- Well, here we are again,
the kingdom of God is like, that's the name of our series,
lesson number four entitled, the power of proclamation,
Matthew 28:1-20,
we'll be talking about that a little later on.
I want to talk about the various Gospel and Gospel writers,
each of the for men who recorded the life
and the ministry of Jesus,
each of these men had their own perspective
and objective in mind when assembling His eyewitness account
of the life, and the death, and the burial,
the resurrection, and then ascension of Jesus.
For example, John's Gospel is the most philosophical
of the four Gospels, and he uses a lot of imagery,
you know, Jesus is the light for example,
and he does this to convey the concept
that Jesus was the embodiment of the truth.
Mark, on the other hand presents Jesus
as the powerful Son of God devoting much of his account
to describing 18 of the 35 miracles recorded,
the most of any of the Gospel writers
although he has a very short book.
Luke is interested in showing Jesus,
the Son of God as fully human,
and doing so by grounding his Gospel record
in precise history and the social and religious customs
of the Jewish nation.
And then Matthew's unique perspective is to prove
that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah according
to the Scriptures.
And he does so in two ways,
first of all by proof texting much of Jesus's life
in ministry to the passages in Scripture that described
and foretold what the Messiah would say and do,
when the Messiah would appear.
If you notice in Matthew everything, not everything,
but you know, many times Matthew says,
as it is written, as it is written,
he's always comparing, always connecting the things
that Jesus is doing in saying
to what the prophet said that the Messiah would do.
For example, there are 68 Old Testament references
that Matthew states in making this point about Jesus.
And then secondly Matthew is the only writer
to specifically describe Jesus as a royal figure,
a promised king from David's lineage,
the true king of the heavenly kingdom.
And since the series is,
you know, the kingdom of heaven is like,
we've talked about kingdom in the first several lessons,
and in this final lesson
I want to talk about the king of that kingdom.
So for this reason any study seeking to develop
the biblical theme of the kingdom of heaven
and various facets of that theme,
that study needs to examine Matthew's account
since his Gospel is completely immersed
in this imagery of the king and his kingdom.
And so as the title of this lesson,
as I mentioned before is the power of proclamation,
and it suggests that there are two things to consider,
one the power, and two the proclamation.
So the title of the lesson however
is the power of the proclamation as I mentioned,
and so one might ask, where is the power?
I've heard the proclamation based on,
you know, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John's writings,
but how is this proclamation, how is it powerful?
You know, we talk about the power of Gospel,
how is it powerful?
Is the power based on the eloquence of the speaker?
Is the power based on the amount of details given,
or the type of presentation perhaps using images
or song or drama or emotion?
Well, the power of the proclamation
is not found in the speaker or the style,
but rather in the content of the proclamation itself,
the content of the proclamation of the kingdom, all right?
So we proclaimed that Jesus King of the kingdom has achieved
the victory over man's greatest enemy, which is death.
A lot of people say,
well, you know, the enemy of man is sin.
Yes, but the net result of sin is death,
and so death is our great enemy, all right?
We're trying to overcome sin in order to overcome death,
and Jesus has done this on our behalf
which gives Him the right to be the king of the kingdom.
And so this victory has been witnessed,
this victory by Jesus has been witnessed
by hundreds of people, recorded and preserved in the Bible,
and we have been given the task to proclaim
this good news to our generation today.
There is therefore power in the proclamation
of Jesus's victory because the resurrection
is the answer to every doubt and fear and failure
and disbelief in this fallen world.
For example, on October the 2nd, 2017,
a man called Stephen Paddock travel to Las Vegas
and shot and killed 59 people
and injured over 500 spectators
who were attending a concert and then he took his own life,
the worst single shooter mass murder in American history.
Immediately after the incident,
politicians and lobby groups began debating things
like gun control laws,
and people started to raise funds for the wounded,
and there were endless articles about
how to prevent these types of, you know, shootings,
more counseling, better screening,
more security at concerts,
in other words, how to prevent
these needless killings and death.
No one however, bothered to bring up the idea
that death was not the issue
because you see everybody dies of something sooner or later,
whether you're killed at a concert or hit by a car
or you die of old age, everybody dies,
it's just a question of which thing
if you wish it takes your life in the end.
So no one bothered to bring up the idea
that death was not the issue, the issue was judgment.
In other words, what happens after I die?
That's the issue.
We know that there will be something that happens,
we know that there will be a judgment
because the Bible say so.
In Hebrews 9:27, the writer says,
"And in as much as it is appointed for men to die once
"and after this comes the judgment."
So the problem with death is that
there's a judgment that comes right after it.
We now have confirmation of this with Jesus's resurrection
which among other things affirms as true
all the things that are written in the Bible.
So we know that there is a judgment that comes after death,
and we know this because God's Word tells us this,
and we know God's Word is true and can confirm it
because Jesus the one who brought us God's Word
died and resurrected from the dead,
and that resurrection proves that what He taught,
what He said, what He gave us is true.
So the risen Christ declares that there will be a judgment
and this truth cuts through all the tears and sorrow
and clattering media noise surrounding this horrific event,
and it speaks to the people involved in the following way.
So I'm staying with my example
of this particular shooting here to demonstrate
a few things, a few things that the death
and resurrection of Jesus means
for the various involved in this shooting.
For example, to the wounded and the witnesses
who were scarred for life by this,
well, to these people you have a chance
to reflect on your life what's true and what's not true.
You have been spared
and you can still contemplate the resurrection
and what it means for you and your future.
You know, people who come close to dying like these people,
the survivors, the wounded, when you come close to dying
a lot of people say, you know, I just had a clear vision,
you know, I had a clear vision of life.
I began asking myself more important questions,
I started to get my priorities straight,
and most importantly I realized that people actually die.
I mean, we know this intellectually,
but when you yourself almost die,
or someone near you is killed in an accident
or worse in a terrible shooting like this,
you ask yourself important questions
and you realize that, wow, dying is true.
You know, that's why at funerals, when I do funerals,
you know, people are always in a hurry
for the funeral to be over,
the guests anyways so that they can get back to normal.
You know, they start talking about baseball or the weather
or something not 10 minutes after the funeral
because they don't want to contemplate
what has just taken place,
they don't want to contemplate what this means, you know,
if that person's in the coffin,
it means I'm going to be in the coffin too one of these days.
Some people ask themselves important questions
and the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus
usually is contemplated during these moments
when people are reflecting.
To the families of the individuals that were killed,
if your loved one was in Christ you have hope
because Jesus's resurrection guarantees their resurrection
and your resurrection as well when it time comes.
You know, a lot of people who don't believe,
who have no faith when someone dies
the best that they can hope for is,
well, you know, I hope they're happy
and maybe they're up there looking down at me.
They have no idea what happens after death,
they have no idea of the judgment,
they have no idea of what Christ has done.
And like Paul tells them,
for those who have no hope they have no hope,
but for believers even though the death
of a loved one is difficult we have hope,
we have the hope that that individual
will live again in Christ,
and we have the hope that we also will be with Christ
and with our loved ones when that time arrives.
To the shooters family, his brother said that
he had no religious affiliation
and that he was not a man of faith.
His passion was gambling, not God.
He becomes an example of how wicked
a person without Christ in this life can become,
and why Jesus died on the cross to begin with.
He may have escaped justice here on this earth,
but Jesus's resurrection guarantees
that he will face God's justice
when all men will be resurrected to be judged
for their deeds done in the body.
We read in Romans 2:16,
"On the day when according to my gospel,
"God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus."
So the proclamation of Christ has not only...
Excuse me, the proclamation of Christ has power rather
not only for the good news that it announces,
but also for the answers that it provides
for those who are hurt, those who are sorrowful,
those who are frightened as well as
the warning of judgment to come for disbelievers
and mockers and the wicked in this world.
The proclamation of the gospel addresses all of these people
and also addresses whatever situation
that they may find themselves in.
This shooting is the reason that we need to proclaim
and keep proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom
until Jesus returns
because it's the answer for all of the individuals
who are affected by this shooting,
and I use this as an example.
Now, if you want to gauge how powerful
the proclamation of the gospel is,
try to imagine a world without this proclamation.
In other words, try to imagine a world without the gospel,
imagine that for a moment.
I think we get a glimpse of a world
without the proclamation of a powerful message from God
where only a few people held fast
to a promise of a future salvation.
One of these periods of course
was during the pre-diluvian era of Noah
where the Bible describes a society
whose every thought was evil.
Can you imagine that?
You know, Genesis 6:5, it says,
"The attention of men's heart was continually evil."
Can you imagine living in a society where it's all evil,
there's no good, no recognition of God,
no knowledge of God, no promise of God?
Noah lived in such a generation.
I'm asking you, imagine if we had to live
in that kind of generation today,
because Satan is always at work trying to,
you know, eradicate any effort to preach the gospel
and he's been successful in certain parts of the world,
that's why we send missionaries, right?
So that we can make that proclamation,
so that all can have the hope
of eternal life through Jesus Christ.
Another time when, you know, when there was no gospel,
this time was during the king's dream,
Nebuchadnezzar's dream in the Old Testament
that was interpreted by Daniel
who declared that the entire world would be ruled
by pagan empires for over 600 years.
Do you ever think about that?
We're always amazed by the fact that Daniel,
you know, he predicted, he prophesied
that there would be four empires, one after another,
one overtaking the other until during the fourth empire,
the Roman empire, you know, the kingdom of God would come.
And we're all saying, wow, that's amazing,
you know, that he was able to do this, you know,
God gave him the power to see into the future like this,
so accurately 600 years into the future.
But did you ever think for a moment that those,
you know, 400, 500 years there would be no gospel,
there would be no hope being preached to people.
That the Jewish people, for example,
were the only ones who were holding together
the light of hope in the future based on
what Daniel and others were saying.
And so the proclamation of a risen Christ,
you know, is not designed to fix a broken world.
This is the, you know,
this is the promise of ideologues and politicians,
you know, the ideologues and politicians always have
an answer to fix everything and it's all going to be great.
It's going to be heaven on earth if you elect me,
or if you follow this philosophy.
Well, the proclamations purpose is to call people out of
the kingdom of darkness and into the kingdom of light
in Colossians 1:13,
that's what the proclamation is for.
Christians are not here on earth to fix the world,
we're not here to fix the social problems,
we're here to call people out of the world,
we're here to call people out of this place.
The world is on fire
and it will be destroyed along with everything
and everyone whose life is bound to it.
If your life is bound to this world,
then it'll be burned up along with this world.
As Peter says, concerning those who have been saved
that they have escaped the corruption
that is in the world by lust 2 Peter 1:4.
Note that on Pentecost Sunday
after Peter had finished proclaiming the good news
of Jesus's resurrection in Acts 2:40 it says,
"And with many other words he solemnly testified
"and kept on exhorting them, saying,
"'Be saved from this perverse generation!'"
What was Peter saying?
Well, he was proclaiming the gospel, okay?
And he was proclaiming the gospel and in doing so
what he was doing was saying to people,
get out, come out of this world,
you know, your house is are on fire, get out, save yourself.
And that's what where are today, we proclaim the gospel.
Well, the gospel isn't there as I said before,
to fix social problems
and we're not sending missionaries out to,
you know, restructure political entities in other countries.
You know, the gospel's purpose isn't to bring democracy
to different nations,
the purpose of the gospel is to announce
that the world is on fire,
that the world is ready to be judged and destroyed,
and those who hear the gospel,
those who obey it are saving themselves
from this eventual judgment.
And so as I said the proclamations purpose
is to call people out of the kingdom of darkness
and into the kingdom of God.
Remember we said, the kingdom of God is like,
the kingdom of heaven is like,
in this lesson we're saying,
why should you go into the kingdom?
Well, because the kingdom of darkness is darkness
and the kingdom of darkness is being set for destruction.
The world as I said is on fire
and it will be destroyed along with everything
and everyone whose life is bound in it.
And so the kingdom's victory is not that somehow
we have won over the world,
or we've repaired what is broken or bent in the world,
the victory is that those who were dead in sin
now can be resurrected to eternal life when Jesus returns,
that's the victory.
This message is powerful if we would only proclaim it.
You know, the kingdom cannot be established
unless we proclaim the message of the kingdom.
The number one reason why churches are small
and they remained small is not because they are
in a small town or they don't have a full time preacher
or their building is not suited suitable,
these are symptoms not causes.
The cause for non or very limited growth anywhere
not just here, you know, in Texas or Oklahoma
or up north in the northern states
is that we're not proclaiming.
You know a church that doesn't proclaim can't grow.
Proclamation is the most powerful tool
that we have for growing churches.
We have to find a way or a medium that we have access to
and that we can afford
and we have to start proclaiming the good news,
that's what I tell churches everywhere
when, you know, when we have a church growth
type of seminar.
And of course there's a way to organize the church
in a proper manner so that it will function properly,
you know, a ministry system and all that,
and they have to have good teaching
and, you know, attendance has to be regular
and enthusiastic,
but in the end if we want the church to grow
we have to proclaim the good news of the kingdom,
we have to actually do it.
A lot of times I go to congregations,
they're not growing and they can't figure out why.
And I ask the question of the deacons
or the men's meeting or whatever, I ask them,
what is it exactly that you're doing to proclaim
the gospel itself to the community
in which your congregation is situated?
Well, they say, well, we have services every year Sunday.
No, that's not good enough,
you're just preaching to the faithful.
Well, once a year we have a VBS and I'm saying,
well, that's a good effort,
but you do that just once a year,
one time a year for a day or two you have children come
and hopefully, you know, preach the gospel
or make the proclamation to their parents once a year,
and you're wondering why the church isn't growing?
So the big question for the local church is always,
what exactly are you doing to communicate to your community
the good news of the life and death and burial
and resurrection of Jesus Christ?
How are you getting that message to your community?
Are you having a commercials on TV?
Are you passing out flyers?
Do you have a billboard?
Do you do door knocking?
You know, find a medium that you have access to
that's what I meant
and whatever you can afford and start proclaiming.
How are we proclaiming Christ to our community
is the question that we should ask ourselves,
especially when it comes to church growth.
And all those whose ministry
is to go to various congregations and help them,
help them grow, give them a hand
such as the sojourners for example,
one of the message that you need to bring
to all of these congregations is that they have
to begin proclaiming the gospel to their community
and you'll get all kinds of excuses.
Well, everybody knows we've been here for 50 years,
you know, I've heard one church telling me that.
Well, our congregation has been here for 75 years,
everybody knows.
And I said to them,
are you telling me that in 75 years
nobody has moved in or out of your community or your town?
That no one in your community
or your town has had perhaps a change of heart?
That no one in your community has grown up
and now is an adult and is ready to hear the good news?
Is that what you're telling me that no one is ripe
to hear the good news of Jesus?
I tell them about the pizza parlor method.
A guy opens a pizzeria, you know, in the community
and he wants to get the word out on his pizzerias,
and so what he does is he sends out flyers.
He doesn't just send out a flyer,
but it's pizza and the various menu items
and the special two for one on Tuesday or whatever it is,
you know, he doesn't just send that flyer one time,
he sends that flyer every three weeks
or every month he sends a flyer out to the community.
And what happens is that at a particular house,
you know, people are going to get the mail and they pick it up
and they, here's the phone bill and the,
you know, the electric bill and a pizza parlor place.
Oh, look at that, yeah whatever,
so, you know, I'm not in the mood for pizza
and it goes in the trash the first month,
and it goes in the trash the second month
and the fourth month, and the fifth month,
and then one summer day they're having a birthday party,
and they say, you know what?
You know, it'd be nice to kids,
let's have some pizza for them.
And then all of a sudden, it's like,
where's that brochure that I get
in the mail all the time about pizza?
Where is that thing?
Oh, here it is, that's the thinking behind
what I'm trying to get across here about the proclamation.
We have to continue making that proclamation
over and over and over and over again in our communities
because at some point different people
in the community will either realize that
this is a message for them,
or they'll be new and there'll be looking for,
you know, looking for the gospel,
or they'll be looking for a church to worship with,
you know, the moment will be right.
And after maybe the 15th time that they've received
the flyer about your particular congregation,
they'll go, oh wait a minute,
maybe I ought to go visit these people,
they sure are interested in me,
they're committed to me.
The power of the proclamation is that when someone finally,
you know, is interested in reading it,
it has an effect on them.
Even if the first six times,
you know, they're not interested
because they're too busy quote in the world,
at some point their life is going to be on fire
and they're going to be looking for help.
And the blessing is that
if you have been reaching out to them,
if you have been proclaiming to them on a regular basis,
then at some point in their life
they're going to respond.
Just remember one thing, the more the victory is proclaimed
outside the church building,
the more people will have inside the church building.
The more we proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God
outside of the church building,
the more people eventually will be inside
our church building.
And so that's the end of our series,
I want to thank you for your attention
and pray that God bless you as you renew your efforts
to proclaim the victory of Christ,
and to proclaim the good news of the kingdom
to your various friends and neighbors and communities
using whatever tools, whatever, you know,
whatever access that you may have to the people around you.
God bless you, will see you soon.
Bye-bye.