1 00:00:00,044 --> 00:00:05,756 You are loved with a love that would silence every fear, could we know it? 2 00:00:05,756 --> 00:00:09,118 Would comfort every sorrow, could we know it? 3 00:00:09,118 --> 00:00:12,879 Would give peace even here, could we know it? 4 00:00:12,879 --> 00:00:18,621 And Jesus is saying, that love has fixed the end of your story. 5 00:00:18,762 --> 00:00:19,962 So take heart. 6 00:00:19,962 --> 00:00:21,122 Take heart. 7 00:00:21,323 --> 00:00:24,904 The following message was recorded at King's Tree Church. 8 00:00:24,904 --> 00:00:29,602 May the Spirit use it to help you see, savor, and sing. 9 00:00:29,602 --> 00:00:33,924 Beauty of God in the crucified and risen Jesus Christ. 10 00:00:35,725 --> 00:00:38,427 We're going to be in Acts 1 this morning. 11 00:00:38,427 --> 00:00:40,668 We'll be in Acts 1 for a little while. 12 00:00:40,728 --> 00:00:47,452 If you recall, last week we started a new series going through the book of Acts. 13 00:00:47,972 --> 00:00:52,094 And last week specifically, we were laying foundation for this study. 14 00:00:52,094 --> 00:00:56,697 And I was endeavoring to explain to you why I chose the book of Acts. 15 00:00:56,697 --> 00:00:58,308 We're going to be in it for a good bit of time. 16 00:00:58,308 --> 00:00:58,818 So 17 00:00:58,818 --> 00:01:00,938 What's the rationale for doing this? 18 00:01:01,159 --> 00:01:09,061 And there were four things that I highlighted that we're going to return to as we walk through this book, four kind of touch points that we'll see again and again. 19 00:01:09,061 --> 00:01:15,483 The first is that Acts anchors our faith in history and anchors us in history. 20 00:01:15,483 --> 00:01:18,993 So it shows us these things happened and you are part of a lineage. 21 00:01:18,993 --> 00:01:22,724 You're part of a story that's been going on for a long time. 22 00:01:22,865 --> 00:01:28,810 Secondly, Acts gives us a vision of the apostolic reading. 23 00:01:28,810 --> 00:01:29,571 Of Scripture. 24 00:01:29,571 --> 00:01:32,852 How did the apostles read their Bibles? 25 00:01:32,933 --> 00:01:39,197 And what we see is that they read Scripture as a witness to the slain and risen Christ. 26 00:01:39,197 --> 00:01:46,202 All of Scripture is throughout Acts understood to be a witness to the crucified and risen Jesus. 27 00:01:46,482 --> 00:01:48,584 So it anchors our faith in history. 28 00:01:48,584 --> 00:01:50,986 It shows us scripture as a witness to Christ. 29 00:01:50,986 --> 00:01:57,690 Third, Acts presents over and over again the resurrection of Jesus as the event that. 30 00:01:57,690 --> 00:01:59,410 changes everything. 31 00:01:59,410 --> 00:02:03,212 Because this event has happened, all things now are new. 32 00:02:03,212 --> 00:02:04,972 All things now have been changed. 33 00:02:04,972 --> 00:02:07,033 And we'll we'll see that over and over again. 34 00:02:07,033 --> 00:02:17,275 And finally, Acts over r repeatedly shows us that the Holy Spirit is necessary for every good and lasting work. 35 00:02:17,275 --> 00:02:23,497 The Spirit, the presence and empowering of the Spirit is necessary for any good and lasting work of the church. 36 00:02:23,497 --> 00:02:25,238 So that's what we looked at last week. 37 00:02:25,238 --> 00:02:26,848 Anchoring our faith in history 38 00:02:26,848 --> 00:02:35,418 Scripture is a witness to Christ, resurrection as the event that changes everything, and the spirit as necessary to the work of the church. 39 00:02:35,418 --> 00:02:39,348 And that was kind of laying down the foundations for this book. 40 00:02:39,348 --> 00:02:47,794 Now, this week we're going to nominally enter into the narrative of the story, but we're not going to get very far. 41 00:02:47,794 --> 00:02:51,156 And I'm not going to go very super slow as we go through Acts. 42 00:02:51,156 --> 00:02:52,778 It would take multiple years. 43 00:02:52,778 --> 00:02:53,608 But 44 00:02:53,794 --> 00:03:02,170 We do have to stop this morning and look at the idea of kingdom, because kingdom is going to be a subtext under everything that happens in Acts. 45 00:03:02,170 --> 00:03:08,314 The word's not used all that much, but the concept is going to inform much of what we see in this book. 46 00:03:08,314 --> 00:03:11,286 So it's worth stopping here and considering it this morning. 47 00:03:11,286 --> 00:03:20,572 So let me read for you Acts chapter one, verses six through eleven, but know that we're just going to look today at verses six, seven, and eight. 48 00:03:21,013 --> 00:03:22,574 So let's start at verse six. 49 00:03:23,384 --> 00:03:30,996 So when they had come together, they asked him, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? 50 00:03:31,116 --> 00:03:43,900 And he said to them, It is not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon 51 00:03:43,900 --> 00:03:51,482 you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. 52 00:03:51,842 --> 00:03:57,867 And when they had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight. 53 00:03:57,867 --> 00:04:06,324 And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes and said, Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up into heaven? 54 00:04:06,324 --> 00:04:14,760 This Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will come in the same way that you saw him go into heaven. 55 00:04:14,820 --> 00:04:16,522 So that's this week and next week. 56 00:04:16,522 --> 00:04:19,764 This week we're just looking at what Jesus says about the kingdom. 57 00:04:19,764 --> 00:04:20,908 Let's pray. 58 00:04:20,908 --> 00:04:23,069 As we get into the text together. 59 00:04:26,072 --> 00:04:28,203 So, Father, we thank you for your word. 60 00:04:28,663 --> 00:04:36,126 We thank you for your sovereignty that is gracious and merciful and abounding in steadfast love. 61 00:04:36,126 --> 00:04:46,090 That you lead us, that you author us, that you work in us according to a good and loving will that we see in Jesus Christ. 62 00:04:46,150 --> 00:04:56,044 And so, Father, this morning I pray for your grace as I endeavor to unfold your word and as your people seek to hear it with discernment. 63 00:04:56,098 --> 00:05:07,886 We pray that your Holy Spirit would be present, working, making this effective, making this a time of your presence, making this, Lord, a time where you are at work in the midst 64 00:05:07,886 --> 00:05:10,228 of your body, in the midst of the church. 65 00:05:10,468 --> 00:05:11,929 So we pray for your grace now. 66 00:05:11,929 --> 00:05:21,056 We pray downstairs for the children in the nursery and in the children's class that you would be with them, comforting them, calming them, teaching them, and building them up 67 00:05:21,056 --> 00:05:22,437 into Christ. 68 00:05:22,437 --> 00:05:24,488 So we all look to you now, Lord. 69 00:05:24,494 --> 00:05:28,042 For your gracious will to be worked in us, we pray. 70 00:05:28,042 --> 00:05:29,345 In Jesus' name. 71 00:05:29,345 --> 00:05:30,206 Amen. 72 00:05:32,312 --> 00:05:35,103 So Jesus is raised from the dead. 73 00:05:35,523 --> 00:05:46,708 And the first thing the disciples do, the first thing we see here in Acts is they ask him a question and they say to him, right there in verse 6, Lord, will you at this time 74 00:05:46,708 --> 00:05:50,069 restore the kingdom to Israel? 75 00:05:50,189 --> 00:05:52,980 So they recognize that Jesus is the king. 76 00:05:52,980 --> 00:05:56,832 They recognize that he's the Messiah and He's raised from the dead. 77 00:05:56,832 --> 00:05:58,453 He's back to life. 78 00:05:58,453 --> 00:06:00,413 And they kind of come to him eagerly. 79 00:06:00,413 --> 00:06:01,900 We get the sense that this is. 80 00:06:01,900 --> 00:06:05,412 Been on their mind for a while, and they say, Are you now? 81 00:06:05,412 --> 00:06:11,054 Is this the time where you are going to restore the kingdom to Israel? 82 00:06:11,314 --> 00:06:15,836 Now, there's a lot of information in the background here. 83 00:06:15,836 --> 00:06:19,998 Like I said, it's it it sounds like this is something they've been thinking about for a while. 84 00:06:19,998 --> 00:06:29,294 And in fact, they have, because when we look at the Old Testament, we find that this idea of the kingdom or the kingship of God is. 85 00:06:29,294 --> 00:06:40,061 Present all over the place, not merely where we find the word kingdom, because that's mostly focused on the earthly kingdom, David's kingdom, but we find this idea of the 86 00:06:40,061 --> 00:06:46,386 kingship of God and his rule over his people throughout the Old Testament. 87 00:06:46,486 --> 00:06:48,758 Let me just read for you a few passages. 88 00:06:48,758 --> 00:06:49,818 You don't have to turn here. 89 00:06:49,818 --> 00:06:55,102 Uh I I put them in your your notes so you can look at them if you want this coming week. 90 00:06:55,102 --> 00:06:57,254 But let me just read to you a few passages. 91 00:06:57,254 --> 00:06:58,274 Listen. 92 00:06:58,392 --> 00:07:04,867 For kingship language here, and see what kind of vision the Old Testament is creating for us. 93 00:07:04,867 --> 00:07:08,550 Isaiah 52, verses 7 through 8. 94 00:07:09,952 --> 00:07:21,441 How beautiful upon the mountain are the feet of him who brings good news, that's the word gospel, who publishes peace, who brings gospel, the gospel of happiness, who publishes 95 00:07:21,441 --> 00:07:28,098 salvation, who says, here's the content of that good news, that gospel, who says to Zion, Your 96 00:07:28,098 --> 00:07:32,860 God reigns, the voice of the watchman, they lift up their voice. 97 00:07:32,860 --> 00:07:39,413 Together they sing for joy, for eye to eye they see the return of the Lord to Zion. 98 00:07:39,413 --> 00:07:45,545 So this proclamation of the kingship of Yahweh as he returns to Zion. 99 00:07:45,545 --> 00:07:50,747 Another passage that you may be familiar with comes in Daniel chapter seven. 100 00:07:51,668 --> 00:07:58,270 Here's what it says in Jan Daniel's famous vision of the Son of Man, chapter seven, verse thirteen, and following. 101 00:07:58,626 --> 00:08:09,841 Behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the ancient of days, speaking of the song that we sang, and was presented before him, and to 102 00:08:09,841 --> 00:08:20,755 him, to this son of man, was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, and that all people, nations, and languages should serve him. 103 00:08:20,755 --> 00:08:27,852 His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one. 104 00:08:27,852 --> 00:08:29,783 That shall not be destroyed. 105 00:08:29,783 --> 00:08:38,458 So this anticipation of the king who will come and establish his kingdom, and his kingdom will never be destroyed. 106 00:08:38,458 --> 00:08:44,651 And then perhaps just one more for you from the book of Zechariah, chapter 14. 107 00:08:45,152 --> 00:08:54,377 It says this: on that day, living waters shall flow out from Jerusalem, half of them to the eastern sea, half of them to the western sea. 108 00:08:54,377 --> 00:08:56,864 It shall continue in the summer and in the winter. 109 00:08:56,864 --> 00:09:02,258 And the Lord Yahweh will be king over all the earth. 110 00:09:02,359 --> 00:09:07,623 On that day, the Lord will be one, and his name will be one. 111 00:09:07,864 --> 00:09:19,084 There's many more passages we could look at, but the the general idea that the Old Testament gives of this hope of the kingdom of God is that the kingdom represents, to put 112 00:09:19,084 --> 00:09:21,637 it simply, the end of the story. 113 00:09:21,637 --> 00:09:23,842 The kingdom is where we're going. 114 00:09:23,842 --> 00:09:34,200 The kingdom is when God will finally appear, break into history, defeat his enemies, save his people, reveal his name to all the world. 115 00:09:34,200 --> 00:09:38,634 That's the kingdom that they're hoping for, the prophets are hoping for. 116 00:09:38,654 --> 00:09:48,032 And this vision of the kingdom really is born when the earthly kingdom is broken and sent into exile, and the prophets are wondering what's going on. 117 00:09:48,032 --> 00:09:53,218 And God begins to reveal that the true kingdom is this end that's coming. 118 00:09:53,218 --> 00:09:55,978 When I will reign over my people. 119 00:09:55,978 --> 00:09:58,779 So there's this hope for the kingdom. 120 00:09:58,780 --> 00:10:10,343 And bound up in the idea of kingdom, as the disciples knew it, as the the Israel of the Second Temple knew it, bound up in the sense of kingdom is exile and hope. 121 00:10:10,343 --> 00:10:18,986 Both those ideas are working together in the idea of the kingdom, because thinking of the kingdom means I'm not there yet. 122 00:10:18,986 --> 00:10:20,822 I'm still outside of it. 123 00:10:20,822 --> 00:10:22,413 I'm still on my way to it. 124 00:10:22,413 --> 00:10:24,065 It's still on its way to me. 125 00:10:24,065 --> 00:10:28,148 I'm still in the shadow lands, but the kingdom is coming. 126 00:10:28,148 --> 00:10:32,332 So as soon as you talk about the idea of kingdom, you have this sense of exile. 127 00:10:32,332 --> 00:10:33,123 I'm not there. 128 00:10:33,123 --> 00:10:35,975 It's the home we're going to. 129 00:10:36,215 --> 00:10:43,081 But as soon as you talk about that, you also have the sense of hope because the kingdom is coming. 130 00:10:43,081 --> 00:10:45,003 We are going home. 131 00:10:45,003 --> 00:10:46,704 We will be home. 132 00:10:46,704 --> 00:10:48,810 We're moving back to 133 00:10:48,810 --> 00:10:59,577 Eden and indeed beyond Eden, further into the heart of God than Eden ever was, the kingdom means the healing of the wound that humanity was dealt at the fall. 134 00:10:59,577 --> 00:11:05,781 It means the reconciliation of God to man and man to man and man to creation. 135 00:11:05,781 --> 00:11:08,704 It's the reconciliation of all things. 136 00:11:08,704 --> 00:11:18,670 So the idea of kingdom is this joyful end of the story that fills us with a sense both of poignant exile and longing. 137 00:11:18,670 --> 00:11:19,570 Hope. 138 00:11:19,970 --> 00:11:23,591 And a simple way to put the kingdom, if you're thinking, what's the kingdom? 139 00:11:23,591 --> 00:11:33,534 You can think of it this way The kingdom is God's rule over God's people in God's place. 140 00:11:33,934 --> 00:11:39,035 God's rule over God's people in God's place. 141 00:11:39,196 --> 00:11:48,398 And so with that sense of the kingdom in mind, the disciples come to the risen Jesus and they say, Lord, will you at this time restore? 142 00:11:48,482 --> 00:11:51,744 The kingdom to Israel. 143 00:11:51,884 --> 00:11:54,346 Restore the kingdom to Israel. 144 00:11:54,346 --> 00:11:59,790 Because they're thinking these categories: God's rule over God's people in God's place. 145 00:11:59,790 --> 00:12:01,261 They've got God's rule clear. 146 00:12:01,261 --> 00:12:04,153 They're like, here's the Messiah, here's the king. 147 00:12:04,153 --> 00:12:07,025 God's rule is here, Jesus, the risen one. 148 00:12:07,025 --> 00:12:08,516 They've got that clear. 149 00:12:08,516 --> 00:12:12,899 But now they're thinking, okay, so now God's rule is here. 150 00:12:12,899 --> 00:12:17,152 Now God's people, and they're thinking the ethnic Jewish people. 151 00:12:17,206 --> 00:12:20,158 Are going to be ruled by this king in God's place. 152 00:12:20,158 --> 00:12:24,450 And they're thinking the physical land of Israel, Jerusalem. 153 00:12:24,870 --> 00:12:34,535 And in that, they are, they're they're right that those things are part of the kingdom, but they're they're they're not, they're missing the fullness of what the New Testament 154 00:12:34,535 --> 00:12:42,140 says, because the New Testament transcends those bounds of what the kingship is. 155 00:12:42,140 --> 00:12:45,321 They're thinking, God's king, here he is, Jesus. 156 00:12:45,321 --> 00:12:47,008 God's people. 157 00:12:47,008 --> 00:12:51,382 Ethnic Jews, God's place, this land of Israel. 158 00:12:51,382 --> 00:12:59,749 But Luke and the whole New Testament push those boundaries and say, you need to think of this differently now that Christ has come. 159 00:12:59,749 --> 00:13:03,673 I'll give you just a few examples from the book of Luke. 160 00:13:03,673 --> 00:13:09,578 And remember, the reason we can read in Luke to help us understand Acts is because it's a two-volume work. 161 00:13:09,578 --> 00:13:10,419 They go together. 162 00:13:10,419 --> 00:13:14,752 You're meant to have Luke in your mind as you're reading Acts. 163 00:13:15,288 --> 00:13:20,121 So this is gonna be a lightning round, a few quick passages about the kingdom that we see in Luke. 164 00:13:20,121 --> 00:13:23,803 Um, Luke chapter 6, verse 20. 165 00:13:23,803 --> 00:13:31,647 Jesus says, Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is, is the kingdom of heaven. 166 00:13:31,647 --> 00:13:33,948 Not will be, is. 167 00:13:34,068 --> 00:13:35,669 Yours is the kingdom of heaven. 168 00:13:35,669 --> 00:13:38,911 Luke chapter 10, verse 9. 169 00:13:38,911 --> 00:13:40,452 Let me read you this. 170 00:13:41,052 --> 00:13:44,534 Jesus sends out his disciples and says to them, Heal the sick. 171 00:13:44,790 --> 00:13:49,032 And say to them, the kingdom of God has come near to you. 172 00:13:49,032 --> 00:13:57,437 The kingdom of God in the ministry of Jesus' disciples that he sends out in his name, he says, the kingdom is coming near to you in that. 173 00:13:57,437 --> 00:14:06,362 And then again, down in verse 11, I tell you, uh, no, sorry, nevertheless, know this that the kingdom of God has come near. 174 00:14:06,362 --> 00:14:12,345 So the kingdom of God is something that is drawing near in the ministry of Jesus' disciples. 175 00:14:12,405 --> 00:14:14,254 Or Luke 11. 176 00:14:14,254 --> 00:14:27,378 Chapter 20, where Jesus says, If it is by the finger of God that I am casting out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. 177 00:14:27,498 --> 00:14:35,330 If I am here casting out demons by the power of God, then the kingdom of God is here, is what Jesus says. 178 00:14:35,330 --> 00:14:42,742 That kingdom, that hope, that home, it's come if I'm doing what I'm doing, says Jesus. 179 00:14:43,432 --> 00:14:47,385 Luke chapter 13, verses 18 and following. 180 00:14:47,385 --> 00:14:49,987 He says, What is the kingdom of God like? 181 00:14:49,987 --> 00:14:51,044 To what shall I compare it? 182 00:14:51,044 --> 00:14:59,213 It's like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his garden, and it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air nested in it. 183 00:14:59,393 --> 00:15:04,497 Or he says, it's like leaven that a woman took and hid in a measure of flower until it was all leavened. 184 00:15:04,497 --> 00:15:09,630 It's something that happens and then grows, grows and grows and grows. 185 00:15:09,630 --> 00:15:12,738 And then a final one for you to wrap it up. 186 00:15:12,738 --> 00:15:23,244 Verse chapter 17, verses 20 and following, Jesus says, But he was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come. 187 00:15:23,244 --> 00:15:25,245 That's like what his disciples have asked him. 188 00:15:25,245 --> 00:15:33,629 And he answered them: The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, nor will they say, Look, here it is, or there. 189 00:15:33,629 --> 00:15:42,744 For behold, the kingdom of God is, this translation says, in the midst of you, but even more provocatively, within you. 190 00:15:42,744 --> 00:15:46,235 The word Jesus uses there is a word for meaning inside. 191 00:15:46,235 --> 00:15:48,166 The kingdom is within you. 192 00:15:48,166 --> 00:15:54,799 The kingdom is so present, so near, so here that it's it's face to face with you. 193 00:15:54,919 --> 00:16:07,044 And that's the point because what Luke does and what the whole New Testament does is to say the kingdom is where Jesus is, because Jesus is the king. 194 00:16:07,044 --> 00:16:10,265 And if he is here, the kingdom is here. 195 00:16:10,265 --> 00:16:12,002 If he's standing in your midst, 196 00:16:12,002 --> 00:16:14,043 The kingdom is in your midst. 197 00:16:14,043 --> 00:16:18,276 Where the king is, there the kingdom is. 198 00:16:18,276 --> 00:16:24,311 And at the very beginning of Luke's gospel, Jesus is introduced in this way. 199 00:16:24,311 --> 00:16:27,212 Luke chapter 1, verse 31 says this. 200 00:16:27,653 --> 00:16:33,697 Behold, to Mary, he's speaking, Mary, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will call his name Jesus. 201 00:16:33,697 --> 00:16:37,279 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. 202 00:16:37,279 --> 00:16:41,186 And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David. 203 00:16:41,186 --> 00:16:47,651 He will reign over the house of Jacob for forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end. 204 00:16:48,492 --> 00:16:54,317 So where Jesus is, where the king is, that's where the kingdom is. 205 00:16:54,317 --> 00:16:58,040 Where the king plants his flag, that's now the kingdom. 206 00:16:58,040 --> 00:17:00,001 The kingdom is present there. 207 00:17:00,001 --> 00:17:10,770 So that's the radical transformation of perspective that the New Testament brings, which is in the person of Jesus Christ, Yahweh God has come down to dwell in our midst, the king 208 00:17:10,770 --> 00:17:11,091 of 209 00:17:11,091 --> 00:17:14,982 of kings and where the king is, his kingdom is. 210 00:17:14,982 --> 00:17:16,913 He brings the home with him. 211 00:17:16,913 --> 00:17:19,043 He brings paradise with him. 212 00:17:19,043 --> 00:17:21,864 He brings the end of the story with him. 213 00:17:21,864 --> 00:17:24,245 He is the king. 214 00:17:24,565 --> 00:17:37,059 Now what this means, as we kind of try to think through the implications, this means that the idea of God's kingdom, while it includes physical land, places, indeed the whole 215 00:17:37,059 --> 00:17:40,600 cosmos, it is no longer tethered 216 00:17:40,600 --> 00:17:47,173 To the physical land of Israel, nor is it tethered to the ethnic people of the Jews. 217 00:17:47,234 --> 00:17:57,419 Certainly the land of Israel can be gathered in, is part of the cosmos that belongs to Christ, and the ethnic Jews are part of those who will be gathered into Christ, as Paul 218 00:17:57,419 --> 00:17:59,600 says very clearly in Romans. 219 00:17:59,600 --> 00:18:10,476 But the center of gravity of the kingdom has shifted now from the people of Israel to Jesus Christ, who is in himself. 220 00:18:10,476 --> 00:18:14,397 The fullness of the people of Israel, the fullness of Israel. 221 00:18:14,397 --> 00:18:17,348 He is the seed of Abraham. 222 00:18:17,348 --> 00:18:21,329 And so he is the inheritor of the kingdom. 223 00:18:21,329 --> 00:18:27,290 And the kingdom now is wherever he is, and indeed wherever he is obeyed. 224 00:18:27,351 --> 00:18:31,712 The people, so God's rule is Christ. 225 00:18:31,752 --> 00:18:40,714 God's people are now all those, Jew and Gentile, united to this Christ by faith and baptism. 226 00:18:40,818 --> 00:18:49,780 And the place where Christ reigns is the whole cosmos, where he is reconciling all things to himself through his blood. 227 00:18:49,821 --> 00:18:55,022 And specifically, the place where he reigns is wherever he is obeyed as king. 228 00:18:55,222 --> 00:18:57,643 That's the transformation. 229 00:18:57,643 --> 00:19:02,724 Where Christ is obeyed as king, there is his kingdom. 230 00:19:02,804 --> 00:19:09,376 So your home can be his kingdom or can be a rebellious outpost. 231 00:19:09,494 --> 00:19:11,155 Opposing his kingdom. 232 00:19:11,155 --> 00:19:23,942 Our homes, if Christ is king in the home and we obey him, and and and dads and heads of home, we are prayerfully laboring to lead our families into obedience to the King Jesus, 233 00:19:23,942 --> 00:19:25,463 the kingdom is there. 234 00:19:25,463 --> 00:19:26,523 The kingdom is there. 235 00:19:26,523 --> 00:19:32,487 Here in this church, where we're hearing Christ proclaim and obeying him, the kingdom is here. 236 00:19:32,487 --> 00:19:39,370 In our neighborhoods where the kingship of Jesus and the ways of Jesus are being extended through his people. 237 00:19:39,618 --> 00:19:40,979 The kingdom is there. 238 00:19:40,979 --> 00:19:44,542 So the kingdom comes where he is obeyed. 239 00:19:44,682 --> 00:19:47,485 In our own soul, here's the one to deal with first. 240 00:19:47,485 --> 00:19:49,186 Is the kingdom here? 241 00:19:49,186 --> 00:19:52,469 Has the kingdom come here in me? 242 00:19:52,469 --> 00:19:54,090 Is it coming in me? 243 00:19:54,110 --> 00:19:56,312 So there's a shift in vision of the kingdom. 244 00:19:56,312 --> 00:19:59,455 It has come with the slain and risen Christ. 245 00:19:59,455 --> 00:20:05,299 It is coming now, and it will certainly come in the end. 246 00:20:05,560 --> 00:20:08,076 It's like a seed planted and growing. 247 00:20:08,076 --> 00:20:10,888 It's like bread leavened and rising. 248 00:20:10,888 --> 00:20:11,729 That's the idea. 249 00:20:11,729 --> 00:20:19,694 Now, with this understanding of the kingdom, let's look again at the disciples' question and especially Jesus' answer to them. 250 00:20:19,694 --> 00:20:22,866 So they say, Will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? 251 00:20:22,866 --> 00:20:26,999 They're still working in that older paradigm of understanding what the kingdom is. 252 00:20:26,999 --> 00:20:37,464 Jesus' answer to them is this: it is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority, but you will receive power. 253 00:20:37,464 --> 00:20:50,583 When the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, all Judea, and Samaria, that's breaking the bounds of Israel, and all the earth. 254 00:20:50,724 --> 00:20:55,477 So he's expanding their vision of what the kingdom is and what it means. 255 00:20:55,477 --> 00:21:03,473 Now, their question really has two parts to it: a a-a-a people part and a timing part. 256 00:21:03,473 --> 00:21:04,003 Look at it. 257 00:21:04,003 --> 00:21:05,654 They say, Will you? 258 00:21:06,146 --> 00:21:10,608 Will you at this time, there's the timing part, restore the kingdom to Israel? 259 00:21:10,608 --> 00:21:12,169 There's the people part. 260 00:21:12,209 --> 00:21:14,150 When and to whom? 261 00:21:14,150 --> 00:21:16,952 Now Jesus doesn't say anything about the people part. 262 00:21:16,952 --> 00:21:21,794 And that's because, again, he is now the center of gravity of what the kingdom is. 263 00:21:21,895 --> 00:21:28,478 And Israel, as we'll see throughout the book of Acts, is part of the kingdom only to the extent that they believe in him. 264 00:21:28,638 --> 00:21:30,119 So he doesn't say anything about that. 265 00:21:30,119 --> 00:21:31,740 He's basically saying, You'll learn about that. 266 00:21:31,740 --> 00:21:34,502 I'll let you figure that out over these next few chapters. 267 00:21:34,502 --> 00:21:35,850 He does though. 268 00:21:35,850 --> 00:21:43,496 Give them some degree of answer for their timing question, though with an ambiguity that they probably would have rather had more clear. 269 00:21:43,496 --> 00:21:47,518 Because what he says to them is, yes, there is a future coming. 270 00:21:47,518 --> 00:21:48,920 The kingdom is coming. 271 00:21:48,920 --> 00:21:56,324 So he it's clear there, there is some kind of future sense with which the kingdom is coming, but three things about it. 272 00:21:57,166 --> 00:22:03,736 It is not for you to know the seasons, the timer seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. 273 00:22:03,736 --> 00:22:09,188 So, three things I want us to look at with Jesus' answer regarding the timing of the kingdom. 274 00:22:09,188 --> 00:22:11,648 First, it is fixed. 275 00:22:11,868 --> 00:22:14,989 It's fixed by the authority of God. 276 00:22:14,989 --> 00:22:21,551 Second, it's fixed by the authority, not just of God, of the Father, the Father. 277 00:22:21,611 --> 00:22:25,512 And third, it's not for you to know, he says to his disciples. 278 00:22:25,512 --> 00:22:29,453 So let's look at those three pieces of Jesus' answer about the kingdom. 279 00:22:29,453 --> 00:22:30,973 When is it coming? 280 00:22:31,053 --> 00:22:31,844 When is it coming? 281 00:22:31,844 --> 00:22:32,464 Three things. 282 00:22:32,464 --> 00:22:33,472 First, he says, 283 00:22:33,472 --> 00:22:34,682 It's fixed. 284 00:22:34,823 --> 00:22:36,084 It's fixed. 285 00:22:36,084 --> 00:22:38,805 It is, it's not, it's not up to debate. 286 00:22:38,805 --> 00:22:40,166 It's not a maybe. 287 00:22:40,166 --> 00:22:45,269 He says, it's not for you to know the times or seasons the Father has fixed. 288 00:22:45,269 --> 00:22:50,453 So it's not just that God knows when the end is coming. 289 00:22:50,453 --> 00:22:53,415 It's that He has fixed the ending. 290 00:22:53,415 --> 00:22:56,636 He has established it by His own authority. 291 00:22:56,636 --> 00:22:59,478 We might even say down to the very second. 292 00:22:59,554 --> 00:23:04,558 To the degree that seconds matter as time and space dissolve around the returning of Christ. 293 00:23:04,558 --> 00:23:10,243 But it it is, it is ordained by God, fixed by him. 294 00:23:10,243 --> 00:23:20,431 Think about a carpenter lining up, you know, putting the lines on the wall, putting the cabinet up on the wall, getting it just exactly right, and then fixing it in place. 295 00:23:20,431 --> 00:23:22,433 That's a purposeful act. 296 00:23:22,433 --> 00:23:28,928 And Jesus says God has measured, arranged, and fixed the end. 297 00:23:28,928 --> 00:23:32,539 of all things according to his authority. 298 00:23:32,819 --> 00:23:37,660 And if he's fixed the end of all things, Christian, he's fixed the end for you. 299 00:23:37,660 --> 00:23:42,162 Because the end is ultimately everyone's end. 300 00:23:42,162 --> 00:23:44,522 We're all going to die in different ways. 301 00:23:44,522 --> 00:23:48,383 We're all going to end our story, end our story in different ways. 302 00:23:48,383 --> 00:23:52,224 That's of course just the turning of the title page when you die of your story. 303 00:23:52,224 --> 00:23:53,945 That's that's the very beginning. 304 00:23:53,945 --> 00:23:57,912 The the end, we're coming to the same 305 00:23:57,912 --> 00:23:59,523 Place, the same end. 306 00:23:59,523 --> 00:24:01,964 Everyone will come to this end. 307 00:24:01,964 --> 00:24:07,788 And their experience in that end will deter will be based upon their stance toward Christ. 308 00:24:07,788 --> 00:24:15,392 But my point now is if God has fixed this end, then Christian, he's fixed your end, because that's where you're going. 309 00:24:15,392 --> 00:24:22,716 The end of your story, the way this story concludes, wraps up, and brings you into the new creation. 310 00:24:22,716 --> 00:24:24,077 That's fixed. 311 00:24:24,077 --> 00:24:26,078 That is certain. 312 00:24:26,280 --> 00:24:37,359 Nothing the nations do, nothing the world does, nothing Satan does, nothing ultimately you do can alter what God has fixed in place. 313 00:24:37,359 --> 00:24:38,970 So that's the first thing Jesus is saying. 314 00:24:38,970 --> 00:24:40,782 There's a hand on the wheel. 315 00:24:40,782 --> 00:24:42,572 This isn't just wild and chaotic. 316 00:24:42,572 --> 00:24:43,864 It is fixed. 317 00:24:44,385 --> 00:24:52,491 Second, he says, it's not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his authority. 318 00:24:52,731 --> 00:24:56,248 He doesn't say, the king, the holy one. 319 00:24:56,248 --> 00:25:01,622 The Lord, or just God, he could say all those things, but he says, the Father. 320 00:25:01,622 --> 00:25:18,413 And by saying Father here, Jesus is calling his disciples and us to bring in to this moment all the fatherly love of God, the love of a father, the care of the father, the 321 00:25:18,413 --> 00:25:22,216 wisdom of the father, the covering of the father. 322 00:25:22,216 --> 00:25:25,344 So in the midst of their uncertainty, he says. 323 00:25:25,344 --> 00:25:28,357 Your father has fixed this time. 324 00:25:28,357 --> 00:25:38,565 Not an impersonal king, not a far-off God, but the father's heart that loves us has fixed this ending. 325 00:25:38,565 --> 00:25:42,168 And that's worth meditating upon, Christian. 326 00:25:42,428 --> 00:25:43,889 The very heart. 327 00:25:43,910 --> 00:25:50,245 So God's life is the love of the Father for the Son and the Son for the Father in the Spirit. 328 00:25:50,245 --> 00:25:52,896 That is the life of God. 329 00:25:53,237 --> 00:25:54,274 And He 330 00:25:54,274 --> 00:25:56,396 Has brought us into that. 331 00:25:56,396 --> 00:25:59,097 He has said, Come be my children. 332 00:25:59,097 --> 00:26:01,059 Come enter into this. 333 00:26:01,059 --> 00:26:09,604 Come say with my eternally beloved son, Abba, Father, come know my love as a father. 334 00:26:09,625 --> 00:26:16,109 And Jesus says, That's the heart that has fixed the end of your story. 335 00:26:16,109 --> 00:26:19,351 That's the heart that has fixed the end of your story. 336 00:26:19,351 --> 00:26:23,754 So, Christian, Christian, we are living out a story. 337 00:26:23,992 --> 00:26:29,847 That has been written by one who loves us with a love that we can't imagine. 338 00:26:29,847 --> 00:26:34,551 You've been hearing, if you've been a Christian for a while, you've been hearing, God loves me. 339 00:26:34,551 --> 00:26:38,414 You say, I know he loves me, I know he loves me, I know Jesus loves me. 340 00:26:38,414 --> 00:26:43,458 We don't have any idea what it means to be loved by this God. 341 00:26:43,458 --> 00:26:46,020 We have no idea what it means. 342 00:26:46,020 --> 00:26:53,086 The love that is open to us and given to us is something we have. 343 00:26:53,086 --> 00:26:54,507 No idea about. 344 00:26:54,507 --> 00:27:03,414 It's as if we're in the desert with a thimble, and our greatest imagination of being loved would be if only this thimble could be filled. 345 00:27:03,475 --> 00:27:14,274 And Christ takes us by the shoulders and turns us around and says, You're on the be you're this is not a desert, this is a beach, and you're on the shores of an ocean that goes 346 00:27:14,274 --> 00:27:15,344 forever. 347 00:27:15,365 --> 00:27:16,985 Plunge into it. 348 00:27:16,986 --> 00:27:22,478 Know that you are you are loved with a love that would silence every fear. 349 00:27:22,478 --> 00:27:23,479 Could we know it? 350 00:27:23,479 --> 00:27:25,680 Would comfort every sorrow? 351 00:27:25,680 --> 00:27:26,841 Could we know it? 352 00:27:26,841 --> 00:27:29,283 Would give peace even here? 353 00:27:29,283 --> 00:27:30,604 Could we know it? 354 00:27:30,604 --> 00:27:36,347 And Jesus is saying, that love has fixed the end of your story. 355 00:27:36,508 --> 00:27:38,849 So take heart, take heart. 356 00:27:39,009 --> 00:27:44,593 And that helps us, that helps us do the next thing, he says, because it's not just fixed. 357 00:27:44,593 --> 00:27:50,557 It's not just fixed by our Father who loves us in Christ, but it is not for us to know. 358 00:27:50,657 --> 00:27:52,638 It's not for us to know. 359 00:27:52,696 --> 00:27:55,047 Jesus says, that's not for you. 360 00:27:55,288 --> 00:28:02,274 How wonderful, how wonderful that there are things that are simply not for us to know. 361 00:28:02,274 --> 00:28:03,996 You simply can't know them. 362 00:28:03,996 --> 00:28:05,736 It's not that they aren't there. 363 00:28:06,506 --> 00:28:12,842 In my pride, in our pride, we think, well, if I don't know it, it's not, it's not clear, it's not true, it's not, it's not there. 364 00:28:13,023 --> 00:28:20,429 There are infinite things, wonderful things that are true, and it's just not allowed for us to know them. 365 00:28:20,429 --> 00:28:21,688 Why did this happen? 366 00:28:21,688 --> 00:28:24,520 There's a reason, but it's not for you to know. 367 00:28:24,520 --> 00:28:25,731 Why is this happening? 368 00:28:25,731 --> 00:28:28,223 There's a reason it's not for you to know. 369 00:28:28,223 --> 00:28:33,807 There are things, take comfort in your ignorance. 370 00:28:33,807 --> 00:28:35,248 I just, I don't know. 371 00:28:35,248 --> 00:28:37,669 And it's not for me to know. 372 00:28:37,810 --> 00:28:44,094 And if you're like me and you want to be in control, you want to hold things. 373 00:28:44,094 --> 00:28:46,836 And one of the ways you're in control is by knowing. 374 00:28:46,836 --> 00:28:48,137 Give me the numbers. 375 00:28:48,137 --> 00:28:49,752 Tell me how it's going to work out. 376 00:28:49,752 --> 00:28:50,772 Tell me the statistics. 377 00:28:50,772 --> 00:28:52,003 Tell me how this goes. 378 00:28:52,003 --> 00:28:53,484 I want to know. 379 00:28:53,524 --> 00:28:56,365 And Jesus says, you're not going to know. 380 00:28:56,466 --> 00:28:58,847 This is not for you to know. 381 00:28:58,867 --> 00:29:00,849 This is not for you to know. 382 00:29:00,849 --> 00:29:09,153 Rest the uncertainty of your times in the certainty of the Father's heart. 383 00:29:09,153 --> 00:29:10,794 That's what he says to us. 384 00:29:10,934 --> 00:29:15,036 Rest your uncertainty in the certainty of who he is. 385 00:29:15,117 --> 00:29:15,887 And don't know. 386 00:29:15,887 --> 00:29:16,698 You just don't know. 387 00:29:16,698 --> 00:29:17,768 It's okay. 388 00:29:17,964 --> 00:29:21,657 And this isn't just true for the end, for the kingdom coming, though it is. 389 00:29:21,957 --> 00:29:24,099 This is also true for every day. 390 00:29:24,099 --> 00:29:28,322 You wake up in the morning, it's the morning of the appointment. 391 00:29:28,483 --> 00:29:30,624 It's the morning of the surgery. 392 00:29:30,645 --> 00:29:32,506 It's the morning of the test. 393 00:29:32,707 --> 00:29:35,548 It's another morning of unrelieved pain. 394 00:29:35,649 --> 00:29:39,932 And we say, Lord, is now the time when this is over? 395 00:29:39,993 --> 00:29:42,385 Is now the time when this is going to happen? 396 00:29:42,385 --> 00:29:44,477 Is now the time when I get relief? 397 00:29:44,477 --> 00:29:46,678 And so often his answer is. 398 00:29:46,786 --> 00:29:51,928 The time is fixed by one who loves you and it's not for you to know. 399 00:29:52,068 --> 00:29:53,449 And we rest in that. 400 00:29:53,449 --> 00:29:56,090 We rest in that because we trust his heart. 401 00:29:56,090 --> 00:29:58,811 And that's what the disciples are being called to do here. 402 00:29:58,871 --> 00:30:01,372 But a little more than that, too. 403 00:30:01,372 --> 00:30:04,254 They're not being called merely to rest, are they? 404 00:30:04,254 --> 00:30:10,597 Because Jesus doesn't just say, that's going to happen when the Father says it will happen, end of story. 405 00:30:10,597 --> 00:30:12,317 He does give them something to do. 406 00:30:12,317 --> 00:30:14,166 Look at what he says in verse 8. 407 00:30:14,722 --> 00:30:27,632 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. 408 00:30:27,993 --> 00:30:31,786 And so ultimately, this really is Jesus' answer to their question. 409 00:30:31,786 --> 00:30:33,517 Let me try to show you how. 410 00:30:33,858 --> 00:30:43,966 Remember, the kingdom has come in Christ, is coming, present tense in Christ, and will come in Christ with his return. 411 00:30:44,502 --> 00:30:47,943 With this statement here, Jesus is emphasizing that middle part. 412 00:30:47,943 --> 00:30:49,424 It is coming now. 413 00:30:49,484 --> 00:30:52,826 Because they say to him, When is the kingdom going to come? 414 00:30:52,826 --> 00:30:56,667 And he says, You are going out to be my witnesses. 415 00:30:56,667 --> 00:30:57,948 That's his answer. 416 00:30:57,948 --> 00:31:03,430 The kingdom is coming as you go out and are my witnesses in the world. 417 00:31:03,430 --> 00:31:07,131 As you go and proclaim the king, the kingdom is coming. 418 00:31:07,131 --> 00:31:09,212 You're answering your own question. 419 00:31:09,212 --> 00:31:13,418 The kingdom is coming as we, you disciples, 420 00:31:13,418 --> 00:31:21,821 We, as their inheritors, proclaim the king among the nations, as they are his witnesses. 421 00:31:21,821 --> 00:31:29,344 You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria, all the ends of the earth. 422 00:31:29,505 --> 00:31:38,568 Now, as we close, having looked at Jesus' response here, as we wrap things up, I want to take our last bit of time to look at this idea of witnesses. 423 00:31:38,568 --> 00:31:43,188 Because that too, I know I've said this a number of times, this too is going to be important. 424 00:31:43,188 --> 00:31:44,459 All throughout the book. 425 00:31:44,459 --> 00:31:50,482 The idea of kingdom, but also this idea of a witness, a witness to Christ. 426 00:31:50,482 --> 00:31:52,644 First thing to see about being a witness is what? 427 00:31:52,644 --> 00:31:53,724 Look at it. 428 00:31:53,984 --> 00:32:00,268 You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses. 429 00:32:00,268 --> 00:32:05,971 Meaning, witnessing and the presence of the Spirit are indivisible. 430 00:32:05,971 --> 00:32:11,014 You need to be empowered by the Spirit to bear witness. 431 00:32:11,128 --> 00:32:12,599 He doesn't say go get started. 432 00:32:12,599 --> 00:32:18,721 He says, wait till you receive the Spirit and in the power of the Spirit go. 433 00:32:19,201 --> 00:32:22,863 Nothing lasting can be made by the power of the flesh. 434 00:32:22,863 --> 00:32:27,125 Nothing lasting can be made by trying hard and making something. 435 00:32:27,125 --> 00:32:38,339 You can make a kingdom, you can make a business, you can make billions of dollars, but nothing that will last can happen unless the spirit is in it, unless the spirit is 436 00:32:38,339 --> 00:32:39,329 empowering it. 437 00:32:39,329 --> 00:32:41,166 And so we wait. 438 00:32:41,166 --> 00:32:42,406 For the empowering of the spirit. 439 00:32:42,406 --> 00:32:45,037 The disciples wait for the empowering of the spirit. 440 00:32:45,037 --> 00:32:46,567 That's the first thing to see. 441 00:32:47,088 --> 00:32:51,069 But then the spirit empowers them to be witnesses. 442 00:32:51,069 --> 00:32:52,409 Witnesses. 443 00:32:52,469 --> 00:32:53,649 What does this word mean? 444 00:32:53,649 --> 00:32:55,770 What does it mean to be his witness? 445 00:32:56,310 --> 00:33:00,761 When Jesus says this, he is echoing a passage all the way back in Isaiah. 446 00:33:00,761 --> 00:33:01,912 Let me go there for you. 447 00:33:01,912 --> 00:33:08,053 It's quite amazing to see the passage that he is echoing here. 448 00:33:08,393 --> 00:33:10,924 This is from Isaiah 43. 449 00:33:11,530 --> 00:33:16,132 And this is Yahweh speaking, the God of Israel speaking. 450 00:33:16,695 --> 00:33:18,436 Isaiah 43, verse 10. 451 00:33:18,436 --> 00:33:33,690 You are my witnesses, declares Yahweh, and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am. 452 00:33:33,690 --> 00:33:37,652 It says I am he, but the text is, I am. 453 00:33:37,652 --> 00:33:39,820 Before me no God was formed. 454 00:33:39,820 --> 00:33:42,071 Nor shall there be any God after me. 455 00:33:42,071 --> 00:33:46,652 I am Yahweh, and besides me there is no Savior. 456 00:33:46,652 --> 00:33:53,074 I declared and saved and proclaimed when there is no stranger, when there is no strange God among you. 457 00:33:53,074 --> 00:33:59,155 And you are my witnesses, declares Yahweh, and I am God. 458 00:33:59,155 --> 00:34:01,116 Also henceforth I am He. 459 00:34:01,116 --> 00:34:03,497 There is none who can deliver from my hand. 460 00:34:03,497 --> 00:34:06,037 I work, who can turn back? 461 00:34:06,497 --> 00:34:08,727 Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer. 462 00:34:08,727 --> 00:34:17,764 The Holy One of Israel, for your sake I send to Babylon and bring them all down as fugitives, even the Chaldeans and the ships in which they rejoice. 463 00:34:17,764 --> 00:34:24,028 I am Yahweh, your Holy One, the creator of Israel, your king. 464 00:34:24,068 --> 00:34:29,211 That's the text Jesus is referencing when he says, You will be my witnesses. 465 00:34:29,392 --> 00:34:31,363 So what is Jesus saying about himself? 466 00:34:31,363 --> 00:34:35,316 You know, we just read that and we think Jesus is gonna say, Go tell people about me. 467 00:34:35,316 --> 00:34:38,262 Jesus, when he says, You will be my witnesses, 468 00:34:38,262 --> 00:34:42,003 He's referring to this, and who's talking in this? 469 00:34:42,423 --> 00:34:49,685 That you, he says, You will be my witnesses in Isaiah, to know and understand that I am. 470 00:34:49,705 --> 00:34:52,106 Before me there was no God. 471 00:34:52,466 --> 00:34:55,407 I am God alone. 472 00:34:55,707 --> 00:35:00,868 So when Jesus says this, he's not just saying, Go tell people about me. 473 00:35:00,868 --> 00:35:05,990 He's saying, I am the presence of the God of Israel. 474 00:35:05,990 --> 00:35:07,594 I am the fulfillment of Israel. 475 00:35:07,594 --> 00:35:17,542 Of the promises to Israel in your midst, and now you are going, knowing me, to proclaim me to all the world. 476 00:35:17,643 --> 00:35:21,526 Jesus is claiming an awesome thing here. 477 00:35:21,526 --> 00:35:24,869 He's saying, Here is, behold your God. 478 00:35:25,069 --> 00:35:26,971 Now go and be my witnesses. 479 00:35:27,231 --> 00:35:33,797 Witness, therefore, from Isaiah is this to proclaim, this is who God is. 480 00:35:33,797 --> 00:35:35,378 That's what we see in Isaiah. 481 00:35:35,630 --> 00:35:39,233 But there's another part to witness that we have to fold in here before we wrap up. 482 00:35:39,233 --> 00:35:51,743 There's another part to witness, and that is that all through, and I mentioned this last week, all through the book of Acts, witness is tied together with the idea of Jesus' 483 00:35:51,743 --> 00:35:53,184 resurrection. 484 00:35:53,465 --> 00:35:55,106 So let me read a few of these for you. 485 00:35:55,106 --> 00:36:00,170 uh Acts chapter 2, verse 23 and 24. 486 00:36:00,470 --> 00:36:05,290 This Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God. 487 00:36:05,290 --> 00:36:15,507 You crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men, God raised him up by loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by them. 488 00:36:15,507 --> 00:36:17,338 This is in the very first sermon Peter gives. 489 00:36:17,338 --> 00:36:18,719 This is the emphasis. 490 00:36:18,719 --> 00:36:21,761 And then down in chap verse 32. 491 00:36:22,562 --> 00:36:29,547 This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. 492 00:36:29,547 --> 00:36:33,429 This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. 493 00:36:33,429 --> 00:36:34,786 Then chapter 3. 494 00:36:34,786 --> 00:36:41,850 Verses 14 through 15, but you denied the holy and righteous one and asked for a murderer to be granted to you. 495 00:36:41,850 --> 00:36:47,633 You killed the author of life, whom God raised from the dead. 496 00:36:47,633 --> 00:36:54,837 To this we are witnesses, to this, to this raising up of the crucified one. 497 00:36:54,837 --> 00:36:56,348 We are witnesses. 498 00:36:56,348 --> 00:37:01,121 And then maybe just one more, four, chapter four, verse thirty-three. 499 00:37:01,581 --> 00:37:03,192 And with great power. 500 00:37:03,192 --> 00:37:11,707 The apostles were giving their testimony or their witness, same word, to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. 501 00:37:11,707 --> 00:37:18,530 So in Acts, to bear witness is to say the crucified one is raised. 502 00:37:19,731 --> 00:37:24,173 God came and was murdered, and he's alive. 503 00:37:24,173 --> 00:37:27,515 The author of life died and is living. 504 00:37:27,515 --> 00:37:30,056 That message is what it means to be a witness. 505 00:37:30,056 --> 00:37:33,248 Now, let's put these two together as we end. 506 00:37:33,482 --> 00:37:40,284 In Isaiah, witness means declaring, this is who God is. 507 00:37:40,984 --> 00:37:47,186 In Acts, witness means declaring the crucified one is raised up from the dead. 508 00:37:47,426 --> 00:37:49,766 And those two are meant to be held together. 509 00:37:49,766 --> 00:37:50,617 That's the point here. 510 00:37:50,617 --> 00:37:51,827 That's what I want you to see. 511 00:37:51,827 --> 00:38:03,210 Witness, when we talk about witness, it is these two things indivisibly being held together, such that the apostolic witness. 512 00:38:03,210 --> 00:38:18,078 Is this that the joy, the joy of the resurrection, the event that transforms the death of Christ into victory, the event that takes all of our hell born in love and turned into 513 00:38:18,078 --> 00:38:32,946 blessing poured out over us, the the too good to be true return of the lost beloved, the resurrection of Christ, is indivisible from the proclamation: this is who God is. 514 00:38:32,972 --> 00:38:38,425 Those two are bound together in the apostolic witness. 515 00:38:38,425 --> 00:38:47,630 The declaration of who God is is from now on and forevermore the declaration that God has walked through our death. 516 00:38:47,630 --> 00:38:50,952 God has gone to the depths of every sorrow. 517 00:38:50,952 --> 00:38:59,777 God has swallowed up the hell of condemnation that hangs as a specter before every guilty conscience. 518 00:38:59,777 --> 00:39:01,534 God has borne 519 00:39:01,534 --> 00:39:10,680 Every enemy of his people, everything that could keep us from peace is borne away on the cross in his death. 520 00:39:10,680 --> 00:39:13,342 And he is risen. 521 00:39:13,342 --> 00:39:14,703 He's alive. 522 00:39:14,703 --> 00:39:16,705 He's turned this to glory. 523 00:39:16,705 --> 00:39:19,787 He's taken all the horror and turned it to beauty. 524 00:39:19,787 --> 00:39:28,133 He's taken all the crooked paths that led down into the valley, gathered them all up and made them all lead up to the heights of his joy. 525 00:39:28,133 --> 00:39:30,400 He is risen, and guess what? 526 00:39:30,400 --> 00:39:33,241 That message is who God is. 527 00:39:33,241 --> 00:39:35,272 This is who God is. 528 00:39:35,272 --> 00:39:37,253 He is the one who does this. 529 00:39:37,253 --> 00:39:40,095 He's the one who's known by this. 530 00:39:40,095 --> 00:39:43,496 There is no other God than the one known in Jesus. 531 00:39:43,496 --> 00:39:51,299 We read, we saw up at this text, the one known in Jesus who dies, descends, and rises again. 532 00:39:51,480 --> 00:39:56,692 The joy of Easter morning, the hope of the resurrection. 533 00:39:56,930 --> 00:40:04,595 The transformation of darkness to light as the sun rises, that is indivisible from who God is. 534 00:40:04,595 --> 00:40:10,399 And that's the glorious message of the apostles as they go out into the world. 535 00:40:10,399 --> 00:40:12,781 So that is the witness that they're giving. 536 00:40:12,781 --> 00:40:14,301 God has come. 537 00:40:14,602 --> 00:40:15,142 How? 538 00:40:15,142 --> 00:40:15,663 When? 539 00:40:15,663 --> 00:40:16,123 Where? 540 00:40:16,123 --> 00:40:17,154 Where were the hailstones? 541 00:40:17,154 --> 00:40:18,225 Where was the earthquake? 542 00:40:18,225 --> 00:40:20,026 Where was the breaking down of the heavens? 543 00:40:20,026 --> 00:40:21,166 Where was it? 544 00:40:21,207 --> 00:40:25,149 He came on the cross as this man poured out his life. 545 00:40:25,490 --> 00:40:26,710 And he came. 546 00:40:26,850 --> 00:40:38,693 The garden, as the tomb was opened, and this man who bore everything is raised up, anointed now with the oil of gladness, and says, My end is your end, my joy is your joy, 547 00:40:38,693 --> 00:40:40,134 my life is your life. 548 00:40:40,134 --> 00:40:42,174 Enter in and know me. 549 00:40:42,174 --> 00:40:43,655 This is God coming. 550 00:40:43,655 --> 00:40:46,335 This is the kingdom coming. 551 00:40:46,455 --> 00:40:50,236 This is the hope of the gospel. 552 00:40:50,236 --> 00:40:53,257 And so the apostles bear witness to this. 553 00:40:53,317 --> 00:40:56,428 The Spirit empowers this message. 554 00:40:56,544 --> 00:41:05,177 This is the word we'll see in Acts later on that turns the whole world upside down, because all the world's values are scattered before this God. 555 00:41:05,338 --> 00:41:14,902 And this is the coming of the kingdom, because as this Christ is proclaimed and received, believed and obeyed, the kingdom comes. 556 00:41:14,902 --> 00:41:15,822 The kingdom comes. 557 00:41:15,822 --> 00:41:18,623 And we now are part of this same story. 558 00:41:18,623 --> 00:41:20,044 There's no break. 559 00:41:20,044 --> 00:41:24,205 There is no break in Acts chapter one, verse six. 560 00:41:25,204 --> 00:41:27,796 August 9th, 2026. 561 00:41:27,796 --> 00:41:31,197 This is there is one continuous story. 562 00:41:31,197 --> 00:41:36,841 And we are also in that kingdom and seeing that kingdom progress. 563 00:41:36,841 --> 00:41:40,523 And this is the table of that kingdom. 564 00:41:40,523 --> 00:41:44,425 This is this is a feast, a picture of the feast of the kingdom. 565 00:41:44,425 --> 00:41:54,432 It's a little piece of bread, it's a little cup of juice or of wine, but what this is is a symbolic presence of the kingdom of God. 566 00:41:54,432 --> 00:42:04,050 Among us, of the feast among us, because here, here in this church, here over this table, Christ is proclaimed as King. 567 00:42:04,611 --> 00:42:13,098 And to the extent that you receive that, that you believe that, that we are obeying that by grace, his kingdom is coming. 568 00:42:13,098 --> 00:42:15,440 His spirit is present with us. 569 00:42:15,440 --> 00:42:21,705 He, Jesus, is present with us, Christians. 570 00:42:21,705 --> 00:42:23,310 When you come up front here, 571 00:42:23,310 --> 00:42:31,767 And you take this, it is right to see it as though the Lord Himself were handing this to you, saying, This is my body, this is my blood. 572 00:42:31,767 --> 00:42:33,188 Do this in remembrance of me. 573 00:42:33,188 --> 00:42:35,580 You belong to him. 574 00:42:35,620 --> 00:42:39,412 Because at this feast, our King is uniquely declared. 575 00:42:39,412 --> 00:42:42,105 Here he is declared, just like our verse. 576 00:42:42,246 --> 00:42:48,251 Here he is declared as the one who truly died, his body, his blood, witnessed to us. 577 00:42:48,251 --> 00:42:52,584 Here he is declared as the one who was truly buried, truly died, not just. 578 00:42:52,802 --> 00:42:56,063 Not just suffering, not just seemed to die, truly died. 579 00:42:56,103 --> 00:43:05,187 Here he is declared as the one who is truly risen, because you can't receive the the feast from his hands unless he's risen. 580 00:43:05,187 --> 00:43:10,029 He gives us the feast of himself, crucified, because he is risen. 581 00:43:10,469 --> 00:43:21,834 So this proclaims him dead, this proclaims him buried, this proclaims him risen, this proclaims him reigning, and as Paul reminds us, returning as our king. 582 00:43:21,920 --> 00:43:22,560 As our king. 583 00:43:22,560 --> 00:43:24,672 So, Christian, the kingdom has come. 584 00:43:24,672 --> 00:43:26,212 The kingdom is here. 585 00:43:26,212 --> 00:43:28,074 We're partaking in it now. 586 00:43:28,074 --> 00:43:32,275 The kingdom is coming as we are faithful to this king. 587 00:43:32,436 --> 00:43:39,419 And all this because Christ is risen to proclaim to us this is who God is. 588 00:43:39,420 --> 00:43:40,921 This is who God is. 589 00:43:40,921 --> 00:43:43,732 Let's pray, and then we'll come to this table together. 590 00:43:47,992 --> 00:43:58,247 Father, we thank you for such a gospel, this gospel to which we are holding, in which we are standing, by which by your grace we are being saved. 591 00:43:58,288 --> 00:44:16,672 This word that Christ Jesus, the anointed King, the eternal Son, died for our sins, was buried in our death, and was raised up again in invincible joy, and is now witnessed. 592 00:44:16,672 --> 00:44:17,633 Among the nations. 593 00:44:17,633 --> 00:44:26,948 Father, thank you that this is the gospel by which we know your heart, by which we know your name, by which we know who you are. 594 00:44:26,948 --> 00:44:29,249 There is no God like you. 595 00:44:29,249 --> 00:44:30,850 There is no God like you. 596 00:44:30,850 --> 00:44:32,911 There is no hope like you. 597 00:44:32,911 --> 00:44:35,913 Anchor our hearts in you, Father. 598 00:44:35,913 --> 00:44:45,138 Bind us to Jesus Christ as our King, and may his kingdom, your kingdom through him, come in our own hearts. 599 00:44:45,172 --> 00:44:54,006 In our families and homes, in this church, in our neighborhood, in this nation and in this world, we pray. 600 00:44:54,006 --> 00:45:04,850 And as we come to this table now, Father, may this be a little outpost of the kingdom proclaiming that here Christ is King and He is raised up from the dead. 601 00:45:04,850 --> 00:45:07,451 We pray all these things, Father, in Jesus' name. 602 00:45:07,451 --> 00:45:08,432 Amen. 603 00:45:08,792 --> 00:45:14,136 Thank you for listening to this message from Kingstree Church in Sabina, Ohio. 604 00:45:14,136 --> 00:45:22,622 To see more of the beauty of God in the crucified and risen Jesus Christ, come worship with us on Sundays at 10 a.m. 605 00:45:22,622 --> 00:45:25,886 or visit our website at kingstreech.org.