Dr. Russell D. Moore, Dean of the School of Theology and Senior Vice President for Academic Administration of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, lectures on the Kingdom of God.
Listen to
The Kingdom and the FutureMicah 5:1-9
5:1 Now muster your troops, O daughter of troops;
siege is laid against us;
with a rod they strike the judge of Israel
on the cheek.
2 But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah,
who are too little to be among the clans of Judah,
from you shall come forth for me
one who is to be ruler in Israel,
whose origin is from of old,
from ancient days.
3 Therefore he shall give them up until the time
when she who is in labor has given birth;
then the rest of his brothers shall return
to the people of Israel.
4 And he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord,
in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.
And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great
to the ends of the earth.
5 And he shall be their peace.
When the Assyrian comes into our land
and treads in our palaces,
then we will raise against him seven shepherds
and eight princes of men;
6 they shall shepherd the land of Assyria with the sword,
and the land of Nimrod at its entrances;
and he shall deliver us from the Assyrian
when he comes into our land
and treads within our border.
A Remnant Shall Be Delivered
7 Then the remnant of Jacob shall be
in the midst of many peoples
like dew from the Lord,
like showers on the grass,
which delay not for a man
nor wait for the children of man.
8 And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the nations,
in the midst of many peoples,
like a lion among the beasts of the forest,
like a young lion among the flocks of sheep,
which, when it goes through, treads down
and tears in pieces, and there is none to deliver.
9 Your hand shall be lifted up over your adversaries,
and all your enemies shall be cut off.
A common theme in our culture of a great conspiracy.
Idea that there is this vast ancient conspiracy that someone is hiding some crucial piece of information that makes sense of the world.
The DaVinci Code
Left Behind Novels
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Deep within us we know that something like that is true… Some mystery out there that makes sense of it. If only we knew what it was.
Consummate with Scripture
Old Testament – the message of a great kingdom that is going to come; a great kingdome that will smash every other kingdom; unrivaled; defeat all the enemies of God; defeat the powers behind the powers
New Testament – Jesus preaching the Kingdom of God
Matthew 12:28
But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
The mystery of all of the ages has been revealed. (Eph. 3)
This is where we tend to become confused.
Many believe that the kingdom is out there somewhere on a prophecy chart. And that is why many of us are not concerned about the Kingdom of Christ.
Or
They believe that the kingdom is just another program.
Eph. 1:8-10
8 which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight 9 making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
That is the purpose of God in terms of the kingdom.
Disputes rest on the fact that we try to abstract the kingdom from Christ.
We think it is first and foremost about a timetable … rather than a person.
[sarcasm]
Mickail Gorbechev – must be anti-Christ; man of peace; marking on his head; not a very successful anti-Christ
Supermarket scanners – must be the mark of the beast
Obsession with eschatological details or a ridiculing of the kingdom itself.
The kingdom is of crucial and significant importance because it has to do with Christ.
Covenant theology v. Dispensationalism
Both are wrong in their classical forms.
Both try to abstract the kingdom from Christ
D – all promises apply to Israel; preaching of the OT applies to someone else
C – promises of OT apply to the Church; Church has replaced Israel; spiritual blessings; forgiveness of sins; heavenly gifts
What they both are missing is that the focal point of the mystery is fulfilled in a man, Jesus of Nazereth. If you try to apply the promises of the OT without mediating them through Christ you have comepletely missed the point of the Gospel and of the Kingdom.
3 parts
1. Christ as man/Adam
a. Jesus is the goal of where God is going in History
b. Philippians 2:8 – And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
c. the purpose of God in history is the exaltation of this man, Jesus of Nazereth
d. Romans 8:29 - For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that *he might be the firstborn among many brothers. *
e. God’s reasons for doing everything is Jesus Christ
f. Colossians 1:16 - For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—*all things were created through him and for him. *
g. he is the reason everything exists
h. it is to all be an inheritance for him
i. God’s goal is to give him a kingdom that is unrivaled
Intelligent Design movement – falls short
Doing excellent work in confronting Darwinism
i. on your own terms you cannot explain how al of these things came about through natural selection
ii. ID by itself cannot answer all the questions
iii. What kind of God do you serve?
a. “Well-designed” bloody nature, red in tooth and claw – appears to be designed by a “Sadist”
b. if all we have is general revelation, we cannot answer that question
c. Unless we have a Scripture that tells us about a Fall which brought a cosmic curse over all of humanity, we are not able to understand why we live in a world of tsunamis, hurricanes, mud slides, and snake bites.
Adam has the responsibility to subdue the entire created order.
Psalm 8:6 - You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet,
All goes ary when Adam bows the knee, refuses to accept the authority of his great high King, and instead surrenders the kingship to the serpent.
Adam becomes a Satanist.
All of creation comes under bondage.
The reign of death consumes. The wildest of nature continues. There is no one to set it back.
Until, you come to a man, Jesus of Nazereth.
Jesus is on a boat when you have the waters, pictured in the OT as the wrath of God, nature is threatening to kill humanity.
That is not normal in a Biblical worldview that the king of nature can be wiped out by nature.
Jesus speaks, Peace, Be still, and nature obeys him.
Who is this that even the winds and waves obey him?
Hebrews 2:8
8 putting everything in subjection under his feet.”
Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him.
Jesus as the human king, Messaih, deliverer executes dominion over nature. He is not under the authority of the curse. Death has no dominion over him. The accusations of serpent have no dominion over him. He exercises dominion over the created order. He is the true Son of God.
NT and Sexual Morality
Ephesians 5:22-32
How married couples are to relate
Not marriage tips
22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.
25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. 28 In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, 30 because we are members of his body. 31 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 32 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.
Paul is quoting from Genesis 2
Genesis 2:24
Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
God creates man as male and female.
Why?
God creates sexuality.
The purpose of sexuality: a model of something he already has in mind.
Male and female who come together in a one flesh union, separate but equal, separate yet the same … to point you to Christ and the Church.
Sexuality has to do with Christology.
Simply saying you shouldn’t have sex outside of marriage, does not stem back to a mystery that drives human beings to sexual relationships.
Explain the purpose of sexuality. Fornication, not just immoral, is picturing a Christ and a Church outside of covenant relationship. It is blasphemous. Of the spirit of Anti-Christ.
Adultery is not just wrong because it hurts a marriage, wrong because it pictures a Christ who abandons his church because of something else. Speaks blasphemy against Jesus Christ.
2. CHRIST AS DAVID
a. Skewed view of the Shepherd
b. Ez. 34:5 - 5 So they were scattered, because there was no shepherd, and they became food for all the wild beasts. 6 My sheep were scattered; they wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. My sheep were scattered over all the face of the earth, with none to search or seek for them.
c. 11 “For thus says the Lord God: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out.
i. Luke 15:4 - 4 “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it?
d. 17 “As for you, my flock, thus says the Lord God: Behold, I judge between sheep and sheep, between rams and male goats.
i. Matthew 25:32,33 - Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left.
e. And I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them: he shall feed them and be their shepherd. 24 And I, the Lord, will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them. I am the Lord; I have spoken.
f. When Jesus speaks of himself as a Shepherd, he speaks of himself as a King. The shepherd fights the wild beasts for his flock, he is a warrior King. A bloodied, violent Jesus who is taking on the principalities and powers for the world of humanity.
g. He will bear the anointing, the Holy Spirit.
h. If we are to understand the role of the Holy Spirit in the church, we are to understand Christ.
i. The Spirit in the OT and NT is an act of warfare.
j. David goes and slaughters the Philistine giant.
i. Son of David goes out to the wilderness and takes on the enemy of God and slaughters him.
ii. The Spirit is the anointing of Christ.
iii. Not a mascot.
iv. HS is terrifying
v. At Pentecost Peter talk about the HS
1. You see this HS? This HS is poured out by Jesus of Nazareth. And if Jesus has the HS, God has anointed Him as King. If God has anointed him as king, that means he’s the Son of David. That means you’re in trouble. Because this Jesus whom you crucified, has been given a kingdom that has been promised to him forever and ever.
2. He is David. He is the Kingdom. If you try to abstract the kingdom from Christ, if you try to abstract the Spirit from Christ, you don’t understand the Gospel.
k. Suppose there is a man on a desert island who has never heard the Gospel, who has never come in contact with another human being, he’s dying tomorrow, what happens to him?
i. People in congregations think that he’ll be alright
ii. Theologians and pastors think the Spirit can work apart from the proclamation of Christ. People are able to come to the faith apart even though they don’t know the name of Jesus
iii. Evangelicals don’t have a kingdom understanding of Christ.
iv. God’s ultimate goal in history is
1. Romans 14:11 - for it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.”
v. If you don’t understand that purpose, you’re not going to understand the kingdom. If you don’t understand the kingdom, you’re not going to understand the Gospel. If you don’t understand the Gospel, you don’t understand the Great Commission.
vi. Trend on the Mission field to move through a Roman Road in the Koran
1. Pray to Allah to take you to paradise through the blood of Yesah
2. Not through the authority of Scriptures
3. View of the HS that the HS works through the words of a demon rather than the words of Christ
3. CHRIST AS ISRAEL
a. Why the Jews Rejected Jesus by David Klinghoffer
i. Has some very denigrating things to say about Jesus
ii. Quotes old Talmudic texts
1. Jesus went to hell where he is burning in human excrement
2. Jesus was a lustful adulterer
3. Jesus was an idolater seeking to lead the people of God astray.
iii. the NT misunderstands and misinterprets the OT
1. Matthew 2:14-15 - 14 And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt 15 and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt I called my son.”
2. Hosea 11:1 - When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.
3. Hosea is talking about a PAST event when Israel, God’s first born son is called out of slavery in Egypt
4. The NT interprets the passage in a way that the OT was not meant to be interpreted
5. Isaiah 53 – Christians want to say it has to do with Jesus of Nazareth. If you look at the context, it’s talking about Israel
iv. every time he sees a failed reference to Christ in the OT, it is a reference to Israel.
v. THAT IS EXACTLY THE POINT
b. The Old Dispensationalists and the Old Covenant Theologians
i. Israel IS the nation that comes into existence in 1948.
ii. Israel IS a spiritual body, the church
The apostles held the view that Israel of God is one man, Jesus Christ
Isaiah 5 - 5:1 Let me sing for my beloved
my love song concerning his vineyard:
My beloved had a vineyard
on a very fertile hill.
2 He dug it and cleared it of stones,
and planted it with choice vines;
he built a watchtower in the midst of it,
and hewed out a wine vat in it;
and he looked for it to yield grapes,
but it yielded wild grapes.
3 And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem
and men of Judah,
judge between me and my vineyard.
4 What more was there to do for my vineyard,
that I have not done in it?
When I looked for it to yield grapes,
why did it yield wild grapes?
5 And now I will tell you
what I will do to my vineyard.
I will remove its hedge,
and it shall be devoured;
I will break down its wall,
and it shall be trampled down.
6 I will make it a waste;
it shall not be pruned or hoed,
and briers and thorns shall grow up;
I will also command the clouds
that they rain no rain upon it.
7 For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts
is the house of Israel,
and the men of Judah
are his pleasant planting;
Vineyard imagery in the OT is speaking of the people of Israel. A promise that is coming in the NT that Israel will be dead.
Ezekiel 37:11-14
11 Then he said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are clean cut off.’ 12 Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will bring you into the land of Israel. 13 And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people. 14 And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the Lord.”
In the 1st Century, the Israel of God was surrounded by pagan armies, was indicted, was crucified, drowned in his own blood, and was placed in a tomb under a curse, and all of the people around said, “Where is your God?” as prophesied. You cry out to him and he will not save you. In the last day, Israel will walk out of the grave through the power of the Spirit.
Micah 7:10
Then my enemy will see, and shame will cover her who said to me, “Where is the Lord your God?” My eyes will look upon her; now she will be trampled down like the mire of the streets.
Habbakuk 1:2
O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you “Violence!” and you will not save?
It happened, and one man walked out.
Covenant theologians are wrong when they tell you that the Church has replaced Israel.
The older Dispensationalists are wrong when they tell you that the promises of God are waiting the conversion of a future group of Jews.
The promises of God find all of their “yes” all of their “amen” in Jesus of Nazareth. Which means that all of these promises are here. Which is why the NT spends so much time talking about circumcision.
Every other page deals with cirucumcision. Because God’s promise to Abraham only to the circumcised, everlasting promise. Only those who are circumcised will receive the promise.
Genesis 17:13
13 both he who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money, shall surely be circumcised. So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant.
NT does not say that circumcision has been replaced.
Colossians 2:11
In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ,
You are in Christ, so that whatever is true of Jesus is true of you. That is why Paul gets so angry when people try to circumcise Gentiles. Because you are saying that there is something in Christ that is deficient.
Galatians 3:26
for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.
Sons and *Daughters *in faith? No.
Here he is making a radical point that male and female, Jew and Greek, slave and free find their identity in Christ. They cry out “Abba, Father!” and they receive an inheritance.
Christ has the inheritance. Christ has the relationship with God. You stand before God *in * Christ.
He is the righteous one who receives these things, and you only receive it in Him.
If Christ is the key to understanding the kingdom, you and I need to understand that we cannot do evangelism appropriately and correctly without the Gospel story.
We must bring persons to Christ by showing them this big picture of what God is doing with the world, and where they fit into this.
We need to bring people to repentance, not simply for their own personal sin but in every aspect of their lives, including the way they see the world.
Understand the “already, and not yet” in Christ.
Focus on Christ.
Our problem with the health and wealth prosperity teachers is that they do not have enough health and wealth.
Yes, you will suffer in this present time because you are in Christ, and Christ suffered because the principalities and powers that came against him will come against you consistently until every enemy is under his feet.
We need to change the way we do Bible teaching. It needs to focus on Christ.
We train our children to think that Christ is the hoop that one jumps through at the beginning of the Christian life and then you never think of him again until you see him at judgment, except to remind yourself that I once met him somewhere back there at Vacation Bible School and now he’s given me these rules to live by.
Rather than saying, all of the Bible is pointing you to who you are in Jesus. And if you are to be transformed into the image of Christ, this is what it looks like and this is why.
Cultural engagement
Christ crucified is jarring. If you stand up in this culture and you proclaim a kingdom to a group of people who have never seen a king, and you tell them there is a Sovereign who has been given all authority everywhere, for all time, and you must submit to him. And this Sovereign bore in his own body the curse of God for the sins of every man, woman, and child ever born … you will find people offended by that.
But unless you jar them with the scandal of the message of the kingdom you will never get them to understand the story and how it makes sense.
