Dale Partridge - Part 2： Is Christ's Kingdom Now or in the Future

00:00:00.000 Amen. Well, if you were here last week, you know that we're in part two of a series on

00:00:16.520 eschatology. Now, some of you might still have your sheets from last week that laid out the

00:00:24.480 graph and the diagram. There's some in the back, I guess, available for you of all three of these

00:00:31.620 views. So lastly, we did an introduction to eschatology. This is part two, and part two

00:00:40.940 is titled, Is Christ's Kingdom Now or in the Future? Now, we surveyed the three orthodox views.

00:00:51.600 It was historic premillennialism, it was amillennialism, and postmillennialism.

00:00:59.300 I also argued against what I believe is a distorted view of historic premillennialism.

00:01:05.160 We called that dispensational premillennialism, which happens to be extremely popular here in America.

00:01:13.380 Now, while I was preparing this sermon, I came across something that I thought was worth sharing.

00:01:17.680 for nearly 2 000 years the church has really only held two positions

00:01:24.440 premillennialism and post-millennialism that's essentially what the church has been

00:01:31.960 upholding in the first 300 years after christ's resurrection and ascension the early church was

00:01:41.500 largely pre-millennial. But as I mentioned last week, from after about 400 AD, all the way until

00:01:50.140 post-reformation, the dominant view is what we refer to now as amillennialism.

00:02:00.260 Though at the time, it probably would have just been called post-millennialism. So I know there's

00:02:04.660 some confusion here. You go, okay, what is pre-millennialism? What is amillennialism?

00:02:07.820 What is postmillennialism? Okay, how do postmillennialism and amillennialism relate?

00:02:12.760 I'm going to give you that answer. This is the point. The term amillennialism,

00:02:18.640 the term amillennialism is actually a very new term. In Louis Burkhoff's famous systematic

00:02:26.620 theology he wrote in 1938, he writes, quote, the term amillennialism is of recent origin,

00:02:33.100 end quote. That is, up until the early 1900s, amillennialists and postmillennialists were in

00:02:42.500 the same group. They were in the same group. You go back into the Puritan era, and you talk to

00:02:48.740 Jonathan Edwards, who was a postmillennialist, and you tell him, oh, what do you think about

00:02:54.020 amillennialism? And he'd say, I have no idea what you're talking about. The difference between

00:03:00.540 amillennial and postmillennial, eventually that was kind of set them apart, is how the kingdom

00:03:09.940 is materialized. Whether it be only a spiritual manifestation of the kingdom, or if it would be

00:03:19.540 a spiritual and a physical manifestation of the kingdom. So the label amillennial

00:03:27.440 emerged to describe those who believe the kingdom of Christ

00:03:34.220 is primarily spiritual only.

00:03:38.640 And they believe really that the church is kind of acting

00:03:43.100 as like an embassy in the world,

00:03:45.360 and it doesn't really expand into the physical realm.

00:03:53.140 But they're still different than the premillennialists.

00:03:56.620 In contrast, those who believe that Christ's kingdom was both spiritual and physical,

00:04:03.180 and that Christ had overtaken the kingdoms of the world in the gospel,

00:04:08.320 and who is now the king of kings with all authority in heaven and on earth,

00:04:15.640 that group retained the name postmillennial.

00:04:20.760 And so when I say amillennial and postmillennial, we're very, very similar.

00:04:25.640 The only difference is that one has kind of a lower manifestation of the kingdom while one has a higher manifestation of the kingdom.

00:04:37.300 So, this is again also why I say amillennialism is postmillennialism without teeth.

00:04:47.780 That's how I view amillennialism. It's the middle way. It's kind of in between.

00:04:53.080 Now today we're going to be discussing the kingdom

00:04:56.800 Not in terms of how visible or extensive the kingdom might be

00:05:03.260 But rather if the kingdom is inaugurated at all

00:05:08.200 And how the kingdom is built

00:05:12.100 The real question is this

00:05:14.620 Did Jesus begin his kingdom at his first coming

00:05:20.160 and is now expanding it through the church by the proclamation of the gospel?

00:05:25.380 That's the post-millennial view.

00:05:28.320 Or did he speak only of a future kingdom that won't appear until his second coming?

00:05:39.540 That is the pre-millennial view.

00:05:42.000 now my goal today is to show from scripture that christ inaugurated his kingdom during

00:05:50.220 his earthly ministry and when i say kingdom i mean kingdom on earth i don't merely mean

00:05:56.000 a kingdom that's in heaven no a kingdom on earth and so my goal again is to show how from scripture

00:06:06.700 This kingdom has been inaugurated, and that it's now growing across the world until Christ's return, where he will consummate his kingdom and renew all things.

00:06:21.660 And I'm going to do that in two parts.

00:06:24.140 Part one is going to show the pattern, how God's pattern has always been incremental progress.

00:06:36.700 is going to be a biblical case of eight scriptures that Christ's kingdom began at his first coming.

00:06:47.500 So, join me in part one. George R. Wendling, he once wrote, quote,

00:06:56.200 Humanity always seeks a king. The man of Galilee, at the close of his life,

00:07:02.620 standing before Pilate, states with regal dignity,

00:07:06.640 I am a king, and every true man is my subject.

00:07:12.120 He is indeed a king, morally a king, intellectually a king.

00:07:16.720 Every inch a king, he says. His kingdom is almost

00:07:20.780 worldwide. The highest geniuses of

00:07:24.860 earth bow before him. The greatest poets praise him.

00:07:28.740 The best of art is his. The noblest of architecture is his. The gems of literature are his. The loftiness of music is his. Countless millions of human hearts are his, end quote.

00:07:45.240 Now, the historic premillennial believes that Christ will return after the present church age to inaugurate his 1,000-year earthly millennial reign.

00:08:05.640 But until then, there is no kingdom on earth.

00:08:10.420 There is the church, which is kind of a holding place, it's kind of an embassy, but there really is no kingdom that is permeating this world. 0.71

00:08:22.260 The dispensational premillennialist holds that Jesus offered that earthly kingdom to the Jews at his first coming. 0.66

00:08:33.880 But when they rejected him, when they rejected Jesus, the earthly kingdom was postponed and a parenthetical period of the church age was initiated to gather the Gentiles.

00:08:47.500 And then Jesus will return and kind of finish off what he started in his first coming and his second coming.

00:08:52.280 That's the very popular view for the last hundred years in America.

00:08:56.640 And I defended against that last week because it was invented in the 1850s, 1840s,

00:09:06.340 and really has not been a view the church has ever held throughout millennia.

00:09:14.740 Now, in both of those premillennial views, God's people are driven by waiting.

00:09:21.080 They're driven by anticipating, not by building.

00:09:26.640 or expanding. They're motivated by waiting and anticipating, not motivated by building or

00:09:36.260 expanding. The problem is just as you cannot have a shepherd without sheep, you cannot have a king

00:09:43.320 without a kingdom. So to call Christ king and believe that he has all authority in heaven and

00:09:54.280 on earth while denying the existence of an earthly kingdom is to affirm the crown and

00:10:04.260 deny the throne. There's a problem there. Now, what do I mean when I say kingdom? I want

00:10:11.860 to define terms for you. Well, I do not mean that every knee is already bowing that Jesus

00:10:18.120 Christ as Lord, as it will be in the future.

00:10:22.660 I mean that Christ's earthly kingdom was inaugurated at His first

00:10:26.100 coming, and His resurrection, and that Jesus

00:10:29.960 raising from the dead was not just a miracle, it was a coronation.

00:10:36.260 The tomb didn't just open up to let

00:10:38.160 Jesus out, it let Him up to ascend

00:10:42.300 to His throne. Now at the moment

00:10:45.760 of Jesus' resurrection, a few things happened that were very critical, theologically. Satan

00:10:53.900 was bound. How was he bound? Well, was he bound fully? Well, he was bound from deceiving the

00:11:00.440 nations, as once was. Jesus talks about it. He binds the strong man, he says. Well, how was that

00:11:07.800 binding occurring? Well, prior to the gospel, the nations were completely deceived.

00:11:15.080 But after Jesus's gospel and the Great Commission, and him essentially breaking the reign of sin and

00:11:23.080 death, Jesus bound Satan. And he was no longer allowed to deceive the nations with full authority

00:11:31.820 as he had in previous times. At that moment, Revelation 11.15 was true, and it says,

00:11:39.500 the kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord and his Christ, and he shall reign

00:11:46.480 forever and ever, end quote. In other words, Jesus is not pacing the halls of heaven right now,

00:11:53.640 going, oh, can't wait for that future moment so I can establish my kingdom on earth.

00:12:00.880 That's not what's happening.

00:12:03.640 No, he's conquering his enemies by converting them.

00:12:08.460 Did you know that you, prior to your conversion, were an enemy of Christ?

00:12:14.320 And he conquered you. How? 0.91

00:12:17.240 By converting you. 0.63

00:12:19.380 He conquers by conversion.

00:12:22.460 And we know that Jesus is ruling over the kings of the earth.

00:12:28.200 That is to say, Jesus is not just the king of hearts or the king of churches.

00:12:33.480 He is, as Revelation 1, verse 5 says, the ruler of the kings of the earth.

00:12:40.800 End quote.

00:12:42.600 Now, as I mentioned, the heart of this debate centers around how.

00:12:46.600 How Christ's kingdom will emerge and advance on the earth.

00:12:51.840 Does it arrive at his first coming and is now kind of gradually, incrementally expanding?

00:13:00.740 Again, that's the post-millennial view.

00:13:03.000 Or will it arrive at Jesus' final coming suddenly and fully?

00:13:10.460 That's the pre-millennial view.

00:13:12.820 Now, in my experience, the best way to understand someone and how they will act is to learn and see how they have always acted.

00:13:21.840 In other words, I believe God's past patterns will reveal his present methods.

00:13:30.440 I believe that an incremental kingdom is the only way that we can see in the narrative of the scriptures.

00:13:41.800 God is a gradualist. He's a gradualist.

00:13:47.140 He did not create the world instantly when he could have.

00:13:51.840 But he created it in six days.

00:13:55.080 He did not reveal all Scripture at once.

00:13:59.280 But progressively, over time, Israel began as one man and turned into a nation.

00:14:10.760 In the Old Testament, God did not conquer his enemies with a single stroke.

00:14:14.580 instead he would drive people out before his people slowly exodus 22 or 23 29 through 30 says

00:14:25.760 this is god speaking of the promised land which is kind of an image of it's a pre-image

00:14:32.360 of the promised land for the new covenant people so the old covenant people the promised land was

00:14:38.480 Canaan. And God promised that land to them. Well, the new promised land for the new covenant people

00:14:47.900 of God is the earth. We know that Jesus says that the meek shall inherit the earth. And so the way

00:14:54.780 that God drove out the people of the old covenant promised land should be instructive for how God

00:15:04.380 might drive out the people of the new covenant promised land. Let's read about Exodus 23, 29

00:15:10.560 to 30. It says, I will not drive them out from before you in one year. No, little by little, 0.98

00:15:18.540 I will drive them out before you until you have increased and possess the land, end quote.

00:15:26.780 Think about redemptive history for a minute. From Eden to Abraham, Moses to Mary, 4,000 years.

00:15:34.380 Jesus also was born as a baby and grows to be a man.

00:15:39.980 God always moves from micro to macro, from micro to macro.

00:15:47.060 Our sanctification is also incremental.

00:15:50.860 Paul says, work out your salvation with fear and trembling.

00:15:54.820 God speaks to Christians like their children or infants and says, like newborn infants longing for pure spiritual milk. 0.89

00:16:02.880 Romans 8, 29 through 30, we see this process of redemption that doesn't happen all at once,

00:16:10.860 but that we are elected, and then we're predestined, and then we're called,

00:16:16.460 and then we're justified, and then we're glorified.

00:16:21.880 This ethic of gradualism is exactly how the prophets of the Old Testament spoke about the coming kingdom.

00:16:31.880 If you will, for a minute, why don't you turn to Daniel chapter 2, verses 31 through 35.

00:16:49.520 Daniel chapter 2, verses 31 through 35.

00:17:01.880 Here we see the prophecies, a very important prophecy of the kingdoms of the earth

00:17:08.760 being overtaken by the kingdom of Christ.

00:17:13.700 Daniel miraculously recounts Nebuchadnezzar's dream. 0.68

00:17:16.440 He says,

00:17:18.120 You saw, O king, and behold, a great image.

00:17:23.340 This image, mighty and of exceeding brightness, stood before you,

00:17:27.860 and its appearance was frightening.

00:17:30.780 The head of this image was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver,

00:17:36.540 its middle and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron,

00:17:41.100 and its feet partly of iron and partly of clay.

00:17:44.860 As you looked, a stone was cut out by no human hand.

00:17:51.000 That's Christ.

00:17:52.860 And it struck the image on its feet of iron and of clay and broke them into pieces.

00:17:59.940 Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold all together were broken into pieces

00:18:04.700 and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors.

00:18:11.020 And the wind carried them away, so that not a trace of them could be found. 0.66

00:18:15.980 But the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth."

00:18:26.320 quote. Okay. Today, I mean, almost all theologians, all mill, pre-mill, post-mill,

00:18:36.120 all agree that this is a prophecy about Christ's kingdom.

00:18:41.100 The head of the statue is Nebuchadnezzar's Babylon. The chest and the arms were the Persian 0.80

00:18:47.200 empire. The waist and the thighs were the Greek empire, and the legs and the feet were the Roman 0.90

00:18:54.920 empire. The stone cut by no human hands

00:18:58.900 is really a way to say it was cut by God.

00:19:03.800 And that is Christ and his kingdom,

00:19:06.440 which though is smaller, much smaller than the statue.

00:19:11.840 One, it strikes it in the foot, so it's

00:19:14.900 small. It strikes the kingdoms of

00:19:18.900 the world and it overcomes them. It topples them.

00:19:22.580 But I want you to notice a few important details about this passage of Scripture.

00:19:28.360 Notice the contrast between the stone is small and the mountain is vast.

00:19:36.480 That text explicitly says that the stone became a large mountain that filled the whole earth.

00:19:48.120 It didn't start as one.

00:19:49.840 It progressed to that state.

00:19:53.500 And this language demands this kind of progressive expansion, not an instant fullness.

00:20:01.680 There is no gap in the stone's arrival.

00:20:06.780 There is no gap in its strike and to its expansion.

00:20:10.820 The flow is continuous.

00:20:13.620 It hit, and it became, and it filled.

00:20:17.940 the expansion to the mountain is a cross reference of the verse that i shared last week

00:20:23.680 from isaiah 2 if you want to turn there you can isaiah 2 it says it shall come to pass in the

00:20:29.380 latter days okay the latter days this is not talking about after christ's return it's talking

00:20:35.360 about after his first advent but before his second recur or second return and it says it shall come

00:20:42.700 to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established

00:20:48.220 as the highest of the mountains and shall be lifted above the hills and all the nations

00:20:55.460 shall flow to it, end quote.

00:21:02.280 Now, premillennialism disrupts this natural progression of Daniel's prophecy because what

00:21:09.020 it does is it inserts this kind of massive chronological

00:21:12.860 gap that the text does not support. Daniel

00:21:17.060 does not say, God will send his Christ, the stone will be cut without 0.95

00:21:21.020 human hands, he's going to strike the nations, 0.84

00:21:24.860 then he's going to wait for 2,000 years, 0.87

00:21:27.780 and then he's going to return as a mountain that covers the earth.

00:21:33.260 No, that's not what's being said there in the prophetic language

00:21:37.120 or in the grammar.

00:21:40.200 No, Daniel 2 teaches the exact thing that history confirms.

00:21:46.500 Christ's kingdom began small.

00:21:49.400 It began small and has been growing ever since.

00:21:54.540 It's been growing since, and it's been filling the earth

00:21:58.940 and toppling kings and nations and kingdoms,

00:22:03.760 and it's expanding its influence throughout the ages

00:22:07.580 by the body of his church

00:22:10.860 through the proclamation of the gospel.

00:22:13.780 That is what's happened.

00:22:16.440 What makes this even more compelling though

00:22:18.420 is that Jesus affirms this view

00:22:22.220 of a progressive expanding kingdom

00:22:25.060 in the two kingdom parables that we read earlier.

00:22:28.620 In Matthew 13, you're welcome to turn there.

00:22:30.380 Matthew 13, he says, the kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid into three

00:22:39.260 measures of flour till it was all leavened. Anybody that knows how to bake bread understands

00:22:46.820 what's being said here. Dr. Bettner comments on this verse. He says, the parable of the leaven

00:22:55.140 teaches the universal extension and triumph of the gospel. And it further teaches that this

00:23:01.780 development is accomplished through the gradual development of the kingdom, not through a sudden

00:23:06.940 and cataclysmic event. The kingdom of heaven, like leaven, transforms that which it comes in contact

00:23:15.300 with. The dough, or the world in this metaphor, is transformed or affected by the leaven.

00:23:24.720 Similarly, Christ teaches society is to be transformed by the kingdom of heaven, 0.71

00:23:31.160 and the result will be a Christianized world. End quote. So throughout scripture, leaven represents 0.93

00:23:40.700 growth over time both good and bad you can find passages of positive and negative but here jesus

00:23:48.400 is using it in the positive the kingdom like yeast like leaven that starts in a small in comparison

00:23:57.180 to the lump will have a leavening effect on the world that's what it will do this tiny thing

00:24:06.960 will leaven this very large thing.

00:24:12.280 One pastor said,

00:24:13.900 The gospel is like leaven in bread

00:24:15.640 and is designed in such a way to make the culture around it rise.

00:24:20.900 It may take time for the kingdom to permeate the whole world.

00:24:24.820 It may take time for the kingdom to produce its leavening effect.

00:24:28.280 But Jesus, in this passage,

00:24:30.320 promises that it will not fail to accomplish its task

00:24:32.820 to transform that which surrounds it.

00:24:36.180 End quote.

00:24:36.960 Jesus further supports this idea of an expanding kingdom in Matthew 13, 31 through 32.

00:24:48.120 This is the other kingdom parable.

00:24:51.360 He says,

00:24:52.240 The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field.

00:25:00.360 It is the smallest of all the seeds.

00:25:03.260 But when it is grown, it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree so that the birds of the air can come and make nests and its branches.

00:25:17.360 Okay.

00:25:20.140 In this metaphor, both of these metaphors, something starts small and gets big.

00:25:24.380 Okay.

00:25:24.760 That's the fact of the matter.

00:25:27.780 He's certainly dispelling the idea of an instant kingdom.

00:25:31.640 Totally.

00:25:32.240 It's just, if you take the text at what it says, he's dispelling the idea of an instant kingdom.

00:25:39.500 He doesn't skip, he goes from small to big.

00:25:42.640 He doesn't go from small, gap, no growth period, and then established and full grown.

00:25:51.920 No, the kingdom of God should be viewed as a steady expansion of Christ's rule over the earth

00:25:58.820 in the way that a tree grows up and prominently overshadows and expands over a garden.

00:26:06.420 In fact, the mustard seed is about the size of the tip of a sharpened pencil.

00:26:11.340 Okay, it grows into a tree that's only about 20 to 30 feet tall, but this is a garden tree.

00:26:16.680 This isn't a tree in the wild. This is talking about garden plants.

00:26:21.940 And it expands. What's really beautiful about this is that it has a canopy-like structure,

00:26:28.100 The mustard tree does.

00:26:30.020 Canopy-like structure, and it covers everything that's around it.

00:26:35.180 In fact, first century farmers would have understood exactly what Jesus was saying.

00:26:42.060 If they planted a mustard seed in their garden, it would eventually dominate their garden,

00:26:45.800 and that would actually hide the sun and the light, oftentimes, from getting, and even water, getting to those plants.

00:26:53.440 this is the physical picture that Jesus chose to represent the spiritual reality of the kingdom of

00:27:03.360 God. Leaven and a growing seed into a tree. Christ, who died, is that seed that must die

00:27:18.140 and bear much fruit. He is also the root of that mustard seed.

00:27:22.200 And through the gospel, his kingdom will gradually

00:27:26.020 grow and expand and eventually overshadow the garden

00:27:30.120 of the earth. That's what he's saying.

00:27:33.420 And that's exactly what we have seen. I know it's easy to be

00:27:38.220 pessimistic and myopic. 0.98

00:27:42.560 But Christianity has become the world's most dominant religion.

00:27:47.160 36% of the world confesses Christ.

00:27:51.400 Now, sure, maybe not all of those are actually converted.

00:27:55.540 But nevertheless, 36% of our, what, 8 to 10 billion people profess Christ.

00:28:07.220 Why would anyone expect that trend that has been going on for 2,000 years?

00:28:12.200 that the church has always gotten bigger and bigger,

00:28:17.160 not just in numbers, but in ratio to the population of the world.

00:28:23.740 It is said that there was less than 10,000 Christians

00:28:27.200 within the first 30 years of Jesus' death and resurrection.

00:28:33.540 10,000 Christians.

00:28:34.900 and we are at now what 3 billion 2.5 billion christians 36 percent of the world why would

00:28:47.380 you expect that it's going to get worse i can see in the early church their expectation that it's

00:28:53.180 just going to get worse you're going to have all this persecution and people are being burned alive

00:28:57.260 i can see that but i think as the centuries and the millennia go on it'll be harder and harder to

00:29:04.240 believe the lie that the kingdom is getting smaller, it's

00:29:08.300 only getting worse, and the world is getting less and less Christian.

00:29:12.460 No. No. The world is getting more 0.98

00:29:16.240 and more Christian. That is a fact that is 1.00

00:29:20.220 undeniable.

00:29:23.800 I believe that it will result in what Habakkuk prophesied,

00:29:28.580 saying, for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord

00:29:32.400 as the waters cover the sea, end quote.

00:29:36.820 So what's the takeaway of this first section?

00:29:39.900 The kingdom is not a future institution.

00:29:46.760 It's a present reality.

00:29:49.560 Christ is not waiting for a throne.

00:29:52.900 He's reigning from it.

00:29:55.060 The stone has struck.

00:29:56.740 The mountain is rising.

00:29:58.240 The leaven is spreading.

00:29:59.420 The tree is growing.

00:30:02.400 We are not waiting for a future kingdom on earth.

00:30:08.200 No.

00:30:11.320 We are in it.

00:30:12.920 And we will see that in the next section.

00:30:16.680 Now, the hardest part of this sermon was actually figuring out where to start and where to end.

00:30:21.000 Because you can talk forever on this topic.

00:30:24.480 But I don't think I can end a series on this topic without using several scriptures to present the evidence of an advancing kingdom.

00:30:32.400 So I'm going to give you eight scriptures, and I'm going to try to do it quickly,

00:30:35.300 that I believe decisively confirmed the case for a present kingdom.

00:30:40.560 Isaiah 9, 6 through 7.

00:30:44.420 Famous verse.

00:30:46.240 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given,

00:30:50.900 and the government shall be upon his shoulder.

00:30:54.460 And his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

00:30:58.300 Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

00:31:00.920 Of the increase of his government and of peace, there will be no end.

00:31:06.420 On the throne of David and over his kingdom.

00:31:11.720 To establish it and uphold it with justice and with righteousness.

00:31:17.080 From this time forth and forevermore.

00:31:21.340 I don't see any gaps in that language at all.

00:31:25.700 Christ's government is increasing

00:31:28.780 and it's increasing indefinitely

00:31:32.220 there's no interruption

00:31:34.680 there's no postponement

00:31:36.720 there's no waiting

00:31:37.960 when Christ inaugurated his kingdom

00:31:41.560 it expanded from this time

00:31:44.420 and forevermore

00:31:46.100 Isaiah doesn't say

00:31:49.860 after a long delay his government will finally increase

00:31:54.120 no

00:31:54.500 that's not what the text says he says at the moment the child is given from that time forward

00:32:00.220 the kingdom expands endlessly which again is what we see in history in other words the increase

00:32:07.160 begins at the first advent of christ not the second that's the whole debate the kingdom begins

00:32:15.360 the first advent of Christ, not the second.

00:32:19.840 Mark, chapter 1, verse 15.

00:32:22.880 The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand.

00:32:29.180 Repent and believe in the gospel.

00:32:31.560 It's the words of Jesus.

00:32:34.620 The time wasn't almost fulfilled.

00:32:37.660 It was fulfilled.

00:32:39.660 He says the time is fulfilled.

00:32:42.880 Jesus wasn't announcing the possibility of a future kingdom.

00:32:45.360 he was proclaiming a present reality. Now, another pastor noted on this verse, and I thought it was

00:32:50.440 really good. He says, what does it mean when Jesus demands repentance in this verse? Is Jesus

00:32:56.620 calling for repentance because the kingdom is nearly here? Even if it were over 2,000 years

00:33:02.140 from then? That notion is preposterous, he says. The language is straightforward. It's not a call

00:33:08.180 to repent so that the kingdom may come in the future or will come in the future, or suggesting

00:33:13.840 that repentance will bring a near but future arrival of the kingdom, the message is that

00:33:18.740 the kingdom has already arrived and repentance is necessary as a result.

00:33:24.480 End quote.

00:33:27.980 Matthew 12, 28 says, but if it is by the spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom

00:33:39.140 of God has come upon you.

00:33:40.580 I don't think any clearer words exist in the scriptures right there

00:33:45.400 Jesus didn't say the kingdom was near or that it was coming

00:33:48.560 He said that it is upon you

00:33:50.240 Right now

00:33:51.860 So either you adopt this kind of start

00:33:56.340 Pause

00:33:57.580 Start

00:33:59.800 Model or structure

00:34:02.700 Or you embrace the prophecies

00:34:04.680 And the kingdom parables of Jesus

00:34:06.740 That insist that the kingdom was small

00:34:09.360 And it began with him

00:34:10.560 and has continued to expand through the gospel

00:34:14.140 and the proclamation of that message

00:34:16.180 throughout the generations.

00:34:19.180 It's why Jesus, by the way, says,

00:34:21.740 go get the nations.

00:34:24.500 Go therefore, baptize those nations.

00:34:27.840 Teach them all that I have commanded you.

00:34:32.920 But there's no kingdom.

00:34:34.540 That'd be so weird.

00:34:35.900 It's a very strange position to take.

00:34:37.380 colossians 1 verses 13 this is scripture number four it says he has delivered us from the domain

00:34:47.800 of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son okay that means the transfer

00:34:55.980 has already happened if you're a born-again christian you're not waiting to enter the

00:35:00.000 kingdom, you're in it. But how, if there's no kingdom, am I just in it spiritually? Is there

00:35:08.180 a kingdom in heaven that I'm a part of, but it's not here? I don't know how people get around

00:35:16.260 these verses. 1 Corinthians chapter 5, 25 through 26, it says, for he must reign. One of the most

00:35:23.540 important verses that I'll talk about today. You might even want to turn there. 1 Corinthians

00:35:27.780 in chapter 15, 25-26.

00:35:33.100 I'll actually wait for you.

00:35:36.700 This is the verse that turned Douglas Wilson

00:35:39.140 into a post-millennialist.

00:35:42.580 And Dr. James White, by the way.

00:35:47.020 Dr. James White is one of the most

00:35:49.000 rigorous, biblical,

00:35:54.520 you know, exegetes out there.

00:35:57.780 He's very dedicated to understanding what the Greek and the Hebrew are saying.

00:36:03.260 And so you don't fool people into post-millennialism.

00:36:07.920 You let the text walk them into it.

00:36:14.140 1 Corinthians 15, 25-26.

00:36:16.820 It says,

00:36:17.100 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.

00:36:25.100 the last enemy to be destroyed is death

00:36:29.940 so first the greek verb for must reign is in the present infinitive and active form which

00:36:39.080 actually means you can actually translate it as continually reigning he must continually be

00:36:43.460 reigning that's what it's actually saying we just wouldn't translate that into english that way

00:36:49.520 In other words, Christ is not waiting to reign and waiting to subdue his enemies.

00:36:56.640 He is doing it now, according to Paul.

00:37:00.680 And he's going to continue to reign from heaven on earth.

00:37:05.460 And he will reign until he has put every enemy under his feet.

00:37:10.480 But the last enemy will be death.

00:37:13.240 And there are so many other things that I wish I had time to go into.

00:37:15.300 But I'll say briefly one thing.

00:37:17.460 The premillennial view requires you to believe that the resurrection of the dead, the final resurrection, the conquering of death, happens before the millennial reign.

00:37:28.200 Okay?

00:37:28.780 Happens before the millennial reign.

00:37:30.960 That reverses the logic here in this passage of Scripture.

00:37:35.080 In this passage of Scripture, it's that Christ must reign, and the last thing is to overcome death and the resurrection.

00:37:46.580 And so, you can get into the weeds on these things, but if you just logically look at this passage of Scripture, it really will be a conundrum for the premillennial view.

00:37:55.920 Ken Gentry says, Paul does not say that Christ will reign after his return, but that he must reign until his return.

00:38:04.880 Key point there.

00:38:07.420 Christ will not reign after his return.

00:38:10.280 Yes, of course he will.

00:38:11.160 That's not what he's saying, is what Gentry is communicating here.

00:38:15.660 But he's saying that he must reign until his return.

00:38:20.700 So what does that mean?

00:38:22.860 He must reign until he has put his enemies under his feet.

00:38:28.260 If he's not reigning now, then what's he doing?

00:38:34.600 No, we know that he is sitting at the right hand of the Father.

00:38:37.960 That he is ruling the earth with a rod of iron, according to Psalm 2.

00:38:43.760 Moving on quickly.

00:38:46.520 Passage number six, Hebrews 12, 28.

00:38:48.260 It says, therefore, let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken.

00:38:52.440 There it is again, the presence of a kingdom.

00:38:55.900 Again, there is a kingdom.

00:38:57.300 We've already received it.

00:38:58.500 It's unshakable.

00:38:59.700 It's not postponed.

00:39:00.740 It's not limited.

00:39:01.440 And it's not faltering.

00:39:02.840 It's not getting smaller.

00:39:04.880 It's an unshakable kingdom.

00:39:07.020 It can't get smaller.

00:39:10.860 What does Jesus say? 0.66

00:39:12.220 the gates of hell will not prevail against the church okay the next verse

00:39:22.320 which actually i don't think i have eight i think i have seven

00:39:26.020 uh matthew 6 33 it says seek first the kingdom of god and his righteousness

00:39:30.840 if the kingdom doesn't exist then what exactly are we supposed to be seeking

00:39:35.220 while we're here on earth?

00:39:39.120 Is this just a spiritual reality?

00:39:41.280 No, Jesus' command only makes sense

00:39:42.960 if the kingdom is already present and expanding.

00:39:45.680 In fact, it's actually a great motivation to do great work.

00:39:48.500 Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.

00:39:52.380 Now, someone might say,

00:39:53.660 but didn't Christ say that my kingdom is not of this world?

00:39:59.380 Okay, I'm just anticipating that objection.

00:40:02.760 Didn't Jesus say that?

00:40:04.540 And yes, he did.

00:40:05.360 He did say that my kingdom is not of this world.

00:40:07.760 So how do you get around that?

00:40:10.360 Well, what Jesus is saying there is that my kingdom is not of this world system.

00:40:15.620 It does not derive its authority from the world.

00:40:19.940 It derives its authority from heaven.

00:40:22.480 His authority is essentially, he's not establishing a political kingdom like the one Pilate was asking about in that question.

00:40:31.240 His kingdom is from heaven.

00:40:33.860 but it's for earth.

00:40:37.360 Okay?

00:40:38.080 His kingdom is from heaven

00:40:39.520 but it's for earth.

00:40:43.900 But again,

00:40:46.000 notice that Christ assumes

00:40:48.200 there is a kingdom.

00:40:50.140 He doesn't deny the existence of a kingdom.

00:40:53.800 He clarifies its origin

00:40:55.880 and its nature.

00:40:57.420 It's not of this world

00:40:58.780 but there's one

00:41:00.700 and it exists

00:41:02.000 and I am a king.

00:41:03.860 so as i close i have a question why do so many christians resist the idea of a present kingdom

00:41:11.140 why did pre-millennial eschatology become so popular well i do think that we are pessimistic

00:41:17.960 by nature it's part of the flesh uh it's opposite of the spirit which is filled with joy

00:41:22.740 but we are pessimistic by nature and when you had in the late 1800s the civil war and then you had

00:41:29.000 the world war one and then you had the great depression and you had world war two and then

00:41:32.880 you had the korean war and then you had the vietnam war you had lots of reason to think wow it's 0.71

00:41:36.740 getting pretty bad which is very similar to the time of the early church where everything was

00:41:41.000 pretty bad also you had the media that was for the very first time letting everybody know how bad the

00:41:46.900 world is and so you you had all of these cultural realities that were influencing eschatology

00:41:54.220 but again this wasn't a historical position we know that we know that historically the vast

00:42:00.340 majority of the church, like I'm talking 95% of the church, believed in long-view Christianity.

00:42:08.720 Again, I use the example of the cathedrals because it's really helpful. You don't build 0.93

00:42:15.480 buildings that take 500 years to build if you think that Jesus is coming back in the next 50.

00:42:21.640 No, they had a different perspective. If we want to, we look back at that old world and we go,

00:42:27.880 Oh, what a beautiful time.

00:42:31.880 Interestingly, we call it the Dark Ages, which is really ridiculous because we're all sitting here looking back at it going,

00:42:36.520 Oh, look how beautiful it was.

00:42:39.820 No, the reality is, is that if we want to build like they built, we need to believe like they believed.

00:42:47.060 We need to have a long view of history, not a short view of history.

00:42:53.080 We need a multi-generational view.

00:42:55.260 so again why why are so many christians resisting the idea of a present kingdom think about it with

00:43:05.800 me for a second why would people not want a present kingdom on earth right now well because

00:43:15.300 if christ is reigning now and there is a kingdom on earth they're responsible now they're responsible

00:43:22.880 to disciple the nations to comfort those that are sick and broken to confront evil to build

00:43:30.360 something lasting here on this planet a future only kingdom theology really lets christians

00:43:38.840 off the hook it's convenient to the flesh honestly it really is it gives them a theological permission

00:43:44.260 for cultural indifference and in many cases it gives them permission to kind of expect decline

00:43:50.100 You know, it's just going to get worse.

00:43:51.660 It's just going to get worse.

00:43:52.800 And we're going to just embrace defeat because the scriptures, you know, they tell us that we're going to lose.

00:43:56.700 And, you know, if that's the case, you know, the fastest way out of here is actually just to let it collapse.

00:44:07.280 In fact, I don't want to bring kids into this world.

00:44:10.460 You know, I don't really want to invest in something that's going to fall apart.

00:44:15.880 It gives this, again, this theological permission.

00:44:18.140 It's permission for pessimism.

00:44:20.100 the famous dispensationalist J. Vernon McGee once said

00:44:26.060 we don't polish brass on a sinking ship

00:44:30.280 you don't improve something that's going to go away

00:44:33.860 why would you do that

00:44:36.020 in other words why would you work for cultural renewal

00:44:41.700 when you believe the world is destined to fall apart

00:44:44.960 it's a wonderful strategy of the devil

00:44:49.500 if you believe you're going to lose

00:44:52.900 if you actually believe

00:44:55.240 that there is no chance of winning

00:44:57.080 you'll act like it

00:44:58.760 and what has happened

00:45:00.740 in the last 150 years to the church

00:45:03.540 we've checked out of every

00:45:05.340 possible institution

00:45:06.680 we've handed over everything

00:45:08.440 schools and media

00:45:10.580 and economics all over the world

00:45:13.500 we were a Christian nation 0.99

00:45:15.400 we lost

00:45:17.400 much of that because of our

00:45:19.040 eschatology. And what was the result of this worldview? Well, it becomes evangelism. Now,

00:45:26.520 why? It becomes an evangelistic only model or evangelism becomes the only model or the only

00:45:34.100 valid work that you can do because we don't have time for anything else. We don't have time to

00:45:40.780 build a multi-generational anything because of what? The doctrine of the imminent return of 0.99

00:45:45.860 Jesus. He's coming back anytime.

00:45:48.800 Anytime.

00:45:50.480 And yes, while I do believe that we should

00:45:51.900 live in a way that Christ might return anytime,

00:45:54.440 I do believe that we have

00:45:55.680 centuries, if not millennia,

00:45:58.080 of time before us, before the

00:45:59.820 return of Christ. We want,

00:46:02.060 if you think about Genesis, the dominion

00:46:03.760 mandate, be fruitful and multiply

00:46:05.860 and fill the earth.

00:46:07.540 Fill the earth. Do you know that

00:46:09.800 the vast, I think it's the whole population of the world,

00:46:11.700 can fit in Texas.

00:46:12.420 okay we have not filled the earth okay we are not even remotely close we have not also got the

00:46:21.780 gospel out to all the nations i don't the internet's helping for sure in the sense of that we've

00:46:27.520 expanded the reach of evangelism dramatically in the last maybe 20 or 30 years but the truth is

00:46:33.640 i think we have thousands of years before the return of christ now that changes the way that

00:46:42.220 you'll live because again if you believe Jesus is coming back in the next 20 years

00:46:48.040 it might change that you might not have children

00:46:51.860 but what you're going to do is you know hey you know what all we really have time to do

00:46:57.240 is evangelize we don't have time for anything else because you know this world is temporary

00:47:04.300 and it's doomed and it's coming to a close and we're not gonna be thinking about our kids kids

00:47:07.960 kids, even though every generation of Christian did so before us, and even though it says a wise

00:47:16.320 man leaves an inheritance for his children's children. Pre-millennial eschatology, this kind 0.99

00:47:24.520 of no earthly kingdom theology, excuses apathy. It gives us an excuse for apathy, and it results in

00:47:33.100 a checked out church and i wish i could take our whole congregation back to the year 1790

00:47:41.720 and just see how christian everything was and how motivated by establishing christendom

00:47:53.820 in america was for our founding fathers and for their children and i want you to see the gap

00:48:02.740 between the cultural aura of that time and today.

00:48:08.840 It will certainly leave you going,

00:48:11.040 oh, we've drifted.

00:48:12.540 What happened?

00:48:17.000 So to be on earth,

00:48:19.440 to be on earth and claim that Christ is king,

00:48:25.220 which we do.

00:48:27.100 We have the yard signs out there, right?

00:48:28.880 it's like saluting a flag to a nation that doesn't exist if you're a premillennial

00:48:38.540 well there's a kingdom but it's it's up there it's not here it will be here one day

00:48:45.720 you cannot separate the crown from the throne if a king has earthly subjects

00:48:54.720 it proves there is an earthly kingdom.

00:48:58.940 Does that make sense?

00:49:00.780 If a king has earthly subjects,

00:49:03.600 then there must be an earthly kingdom.

00:49:08.340 If there is a king, there must be a kingdom.

00:49:10.700 If there's a kingdom, there must be a king.

00:49:13.020 Christ reigns, according to the scriptures,

00:49:15.940 not just in heaven, but on earth.

00:49:17.880 How does he reign?

00:49:18.800 Well, through his body, the church.

00:49:21.600 Not just in the future, but now.

00:49:24.120 His kingdom has come.

00:49:25.740 It is also coming.

00:49:27.100 And it will continue to come and expand forevermore.

00:49:32.060 Amen?

00:49:33.300 Amen.

00:49:34.280 Let's pray.

00:49:38.060 Lord, we thank you

00:49:39.100 that you have not given us the work of waiting,

00:49:44.060 but the work of building and doing,

00:49:46.320 not by our own strength,

00:49:48.600 but by the work and power of the Holy Spirit.

00:49:53.260 Father, you have saved us for good works.

00:49:57.480 That we are each stones that are building.

00:50:04.240 Lord, we ask that you would give us wisdom.

00:50:06.720 And that you would grant us more understanding.

00:50:09.280 And that you would unify our church on a hopeful and an optimistic eschatology.

00:50:14.380 Lord, that engages the culture.

00:50:16.480 And that would take this town, not just for our time, but for our children's time and our grandchildren's time.

00:50:23.260 that we would be hopeful of the work that you're doing in the world.

00:50:28.820 In Jesus' name, amen.

Dale Partridge - May 07, 2025

Part 2： Is Christ's Kingdom Now or in the Future

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