Kingdom of God Part 3 Inaugurated Eschatology

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

Mark 4 · chapter mention

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

Luke 17:20

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

Mark 1:14

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

Mark 1:14

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.