One Amazing Testimony
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Today we begin a new series on the Kingdom of God.
This series will be a little different then maybe what you have experienced, we will not be looking at the micro level by looking at the Sermon on the Mount, or looking at what Jesus said throughout the gospels.
We are going to raise up to about 10,000 feet and take a look at the whole Bible and God’s Kingdom.
What I try to do on Sunday mornings is a mixture of Old and New Testament but also move from micro to macro.
For instance we went through the book of 1 John and throughout the book we shifted from micro to macro.
We did the series on original sin…that was super micro…we were essentially talking about what is happening in your heart in side of you as I even talk now.
This series we will shift to the macro level building off of this question that we were confronted with two weeks ago.
The question we need to be asking is NOT: ‘How is church life to be fitted into my plans (for myself or my family)?’ but; How do we fold our lives into the life of the church?
Let me reframe or ask the question another way: The question we need to be asking is NOT:‘How is the Kingdom of God to be fitted into my plans (for myself or my family)?’ but; How do we fold our lives into the Kingdom of God?
What is the Kingdom of God? The phrase we are going to use throughout the series and it is one that I hope after we are done if someone shook you awake at 3 am asking what is the Kingdom of God this answer would role off your tongue.
The Kingdom of God is God’s people in God’s place under God’s rule.
The kingdom of God is the thematic framework of the whole Bible.
The framework of the kingdom of God unites, shapes, and stabilizes all other biblical themes and concepts.
From beginning to end the Bible is about the Kingdom of God…let me show you briefly, we will unpack this in more depth over the coming weeks.
The Bible opens up with God making a place, He made two realms the heavens and the earth.
On earth there is a specific place God will make for His people. Eden
The climax of all of creation is the creation of the women and the marriage covenant.
Marriage covenant is the means to make more people....be fruitful and multiply.
And we know that the Garden was under God’s rule…work the ground, name the animals, don’t eat of certain trees.
Then Genesis three happened, Adam and Eve decided to usurp God’s rule and put themselves on the throne . The consequences of this decision have been handed down over thousands of years right to us and to our children’s children’s children’s children’s…well you get the point.
God gave a promise that their would be a seed/ a king that would crush the current king of this world…Satan and establish a new kingdom.
Because God is God he does things on His time table and for His purposes.
So we have a period of time until this king arrives. We call this the Old Testament a shadow pointing us to what will come. And all through this time God is making a people, putting them in a place under his rule.
Think of Noah... Gen 6:5
5 The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
He is going to blot them out through a flood, but because of the promise in Gen 3 what does he do, He calls out a group of people, chooses them, Noah’s family.
Noah gets God’s rules for building the arc and filling the arc and how he is to worship after the flood.
Fast forward, they are all now in the arc and the earth is covered with water…but within that arc you still have God’s people, in God’s place, under God’s rule.
Fast forward a bit…God calls out or chooses a people that will come from Abraham which is in line with the seed of Adam and Eve.
Abraham was told you will be a great nation your descendents will be like the stars…God is making a people for himself…You will be my people I will be your God.
These people were sent to a place to live under God’s rule…pretty much the rest of the Old Testament. America?
400 years of silence from God and a man named Jesus who is of the seed declares.
15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”
The gospel will produce a people that God chooses through the new birth…the place is everywhere because the kingdom has arrived and God now rules in His people’s hearts. Not governing from the outside in, but from the inside out.
Luke records this about Jesus teaching the disciples after His resurrection. Acts 1:3
3 He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.
Paul taught about the kingdom...
8 And he entered the synagogue and for three months spoke boldly, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God.
31 proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance.
How does this wonderful testimony end....just how it began.
Just so you are tracking with me because I really want you to see this let me.
Gen 1-2 God created a place and a people which climaxed in the creation of the women and the marriage covenant.
Gen 3 we have the fall of man and the promise of the seed crushing Satan.
What happens in Revelation 20 ? Rev 20:10
10 and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
Then what happens in Rev 21:1-4
1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.
2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.
4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
God’s people in God’s place under God’s rule.
John Bright captures the significance of the thematic framework of the kingdom of God when he writes…For the concept of the Kingdom of God involves, in a real sense, the total message of the Bible. Not only does it loom large in the teaching of Jesus; it is to be found, in one form or another, through the length, and breadth of the Bible…To grasp what is meant by the Kingdom of God is to come very close to the heart of the Bible’s gospel of salvation.
Why is the kingdom so central; because the theological center of the Bible is King Jesus.
This is true just as much of the Old Testament as the New.
There are many text that prove this to be true one of them Chris read for us this morning. I will just read a portion of that text.
25 And he said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!
26 Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?”
27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.
Think of Hebrews 12:1-2 the great cloud of witnesses, they are not called examples they are witnesses who testify to the person and work of Jesus and who call us not to imitate them but rather to fix our eyes with them on “Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith.
Having considered that the Bible is about Jesus and his kingdom, how then does the Bible work?
How is the kingdom administered, the kingdom is administered through covenant.
We begin with the Covenant of Redemption
Richard Belcher defines it this way…The pre-temporal agreement between the members of the trinity concerning the roles each member performs to bring about the salvation of God’s people.
The Father promises to redeem an elect people.
The Son promises to earn the salvation of those people by becoming a human being in order to be a mediator for them. In this role Christ fulfills the conditions of the covenant through His perfect obedience to the law of God, and His substitutionary death on the cross.
The Holy Spirit applies the work of the Son to God’s people through the means of grace.
Is there Biblical evidence for this yes…Psalm 2, Isaiah 52:10-12, Eph 1:3-14, Let me read just Eph 1 3-6
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,
4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love
5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,
6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.
And we also see this throughout the Gospel of John.
Jesus repeatedly speaks of the work the Father gave him to do, the reward that was promised, and the sending of the Spirit.
This was plan A, God did not switch to plan B after the events of the garden.
Covenant of Redemption
Covenant of Works
Adam
Bi-lateral:between God and a second party and that party has to work and obey to receive the blessings.
Blessings and Curses
Covenant of Grace
2nd Adam (Jesus)
Bi-lateral
Blessings/Curses
Covenant of Grace had several administrations.
Noahic
Abrahamic
Davidic
New -Jesus
Every person in humanity is in a covenant relationship with God, there is not one person who is not a covenantal being. you are either in Adam or in Christ.
If you are in Adam you receive the benefits he secured for you, curse.
If you are in Christ you receive the benefits he secured for you, blessings.
Jesus both obeyed the law and took the curses for you so that you can get His blessings.
Theologians use a fancy word for this, double imputation.
This is the heart of the gospel, Jesus perfectly obeyed and did not have to die, but He went to the cross in your place so that you and I get His blessing of eternal life.
This is the one Amazing Testimony of the Bible.
If you are in Jesus today you are in the Kingdom of God, you are now one of God’s people in God’s place under God’s rule.
What kingdom do you live for today?
This One Amazing Testimony is all that God did in order to bring you into the Kingdom.
1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
Announcements
Saturday two things going on, Josh & Elizebeth packing U-haul and we are training at Ron & Jeanies house with the chainsaws. Do both, you will already be sweating.
Sunday is ball game in Altoona, tickets are $5 we leave at 4 and there are fireworks after the game.
On the 28th we have a members meeting directly after service where we will be voting to fix the steps.
College students will be returning and we will be having a cookout on the 28th at 5pm.