I feel the same, you find the God holding me
He's right for me
You're the sun set free
You're with me in peace
I'm a child of God
Yes I am
In my mother's house
There's a place for me
I'm a child of God
Yes I am
I am chosen, I'm forsaken
I am who you stand for
You are for me, not against me
I am who you say I am
I am chosen, I'm forsaken
I am who you say I am
You are for me, not against me
I am who you say I am
Go pray and tell me
To be a sanctuary
Tell me, child and true
With thanksgiving
I'll be a living
Sanctuary of you
Lord prepare me
To be a sanctuary
Child and holy
Child and true
With thanksgiving
I'll be a living
Sanctuary
Alright, so we are pretty deep in on the discussion of Kingdom of God
The first week, I'm just going to give you just a brief, very brief recap
We talked considerably about the King of the Kingdom
And we looked at how the Bible teaches very clearly
He would be a son of David, how he would rise, how he would take, and much more than that
How he would take his place as the King of the Kingdom
And then last week we talked about
Two views of the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of God coming
One of those views essentially, without getting really detailed on, one of those views essentially
Was that the Kingdom of God had already come, it was already here
In its fullness and there was nothing more coming, there was never going to be any more Kingdom of God than there already is
And kind of disallowed
The perusia, disallowed the end times where we get
Lifted by Jesus and go to heaven kind of thing. The other one of which then said
That the Kingdom of God has not yet come at all
And so it's all future, it has not yet come
And the problem with those obviously
Is that to some degree they contradict scripture
And there's a couple of places where you go like, well what about this? What about that?
One of them for example basically says Jesus has to have been mistaken
Because Jesus was preaching the coming of the Kingdom of God and so he had to have been mistaken
If he was preaching that, right? And it's not coming, and that kind of thing
So today we're going to look at the third and what I'll say is the final
Theory on the Kingdom of God. I already burst the bubble
Last week and said this is what I subscribe to, okay? But I'm going to ask you to do
Your own thing, whatever that is. I hope that by the time we're done with this you'll go, yeah this makes a lot of sense to me
It fits and you'll go with that, but if not, if you prefer one or the other two
You and I are not going to fight over this, that could be a problem. We can debate it
We can talk about it if you want, whatever, but this is what
This is the piece that we need to have all three options to choose from
That's where we're at, right? So if you look on the middle of your worksheet
Slightly above the middle of the page you'll see a number one circled and then next to it are the
Hardest two words you're going to write today, those two blanks
Of all of these, these will be the hardest. And it is inaugurated
Eschatology, okay? And so I'm going to spell it to the best of my ability
It's I-N-A-U-G, inaug
Your, U-R-A-T-E-D, I-N-A-U-G
I-N-A-U-G, inaug, U-R-A-T-E-D
Inaugurated. And it's like, the word means to
Bring something about, bring it into being, to declare it's happening, to make it
To get it started. So obviously there's the president's inaugural speech because he
Just became the president, right? The inauguration of the president is when the president
Becomes the president, that kind of thing. So it's inaugurated. The second word is
Eschatology, we had this word last week, it's E-S-C
H-A-T-O-L-O-G-Y. Anytime you see
In English language, anything that ends in O-L-G-Y, it usually means the study of something or
Science of something. And the es-gate, that beginning, means we're talking about
The end times, right? So inaugurated eschatology is the
Name of the doctrine that we are going to study today
About the kingdom of God. Remember the question is, what is the kingdom of God
Overall, what is it, and has it come, etc. Inaugurated
Eschatology gives us this theory that we're about to look at.
And they would certainly say it's not a theory. Now if you follow the arrow down around to the left
Under the mountains there, under the hills, with a little open grave that's cut off
So the word at the top, under the hills there, is already
A-L-R-E-A-D-Y, already. And then the two words under it
Is not yet. And this phrase is the key phrase
For inaugurated eschatology. Already, but not yet.
Does anybody kind of see the contradiction there? It's already, but not yet.
Under the hills. Follow the arrow down to the left, it goes under the hills,
Already, not yet. Under the hills, above the holding hands.
Already, not yet. And so basically, you could call this
Already, not yet eschatology, if you wanted to, because it's like
It's all wound up into one thing. So if you don't want to ever deal with the word inaugurated
Again, then you could just set that one aside and call it already, not yet, all those are words we know
Eschatology. Alright? It means that it's the king of God
Has already come, but it is not yet here in its fullness.
So just to give you a real quick example of this, let's say
It's the 21st of December and you get packages in the mail from grandma, grandpa
Uncle, dad, mom, somebody who lives across the country, your brothers in the military
You get a package in the mail and it's wrapped in brown wrapping paper
And it's tied up with a bow and it says, do not open until
Christmas. That package has already come, but whatever's
Inside of it is not yet. It's here, but it's not fully
Explored. You don't know what it is, you can't see the inside of it. That's what we mean when we say
Already, not yet. It's here, but it's still not fully
Here. It's not fully understood, fully in practice. So already
Not yet is the key phrase for this type of eschatology
Then you'll see two hands, that's my best attempt to draw
Two hands holding there and the top one has a wedding ring
And the word on the left of the hands is present, P-R-E-S-E-N-T
Present, and the word on the right is future. And so what this
Eschatology does is it looks at all the parables of Jesus, all
The stories of Jesus, all the teachings of Jesus, and it says
Okay, we realize there is tension between this parable and this
Parable. This parable over here seems to say the kingdom of God is not yet
Come. This parable over here says the kingdom of God is already come.
So we realize there's tension there between those two parables, and
Since they both have to be true, then it's already not yet. And so
It marries together the concepts from the different parables
The stories of Jesus, the teachings of Jesus, things that Jesus said, right? It marries those things
Together to come up with this combined idea of the kingdom
Of God is already here, but it is not yet fulfilled.
It's not complete, okay? Which was true, interestingly
Enough, that is the way it was in Jesus' day. When Jesus was teaching
He was clearly saying the kingdom of God is here, because He said so many things, a couple
Of will look at it before we're done, that said the kingdom of God is here, among you, with you, on you
We're doing it right now, this is the kingdom of God kind of thing. But also He said it was yet coming.
But there was that other one that said, remember there was that other theory, that said
When Jesus was saying it had already come, it had just already come.
And then they just disallowed His teachings of it's yet coming, He just said, well He was just mistaken
About that, right? And so we don't want to do that, we don't want to call Jesus mistaken
And He clearly teaches it already, and He clearly teaches it not yet
And this theory marries the two together, and it says, yes there's tension
And by the way, there is sometimes tension between me and my wife, even though we are married
Right? It does happen, that's the nature of relationships, between me and my friends
Even though we are dedicated to one another, between me and my brothers in Christ, between me and the church
Whatever, tension exists in relationships, and this says that the present
Reality of the kingdom of God, and the future reality of the kingdom of God, while they are in tension
While there's tension between them, they are married together, okay?
So now we're working down, just straight down the page, just keep going straight down below that
And I've given you most of these words, because they're just bigger words, not all of them
But there's some of them there, so you see future consummation, okay?
Right down below it says future consummation, that word is consummation
And consummation means something coming into completeness, or whatever
And then you see stair steps that go up to the right, and it says present
Occurrence, so in other words, the kingdom of God is happening now, and by the way
I have personally seen the kingdom of God happening in my lifetime, so if someone wants to say to me
The kingdom of God is not at all calm yet, I would have a problem with that, because I've seen it
I've seen amazing things happen, that is God doing something, changing people, helping people
Sustaining people, doing miracles, etc. All of those things are kingdom of God
Things, so I would say that's present occurrence, okay? However, I also
Understand that we've got a lot of messed up things going on in the world right now, we've got people that don't agree with
God, that fight against God, there are liars and thieves that seem to be prospering
I mean, it's just, it's a messed up place, and so I get that it is not done
We're not done yet, right? So you have present occurrence and consummation
In between them is a little clock, do you see the little clock? Now what's
Interesting about the little clock? It's going backwards, okay?
This is the key, in fact, I want to say to you, I'm about to expose to you
Take it if you want it, don't take it if you don't want it, okay? But I'm about to expose to you one of the
Most important things about Christianity that most Christians don't get
Okay? And it's tough to fathom, so keep your singing cap on right now, I'm going to give it to you
Okay? The present occurrence, by our understanding
Present occurrence is what we see, what's happening, right? Or what happened in Jesus' day, that was his present occurrence
The future consummation of the kingdom of God seems like that will
Happen down the road, Jesus comes on August 4, 2049
Right? That's the day, that's the Perugia, that's when the kingdom of God
Comes in its fullness, that's what we think, I submit to you that Christianity
Is founded on a different notion, okay? That's not
Actually the way it works, the present day occurrence of the kingdom
Of God is founded on, based on
The future arrival of the king, you follow that? So Jesus
Is going to come, it's set, it's not like he might come, right?
And it's not like there's an appointment, like it's one o'clock on that day, we know that, so we're going to get
Everything done the night before when he comes to show up at the house, we want to make sure he's all nice and clean and neat
Or whatever, it's not like that, Jesus is for sure coming
In fact, I'll say to you that you can see this in its simplest form
When a Christian's struggling, and I've been there many times in my life, since I became a Christian
You know, in the last two and a half decades, whatever I've been through this, and I'm struggling
And I'll think about how, whatever I'm going through right now
Is going to be done then, right? So I know one day I'll be
In heaven, and this will all be gone, how do I know
One day I'll be in heaven, and this will all be gone, because that's a fact
Now so then what happens based on that fact? I have hope, I have faith
I make my decisions accordingly, right? I get up another day
I get out of bed, I eat, maybe I eat better than I would have otherwise
I cut out sinful behaviors, right? As we talked about on Sunday
I try to provide moral excellence, right? Why am I doing those things?
Well I'm doing those things because of the present occurrence of the Kingdom of God, right?
No, those things are the present occurrence of the Kingdom of God
I'm doing those things because of the future, in that moment, I'm doing those things because of the future
Consummation of the Kingdom of God. So we think of
What's happening right now is based on what happened yesterday
Last year, last month, AD 33 or whatever year it was
For sure that Jesus died on the cross, 33, 34, 35 depending on what theologian
Connects how many festivals together, blah blah blah, right? So that
The year that Jesus died, we say that what we're doing now is based on what Jesus did
But it actually isn't like that, you have to stretch your minds a little bit to understand
What your heart already knows, and that is that the salvation of Jesus which occurred
That day, that really almost three days, right?
So he was crucified and raised again on the third day but it wasn't a full three days
Those events, they were the consummation
Of what the prophets looked for, right? All the prophets were waiting to see that
Salvation, and why do prophets get out of bed and still talk about
What God wants them to say, even though they know they might get thrown in a well
Or beaten or crucified, well not crucified back then, right? But flogged to death
Or drawn in quarter, why do they do that? Because they trust
In the way that God has made, which hasn't come, which wouldn't come for another
Five hundred years or a thousand years, they were looking at the future consummation
Of what God was pointing to, and it was affecting the kingdom of
God in them, so if you follow my logic, the idea
Of this form of eschatology, this inaugurated eschatology
Is that it's already not yet, and you almost could say
The coming future of the kingdom of God is before
The present reality of the kingdom of God, temporally speaking, like the clock
Is working backwards, now the clock can only work backwards because does God ever break
His promises? No, God never breaks His promises, He said it will happen, it will happen
That's it, it's gonna happen, what day, I don't know, and He also said I can't know
So we know it's going to happen, and because of that, what's happening today is
Based on that, the same thing happens to people who are not in the kingdom of God
So for example, you see this with people who maybe they're into Satan worship
Or they're worshiping money, or they're worshiping sex, or whatever, right?
And when it looks imminent to them, that they'll no longer be able
To get the thing that they want, or that the thing that they want can no longer
Provide for them the things that they want, right? So like for example, if they're worshiping
Money, and suddenly it's obvious that they're not gonna have any money, what happens?
They break down, they stress out, they scramble, I'm gonna
Fix this one way or another, right? They clutch it even harder, they'll work
More hours, they'll go up from 60 hours to 80 hours, they push, push, push, push
Whatever, they do all of these things. Well what's happening there
Is a present day occurrence of the kingdom of Satan
Or the kingdom of, you call it money, but who's behind the money, right?
You call it adultery, but who's behind the adultery, whatever, the present day
Occurrence of the kingdom of evil, because they see a future
Consummation coming to be, which is that that kingdom falls
And when they start to think I'm gonna fall, I'm not gonna have what I want, then they take
Steps to try to preserve that in the present day. So it
Works in both kingdoms, if you will, and I know everybody wants to call
The kingdom of Satan like it's multiple kingdoms, cause we wanna
Have whether it's the kingdom of money, the kingdom of sex, whatever, but it really isn't like that, all of those
False gods all kind of boil down to one thing, okay? So this inaugurated
Eschatology is not simply saying that the kingdom of God
Began when Jesus walked on the earth, that is incorrect
The kingdom of God did not begin, God has always been king, right? And
He didn't start being king when Jesus came, he was king in Moses' day
He was king in Abraham's day, he was king in Isaac's day, any of them that got saved
Got saved believing in a way that God was going to make, which was the future
Consummation of the arrival of a messiah
Or whatever they believed, whatever they knew, right? Some of them just said, whatever way you make God, that's fine by me
I'm good, I'm totally in, whatever way you make, and they didn't have any concept of a coming messiah
But some of them had a good concept of a coming messiah, and some of them even understood
That He would be a suffering messiah, right? It depends on who you're looking at
And they were living out a present day occurrence of the kingdom of God
Based on a future consummation, as if you could say the clock was working backwards
Now it's not, the clock is still working forwards, time is still unveiling
And we are moving closer to the future consummation becoming a present
Occurrence, okay? So I hope I didn't lose you there, the bottom line is
The thing that Jesus is yet to do is the most exciting thing
That we'll see if it happens in our lifetime in the kingdom of God, probably
Maybe after our own salvation, okay? Another example of this
That theologians have used is D-Day versus V-Day
So we're talking about World War II, obviously when we say here D-Day, that's when they
Invaded Europe, when the allies invaded Europe, it was D-Day, disembarkment day
Right? So they invaded Europe, and from the moment they invaded Europe
It was a certainty, I didn't know what the outworld was going to look like, but it was a
Certainty that the allies would win the war, it was settled, really, they didn't have victory
But from the moment they managed to get into Europe, there was a question whether they would get in or not
But once they got in, they pretty much knew they would win, now what would the cost be, how long would it take
What would the process be, etc. They didn't know for sure
But they pretty much knew it was going to be done by the time, if they could get in there, they pretty much knew
It was going to be done, they could see their own war engine, they could see the resources that they had
They knew that the rest of the world was all, everybody was behind them, everybody was producing
At the massive rate that they were, the United States was at the point where they were producing
100 tanks a day, or whatever, it's like, you almost couldn't have enough men to operate
The tanks, you know, the war engine was so moving that once they
Burst that bubble, that border of Europe, there was almost no way they could lose
But they hadn't won, so they had the present day occurrence
Of invading Europe, but they did not have the future consummation of the victory
In Europe, they got that on V-Day, okay, now the ultimate
V-Day then, for us, is the Perusia, and that's what goes in the word
There, starts with a P, it's the only other kind of tricky one to spell
It's the Perusia, it's P-A-R-O-U-S-I-A
And that's generally when Jesus comes back for his church, that's what we're really talking about
Now you can get into more detail as far as what order of events
Some people think there's going to be a tribulation before the church is pulled
Some people think that the church will be pulled and then the tribulation, some people think that
There will be a literal thousand year reign, that's a big question, Revelation 20 talks about an
Actual reign, Jesus reigns on the earth with the church kind of under
Him, and he reigns over all mankind on the earth for a thousand years before
And the order of the events exactly is hotly debated, is that a literal
Reign, is it a figurative reign, will it happen before the Perusia, will it happen
After, so you can hotly debate those things, but you don't have to hotly
Debate them to be a Christian, you don't have to do that, in fact I don't really recommend
You do that, but you do kind of have to have in your
Mind what is your motivation or what is God trying to say to you
About the kingdom of God, and that's what this four lessons is all about
So now if you'll notice that, that has a big kind of arrow down to the right
All of that, the present occurrence, future consummation, V-Day, Perusia
Then there's an arrow down to the right, and we start on the top of this patch of
Blanks over here with the G, and I'm going to give you that one, it's growing
So the kingdom of God is pictured in the New Testament
As growing, there's no doubt about that, in fact
Jesus was talking about a growing that would get going, that would
Really start taking off, it's growing, and so we're going to play a little game
With these, the better we play the game the faster we'll get through them
So we're going to start down on the left hand side, there was a parable that Jesus gave
About growing, or about the kingdom of God and its growing type nature
And it's a small word, and the second word starts with an S
One of RJ's favorite parables I think, and are you going to take a stab at it? If it's a small word
It's probably what? The sower, it's a parable of the sower
That's right, and so the parable of the sower is the farmer going out
Drops some seed along the way, and you see in that
The primary qualification for entering the kingdom of God and experiencing the kingdom of God
Is to be near the word, near the truth, near what's
Being delivered from God, and so if you're just in the proximity, right, so
The trail, the road, could have got the kingdom of God, but it
Really doesn't get a chance to because the birds pick it up and eat it before the seed can take root
The thin soil gets the kingdom of God, but there's no real roots
You know, there, then the thorny soil gets the kingdom of God
But then the thorns, the cares and the riches of this world choke it out, there's no real fruit from it
And then finally the sower drops some seed where it was meant to be, which is on the field
And the kingdom of God goes hog wild and produces fruit a thousand fold
Or whatever, okay, so that's the parable of the sower, and it's talking
About the kingdom of God growing from the teaching of God very clearly
The next one, okay, I gave you the first letter of every one, parable, give it to me
The mustard seed, parable of the mustard seed, easy one
For this purpose, for what they're talking about, the mustard seed is such a small seed
Planted, boom, grows up, big bush, everybody shelters in it, so
In the parable, the key point, the huge point is
Tiny seed, big bush, right, by the way, the mustard seed is not the
Small seed, and the big bush it produces is not the biggest bush, right, or the biggest tree
That wasn't the point, it was just the connection between this tiny thing produces this great big thing
And so the kingdom of God is produced as growing, is pictured as growing
Okay, going straight down, we got small word, then starts with an L
I'm gonna take a stab at it, these are all parables, and fairly famous
The, the, what, it's an L, yep, the,
Hint, we don't call it this anymore, and we do, because the Bible says so
But people don't, okay, it's the leaven, the leaven, right
So the kingdom of God is like leaven, leaven works through a batch of dough
And the whole dough expands, right, expands through the whole batch of dough, and the dough expands
And then you can make bread out of it, so kingdom of God is pictured as yeast
Elsewhere, sin is also pictured as yeast, but it's in a different
Context, okay, so we're not talking about that, we're talking about the parable of the leaven, he says
The kingdom of God is like that, and it expands, okay, now we're down on the bottom
This one shouldn't be too hard, three blanks, small word in the middle
First word starts with a T, third word starts with a W, I did do it a little bit tricky, so it could be a little harder
Aren't that many parables that are blank and blank
Correct, tares and wheat, that's right, tares and wheat
Okay, and we talked this one through just a little bit last week, and it was an argument
For those who were saying that the kingdom of God was going to come in the future
They use it to say, in the future, Jesus is going to harvest and sort everything, right
Okay, so the tares and the wheat supports a coming kingdom
But notice it also supports a kingdom in the present because you do have wheat
You do have a good producing crop, it's just infected with a bad producing crop, right
And then we're going to work our way up the right hand side
And the next one then says small word, then a second word that starts with a D
The D, I mentioned this one last week, and most people hadn't heard of it I think
Once, dinosaurs, the dragnet, very good
She looked back at her last week's worksheet and found it, good job
Okay, you're a researcher and a half, yes, the dragnet
And the dragnet, Aaron reminded us last week that the dragnet is the parable
He was, I think, the only one who really kind of remembered it, was the parable
Was the fish, and he takes out all the good fish and he
Gets rid of all the bad fish, right, and so this idea that eventually there will be a sorting
But notice, there are good fish, right, the netting
Nets good fish, it just also nets some bad fish, and the bad fish ultimately have to be dealt with
But in the meantime, we're netting good fish, so we have the
Already but not yet harvest of good fish, alright, so this one we're going to play a little game with
Alright, and I've given you, so this is like
What's that show, spin the wheel, Wheel of Fortune, except you don't make any money at all
Never, nothing, okay, yes, so you can't buy a bottle yet
Because you haven't got one right yet, sorry, sorry, okay
So if you need a consonant, you can go, but if you can get it right off
First word has three letters and it starts with a T, second word has
Four letters, starts with an S, the next word has a G at the beginning
And a G at the end, total of seven letters, the next word starts with an S
And has a T, the third letter from the end, so I've given you
S, T, and G, there are no other STs and Gs in there, you want to take a stab at it
You can ask for a consonant, if you get it, I'll give you three strikes as a group
Before you lose
So there are four words total, there's two on the top
One long one across the middle, and then one, yep, okay, anybody want a consonant?
Anybody want a consonant?
You can get an R, yes sir, and so there is an R, the fourth letter on the bottom word is an R
So it's S, space, space, R, and the second letter
In the middle row is an R, so it's GR
So we've got two Rs, now you can buy a bottle, go
Yes sir, lots of Es, okay, the third letter in the first word is an E
So it's T, space, E, the two middle letters of the
Second word are Es, so it's S, E, E, and then in the long word
At the bottom it's S, E, so the second letter is an E, and then right after
The R, there's an E, so you've got S, E, space, R, E,
T, space, space, need a consonant
Or you can just guess it if you can guess it
Okay, letter N, okay, yes sir, there is an N
So the next to the last letter in the middle row, so it goes
NG, which is probably not a surprise, lots of words end in
NG, so now you could get a vowel if you want a vowel, the seed
Growing secretly, that is correct, the seed growing
Secretly, and so with that
Amazing revelation, we will read this very short parable
From the Bible, imagine that
It's in Mark chapter 4, I think
26-29, I think it's Mark, yep, okay, here we go
The king of God is like a man who casts seed upon the soil, and goes
To bed at night, and gets up by day, and the seed sprouts up and grows
How he himself does not know, in other words he doesn't know how the seed grows
The soil produces crops by itself, first the blade, then the head
Then the mature grain in the head, but when the crop permits, he immediately
Puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come, so this
Is a parable about the seed growing without the
Person knowing how, it's all about that, it's all about the fact
That it's growing, and the fact that he doesn't really know how the system works
Okay, and we can say that there's the kingdom of God
Already, not yet fully, present, growing
But we don't really know how it's growing, and then you can
Imagine that somebody who doesn't like that, and I could be that
Person very easily, I like to know, like I want to nail it down man
Let's figure out how this thing works, I'm the guy that disassembles electronics when they stop
Working to figure out how they work, I still do that to this day, okay
So not that I do figure out how they work, I just try to figure out how they work, but anyway, so I'm that
Guy, yeah, I'm that guy, so if you can see
That you can't figure out how it's growing, then you can see how easy it would be to say
It's just already done, it's not growing, it's just already here, there's no more coming
Right, so you're denying the fact that it's growing, in order to not have to deal with it
Or, you could say, well it hasn't come yet, we can't understand it now, because it hasn't come yet
But if it's here present, then it's in your face, and the kingdom of God is advancing
And you can't quite figure out how it's advancing, but that is just
Distressing, you know, for some personalities it's just distressing
And that's why we have the other two theories, which are quite extreme
Okay, so we're gonna go down now, go basically
Straight to the left on the other side of that squiggly line, which that's a little arrow
In the middle of it there, and you've got three words, okay, and you see the last one I've given you
It's end, and the top one is the opposite of end, and it is
Beginning, very good, so the kingdom of God
Exists, there's the end, and what is the end of the waiting, or the
When will the complete consummation of the kingdom of God be?
The perusia, right, when Jesus comes again, the second coming of Christ, so that's the end
That's the fulfillment, that's the complete consummation, if you will
Whether or not he begins a thousand year reign, or whatever, he's coming and it's done
The beginning of the kingdom of God is in the beginning, it's all the way back
In the beginning, but now wait a minute, does it actually flip around?
Is anybody okay with it flipping around? I'm pretty okay with it
What if the beginning is when Jesus comes again, and it's in totality
And we're working to get there, I understand time, tick-tock, tick-tock
We're working to get there, but it's in totality at that moment in time
And everything else is actually founded on that moment, you can only do that
If 100% for sure he's coming, then everything else is founded on that moment
Either way, it's fine, there's a beginning and there's an end, if that's
The beginning of it, that's really the totality of it, right, then you could
Almost say the end of it was when Adam sinned, and he gave up the kingship
Himself, and who gave Adam the kingship again? God did
So prior to that, the kingdom was God, and Adam and Eve
So you can look at it however you want to look at it, but here's
What's really important, between the beginning and the end is the
Starts with a P, you want to take a stab at it, it's harder, nope, Perugia's later
You can say the present, that would work, the process
The present, the present day occurrence, present occurrence, the process, we're getting there
How are we moving between the two points, if you will
Whatever word you want to use there, it starts with a P, okay, and then now you've got just a little bit left
We're almost done, but we have a little bit of scripture we're going to do too, but we're almost done
So we've got an arrow leaving end, it goes down between the NG and
King, which is like kingdom, okay, it goes down between there
Then it goes up the D on the right hand side, it goes through the crown
And it goes all the way up to the question which is in the upper right hand corner
And it says, if there are kingdom values
In other words, if there are rules by which this kingdom works, not rules
Like don't do this, don't do that, but if there are guidelines, like gravity
The earth has gravity, is it the way people think it is, I don't know
But if you let go of something, it falls, so we know how things work, we expect
To let go of things and they fall, we're like oh and they don't fall, we go, whoa, that's weird
That's not supposed to happen, right, there are ways things work, that's what I mean
So if there are ways things work in the kingdom, when
Not where, but when should they be?
Yes, today, okay, I like both those answers, alright, so if you look on the
Blanks underneath, what I put was, in us
More and more, based on what Jesus taught, if you are
Saved, the kingdom of God is in you, and I can back that up beautifully
With Jesus' words from Luke 17
Verses 20 and 21, you might even kinda like, sorta like
I might be slipping into your head right now before I even go there and read them, cause they are
Kinda, especially when you think about the kingdom of God being in you, or whatever
You might have heard a phrase from there or something, but I'll read it, it's Luke 17, 20
Now having been questioned by the Pharisees as to when the kingdom of God
Was coming, oh, imagine that, there were holy men who wanted to know when the kingdom God was coming
Not new, okay, having been
Questioned by them, he answered them and said, the kingdom of God is not coming with
Signs to be observed, nor will they say, look
Here it is, there it is, for behold the kingdom
Of God is in your midst, there's that word again, okay, now this is
The New American Standard Version, if you went and read a King James Bible, that
Last word there would be translated differently, if you go read an NIV Bible, that word
Last there would be translated differently, so when you see a word in the Bible
In three different translations, it's translated differently, what does that tell you?
That would be a good way to do it, but there is an inference
Right, it tells you, there's gotta be something, why would somebody translate the same word, Josh
You're kind of almost our resident linguist, why would somebody translate the same
Word into the same language and translate it three different ways? Nuance?
Good, I like that, context, good, I like that, both of those things are true
So it's situational, now mind you, we would link the situation to
What Jesus is saying here, what is he saying, he's talking about the kingdom of God, he's talking about the fact
That they cannot see it, they cannot see exactly when it comes
By interpreting signs, etc., but rather it is in
And this one says, in your midst, so the three common translations
You see midst, I've given you already, the one right under the 21
Is among, A-M-O-N-G, among
And the one in the middle is within, so now we have the kingdom
Of God among us, in other words it's here
We're all here and it's here like somebody moving through a party, the kingdom of God is here
Moving through the party with us, that's among us, within us
Is in here, the kingdom of God is in here, and
In your midst means the kingdom of God is present
Theoretically, observably so, so you can be aware of it
It's not moving through, it's here, it's here now
In your midst, it's in the middle of you, it's in between you
So essentially, all three of those things say something about the kingdom of God
And I submit to you that the original Greek word that's there says all three of those things
And as Josh and RJ were saying, that people are just breaking them down
Trying to take, well we really think it's more like this one, we really think it's more like this one
More like that one, you might even be able to link them to the theology that they like
Or the version of eschatology that they like, so if for example, they say
Well the kingdom of God has already come, it's already come, it's already done
So if something new is coming, which one would you like the best out of within, among, or midst?
Well it's not within, because then new people would not have new experiences
Of the kingdom of God, so you gotta rule that one out, because the kingdom of God is already done, it's already here
There's no new experiences of the kingdom of God, so it's not within
It's not really, the difference between among and midst is subtle
But there is a difference, I think I would go with midst, it's just already here
Right, so that would fit the best with that eschatology
And if you like eschatology to say that it's coming yet, like it's not here at all yet
And it's coming yet, then you would probably go with
Among, because it's there, but you can't really do anything about it
It's just, it's like, it's walking through the party, but we can't touch it, we can't see it, we can't
It's hidden, right? The point is, you could see how people would
Look for a certain thing and find a certain thing, I submit to you, it's all free
And that's what Jesus meant, it is in us, the Holy Spirit of God
It is in us, Holy Spirit of God, present in me, changes me constantly, I'm affected by the Kingdom of God
It is in our midst, so it is here, present
When we are together, and it is among us
Meaning, like, when two Christians come together, it's there
Right, so it shows up, that kind of thing, or two or more Christians
Okay, whatever you do with that, go back to the original question, if there are Kingdom
Values, when should they be? Now, they should be now
And they should be in us, because the Holy Spirit of God is in us, and they should
Be growing in us, and we talked a little bit about that on Sunday, okay? So I'm just going to read a couple of Scriptures
And then I'm done, first one I wanted to be sure and read was Mark
Chapter 1, verses 14 and 15, now there's a ton
And you could literally spend, I mean, we have a really fun Saturday afternoon of 4 or 5 hours
Easy, going through Kingdom of God Scriptures and looking at it, and going, okay, how does this affect me?
What should I do about this? That kind of thing, it's a great topic
Okay, so Mark Chapter 1, verses 14 and 15 says, and after John had been taken into custody
Jesus came into Galilee preaching the Gospel of God, and saying, the time
Is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand
Repent, and believe in the Gospel, so Jesus was talking there
About the Kingdom of God being present, those who were previous were waiting for it
He didn't say, the time has come, the time is now
He said, the time has been fulfilled, the waiting is over, if you will
Matthew 12
22 to 29
Is right here, and it says
Then there was brought to him a demon possessed man, who was blind and dumb
And he healed him, so that the dumb man spoke and saw, and all the multitudes were amazed
And began to say, this man cannot be the son of David, can he? Remember that from the first week?
But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, this man cast out demons
Only by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons, and knowing their thought
He said to them, any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste
And any city or house divided against itself shall not stand
And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself, how then shall his kingdom stand?
And if I by Beelzebub cast out demons, by whom do your sons cast them out?
Oh, that hurts, consequently, they shall be your judges
And here it goes, you ready? But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God
Then the kingdom of God has come upon you
Or how can anyone enter the strong man's house and carry off his property unless he first binds the strong man?
And then he will plunder his house, so as Jesus said
It is here, I'm doing this by God, it is now
And I have seen demons cast out with my very own eyes, it happens
And the kingdom of God is present, okay?
John 18, we can do a bunch, but we're going to do one more, John 18, 36
On 18
Jesus answered, my kingdom is not of this world
If my kingdom were of this world, then my servants would be fighting
That I might not be delivered up to the Jews, but as it is, my kingdom is not of this realm
We're talking about a kingdom that exists
In time, in a way that we don't normally think about it
In a spiritual realm, in the way that we don't normally interact with it
In an authority of God that we don't have, can't touch, can't limit
Can't know exactly how it's going to go, right?
But what you can do is work, if you will, or submit, if you will
Yourself to allowing the kingdom of God principles to more and more
Manifest in you and through you to the world, because that's what we're supposed to be doing
If the kingdom of God is in us, and if it's not, you're not saved, that'd be a real problem
You need to give your life to the Lord and get saved, but if it is, then it ought to be
More and more growing. I was talking with a relatively young
Believer earlier today, this is my closing illustration, and he was talking about
How he indulges in certain activities, and those
Activities are not said in scripture to be sinned, however, for me
At a certain point in time, God said no more, don't do that anymore
And I committed to not do it anymore, and then even after that, I was kind of tricked by the enemy
Into doing it twice, even after I said I would never do it again
And I shared my testimony with him. Now as a young believer
What could he do? He could go, oh you're right, it's wrong to ever do that
I should never do that ever again. He could do that. Or he could say
Well, I need to check with my father, check with God, and see is God saying
Hey, don't do this anymore, and he could grow from it if God says don't do it anymore, then he could do that
Or he could reasonably continue to do it, because for him it's not sin, the Bible doesn't say it's sin
He can do it if he wants to do it, right? It doesn't hurt anything based on that
Now it is a potentially addictive behavior, so there could be a problem down the road
And if there is, God's big enough to handle it, it's not a problem, okay?
So I was cautious when I was talking to him and explaining, so for me, God
Grew, God affected me in the kingdom of God, he changed something in me
And he eventually said, I want you to not do that anymore, and then
After I, to prove God's point, beautifully to prove God's point
After I said I would never do it anymore, I was tricked twice
To do that very thing that I purpose myself, and I had made a decision, and in both times
I was tricked, I thought I was not doing what I was actually doing
I'm like, I'm not gonna do it, I can't do it, I'm making steps, I already said I'm not gonna do it
And then after I did it, the enemy said, huh, see?
I'm like, oh God, I did it again, and I repented and turned back to the Lord
Now, it's been almost 20 years and I've not done it, okay? And so the point is, the kingdom of God
Is at work, and it's gonna be at work in Tony Tate, differently than RJ
Differently than Tim, differently than Larry, differently than Nancy, right? So, can I
Look, should we look at a believer then, and say, okay
Well, I don't see kingdom principles growing in you
So I gotta judge you as not saved, wrong answer, in fact
Here's my two cents on that, don't ever judge anybody as not saved, if they flat out
Tell you they're not saved, you can take their profession, but other than that, don't ever judge
Anybody as not saved, that's what it means when it says, judge not lest you be judged
That's God's job, not our job, but should, let's say somebody
Is, say they're a believer, and they're indulging in sin, can I go to them and say
Hey, that thing is sin, and if you say you're a believer, then you should drop that thing
Like a hot potato, because it's sin, yes, you can do that, that's what Matthew 18 is all about
And if you save them from their sin, pull them back from their sin, then
They'll be in a much better place, and you'll be in a much better place with them, and so on
Right, they'll all be good, so the kingdom advances as we all work together
And try to allow the kingdom in each one of us to advance the way God wants to
You run on ahead and you say, hey, God told Pastor Dan, don't eat any more candy, I gotta give up candy
I can never eat candy again, well
You're running on ahead of God, unless God tells you to give up candy, I was a
Christian for quite a while before God told me to give it up, and it really only happened in a very
Certain way, in a very certain circumstances, and there's nothing wrong with it as far as the
Bible is concerned, so it's not sin, it
Debatably would be sin if I went back and ate candy now, the only reason
I would think it would be sin is because a number of times I've had to pray to God and say, God, please help me do this
Then it might be sin because it's wasted effort, I asked God for miraculous intervention
He gave it, and I'm wasting that effort because I'm going back, but he's not told me that I'll never
Eat candy ever again, so the king of God is like that, it's like
If you ever lay in your bed at night and you're trying to sleep and you hear the wind blow, and the trees
Are rattling, or maybe the shutters, or the glass in the windows have been blowing pretty hard
Do you see the wind? No, but you know the wind is there, you know what it's like, you know what it's doing
You can even picture in your own mind the shingles blowing off your house and having to fix them the next day
You can picture all of that, because that's the nature of something
When we know it, we know it, even though we don't know it
We can't nail it down, name it, pin it, trace it, couldn't draw it for somebody
But we know it, and that's the nature of the kingdom of God, when you're saved
You know what the kingdom of God is, and you know what it isn't
According to this, it's present, I believe it's present
But it's not present in its fullness, I still fall, I still make mistakes
I'm still human, you know, in too high a percentage perhaps
So that's like that, but when you see
The amazing acts of God and you know that the kingdom is present, the only thing I would
Take away from this really, if you do believe this
I think you should do the inaugurated eschatology, and ask yourself
What's really important? Is not what happened to me yesterday, it's not the mistakes I made last month
Or what happened to me when I was a kid, it's not
The decisions and the effect of the kingdom of God today are based on one thing
And what is that one thing? Not a rhetorical question, what is that one thing?
The decisions that we're making today, and the effect of the kingdom of God in us today is based on one thing
What is it? It's not the crucifixion, although without the crucifixion we'd be in real trouble
It's the second coming of Christ, it's the fact that he is going to bring the kingdom to fulfillment
Understand, if he brings the kingdom to fulfillment and you're living outside the borders
You ain't getting in, that's all there is to it
When it's sealed and done, it's done, right? And so that's why we live now
And that's why Paul says I press toward the goal, that's why we talk about
Like we did on Sunday, growing in moral excellence and becoming better and better to the point of love
And so on, expressing more, that's why we talk about the fruits of the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit produces fruit, fruit is produced like growing of the kingdom of God
And all of that, it's all about that, and it's all based on the fact that we know with certainty
That it will come to a fulfillment and it will be done
One more week, one more time next week
And what we're going to do is maybe boil it down and then we're going to talk about
Actual kingdom principles, what Jesus taught and what we need to do
How we can put them into practice, alright? So we're going to close in prayer at this time
And Chris, I have candy for you, don't forget, okay?
The only person I've ever met in New York, the teens are slacking off today
Give Chris their numbers and call them off, Jason was in New York, I feel like
Let's pray, Father in heaven, I praise you so much for the giving of your kingdom
Into the hands of foolish men, I think about in Psalm 8 where David says
What an amazing miracle it is that you set us to be over your creation
You did it with Adam and Eve, and Adam and Eve sinned against you and it's been
I mean, I can't say it's been a downhill slide since then because that really isn't true
It's just been messed up since then, and then Jesus of course was the second Adam and he took back
The kingdom and ultimately the kingdom will come in its fullness
And we are really looking forward to that day, I am looking forward to the day where I have
No reason ever again to cry and even if I should you'd be there to wipe my tears
I'm looking forward to the day in which I don't have to wonder whether the pain in my groin
Is another kidney stone, I don't have to wonder whether or not I'll get dementia like my dad
I don't have to wonder whether or not our country will begin to be ruled by
People who have very unbiblical values or whether
Somebody will break into my house or any of that, and I try not to worry about
Any of it now because I'm trusting in you and I know you have everything well under control
But the fact is we live in a world where those things are still a reality because the fullness
Of the kingdom has not yet come, and so we're really looking forward to that day
We ask you to bless us as we sort out deep teachings of the word and
If anyone is really struggling because of it, they're just like, I'm just not ready for that
Then Lord, we know that you're okay with that and you can comfort and you can strengthen
And you can shore up the walls of both faith and discipline and we can walk out
Our part, whatever our part is, whatever we know so far
Of the king of God and be grateful for the opportunity to do so
That's just special blessings upon those in healing and on us as we go out and try to live kingdom principles
This week and study them next week. We pray all this in Jesus name.