith or maybe the Apostles Creed I seen those are all great those are absolutely essential there's something that church creates rightly so especially to explain things that are wrong ways of reading the Bible but the primary theology the Bible it's just you is actually not doctrinal statements as good and as essential as those are the primary theology of the Bible is a story about God's work in the world from creation and new creation from heaven to earth it's there in Genesis it's there in the in in the book of Revelation and everywhere in between most of the Bible is a story most of the Bible is stories its narrative it's not just for kids right the whole Bible is story because God is relating to us and story because we are story people and whatever other doctrinal and whatever theological things you're committed to and believe in if you do not have and if I do not have if we do not have a sense that the main message of the Bible is the story of God's work in the world is real work in the world from creation and new creation that's just we have a very thin and truncated and weak understanding of the whole Bible it is about God's activity in the world for us and through us and in us it's true of both the Old Testament and the New Testament one interesting thing that I don't have time to do fully tonight but is very interesting I'm giving a shout out here to a professor at RTS Jackson named Carl Ellis and you know some some of these things were very much inspired by him and I don't want to misrepresent him so anything I'm saying that isn't good don't credit to him credit to me if it's not good but I these things were inspired by him one of the things he points out is that majority cultures like say the white church today have a tendency to think about their faith in cognitive doctrinal terms and minority cultures because their experience is very different of usually identity oppression and economic oppression tend to think about their faith in more ethical and action and narrative terms it's a very interesting insight and I think it's really true and I think speaking from coming from a primarily a white church although there's diversity here as there is in my church at home I think this is part of the the problem we tend to have is that it's very easy for us to boil down our religion into doctrines what your essential and important but it's not the whole story in fact I would push us pretty far and say the primary story is this bigger picture of God's work in the world just that's all I'll say on that let me move on to the second point the metaphor of Kingdom makes crystal clear that the call of the gospel is a call to allegiance now I say metaphor I didn't really talk about metaphors but this is what I was talking about myself about scripts running kingdom of God the kingdom of God is not the only way to describe God's relationship with his people there are other ways adoption Redemption marriage covenant salvation friendship we could go on you could look a lot bill a god we are God's building or God's field there's a hundreds of ways the Bible different metaphors the way the Bible describes the relationship between God and humanity the kingdom of God is not the only one but I would say it's a very very important obviously I'm arguing tonight it's pretty central to the whole story and every metaphor has its own advantages when we think about God as our Shepherd that has certain ways that it sort of makes us think about our relation with God if we think about God as the husband to the church as his bride that's a different metaphor that communicates different ideas if we think about God is a savior or as a friend every metaphor is not the whole story and it evokes certain beautiful truths well I'm just want to highlight that if we reimburse the steeply biblical notion of the kingdom of God one of the things you cannot avoid in that metaphorical relationship between God and humanity is that we're called to allegiance right in other words all the other metaphors Savior things like that friend those are all great but you cannot avoid the idea if God is a king and we are his kingdom citizens the primary sense of that is that we're called to a covenant Allah thil Ness which I think can be described greatly with the word allegiance right and that's not work salvation or something that's a necessary part of this biblical image of God being a king you can't imagine anyone being a faithful citizen of a kingdom and not carrying what the King thinks are the Queen things right or saying well hey I'm glad you're my king but you don't really affect my life all right the point of being God being a king is that we are citizens and this is a challenges us towards a sort of flippancy or ambivalence or half heartedness third point Jesus kingdom vision is designed to resocialize us to deconstruct our values and reconstruct them a new kingdom oriented and God directed ways they're often very counter cultural and unnatural Jesus teachings central of which included the sermon of the MAL but all his kingdom teachings have as their primary purpose forming us to be a different kind of people when you look at uses parables for example they are constantly turning upside down what we think and what we naturally feel and what our society says is right the children are honored the ones who have childlike faith not the high-powered powerful people the last will be first the sinful people not the holy religious people are the ones that Jesus honors and puts at the high place at the table the the woman who is a clearly behaviorally a sinful person but as a heart that makes her worship Jesus and wash his feet with her hair is valued over the godly truly godly law keeping Pharisee everything in Jesus teachings turns all of our values upside down and I think it's a really helpful to describe this is kind of a resocialize Ingush I want you to embrace that if you want to follow Jesus and via Christian that's that certainly is about receiving forgiveness of sins absolutely it's the only the only way in is through the cross and the resurrection but I would say maybe even more or at least for sure immediately in pushing what Jesus is gonna do is resocialize you he's gonna deconstruct a lot of the things that everything in your culture my culture your values even Church values a lot of times I have formed us he wants to turn our loves and our habits our judgments our lives upside-down that we might learn to be conformed to how God is and this is a very important aspect of Christianity and again it ties into the sort of allegiance idea to be a Christian doesn't just mean Amen now I tell other people about it it means God is now doing a work - for me to be a certain kind of person and that's often going to be very unnatural and topsy-turvy here's a great quote from Jamie Smith Christian discipleship is about not only the acquisition of a worldview in other words is not just coming to believe certain doctrines like a lot of times we think but it's also the inhabitation of a sensibility a way of thinking and feeling about the world to be formed in Christ for missional action action is to acquire a temperament that guides us beyond and beneath what we think as David Brooks puts it in order to act justly and rightly we first need to learn to perceive the world in the right way to be formed as image bearers of Christ is to acquire a temperament that is indexed to the kingdom of God that's a great insight this is what it means to be a Christian to have our sensibilities transformed to the ways of the kingdom of God and finally and related to all these the story of the the kingdom of God teaches us is that our story is actually God's story if you think back or look back on your handout to those six acts even though the Bible goes all the way through and shows us the end of Acts 6 in the book of Revelation as Bartholomew and go Hien who you know created that show we are actually living in act 5 scene 2 we know we're act 6 is going to be it we know from the end of the Bible where it's going to end up but we are now living in the middle of that story and what a great image that is then in other words your story before you're a Christian and now especially if you are a Christian is not just about you your story is not about whether you're gonna get that job and find that right spouse or your kids are gonna be successful in this way or you're gonna have this great retirement all those things are not really what your story is your story is now intersected into God's story of the world and you and I are situated in act 5 scene 2 which means that our approach to the Bible and our approach to our church life together cannot just be one where we think about the Bible and theology to use the British terminology of bits and bobs or we would say odds and ends where we just kind of go to the Bible to find a few things to do and you know we kind of in foreign it inform some of the ways but basically my life is about my story right the story of me all right the story of us all right it's not just about my story that's kind of God you know plays a helpful part in or something rather now if you're a Christian with allegiance to the king your very identity and story is about God's work in the world and it may just happen to intersect with Dallas Texas or Fort Worth or wherever you are and it's gonna use you in those ways but your story is not your story your story is God's story in the world and that's actually really good news because that's something worth giving our lives to not just you and me trying to orchestrate our own lives this means our identity is not primarily our country the country of Texas or the other part that you're a part of the United States our country our job our family our wealth our education our hopes our background even our local church none of those are actually our identity but God's story and one of the little ways this can come out just watch out for allegiances to people and causes and visions that aren't really to the kingdom of God I am of Chandler I am of Piper I am of JT I am of Jen I am of Pennington Oh God know for sure not who cares about all the other things we might find our identity in all of those are not what our real story is we are now part of a kingdom that is on the move we are unified with a king who is on the move we are in the middle of God's redemptive work in the world and that is good news so to conclude tonight I just want to invite you from all that we've said and thank you for your excellent attention over all these words about 10,000 words I've said to you I keep track of all these words I want to invite you to something more than words which is an invitation to taste and see that our God is a glorious beautiful perfect loving and lovely King in all his glory from creation to new creation he is at work reestablishing his reign the things that you long for all that you long for in terms of health and success and prosperity and relationships of love and joy and peace and meaningful work the very fact that you have those longings show that that's how God is and what he's made you for and I would invite you to say that's what the message of the Bible is inviting you into not into just a bunch of beliefs and not into just adding a little few things to your life to make it better but he's inviting you and calling you into the story of his own work in the world and that is a glorious and beautiful truth well worth giving our lives to you amen let me pray for us thank you our Heavenly Father that what we've said is not just a great idea but it is the truth of how we're made and who you are and Jesus you know my heart that it is fickle I know my brothers and sisters their hearts are fickle you know that my life is marked by inconsistency I know that's true my brothers and sisters here as well Jesus we bow our hearts as beautiful King to you tonight we we say that you alone are worthy of all of our hopes and our identity and our dreams we're so often distracted by so many other things that are claiming and desiring our allegiance and attention we pause tonight and say none of those things are gonna satisfy none of those things are worth giving our whole life to we humble ourselves we hear your voice Jesus and we repent because the kingdom of God is at hand and we turn from ourselves to you and praise you that you're beautiful and good and perfect and lovely and all that we long for and we pray in Jesus precious name Amen I want to invite you again if you do have questions over something that was said or perhaps something that wasn't that you wanted to have be addressed please visit this website Asli do slash TBC forums or if you don't have a question and you want to just see what other questions are being asked you can actually vote for questions there too and kind of push votes up so we'll spend the next 20 minutes or so just asking some questions first one for you is this why do you think the teaching of the kingdom of God has been largely ignored in American Christianity perhaps over the last 50 60 years or any time for him why is this something maybe that is fresh and new that hasn't been considered by American evangelicals yeah that's a great question and an important one I think for us I was trying to address that but I didn't give the kind of history of it yeah I mean it certainly was the case that from the early church on this was a major idea the kingdom of God and then it was lost it's hard to say exactly when and where it probably was lost at different times but in the American evangelical scene it's not brand new in fact there's a scholar you may have heard of George Alden lad you know just you know in the 50s and 60s that he was talking this way a lot and so it's not entirely new to the evangelical tradition but what I think happened primarily was at the end of the 1800s and then into the early 1900's there was a really tragic split in American church history and we call it the fundamentalist modernist controversy what had happened was you know Darwinism and various other aspects of the American Christian scene had increasingly been splitting apart and there rose this pretty to distinct versions of Christianity we might call one liberal or modernist and and then kind of a hunkering down and a sort of very conservative fundamentalism and what happens when you have those splits is that both sides tend to run to the extreme especially in America America is a country of extremes and we tend to really run to the extreme and unfortunately the more liberal side of the church talked a lot about the kingdom and they really liked the Gospels and they actually this is what arose kind of thing we called the social gospel where they put a lot of emphasis on Jesus's about helping the poor and helping people well because that was unfortunately even though that was true that was tied with a lot of more liberal theology the more conservative people ran the other way really strongly and talked and really didn't talk about the kingdom because soon as you said Kingdom that kind of evoked all this kind of more liberal version and so there became a real emphasis on Paul and forgiveness of sins and the inerrancy of the Bible and all these kind of things that are also important but they kind of became extremes and so what happens what happened over time then is that kind of you know we those two groups stop talking to each other and they both lost as a result I would say thankfully in the 1950s and 60s with the rise of what we call evangelicalism really there was an emphasis on the kingdom but it's just kind of taken a while for it to kind of soak in more I think into majolica theology I think that's how I described it it's great wonderful this is a question that's right up your alley somebody knows his background academically it has to do exactly this question so if you mess this one up we might as well just pray and close it down because nobody thought about this more than you what's the difference between heaven and the kingdom of God okay so Kingdom of Heaven or yes so it's interesting because Jesus uses language in the Sermon on the Mount blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven nobody also goes about preaching and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God yeah is there a difference between these two things when we think about maybe life after death you think about going Evan how does that relate to the kingdom of God maybe just kind of teased some of that out yeah so let me answer those are two related but separate questions so first on the more kind of lower level question of it is true that in Matthew what Jesus says is the kingdom of heaven and everywhere else in the New Testament it says kingdom of God some people a minority report in times fast including in this very city there's a certain sort of theological group that actually emphasized that those were two different things the kingdom of heaven was the different time and era for different people than the kingdom of God I I don't think that's a good argument at all I think you can easily show that's not the case in the Gospels that Kingdom of Heaven and kingdom of God are used interchangeably they don't refer to different things so why why does Matthew call it the kingdom of heaven and why does everyone else call it the kingdom of God well the short answer it's just you is that short meaning I wrote a 350-page book on this but here's the short answer is that makes a great stocking stuffer as I always like to say is that even though they have the same reference or denotes for Matthew to say kingdom of heaven is a very powerful way to emphasize the contrast between God and heaven verses Kings on the earth okay so God has a heavenly kingdom and his way of ruling and reigning is very different than how humanity rules and reigns and so Matthew I think plays with that and had and describes uses teaching is about the Kingdom of Heaven to emphasize that contrast again I think may be a more important question is I think what was maybe more specifically asked how does the kingdom of God relate to this idea of heaven because just like we talk about the gospel as forgiveness of sins primarily in our tradition part of that has also been that when you die you go to heaven that's a typical way we talk about how the world does that relate to the kingdom of God well I think the best way to think about it is to remember that if you actually read the Bible through the end game is actually not heaven even though in sort of 19th century hymns and our tradition that's what we started to sing a lot about and think about it's really clear that heaven is not the end of the book of Revelation what actually happens at the end of the book of Revelation God's heavenly kingdom comes to earth the big point of the whole message of the Bible is God is actually engaged with this creation he's renewing it and including us renewing is this is why the resurrection is important not just the death of Jesus the resurrection does a lot of things but one of them it inaugurates the new creation itself including with Jesus's resurrection body and ours finally and maybe the easiest way to see it is actually in the Lord's Prayer the Lord's Prayer this central prayer that used teaches that really frames how we think about the world and God how does it start let your name be sanctified or hallowed be your name I always like to say to you we only use hallow for two things you used to be just hell Halloween now we've got another Gudrun Deathly Hallows those are those the two we have right but besides we don't really hello just means sanctified so let your name be sanctified let your kingdom or reign come let your will be done those three things as those things are true in heaven let them also be true on earth that's at the core of the Christian theology that we are the people living in a time when there there is a heaven God is in heaven and in heaven the Angels honor him the people worship him his name is hallowed his reign is complete it's doozer it's real and his will is done but that's not fully the case here on the earth right now he's still generally but he's going to come again and bring his reign from heaven to earth so that they're saying they have heaven in the kingdom of God is that heaven is a temporary it's a current place that is looking forward something bigger and greater and deeper which is when God's reign comes fully upon the earth that's an excellent answer if that's kind of a new but yeah here we go if that's new for you like if that's something new like I've never thought of that before I'm gonna give a shout out to the Bible project again just Google heaven and earth Bible project they have a great about six minute video explaining exactly what there's no point here which is kind of this visual representation of the the primary movement in the Bible is not humanity going to god but God bringing his heaven to us and invading his world here and it does that really beautifully kind of in some imagery so great next question I love this question how should a proper understanding of the kingdom of God all that we've learned tonight and thinking about the way the Bible talks about the king of God impact the way we share our faith evangelistic conversations if Jesus goes about preaching the gospel of the kingdom perhaps we should be doing that too yeah no that's not only an interesting question but I love the heart of that question I mean that's really good yeah because this message so obviously what that means is when you go share your faith you need an 80 minute lecture tracing the whole story of the Bible from creation you got it you got it down right okay so just do that on the airplane people love you it's gonna be awesome you did it on the way here right exactly right three times it was advantage of the delayed flights yeah we're on the water cooler at work any minute lectures on the theme of the kingdom of God yeah it is a very good question I mean I would say that there's absolutely nothing wrong or broken really about how we traditionally think about evangelism God loves you you know however however you might describe it were sinful and broken in need of forgiveness Jesus died on the cross for our sins and invites us into forgiveness in a relationship with them that's absolutely true there's nothing wrong with that that's how this 18 year old got saved right that's it many others in here as well there's absolutely nothing wrong with that it's 100% true it's just not the whole message of the Bible but there's nothing wrong with it and God is happy to use us in all of our incompleteness right but that message that we just described is actually part of this bigger story that that is the way in which God ultimately establishes his reign upon the earth is through Jesus coming and in throne I love that video is very powerful Jesus is enthroned ultimately on the cross and in his resurrection not just across in his resurrection as well and that's the means and it's personal to us it's not only panoramic it's also personal so I still haven't answered your question but I just wanna encourage you there's nothing wrong you don't have to go home and like Tara let's have a for spiritual laws burnable party you know there's something pitchforks and Crusades headquarters or something far from it instead I would encourage you at least the in the first instance make sure you have in your mind that whenever you're talking with someone about the gospel you're not the gospel is not just the message of Jesus death on the cross for my sins it's something even more powerful and larger that God is restoring life to his own world and inviting us to be a part of that and the way you argue the only way you can enter into that is through allegiance and following and trust in Jesus including his death and resurrection so I mean I think you can describe it the same way but I think even with just a few additions to your your verbage your language you and I could say you know we you and I long for true life you and I longed for a time and a place that things are right and just and in a season in a or not as a season a an existence where there's I like to talk about as true human flourishing that's what God has built for us and is in our hearts you know don't you long for that as well and the way you get into that in the way that we can be aligned with that when God returns is through the the gracious gift of juices death and resurrection that we might be unified with him so I would just kind of take the same message that we're used to the gospel and just kind of expanded and deepen and kind of rifle it through with a little bigger part of the story of the Bible I hope that helps but there are some good resources that do this from Crusade and some other places you I don't you maybe you could yeah there are a few resources talking about kind of storying the Bible if you just google story in the Bible there are some good resources there for those of you who are in the training program and may be interested or if you're not in the training program but interested it may be more of a kind of a longer treatment specifically related to allegiance Matthew Bates is a new book it's called salvation by allegiance alone he's talking about how allegiance kind of encapsulates this faith idea but also allegiance to a king and so you can as you're sharing the gospel ask people the question what are the things that you give yourself to what are the things that have your allegiance what are the things and does God have your allegiance exactly okay that's good this is an interesting question and one that I've kind of wondered about some times myself if Satan and maybe we can even broaden this question a little bit because I have the iPad and I'm gonna do it if Satan is the Prince of this world or perhaps you could even think like Ephesians language-like are battling its flesh and blood begins the rulers powers authorities and in the spiritual places has God given up his kingdom in this temporary sense to Satan or to evil forces or how would you explain kind of these two kingdoms perhaps there's a mystery and a paradox in that it's another good question but I would just reiterate what I said the difference between and we don't know why God is doing this but we can trust in His goodness in His wisdom that he does rule by rights I mean God is ruling it the Bible is very clear that God is ruling over all the world still right I mean he always has from creation and new creation he hasn't given it up it's just that in his work of redeeming the world he has chosen to allow there to be a time not where he's not ruling but where his reign is not complete and full there's rebellion within his within his reign we don't know why exactly except for I'm that he didn't shut it down in 1987 yeah all right and I got to be part of it in 1988 and and on so we don't know why there's a mystery of that I cannot help but think of the book of Job the first two chapters is this picture you know it's very clear that God is ruling over all that happens in job's life from the Old Testament but he he allows some extra leash to Satan right to go and make Jobe suffer he's God never is God not sovereign during that whole time of course he is but in the wisdom and paradox that we don't understand he allows there to be rebellion and evil it's your--it's sighing into the most difficult theological question there is the POA the problem of evil if all if God is all good and all sovereign then why is there evil in the world sorry I shouldn't have raised it you're living happily you're you were very happy we feel that moment sorry I just ruined their lives because there is no easy answer to that at all do not Google that question because you will go to the deep places of this this next question I think has something a little bit to do that Matt uses this language a lot and we talks about kind of these concepts and his sermons but it's the relationship between God's kingdom having already been established and God's kingdom still coming to be established so G talked about the kingdom is here in your midst he's establishing it and inaugurating it in his resurrection and ascension but yet there's so much suffering why are we suffering and not just problem people but like why are we not experiencing this already existence and maybe talk about some of the problems related to inaugurated eschatology or inaugurated kingdoms that could preps promise too much in this present age mmm okay was there a question 90-second so if I understand what you're getting at yeah I mean it is a again always happy to start with paradox and mystery I mean I think a lot of times we don't have enough space for that in our doctrinal emphasis that there are things we don't understand and we have to sort of embrace I often describe it as like we like to take our American made leaf blowers into this kind of glory and it's just give it all this a kind of glory cloud that's bothering my doctrinal precision you know just blow this crap out of here all right so take that back that's gonna be your anyways you go to bed tonight that's what you'll be thinking about so I think we need to embrace that we just we don't know what's going on but we can explain some things if it's all say two things one explain some things and then talk about some mistaken views that are these two things are related one is that thing that life comes through death I I mean there's a paradox in that but it's also just a parent it's in plants and seeds in parents two children passing on I mean it's in Jesus is the ultimate sort of example of this for there to be resurrection life there must be death and in a post fall world that is a universal principle and so I think for us you know even though we are ones who are unified with the Risen one and our goal is human flourishing and God promises and has it working and human flourishing there's this paradox that we can taste and see is true though that it's often the most life comes through death and suffering you know you think of even completely secular situations you know all the famous people who end up having hugely successful companies they all like failed 19 times beforehand you know they're even just at a purely secular level you can kind of see this work out but it had more deeply spiritual level in our lives I bet every one of us could testify if you've been around a few years at least that it was through the suffering and the pain the loss and the infertility and the death and all the ways that suffering comes the world that we none of us would have ever wanted broken marriages and prodigal children and everything cancers are horrible things that there comes a point when we get on the other side of it and we can see that while it was real pain and suffering not to be treated rightly God was in it and there was a new kind of life that came out of it right that's that's the eyes of faith and not only just the eyes of a that grunting it out that's is the experience of God's people life comes through death and so that would relate to the second thing I'd say what are some misperceptions well it's that there's no suffering in the kingdom now there is this is the great danger of what we might call the health and wealth gospel or something which is half right right that God is about our prosperity and our success and our peace and our flourishing in our life and our joy that's absolutely true but without the paradox of in this time that comes in and is woven through and just like a great steak is not just the meat but it's marbled with fat or something so to our joys and our flourishing in this age is inevitably pockmarked with suffering and loss and pain it doesn't make the joy any less real in fact in some ways it heightens it right as we long for a time when all will be restored so I don't think you can get any can't blow any more of that which kind of glory away than that I think but I'd love to hear what you'd say no I think I think that's a great answer I'm gonna do that I'll leave that for Matt so here here is here's to nobody tell them I said that here are here are two questions that are very very similar and you did speak about this at the end I just love to hear you talk about it a little bit more especially was talking about kind of some of the Carl Ellis's work and we hear this language a lot we use this language at the village from time to time what are some practical implications of being like Kingdom citizens panoramic and personal like what what maybe would be it gives you think maybe about your life like what have been some practical implications as you think about the kingdom of God coming to reign and rule in your life and in your family what have been some implications for you getting personal here yeah I'd prefer just to talk about theoretically if I could yeah well on the church wide level I mean I I think it is an incredibly exciting time in our generation I know this church sojourned churches I'm involved with it's a great time that we are realizing that the work of the gospel and God's work in the world is more than just me getting saved so that I can go to heaven right it's engagement with culture it's engagement with those in need well that's exactly what James says to help what is pure religion to help the widow and the orphan right and I think that also includes engaging in the creation mandate of engaged in the arts and all kinds of adding Beauty to the world and caring for the poor and those in need psychologically as well as economically racially press people all that and I think it's a time where we're doing that better than probably several generations of the church I think that's one of the great things about sort of embracing a bigger kingdom orientation not just a me personal forgiveness orientation so I think it's happening now I encourage you more when it comes to me personally two things to say one I have noticed again we have six kids two in college now and one about to go so we're gonna its winding down thankfully it's been a long long haul they get an amen 21 22 years we've been at it now and one of the things over the years that I think this has certainly impacted me is just casting a vision very imperfectly am terribly imperfect father but casting a vision to my kids about what Christianity is it's the it's the hope of God restoring things restoring us and restoring his creation that's the primary way I've talked about it both in good times and in December 26 times as I like to call them right the day after Christmas when your kid is there any worst day in the world 364 more days right you know the December 26 moments of all of our lives when things break and relationships break and people break and bodies break and and jobs break and you know all of our toys and all the things we hope for break those moments the message that God is redeeming us and his whole creation looking forward to the end that's the only thing that really gives hope in those moments so I've tried to cast a vision of that to my kids very imperfectly so in times of sadness but also in times of their brokenness when they blow it I've noticed this you know I've I've had a lot of teenagers I have four boys and two girls I've had a lot of teenage boys and they are oddly driven to reproduce and that's a very normal thing and this I don't know where they get that but my six kids the what I've noticed in these moments with them where I've had to address issues related to reproduction that the you know of course I say to them I don't think I don't expect you to be perfect in any of these areas right that's not what the message of the gospel is you now have to get your act a to be perfect the message of God's work in the world is this is broken you're broken but God's inviting you into a way of being in the world that will promise life to you and and to your future and to your children and my grandchildren dang it but the you know this it's it's a vision of the gospel is not just the sort of judicial trans actual thing you're bad now you're not supposed to do bad anymore it's instead yeah of course this is all broken of course you're gonna make mistakes I make mistakes too we need to have a vision I'm inviting you into a vision son of that God wants to redeem all parts of our lives and work in us and transform us and for our good he wants to slip in wisdom so that we can experience your flourishing that's just one thing that comes to mind as I think about sort of thinking of the gospel in these bigger terms as relates to parenting is a beautiful way to think about that here's what I'd like to do I want to spend a few minutes just praying he's thanking the Lord for a night like tonight but also as we think about this sermon series coming up that we might not just think about it that's just a sermon series but that as Jesus teaches us in his prayer there are fundamental disposition and orientation would be to God and asking him to bring his kingdom and that we might be a church that all of our campuses might be places in DFW that are asking for God to bring his kingdom here and now and that we'd be kind of disposed to God in this way we'd say we are helpless but you are a helper and you're the one who will come someone I just pray for the next few minutes if you join me in praying asking God to bring that in our own lives in our city and ultimately into the world and then we'll close up to you Father and to the Son and to the Spirit we offer all honor and glory and praise tonight because you are our true king and as we see Jesus enthroned has our king we are taught about an upside-down kingdom that you reign not from a palace in Rome but you reign from a cross in Jerusalem and it shows that it's true Philippians chapter 2 that because you were willing to do that that God has exalted you our Lord Jesus Christ and you were given the name that's above every name you are her true king and so we pray right now in this moment would you send us your spirit and would you use your spirit in our hearts and our lives to reorient us to change our sensibilities to change our love's to change our disposition to you the things in that our lives that might have our allegiance now might have our affection and attention and devotion would you in this moment by your spirit transform our hearts so we might look a little bit more like a kingdom citizens I pray for our church as we spend the next several months considering the things of the kingdom that our hearts would be good soil and as the Gospel message goes forth and as the word is preached that it might find that the gospel word might find good soil and that we would orient ourselves to your kingdom I pray primarily for each of our campuses I think of all of them in this moment and I ask that we would pray that your kingdom would come on earth as it is in heaven that would come in flower mount in Dallas and Fort Worth in South Lake and Plano and in Oak Cliff and in Louisville and an Argyle and all around us and ultimately to the ends the earth might your gospel of the kingdom go forward help us to be the kind of church that is praying for these things but also acting towards these things resocialize us reorient us to the world so that we might be Kingdom citizens Lord Jesus we want to be this until you come we are looking so forward to you returning in coming we ask just like the book of Revelation does at the end would you come quickly Lord Jesus would you take all that is broken in this world all that brings us pain and would you bring healing would you bring hope would you bring your kingdom it's in Christ's name we pray amen amen would you do me one more favor thank dr. Pennington again for coming I just have one brief announcement and will be dismissed this only is for our training program students I just want you to know we're not done we have a lot more of this tomorrow and we will be over at the Highland Village campus from 9:00 to 4:00 we will have breakfast for you but breakfast doesn't start at 9:00 the teaching starts at 9:00 so if you would like breakfast breakfast come at about 810 8:15 we'll have coffee breakfast will be hanging out and then we'll go from 9:00 to 4:00 we also have lunch provided for you just one last thing as I just thought of it now if you're interested in the training program this is what we do this is what we're doing on a weekly basis we would love for you to apply we only have one hundred and twenty five spots in Flower Mound and 125 in Dallas each year but we welcome and invite your applications we would love to see a lot of you here next year and participating with us applications will go live in April so be on the lookout for that or feel free to ask any of us or anybody you know in the training program questions love you all so grateful you came have a wonderful night

Channel: The Village Church Resources

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Keywords: The Village Church, Jonathan Pennington

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Length: 111min 13sec (6673 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 26 2018