1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,720 All right, so this series, this is the first class in the series entitled, 2 00:00:04,720 --> 00:00:09,000 The Kingdom Parables, The Kingdom Parables. And this will be the introductory 3 00:00:09,000 --> 00:00:14,000 lesson, first lesson in a series of lessons which 4 00:00:14,000 --> 00:00:19,440 will review a particular type of parable called the Kingdom parable. 5 00:00:19,440 --> 00:00:23,920 Now if you were to take all of Jesus's sermons, 6 00:00:23,920 --> 00:00:28,000 and all of his teachings together, and study them for a 7 00:00:28,000 --> 00:00:34,180 particular style or a particular central theme, 8 00:00:34,180 --> 00:00:38,100 you would learn that the central theme of his preaching 9 00:00:38,100 --> 00:00:43,000 especially as recorded by Matthew and Mark and Luke, 10 00:00:43,000 --> 00:00:48,000 was the idea of the kingdom of God or the Kingdom of Heaven. 11 00:00:48,000 --> 00:00:52,000 In other words he talked about the idea of the kingdom more than 12 00:00:52,000 --> 00:00:55,800 any other topic that he discussed. 13 00:00:55,800 --> 00:01:00,840 He spent a lot of time talking about the coming of the kingdom, 14 00:01:00,840 --> 00:01:06,000 preparation for the kingdom, the nature of the kingdom, the make up of the 15 00:01:06,000 --> 00:01:11,700 kingdom, all aspects of this thing called the Kingdom of God. 16 00:01:11,700 --> 00:01:16,000 Now it seems that in Matthew's Gospel, 17 00:01:16,000 --> 00:01:21,000 Matthew used the term kingdom of heaven because 18 00:01:21,000 --> 00:01:25,720 he was writing for Jews. His audience were Jews. 19 00:01:25,720 --> 00:01:31,240 And the Jews had been trained to think in terms of heaven as a spiritual dimension. 20 00:01:31,240 --> 00:01:35,000 But if you go into the book of Mark. Mark uses the 21 00:01:35,000 --> 00:01:39,840 term kingdom of God because his gentile audience 22 00:01:39,840 --> 00:01:45,000 could more easily identify with this. The gentiles they had no concept of quote heaven. 23 00:01:45,000 --> 00:01:50,000 Right? They had a concept of God or a Supreme Being of sorts but not heaven. 24 00:01:50,000 --> 00:01:55,000 That was a Jewish idea. The Jews used the word 25 00:01:55,000 --> 00:02:01,000 kingdom through out or Jesus rather, used the word kingdom throughout his ministry. 26 00:02:01,000 --> 00:02:05,000 And 13 of his 43 parables 27 00:02:05,000 --> 00:02:10,000 begin with the word "the kingdom of heaven is like". 28 00:02:10,000 --> 00:02:15,000 If you've got only 43 parables and 13 of them begin in the same way, 29 00:02:15,000 --> 00:02:18,500 you must be trying to get some information across. 30 00:02:18,500 --> 00:02:24,000 You can tell that that is an important theme. So obviously if Jesus gave so much 31 00:02:24,000 --> 00:02:28,900 importance to the subject of the kingdom and our involvement in the kingdom, 32 00:02:28,900 --> 00:02:34,000 I think we should be familiar with his teaching on the kingdom. I mean we should know about that. 33 00:02:34,000 --> 00:02:39,000 Be familiar with it. So this is the basic reason for the series to become more familiar with the 34 00:02:39,000 --> 00:02:44,920 kingdom by understanding some of Jesus's major teachings on this subject. 35 00:02:44,920 --> 00:02:49,000 But first before we actually go into the parables themselves, 36 00:02:49,000 --> 00:02:54,000 I want us to do a kind of a, bit of a history lesson here 37 00:02:54,000 --> 00:02:59,480 the history or the etymology, the history of the word, how the word kingdom came about, 38 00:02:59,480 --> 00:03:03,000 a little bit of historical theology and also the 39 00:03:03,000 --> 00:03:08,000 history of ideas, how the idea of the kingdom evolved over time 40 00:03:08,000 --> 00:03:14,460 throughout the Old Testament and all the way into the New Testament when Jesus began using the term. 41 00:03:14,460 --> 00:03:21,040 So let's talk about theocratic rulership, theocratic rulership. 42 00:03:21,040 --> 00:03:23,000 In the beginning, When I say in the beginning, in the 43 00:03:23,000 --> 00:03:28,000 beginning in Genesis right? In the beginning society was designed 44 00:03:28,000 --> 00:03:32,000 by God to co-exist in peace 45 00:03:32,000 --> 00:03:37,000 with extended families sharing limitless resources of a perfectly 46 00:03:37,000 --> 00:03:43,140 balanced creation, all under the loving care and the presence of God. 47 00:03:43,140 --> 00:03:47,200 So if you ever wondered, what did God, what was his intention 48 00:03:47,200 --> 00:03:53,660 when he created man? What did he want the world to be? Well he wanted the world to be extended families. 49 00:03:53,660 --> 00:03:56,400 Right? In a perfect situation, 50 00:03:56,400 --> 00:04:01,000 with all the resources that they needed, with no imperfections, all 51 00:04:01,000 --> 00:04:05,000 lovingly watched over by himself. Well we know 52 00:04:05,000 --> 00:04:09,240 that didn't last very long. 53 00:04:09,240 --> 00:04:13,560 So at the beginning there were no human rulers of any kind. 54 00:04:13,560 --> 00:04:20,240 The only present authority was God and His Word. That was the only authority. 55 00:04:20,240 --> 00:04:24,000 With the advent of sin, of course, we now have a 56 00:04:24,000 --> 00:04:28,440 new level of authority that was instituted within the family structure. 57 00:04:28,440 --> 00:04:34,000 In other words, once Adam and Eve sinned there began to be chaos and stress, the balance 58 00:04:34,000 --> 00:04:39,440 was knocked over, if you wish, and so God 59 00:04:39,440 --> 00:04:44,680 instituted a certain authority structure but only within the family. 60 00:04:44,680 --> 00:04:49,580 And that was that the husband was to have authority over his wife. 61 00:04:49,580 --> 00:04:53,000 But there was not any authority structure within 62 00:04:53,000 --> 00:04:58,000 general society at that time. The only authority structure was within 63 00:04:58,000 --> 00:05:03,000 the marriage relationship. After the flood, we kind of 64 00:05:03,000 --> 00:05:07,000 fast forward to Genesis 9, after the Flood 65 00:05:07,000 --> 00:05:12,000 God gave to society, the authority to police itself and to 66 00:05:12,000 --> 00:05:18,200 execute justice for crimes, a life for a life. Right? Genesis Chapter 9:6 67 00:05:18,200 --> 00:05:21,000 And he did this in order to provide 68 00:05:21,000 --> 00:05:26,000 some sort of mitigating authority to mitigate the 69 00:05:26,000 --> 00:05:31,000 sinfulness that had come into the world. So you see the way that this evolves at first and after sin 70 00:05:31,000 --> 00:05:36,000 he puts authority structure within the family. And then after the flood he 71 00:05:36,000 --> 00:05:40,560 puts in an authority structure within society in general. 72 00:05:40,560 --> 00:05:46,240 Now, the first human ruler was actually self appointed 73 00:05:46,240 --> 00:05:50,220 in Genesis Chapter 10 verse 10 we read about Nimrod. 74 00:05:50,220 --> 00:05:55,000 Nimrod forms and reigns over his own kingdom and was probably the main 75 00:05:55,000 --> 00:05:59,200 instigator in building the tower of Babel. 76 00:05:59,200 --> 00:06:05,480 This is the first instance recorded in the Bible of a human king and kingdom. 77 00:06:05,480 --> 00:06:10,820 We see Nimrod trying to establish himself as a ruler of sorts. 78 00:06:10,820 --> 00:06:17,800 Now the word king is translated from a root word in the Greek, which means ruler. 79 00:06:17,880 --> 00:06:23,000 And the word kingdom comes from a variation of that word which refers to the 80 00:06:23,000 --> 00:06:27,000 geographical area that the ruler rules over. 81 00:06:27,000 --> 00:06:32,000 So the sinful world, after the flood, had gotten to the point 82 00:06:32,000 --> 00:06:36,000 that it had thrown off God's rule and God's presence. 83 00:06:36,000 --> 00:06:41,000 And it began to appoint for themselves kings and rulers. 84 00:06:41,000 --> 00:06:46,000 God never said to man you have to start appointing kings and rulers. 85 00:06:46,000 --> 00:06:51,000 He never said that. It was mankind who decided to 86 00:06:51,000 --> 00:06:55,000 create and appoint themselves as kings and ruler. 87 00:06:55,000 --> 00:07:00,000 Now with the selection of Abraham, to begin 88 00:07:00,000 --> 00:07:05,000 forming a new people who would belong to God exclusively there was 89 00:07:05,000 --> 00:07:10,440 historically a return to family rule with God as guide and protection. 90 00:07:10,440 --> 00:07:15,000 And with Abraham, with the appearance of Abraham in Genesis, we begin to see the 91 00:07:15,000 --> 00:07:20,000 beginning of the thread, if you wish, that God 92 00:07:20,000 --> 00:07:25,000 will stretch out throughout history and we begin to see the formation of the Jewish people 93 00:07:25,000 --> 00:07:30,000 and so on and so forth. Up until that time we get information about what is going on. 94 00:07:30,000 --> 00:07:35,000 Rulers appointing themselves the world falling into sin. But now with the appearance of 95 00:07:35,000 --> 00:07:39,000 Abraham, God will now focus or the Bible actually, will now 96 00:07:39,000 --> 00:07:44,580 focus on the story of Abraham and the history of that of his generations. 97 00:07:44,580 --> 00:07:49,000 And what I'm saying is that beginning with Abraham God goes back 98 00:07:49,000 --> 00:07:52,640 to the rule of the family. 99 00:07:52,640 --> 00:07:59,000 And as the nation of Israel formed from the twelve tribes descended from 100 00:07:59,000 --> 00:08:05,680 Jacob, we still see that contrary to the pagan nations, who had Kings, 101 00:08:05,680 --> 00:08:09,000 the Jews still maintain the tribal 102 00:08:09,000 --> 00:08:13,720 leaders as the highest form of authority among themselves, 103 00:08:13,720 --> 00:08:18,000 and the tribal leaders under the direction of God's influence, 104 00:08:18,000 --> 00:08:23,000 and presence in their lives. So while the rest of the world is establishing 105 00:08:23,000 --> 00:08:28,000 kingdoms and territories and rulers and princes, you see 106 00:08:28,000 --> 00:08:33,760 that the Jewish nation has none of that. They're not at all like their pagan neighbors. 107 00:08:33,760 --> 00:08:38,000 They continue with simply the family rulership 108 00:08:38,000 --> 00:08:42,460 and the tribal rulership under God's direction. 109 00:08:42,460 --> 00:08:47,000 Although they came into contact with pagan kings, the Jews remained 110 00:08:47,000 --> 00:08:51,100 without a king for over two centuries. 111 00:08:51,100 --> 00:08:57,600 Up until this time they lived under what we call the theocratic rulership, meaning God was their king 112 00:08:57,600 --> 00:09:02,000 and he ruled through his word and through his prophets and through the patriarchs, if you wish. 113 00:09:02,000 --> 00:09:07,000 And so God rules them directly through the prophets, through the judges, and then 114 00:09:07,000 --> 00:09:11,760 later on after Moses, through the Law of Moses. 115 00:09:11,760 --> 00:09:17,000 Then we hit a period of human kings. Human kings are now introduced 116 00:09:17,000 --> 00:09:22,000 into Jewish life, Jewish history. Once they settled in the 117 00:09:22,000 --> 00:09:26,000 Promised Land, and while still carrying on military 118 00:09:26,000 --> 00:09:31,000 campaigns against border enemies, a movement began 119 00:09:31,000 --> 00:09:37,680 to have one person serve as king over the people of Israel. Again not God's idea. 120 00:09:37,680 --> 00:09:42,700 Man's idea. Up until this time they had no king. Everybody else had a king except them. 121 00:09:42,700 --> 00:09:44,000 All right? 122 00:09:44,040 --> 00:09:50,860 So as we know, this was against God's will but he nevertheless permitted the people a change in system. 123 00:09:50,860 --> 00:09:55,000 But he warned them that they would... Sure you're going to get what you 124 00:09:55,000 --> 00:09:59,000 want but you're going to regret it. And of course the Bible 125 00:09:59,000 --> 00:10:04,000 records the sad experience that the Jews had with earthly kings 126 00:10:04,000 --> 00:10:09,000 beginning with their very first King. And I'm not going to read all these passages. I'm pretty sure, in this 127 00:10:09,000 --> 00:10:14,000 class anyways, everyone is pretty familiar with the various kings 128 00:10:14,000 --> 00:10:19,000 beginning with Saul. What happened to Saul? Well, Saul went mad and he died in disgrace. 129 00:10:19,000 --> 00:10:24,000 Right? And then of course David was a great king but he disobeyed God and 130 00:10:24,000 --> 00:10:29,000 committed terrible sins. And Solomon Yes, he built the temple, but because he 131 00:10:29,000 --> 00:10:34,000 was unfaithful he led the nation into idolatry. 132 00:10:34,000 --> 00:10:39,000 And then after Solomon the kingdom was divided into north and south after his death. 133 00:10:39,000 --> 00:10:44,000 The Northern Kingdom and its king was totally destroyed because of idolatry and 134 00:10:44,000 --> 00:10:48,000 because of the evil actions of their kings. And then 135 00:10:48,000 --> 00:10:53,000 the southern kingdom was also destroyed and carried off into exile for the same reason. 136 00:10:53,000 --> 00:10:58,000 But the southern kingdom was allowed to return, a small portion of it, was allowed to 137 00:10:58,000 --> 00:11:03,000 return to Jerusalem in order to rebuild the city and the temple and to populate a 138 00:11:03,000 --> 00:11:08,420 small area, after 70 years of captivity. 139 00:11:08,420 --> 00:11:15,520 Then we go to God's relationship with human kings. 140 00:11:15,520 --> 00:11:18,000 The idea that God is a king 141 00:11:18,000 --> 00:11:23,000 or has a kingdom is not apparent in the early portions of the Bible. 142 00:11:23,000 --> 00:11:28,740 If you read the Bible in Genesis, Exodus, you don't see that very much, in the prophets on and so forth. 143 00:11:28,740 --> 00:11:33,260 The image of God's relationship and position with earthly kings 144 00:11:33,260 --> 00:11:38,000 and his own stature as a king, as well as the entire idea of a 145 00:11:38,000 --> 00:11:43,520 spiritual kingdom is develop very slowly by different writers 146 00:11:43,520 --> 00:11:48,000 through out the Old Testament. God cannot reveal 147 00:11:48,000 --> 00:11:55,640 a concept that people have no way of relating to or understanding in one shot. 148 00:11:55,640 --> 00:11:59,280 He uses a thing called progressive revelation. 149 00:11:59,280 --> 00:12:03,000 He reveals the truth of a matter or he reveals 150 00:12:03,000 --> 00:12:07,000 an idea slowly through out the centuries 151 00:12:07,000 --> 00:12:12,000 using more than one prophet to add information to an idea 152 00:12:12,000 --> 00:12:17,000 in order for it to take shape throughout history. 153 00:12:17,000 --> 00:12:22,000 So here we see God slowly revealing a concept, one piece at a time, over 154 00:12:22,000 --> 00:12:27,000 many years, through different writers. His kingship and His Kingdom is one of 155 00:12:27,000 --> 00:12:33,160 these ideas that was revealed progressively throughout out the Old Testament. 156 00:12:33,160 --> 00:12:36,000 Now we know that human kings were subject to 157 00:12:36,000 --> 00:12:41,000 God and feared him. For example in Genesis Chapter 20 verses 1 to 7 158 00:12:41,000 --> 00:12:46,000 Abimelech right? Abimelech king of sure feared God's 159 00:12:46,000 --> 00:12:51,000 wrath when he unknowingly took Abraham's wife into his into his harem. 160 00:12:51,000 --> 00:12:56,000 And we also see Pharaoh right? Resist God's judgment and finally 161 00:12:56,000 --> 00:13:01,000 give in when God destroys the first born of Egypt prior to the Jews 162 00:13:01,000 --> 00:13:06,000 being released from captivity. So we see human kings kind 163 00:13:06,000 --> 00:13:10,000 of dealing with... human pagan kings dealing with 164 00:13:10,000 --> 00:13:15,000 God in one way or another. However, the direct relationship between 165 00:13:15,000 --> 00:13:21,480 God and a king actually begins with Saul, the first king of Israel. 166 00:13:21,480 --> 00:13:26,040 We see that God actually chooses and establishes kings. 167 00:13:26,040 --> 00:13:30,000 And so it's significant, when we read about that because that's the first time in 168 00:13:30,000 --> 00:13:34,000 the Bible and in Jewish history that God actually gets involved 169 00:13:34,000 --> 00:13:39,600 or the writers describe him being involved in choosing a king. 170 00:13:39,600 --> 00:13:43,120 OK? According to his will. 171 00:13:43,120 --> 00:13:49,000 So in First Samuel chapter 8 verses 5 to 7, Samuel says that although God permits it, 172 00:13:49,000 --> 00:13:54,000 he recognizes that the people have chosen a human king instead of 173 00:13:54,000 --> 00:13:59,000 remaining with him as their king. Now what's significant about that 174 00:13:59,000 --> 00:14:04,000 passage and that idea is that there in First Samuel, this 175 00:14:04,000 --> 00:14:07,460 is the first hint of God as King. 176 00:14:07,460 --> 00:14:12,760 And later on there will be a mention that he also has a kingdom as well. 177 00:14:12,760 --> 00:14:18,000 What I'm saying is that before that time, the idea that God was a king himself 178 00:14:18,000 --> 00:14:23,000 and that he had his own kingdom, that was not an idea that the people were 179 00:14:23,000 --> 00:14:28,000 familiar with, that the Jews were familiar with. It was an idea that was introduced and 180 00:14:28,000 --> 00:14:33,000 then slowly developed by several prophets throughout the Old Testament. 181 00:14:33,000 --> 00:14:37,000 So as I said, it's taken a long period before the ideas that God is a king 182 00:14:37,000 --> 00:14:44,000 with a kingdom, these ideas are introduced into the Jewish mindset. 183 00:14:44,000 --> 00:14:47,000 All right. Another development of the 184 00:14:47,000 --> 00:14:54,100 idea of King and kingdom, is man as Divine King. There's another idea that came out . 185 00:14:54,100 --> 00:14:57,000 Another parallel that existed, 186 00:14:57,000 --> 00:15:03,520 where the idea was that a human being could be a divine ruler of sorts. 187 00:15:03,520 --> 00:15:07,000 Now the Egyptians may have been the very first to 188 00:15:07,000 --> 00:15:12,000 combine the idea that the King was a descendant or a product 189 00:15:12,000 --> 00:15:16,000 of the gods and therefore divine. They had the sun 190 00:15:16,000 --> 00:15:21,000 kings, the sun kings. This may have been one of the reasons 191 00:15:21,000 --> 00:15:26,000 why Pharaoh was so stubborn, seeing Moses as an equal descendant of the 192 00:15:26,000 --> 00:15:31,520 gods and simply a rival that he had to defeat. You ever wonder why he was so 193 00:15:31,520 --> 00:15:37,160 adamant in refusing? All kinds of things was happening to him and he kept refusing. 194 00:15:37,160 --> 00:15:40,000 Remember that Pharaoh, that King considered 195 00:15:40,000 --> 00:15:45,000 himself a descendant of the gods. 196 00:15:45,000 --> 00:15:50,620 And so he sees Moses saying, I speak for God. 197 00:15:50,620 --> 00:15:56,740 And so for Pharaoh, it's like well, wait a minute I'm a descendant of the god not you. 198 00:15:56,740 --> 00:16:00,000 And Moses said, no, no I'm the descendant of the God. 199 00:16:00,000 --> 00:16:05,000 And so it was a kind of a tug of war here, as to see who is the 200 00:16:05,000 --> 00:16:10,000 real descendant of God. Had the pharaoh not considered himself a divine king or 201 00:16:10,000 --> 00:16:12,600 divinely appointed by his gods, 202 00:16:12,600 --> 00:16:17,000 he may not have been as stubborn as he was in the story here, 203 00:16:17,000 --> 00:16:24,220 to refuse to allow the people to leave as his country was being destroyed before his very eyes. 204 00:16:24,220 --> 00:16:26,400 Anyway a little speculation there. 205 00:16:26,400 --> 00:16:32,000 The Greeks, they revived the idea for Western Civilization, 206 00:16:32,000 --> 00:16:35,740 this idea that a human could be a divine king. 207 00:16:35,740 --> 00:16:41,480 This began with Alexander the Great and then the Romans took it over. 208 00:16:41,480 --> 00:16:47,000 Augustus Caesar who lived 63 B.C. to 14 A.D. He saw his role and 209 00:16:47,000 --> 00:16:51,000 person as an incarnation of the gods and thus 210 00:16:51,000 --> 00:16:55,520 began emperor worship throughout the empire. 211 00:16:55,520 --> 00:17:00,780 And so when Christians confess Jesus as Lord, as the Divine King, 212 00:17:00,780 --> 00:17:06,000 this caused the wrath of Rome and their subsequent persecution because they said no, no 213 00:17:06,000 --> 00:17:11,880 Jesus, he can't be a descendant of the gods. Caesar is the descendant of the God. 214 00:17:11,880 --> 00:17:16,000 He is the human being that represents God, not this Jesus, not this 215 00:17:16,000 --> 00:17:21,000 carpenter that we executed, this criminal. 216 00:17:21,000 --> 00:17:26,400 So the persecution began. 217 00:17:26,440 --> 00:17:31,000 Now the idea of the divine human king did not survive 218 00:17:31,000 --> 00:17:33,680 after the fall of Rome. 219 00:17:33,680 --> 00:17:38,000 So it didn't continue in the West, in Western Civilization, in 220 00:17:38,000 --> 00:17:42,420 western ideology, but it did continue in the east. 221 00:17:42,420 --> 00:17:47,000 In Japan, for example, the Shinto religion 222 00:17:47,000 --> 00:17:51,580 believed that not only the Emperor but the whole island came from God. 223 00:17:51,580 --> 00:17:55,000 That the whole island was divine and the Emperor was divine and they had divine rights. 224 00:17:55,000 --> 00:18:00,000 Even before World War Two, 225 00:18:00,000 --> 00:18:05,000 if you remember, there their flag was a sun with with 226 00:18:05,000 --> 00:18:10,000 rays that went all around like this and the significance 227 00:18:10,000 --> 00:18:14,000 of that was that they were at the center. They were a divine Island, 228 00:18:14,000 --> 00:18:19,000 ruled by a divine emperor and their authority, 229 00:18:19,000 --> 00:18:23,000 their destiny was to rule over all of the world. 230 00:18:23,000 --> 00:18:26,800 That's what all the rays stood for. 231 00:18:26,800 --> 00:18:30,000 And when the war was over and they signed the 232 00:18:30,000 --> 00:18:35,000 surrender declaration there were many conditions. And one of the conditions they 233 00:18:35,000 --> 00:18:40,000 was that had to change their flag. They had to remove the rays. They could keep 234 00:18:40,000 --> 00:18:45,000 the sun but they had to remove the rays thus taking away the concept 235 00:18:45,000 --> 00:18:49,760 that they had a divine right to rule over all over the world. 236 00:18:49,760 --> 00:18:55,000 Anyway just a little historical data there. In the Jewish world we see the 237 00:18:55,000 --> 00:19:01,600 idea of God ruling as a divine king in heavenly places through David. 238 00:19:01,600 --> 00:19:06,920 David describes God in this role. Psalm 47:2 and 3, Psalm 101. 239 00:19:06,920 --> 00:19:09,080 So we get this idea that I said, 240 00:19:09,080 --> 00:19:14,000 evolved over time, developed over time. We see it really coming to fore 241 00:19:14,000 --> 00:19:19,000 in David's writing in the Psalms, that God is the king and he has a kingdom. 242 00:19:19,000 --> 00:19:23,000 Now the earliest direct reference to the title king 243 00:19:23,000 --> 00:19:28,000 being used for God is in the eighth century before Christ and it was used 244 00:19:28,000 --> 00:19:37,000 by Isaiah the prophet in Isaiah chapter 6 verse 5. So by this time in the Jewish mind the 245 00:19:37,000 --> 00:19:42,000 idea that God is the king who rules over all the 246 00:19:42,000 --> 00:19:47,000 kings is firmly fixed. So I've given you about twelve hundred 247 00:19:47,000 --> 00:19:52,000 years here of history in 10 minutes. I mean we've just kind of zoomed over it, 248 00:19:52,000 --> 00:19:59,060 but it's about twelve hundred years from Abraham to Isaiah. 249 00:19:59,060 --> 00:20:01,000 And during those twelve hundred years 250 00:20:01,000 --> 00:20:06,000 this concept that God is the king and rules over all the kings and he has his kingdom, 251 00:20:06,000 --> 00:20:11,000 this idea was slowly developed until it began to be fully expressed 252 00:20:11,000 --> 00:20:16,000 in the writings of Isaiah. By this time, excuse me, from 253 00:20:16,000 --> 00:20:21,000 this point to the idea of the Divine King taking on a 254 00:20:21,000 --> 00:20:26,000 human form and dwelling among the men and inviting all men into his divine 255 00:20:26,000 --> 00:20:32,520 kingdom will be processed by several other prophets over another eight centuries. 256 00:20:32,520 --> 00:20:36,000 So it took 12 centuries to get the idea of God as the Divine King of 257 00:20:36,000 --> 00:20:41,000 Kings and having a kingdom. It's going to take another eight centuries to develop the idea 258 00:20:41,000 --> 00:20:46,560 that this divine king, God, now comes in human form 259 00:20:46,560 --> 00:20:51,600 and invites people to come in to God's kingdom. 260 00:20:51,600 --> 00:20:56,000 All right. So let's talk now about the king and the kingdom in the old 261 00:20:56,000 --> 00:20:59,200 testament. Shall we? 262 00:20:59,200 --> 00:21:05,000 After Isaiah, the prophet Zechariah and Obadiah began to describe the 263 00:21:05,000 --> 00:21:09,000 Messiah as a charismatic 264 00:21:09,000 --> 00:21:14,000 ruler or king who would appear and renew the golden 265 00:21:14,000 --> 00:21:20,280 period of Jewish history and that would be the period of Solomon. 266 00:21:20,280 --> 00:21:24,600 This leader, they said, would rule from Jerusalem. 267 00:21:24,600 --> 00:21:30,000 This was the content of their prophecies about the Messiah. They wrote that 268 00:21:30,000 --> 00:21:35,000 he would purify the nation, that he would save the nation from its enemies, 269 00:21:35,000 --> 00:21:39,440 that he would have sovereignty over all of the nations. 270 00:21:39,440 --> 00:21:44,000 So it was this kind of prophecy that stirred the hopes of the nation 271 00:21:44,000 --> 00:21:49,000 for a redeemer and a savior to come in the future. 272 00:21:49,000 --> 00:21:54,000 These prophets filled out the description of the quote one to come 273 00:21:54,000 --> 00:21:59,000 spoken of before but not well pictured. So before these prophets Isaiah and 274 00:21:59,000 --> 00:22:04,000 Zechariah, Obadiah, the idea of the Messiah to come was nebulous, 275 00:22:04,000 --> 00:22:09,000 he was coming in the future and there was a promise in the future, but these prophets 276 00:22:09,000 --> 00:22:13,000 really began to kind of sketch in and give shape and 277 00:22:13,000 --> 00:22:18,000 form to who this Messiah was going to be and what he was going to do, what kind of person he was going to be 278 00:22:18,000 --> 00:22:22,000 and how he would relate to the nation. 279 00:22:22,000 --> 00:22:27,000 Daniel, the Prophet Daniel, he picks up and 280 00:22:27,000 --> 00:22:31,560 he develops this image even further in Daniel Chapter 7, 281 00:22:31,560 --> 00:22:37,000 by giving an exact historical time when this person would come. 282 00:22:37,000 --> 00:22:41,300 Up until this time it was just yeah he's coming in the future. 283 00:22:41,300 --> 00:22:46,000 And it's going to be great when he comes and it's going to be wonderful and he's going to rule over 284 00:22:46,000 --> 00:22:50,700 the nations. But when is that going to be? Well, sometime in the future. 285 00:22:50,780 --> 00:22:56,000 But Daniel comes along and he pinpoints exactly when in the future 286 00:22:56,000 --> 00:22:58,180 this is going to happen. 287 00:22:58,180 --> 00:23:03,000 In Daniel Chapter 7, he describes the rise and fall of four world 288 00:23:03,000 --> 00:23:08,360 kingdoms and then the establishment of a fifth kingdom. 289 00:23:08,360 --> 00:23:14,200 That fifth kingdom which would be eventually the kingdom of God. OK? 290 00:23:14,200 --> 00:23:18,000 So Daniel however, adds two important ideas to the 291 00:23:18,000 --> 00:23:21,820 ones that were already mentioned by Isaiah and Obadiah, Zechariah. 292 00:23:21,820 --> 00:23:27,000 He adds some more information. Number one, that the Messiah is a divine 293 00:23:27,000 --> 00:23:31,000 king not just a human ruler. 294 00:23:31,000 --> 00:23:36,000 That was new. Before then, a ruler will come, 295 00:23:36,000 --> 00:23:39,000 a king will come, someone who will restore Israel. 296 00:23:39,000 --> 00:23:44,000 Yeah. But now Daniel is saying this ruler, this King is 297 00:23:44,000 --> 00:23:48,600 going to be a divine king. That's a new idea. 298 00:23:48,640 --> 00:23:53,000 And secondly, he will rule not only by himself 299 00:23:53,000 --> 00:24:00,000 but he will rule with his people who will constitute a divine kingdom. 300 00:24:00,000 --> 00:24:04,860 Now today that idea doesn't throw us for a loop. Right? 301 00:24:04,860 --> 00:24:09,000 Because we've got the New Testament, we get what he's saying about 302 00:24:09,000 --> 00:24:14,000 the divine king and the divine kingdom. We enter into God's Kingdom when 303 00:24:14,000 --> 00:24:19,000 we become part of that divine kingdom. But if you're living in Daniel's day, 304 00:24:19,000 --> 00:24:24,000 if you're living at that time, you're having trouble wrapping your mind around the idea that the 305 00:24:24,000 --> 00:24:28,600 Messiah will be a what? A human ruler but he'll be divine? 306 00:24:28,600 --> 00:24:34,720 And we will enter into a divine kingdom? How does that work? Not quite understanding? 307 00:24:34,720 --> 00:24:40,000 So the concept of the Messiah, as a divine being, 308 00:24:40,000 --> 00:24:44,700 ushering in a special kingdom to rule over all of the kingdoms, 309 00:24:44,700 --> 00:24:49,160 was finally expressed in its fullness by Daniel. 310 00:24:49,160 --> 00:24:54,400 This set the stage for the last two prophets to speak about the Kingdom of God. 311 00:24:54,400 --> 00:24:58,580 And they would speak about the Kingdom of God in the New Testament. 312 00:24:58,580 --> 00:25:03,000 So the first of these as you will guess is John the Baptist. 313 00:25:03,000 --> 00:25:08,000 So John the Baptist comes along. The people are anticipating a 314 00:25:08,000 --> 00:25:14,000 king who will purify and save and exalt the Jewish nation over its enemies. 315 00:25:14,000 --> 00:25:19,000 John's initial preaching falls in line with these expectations. Right? 316 00:25:19,000 --> 00:25:23,000 What's he saying? Repent and be baptized to purify yourself 317 00:25:23,000 --> 00:25:29,000 and to be ready for what? The kingdom is coming. Oh! 318 00:25:29,000 --> 00:25:34,000 So it's not just the kingdom out there in the future sometime. John the Baptist said no, no, no, 319 00:25:34,000 --> 00:25:40,000 no, no the kingdom it's now. It's coming. It's imminent. 320 00:25:40,000 --> 00:25:44,000 And then secondly, the people responded to him 321 00:25:44,000 --> 00:25:49,000 with this recognizable message, even if they didn't quite grasp the Divine King 322 00:25:49,000 --> 00:25:55,120 idea, and the divine kingdom, this thing that the prophets had said would one day come was near. 323 00:25:55,120 --> 00:26:02,600 And so what do we do? They say how do we get ready for this? Do we build the temple? What do we do? 324 00:26:02,640 --> 00:26:07,200 And what did he say? Well, repent to be baptized for your sins 325 00:26:07,240 --> 00:26:12,480 so that you are now ready for the kingdom. They didn't quite understand what all was going to happen. 326 00:26:12,480 --> 00:26:15,620 They just wanted to be ready for it. 327 00:26:15,620 --> 00:26:21,000 John also announced the divine aspect of the kingdom by speaking of the 328 00:26:21,000 --> 00:26:26,000 Holy Spirit and how the one to come would baptize the people 329 00:26:26,000 --> 00:26:31,960 with him, with the Holy Spirit. And I make a little parenthetical statement here. 330 00:26:31,960 --> 00:26:41,700 In the New Testament there is no such term as the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. 331 00:26:41,760 --> 00:26:49,280 That term does not appear at all anywhere in the New Testament. 332 00:26:49,280 --> 00:26:55,720 The term is. He will baptize you with The Holy Spirit. 333 00:26:55,720 --> 00:26:58,380 You see the difference? 334 00:26:58,380 --> 00:27:03,000 Baptism with the Holy Spirit means with, he gives you, 335 00:27:03,000 --> 00:27:07,240 you receive it. It's with the Holy Spirit. Right? 336 00:27:07,240 --> 00:27:12,800 The baptism of the Holy Spirit is a baptism that belongs to whom? 337 00:27:12,800 --> 00:27:16,000 To the Spirit. 338 00:27:16,000 --> 00:27:21,760 It's Michael's baseball bat. Well, who did the bat belong to? It belongs to Michael. 339 00:27:21,760 --> 00:27:26,000 The baptism of the Holy Spirit. Whose baptism? 340 00:27:26,000 --> 00:27:30,000 Who does it belong to? Well it belongs to the Holy Spirit. And the question is, 341 00:27:30,000 --> 00:27:36,000 well, what baptism belongs to the Holy Spirit? Well the one that Peter preached on and 342 00:27:36,000 --> 00:27:41,000 on Pentecost Sunday, repent and be baptized. What will happen? 343 00:27:41,000 --> 00:27:46,000 Be baptized. Received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. 344 00:27:46,000 --> 00:27:51,000 How do we know that? Well, the Holy Spirit is the one that's giving that baptism. How? 345 00:27:51,000 --> 00:27:52,560 Through the word, through Peter. 346 00:27:52,560 --> 00:27:58,000 And then what will happen? And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 347 00:27:58,000 --> 00:28:02,800 What is that? I will baptize you with the Spirit. 348 00:28:02,800 --> 00:28:07,000 So the Baptism of the Holy Spirit is the water baptism. The baptism 349 00:28:07,000 --> 00:28:12,000 with the Spirit is this the receiving of the Spirit. Some people say that's splitting hairs 350 00:28:12,000 --> 00:28:17,760 but trust me that's not splitting hairs. It's important to understand the difference between these two things. 351 00:28:17,760 --> 00:28:22,000 But I digress. I digress. So John announces the 352 00:28:22,000 --> 00:28:27,000 divine aspect of the kingdom by speaking of the Holy Spirit and 353 00:28:27,000 --> 00:28:31,800 how the one to come, Jesus, would baptize the people with him. 354 00:28:31,800 --> 00:28:36,000 Now one idea that had not yet been developed and caused 355 00:28:36,000 --> 00:28:41,300 some confusion for John and the people concerning the kingdom 356 00:28:41,320 --> 00:28:47,000 was that they thought that the king and the kingdom were two different things. 357 00:28:47,000 --> 00:28:51,000 And they believe that these would be a great 358 00:28:51,000 --> 00:28:56,000 political change when he came. They thought that the king would come 359 00:28:56,000 --> 00:29:01,420 and then he'd establish this kingdom over there, this physical thing. 360 00:29:01,420 --> 00:29:06,000 Because in their mind they thought ruling over all the kingdoms meant that 361 00:29:06,000 --> 00:29:14,880 they would rule over everybody else like they did back in the day with David and with Solomon. 362 00:29:14,880 --> 00:29:18,000 So there was confusion. All right. 363 00:29:18,000 --> 00:29:23,580 So let's talk about Jesus now as the king, as this messiah. 364 00:29:23,580 --> 00:29:28,960 When Jesus finally arrives he follows John's preaching about the kingdom. 365 00:29:28,960 --> 00:29:33,380 But he tells them that the kingdom has now arrived. 366 00:29:33,380 --> 00:29:37,380 So someone says, what's the difference between John's preaching and Jesus' preaching? Well it was 367 00:29:37,380 --> 00:29:44,000 essentially the same. Repent, be baptized, get ready for the kingdom. Except John was saying 368 00:29:44,000 --> 00:29:50,120 the kingdom is at hand. And Jesus was saying the kingdom has arrived. 369 00:29:50,120 --> 00:29:52,280 It's here, it's among you. 370 00:29:52,280 --> 00:29:56,640 The deduction is that if the Kingdom has arrived then what else has arrived? 371 00:29:56,640 --> 00:29:59,640 Well the King has arrived as well. 372 00:29:59,640 --> 00:30:04,000 At first with his miracles and teachings the people want to see 373 00:30:04,000 --> 00:30:09,000 Jesus as the king that they imagined. But when the political 374 00:30:09,000 --> 00:30:14,020 changes did not happen they began to reject Him and were confused. 375 00:30:14,020 --> 00:30:19,000 Even John was confused. Right? He sends some of his disciples to Jesus and 376 00:30:19,000 --> 00:30:23,640 asked him, are you the one that's supposed to come? 377 00:30:23,640 --> 00:30:34,000 He said wait a minute. If the king has come and the Kingdom is here why am I in jail? 378 00:30:34,000 --> 00:30:39,000 And why is Herod still on the throne and why the Romans still in charge? 379 00:30:39,000 --> 00:30:43,000 And why are you being chased from place to place and hiding out and preaching out in the desert? 380 00:30:43,000 --> 00:30:44,520 I don't understand. 381 00:30:44,520 --> 00:30:50,000 And what John didn't understand was the way prophecy works. 382 00:30:50,000 --> 00:30:55,600 In prophecy the prophets tell you the things that are going to happen. 383 00:30:55,600 --> 00:30:59,740 A, B, C and D and E these are the five things that are going to happen. 384 00:30:59,740 --> 00:31:06,000 But what the prophets don't tell us is how much time in between each of these things. 385 00:31:06,000 --> 00:31:10,000 And so Daniel talked about four kingdoms, right? Four kingdoms, well 386 00:31:10,000 --> 00:31:13,000 five kingdoms with the arrival of Jesus. Right? 387 00:31:13,000 --> 00:31:18,000 But he didn't say how many years between the Persian Empire 388 00:31:18,000 --> 00:31:23,000 and the Greek empire and he didn't give a difference, 389 00:31:23,000 --> 00:31:27,000 he didn't tell how many years would elapse between excuse me, the 390 00:31:27,000 --> 00:31:32,000 Babylonian Empire and then the Persian empire and then 391 00:31:32,000 --> 00:31:37,000 how many years would go by before the Greeks took over and then how many years would go by before the 392 00:31:37,000 --> 00:31:42,400 Romans took over and then how many years would happen, would go by before the kingdom was 393 00:31:42,400 --> 00:31:47,000 established. And so John, in his mind is thinking wow, The Kingdom 394 00:31:47,000 --> 00:31:52,000 is here. The king has come, lets go, it's done. It's the end of the world we're 395 00:31:52,000 --> 00:31:57,000 going to take over. He didn't realize that the coming of the 396 00:31:57,000 --> 00:32:01,000 king and then the establishment of his kingdom, 397 00:32:01,000 --> 00:32:05,760 there were many, many years that would take place. A few years between the coming of the king and the 398 00:32:05,760 --> 00:32:11,000 establish of his kingdom. And then many, many years before that kingdom grew 399 00:32:11,000 --> 00:32:16,000 to cover the entire world. Again, Progressive Revelation and 400 00:32:16,000 --> 00:32:20,000 progressive development of the kingdom. Easy to 401 00:32:20,000 --> 00:32:26,000 see when we're looking back. Easy for us to see. Not so easy when you are in the middle of this thing 402 00:32:26,000 --> 00:32:30,160 trying to figure it out. 403 00:32:30,160 --> 00:32:35,000 So Jesus is the one who develops fully the concept of the kingdom only 404 00:32:35,000 --> 00:32:41,800 partially described throughout history by different prophets. And He clarifies things. 405 00:32:41,800 --> 00:32:45,000 First of all, he explains that the Divine King is at the 406 00:32:45,000 --> 00:32:50,180 center of the kingdom not like human kings that are above. 407 00:32:50,180 --> 00:32:54,000 Human kings it's always top down management. In the 408 00:32:54,000 --> 00:33:00,400 divine kingdom the Kings at the center. And the kingdom is around him. 409 00:33:00,400 --> 00:33:05,000 He also explains that the kingdom is not earthly. It's not political. 410 00:33:05,000 --> 00:33:10,000 It's not military, but it is spiritual in nature. 411 00:33:10,000 --> 00:33:15,000 He also tells them that the Kingdom is made up of the King and those who are united to 412 00:33:15,000 --> 00:33:20,000 him by faith and not by culture. 413 00:33:20,000 --> 00:33:24,000 That was the big problem with the Jews. 414 00:33:24,000 --> 00:33:29,000 They believed we belong to this culture and 415 00:33:29,000 --> 00:33:33,000 that automatically gets us in, that makes us the people, 416 00:33:33,000 --> 00:33:41,120 that automatically puts us into the kingdom because we were sons of Abraham. 417 00:33:41,120 --> 00:33:43,000 But Jesus says, No your membership 418 00:33:43,000 --> 00:33:48,000 in the kingdom is by faith. The hardest thing for the Jews to 419 00:33:48,000 --> 00:33:52,000 accept was not only was their membership in the kingdom based on faith but the 420 00:33:52,000 --> 00:33:57,000 Gentiles could also be in the kingdom by faith even 421 00:33:57,000 --> 00:34:02,000 though they were not related to Abraham by culture. 422 00:34:02,000 --> 00:34:07,000 Jesus also explains that the kingdom has a past. And the past of the kingdom 423 00:34:07,000 --> 00:34:12,660 is the prophets who spoke of it and those who hoped for it. 424 00:34:12,660 --> 00:34:17,000 The kingdom has a present. Jesus himself 425 00:34:17,000 --> 00:34:22,000 manifests its king and provides an earthly dimension for the kingdom. 426 00:34:22,000 --> 00:34:27,000 And what is the earthly dimension for the kingdom? The church. That's why we say 427 00:34:27,000 --> 00:34:32,160 the kingdom and the church is one and the same. One little difference however, 428 00:34:32,160 --> 00:34:36,760 the kingdom exists in Heaven, in that spiritual dimension. 429 00:34:36,760 --> 00:34:42,000 But it also exists here on Earth and the form that it takes here on Earth, 430 00:34:42,000 --> 00:34:46,000 we call it the church. Those who are called, the word 431 00:34:46,000 --> 00:34:51,000 Ecclesia, Church, means those who are called out. Originally the 432 00:34:51,000 --> 00:34:56,000 term referred to the the elders of a city. 433 00:34:56,000 --> 00:35:02,040 In other words, the city elders, they were called out to become and serve as the city elders. 434 00:35:02,040 --> 00:35:05,000 Jesus appropriated that term Ecclesia 435 00:35:05,000 --> 00:35:10,000 and made it as a reference to his people and the kingdom. And from 436 00:35:10,000 --> 00:35:14,000 that time on till today when we use the word Church or Ecclesia 437 00:35:14,000 --> 00:35:19,000 no longer refers simply to a political thing. It really makes reference to 438 00:35:19,000 --> 00:35:24,000 those who are called out of what? Were called out of the world. To do what? To come into the kingdom to be 439 00:35:24,000 --> 00:35:29,000 separated from the world. And then the kingdom also 440 00:35:29,000 --> 00:35:34,000 has a future. At the end of the world all aspects of the Kingdom, both 441 00:35:34,000 --> 00:35:40,280 earthly and heavenly, will merge into one unit. 442 00:35:40,280 --> 00:35:43,000 So the Kingdom on Earth 443 00:35:43,000 --> 00:35:48,000 which is the church and the kingdom in heaven which is the church, those who are in 444 00:35:48,000 --> 00:35:53,000 heaven, will come together and make one single unit. 445 00:35:53,000 --> 00:35:56,000 And so that brings us to the parables. 446 00:35:56,000 --> 00:36:02,000 Jesus's parables on the Kingdom which we are going to study, 447 00:36:02,000 --> 00:36:07,000 will describe the nature and the tension between the present condition of the 448 00:36:07,000 --> 00:36:12,000 Kingdom and its future consummation when he returns. The Kingdom 449 00:36:12,000 --> 00:36:17,280 looks like and feels like and is like a certain way now, 450 00:36:17,280 --> 00:36:22,320 but Jesus explains that one day it will be in another way. 451 00:36:22,320 --> 00:36:27,000 It will have another look if you wish. And the study of 452 00:36:27,000 --> 00:36:32,000 the kingdom parables helps us to understand the difference between how the kingdom 453 00:36:32,000 --> 00:36:36,000 is now and how it will be when Jesus returns 454 00:36:36,000 --> 00:36:41,000 and we are fully consummated, we're fully glorified 455 00:36:41,000 --> 00:36:46,440 and fully integrated with the heavenly kingdom. 456 00:36:46,440 --> 00:36:50,440 All right. Couple of last things here. 457 00:36:50,440 --> 00:36:56,000 A lot of what we think about the Kingdom of God today is based on various theological 458 00:36:56,000 --> 00:37:02,740 ideas that were developed after the New Testament was written. 459 00:37:02,740 --> 00:37:07,000 And I want to mention several of these because sometimes 460 00:37:07,000 --> 00:37:12,000 we have an idea about the church or we have an idea about the kingdom that isn't biblical. 461 00:37:12,000 --> 00:37:16,740 And we wonder where does this idea come from? So I want to just mention a few of these. 462 00:37:16,740 --> 00:37:22,660 So we begin with Augustine, Roman Catholic monk, theologian. 463 00:37:22,660 --> 00:37:27,000 And he wrote 464 00:37:27,000 --> 00:37:33,000 and taught. And much of Catholic thinking, based on what he wrote. 465 00:37:33,000 --> 00:37:38,000 He lived in the fourth century by the way. So Catholic thought formed 466 00:37:38,000 --> 00:37:44,420 by Augustine, was that the kingdom and the church were exactly the same thing. 467 00:37:44,420 --> 00:37:48,760 They saw the kingdom as a spiritual monarchy 468 00:37:48,760 --> 00:37:54,000 where the pope was ordained as head of the church and the church ruled 469 00:37:54,000 --> 00:38:00,000 as a kingdom with lesser officials ruling different parts. 470 00:38:00,000 --> 00:38:06,360 This is why Popes and Cardinals for example, are dressed like royalty. 471 00:38:06,360 --> 00:38:11,000 You ever wonder, what are they wearing those robes for? A lot of poor people in the world, why is he 472 00:38:11,000 --> 00:38:15,000 wearing that funny hat? He's got the silk rob with him and he... 473 00:38:15,000 --> 00:38:17,000 Well, because, 474 00:38:17,000 --> 00:38:21,000 Catholic theology sees the church, the kingdom 475 00:38:21,000 --> 00:38:26,000 as a monarchy. God is the king and so his 476 00:38:26,000 --> 00:38:30,740 representative on earth is the pope. Well, he's a king too. 477 00:38:30,740 --> 00:38:35,000 See what I'm saying? And if you're second in command to the king, if you're a cardinal 478 00:38:35,000 --> 00:38:40,000 for example, well you're royal as well. You don't have the same opulence 479 00:38:40,000 --> 00:38:45,000 as the pope does but nevertheless just like the dukes and 480 00:38:45,000 --> 00:38:50,000 duchesses and just like in British royalty, same idea. 481 00:38:50,000 --> 00:38:55,000 For Roman Catholics the hierarchy of the kingdom, 482 00:38:55,000 --> 00:39:00,000 this is what is stressed. When they teach about the Kingdom of God, they teach about the 483 00:39:00,000 --> 00:39:06,700 the monarchy, they teach about the structure of the church. All right? 484 00:39:06,700 --> 00:39:11,800 Now along comes the Protestant reformers. 485 00:39:11,800 --> 00:39:16,340 They emphasize the spiritual aspects of the kingdom of God. 486 00:39:16,340 --> 00:39:21,000 For example, in Luke Chapter 17 verse 20 Jesus 487 00:39:21,000 --> 00:39:26,620 says the kingdom is coming with signs not to be observed. 488 00:39:26,620 --> 00:39:31,000 And so the kingdom is not manifested in strict 489 00:39:31,000 --> 00:39:36,000 hierarchy like the Catholics but the kingdom is 490 00:39:36,000 --> 00:39:41,000 evident through the work of the Holy Spirit among the believers. 491 00:39:41,000 --> 00:39:45,000 And so for Protestant theology the 492 00:39:45,000 --> 00:39:50,000 transformation of lives, this is the sign of believers. 493 00:39:50,000 --> 00:39:55,000 All right. Charismatics, when I say 494 00:39:55,000 --> 00:39:59,000 charismatics in the Catholic Church, the Charismatics are 495 00:39:59,000 --> 00:40:04,000 those who claim that they can do miracles or speak in tongues. If they're not in the Catholic Church. 496 00:40:04,000 --> 00:40:09,000 They're called Pentecostals. If you ever wonder, how do you use that term? 497 00:40:09,000 --> 00:40:13,600 Well somebody who thinks they can speak in tongues, if they're Catholic, you call them charismatics. 498 00:40:13,600 --> 00:40:19,000 If someone who speaks in tongues is in a Protestant or evangelical church you call them Pentecostals. All right? 499 00:40:19,000 --> 00:40:23,860 So that's the division of those ideas. 500 00:40:23,860 --> 00:40:29,000 And so in Protestantism, they developed the idea that the transformation of 501 00:40:29,000 --> 00:40:34,000 lives, this was the sign of the work of the Spirit. This was the sign 502 00:40:34,000 --> 00:40:38,000 of the kingdom transformed lives. And the Charismatics 503 00:40:38,000 --> 00:40:43,000 they carried this idea one step further making the possession 504 00:40:43,000 --> 00:40:48,300 of miraculous gifts proof of Kingdom citizenship. 505 00:40:48,300 --> 00:40:53,000 Some people say it is so difficult to talk somebody who is in a Pentecostal church, 506 00:40:53,000 --> 00:40:58,000 to kind of teach them out of the idea that they can do miracles. 507 00:40:58,000 --> 00:41:03,000 Even when I showed him the passages and I explained to them in Acts chapter 2 508 00:41:03,000 --> 00:41:08,000 the Greek word means an actual language and not just some mysterious jibberish like that, 509 00:41:08,000 --> 00:41:11,000 they won't let it go. And why is that? 510 00:41:11,000 --> 00:41:15,000 Well the reason for that is the fact that they 511 00:41:15,000 --> 00:41:20,000 can do these things, is the sign that they're actually part of the kingdom. 512 00:41:20,000 --> 00:41:25,000 And so for someone who's in a Pentecostal church to say you know what, that speaking in tongues thing, 513 00:41:25,000 --> 00:41:29,000 that's not really legitimate. That's just... yeah that 514 00:41:29,000 --> 00:41:34,000 doesn't match Scripture and so on and so forth. That's almost like saying I'm lost 515 00:41:34,000 --> 00:41:39,300 because I've lost the thing that identifies that I'm part of the kingdom. 516 00:41:39,360 --> 00:41:44,000 Now the answer to that, the thing that defines if you're part of the kingdom 517 00:41:44,000 --> 00:41:47,800 is the word of God. 518 00:41:47,800 --> 00:41:52,000 In Acts chapter 2 the word of God says, if you repent and are 519 00:41:52,000 --> 00:41:58,580 baptized in the name of Jesus, you'll be saved, you'll be forgiven and you'll receive the gift of the Spirit. 520 00:41:58,580 --> 00:42:03,000 There is no sign that tells you that you've received all of that. 521 00:42:03,000 --> 00:42:08,000 The thing that confirms that you're part of the kingdom, that you've been forgiven, that you've received 522 00:42:08,000 --> 00:42:14,480 the gift of the Holy Spirit, what is the thing that confirms that? The word of God. 523 00:42:14,480 --> 00:42:16,800 It's the confirmation. 524 00:42:16,800 --> 00:42:21,000 Mark 16:16, those who believe and are baptized will be saved. 525 00:42:21,000 --> 00:42:26,000 How do I know I'm saved if I can't speak in tongues? Well you know your saved because 526 00:42:26,000 --> 00:42:33,500 did you do that? Did you obey Mark 16:16? Well yes. 527 00:42:33,500 --> 00:42:38,000 Were you immersed in the name of Jesus for the forgiveness? Yes. Well then, 528 00:42:38,000 --> 00:42:43,000 by faith, by faith you accept 529 00:42:43,000 --> 00:42:48,000 that God has forgiven you. By faith you accept that you are now part of the kingdom. 530 00:42:48,000 --> 00:42:53,640 You don't need an additional sign to do that. God's word should be enough for you. 531 00:42:53,640 --> 00:42:58,000 If God says you're saved, I don't need to do a miracle to prove 532 00:42:58,000 --> 00:43:03,000 that I'm saved. All I need is for God's word to tell me that. Again I 533 00:43:03,000 --> 00:43:08,000 digress slightly. All right. Reformers and Protestants, modern theologians, 534 00:43:08,000 --> 00:43:13,000 modern theology. One of the more 535 00:43:13,000 --> 00:43:17,000 popular products, if you wish, of modern theology 536 00:43:17,000 --> 00:43:22,000 is what's called the social gospel. The social gospel sees the 537 00:43:22,000 --> 00:43:31,000 kingdom displayed as the presence of God making the world a better place to live. 538 00:43:31,000 --> 00:43:36,000 Let me show you the difference. In the Church of Christ, how do we see 539 00:43:36,000 --> 00:43:42,000 God's kingdom being established? Well I see his word being preached, 540 00:43:42,000 --> 00:43:47,000 from the pulpit, in books, on TV, through the Internet, I see God's word. 541 00:43:47,000 --> 00:43:52,000 The seed of the kingdom being... OK. And then I see people responding to that. 542 00:43:52,000 --> 00:43:56,000 They're confessing Christ. They're being baptized. 543 00:43:56,000 --> 00:44:01,000 They're beginning to live a productive fruitful Christian lives. 544 00:44:01,000 --> 00:44:06,000 They're confessing Christ themselves. They themselves bring others to Christ. The church is growing. 545 00:44:06,000 --> 00:44:11,000 Those are all the signs that manifest that the Kingdom of 546 00:44:11,000 --> 00:44:15,000 God is growing, is present. 547 00:44:15,000 --> 00:44:20,000 The social gospel says, you can tell that the Kingdom of 548 00:44:20,000 --> 00:44:24,000 God is growing stronger because 549 00:44:24,000 --> 00:44:27,340 earth's troubles are being resolved. 550 00:44:27,340 --> 00:44:31,000 The poor are being fed, social justice, 551 00:44:31,000 --> 00:44:37,000 democracies are being established in countries that were tyrannized by dictators. 552 00:44:37,000 --> 00:44:41,000 You see what I'm saying? The social gospel says 553 00:44:41,000 --> 00:44:48,220 we're going to save the world politically, economically, environmentally. 554 00:44:48,220 --> 00:44:51,000 That's the social gospel. One of the reasons why the 555 00:44:51,000 --> 00:44:56,000 Pope, the present Pope that we have, is so interested in ideas of poverty 556 00:44:56,000 --> 00:45:00,000 and feeding the poor and politics and so on and so forth. 557 00:45:00,000 --> 00:45:05,000 Well he comes from South America. South America is the cradle 558 00:45:05,000 --> 00:45:11,360 of the social gospel movement. So he is a product of that in the 70s. I recognize what he's doing. 559 00:45:11,360 --> 00:45:15,000 So our task therefore, in the next 560 00:45:15,000 --> 00:45:20,000 couple of classes, will be to examine the parables of Jesus, about the 561 00:45:20,000 --> 00:45:25,000 kingdom and try to see it as he explained it. 562 00:45:25,000 --> 00:45:30,000 Not how some theologian... not how Calvin explained it or Luther explained it or 563 00:45:30,000 --> 00:45:35,000 Augustine explained it or some Catholic theologian in South America explained the Kingdom. 564 00:45:35,000 --> 00:45:41,000 We're going to try to unravel the meaning of the kingdom in the way that God, 565 00:45:41,000 --> 00:45:43,000 in the way that Jesus explained it. 566 00:45:43,000 --> 00:45:49,780 So we're going to begin with Jesus at the center, 567 00:45:49,780 --> 00:45:52,000 add the church in his image 568 00:45:52,000 --> 00:45:57,000 and then complete the picture with the end of the world where the kingdom, only described in 569 00:45:57,000 --> 00:46:03,500 parables by the way, and on the Sermon on the mount, will manifest itself in complete fullness. 570 00:46:03,500 --> 00:46:07,000 So complete fullness of the kingdom will be God, 571 00:46:07,000 --> 00:46:12,000 Christ, The Holy Spirit, the church, the angels, and 572 00:46:12,000 --> 00:46:17,000 all the spiritual world, completely integrated forever. That is the end game. 573 00:46:17,000 --> 00:46:22,500 That's the final end of the kingdom of God when it is fully realized. 574 00:46:22,520 --> 00:46:30,000 So our study of the parables of the kingdom is to help us understand the difference 575 00:46:30,000 --> 00:46:35,000 between where we are now, the present state of the kingdom 576 00:46:35,000 --> 00:46:39,000 and our presence in it and where we 577 00:46:39,000 --> 00:46:46,200 will be in the future, the final consummated state of the kingdom of God. 578 00:46:46,200 --> 00:46:49,000 So whenever Jesus spoke of the kingdom 579 00:46:49,000 --> 00:46:54,000 there was always a distinction made. 580 00:46:54,000 --> 00:46:59,400 Whenever he talked about the Kingdom, at the end, it was always you're in or you're out. Always. 581 00:46:59,440 --> 00:47:04,000 There was always the idea. You're either in the kingdom or you're out of the kingdom . 582 00:47:04,000 --> 00:47:10,000 So you're in if you have obeyed the Gospel in repentance and baptism, 583 00:47:10,000 --> 00:47:15,560 and you are faithfully following Jesus. And you're out if you haven't done that. 584 00:47:15,560 --> 00:47:19,000 This is always stated or implied. 585 00:47:19,000 --> 00:47:24,460 This is always the conclusion of the kingdom parable. Some people think wow there just stories. 586 00:47:24,460 --> 00:47:29,000 But no they're not. They're powerful preaching tools. There are 587 00:47:29,000 --> 00:47:34,000 tremendous challenges to the individuals who hear them. Because Jesus himself is saying 588 00:47:34,000 --> 00:47:41,000 to the believers, you're in or you're out. Because remember the parables they weren't for the unbelievers. 589 00:47:41,000 --> 00:47:45,400 They didn't understand the parables. The Parables are for believers. 590 00:47:45,400 --> 00:47:52,720 OK? So Jesus is speaking to us directly when he's talking about the Kingdom parables. 591 00:47:52,720 --> 00:47:54,720 So that's it. Thank you very much.