What Is Happening | Living Faithfully in Uncertain Times

Transcript

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Hey, I'm Kevin. Thanks for listening to our message. We strive each week to bring you relevant, practical, biblical teaching that meets you where you are. Hope you enjoy the message.

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And uh it was in your hand? I would say probably at least once a week, if not maybe more. Lisa and I will pull down our street and she'll say, wait a minute. And I'll say, It's probably in your purse, or it's in your pocket, or it's somewhere. I gotta make sure I have my phone. Yeah, yeah. Occasionally she has it in her hand. Or how about this one for those of you who put your glasses up on your head? Yeah, you know, where are my glasses? I can't find them anywhere. And you said um years ago we had a secretary here. She was she was awesome. I just loved her to death. And one uh one afternoon, she had come back from lunch and I went into the office. This is when our offices were over at one of these houses back here, and uh I I walked in and she said, She said, Pastor Eric, it is so dark in here. Like, well, you've got sunglasses on. Oh makes you feel kind of silly, doesn't it? But sometimes, sometimes we do the same thing spiritually. Um, I'm gonna begin a new sermon series today, and uh I kind of do it with a little fear and uh trepidation um because I I I want to talk to you about today, specifically about the kingdom of God. A lot of individuals will look at the subject of the kingdom of God, or the subject of the end times, or when does Jesus come again? And we we look at subjects like that and we try to figure out exactly when it might happen. We try to we try to decode the news that's going on, particularly if there's news in the Middle East. We're trying to read the signs, we we read something in scripture that that was written to a certain people, and we say, oh, maybe it wasn't written to them, maybe it was written to us in 2026. Is the kingdom of God about to come? Well, the truth is, and and I I plan on showing you, the kingdom of God is already here. Right now, a lot of people are asking this question: what's happening in our world? Um, not even if you look at the war that's going on, but what's happening in the world, what's happening with our kids, what's happening politically, what's happening in the Middle East? How do we make sense of it? And is it is it some type of apocalypse warning? Is it some type of end of the world kind of thing? And people start asking those kinds of questions. Is this the end? Is this Armageddon? Is Iran part of biblical prophecy? Uh, when is Jesus coming back? What about the Antichrist? Isn't there something about that? What about the 666? Is that is that something that will be written on someone's forehead? And and and we see all of these things, especially if you're on social media right now, um, where we have all kinds of opinions out there. And every once in a while, not not a lot, but every once in a while, someone will turn to me and say, Hey Eric, what do you think? I've read some things over the last few weeks on social media. Um, I've overheard conversations that are concerning. I've I've listened to some Christian radio uh preachers that are saying things that that just kind of bother me, to be honest with you. I've watched it before. This is, I've been in ministry for 40 years, and I've watched all of these things before happen. Christian authors will take moments like these to push political positions. Pastors in the United States will take events and times like these, and they will they will push political positions in their congregation. And some will write books that sell millions of copies, some will make movies. Serving as your pastor is an incredible privilege, as well as a responsibility to walk with you as we process life, as we process world events, as we process family troubles and health issues. It's a privilege to be your pastor, but it comes with a responsibility to help you not be confused over things in our world. Some of you, some of you, this isn't even something that you even think about. And I applaud you. Uh, my wife would be would be one of those. She she uh she's not premillennial, she's not post-millennial, she's not all millennial, she's uh she's whatever. You know, she's just whatever happens, that's what's gonna happen. I'm just gonna trust Jesus. I'm gonna go with him. Um, for the next several weeks, I want to take the subject of what the Bible says about the return of Christ. How does the end come? What does the Bible really say? What can we understand? What can we not understand? What are we supposed to understand? What are we not supposed to understand? And what's the book of Revelation all about? Because sometimes, sometimes we're trying to figure out what Jesus has already told us. And and I really am alarmed that how how clear Jesus was on so many things, but we ignore some of those basic teachings. I'm not even talking about things that are hard to explain. For instance, let's look at this Mark chapter 1, verse 15. Mark 1, 15. Now that's the beginning of Jesus' ministry. Mark doesn't contain the birth of Christ. So when Mark 1 begins, that's the beginning of Jesus' ministry. Verse 15, I think it'll be up on the screen. The time has come, he said, the kingdom of God has come near. So repent and believe the good news. What when is the kingdom coming? The kingdom of God has come near. Jesus did not say the kingdom will come someday. He said the kingdom that he brought in, that he is the king of kings over, he's the king of the kingdom of God, that it has come near to them. The kingdom doesn't come after the rapture, it doesn't come after a tribulation. The kingdom of God comes when Jesus came. Jesus was announcing in Mark chapter 1, the reign of God has begun. Which drives us to another question. Where is it? Like if Jesus said, Hey, the kingdom of God is here and and and uh I have come near, and I'm the king of kings and the Lord of lords, and and uh you, like the disciples or the Pharisees, or anybody in that time that would have heard that, would say, but okay, where where is it? If the kingdom is now, where is it? If God is reigning, why? This is a very fair question. Why is all this crazy stuff going on in our world? I mean, why, if Jesus is reigning and the kingdom of God is here, why is there so much evil still in the world? Like it seems like if if Jesus is king, it seems like the enemy has an awful lot of freedom. Let's look at this scripture, Luke chapter 17, 20 and 21. Once, on being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that you will observe, nor will people say, There it is, or I'm sorry, here it is, or there it is, because the kingdom of God is in your midst. The kingdom of God is is within you. When when when Christ becomes your Lord, when Christ becomes your king, I wish we used this vocabulary more, King Jesus. A lot of churches do, and I really like that. Um, we're here to worship King Jesus. I I like I like that sound. Um but but it the the king, in the case of this with the Pharisees, the kingdom was standing right in front of him. The kingdom had already begun because the king had arrived. And where the king is present, the kingdom is present. So the Pharisees wanted to know about a physical kingdom. They they believed that there was going to be a throne of David that the king would reign upon, that that the king would return to, or would come at that point, would come to earth and and reign on an actual throne on earth. And so when Jesus said the kingdom is in your midst, it was it was a little confusing, and I think that's why today it can still be confusing to us. Jesus was declaring, I am the king, my kingdom is here, now. And and frankly, even the disciples wrestled with that. If you remember, uh, it was John's uh uh um the sons of Zebedee's mom went up to Jesus and said, Hey, when you get to when you get to the kingdom, can can my son sit next to you? You know, they're really good guys. I'd like for them to be next to you. So even the disciples and their families struggled with this idea of of the kingdom of God and the return of Christ up until the resurrection. So so in the Old Testament, it's pointing towards Jesus. And and God is giving us the law, he's giving us uh rules to be uh to be right with him. And we know because of those rules, whenever there is sin, there had to be bloodshed. And so we have all these rules that those of you who are reading in the Bible recap are probably got it. Have you ever been looking for your glasses? And they're on time. I I assume you've been able to hear. For those of you who are watching um on streaming, I don't know what to tell you. Maybe I'll re tape it some somewhere down the road. Um but so okay, so go back here. Um, and so eventually the Old Testament is pointing to Jesus, and when Jesus comes, He He is, he's He comes, he lives a perfect, sinless life, and he takes the sins of all the world, and he pays the price on the cross, and it's his blood that was shed. And so so from that point on, there has there doesn't have to be any um slaying of animals and shedding of blood and that kind of thing. That anybody who believes in Jesus as as the full payment for our sins, and you you make him king of kings of your life, then you are forgiven. You are forgiven. Nobody in this room or on this earth will go to heaven because you're good. Nobody goes to heaven because they're good. You go to heaven, you go to heaven because you're forgiven by the blood of Jesus. I love that old song that there's power in the blood, right? There's power in the blood of Jesus. So now this hero comes, Jesus, and we're like, oh, he's coming, and now he'll reign and he'll be the king and he'll sit on a throne, David's throne, but then they crucify him. And then the sins, uh the the uh he dies and they lay him in a tomb, and they think, now what? And we'll talk more about that in a few weeks, right? But when he when he is resurrected, that that changes everybody's theology at that point. They weren't expecting that to happen. And so so Jesus now has ascended to the throne in heaven, sitting next to the right hand of God, but he's still ruling in the kingdom of God. So where's the kingdom of God? It's here. You are the kingdom of God, you are part of the kingdom of God that he is ruling. Acts chapter 2. Let's look at this scripture. God has this is a verse 32, Acts 2. God has raised this Jesus. Let me let me give you some background. Peter is preaching. So Christ, Jesus is ascended to heaven. The disciples are like, oh, what are we gonna do? They meet in the upper room, they're praying, the wind comes, right? The wind comes, blows upon them, the Holy Spirit comes upon them. And then Peter, who probably couldn't put three or four sentences together, who had just denied Christ, now with the anointing of the Spirit in his life in Acts chapter 2, he comes up and he preaches this message. 5,000 people turn to Christ that day. It's a pretty effective sermon. Yeah. So here's verse 32. And this is part of his sermon. God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it. I can see him just pointing to those who were in the upper room, to those who who saw Jesus rise from the dead. We we all saw this. And now he's exalted to the right hand of God, and he's received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit, and then he has poured the Holy Spirit out on what you now are seeing in us. So Peter says, Jesus, he received the Holy Spirit, he's reigning in heaven, and then when he got there, he sent the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit poured out on us, and now you're receiving that. Now, now the Holy Spirit now is in me, and it's in them, and it can be in you too. Where the Holy Spirit is reigning, that's where the kingdom of God is. For David, he says in verse 34, for David did not ascend to heaven, right? And yet he was the one who said, The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. Therefore, let all Israel be assured of this. God has made this Jesus whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah. Peter explains what the resurrection actually meant. Jesus did not just rise from the dead, he was enthroned. Peter says, Jesus is on the throne now, and he is exalted, and he is seated at the right hand of God, and he is reigning in his kingdom right now. And then Peter says something explosive. In this sermon, he says, God has made this Jesus both Lord and Messiah. The word Lord means ruler or sovereign king. The resurrection of Jesus was not just victory over death, but it was the coronation of a king. So where do we fit into this? Where do we live, right? We live in what's called in theology the church age. The beginning of Acts was the beginning of the church. The book of Acts could be called the the beginning, uh, it could be called the Acts of the Holy Spirit through the disciples. The Acts of the First. That's why we call the church in Acts the first church. So we live in this time that theologians refer to as the church age. And the church age means that Christ is reigning right now. That's why when we pray the Lord's Prayer, we say, May thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. How does that happen? How does the kingdom of God come to earth as it is in heaven? Through us. The kingdom of heaven or the kingdom of God comes to earth when we live as Christ's followers, when we live as people who are part of the king. And one day Christ will return. And you might say the next stage would be would be eternity. But I want you to know today, we are not waiting for Jesus to become the king. He already is king. So what are we supposed to do until he returns? This is where I want to get really practical. If Jesus is king, this means that we are not just people who come to church. If Jesus is king and we're part of the kingdom, it doesn't just mean that you don't watch bad movies or cuss. The scripture says in Paul, which says in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, we are ambassadors of Christ. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal to the world through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf to be reconciled to God. I love the thought of being an ambassador. An ambassador lives in one country but represents another country. Our citizenship is in heaven, but we live on earth. We have dual citizenship, you might say. An ambassador lives differently than the person that is from only that kingdom. We have some friends or some people up the street. I've never met them. I've prayed for them, but I've never met them. And they are they are from India. And um when when Lisa and I are out walking, we can walk by their house, and we can, by just walking by their house, we know that they live differently than us because we can smell spices that are not in my house. I was coming from the airport the other day, and I had an Uber and I got in the Uber, and the guy was so nice. He was so nice. He got out, he put my luggage away and he opened my door for me. I felt like I was like the king. And uh and he got back in the car, and when he got back in the car, the the aroma in the car, I I knew that something different about him. There was something different about it. He didn't smell, it just was different. Why? Because he he was also from another country. He wasn't an ambassador, but he was here living, and there was something different. So, so how would an ambassador of the kingdom of God live? How would an ambassador of the kingdom of God live here? Well, let me tell you some things. We don't panic like the world panics. We don't panic like what we because we serve the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords whose promise to never leave us or forsake us. We don't fear like the world fears. We don't hate like the world hates. Because we serve another king. Our hope is not in politics, our hope is not in nations, our hope is not in economics or economies. Our hope is in the reigning Christ. Imagine an American embassy in another country. You might be standing in the middle of a foreign nation, and all around you, people are speaking a different language, it's a different government, it's different rules. But when you when you're in their country, you have to live by their rules. But when you step on the embassy grounds, you have diplomatic immunity. You're safe. If you're here and and you are threatened and you have to live by their rules, but and if you break one of their rules, you can get in trouble if you stand here. But if you stand here, you're protected. Years ago, I heard this illustration. Preacher was talking uh, and and uh it was a camp meeting, and so lots of people, and great sermon. I still remember, I mean, it's pretty something when you can remember a sermon from like 16 years old. I can't even remember what I preached last week and I wrote it. So uh, but um the preacher was talking like this. He said, you know, I know some of you think that that um Satan has uh power in this world, but I want to tell you that you belong to the kingdom of God. And as long as you belong to the kingdom of God, Satan is on a leash and he can't get to you. And then he went on to explain this dog on a leash. And this is a this is a killer dog. This is a dog that can rip you to pieces and ruin your life. But as long as you don't come too close, this dog is on a leash. This dog can't hurt you. This dog can't destroy you, he can't take you out. He he cannot, he can, he can bark, he can, he can he can spit, he can kick dirt, he can do all kinds of things. But as ambassadors to the kingdom of God, you stand here and Satan has no control over your life unless you get too close. I think if we could remember that we are ambassadors of the kingdom of God, that Jesus is King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and we are not here to get too close to this culture. But we're going to live differently. We're going to, we're going to uh we're not going to panic like they do. We're not going to live like they do. We're not going to treat other people like they do. We're not going to ignore the hurting like other people do. Why? Not because we're better, it's because we live with a different law. We're ambassadors of another kingdom. Legally, the land represents the authority of the United States when you're at an American embassy and the flag of the United States is flying. The ambassador, us, speaks for the president. And the people inside that embassy are not there to become citizens of that country. They are there to represent another kingdom. Now think about this. The church is like an embassy. We live in this world. We work here. We raise our families here. We go to school here. But we represent another king. And wherever believers live out the life of Jesus, you're representing the kingdom of God. How are we different as ambassadors of the kingdom? We forgive when others hate. We love when others divide. We serve when others take. And we bring peace where there is chaos. The world may not recognize that. But heaven does. Because the king is already reigning. He's watching, he's observing. He knows how you're honoring him. He sees you forgive when it's hard. He he sees you he sees you get up in the morning when when you don't want to get up in the morning and and go do life again. So really the question isn't what is happening in our world? The question is, what does it look like for ambassadors of the kingdom of God to live in this world today? What does it look like? I uh I have a video that I'm hoping that will will work, and I want you to I want you to uh watch it. It it's a it's a prayer. The words are the words are on the screen, and uh I think it's it's to a tune, it's one of my favorite tunes of Finlandia, it's a famous hymn. And uh this is the the the name of the song, the name of the song is I Then Shall Live, but it makes me think of Francis Schaefer's book he wrote so many years ago. How then should we live? That's my question to you. How then should we live as ambassadors of Christ? Let's pray together. Jesus, you are the King of kings and the Lord of Lords. You reign with wisdom, power, and might. And we stand before your throne as your servants, as ambassadors, and as followers. There is no one like you. And we worship you. We receive our assignments to live in such a way that the kingdom of heaven comes to earth by the way that we love and by the way that we live. Let your power and glory shine through us. May we bear with honor being a citizen of your kingdom. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.

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