Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas
Jeremy approaches Bible teaching with a passion for getting the basic doctrines explained so that the individual can understand them and then apply them to circumstances in their life. These basic and important lessons are nestled in a framework of history and progression of revelation from the Bible so the whole of Scripture can be applied to your physical and spiritual life.
Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas
NT Framework - Two Comings of the Holy Spirit
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We trace the apostles’ question about restoring the kingdom to Israel and why Jesus refuses to give them a timeline and how He shifts to the idea of two comings of the Holy Spirit.
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.
Welcome And Series Context
Welcome to Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas and our series on the New Testament framework. Today, a smaller, bite-sized piece from the larger lesson. We hope you enjoy it.
The Apostles Ask About The Kingdom
And so when they had come together, verse 6, they were asking him, Lord, is it at this time you're restoring the kingdom to Israel? Now, do you see where they're coming from? John taught that if the Messiah will have a baptism, it's a baptism of the Spirit, it's for all who believe they're going to be brought into the kingdom of God. So is it at this time you're restoring the kingdom to Israel? And his answer is in verse 7 it's not for you to know. The times are the epochs, which the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be my witnesses, and so forth. So it's not for you to know the times of the epics.
Daniel 2 And The Times Of Gentiles
Now, what is this times of the epics? I mean, it's like people just read that like, yeah, yeah, just keep going, right? Um, this phrase is used in Daniel 2, 21. And it's the total background for this, right after Ezekiel, Daniel 2. In the chapter that, you know, Nebuchadnezzar the king, he saw this statue, he's having this recurring dream, what he considered basically a nightmare. In this dream, he'd see this head of gold, right? And then he'd see on the statue the breasts and arms of silver, and then he'd see the waist and the thighs of bronze, and then he would see the lower legs and feet of iron and iron mixed with clay, and then he would see this stone that was cut out without hands, and the stone would smash the base of the statue, and it would all be obliterated at one time. And when the dream is revealed to Daniel, the meaning of the dream, the significance of it, what he described was that the head of gold is Nebuchadnezzar, the head of the first Gentile kingdom to which God was giving supremacy the kingdom of Babylon. Second, silver was Medo-Persia, a two-branched empire. And then the waist of bronze of bronze and thighs of bronze signified the third successive Gentile kingdom, which was the Greeks. Started with Alexander the Great. And then sovereignty would be transferred to the fourth Gentile kingdom, the legs of iron and iron mixed with clay, which is Rome. And these four kingdoms constitute what Jesus called the times of the Gentiles, when Gentile nations were given political supremacy over the world. And then the stone, the stone cut out without hands. This was the kingdom of God, that it would strike Gentile kingdoms and destroy them all at once and come to fill the whole earth. It's in that passage of the Bible that we had the background for times and epochs in Acts chapter 1, in Daniel 2, 20, Daniel said, Let the name of God be blessed forever and ever. For wisdom and power belong to him. He just had this dream revealed to him and he knew what it meant. Now he's going to go tell the king. And what does he say in verse 21? It is he who changes the times in the epoch.
Spirit Power Before Kingdom Timing
He removes kings and establishes kings. The point is that what the apostles are asking him, is it at this time you're restoring the kingdom? They're saying, Is it at this time? The times of the Gentiles are over. And the kingdom of God is coming on earth. And Jesus says, it's not for you to know the times in the epoch. In other words, it's not for you to know when God is going to be done with the times of the Gentiles and bring in the kingdom of God on earth. He says, It's not for you to know that time. But he says, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. In other words, here's what's happening. They're thinking, oh, he's been teaching us about the kingdom of God. Now he says the Holy Spirit is going to baptize us. So the kingdom of God must be coming now because the kingdom and the spirit come at the same time. And Jesus says, No. It's not for you to know when the kingdom's going to come. But guess what? In a few days, the Spirit's going to come. So what he's done is he's just separated the coming of the Spirit from the coming of the kingdom. And he says, the Spirit's going to come not many days from now. And as for the kingdom, it's not for you to know. It's still out there, but it's obviously not at the same time the Spirit is going to come. They had to adjust their theology, right? They had to adjust the pieces. So now we're going to have a Holy Spirit come for something unique, this baptizing ministry that he's described in verse 5. But guess what? He's still going to come in the future when the kingdom comes, and he's going to baptize Israel, just like John said. And he's going to gather the believing remnant of Israel into the barn, the kingdom. So what's happened is he said, now guess what? Just like there were two comings of the Son of Man, Jesus, guess what? There's also two comings of the Holy Spirit. That could not be seen from the Old Testament. All that you could see was that the Spirit and the kingdom come at the same time. Now what Jesus has said is no, the Spirit's going to come and do something now, and He's going to come again, of course, later for Israel and do something then. So this is why I say it gets complicated. Usually we only talk about, and you probably only ever heard in your whole life of going to church, that there's two comings of Jesus. You probably heard of that many, many times. But how many times did you hear there's two comings of the Spirit? And it gets discussed. That's what he is talking about here in Acts 1, 1 through 8.
Witnesses To The Ends Of Earth
Now they're going to be empowered by the Spirit, verse 8, to be witnesses. And notice the realm, three realms: Jerusalem, which is a city, center of all Israel, Judea, which is a region, and Samaria. Ooh, Samaritans, yucky, yucky. But they're going to be witnesses there. And even in the remotest part of the earth, that's Gentiles. Right? I mean, they're dogs. Jesus said so. It's okay. You can say that. Just mean they were unclean. That was the idea. Dogs were considered unclean animals. They didn't keep them as pets in the house. So that's the first thing. The first thing is that
Wrap Up And Where To Find Visuals
Jesus' last teaching was that the kingdom is going to come still in the future, but the spirit is going to come not many days from now. Stay here in Jerusalem, and then the Spirit will come and baptize you. They still don't understand the church. They don't understand what they're going to be baptized into. They don't understand that. But time will tell. 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 Spoke and 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.