NT Framework - His Ascension Changed Everything ushering in a new Dispensation

Israel's mission was placed on hold while the Church took over at center stage. A nation was set aside temporarily for people without borders or an ethnicity. And calendar time was replaced by people time. 

More information about Beyond the Walls, including additional resources can be found at www.beyondthewalls-ministry.com 

This series included graphics to illustrate what is being taught, if you would like to watch the teachings you can do so on Rumble (https://rumble.com/user/SpokaneBibleChurch) or on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtV_KhFVZ_waBcnuywiRKIyEcDkiujRqP).

Jeremy Thomas is the pastor at Spokane Bible Church in Spokane, Washington and a professor at Chafer Theological Seminary. He has been teaching the Bible for over 20 years, always seeking to present its truths in a clear and understandable manner. 

Transcript

A Single Way To The Father

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas and our series on the New Testament framework. Today, the full lesson from Jeremy Thomas. Here's a hint of what's to come.

SPEAKER_01 0:10

All religions do not lead to the same place. Do they? Not scripturally. Uh and not truthfully. There's only one way to the Father. People get upset about that, but like I've always said, why do you get upset if there is a way? Why are you upset? There is a way. Why are you upset?

Gospel Structure And Israel’s Rejection

SPEAKER_00 0:34

Do you know anyone who loves a good murder mystery? One of the types where all the information is clearly laid out, although very subtly. Innocuously, but it's there. And it's only up to you to figure out how to put the pieces together to solve the mystery. What about a person who loves a good crossword or a gigsaw puzzle? Or perhaps Sudoku? These types of people love to take the clues in front of them and stitch them together into a completed solved thing. These types of people should absolutely love the Bible. You see, all the information is there. It is spread throughout the entire Bible. There is no one area, no one trunk that has any one doctrine in its whole. It is dispersed so that it cannot be tampered with. And in that protection and in that security, there is complexity. We have to hunt around and look at all the evidence to determine the solution to the puzzle. God has made it his way to protect it and preserve it, and to encourage us to dig deeper to find his truth. And so it kind of amazes me that some people take it the easy way. And oversimplifying and diminishing the beauty of God. Let us not be like that. Let us dive deeply into the word to understand the truth of everything that God has preserved for us.

Two Comings Unveiled In Prophecy

Postponed Kingdom And Wheat Among Tares

Private Training And Parables Begin

Cross, Atonement, And Justification

Olivet Discourse: Delay And Return

Upper Room: First Words To The Church

Greatness Through Servanthood

The New Commandment Of Love

A New Promise: Rooms And Rapture

The Only Way And Faith’s Content

Praying In Jesus’ Name

Another Helper: Spirit Indwelling

Intimacy And Divine Self‑Disclosure

Who Sends The Spirit

Spirit’s New Ministry: Conviction

I Will Build My Church

Church And Israel: Key Differences

Mission Shift: Come And See vs Go And Tell

Preconditions For The Church

Romans 11 And Israel’s Future

Grace, Growth, And Closing

SPEAKER_01 2:30

Okay, we've been working on the background for the ascension and the session of Christ. Today we actually probably will not get to the significance of the ascension. I figured we would, but then I realized there's quite a bit more background. So we've been working with this background, especially in the Gospels. The Gospels can be summarized by John 1.11. He came to his own, meaning the Jewish people, and his own received him not. And as a result of that, you have the crucifixion. So the crucifixion was not a direct line of sight and purpose in the plan of God. It was the result of a negative choice. A lot of things in God's plan are the result of a negative choice. In other words, there'd be no need for salvation, for example, if there was not a fall. You have to have an Adam created as a responsible agent, a responsible being, who rebels against God, bringing sin into the world for there to be a solution to the sin problem. And so even as you look back at that event, you're realizing that something is the result of a negative choice against God. So the same thing here in the Gospels is what you see is that when he comes, of course he comes to pay the sin penalty for the world, but it came about, the cross came about as a result of a negative choice of Israel. He came to his own, his own received him not. So I broke down the Gospels into four basic sections just to view the plan of God as we see it in the Gospels. And that's first of all the offer of the kingdom in Matthew 1 through 11. Israel is being given that offer, right? Starting with John, the forerunner of the king, the prophet, who prepared the way for the king, and his announcement was repent to the nation Israel, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Jesus came with the same exact message, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. He gave the same message to the twelve in Matthew 10, and they were to go not in the way of the Gentiles, not to the Samaritans, but only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, with this message, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, meaning the kingdom that was prophesied by all the prophets, which had been there in the Old Testament, beginning in Exodus 19 at the foot of Mount Sinai, when God became their king, and later the monarchy with Saul and then ultimately David, the Davidic house. This kingdom that had gone out of existence at the exile was to come back according to the prophets, and this offer is being made to that generation. In chapter 12, Matthew 12, they reject the king. And there's where you find the unpardonable sin, that sin committed by that generation. And then you have in Matthew 13 the mysteries of the kingdom. This is basically teaching that the kingdom will be postponed as far as its arrival in history. That kingdom is not going to come at this time. And then in Matthew 14 through 28, we have the preparation for the kingdom, meaning that he's going to call out a new people. This people will be the spiritual nucleus of the kingdom to come. They will reign with him as kings in the coming kingdom. So these are called mysteries of the kingdom, that is, new truths about the kingdom that have been kept secret. They've been unrevealed up to this point in time. And we dealt with some of that in the Old Testament, just tracing some of the prophecies about the Messiah. Prophecies that, if you're just studying the Old Testament, they look like they all occur at the same time because it's just a flow in the passage, some prophecy. But as we know now, coming into the Gospels, as you read some of these prophecies, like Isaiah 61. He took the scroll, he read that passage, and he read 1.1, 61.1, and 61.2a, and he just stopped. And he said, Today this has been fulfilled in your midst. But he didn't read 2B and 3. And the reason he didn't is because those events are going to relate to a second coming. But the ones that he quoted referred to the first coming. Now, in the Old Testament, they didn't know that. They didn't know there's going to be two comings. There's no passages that say there's going to be two comings. There's just passages that predict the Messiah's sufferings, and there's passages that predict the Messiah's reigning and glory. And they didn't know how to get these together. But what's happening in the Gospels is we're learning that actually these prophecies are being peeled apart, so to speak, so that the first portion of the prophecy is fulfilled in the first coming, and then we know that there's a the rest of it will be fulfilled in the second coming. He came to suffer first, and next time he comes, he's not coming to suffer, is he? He's coming to reign in glory. So in between, though, in between these two comings, we have this mystery period, Matthew 13 describes. And the kingdom is being postponed, and you're going to have the wheat and the tares, right? Grow up side by side throughout this age. And those who are the wheat, those will are ultimately, of course, believers. The tares are those that Satan sows among believers, and they, of course, will not go into the kingdom when the kingdom comes. But basically, those who are the tares are sons of the kingdom, and this is our destiny. We are ultimately going to rule and reign in the coming kingdom of Christ. Okay? So during the kingdom preparation time, then, after his rejection and the postponement of the kingdom, he enters into everything changed. A lot of things changed. Not everything, but a lot of things changed. For one, his ministry now becomes private rather than public. You know, when he's feeding the 5,000, that's very public. That's a public ministry. But now it's private, and he's just teaching his disciples. And part of what he's doing in teaching his disciples is preparing them for their ministries when he ascends and takes his seat at the right hand of God. Right? So there's that type of preparation that they're going to need to be trained for their future ministries. He's also preparing them for his death. This is the section of Matthew where, you know, he says to Peter, who do you say that I am? He says, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus says, Flesh and blood is not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. And he goes on in the following verses, and he says, The Christ is to suffer and die, and then he says, and be resurrected. And Peter says, It will never be. And Satan says, or not Satan, Jesus says, get behind me, Satan, to Peter, right? So he had to prepare them for his death. It's almost as if in that passage, Peter didn't hear the part about resurrection at the end. He just heard that Jesus is going to suffer and be killed, and he says, that's not going to happen. And the rest, you know, like Peter, he just he speaks without thinking. So that's the way he was. But he had to prepare them for that. So there's a lot of preparation that has to take place in the last portion of Jesus' ministry. So part of it is that he goes private. Another thing he changes is his format of teaching. Before the rejection, he taught in discourse, open, clear teaching, just regular teaching like I'm teaching you. No parables. But afterwards, he shifts his teaching style to parables, and Matthew 13 tells us why. It's so that those who were not following after him would not, they would still hear the words, but they wouldn't understand. They would still see the works, but they wouldn't get the message. And so the whole point was to conceal the new revelation from those who were not following him and to reveal it to those who were. He also tells those who received miracles not to go tell anyone, as they sometimes still do. But he says, Don't tell, don't tell anyone. Why didn't he want them to tell anyone? Well, because the formal rejection had already taken place and he was on a track to go to the cross. And so there wasn't going to be, he didn't want everybody trying to proclaim him to be the king. In fact, there's one passage that discusses the people who were saying, Let's go and crown him king, and he slips away. And so this was, but this was so this was not a possibility. The rejection had already taken place. He was going to, you know, go to the cross. And then he rides into Jerusalem on a donkey. This was predicted in Zechariah 9.9. That doesn't seem uh that seems anticlimactic, right? For the king to come in riding on a donkey? Uh why isn't the king coming in riding on a horse? Right? Well, of course, the kings in the Old Testament were not supposed to multiply horses. They were not supposed to ride horses among Israel. They were supposed to be different from all the other nations. And the prophesied king in Zechariah 9:9 was to come in riding on a colt, the foal of a donkey, an unbroken colt. And this signified, of course, his majesty and his greatness and riding in on an unbroken colt. But it seems anticlimactic to us, but it was actually the fulfillment of prophecy. And then, of course, he goes to the cross. And there he makes payment for the sins of the whole world. And satisfies the Father's perfect righteousness and justice. And according to Romans 3.26, frees the Father to be able to justify anyone who believes. He is now just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Messiah. So things have clearly changed in the preparation period. He's preparing his disciples for their ministry. We know that ministry begins to unfold primarily in the book of Acts, right? And as a result of the things that transpire in the early church, we have the epistles that are given as a part of the canon of Scripture. And finally the close of it with the book of Revelation. But with all of this, um, we want to look in this period of preparation at a few things that Jesus predicts. Let's start in John chapter 6. John chapter 6, verse 62. The king announces or hints at his ascension that he will be leaving. John 6, 62. This is just after the section where he said, Eat my flesh, drink my blood. You know, and some of them were offended. And the Roman Catholics take this to mean that, you know, when you when you take what they would call the mass, and you take the elements that they actually are changing, uh that the actual bread changes into the actual body of Christ, and the cup actually turns into the blood of Christ. The other day we saw somewhere uh someone had uh the word hocus pocus. And I asked my girls if they knew where that came from, that Latin phrase, hocus pocus. Well, it comes from the mass. Because there are some words in there in the Latin Mass that sound like hocus pocus, and it's the ide we always think hocus hocus pocus is magic. Well, what do you think was is going on in that in the uh in the mass? Well, supposedly what's going on is a magical change of the elements from the bread into the actual body, from the cup into the actual blood. And some were offended by this. Of course, he didn't mean that. He meant you must partake of me by faith. That's how you receive eternal life, but uh they didn't understand entirely. Verse 60, so many of his disciples, when they heard this, this is a difficult statement, they he's they said, Who can listen to it? But Jesus, conscious that his disciples grumbled at this, said to them, Does this cause you to stumble? What then if you see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? Will that also cause you to stumble? Because if he's ascending, he's not establishing the kingdom, and that's what they all hope for, right? So he hints at the ascension there, and then of course you move into his rejection and so forth toward the end. And so, just a few words about that. In Matthew 24 and 25, you have a discourse called the Olivet Discourse, and these are Jesus' last words to Israel. Just take a look at it. Obviously, I'm not going to teach it all, but I'm going to summarize it. Because it's very close to the end, right? We're in the final week of Jesus' life at this point. In Matthew 23, 39, after pronouncing woe on the scribes and the Pharisees, the eight woes, in verse 39, he says to the house of Israel, I say to you, from now on, you will not see me until you say, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. That's Psalm 118, 26. It's the messianic greeting. And he's saying to the nation of Israel, You're not going to see me until you greet me, until you welcome me back. So when is the Lord Jesus Christ going to come back to earth? When the nation of Israel says this. They're kind of not in a condition to say that right now. They're not ready to say that yet. Then he begins to give what is known as the all about discourse, verses 20, chapters 24 and 25. Basically, what this passage teaches is that there are no signs of his coming, but there are certain events that lead up to his coming. And they are going to be times of great difficulty, what some people call a tribulation. And then he will come back. And then he will establish his kingdom on earth. So the kingdom's been delayed as far as its arrival in history. That's what Matthew 24 and 25 are saying. It's Jesus' last words to Israel. Now, John 13, and we're going to spend a lot of time here, because like I said, if things are shifting from a focus on Israel to a different focus that he's preparing his apostles for, his disciples, for their future ministries, there are going to be new truths that come with their ministry. And this discourse is known as the upper room discourse in John 13 through 17. And Glenn is teaching this in Sunday school. We're down in chapter 15 now. So I'm not trying to steal your thunder, Glenn. But I mean we cross paths a lot anyway, so I'm going to cross paths with a lot of what he's been teaching and will teach. So these are Jesus' first words to the church. That's the way I think of these two discourses. The Olivet is the last words to Israel. The upper room are the first words to the church. Now, of course, the church isn't there yet, but I mean what I mean is words that will apply directly to the church when it comes into existence in the book of Acts, Acts 2. So let's look at some of these new truths. These are what we call mystery truths. Now the word mystery is used throughout our New Testament a number of times. Don't think of this word like Sherlock Holmes or Agatha Christie. I mean, that's how we think of it, a mystery, like we've got to solve this thing, like who done it, who done it? The mystery, this Greek word musterion, means something kept secret or hidden, unrevealed. So it's some truth or truths that have been unrevealed up to this period in history. In other words, put it this way: the Old Testament doesn't ever talk about these truths. So they were mysteries in the sense that nobody had access to them or knew them. They were hidden in God. They were a part of his omniscience that he had not revealed up until this time. And most of these mystery truths, of course, relate to this parenthetical period between what we know now as two comings. But they didn't know. Right? So there are truths that relate to this period. So I want to march through some of these. First of all, John 13, 1. Notice the mention of his ascension. Now, before the feast of the Passover, Jesus, knowing that his hour had come, that he would depart out of this world to the Father, having soon to depart out of this world. So there's a reference to the coming ascension, right? Verse 3 also. In other words, I'm going to say the word new a whole lot because these are new truths that he is revealing here that will be for the church. So, first one is a new way to become great. Okay. Great when. Well, great in the kingdom to come. So when he had washed their feet and taken his garments and reclined at the table again, he said to them. Now he's going to ask them a question about what he had done. What he had done is wash their feet. In the ancient world, you didn't have Nikes and you didn't have things like that. You had mostly sandals and you didn't have paved roads, you had dusty streets, and so if you go anywhere, you're going to be dusty all over your feet. And it was a servant's or slaves' task to wash a visitor's feet. It was considered a very menial and low task, the task of those who were the lowest class in society. And Jesus washed their feet. And then he asked them at the end of verse 12, Do you know what I've done to you? You call me teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. And in fact, he was teaching them something. This was a teaching moment. He says, If I then the Lord and the teacher, and I mean he is the Lord of all, I mean he's Lord of the universe. He's the King of all creation. And he says, And if I washed your feet, you ought also to wash one another's feet. For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you. Truly, I truly I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is one who has sent greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them. I do not speak uh of all of you. I know the ones I've chosen. He's, you know, not speaking of Judas, obviously. Judas is the one who was not chosen. But is the script that the scripture may be fulfilled, and he goes on. But the point that I want to bring up here, the example of the foot washing, and there's one group of Christians that has made this a third ordinance. We won't talk about that now. I don't think it's a third ordinance. We have the Lord's Supper and we have believers' baptism. But there's a group that says that what Jesus is saying here is an ordinance for the church. We ought to wash one another's feet. In one denomination actually does that. They will wash, physically wash one another's feet. What he's teaching, of course, is humble servanthood. That we should serve one another. And that that's the way to greatness in the kingdom to come. Not serving oneself, not putting oneself on a pedestal, but serving others and making oneselves the least of all, even a slave of all. He is the one who will be great in the kingdom. And he teaches this also in Matthew 18 and other places. And so Jesus, of course, will be the greatest. And the reason that he will be the greatest in the kingdom is because he became slave of all. How did he become our slave? By taking our place on the cross, by taking our penalty on himself. And so he will be elevated to be greatest of all. So in this life, we're supposed to mirror him in the sense of servanthood and serve one another. This is a new way to greatness. Serve one another. Now, John 13, 33, we have a new commandment. John 13, 33. Little children, I am with you a little while longer, indicating again the ascension, right? That's uh hinted at there. You will seek me, and as I said to the Jews, now I also say to you, where I'm going you cannot come. A new commandment I give to you that you love one another. Now wait a minute. Leviticus says that you should love your neighbor as yourself. How is this a new commandment? The next words tell us why. Or how. Even as I love you. It's a type of love. It's not new that we should love one another. That was already there. But loving them in a specific way. That's the new commandment. This could never have been given before because his example of loving had never been demonstrated before. His way of loving is to give himself sacrificially for us. And he's now saying, I want you to love one another sacrificially as I have loved you. So a new commandment. A new commandment that you love one another. Now let's go to John 14. 1 through 3. A new truth about his return. Do not let your heart be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my father's house are many dwelling places. The Greek is more like the idea of spaciousness, spacious dwelling places. I think the King James translates it many mansions, right? By mansions, they're trying to convey roominess in that translation. But that's the concept of the word. It's saying there's plenty of room. In fact, just for fun, if anybody's interested in the words for salvation, the words for salvation refer to roominess, broadness. That's their most fundamental root. Even deliverance or rescue is not the fundamental meaning. But deliverance or rescue, which we think of for being saved, is a narrower concept than roominess or broadness. And the reason is because when you're delivered, you're delivered from something that's constricting you. And sin is what constricts, it limits us, it enslaves us. And a slave is very confined, right? He doesn't have liberty. And that's why salvation is viewed as moving into some spacious area where we're not constricted, where we are free. In other words, there's a place there's plenty of room for everyone. You're not going to feel constricted in this new place I'm going. He says, if it were not so, I would have told you, for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and I prepare a place for you, I will come again and I will receive you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. So he's going to, this is a new truth about his return. He's going to come for his own, and then he's going to take them where he is, these spacious dwellings, right? And we call this the rapture because he's not coming to earth here. He's coming for those who are on earth and receiving them to himself and then taking them where he went to prepare these spacious dwellings. Okay, so we call this the rapture. This is a new truth about his coming. There's still a second coming when he's going to come to earth, but this is a new truth about his coming. Okay? John 14, 6, a new or updated content about the one way of salvation. Jesus said to him, and this is an offensive verse to many in our culture, right? But I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life, and no one comes to the Father but through me. In other words, all religions do not lead to the same place. Do they? Not scripturally. And not truthfully. There's only one way to the Father. People get upset about that, but like I've always said, why do you get upset if there is a way? Why are you upset? There is a way. Why are you upset? Don't be upset. There's a way. He's the way. He's the truth. He's the life. Now, this I say this is an updated content or new content of the one way of salvation. There's always only been one way of salvation. You know, I like doing this a simple way. Okay, with for people. Romans 14, 23, whatsoever is not of faith is sin. So what is the only thing that God will accept? Faith. That's all. Because anything that's not of faith is what? Sin. What does it say in Hebrews 11, 6? Without faith, it is impossible to please God. So there's only one way that we can, our response, human response to God for salvation. And it's just faith. It's got to be. I mean, anything else is just not going to work with those verses. It just can't. So faith is the only response God is looking at from a human being. Now, the content that we put our faith in has changed over time. I mean, you know, Adam did not know that Jesus died on the cross for him and rose again. He knew that there was going to be a seed of the woman that was going to come and was going to conquer their foe, Satan. Right? He knew the concept of blood sacrifice because God took supposedly a lamb, right? Slit its innocent throat, and made clothing for him and Eve. So he knew about blood sacrifice, he knew about a seed, some messianic figure who would solve the problem. But he didn't know, you know, Jesus would do this by dying on a cross and rising again. He didn't have that content. Nobody had that direct content. I mean, even as I mentioned before, Matthew 16, where Peter, Jesus is having the discussion with Peter, who do you say I am? I mean, right after, you know, Peter scores 100, you know, you are the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Four verses later, he completely makes a zero on the next test. You know, when he says, Jesus says, I'm going to go to the cross, I'm going to suffer, I'm going to be killed, you know, and then rise again. And he says, It'll never be, you know. And at that point, Jesus says that the motivation behind this statement, that you're trying to hinder me from going to the cross is Satan. Get behind me, Satan. And yet we would all say, if we're reading the Bible correctly, that Peter's definitely a believer. I mean, he believes that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God. But he's saying the Messiah is not going to die. No, no, no, no, no, that's not going to happen. So, see, at that point before the cross, you could believe that Jesus was the Messiah, and that was sufficient to be eternally saved. But now we have updated in the book of Acts and farther after the cross that not only is he the way, the truth, and the life, but the way is through the cross. That's what he says he's going to prepare a way. That way is through the cross. And that's what he was telling them here in John 14, he was going to prepare a way. In other words, how do we get to where he is in the Father's house where there's many spacious dwellings? The way that he made for us is through the cross, through his cross work. And so he's declaring that. So the content is being updated in that sense. We're getting more information. Now, John 14, 13, there's a new way to pray. New way to pray, John 14, 13. Whatever you ask in my name, that will I do, so that you uh so that the Father may be glorified. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. See, before this, did anybody in the Old Testament ever say at the end of their prayer, in Jesus' name, amen? Did you ever read that? Why didn't you ever read that? Well, because they didn't know who Jesus was. I mean, what are you talking about? They knew the Hebrew uh words for salvation. They knew those words. They knew the Greek words, Yasha, you know, for salvation, and Yeshua, which is his name, but they didn't know him, and they didn't pray in his name. But now there's a new way to pray. And that's why we pray that way. So something's changed. This is the point I'm making, is uh something has changed dramatically. Israel, it wasn't like this. Now we have something new that's happening, new truths for a new thing called ultimately the church. There's a new ministry, John 14, 16. I will ask the Father, and he will give you another helper, that he may be with you forever. That is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it does not see him or know him. But you know him because he abides with you and he will be in you. Notice the difference between he abiding with you and he will be in you. In Old Testament Israel, the Spirit was abiding among Israel in the prophets, the priests, and the kings. But now the Holy Spirit is gonna indwell every single believer. So there's gonna be a new, well, it later calls him a helper, right? A helper. And he's gonna indwell every believer. So this is very different. John 14, 21 to 23. More new truths about this helper. He who has my commandments and keeps them is the one who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my father, and I will love him and will disclose myself to him. This is a new intimacy that we can have if we keep his commandments and therefore show our love for him, right? This is a new intimacy, a closeness. He's gonna disclose himself to those who love him by obeying him. Do all believers love and obey him? No. Sometimes I don't. Sometimes I disobey him. At that time I'm not loving him. In John's language, I would be hating him because I'm not keeping his commandments. And the one who keeps his commandments is the ones who loves him. So if you're not keeping his commandments, then you must hate him. But the one who loves him and keeps his commandments, he will receive this self-disclosure. God will reveal himself to this person and give them greater heightened understanding of God. Verse 23, Jesus answered and said to him, If anyone loves me, he will keep my words, and my father will love him, and we will come to him and make our abode with him. This is again a special disclosure of the Trinitarian God to the individual believer who loves him. And this is something new. John 14, 26, a few verses later, but the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you. Now we've got a new teacher. Every believer has the teacher, the Holy Spirit, to teach him. And he's going to help us. Now it says also that the Father will send him. So I'll bring up a church history controversy here in a moment, but because this verse says the Father will send him. It says send in my name. So maybe the Son is being brought in here somehow in the sense of sending the Spirit, but it's very clear that the Father is the sender in verse 26. But flip over to 1526, one chapter later, another verse about the sending of the helper. And this one says, When the helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father. So who's the sender here? Whom I will send in the name of the Father, or from the Father. This is Jesus, okay, the Son. So in 1426, it's the Father who will send in Jesus' name. In 1526, it's the Son who will send from the Father. There is a debate in church history that actually divided the Eastern Church from the Western Church. The church that was centered in Rome. And then the Eastern Church, which was centered in Constantinople or Byzantium, and that church, which we would think of as Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, those branches that this went through Russia, okay, they did not believe in the Father and the Son sending the Spirit. The Eastern Churches said no, it was the Father alone. The Western churches, Rome and those that influenced Europe, Protestant Europe and America, did believe that the Father and the Son sent the Spirit. This was known as the Filioque clause, the Filioque clause. And they this divided the whole church into Eastern and Western branches over this one phrase, filioque, which is Latin for and the Son. And so the Western churches said yes and the Son. Father and the Son. The Eastern churches said no, Father only, no and the Son. And that divided these churches. And yet, you know, I'm just pointing out the debate, but you can see here that it seems to be that it's the Father and the Son. That the Western churches were correct in this analysis of this question. John 16, 7 through 11, a new ministry of the Spirit. I mean, the Holy Spirit has always had ministries through all of Scripture. I mean, in fact, the Holy Spirit is mentioned in verse 2 of the Bible. You know that, right? In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth was without form and void, and darkness covered the surface of the deep, and the spirit hovered over the surface of the waters. Then God said, Let there be light, and there was light, and he goes on, right? He's mentioned in the second verse of the Bible, and he has ministries. There's a ministry right there in Genesis 1, 2. He's hovering over the surface of the watery mass that God initially created. And there's a Hebrew word there to use like the hovering is like a fluttering of a bird over the nest to keep her little chicks warm, her little fledglings warm. And it's like he's the one that imparted the energy, the spirit, to the originally created ball or mass of water. We'll talk, we're going to teach Genesis one day. It's going to be fun. Okay. So the Holy Spirit has always had ministries before the flood. Remember, he's restraining sin because it says in Genesis 6, my spirit will not strive with man forever, for his ways are of the flesh, his sinful ways. So he always has ministries, but there's a new ministry that's going to begin with the giving of the helper, that is the Holy Spirit, by the Father and the Son. And that ministry is described in John 16, 7. But I tell you the truth, it's to your advantage that I go away. There's the ascension. For if I don't go away, the helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. See, Jesus says he's saying, I'm not going to leave you an orphan. I'm leaving, but I'm not going to leave you an orphan. I'm going to send someone in my stead to carry on my ministry on earth. But I mean, he's leaving, right? I mean, that's the ascension. And this supports the idea that it's the Father and the Son who will send the Spirit, because he's got to go away, but if he goes, he even says again, I will send him to you. So that includes the Son. Verse 8, here's the ministry. And he, when he comes, that's the Spirit, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. This is the new ministry. He was not doing this in the Old Testament. But it's a new ministry that he's going to be doing. Of sin because they do not believe in me, and concerning righteousness because I go to the Father and you no longer see me, there's the ascension. And concerning judgment because the ruler of this world has been judged. Now that becomes important for the ascension. The ruler of this world has been judged. That's that's, of course, Satan, is who he's talking about. He's been judged. The crosswork is the judgment upon Satan. Okay, so there's a whole lot of new things here then. See, these are all new truths that relate to something new that God is doing. There's a new way to greatness, it's that we serve one another. There's a new commandment that we love one another, even as Christ loved us. There's a new truth about his return, that he's going to come and receive us to himself and take us to these very spacious dwellings. There's new content about the way of salvation, and that one way of salvation is always in Christ, but now we know it's Jesus Christ who died and rose for our sins. There's a new way to pray. We pray in Jesus' name. There's a new ministry of the Spirit, where He's not going to just indwell prophets, priests, and kings, he's going to indwell all believers. There's a new intimacy with God that's accessible to the believer who loves him and keeps his commandments. There's a new helper and teacher that the Father will send with the Son. That is the Spirit. And there's a new ministry of the Spirit that's going to be in operation, and that's his conviction of the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. As we preach the gospel, he's at work to convict. And then John 16, 28, he closes out by saying, I came forth from the Father and have come into the world. I'm leaving the world again and I'm going to the Father. Which would again indicate the ascension. It would also indicate that the ones he comes and takes to be with himself will go to the Father. So all these things are present. Now, with all that said, these new truths revealed in the upper room discourse indicate that Jesus is going to build something new. He did talk about this in Matthew 16, 18. He said, You are Peter, right? Petros. Okay? And upon this Petra, this rock, I will build my church. Now, there's two words there that are used in that passage. Okay? Petros and Petra. They're very different. Petra, you've probably seen in Indiana Jones. You watch the movie? Yeah? Indiana Jones, uh, which one is the Temple of Doom? I don't know. Whatever it is. That scene where it brings you in and there's this rocky red, like huge, what they call the treasury. It's over there in Jordan at Petra. Petra, you can never forget it because it's huge bedrock. Like what you saw in the Temple of Doom. Okay? It's that red, rocky, giant bedrock. Now, that's why it's called Petra. Petras, Peter's name, means little stone. Like a piece of gravel that you might kick off your driveway. Very, very different, right? I don't hope you don't kick the bedrock. If you do, you're gonna lose. But you kick a little stone, a little piece of gravel, and Jesus says to Peter, you are a little stone. You are a little piece of gravel, a little pebble. And upon this bedrock, I will build my church. Who is he talking about? Himself. Many think, I think I think it's quite possible. Because he uses a near-demonstrative pronoun. He says, this Petra. And he's pointing at his own chest when he said that. You, Peter, you're a little pebble. Upon this, the bedrock, I will build much her. And the gates of Hades will not prevail over it, right? They were in a very appropriate place. They were in a place called Caesarea Philippi, a very pagan place. But also had a place there. There's a place there where the river flows out called the gates of Hades. The Jews knew it as that. Jesus was playing on this scene where he gave the teaching. But the main point is that there is no foundation that anyone may lay other than the foundation which is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the rock upon which he was built his church, not Peter. And not Peter's successors in some kind of Vatican system and Roman Catholicism, which is a load of baloney. If he was going to build the church on Peter, it would be a very shaky foundation, because that man's faith is up and down. But the one who's never shakes and is stable is the Lord Jesus Christ. So he said he was going to build something new. That's something he calls the ecclesia, the church, in Matthew 16, 18. And these new truths that we've just seen here in John 13 through 17, the upper room, are the mysteries in the Old Testament, things that had never been revealed in the history of the world. Like praying in Jesus' name, like this particular ministry of the Holy Spirit, this idea that He's going to come for believers and take them to the Father's house. These are all new truths. These were mysteries in the Old Testament. And the church, of course, is never mentioned in the Old Testament. Now, a lot of theologians will say, oh, well, yes, it is. Israel is the church in the wilderness. And there's a lot of problems with all that. But the church and Israel are not the same. Okay? Israel and the church are different. Let me show you some of the things that are different. Israel was a nation. Right? I mean, just like Nigeria is a nation. And America is a nation. It was a nation. But see, the church is not a nation. The church is a group of people that's composed of people from every nation on earth. And the Bible says this over and over. Every trunk, tongue, tribe, you know, and nation, you know, you know, nation on earth. That's who we are composed of. We're not a nation. We don't have a constitution for the church, you know, that we all follow. We don't have police for the church, you know, or things like that. We don't pay taxes to the church. Well, in some churches they do, you know, whatever. But disciples of Christ, remember how they used to like make you give your bank account numbers and stuff like that? Anyway. Some churches treat it this way, but the church is not a nation. Okay, it's a group of people composed of those from all nations. Second, Israel had covenants. Okay? The Abrahamic covenant, the Davidic covenant, the new covenant, those are all made with Israel. The church doesn't have any covenants. Not one covenant is made with the church. I mean, you could say, well, yeah, the Noahic covenant. Well, that's for everybody. That's for all mankind. And all animalkind. So even the animals have that covenant. But my point here is that they're not the covenant, we're not the covenant people of God. God made unconditional covenants to Israel. The church has no covenants, but guess what? We get to benefit from their covenants. Ephesians 3 tells us this. We become co-partakers of the promises in Christ relating to Israel's covenants. We get to benefit from their covenants. But we're not taking over their covenants. We just get to benefit from their covenants. Third, Israel was on a time calendar. They had Sabbaths, Sabbath days, feast days, you know, Pentecost, Passover, and so forth, special years like the year of Jubilee. Does the church have any of that? No, we don't have any of that. We don't have any of that. We're not on a time calendar system like Israel was. We are on a people schedule. If somebody says, well, when is Christ going to come back for the church? When is the rapture going to happen? I'm just going to say, well, I have no idea, I mean. Whenever. Whenever what? And if you push me, you say, whenever what? I'm going to say, well, whenever the last person who he has deemed to be a member of the church believes, then he'll come back. There's some hint of this in Ephesians 4. That the church has to go from immaturity to maturity because the church is the body and Christ is the head, right? And just like little babies, it's so funny. You look at little babies. I mean, if you really think about it, their head is just gigantic compared to their bodies. If I put my hands over my head, I mean I can get way over my head, I can even wrap my arms over my head. Try to get a baby's arms to go over its head. It's kind of like this. The reason is because the head is so super developed. And the body has to grow into proportion to the head. And it's the same thing with the body of Christ. Jesus Christ was totally complete in his resurrection body on the day of his resurrection. But the church that began on the day of Pentecost has to grow to maturity up to the full stature of Jesus Christ. That's a verse. That's a verse in Ephesians 4. It says that we must grow up to the full stature of Jesus Christ. So there's this idea that the last person who's to be a member of the church in God's mind, when they believe, that's when he'll come for us. Why? Because the body will have reached the full stature of Christ. There's no reason to keep it going on. He's going to finish that and then take care of other things. But so we're not on a time calendar, we're on a people schedule. Who is it that's going to believe? And are you going to be the one that evangelizes them? I mean, you could be. I don't know. There's going to be one last person, right? There's got to be. At that person, the body will be complete. But this is very different from Israel. Fourth thing, Israel had a physical temple, always had a physical temple. Right? You've got the tabernacle in the wilderness, then you've got the Solomonic temple, then that was destroyed. You've got the Rebabel's temple, expanded by the Hashmoneeans, expanded by Herod the Great at the time of Christ. It was destroyed in AD 70. Right? Now we don't have a we don't have physical temples. The church is a spiritual temple. It's a spiritual temple. Church never has physical temples. You know, this building is just a building. Just like any other building. Like the school, the public school down there that teaches heresy. It's just a building, just like that. It's the people that are the true temple. We are the place where the world is to meet God. We are to be holy. Not a holy place. We are to be the epitome of holiness. Right? Fifth, Israel had the Spirit with them in the prophets, priests, and kings, right? It's the only place that he was with them. So he abided among Israel in those individuals who were in those three offices. But the church, every individual believer has the spirit indwelling them. Romans 8, 9. If you don't have the spirit, you don't belong to him. Simple as that, right? So that's a difference between the church and Israel. Here's another one. Israel is composed of believers and unbelievers. In the Old Testament, we've got the remnant, we've got the non-remnant. Remember the story of Elijah? Elijah's like, I'm the only one, Lord. I'm the only believer in all Israel. And God says, get over yourself. I've got 7,000 who've never bowed the knee to Baal. You know, we have 7,000 plus you. 7,000 and one, Elijah, get over yourself. There's always a believing remnant. And there was always a non-remnant. Those are the unbelievers in Israel. So Israel is a nation composed of believers and unbelievers. It's still that way today. There's a very small proportion of Jews today are believers in Jesus as the Messiah, but here's one amongst us, right? So they're here, they exist. But in the church, it's believers only. There's no concept of the church as being, you know, believers and unbelievers. If someone is here in this room and you're not a believer, you're not a member of the church. You can be in this building, but you're not a member of the church. The church is composed only of believers. So that's a difference with Israel. Sixth or seventh there. Israel is the wife of Yahweh. You know that terminology from the Old Testament? Hosea uses it all the way through that God, the Father, Yahweh, took to himself, Israel, as his wife. And then you get the story there of Hosea and his wife Gomer and what she did, and that's a representation of what Israel did to him. She went and played the prostitute, and that's what Israel did by going after idols, right? God's saying, You're being unfaithful. Yahweh's saying, You've been an unfaithful wife. Okay, but he still loves her and he wins her back, right? That's a story of Israel's things to come still. He's going to win them back. But the church, the church is not the wife of Yahweh. We're the bride of Christ. See, there's two different members of the Trinity going on there. Wife of Yahweh, that's a reference to the Father. Bride of Christ, that's a reference to the Son. These aren't the same. Israel and the church are not the same. You can't just blend the Father and the Son. You can't say, it's all just the same thing. You can't do that. I mean, words have meaning. We should let them mean what they say. Lastly, Israel's mission was for the nations to come and see. But not the church's mission. The church's mission to the nations is to go and tell. They were given a different task, a different mission, right? Their task is given in Exodus 19, 4 through 6. He says, if you keep the law that he was about to give, then you will be a priest to all nations. You will be a light to the world. And so God set Israel, I mean, why did he choose that real estate? That real estate that every Arab nation in the world wants right now. That tiny little sliver of land that at some spots is less than 30 miles wide. Why? Why? I mean, it's nothing. It is just a tiny thing compared to the other 13 Arab nations that have, I don't even, God knows how, God, you know how much property they have. But they've got to have that little piece, you know. But that little piece in the ancient world was sitting at the center of the world. In fact, people in modern-day statistics have measured to find the one place on earth that is closest to every other location geographically. And they found out that that's where it is. Interesting. It's because it was thought of as being the navel of the earth, the center of the world. It's sitting basically between three continents, isn't it? You've got Asia to the northeast, you've got Europe to the northwest, and you've got Africa to the south. And there's Israel right in the middle of all that. Where did all the ancient trade routes go? Where did they have to go? They had to go through Israel. You had the King's Highway, you had the Via Maris. These are trade routes that went right through Israel. Why do you think this is amazing things when you read the New Testament? Jesus set up his base of operation in a place called Capernaum. Peter lived there. Peter's mother lived there. And he stayed with her. And this is where his base of operation in the Galilee was. Guess what passed through there? The largest trade route at the time. Went right through there. Why do you think he did that? Strategy. Strategy. Strategy. Syrians were coming through there. Africans were going through there. And what do you think they're going to see when they go through there? They're going to see his works. They're going to hear his words. What are they going to do? They're going to take them back. Matthew 4, 23 through 25? Just amazing things. Matthew 4, 23 through 25. The news about him spread throughout all Syria, and they brought to him all who were Syria! Syria! I thought he said only go to Israel. Yeah, but the news was spreading, see, to Syria, and they brought all to him who were ill, those suffering with various diseases and pains, and demoniacs, epileptics, paralytics. He healed them all, see? Large crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis and Jerusalem and Judea and from beyond the Jordan. Beyond the Jordan. Beyond, yeah, beyond the Jordan. It was very strategically set up. Jesus didn't do anything just happenstance. It was all very purposeful. But see, Israel's mission was right there at the center of the world for the nations to come and to see. Because they would pass through there. But the church's mission is not like that. Like, oh, come here. This is why I would say our mission is not to, hey, we're hoping some people will come in the doors one day here. We're just hoping somebody will come into our church. That's not our mission. That's a come and see mission. That's the wrong mentality. What does Jesus say? Go and tell. Go and tell. I mean, I was frustrated with it for years because I was like, well, how am I going to I I'm busy all the time studying the Bible. How am I going to go do all that too? I don't have time to go and tell. I'm busy studying so I can tell these people what it says. You know, that kind of thing. And then I realized, you know, we've each been called to different things because Ephesians 4 says some are pastors and teachers, some are evangelists. And I was like, that's not me. I mean, when I get a chance, I will give someone the gospel. Then I'm not an evangelist. I'm not going out and telling. My main job is to pastor and to teach, to proclaim truth, to describe and articulate truths carefully so people understand what God is saying, right? And I was like, okay, well, I'm content with that. And as I cross paths with people, if I get an opportunity to give gospel, I certainly will. But mainly the mission of the church is to go out from here to tell people out there. Because the chances that they're going to come in are low. They're low. I mean, even just a visitor who's a believer walking in here can feel like very unsettled because they don't know what they're going to find here. They don't know what we're going to teach. They don't know what the people are going to be like. They don't know anyone. I mean, this is, you know, this is the way it is. Do you like going into places like that? Yeah, it's just your first play time. You're like, yeah, I don't know. Is this going to be okay? It may just be to get a haircut, but hey, it's the barber, it's your hair. I mean, it matters. So, you know, it's this uncomfortable feeling. So it's not normally going to happen that way. If we want people to come to salvation, it's the people out there that we have to go to. But my big point in showing you all this, these differences between Israel and the church, is to show you that, hey, something new is about to happen in the story. And that story, this is a continuation of the story. It's a seamless thing if you follow the gospels and you see the rejection and you see the postponement of the kingdom. You say, well, what's going to happen if the kingdom's postponed? Well, some new things are going to happen. And what this new thing turns out to be is the church.

unknown 58:41

Okay?

SPEAKER_01 58:42

But we've got to get Christ ascended, right? He's got to be crucified first, he's got to be raised second, because the church is built on his death and resurrection. And then he's got to ascend and he's got to take session or his seat at the right hand of the Father, because that's going to be how he pours forth the Spirit. And those are the only so those four things you have to have to have the church begin. Church can't begin before that. Because Jesus hadn't died yet. He hadn't ascended yet. He hadn't taken a seat yet. So certain things have to be in place. And that's what all this is for, is so we understand. And I hope you've seen a lot of the differences between these two. Now God has a purpose for both. In fact, is he going to restore Israel? Yeah, Romans 11. I mean, look at it. It's very, very, very difficult to get around Romans 11. Remember the olive tree? And it says you've got the natural branches. That's the Jews. They're the natural recipients of the benefits of their covenants. Right? And then you've got the wild branches, and they're grafted in alongside the natural branches. This is Jews and Gentiles in the same tree. We call it the church, right? Jewish and Gentile believers in the same tree. Romans 11. And then he gives a very strict warning toward the end of this section in verse 22. Behold then the kindness and severity of God. To those who fell, severity. But to you, God's kindness. If you continue in his kindness, otherwise you will also be cut off. Talking about Gentile believers in the Jewish tree. And they also, if they do not continue in unbelief, that's Jews, they'll be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. I mean, they were already there before. They're the natural branches, they can easily be grafted back in. He says, For if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and you were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, speaking of Gentiles, how much more will those who are the natural branches, the Jews, be grafted into their own olive tree? Very easy thing for God to do, right? He says, verse 25, I don't want you to be uninformed, I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery. See? This is a mystery. This is a new idea that nobody ever knew about. And here's the mystery. So that you will not be wise in your own estimation. Here it is. That a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And then what will happen after that? Verse 26 tells you. So all Israel will be saved. The deliverer will come from Zion. That's the second coming. He will remove ungodliness from Jacob. This is my covenant with them, that's Israel, when I take away their sins. I mean, it's going to happen. Yeah. But right now it's the church. See? Do all these things work together? Sure, God doesn't have a problem working all these things together. He works all things together for good. It's not a problem at all. Very simple. Very simple. Plan of God's really simple, right? Well, well. Ha ha ha. Simple in one sense. Simple that we can see the broad sketch of what God is doing. Complicated in the sense that we don't know how he does it, how he pulls it off. But that is our God. That is our God. Somehow he got you here. How did he do that? I don't know. I can tell you one thing. I have no idea how he got me here. That is a wild idea to me. You may think, well, no, you're natural up there, but no, it's not natural. Something supernatural has happened in my life. And you know what? Something supernatural has happened in your life. And there's someone supernatural who lives in you. It's the Holy Spirit. And that's why your life, I mean, I know a lot of you don't think your lives are very important. You think you're unremarkable. You're wrong. You're wrong. Every one of you is a trophy of his grace. You're remarkable. Because when we come into this world, we come with a sin nature. We're not we do not do anything that wants to please God. We're enemies of God, it says. Enemies. And yet somehow you're here and you love God. And you want to keep his commandments, you want to walk after his precepts, you want to know his mind. You want to be transformed. Why is that? It's not because of you and it's not because of me. It's because of him at work in us. What did Paul say? I labored more than all of them, yet not I, he says, but the grace of God in me. See, it's the same thing for all of us. I mean, if we become anything in this life, it's because of the grace of God. At the Tower Bible, the people said, We will make our name great. In the next chapter, God said to Abraham, I will make your name great. God is the one who gives you a name. He is the one who makes you great. He is the one who's at work in you, both to will and to do his good pleasure. You are who you are because of his grace and because of his marvelous work. Don't take your life for granted. You are remarkable. Totally unique features in this landscape of the world.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:46

Thank you for joining us on Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas. If you would like to see the visuals that went along with today's sermon, you can find those on Rumble and on YouTube under Spoken Bible Church. That is where Jeremy is the pastor and teacher. We hope you found today's lesson productive and useful in growing closer to God and walking more obediently with Him. If you found this podcast to be useful and helpful, then please consider rating us in your favorite podcast app. And until next time, we hope you have a blessed and wonderful day.