This is the transcript of Restitutio episode 564: Kingdom Seminar 3: Defining the Kingdom by Sean Finnegan

This transcript was auto-generated and only approximates the contents of this episode.

Transcript

00:00
Hey there, I'm Sean Finnegan. And you are listening to Restitutio podcast that seeks to recover authentic Christianity and live it out today.

00:12
The Kingdom of God is the golden thread running throughout the whole Bible from beginning to end.

00:18
In this presentation, we'll consider some of.

00:20
The key texts.

00:21
From the old and New Testaments that define what the Kingdom is in contrast to many who think the goal of Christian salvation is to go home, to be with the Lord in heaven. The Bible offers a consistent vision of God's children living forever on a restored world.

00:39
Rather than leaving the planet or physicality, the Kingdom is the idea that God will fix up this place, healing everything in it from national strife to animal violence, and everything between here now is Episode 564, part three of our Kingdom seminar defining the Kingdom.

01:07
Last night we looked at heaven. According to the Bible, and considered what the Bible says in a positive sense about heaven. And now I'd like to work through the Bible. This talk could easily be a whole class.

01:23
And justice, take our time and look at Genesis and take our time and look at many parts of the Old Testament and how Israel.

01:33
Was a Kingdom prototype for what God plans in the future and how the prophets have given us a vision for the future and and so much of what the New Testament communicates. But I'd like to cover instead just a few points, one is restoration.

01:51
Then promises to Abraham's prophecies and just a little bit about the New Testament. So I am going through the Bible in order more or less.

02:01
Yes.

02:02
But really, in order for me to talk about restoration as an idea, I want to start with Jesus. So I'm going to start a little out of order and then we'll we'll go through it says in Matthew 19.

02:14
27 Then Peter said in reply. Look, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have? Jesus said to them. Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the son of man is seated on the throne of his glory, you who have followed me will also sit on 12 Thrones, judging the 12 Tribes of Israel.

02:36
There.

02:37
And I put that Greek phrase up there for you. NT probably genesia Polynesia means.

02:45
Polynice has two Greek words mushed together. Pollen means again, and genesia is like the word genesis.

02:55
It's literally the same letters as the word genesis, which with a modern Greek accent it comes as like a why nobody says gyro in Greece say euro whatever I don't need to get into it. But Polynesia is Genesis again.

03:12
And Jesus says that's what you get, Peter.

03:16
Peter asked the question what do we get? We left everything Jesus had just sent somebody away who wasn't committed and Peter said, what do we get? He says. Well at the and I like this translation, the renewal of all things, some of some of you may have different translations on this word. Polynesia, it it, it may say in your translation.

03:36
The new World I saw that in one translation, maybe do any of you have it on your phone or in your paper Bible? What does it say for you and your translation? Maybe somebody could throw out another.

03:49
I'm reading from the inner SV, which is not all that popular. It's #10 of 10 most popular Bibles in America right now, so I know there are 9 more likely ones that you'll have.

04:01
Regeneration. That's see, that's a great one. Regeneration. So it's the idea of generate again to regenerate, to generate again. It's the idea of a new beginning.

04:13
If you're playing a video game like a first person shooter and you get killed.

04:18
You regenerate, you come back to life and you fight another day, right? So that's regeneration. Any other translations?

04:28
Other than regeneration, recreation, recreation, that's pretty darn good. What's that?

04:33
The message.

04:34
Ohh no, I take it back. I take it back. That's a terrible translation and I'm embarrassed to have agreed with Eugene Peterson, even for a moment.

04:46
You know who invited this guy, huh?

04:48
Aren't you supposed to be in Indiana somewhere now? I'm just kidding. We're so glad you're here. Any other translations you could throw out for that that you see in your your Bibles?

04:59
I think we understand, right?

05:01
Again, genesis.

05:04
That would make a terrible English translation, but it's what it says. And so Jesus says to Peter. Truly, I tell you, in the regeneration or in the new world or the new creation, when the son of man is seated on the throne of his glory, you will sit on 12 Thrones. So that's a really important verse that Jesus anticipated.

05:24
A new beginning, Jesus anticipated a restoration of all things. Which reminds me of acts Chapter 3. Let's go over there. Acts 319 through 21.

05:35
This is a sermon by Peter who says repent, therefore, and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Messiah appointed for you.

05:52
That is Jesus, who must remain in heaven until the time of universal restoration that God announced long ago through his holy prophets. Another interesting Greek phrase.

06:04
Which says Ahri Chronon which means until the times and then apocatastasis seos it's the last syllables.

06:12
In that word.

06:13
Apocatastasis say, let's say it together. I'm just kidding. It's like a classic preacher thing to do, right? Like repeat this after me. I wouldn't have you repeat that. I'm not so cruel and unusual. I can barely say it.

06:26
Pontone is last word. So yeah, this phrase is also interesting. That inner SV translates it universal restoration. I think the more typical translation is restoration of all things other than Jake. Does anybody else have a different translation for restoration there?

06:45
Restitution there's is that the King James version? Yeah.

06:50
Restore restore. Very good.

06:53
Yeah. So it's the idea of taking something that's.

06:57
Old Oregon.

07:00
Worn out and making it new again. That's what restoration is.

07:05
When I was a boy, my dad had a friend who would take old junk cars from the junkyard and he would restore them and. And these were really old cars, cars from. I don't even know what decade, but the first half of the 20th century, not the second-half. Boy, he would do such a good job.

07:27
And The thing is, he would go to the junkyard and he'd see this old, rusted out car and he would see what it could be.

07:36
And he would do all this work in his garage and he'd get all the parts that he needed, and he would.

07:40
Sand off the rust and he would paint it and he would wax it. And by the time he was done, it probably looked better than it originally even did. The day it rolled off the factory floor and he was so good at it that the town would pay him to use his cars in their parades.

07:59
Isn't that something?

08:00
And I always think of him and that experience when I think of the word restoration, you see that with buildings too. You, you get an old building and you restore it and you put all this work into it and then it, it can even be better than it was before. But the idea is to make it at least as good as it was before. And so Jesus must remain in heaven verse.

08:18
21 until.

08:20
The time of universal restoration or the restoration restitution of all.

08:26
Things.

08:27
That God announced long ago through his holy prophets. So this is the idea of restoration, which is my first point, the Kingdom of God is God's plan to restore our world back to the way it was originally. And one of the ways we can get at this is to compare Genesis. The 1st 2 chapters with Revelation. The last two chapters.

08:48
And when we do that, we see a lot of parallels. We see the Tree of life.

08:53
In Genesis 1 and 2 in Paradise, we see once again in Revelation 21 and 22, the Tree of Life is there. There's a river mentioned in both. There's all these precious stones mentioned in Genesis that are mentioned again in Revelation.

09:08
And we also find some differences. Whereas in Genesis there's a garden, in revelation there's a.

09:16
City.

09:17
So there is some development. It's not exactly the same. We're not going back to, in all likelihood, walking around naked in a garden, being told to fill the earth. I think we've filled it, you know, like at least by the time of the Kingdom, we will have filled the earth, right. But there is certainly a lot of comparisons there.

09:39
And some differences. So it's not. Here's my point. The the very beginning of the Bible and the very end of the Bible are reflections of each other. We have the beginning and the restoration of all things back to its paradisal state. So let's move on to my second point. So that's my first point of restoration. I think it's a really helpful way for you to think about the Kingdom of God.

10:00
Because look, our world is messed up. Our world is that broken down car in the junkyard right now. I don't know if you've looked around and noticed that I asked ChatGPT, who's a friend of mine to see what some.

10:15
Recent.

10:16
News headlines were because I haven't really been following the news too much the last few days. Been kind of busy, but alright, so here's here's a few highlights from just like the last few days of the news #1.

10:31
Severe geomagnetic storm hits Earth.

10:34
A mass ejection from the sun triggered severe geomagnetic storms over the weekend.

10:41
That sounds like a broken.

10:43
Solar system.

10:45
Right. Like why is it the sun attacking the earth? That doesn't seem right.

10:51
#2 Israeli strike on Gaza school kills over 100.

10:58
#3 Polar Bear kills worker in Canadian Arctic.

11:04
#4 multi day search for missing woman in Grand Canyon ends tragically.

11:10
They found her, but she was dead.

11:10
There.

11:13
Famine in Sudan worsens amid political instability. YouTube CEO Tech pioneer dies at 56. Unexpectedly Owl escapes zoo handler and gets attacked and killed by tiger. It seems like our world is broken. It's my point. All right? And I just have to look at the last few days.

11:33
To find sufficient evidence that there's just something wrong, each one of those news headlines strikes us. We're like, you know what?

11:40
That's not right, it should it be that way. Polar bears should not be killing people. And you know, if a zoo handler gets loses control of an owl for a second, a tiger shouldn't be swooping in. What kind of zoo is this? So we need, we need restoration. We need this hope. All right, so point #2 on the slide.

12:00
Is to look at the promises to Abraham. The story of Israel is all about the land. If you read the Old Testament, you'll see that it's all about the land. God made promises to Abraham over and over to give him the land we see in Genesis 13, verse 14.

12:19
It says the Lord said to Abram after Lot had separated from him. Raise your eyes now and look from the place where you are northward and southward and eastward and westward for all the land that you see. I will give to you into your offspring forever. You notice that in verse 15 it doesn't just say.

12:39
I will give to your offspring forever.

12:43
It says I will give to you and your offspring forever because you have to ask yourself the question, did Abraham ever inherit the?

12:51
Land.

12:54
He lived in it.

12:56
But he lived in it. How?

12:59
As a sojourner right, as a stranger, as an immigrant, as a foreigner kind of squatting, and you see this because he keeps telling everyone his wife is his sister because he feels threatened, and she's really good looking and we don't need to get into all the details about that. But like, it's not his own land. He's not really the big shot.

13:20
In the land of Canaan, and he's fairly insecure until he grows and grows in strength. And then.

13:27
At one point, he like, takes on a bunch of kings, which is crazy. But even when it came to Barry Sarah, he said I want to buy a piece of land.

13:38
Just to bury my wife. But that's it. Like he didn't own any other land.

13:44
It says in verse 16 here I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth. So that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted. Rise up, walk through the length and the breadth of the land for I will give it to you.

13:59
That's the promise of God to give to Abraham and to his descendants the land. And these promises that God gave to Abraham is not just here. In Genesis 13, it's also in Genesis 12, also in Chapter 17, Chapter 15, Chapter 17, Chapter 22, God promises the land to Abraham and his descendants.

14:19
Over and over and over again. It's not subtle. We're not.

14:24
Squinting just to read between the lines here, this is a clear, important pattern of promises that God gives, and he also promises that land to Isaac. He affirms it to Jacob. He says it again to Joseph and Joseph when he dies in Egypt says.

14:43
Take my bones to the land. I'm dying here in Egypt. But I want you to take my bones to the land. When you go there. Don't bury me here permanently. I don't want to be here. My faith is that you are all going to get there. And I want you to bring my bones with you.

15:04
Which I think in the Book of Hebrews is picked up where they say yeah, Joseph was one a person of faith because he said that. And then you also have Moses in Exodus Chapter 6 we can look at that real quick here. It says in Exodus Chapter 6 verse 2 I tell you grant you're pretty good at those slides. I appreciate that.

15:24
He's he's doing a great job.

15:26
Exodus, Chapter 6, verse 2. God also spoke to Moses and said to him I am the Lord or I am Yahweh. This God's proper name. I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as God almighty, but by my name Yahweh. I did not make myself known to them. I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan.

15:46
The land in which they reside is also.

15:48
Means I have also heard the groaning of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians have enslaved, and I have remembered my covenant say therefore, to the Israelites, I am Yahweh, and I will free you from the burdens of the Egyptians and deliver you from slavery to them. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great.

16:08
Acts of judgment. I will take you as my people and I will be your God. You shall know that I am Yahweh your God, who has freed you from the burdens of the Egyptians. I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I will give it to you for possession.

16:26
I am Yahweh.

16:29
God, over and over promises to Moses. All of these different things, the goal of which is to enter the land. What drives God to do the 10 plagues to bring them through the Red Sea.

16:46
It's his promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to bring his descendants into the land.

16:52
And so in fact, that's what God does. God fulfills his promises. He brings those Israelites into the land under Joshua. They conquer the land. And if you're reading through the Bible for the first time, you're thinking to yourself.

17:07
The Book of judges is going to be amazing.

17:10
Because we've gone through all of this history and Joshua this great guy, you know, be strong and courageous. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he fights all these battles and he'll he'll portions of the land. You're just you're just thinking yourself judges is gonna be paradise. It's gonna be the best they're gonna live in the land. They're gonna be free. Everyone's gonna live righteously. They have the Torah.

17:30
It's going to be great.

17:32
And has said what is the book of judges?

17:35
A disaster.

17:37
It's like the swirling in the toilet when you flush. That's like the book of Judges, you know, this cycle of dysfunction that goes around and around and around where the people worship idols and then God lifts his protection and then some neighbor comes in and oppresses them.

17:57
And then the people complain, and God raises up a deliverer, a judge to save them, and then the people.

18:04
Go back to idols and then God lifts his hand and we just go around and around and around. And it is. It is such a disturbing book of the Bible to read. It's in my opinion, the most disturbing of all the books of the Bible to read, except for maybe lamentations, which is super, super sad. But the book of judges contains some of the most horrific descriptions.

18:25
Of human evil in the entire Bible.

18:29
It's shocking. And you?

18:30
Hear in the book of judges.

18:31
This this refrain.

18:33
There was no king in those days. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

18:39
Like everything's leading to this moment where they enter the land, but they enter the.

18:42
Land and it's a disaster.

18:44
And then finally, they get a king and there's a golden age for the time of Saul, David and Solomon, you know, peeking with Solomon. But then it's a disaster again.

18:55
And the Israelites are like, what's going on here? What's going on? And So what did God do? Did God just say, well, those those people, they're just never going to learn? No. He sent them prophets.

19:08
Year after year after decade after century, he sent them profits and those profits gave him promises. We're gonna look at that in just a minute. But I want to show you a couple of verses about Abraham. First acts, Chapter 7, verse 5.

19:21
Says he did not give him God did not give Abraham any of it, of the land as a heritage, not even a foot's length, but promised to give it to him as his possession and to his descendants after him, even though he had no child.

19:40
So this is the book of acts looking back on Genesis saying look, Abraham didn't get the.

19:45
End.

19:46
And then we see in Romans chapter 4, verse 13, another key verse about Abraham. It says for the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. And So what we see is that God promised the land to Abraham and to his descendants. But Abraham didn't actually inherit the land.

20:08
So we have a major.

20:10
Hole in the plot. If we could put it that way where it's like somehow.

20:16
Well, God's not a liar. Somehow he's got to make good on this.

20:21
How is that gonna happen?

20:23
Well, if you could bring somebody back to life.

20:28
Unkill someone bring somebody back to life?

20:31
You could put them back in the land and give them the land. That'll that'll. And that's actually the resolution that the Bible gets to.

20:37
It's like resurrection. That's how it's going to work. That's how Abraham will inherit the land. You take resurrection out of the Bible and you just have a big hole of a promise that God never fulfills. Alright, let's look at some of these prophecies. There are many prophecies in the in the Hebrew prophets to look at. I cover some in the in the book Kingdom journey but.

20:58
With you, we have limited time tonight, so I just want to look at 2:00.

21:02
Isaiah 11, and Micah Chapter 4. Just two.

21:07
And we'll look at Isaiah 11 verses one through 9 and then Mike of four, one through 7 and they're just too long for me to put on the slides. So you're going to have to use your own Bible, Isaiah Chapter 11.

21:18
So Isaiah prophecies to a series of kings and to those kings he gives them a vision of what God plans to do in the future. And Isaiah 11 is one of the most beautiful visions I want to read it to you. It says. And Isaiah 11 verse one.

21:34
A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.

21:41
That's talking about.

21:44
Jesse, who was the father of David the Great King. So this is some descendant, the tree of Jesse has been cut down. It's a stump.

21:55
But even a stump can give life to a shoot that will come out of it. And that's talking about hope for the future. Some ruler, verse 2, the spirit of the Lord, or the spirit of Yahweh shall rest on him. The spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel, and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. Man. I'd vote for that guy.

22:16
That sounds pretty good. Somebody that has the spirit of wisdom and knowledge and understanding and actually fears God, you know, these are all great qualities to have in a leader, wouldn't you?

22:26
Say.

22:28
Verse 3 his delight shall be in the fear of Yahweh. He shall not judge by what his eyes see or decide by what his ears hear, but with righteousness he shall judge for the poor and decide with equity for the oppressed of the earth.

22:45
This sounds like somebody that really would actually.

22:49
Lead well.

22:50
And figure things out because so many of our problems is that our eyes deceive us and our ears make us believe things that aren't true.

23:02
And so this person is going to have the spirit of God in him to such a degree that he will be able to make decisions based on what God is informing him rather than what his eyes see, and his ears hear.

23:14
Well, it says in verse 4, but with righteousness he shall judge for the poor and decide for equity the oppressed of the Earth. He's going to bring righteousness and justice. He shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist and faithfulness the belt around his loins.

23:34
That's who we're looking for to rule in the Kingdom of God.

23:40
This is this is the person. This is what the world needs. Our world needs a leader that's like this.

23:48
Later on, people are going to use the word Messiah to describe this person mentioned in Isaiah 11. It says in verse 6 when the Messiah rules that the wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion will feed together.

24:08
And a little child shall lead.

24:10
Them.

24:11
The cow and the bear shall graze their young, shall lie down together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the whole of the ASP and the wean child shall put its head on the adders den. They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain. The Earth will be full of the knowledge of Yahweh as the waters.

24:32
Cover the sea.

24:34
That's.

24:35
What we look forward to, that's the Kingdom of God. That's the vision for the future. It's where animals are not hurting each other. They're not attacking people either.

24:47
Imagine for a moment an age of peace, of Shalom so.

24:53
Powerful so deep that you would allow.

24:58
A2 year old a toddler.

25:01
To play with the poisonous snake.

25:05
That's the level of peace we're talking about here.

25:08
Where there's just no harming occurring anymore.

25:14
Then we go to Micah Chapter 4 to look at another prophecy.

25:19
Where it talks about this Kingdom age and there are many others, but I just want to read to you, Micah Chapter 4 verses one through 7.

25:28
There's a very similar version of this in Isaiah too.

25:30
For the record, but.

25:32
You know what exercise would that give your fingers just to go to from 11:00 to 2:00, when I could bring you over to Micah?

25:39
Micah Chapter 4 in days to come, the mountain of the Lord's temples shall be established as the highest of the mountains and shall be raised up above the hills.

25:49
People shall stream to it.

25:52
And many nations shall come and say, come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the House of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways, and that he we may walk in his paths for out of Zion shall go forth, and so.

26:04
Production and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. So this is the counterpart. On the one hand, Isaiah 11 prophecies about a competent leader who's going to make just and righteous decisions based on the spirit of God rather than just the facts that he can gather. And then on the flip side, and Michael, we're seeing that the nations are actually going.

26:25
To the City of God, to Jerusalem, to Zion, and their humble and and hungry to learn the instruction of the Lord.

26:37
He shall judge verse 3 between many peoples and shall arbitrate between strong nations far away. They shall beat their swords into Plowshares, and their Spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more, but they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees.

26:57
And no one shall make them afraid for the mouth of the Lord of hosts hath spoken for all the peoples. Walk each in the name of its God, but we will walk in the name of Yahweh our God, forever and ever.

27:10
What a beautiful picture. A time when people are at peace with each other. When weapons of war are melted down for tools of agriculture. When there's no longer a need even to train for war.

27:26
And.

27:28
You have people that are able to farm that are able to build and they're not worried about people taking their stuff.

27:36
Which I know as Americans, we don't. We haven't worried about that, right. But in the history of the world, a lot of times that happened. You would build a nice house and then your village would get attacked. And now somebody else with a bigger weapon and and a gang of guys that could beat up you and your friends, they could take your stuff.

27:56
This happens on the national level, even in our world today, it's happening in Ukraine right now. Can we agree on that that, you know, there are people there that have built and now there's their things are destroyed because of that war?

28:07
So it says in verse 4 they will all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees, and no one shall make them afraid. That's beautiful. Verse 6 on that day says the Lord, I will assemble the lame and gather those who have been driven away and those whom I have afflicted. The lame. I will make the remnant and those who were cast off a strong nation.

28:27
And Yahweh will reign over them in Mount Zion, now and forevermore. Sometimes we think about those who have disabilities.

28:37
And the difficulties and struggles that life is for someone that is struggling with the disability of whatever kind.

28:46
And to see that God has plans to bring these people close in the Kingdom age, to me is just so beautiful that the lame and the outcast, those who are afflicted, that he's these people that are cast off, he's going to make them into a strong nation and he's going to reign over them.

29:02
In Mount Zion and forevermore, I just love that. I just love that.

29:07
Anyone who has a family member or or a loved one or a close friend that you know struggles with a physical or mental disability, understands you know that that it does break our hearts to see somebody struggle and that a big part of the Kingdom message is that restoration is not just going to happen to the world, but to people as well.

29:28
That people will be healed and people will be able to, you know, it says the lame will leap like the deer in another place if you ever seen a deer leap.

29:37
A deer can leap over a fence. Most of us can't leap over a fence. I mean, maybe a couple of us, but a deer? Just.

29:46
Right over a fence. Right. Just a beautiful image of restoration. So summarizing.

29:53
We're looking at a just ruler. We're looking at peace between animals. We're looking at a a restored world where there is peace between humans as well. There's justice in the government. The nations are seeking to learn all of this and we don't really have time to look at these other ones. But I have a a list of some other prophecies.

30:14
For you and Jeremiah 23, it talks about how God is going to raise up for David, a righteous branch, to reign in Amos Chapter 9. One of my favorites. It talks about abundance and prosperity that the person who is plowing will tell those who are harvesting. Hey, get out of the way. I got to plow for next season.

30:34
They're still harvesting that late into the season and Ezekiel talks about God opening the graves and raising these people from the dead. And Daniel talks about how the Kingdom is going to be global and permanent in Daniel seven, that the son of man is going to have authority to rule over all nations forever.

30:54
Throughout the Old Testament, they never used the word Kingdom of God.

30:59
Not once.

31:01
Search it yourself if you don't believe me.

31:03
If you type in Kingdom of God, you will never find it in the Old Testament. But I'm convinced the idea is throughout.

31:09
Even if the terminology is not there, we don't get this even just the word Kingdom until we get to the book of Daniel either.

31:18
But.

31:19
That's what they're talking about. They call it the day of the Lord, they say. In the last days, they'll use other words to describe it.

31:26
And it's describing this golden age in the end. Let's go to the New Testament.

31:33
Of course, Jesus came on the scene preaching the Kingdom of God. That was literally what he called his message, he said. I call my message the message about the Kingdom of God we read in Matthew 423 that Jesus went throughout all Galilee teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news or the Gospel of the Kingdom.

31:53
And curing every disease and every sickness among the people.

31:57
If you ask Jesus.

32:00
What do you do for a living? If you ask Jesus that question, what? What would he say? You could say a lot of things, right? I think Matthew 423 is a good summary of what Jesus would say. He said, well, I'm. I'm teaching in the synagogues.

32:13
I'm proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom. I'm curing every disease and sickness. That's what I'm doing. That's what Jesus thinks he's doing. We think he might be doing something else, but that's what he thinks he's doing. And this phrase, good news of the Kingdom.

32:29
I'll be honest, it frustrates me it really does. Translators will sometimes do this when they see it's the gospel about the Kingdom. They'll translate it as good news. And then in in Paul's epistles when it's talking about how Jesus died for our sins, they'll they'll translate it gospel because the gospel is that Jesus died for our sins.

32:49
And they don't want the Kingdom to be part of the gospel, so they'll call that the good news to kind of water it down, I think. Look, it's not just good news like, hey.

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OK.

32:59
I have a good deal on your extended warranty for your car. Actually, that's not good news either. When you get that call, they stopped doing that. Have you has anybody gotten that call in a while? Was that like a year or so where they just like calling everybody? Probably one company just like went nuts, big call center, I bet. Anyhow, that's not good news. We're talking about the gospel message.

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It is good news, but it is it's it's also the message of salvation. It's so much bigger than just something that's positive in a generic sense. Matthew 935 shows us that Jesus.

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Even 5 chapters later is still preaching the same message, still doing the same things. Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom or the Gospel of the Kingdom, and curing every disease and every sickness. So Jesus was a Kingdom preacher. He evangelized the Kingdom of God. That's what he.

33:53
Was doing and as we'll see tomorrow, his miracles integrated with that. His miracles weren't just sort of like random acts of compassion or parlor tricks to impress people so that they would believe in him. His miracles were Kingdom events as well. We'll see that too.

34:08
Tomorrow.

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But Jesus ran a Kingdom saturated ministry. All his parable may not all, but many of his parables are about the Kingdom of God. I've got a list for you on the next slide here. The Sower in the seed is about.

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Responding to the word or the message of the Kingdom that tears in the wheat, that parable is about the sifting judgment. When the Kingdom comes.

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The parable of the mustard Seed is about how the Kingdom grows. The leaven is about how the Kingdom spreads. The parable of the treasure in the field is the about the kingdom's value. The Pearl of great price. Same thing, the parable about the 10 virgins is about being ready for the Kingdom, and the parable of the talents is about using your talents in light of the coming Kingdom and the rewards that will be.

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And then the parable of the sheep and the goats is about judging the nations on how they treated Christians. When the Kingdom arrives that in the end there is going to be a reckoning for how people treated us, because how they treat us is how they treat Jesus.

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Jesus promise the Kingdom to the poor, the hungry, the weeping, the hated and persecuted. He promised the Kingdom to the poor, his spirit the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, his sheep, and all who take up their crosses.

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Jesus taught us to pray your Kingdom come. Your will be done on Earth as it is in heaven if his Kingdom.

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We're here in its totality as we read about in these profits.

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You would not be worried about a little child.

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Playing with the tiger.

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Is anyone worried about a little child playing with the tiger that literally just killed an owl in the news? Yes, you should not let your little child play with the tiger today. Jesus has accomplished so much, but there's still so much more yet to come in the age to come when everything wrong with the world is made right. Peter talks about the Kingdom of God.

36:07
James talks about the Kingdom of God and Paul talks about the Kingdom of God. Paul is a Kingdom, a preacher. He preaches about the Kingdom of God. We don't really have the time to to look at everything in the New Testament about the.

36:21
Kingdom.

36:22
Tonight.

36:24
But.

36:25
You know, suffice it to say, there's lots of verses about the Kingdom of God throughout the New Testament. And of course, the finale comes it with the last book of the Bible, where it says that God will wipe away the tears from our faces and that there will be no sickness. There will be no more suffering and that he will dwell with us in a renewed world forever.

36:46
Now, just by way of conclusion, I realized that a lot of.

36:50
Christians will use the phrase new heavens and new Earth, and I think that phrase could be problematic because if you mean by that phrase that God has destroyed planet Earth and created a different planet.

37:06
And it's same spot in the orbit around the sun. I don't know what the thought is there, but if God has destroyed planet Earth and he and he creates a new planet.

37:16
I I don't think that's biblical.

37:19
I don't think that's biblical, and so when we read the phrase, new heavens and new Earth, and this is in one of the appendices of Kingdom journey, but what is really talking about there is renewed heaven, renewed earth and ancient people did not think of our planet as a planet.

37:38
They just did it. If I say to you close your eyes and picture earth, you're all going to think of the same picture taken on one of the Apollo.

37:45
Missions called the blue.

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Marble.

37:47
What?

37:47
Where it's all black and then you have the the.

37:50
The circle of the earth. That's what. That's because that's our cosmology. That's how.

37:54
Many perceive of of the Earth. If you ask an ancient person to picture the earth, they're probably going to picture a field of corn or wheat.

38:02
Because that's earth, that's land. And if you say picture heaven, they're probably picturing the blue sky because the heavens and the earth is the sky and the land for them as opposed to another dimension of reality and a globe for us, they're just not thinking in those categories. So when it says New Sky and New Land or new heavens and new Earth.

38:24
What is talking about is something that has been renewed. That's what happens after you.

38:30
Store you take something old, you take something broken, you take something worn out and you make it new and then it's new.

38:40
So I think that's what it's talking about. New heavens and new Earth. It's not talking about destroying the planet. If you want to read about the second Peter 3 fire, I'd be happy to talk to you about that during the Q.

38:50
And A tomorrow.

38:52
Or I have it in one of the appendices?

38:54
Of my book.

38:56
Well, I was. I was writing the book and and I was like, you know, I really want to have.

39:00
A story at the beginning of each chapter because I've just read too many boring theology books myself over the years, and it's just like such a slog to get through them. And I was like, I don't want to have a book where, like, people buy it, and then it's just on the shelf I want. I I want to like people actually read it, and I only had so many stories from my life. OK, so then I'm like.

39:18
Right.

39:20
But.

39:21
There are all these other issues and people are going to be asking these questions. I'm like, I'll just makes. I'll make some appendices. So like half the book is appendices or appendix is I guess they change what we're supposed to say on that. Putting this all together, the Kingdom of God is when God will establish his rule on the earth and makes sense, right?

39:41
The Kingdom of God, the reign of God, the Kingdom of God is when God establishes his rule on the earth. We're going to talk tomorrow about how he's already beginning to.

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Do that in the church.

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Already in our hearts and in our lives and in our interactions in the big sense that the cosmic sense, the consummation of all of time and history, is that God's reign would pervade the earth to such a degree that the waters cover the sea. It's a beautiful expression, with red and Isaiah.

40:11
And he's going to do that through the son of David, who's going to bring lasting justice and peace and prosperity and abundance for his resurrected people. That's the Kingdom of God.

40:23
And I love Victor Dawkins phrase the time when God makes everything wrong with the world's rights. It's a simple way to put it, but I think it's really comprehensive. So this is the Kingdom according to the Bible. Next time we're going to look at.

40:37
The topic Kingdom allegiance. So we're going to consider in what ways is the Kingdom present?

40:44
In the church today, and was it present in the Ministry of Christ as well? So we'll do that next time.

40:57
Well, that brings this message to a close. What did you think? Come on over to restitutio.org and find episode 564 defining the Kingdom and leave your feedback there. Someone named Brandon wrote in on last week's episode defining heaven and said I was pretty sure that I had a document where I recorded every instance where the NIV.

41:17
This translated heaven.

41:19
But now I can't find that document. What I remember from doing that exercise, however, is that the NIV is really biased in the way it renders heaven. They add or remove the definite article change singular to plural and vice versa, sometimes do both of those at once, or they change it to sky or.

41:39
There.

41:40
There.

41:41
It was evident to me that in every instance where they changed it, the purpose was to point the reader toward traditional beliefs and doctrines of heaven.

41:51
Well, Brandon, honestly, that doesn't surprise me in the least. The NIV's translation philosophy is to use a method sometimes called thought for.

42:00
Not or dynamic equivalents where they are going to read the text in its original language, they're going to think about what it means to them and then express that same idea in the English language. And the problem with this strategy of translation is that it.

42:21
Injects quite intentionally interpretation into the translation, much more than just translating word for word or a literal translation would do.

42:32
So that's the downside. The upside is the translation is much more readable, much easier to understand, doesn't really require much exegesis because it already says what it's supposed to say according to the committees. Doctrinal commitments that they have a prior I to their translation project. So thanks for pointing that out.

42:52
It's funny in the lecture that we just heard here.

42:55
Sure.

42:56
I was asking the audience to hear their translations of a particular verse, and somebody in the audience offered a translation from the message, and I had a little fun back and forth with him. But, you know, I did want to read out the translation of the message for Matthew 55. I think it well.

43:16
Illustrates. Just like the insanity that can happen when.

43:20
In translators claim to be going thought for thought and just blatantly injecting their theological bias. Of course Matthew 55 reads in most translations. Blessed are the meek or blessed are the gentle they shall inherit the earth. However, in the message we read, you're blessed when you're content with just who you are.

43:42
No more, no less. That's the moment you find yourselves proud. Owners of everything that can't be bought. Yeah. Question. What in the world is that talking about? It doesn't sound like inheriting the earth.

43:56
I love that old Dietrich Bonhoeffer quote from his book, cost of discipleship, where he says.

44:02
The meek show by every word and gesture that they do not belong to this earth. Leave heaven to them, says the world. And its pity that is where they belong. But Jesus says they shall inherit the earth to these the powerless and the disenfranchised. The very earth belongs.

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Those who now possess it by violence and injustice shall lose it, and those who have utterly renounced it, who were meek to the point of the cross, shall rule the.

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New.

44:30
Earth God does not forsake the earth. He made it. He sent his son to it, and on it he built his church. That's page 110 from his Costa discipleship book.

44:41
I just love that it just gets me so amped up every time I read it that Jesus is promising to the meek. The last people who would ever take possession of.

44:49
The earth to inherit the earth and that is the reversal of fortunes that we see in the Kingdom of God age when everything wrong with the world is made right. But thanks for writing it, Brandon, and pointing that out about the in IV.

45:06
I got another comment in on restitutio.org for Part 1 of this series, which is why should you care? And this is from Philip who says Sean, I first want to thank you for your teachings that have helped me. Now I must warn you about the coming judgment.

45:24
You are asking for and accepting money for your teachings. This is wrong in the eyes of our father. Please take a moment to reflect on this in prayer to our father. You have received freely, so shall you give freely. You know how to identify a false teacher. Any one who seeks compensation for his teachings.

45:44
Is not a prophet of God.

45:48
Well, Phillip, I have quite a few thoughts about this accusation. Slash judgment, you say that I'm asking for and accepting money for my teachings. I'm going to just say yes, I am. I am. And people are giving, and people have been giving since I started.

46:07
I would.

46:08
Since I made it known that giving was available and went through the laborious task of getting registered as a corporation with the United States Federal Government and registered as a non profit as a 501C3 and all the other legal requirements to get that done years back so that people could.

46:27
Contribute and help to carry the load. I had paid for restitutio myself for several years. I don't honestly remember when I made the change. It was a few years ago.

46:40
And so it's been a great blessing to have restitutio having its own money and being able to cover the expenses that are just involved in a ministry where there is equipment where there are monthly recurring charges for hosting and for other online services that are more or less required to.

47:00
Just do the work week in and week out.

47:03
And also for travel expenses, because I do travel and when I do, I typically if it's possible, we'll record what I'm saying. In fact, this very lecture here was something I recorded on the road and sometimes with travel opportunities you are compensated.

47:23
And sometimes you're not. It depends on what it is and what's going on. So having the the money there is really helpful for that. I wanna say two other quick things because I don't really talk about how this ministry spends the money.

47:38
But I figured this is a good opportunity to mention it. Then I'll loop back in to respond to what else Phillip has said here in his comment. One other thing that Restitutio has done over the years is support individuals who are in financial need. This is not something done all the time, but there are at least two instances I can think of off the top of my head.

47:58
Where multiple thousands of.

48:00
Dollars were given to people in need and in one case it was for a vehicle where somebody, a brother in Christ, who is not part of my church, not part of our local area at all, but just a listener online, had had written in and made a request.

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For some financial assistance, not not to rest studio specifically, but it was something where I was confident that the person was legitimate. It wasn't a con or anything like that, and it was something that.

48:33
We could reasonably do so. We helped him fix his minivan for his family, and then the other case it was to contribute funds for someone to go to seminary to study Christianity and New Testament studies. So those are both other uses of the money other than what I've already said with monthly recurring charges and travel.

48:53
And then the last would be of course marketing and other ways of getting the message out there, which honestly haven't done much with over the years. But I would really like to and.

49:04
Future I've tried a couple of things. I bought a Spotify ad once and that didn't really. I didn't put a lot of money into it, but it didn't really do much. I've done a couple of Facebook ads which did OK, but you know I have very limited time to pioneer a marketing wing of restitutio. If any of you, however, would like to volunteer and help with that.

49:25
I would certainly appreciate it because I would love to get more listeners on the show and more people interacting with the content that we're putting out here. So right in, if you are interested in helping with that or if you know of a.

49:43
Low cost firm that we could that we could hire and one last thing is that Phillip said you have received freely, so you shall give freely that kind of rankles me because we do give this freely. Like there are so many podcasts that have a paywall where they'll give you.

50:01
Content if you're a Patreon supporter and I I don't honestly have any problem with that like I get it, that's what they're doing. That's how they're trying to raise.

50:09
Money. I just.

50:11
We don't see that as being a strategy for me right now and for this.

50:16
History. I'd rather just give it all away for free, and so I don't really appreciate Philip rebuking me, saying that I'm not doing that. He says you have received freely, so you shall give for it. It's like, well, Philip, that's what we're that's what we're doing. What are you talking about?

50:31
We are receiving freely and we are giving freely, and so I'm not really sure what's going on with that. As far as my compensation goes, this is probably going into too much detail, but hey, I do. I do tend towards transparency on stuff like this and so if I over share just just let me know. I have never honestly received a dime from my studio.

50:52
Personally, just.

50:54
Have not really felt that enough was coming in to justify a salary of any kind. I'm already employed by Living Hope International ministries. They pay my salary, you know. Although rest studio is really great for a lot of expenses associated with the podcast and research projects, that's the other thing I forgot to mention is that.

51:16
When I'm embarking on a research project a lot of times I will need to buy lots of books or get access to digital resources that do cost significant amount of money. So that's that's another stream where the money goes.

51:29
But.

51:31
Yeah, I've. I've never taken any. My wife has encouraged me that I should take a salary, but I don't know. I just feel weird about it. So I haven't. I haven't done it yet at this time. So, Phillip, you know, saying that I'm, like, getting paid for this. Like, I'm literally not getting paid. I've never.

51:50
I've gotten even a dime from restitutio to just like transfer to my bank account and use however I want so.

51:58
That was probably too much information, but hey, I always say the truth has nothing to fear. So now you know, if you want to support rest studio. Thanks for supporting rest studio. It does. It does help a lot if you want to support living Hope International Ministries, which actually does pay my salary. That would be awesome too. And I appreciate all those who do that. The reason why I have.

52:19
Both online presences living Hope International Ministries as well as rest studio, is that living Open International Ministries is a network of churches and home fellowships and individuals all around the world. There are lots of people that are part of living Hope International ministries and it's it's a fairly significant as far as.

52:40
What living hope is able to do around the world? Just this year we're sponsoring through living Hope International Ministries, over 100 kids to get educated in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. So that works out to over $50,000 like just this year.

52:56
In previous years, we've built churches in different places. We're supporting a church plant currently in Kentucky, so living hope is just a much bigger organization. It's got a lot going on, a lot of different.

53:07
Individuals and their staff and and so forth. Whereas rest studio is just my it's just my personal ministry and so long as I'm the president of Living Hope International ministries are employed by Living Hope International Ministries in some sort of capacity. I'm going to continue to promote living.

53:26
Stuff. But when I retire or move to something else, who knows? I don't have any plans to do that, but at some point it's going to happen. I would still have rest of studio with me. I have put out this podcast literally every week for eight years straight.

53:44
I think, Oh no, nine years straight. Uh, coming up on 9 year, that next month it will be 9 years.

53:49
Straight and I don't miss a week. I've done it 52 weeks or more each year since then. I'm over 560 episodes end, so obviously this is like a passion of mine. I like doing it, I enjoy it. I'm glad to keep doing it so long as I can. Obviously that's not going to be forever.

54:10
But so long as I have the availability to do it and the funding and the time and and everything else, I definitely want to continue. So that's probably way more than you wanted to hear. But let me come back to Philip's comment.

54:21
He says you have received freely, so you shall give freely. Well, I think we can check that one off. As I mentioned. Then he says, you know how to identify a false teacher. Anyone who seeks compensation for his teachings is not a prophet of God. Well, look, man, I'm not seeking compensation for teachings. It's not like I'm like, hey, pay me 50 bucks and I'll give you this teaching.

54:42
That's.

54:43
And I honestly, I wouldn't even have a.

54:44
Problem with those who do.

54:46
That who sell.

54:48
DVD's or digital videos or however it's done.

54:52
Days.

54:54
But I'm not even doing that either. It's literally just giving out for free, and if people want to support it, they can. They can support it, and that's just as simple as it is now. I want to turn the tables on, fill up and ask fill up. Where are you getting this anti?

55:08
Pay teachers rhetoric because first Corinthians 9 is very clear the apostle Paul.

55:15
Says in no uncertain terms, making a lengthy rhetorically polished argument that ministers of the gospel should receive compensation for their work, just like the ox should receive compensation. You don't muzzle the ox when it's threshing the wheat, just like soldiers, just like farmers.

55:36
This is just a universal thing in any field that people that work get paid for the work that they do, and also if we look at the Old Testament, look at the pattern there, not that we're under the Levitical priesthood today. But if we look at the pattern there, the priesthood was and the Levites were supported by the people.

55:56
Who gave freely so.

55:58
I think this is a standard biblical pattern and I just don't know of any verses. I mean, maybe it's just something really obvious that I'm not thinking of. I don't really know of any verses that say you should not receive any money there. The only thing I can think of Phillip, just while I'm on this thought is in the decay and the decay, of course, is not authoritative.

56:19
For Christians, because it's not in the Bible, but it is a very, very early post New Testament document, or contemporaneous, even with some parts of the New Testament document. And it talks about how to spot a false prophet or a false apostle as somebody that's asking for.

56:36
Money. And yeah, I think in the climate of that time, that was the way that they had to figure it out. Now, the people that were staying there and living there and pastoring the people, they were getting paid. This is talking about traveling people that you didn't know anything about.

56:56
And you couldn't be sure if they were legit or if they were con.

57:00
And and so you had to have some sort of rule by which you could protect and you know, they did give them compensation they did for like one or two or three days worth or like some, like, certainly housing meals and then enough for a couple of days travel or something like that if you, if I recall correctly, those of you who have read the dedicate, know what I'm talking about.

57:22
So even on that, Philip would be incorrect and that's not really where I'm coming from. I'm not some rando I'm established. I've been serving as a pastor for 19 years, full time in ministry and.

57:38
With the Internet these days, you can check people.

57:40
Out.

57:40
You can check people out, you can see you can find out. I mean, obviously there's still lots of fakers and false teachers and so forth that are just doing it for the money or whatever. But like I already said, I'm literally never taking a dime from rest studio so.

57:57
Thanks everybody for listening. That was kind of a weird rabbit trail, but hey, why shouldn't you be rewarded for listening all the way to the end, right? We'll catch you next week where we're going to do the next part and look at how the Kingdom is present in the Ministry of Jesus in particular. And then by extension, in our world today.

58:16
If you'd like to contribute, you can do that at restitutio.org. We have monthly option for people that want to contribute a little bit monthly or one time option for those who want to give a one time gift. And of course, that's all tax deductible. We send you a receipt by e-mail in January of each year.

58:36
And this way you can use it for your taxes if you would like to.

58:39
That's going to be it for me. We'll catch you next week and remember the truth.

58:44
Has nothing to fear.