This is the transcript of Restitutio episode 565: Kingdom Seminar 4: Kingdom Allegiance 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
Jesus didn't just believe in a future Kingdom that didn't affect the present. His entire ministry was saturated with Kingdom symbology and activity wherever he went. He brought a bubble of the Kingdom with him as Christ followers. We too are called to prophecy the Kingdom and how we live. This should include adopting the kingdom's.

00:32
Culture, as well as pledging allegiance to the Kingdom.

00:36
Here now is Episode 565, part four of our Kingdom seminar Kingdom allegiance.

00:50
I want to present really three different subjects, so my outline is to talk about the Kingdom as a present reality.

01:00
Primarily by looking at the Ministry of Jesus.

01:03
And then.

01:04
And.

01:05
Thinking about how the idea of a Kingdom is also a political reality, and then finally talking about allegiance, which is what Jesus wants from you. Remember those old Uncle Sam posters? Uncle Sam wants you. Uncle Sam actually was born right near where I live. He was born in the city of Troy.

01:25
I went to college, so he's a real person. We have a statue of him, which means he must be.

01:29
Israel. Yeah. Uncle Sam is irrelevant to this, but Jesus wants you to pledge allegiance to him. OK, so there you have it. So we're going to start right now with looking at the Kingdom as a present reality. And I want to do this by looking at an incident in Luke Chapter 7 when John the Baptist sent some emissaries.

01:49
To.

01:51
Discern if Jesus was really the Messiah, and earlier on I think John was pretty convinced when he saw the spirit descending like a dove. But later on, after he had been in jail, John sent some people just to just to be sure. I guess I'm. I'm not sure exactly what his motive was.

02:11
But we read in Luke 7/18.

02:14
The disciples of John reported all these things to him, so John summoned two of his disciples and sent them to the Lord to ask, are you the one who is to come, or are we to expect someone else?

02:29
Asked the question they asked him.

02:31
Verse 20 when the men had come to him, they said John the Baptist has sent us to ask you, are you the one who is to come, or are we to expect someone else?

02:45
Jesus had just then cured many people of diseases, afflictions and evil spirits and had given sight to many who were.

02:52
Mind. And he answered them. Go and tell John what you have seen and heard the blind receive their sight. The lame walk. Those with the skin disease are cleansed. The deaf here the dead are raised. The poor have good news brought to them and blessed is anyone who takes no offence.

03:12
Let me.

03:14
Now you might not have recognized Jesus's masterfully coded response.

03:22
But if you have.

03:25
A new American standard Bible, whether from the 70's, the 90s or the twenty 20s.

03:31
You will see in that version they capitalize when there's a quotation from the Old Testament.

03:37
And what Jesus has just done here is interwoven 3 Old Testament prophecies that he's braided together and sent right back to those questioning emissaries as an answer to their question. Jesus not only quoted from Isaiah 35, which picture?

03:56
There's a future world where the desert blossoms and the water flows, but also where the the lame leaped like the deer. That's from Isaiah 35, and the blind received their sight. That's Isaiah 35. He quotes from that. But he also quotes from Isaiah 61, which talks about how the poor will have the gospel preach to them.

04:17
And if you read Isaiah 35, which we won't take time to do tonight, and Isaiah 61, you'll see that both of these Isaiah prophecies are Kingdom prophecies.

04:29
Their prophecies about the age to come.

04:32
And Jesus is essentially saying to the questioners.

04:37
I'm doing this.

04:39
Now I'm doing this. Arguably, the third prophecy is from Isaiah 26, where it says the dead shall rise. So as Isaiah 2619 if for anyone taking notes. But once again, I'll read that verse verse 22, which says and he answered them. Go and tell John what you have seen and heard.

04:59
The blonde received their sight the lame.

05:01
Walk those with the skin disease are cleansed. The death here the dead are raised. The poor have the gospel preached to them. So this is Jesus saying to them. Look, I'm doing the Kingdom of God.

05:16
Now you could say, well, has the Kingdom of God come? No, obviously not. Pilots in charge of the region of Judea and Herod.

05:26
And to pass is in charge of the region of Galilee and who's in charge of all of them, Caesar and Rome. So yeah, that's not the Kingdom of God. The last time I.

05:36
Checked.

05:37
But yet Jesus is doing the Kingdom of God, and he's answering the question once again. The question was, are you the expected one or do we look for another one?

05:47
And Jesus's answer is yes. Look what I'm.

05:52
And so Jesus interpreted his own miracles, his own healing ministry in light of the Kingdom of God, because in the Kingdom of God there are not lame people, there are not deaf people. There are not blind people. So where Jesus went, there was a bubble of the Kingdom.

06:12
If someone wants to know what the Kingdom will be like all he or she needs to do is look at Jesus in action.

06:20
I wonder if you.

06:20
Can say that about your life.

06:25
Jesus's ministry gave people a taste of the coming Kingdom.

06:30
And in so doing, it authenticated his own messianic identity.

06:35
This is rather like asking someone in plain clothes if they are an orchestral conductor. A layman could not conduct even an an experienced ensemble, but even without an orchestra a competent conductor could still prove himself. He could explain music theory, rehearse techniques, and the challenges of performance.

06:55
He could play different parts on a piano, describe how they fit together.

07:00
He might not yet be in the proper setting to show his identity and all its glory, but he can give a taste of who he is and what he does.

07:09
Then it would be up to the questioner to decide whether or not to trust. If he really is who he says he is in New York, we have a lot of disparaging jokes and comments about people who live in New Jersey.

07:24
I don't know if there's something like that between South Carolina and North Carolina. Like Ohh, you know, if you're from North Carolina, if that's your contacts, my contacts. And look, I don't want to. If anybody from New Jersey hears this, I'm just gonna apologize up front. It's just a stereotype, but.

07:42
People from New Jersey are all rich and famous.

07:46
So they say.

07:48
And we're all like.

07:50
Do you really know Elon Musk? Because it said, I think that's what you just said and what they really know is like some guy named Elon who uses the shampoo called Musk or something. And he and they're just out on a limb trying to trade that in for reputation points or whatever. So anybody can say anything. But then you question them.

08:10
You test them be like. Alright. Well, where's Elon Musk? Really? From. And if they don't know South Africa, they don't know the guy. OK, he's got an accent because that's where he's.

08:20
And you ask questions. So it is if you met somebody that was conducting an orchestra, claims that they're doing that, you say, well, prove it to me. How?

08:27
Do I know?

08:29
You know, and then they get on the the piano over here and they play a little part. And they say, well, then the horns will come in and do this and then the strings will.

08:36
Do that and the tempting.

08:38
Doom, doom, doom, doom. Do you know the orchestra? Right? They could describe it.

08:43
Jesus is claiming to be the Messiah.

08:49
But the Kingdom is not yet here. So how do you know he's telling the truth? How do you know he's not just some con man?

08:58
Well, you look at what he does. Does his ministry.

09:03
Look like the Kingdom of God.

09:06
Smell like the Kingdom of God tastes like the Kingdom of God, and if so, then maybe he really is the Messiah.

09:13
And if not, then he's just another con man. Because you know what? They had plenty of people that were claiming this and claiming that there was a time when they arrested Paul and they're like, oh, we thought you were this other guy who claimed to be somebody you're not really him. Paul's like, no, man, I'm that's not me.

09:30
So Jesus has got to authenticate himself, and this is what Jesus did for John's disciples. He pointed to his messianic work to validate his claim of being the genuine Messiah, the one who had established God's Kingdom. Full disclosure, my wife is from New Jersey. I love people from New Jersey, OK?

09:47
OK.

09:48
Let's let's move on. Let's move on. Jesus saw his own miracles as evidence of the Kingdom. Did you catch that? Jesus saw his own miracles as evidence of the Kingdom. I think many of us look at the miracles of Jesus and we say, well, these are very impressive.

10:03
Wow. He fed the 5000 and then he he fed the 4000 and he healed the leper. And we say, wow, this is just acts of compassion, acts of awe. But look, it's not just that Jesus is claiming to be the king of the Kingdom. He's claiming to be the Messiah, the anointed one to rule the Kingdom of.

10:24
None.

10:25
So these miracles are supporting evidence for that claim.

10:30
Just like when presidents and prime Ministers and kings travel today, they surround themselves with a bubble of their home country.

10:40
There's no better illustration I could think of than the Saudi Arabians. They bring their clothes from home, they look like Saudi Arabians, you know, they they have the get up and the the white. What do you call that hooded thing? I don't even know what that's called. It's just sort of like a white hat.

10:59
But you know, in the in our context it looks like, wow, you.

11:01
Guys look really different.

11:03
So yeah, Saudi Arabians are are kind of famous for this. They bring their distinctive dress, they bring their culture with them when they go visit another country. This is what Jesus does. He brings the Kingdom culture. Let's go to the next slide. You know, Jesus is bringing that culture with him where he goes and where if I could put it this.

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Way where Jesus is from.

11:23
Is the future.

11:25
OK, don't take that too literally. But like, that's his culture. His culture is a time when everything wrong with the world's made right. When the deaf here, when the blind see, that's what his normal is. And so he's here now in Galilee, walking around and in Judea. And he's bringing that culture with him.

11:43
Wherever he goes.

11:46
Let me show you another verse about this in Matthew Chapter 12, verse 22. We read about his encounter. We were talking about this at the lunch today, so that's interesting. Matthew 1222 says. Then they brought to him a demon possessed man who was blind and mute.

12:04
That guy's having a bad day.

12:06
Demon possessed, blind and mute. Who and he cured him so that the one who had been mute could speak and see.

12:15
Verse 23. All the crowds were amazed and were saying can this be the son of David?

12:23
Isn't that fascinating? They saw an exorcism. They saw a healing and they said.

12:32
Are you the Messiah? Could he be the Messiah? That's what it means. Son of David. It doesn't just mean you you can trace your lineage back to David. It means specifically the son of David. The one that's destined in second Samuel, 714 to 16 to sit on the throne and rule over Israel forever. That son of David.

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That's what they're asking. So they saw Jesus to a miracle, and they made the connection Messiah.

13:00
But verse 24, when the Pharisees heard it, they said not Messiah. No, that's not what they said. They said it is only by Beelzebul, the ruler of demons, that this man cast out demons.

13:11
He knew verse 25 what they were thinking and said to them, every Kingdom divided against itself is laid waste and no city or house divided against itself will stand. If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his Kingdom stand if I cast out demons by beelzebul?

13:32
By whom do your own exorcist cast?

13:34
Out, therefore, they will be your judges. But this is the key part, verse 28. But if it is by the spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the Kingdom of God has come upon you.

13:49
Jesus is saying, look, if this is really the the genuine work of God, the spirit of God working in me to do this incredible miracle right in front of your faces, then the Kingdom of God has come upon you. I've just, I think of like a mic drop, you know where it's like, somebody makes a strong point and then they drop the mic and they walk away. Right. It's like Jesus has just dropped the Kingdom.

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On them and walked away like look.

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If this is a genuine thing, then this is the Kingdom of God coming upon you. Now Jesus is not literally saying that the Kingdom is here now in all of its fullness.

14:27
Once again, pilot is still the governor in Judea. Caesar is still on his throne in Rome, but in this situation this person who was broken and suffering, what did it say? They couldn't speak and they couldn't hear either. No. See they. They were blind and mute they couldn't see and they couldn't speak.

14:48
How terrible. How tragic.

14:50
This person experienced the Kingdom of God. What it's going to be like in the resurrection. In the resurrection, you're going to be able to see in the resurrection. You're not going to have a speech impediment or mutinous.

15:04
A word for this that I found in my studies that I think can help us describe it is the word proleptic.

15:12
This is a word that's not even in all the dictionaries. So let me define it for you. I don't expect that you've heard it before. I wanted to define it by looking at a quote by Lee Camp. Lee Camp is a Church of Christ scholar.

15:23
In Nashville, TN, who wrote a book called Mere Discipleship, and This is the quote from his book that I want to share with you, he says. And even though that coming EON remains yet in the future, there is in Jesus's life and ministry something occurring which embodies that future.

15:44
Coming rain. Did you catch that?

15:47
The Kingdom still in the future, but there's something about Jesus's ministry that embodies the future coming reign. The word proleptic is a helpful adjective here. Proleptic is that which represents or characterizes something in the future as having already occurred.

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Or already having been accomplished in the present?

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Jesus's life and ministry, and subsequently the life and Ministry of the Church. Thus Proleptically realizes that coming age in which the enemies of God will be entirely defeated.

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We might picture the overlapping of two eons of the new having broken into the old. The old still holds on to its pitiful existence, while the new is even now in our midst. Its triumph assured the eschaton. The end is even now in our midst.

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But not yet fully.

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So the Kingdom affects us now, and the Kingdom is available now in this anticipatory sense.

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Victor Gluckin put it this way, pastor in Rhode Island, he says. When people come out to interact with Christians, they should get a small taste of what it will be like in the Kingdom. It should be different than when they interact with people living for this age.

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The gathering of the church is an embassy for the Kingdom. When we are together, you sense the Kingdom spirit. When we leave, we are ambassadors for the king. This is the vision of the church.

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The church is the Kingdom citizens gathering together in anticipation of the ultimate coming of the king and the Kingdom.

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We gather together and we are claiming we have the audacity to think that we are the people for the future, that we are the people that God has called out of darkness, that he is preparing and working with, so that when the final day comes and Jesus returns.

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We're the ones that are going to be in this age to come.

18:10
And so if that's really true.

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Then prove it.

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By how you live, by how you treat each other.

18:21
There should be a difference. I agree with Victor Gluckin. There should be a difference between when somebody goes to some sort of secular. I don't know, club and when somebody comes.

18:33
To a church.

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In a church, they're supposed to experience the love of God. That doesn't make sense because you're not expecting anything in return.

18:45
Yeah, I loved that story you shared about my Uncle Jimmy.

18:48
He's been dead for a number of years. He would have people live with him one time. You can't make this stuff up. One time, my Uncle Jimmy came across a Madam, a lady who facilitated prostitution in her home as a business.

19:05
Uncle Jimmy would come across all kinds of people, and she came to our church and she's still doing this job and it's like.

19:15
But yet she's she's considering Christianity, you know? And and. And she's going to sit there and, you know, she didn't, like, solicit any of the ladies in the congregation. If that happened, we'd have to exercise some church discipline. But, you know, she was sitting there. She was curious. And she sat for years and and she and she quit. She quit doing the sex work. And all the all the other stuff and.

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She really changed her life.

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Just incredible things, because when people experience your love and your hearts that God has put there, it is transformative.

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All right, on to point #2, the Kingdom as a political reality.

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Here's my way into this point. Every Kingdom is political.

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That's just what the word Kingdom means. We get so used to hearing the phrase Kingdom of God or Messiah that we think to ourselves. Those are religious words. Those are spiritual terms that that's Bible terminology, and we forget that all kingdoms are political realities.

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And and there are kingdoms in our world right now. Here's a list of all the kingdoms in the world right now. We have absolute monarchies in Saudi Arabia.

20:32
Bruni, Eswatini, wherever that is in Oman and then we have these constitutional monarchies.

20:40
The first among them on the list here is the United Kingdom, which literally has a king.

20:47
It is called the United Kingdom.

20:50
That makes sense.

20:52
Spain, Japan, Thailand.

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Yeah, there's lots of. There's lots of kingdoms.

20:59
In our world today.

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Kingdoms are political. Jesus is our spiritual leader.

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Agreed. Jesus is your spiritual leader. OK, but he's also your political leader.

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In the ancient world, they did not separate church and state.

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Jesus is both claiming a spiritual role and a political role.

21:29
All we have to do is look to the cross to see the politics. They're literally written on the cross.

21:38
What was the sign above his head? John 1919, says pilot also had an inscription written and put on the cross. It read Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.

21:49
Here it is in some different languages, so we know from the Gospels it was written in Hebrew, in Greek and in Latin. So the first one there says Yeshua and Nazri Melech Haya Hudin.

22:05
Which is right to left? And then the other ones are left to right yesus and that's Oreos. Vasilev Stone, you theon. And then the bottom one. Yesus Nazarenus Rex deorum. And this one on the bottom. The 1st letter of each one is INRI.

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And so you see this a lot of times in art like in the picture above, they just put IN MRI on the top of the cross because just because like an art, you don't want to spell everything out, it would look awkward and that's what they said. But look at those words.

22:41
Well, those are not in English, but in in English it says Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews. That's what they wrote above his head, Jesus of Nazareth. That's his name and his location because there's lots of jesuses. So he's the Jesus from Nazareth and obscure small town. So that identifies the person.

23:00
And then after you identify the person, you say, what do you what what? What about him, king of the Jews? That's what they thought they were doing. They thought he was claiming to be king of the Jews.

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And that's why they wanted to crucify him, because nobody claims to be the king of anything without the Caesar, without the Emperor's express permission.

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Simple as that. It was very, very political and religious all at the same time. If you look at Jesus's ministry this way, you'll see this. Let's look at John chapter 19.

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John Chapter 19 says then pilot took Jesus and had him flogged and the soldiers wove a crown of thorns and put it on his head.

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And they dressed him in a purple robe.

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Why would you do that?

23:50
What a strange thing to do.

23:52
If you were just torturing somebody and wanted to inflict maximum pain or embarrassment or something like would you go through like the effort of making a little wreath of of thorns? It's just such a weird thing to do if you think.

24:04
Got it. But if you're, if you think he's claiming to be a king, it makes perfect sense, because now you make a crown that's a that's a parody of the crown that he would wear if he was a real king. And you put a purple robe on him as if he's a real king. And then what they do is they they kept coming. Verse three, they kept coming.

24:25
Up to him saying Hail, King of the Jews and striking him on the face.

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So in this incident, this is a very dark thing that's happening to our Lord. But if you look at it politically, it makes sense. Like they they see him as a political threat and they're responding in order to disprove that. Verse 4 pilot went out again and said to them, look, I've been bringing him out to you, that you know that I find no case against him. So Jesus came out wearing the.

24:52
Crown of Thorns and the purple.

24:53
No pilot said to them, behold the man's echo.

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When the chief priests and the police saw him, they shouted crucify him, crucify him, pilot said to them. Take them yourselves and crucify him. I find no case against him, the Jews answered him. We have a law and according to the law he ought to die because he has claimed to be.

25:17
The son of God, and if you read the New Testament, you'll see that the phrase son of God is another term for Messiah.

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Four son of David, 4. King of the Jews. These are all interchangeable titles throughout the New Testament.

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And they're saying he claimed to be the son of God, which to them is not just a religious thing, that God is his father. It's also a political title, and Pilate is totally weirded out by this. And he starts talking to Jesus like, where are you from, man? You know, like, why are you the son of it? Like, what does that even mean?

25:52
Verse 12, skipping down from then on, pilot tried to release him, but the Jews cried out. If you release this man, you are no friend of Caesar.

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Everyone who claims to be a king sets himself against Caesar.

26:10
That's the Trump card.

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That's it. You've outmaneuvered the governor. If you can accuse him to Caesar.

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He's going to do whatever you want.

26:23
Because that's the one thing he can't ever let happen is complaints going back home to Caesar that he's not being faithful to his king, his emperor, the Roman Caesar.

26:38
Verse 13 when pilot heard these words, he brought Jesus outside and sat on the judges bench at the place called the stone pavement or in Hebrew gabbatha.

26:46
Now it was the day of preparation of the Passover, and it was about noon, and he said to the Jews, here is your king. Verse 15. They cried out away with him away with him. Crucify him. Pilot asked them. Shall I crucify your king? The chief priest answered. We have no king but Caesar.

27:06
Chilling moment of betrayal for a Jewish person to say that at this time in history, it's just unbelievable.

27:15
We have no king but Caesar, but then verse 16. Then he handed him over to be crucified.

27:22
So all throughout the passion narrative, we see the politics at play and how they use the politics to force the hand of pilot because pilot really didn't see Jesus as deserving crucifixion. But in the end they said, look, if you don't do this, we're telling Caesar because this guy says he's a king.

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And you can't. You can't say you're a king unless Caesar says you're a king, and then you could say you're a king and that's it.

27:50
Let's look at acts chapter 17. Likewise on the mission field. When the apostles are preaching this same political side of the Kingdom of God comes up, and you better believe our forebearers the Christians of the 1st generation had no question that to follow Jesus.

28:09
Involve a political commitment.

28:15
Acts chapter 17, verse 2 and Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days argued with them from the scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Messiah to suffer and to rise from the dead and saying this is the Messiah Jesus whom I am proclaiming.

28:35
To you. So Paul's doing his thing, he's preaching. He's showing him a bunch of verses. He's like, look, I know we all believe the Messiah is going to rule and he's he's going to bring the Kingdom of God. But there's also these other scriptures that talk about how he's going to suffer and rise from the dead.

28:48
Is.

28:51
And so he's he's laying out his case and he's making the case to these Jews and and saying to them, look, you know, this Jesus really is the Messiah.

28:59
Verse 4. Some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks, and not a few of the leading women. But the Jews became jealous and with the help of some ruffians in the marketplaces, you can always find those ruffians in the marketplaces. You ever notice that?

29:18
I don't know what is the marketplace for us today. I don't even know is it some virtual?

29:22
Space.

29:23
Is it the metaverse? No. I think that tanked, right? The mall. Remember when the malls were the place to be like in the 90s? Ohh gosh. The mall was so great.

29:34
It's like the marketplace that's indoor and air conditioned and we'd all go as teenagers and we'd hang out and just look at the other teenagers walking by.

29:44
And not buy anything.

29:48
Yeah, I don't know where people go these days. Maybe it's the Dollar General or something, but the Jews became jealous and they grabbed these ruffians from the marketplaces, formed a mob, and set the city in an uproar while they were searching for Paul and Silas to bring them out to the assembly, they attacked Jason's house. Poor Jason, just standing there, catching strays verse 6 when they could not.

30:08
Behind him, they dragged Jason and some brothers and sisters before the city authorities.

30:13
Doubting these people who have been turning the world upside down have come here also, and Jason has entertained them as guests. They are acting contrary to the decrees of the emperor, saying that there is another king named Jesus.

30:30
Now, when the Christians talk about Jesus, they call him Messiah. They call him son of God. But when the Romans hear this in their heads, they always translate to king.

30:42
You notice that, like Jesus claims to be the Messiah to be the son of God and and pilots like you're. You're the king of the Jews are.

30:50
You are you, the king of the Jews.

30:53
Because the Romans are they, they interpret things through the grid of power, and I don't think they're wrong. I think he is the king.

31:01
And the early Christians get persecuted for allegiance to an unapproved king named Jesus.

31:11
Now I want to be clear that in first Peter Chapter 2 and in Romans Chapter 13, we as Christians are told to submit to the governing authorities and to pay our taxes. So if you leave here and you say, well, the pastor said, I'm just supposed to recognize Jesus as my political leader, I don't need to pay my taxes anymore. Then you have twisted my words.

31:31
OK.

31:32
You pay your taxes and you submit to the governing authorities, which includes the police.

31:38
And if if they tell you to wear a seat belt, you wear a seat, you know, if they tell you to go a certain speed, you know, we submit to the governing authorities. That's part of being a Christian.

31:47
But it's not primary.

31:50
And if our Lord says to do one thing and our government says to do another thing, guess what? We have a higher allegiance.

31:59
I love the example of Polycarb. Anybody ever heard of Polycarp? He lived in the 2nd century, about 100 years after Christ.

32:08
This is a historical situation that developed in the city of Smyrna, which is a modern day Turkey. It's actually in Izmir. If you ever go to Turkey, that's where Smyrna is. The government tracked him down and arrested him when he was already a very old man. He stood before the Roman Pro Council in the arena while a mob was calling for his blood.

32:28
Here is how the conversation went. This is from the martyrdom of Polycarp Chapter 9 and 10, the pro console.

32:34
Have respect for your age. Swear by the genius of Caesar. Repent, say away with the atheists.

32:43
It's funny, they called us atheists.

32:46
In the 2nd century, because we didn't believe in the gods.

32:50
So they call this. Is that a funny thing to like have as like part of our legacy? We were like the OG atheists because we didn't believe in all the statues and all their gods.

33:00
Stuff. And so Polycarp, instead of calling the Christians atheists, he pointed at the mob that was gathered in the stadium there, motioning toward the people in the stadium away with the atheists, the Pro Council said swear the oath, and I will release you, revile Christ Polycarp for 86 years, I have been his servant, and he has done me no wrong.

33:21
How can I blasphemed my king who saved me?

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For the proconsul, said swear by the genius of Caesar. Polycarp said. If you vainly suppose that I will swear by the genius of Caesar as you request and pretend not to know who I am. Listen carefully. I am a Christian now. If you want to learn the doctrine of Christianity, name a day and give me a hearing.

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This is this is an old man who's been around the block. You know, it's like 86 years been following Jesus like I'm not just going to swear by Caesar at the end.

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I love his boldness, the Pro counsel says. We'll persuade the people.

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Polycarp says well, you. I might have considered worthy of a reply, for we have been taught to pay proper respect to rulers and authorities appointed by God as long as it does us no harm. But As for these, I do not think they are worthy that I should have to defend myself before them.

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What a fascinating exchange. How? How, how should we classify Polycarp?

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He is not a revolutionary, nor is he a loyalist.

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He will not swear by Caesar, nor will he deny that Jesus is his king. But he believes that the very man who is about to give the order to burn him alive is appointed by God and should receive proper respect.

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Polycarp's allegiance was firmly with his Heavenly King.

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But this loyalty had earthly ramifications. In the end, Polycarp faced torture and martyrdom because he couldn't hedge on his Kingdom citizenship. Which brings me to my Third Point.

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Kingdom as primary allegiance. So we have the three points Kingdom as present reality we looked at how it's present. It was present in the Ministry of Jesus.

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And it's present in Our Calling as the church to embody the Kingdom in a proleptic sense. We saw that the Kingdom is a political reality. It's also a spiritual reality. But it's certainly as well, a political reality. And now I want to talk about allegiance. It says in Matthew chapter 10, verse 30.

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Heaven. Jesus says whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. When I consider these words, especially the the word, whoever here in verse 37, I think to myself.

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Wow.

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What an open invitation.

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There's no rabbi in the ancient world that says.

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Whoever.

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What do the rabbis want? Who do they recruit the best, the brightest, the wealthiest, the best, connected with important families?

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That's who the rabbis are after. They're not after whoever. And yet Jesus says whoever all who would like to come and follow me, the the invitation goes out to all men, women, old, young, rich and poor.

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Whoever I think, that's just an incredibly radical starting place that Jesus gives.

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And although he's like, incredibly open as far as who can come, his requirements are absolutely maximum.

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It's not pay $1000.

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Or drachmas, or whatever their currency was. It's not do this hard physical task climb this mountain and prove that you can really handle following none of that. It's absolute full commitment.

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To him above your parents.

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And above your kids. And then last of all above your own life.

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So it's open to everyone, but what's the one thing Jesus requires? Commitment.

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He doesn't want any halfway followers. He wants followers that are committed and that give him allegiance is another word for this. This idea of total.

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Priority to Jesus.

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In Luke 9, we see something very similar 923 it says then he said to them all, if any, once again such a big open invitation, if any wish to come after me, let them deny themselves, take up their cross daily and follow me for those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake.

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We'll save it.

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Thus, allegiance to Jesus as Messiah.

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Involve commitment to Jesus First, Jesus will not be second.

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So if you want to love your spouse and be committed to your spouse more than to Jesus.

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He's not. He's not interested. I know. It's just so extreme when I say it like, even as the words.

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Come out of my mouth. I'm like, really?

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And there's no ego. That's the most incredible thing about Jesus. There's no ego. It's not like he thinks he's so great. It's just that he knows that he has been given this role. He's been anointed by God as the Messiah, and he has been given this role to represent the human race and to be our leader, to be our king, to be our Messiah.

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And that's what it entails. It entails all of us recognizing him as in this role. So this limits our nationalism, allegiance to Jesus, limits nationalism. What do I mean by that? I mean, you cannot say America is #1.

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You gotta say the Kingdom is #1.

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America could be #2, but it can't be #1.

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You cannot give absolute loyalty to the United States of America. You cannot give absolute loyalty to France or Italy or China or Australia or Canada.

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You just can't because you you have someone above that that has a higher priority. If Jesus says to do something and it's against the law in the United States.

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What should you do?

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Well, what happened with the apostles?

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They were told not to preach in this name anymore and.

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They said what?

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OK.

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I guess the movement's over, the government said I can't preach anymore.

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No, they didn't say that.

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They said we cannot stop.

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Speaking what we have seen and heard.

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The government didn't really like what Jesus was doing either, did they?

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Since they executed them, I would say no.

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So I I think there is some some political aspect to Christianity and I'm not talking about Democrats and Republicans. I'm talking about your political allegiance to Jesus.

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And if you wanna vote for other stuff and and be involved to whatever degree, that's great too.

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But only so long as Jesus is first.

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What about believers in other countries?

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Do you consider a believer in a country that is?

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Antagonistic to the United States to be your brother, to be your sister.

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Well, we should.

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We should consider any Christian in any country to be our brother and to be our sister.

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Now, that doesn't mean you can't be patriotic.

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I think it's appropriate to be patriotic and if you travel outside the United States and you come back to the United States, in my opinion, you will certainly say this is an amazing country. Every time I come back after traveling abroad, I think to myself, I am so blessed.

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To live here.

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And I think you should love your country.

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But I think you should love Jesus.

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Before that, and be Allegiant to him first.

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So.

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I think you should pledge allegiance to Jesus of Nazareth.

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As your king.

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And I think you should be loyal to God's Kingdom, which is here now in seed form, but will grow to fill the whole Earth one day. Or if you don't like the seed idea, I really like this idea of prophecy. The idea that we are prophesying the Kingdom. We are not.

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Bringing the Kingdom in the sense that we're not taking over the governments of the world and forcing everyone to live Christianity. Don't do that. We tried that a few times, actually. Throughout history, it's it never worked. But we are embodying the Kingdom. We're embodying the wholeness and the love of the age to come in the present. So next time we'll consider what it means to be Kingdom ambassadors. We've looked.

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That.

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Heaven, according to the Bible, the Kingdom according to the Bible Kingdom allegiance. And next time we're going to look at Kingdom ambassadors.

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Well, that brings this message to a close. What did you think? Come on over to restitutio.org and find Episode 565 Kingdom allegiance and leave your thoughts and feedback there.

42:39
Well, I wanted to mention about the Kingdom journey book that there are a number of folks who have put reviews on different websites, especially Amazon. And I just saw that my friend Suzanne Lakin had just written in a review. I thought I'd read it out here. She wrote Kingdom journey.

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Is a wonderful, insightful personal journey. The author takes us on of his understanding of the kingdom's gospel message. The majority of Christians today and in times past do not understand what the Kingdom is that.

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It is actual rulership of Christ in the world to come. If you've been taught that by believing in Jesus, you will go to heaven when you die, you are misinformed. You owe it to yourself to see the gospel through the lenses of the Hebrew prophecies, the apostles, and the words of Jesus himself.

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Well, thanks so much Suzanne, for writing that nice review and a number of others have as as well. I think we have about 24 reviews on Amazon. Also noticed that on Goodreads there are also a couple of reviews from folks and also on.

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Christianbook.com so.

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Hey, guys. Thanks so much to all of you who have taken the time to write a review. I know it can be annoying to navigate a websites review submission process, but I think it really does help and I really want to get this book into a lot of people's hands. I really want to see it spread.

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Outside of.

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Of the Restorationist communities that already hold to a Kingdom belief and into mainstream evangelical Christianity, mainline Christianity, Catholic Christianity, and so on, so that people who believe in going to heaven will be challenged by the book, I try to write the book in such a way that it is not.

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Going to be offensive, but it can be used evangelistically to spread this message to others, so I'm hopeful that it will do that.

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And then it will help people to start to turn back to their Bibles and start to ask questions of tradition and really lead to other considerations of doctrine that probably also need to change.

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Speaking of Suzanne Lakin, I did want to mention that she is going to be speaking at the Unitarian Christian Alliance next month, so if you enjoyed the interview I did with her, which got a ton of views on YouTube and also downloads on the audio podcast.

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This would be your chance to go see her. So far we've got about 100 people signed up in Arkansas for the UCLA Conference, and I happen to know that she is delivering the keynote address on Friday night. So that will be really exciting. She's got some interesting things to say about a topic that has not.

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Previously been covered at one of our events.

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I would even probably add to that that even in other theological conferences I've attended, I don't think I've heard this topic covered there either, so stay tuned for what she has to say. It would be great to see you at UCLA con 2024 in Little Rock, AR, and you can get information about that.

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At unitarianchristianalliance.org, well, that's going to be it for me for today. Thanks everybody for tuning in. If you'd like to support us, you can do that at restitutio.org. I'll catch you next week and remember.

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The.

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Truth has nothing to fear.