 All right, I would like to start this morning by singing Joy to the World. That song was never intended to be a seasonal song. In fact, Isaac Watts wrote it as he was writing a whole series of hymns one every Sunday and did all of the Psalms in the language of the New Testament. And this one was originally entitled The Messiah's Coming and Kingdom. It's probably the most exciting expression of kingdom reality that God sent His Son. He's going to rule the world. He's going to rule it in righteousness. He's going to make the nations prove the glory of His righteousness. Even the trees and the fields, every part of nature is going to join in this. So let's sing Joy to the World about three verses of that to begin with. Don't be so dull. Joy to the world. The Lord is come. Let earth receive her king. And heaven and nature sing. And heaven and nature sing. And heaven and nature sing. Now that was Joy to the World. This is Joy to the Earth. The Savior reigns. Let men their songs employ the fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains. Let the whole earth join in this celebration that its rightful king has finally come. He, Joy to the Earth. The Savior reigns. Let men their songs employ. Repeat the sounding joy. Repeat the sounding joy. Repeat the sounding joy. And now He makes the nations prove the glory of His righteousness. He rules the world with truth and grace. And makes the nations prove. And wonders of His love. And wonders of His love. And wonders of His love. In 1927, Bruce Barton, the author of the book The Man Nobody Knows, which was Jesus, wrote a parable supposedly based on a true story related to the work of Sir Christopher Wren who designed St. Paul's Cathedral after London basically burned down in 1666. This supposedly is a true account. Wren one day was there watching the work on this cathedral. And so he questioned three workers. He said to them, what are you doing? The first one said, I'm a bricklayer. I'm working hard laying bricks to feed my family. The second one said, I'm a builder. I'm building a wall. The third one said with a gleam in his eye, I'm a cathedral builder. I get to play a small part in building the greatest kingdom this world has ever seen. Now, if that is your purpose as a Christian, you have a reason to have a gleam in your eye. Unfortunately, I grew up without that reason for a gleam in my eye. The message I heard most of my growing up years, in fact, I would say almost all of my growing up years, is you need to get saved so you can go to heaven. That is part of the message, by the way. I don't want you to leave and think I don't believe in that message. But that's not the entire message. In fact, that's not the main focus of the message. In fact, if you had asked me what is the church, I should have been able from what I heard to say, it is an important nation on this earth right now demonstrating what the real nation of God should look like. That's what I should have said. I probably would have said the church is necessary to get you ready to go to heaven. That's basically probably what I would have said. So it was all focused on what I call a save me gospel. And that's amazing to me because the entire New Testament spells out the fulfillment of the disciples prayer. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Take Ephesians, for instance. You turn to Ephesians chapter one, go and someday look at it. And I dare you to find one hint in there that this book is going to be about getting people ready to go to heaven. It's preparing the people, God choosing, Christ redeeming, and the Holy Spirit sealing so they can demonstrate the glory of God's grace. That's what that whole book is about. It spells out the reconciling influence of the kingdom of God on this earth through the church. It shows how the church puts God's glory on display even to the principalities and angels looking on from heaven. So what is the kingdom of God? Someone has said the kingdom of God is when everything in heaven is instituted on earth some place. So that God's government, teaching, worship, glory, and power are manifested here on this earth just as it looks in heaven. That is a tall order for the church. And I suggest if you ever get that vision you will work with passion to bring your local congregation to that standard. And you will look rather a scant at people who are around the edges leading the church off in various ways and bringing things into the church that cause confusion and trouble and worldliness and division and partying and schism. You will hate that and you will certainly never be one of those persons if you really believe what I just said to you. Is such idealism possible in a sin-cursed world? Realistically speaking the church must deal with such a mixture of human issues, the weak and the strong, the true and the false, the faithful and the unfaithful the church has to deal with these where human beings it's a messy situation the church is constantly working with to bring it to that goal in Ephesians chapter 4 pictures us reaching that goal. It says God gives ministers and various offices in the church till we all come to the fullness of the perfection of Christ. I don't have those exact words but that's basically what it means. The church should build up and build up and build up and build up and become more and more like things are in heaven. Well yes the church I think I believe I'm sure can not ever perfectly reach that idealism although I do remind you that the goal for Christianity is perfection. We hear a lot of disclaimers oh nobody's perfect well that may be true but that is our goal. At the end of the chapter 5 of the Sermon on the Mount it says be you therefore perfect even as your father in heaven is perfect. Peter says be holy for I am holy. Paul says I labor to exhaustion to present every man perfect in Christ and then he says I haven't already attained that but I am pressing toward the mark and that's what God wants to see. He said to David one time I know you're not going to build the temple but it blessed me that you wanted to and so I'm going to build a house for you. God loves that passionate pursuit even though he knows in the sin cursed world with all our temptations it will never be completely attained but he's looking for the passion for that attainment. Do you have that passion this morning? That's the question I'm asking you. Now with all the problems that the church faces we need to look a little bit at the oyster. What does the oyster do? The oyster has problems too. One day it finds that a little piece of quartz has gotten inside the shell and it's irritating. So what does the oyster do? Well the oyster doesn't rebel. It just begins to deposit a milky substance on that little piece of quartz and after a while it has made out of the trouble itself. Something so precious that people risk their lives for it. Somebody has described that pearl in a way that I just love to think about. Wondrous beauty wrapped around trouble. That's what should be happening with the situations we have to deal with. And Brother Dale spelled it out so beautifully last night. What that means on our part if we're ever going to see wondrous beauty wrapped around trouble. Well for this ideal to ever have any semblance of reality there are three ways of the kingdom that must be in place. And I want to discuss those three ways this morning. Number one and the most important and I'll probably spend maybe as much time as any on this one. A kingdom mentality. Number two a kingdom theology. And number three a kingdom society. So let's talk about a kingdom mentality. Somebody has said we are not what we think we are but what we think we are. Now that is a major emphasis in the book of Philippians which is a favorite book of mind along with many others. It says the secret of spiritual success the secret of joy in life is how you think. In the book of Philippians you have the mind mentioned seven times you have think mentioned twice. You have remembrance once know is there eight times knowledge is there two times knowing is there one time 21 times in this book a references made to the mind. And of course the verse that really calls attention to this is in chapter two when it says let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. And then it shows an amazing picture of the one who was at the very top he was God with the father. And he takes seven steps down and we don't have time to look at those this morning they would be instructed to look at. He takes seven steps down to he finally gets to the lowest rung of humanity death not as a hero but the death of the cross the most ignominious death anybody could possibly give anybody and the most painful and drawn out and ugly. The whole way from the top to that bottom of degradation. But he there are two where for us after that. The first one is where for because of that God has highly exalted him. That should motivate us we have other verses that say he that omlet himself shall be exalted. I don't know if you ever looked at that as a promise. Now if that's what you're going to glory and you're not humbling yourself. But if you just let God do it perhaps you won't even realize it but God will do he will bring about a vindication without any of your effort whatsoever. If you just continue to do what Jesus did and we heard all about that last night but there's another where for in there. And it always distresses me when that next verse is taken out of context and many good sermons have been preached from that next verse. And they're good sermons and they're true sermons but the context is where for work out your own may I put another word in there exaltation with fear and trembling because it's God that's working in you. He's the one that's going to do it just like he did it for Jesus. And the Philippian letter promises joy for the people who think right. When I see people that are down in the dumps and depressed I know what's going on inside their head. Their thinking is wrong. Their commitment is wrong. Their thoughts are not what they should be if they would think right about the kingdom and the king they would be able to have joy. Joy is found in this book six times. Rejoice is found nine times. Rejoicing is found one time. Rejoice is found one time. The whole book is about the characteristics of a gospel discipline mind and I'll give you the outline of the book. Number one, chapter one, the single mind. Number chapter two, the submissive mind. Chapter three, the spiritual mind. Chapter four, the secure mind. That whole book is about having the right thoughts and responding accordingly. Now Romans 12 verse two says, be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind. Well specifically what needs to be renewed? The very next verse tells us plainly what will be renewed. The first evidence of a renewed mind. Let me read it to you. For I say through the grace given unto me to every man that is among you, listen to this. This is the first evidence of the renewed mind. Not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think. So those who claim to have a renewed mind, that's the first and primary evidence you're going to see. They have a proper concept of themselves. It's also the evidence of the filling of the Holy Spirit. Ephesians chapter five, my charismatic friends like to tell me that the evidence of being filled with the Spirit is speaking in tongues. And I quote this verse to them and I say, the Bible says be filled with the Spirit speaking to yourselves in, uh oh, it's not there. That's where it should be. That's where the Holy Spirit should have put it, if what they say is true. But it does say speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, unquenchable joy, no matter what the circumstances are like we heard last night. If you see someone who has a joy that's unquenchable, that's an evidence of the Holy Spirit because you will not do that. You will not stand at a stake and sing while you're burning the worst thing that could ever happen to a person. That's just not going to happen. And the second thing, it says with thanksgiving. And the last one, I never heard a sermon preached on this, submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. I never heard anybody preach a sermon that I never had a charismatic person or any person for that matter come to me and say, an outstanding evidence of the Holy Spirit is whether you can submit yourself, whether you can bend, or whether you always stand straight and tall and have to have it your way. And that's because the reason for this is because that's what the new birth does. It deals with self. I'm barring for Francis Schaefer, and I guess this will go up on the board the way it should. That would hurt your back if you sit on that chair. Sorry, I'm not very steady here. Francis Schaefer said in every heart, there's a cross and a throne. Before you're converted, Christ is on the cross and self is on the throne. And after you're converted, self is on the cross and Christ is on the throne. That's what conversion is. Conversion is a resolution of selfishness, which by the way is a synonym for sin. People call me on the billboard and we talk and they say, well, what's sin? And I could give them a theological definition and then we'd have a big debate. I usually say sin is selfishness and they never argue with me. And then I say, selfishness is what's causing all the problems in the world and they never argue with me. That is man's basic problem, selfishness. In fact, get that in your head so that when you sense you're being selfish, you realize you're sinning. You're doing the opposite of what you're supposed to be doing. That is what sin is. And that gets resolved right there whenever you give your heart to the Lord. That whole self-issue is put in its place. Now, unfortunately, self loves to get down off the cross. You remember the last time I spoke here, I gave you a little diagram to show you what it means to bear your cross every day. I used to wonder what that meant and I've heard many sermons, people trying to describe what cross-bearing is. Some people think it's if you get cancer or something. That is difficult. I don't want to minimize that. That's not really what cross-bearing is. Cross-bearing is let's look at it this way. This is the way of self and this is the way of Christ. And so you're going along on this way and all of a sudden you realize that Jesus really does not want you on that road. He wants you on a different road and you turn. And you do this all day every day because we make decisions all day every day. And self is there to intrude in every one of them. And we make a decision to crucify self. And it's pretty difficult sometimes because we really get our hearts set on things. But we say no to self. We say yes to Christ. And this goes on all day every day 24-7. That's what it means to bear your cross. So selfishness is sin. The kingdom of God, we're talking about the way of the kingdom. And this is the main takeaway I want you to get in your mind. The kingdom of God is diminished when self gets off the cross. Hear me. The kingdom of God is diminished every time self gets off the cross. All right? When self-expression is not checked in the church. Now expressive individualism, there's a lot of writing being done about this right now. That's a term that was coined by somebody. Expressive individualism is a phrase coined by philosopher Charles Taylor in a book called A Secular Age. He says, and the reason I'm bringing this up is because the world does influence us. And if you're listening to me, you're going to see that what he describes, we are struggling with in our churches. It is the largest ideological shift in America during the 20th century. This tremendous shift that self must express itself. Of course, based on existentialism, which says there's no meaning in life. And so you've just got to make your own meaning, and so it's very important for you to express yourself so you can find your own meaning. I don't have anything out there, but you hear echoes of that in the church. I do. It represents the cumulative effect of secularism's insatiable appetite to understand the self. And Carl Truman has written a whole book on this, and then there's a journal that publishes all kinds of responses to that book in all kinds of areas where pastors are struggling with it. Now listen to this if this sounds familiar. The expressive individual is the sovereign individual. All other relationships to other people, to institutions, to those who hold office in such institutions is subordinate to the personal needs and feeling of me as an individual. Thus I can choose whether to acknowledge their authority. I can choose what my commitment to them should involve, how I should treat any counsel they give me. I decide how I should respond to any attempt to rebuke or discipline me. I am the sovereign arbiter of what is good for me. Everybody else can practically give me nothing more than pious advice based on their opinion. How many think that sounds familiar? That is what the church is up against. That is the spirit of the age when I just read to you. Now the church in the past dealt with this too. Not with the pressures we're facing today. And the interesting thing is the church has adopted philosophies that makes it less likely than ever that they'll ever deal with this. In the past church has used cultural norms. I'm not going to use the term you usually use because it causes a reaction. The church always dealt with with cultural norms and held people accountable to those norms. But that now is trashed as legalism. It's trashed as an artificially opposed righteousness. That what we need is for people to teach principles and beliefs and then let me with the Holy Spirit decide how I'm going to apply those principles. You all know what I'm talking about. The result, they promise, will be a vibrant spirituality. John Wesley actually took this approach. John Wesley did not prescribe cultural norms for his people. He did struggle with what was going on. We visited his little chapel up there in northern London on our trip here the other year. And the guide told us that when that church opened, it was a new chapel, the first sermon he preached in that chapel was to spend 15 minutes scolding the people for their fashionable clothes. So that's what it finally comes down to if you don't do something about the problem. I'm going to read you what he said. I am distressed. I know not what to do. I see what I might have done once. I might have said preemptorily and expressly, here I am, I in my Bible, I will not, I dare not vary from this book either in great things or small. I have no power to dispense with one jot or tittle of what is contained therein. I am determined to be a Bible Christian, not almost, but all together. Who will meet me on this ground? Join me on this or not at all. With regard to dress in particular, I might have been as firm and now I see it would have been far better as either the people called the Quakers or the Moravian brethren. I might have said this is our manner of dress, which we know is both scriptural and rational. If you join with us, you are to dress as we do, but you need not join unless you please. But alas, and this is true of many churches today, the time has passed. What can I do now? I cannot tell. Are we going to accept that warning? This scenario always ends the same way, always ends the same way. Let's be honest. I'm quoting again from these books. For a Christian to join a local church, or rather to submit to a local church, they must directly renounce expressive individualism. It's supposed to be there. And accept the church's role in announcing and shaping their public identity. That's not me saying that. That's a whole group of pastors who are trying to confront this whole spirit of the age of expressive individualism. And they're saying it's by cultural norms. That is not an imposed righteousness to say that God has spoken through the church and this is what we as a brotherhood have decided we're all going to do together. Kingdom believers find their identity in the culture developed in the local church in its pursuit of the gospel, not in self-expression. Self must remain on the cross. This is the kingdom mentality. Number two, a kingdom theology. In a kingdom, loyal citizens explicitly obey the straightforward laws of the king. They don't spin those laws to fit their own desires. The early Christians had a very simple and direct theology. In the first place, they did not have a printed Bible where they could go and cherry pick verses all over the Bible to prove their point and make their case. All they had was portions of Scripture being passed around. The Bible would not be canonized until another 300 years. All they had was portions of Scripture that they cherished and they memorized them and they explicitly followed what Jesus had said. Here are some quotes from our own Bible that I may know him. I count all things but lost for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord. As ye have received Christ Jesus, the Lord so walk ye in him. He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk even as he walked. The truth is in Jesus. But to the apostles, following Jesus actually led to something more profound. And this just blesses me. I'm quoting again. In the Gospels there is a call to follow Jesus literally. But the New Testament letters written after Jesus rose from the dead and ascended to heaven seldom talk about following Jesus. Following is inadequate language to describe Christ's impact on our identity. The apostles prefer to describe people as being in Christ rather than following him. We actually participate in Christ's very identity. If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. And the goal of Paul's pastoral ministry is to present every person mature in Christ. Somehow to participate in Christ is to begin a new voyage of discovery. We do not lose our past stories, yet we increasingly understand ourselves in reference to Jesus Christ. Now what he's saying is Paul did once say follow me as I follow Christ. But Paul's language is different from that or it goes beyond that. When he says I am crucified, yet I live not I, but Christ liveth in me. This is more than just imitating Christ. This is appropriating the very person of Christ. Intermingling his person with ours so that somebody who watches you day by day who knows anything of Christ can see a real resemblance. Is this John or is this Jesus? I see both, but the thing that dominates is Jesus coming through John. And so through his epistles we have these tremendous little prepositional phrases based all through the epistles. In Christ, unto Christ, for Christ, to Christ, with Christ, after Christ. They wanted to be one with him. Of course that was his prayer. That we would actually be one, not just followers, but actually united. Commingled with him. It's a little bit like you throw a piece of round wood in a fire and you come back later and it's not just round wood in the fire, it's fire in the wood. And that's the picture I get when I read John's comment and Jesus actually introduced the comment that we should abide in him. This is the indwelling Christ. It's not just me following, it's me and Christ together. His mind. His will. His feelings. His goals. His purpose. My mind. My feelings. My goal. My purpose. Through the supernatural motivation and instruction of the Holy Spirit. Paul says it this way. He says, I just quoted it to you. I'm crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live. I'm dead. I'm on that cross. But I'm dead. But I'm living. Because Christ is living in me. Not I, but Christ lives within me. All right. So that's the theology of the kingdom. A union. An actual participation with Jesus. So that his mind, his will, his feelings, his motivation is flowing through me. But Paul was afraid. Paul had a fear. He saw something. It was beginning in his day. And what was it? But I fear, Paul says, lest by any means as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety. Listen to this. So your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. That's what Paul was concerned about. He was concerned that somebody would do something with this spiritual reality that we all can and must experience. And he said that can be corrupted. Just like the serpent beguiled Eve, we can be led away. And then in Colossians, he becomes much more specific as to how that happens. Beware lest any man spoil you or rob you through philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world. And listen to this. And not after Christ. But what's he talking about? You can read commentaries. I never saw it in a commentary. I assume this is talking about somebody going off to the university somewhere and being influenced by worldly philosophies. He's not talking about that. He's talking about Christians who use the world's methods to come up with their theology. The world depends on reason and logic, and Christians have reason and logic. But the final arbiter of all their thoughts is what Jesus has said and what Jesus has done. But Paul says, if you're not careful, you're going to take the Gospel and you're going to begin to logically reason with it. You're going to do like Augustine did. Jesus said one time, compel them to come in. So compel them to come in means we can use force. And that turned into a Pandora's box and a nightmare that we're living with even to this day. The biggest accusation against Christians I hear from people who call from the billboard are awful things that have been done in the name of Christ. And that's because somebody through philosophy and vain deceit and using the rudiments of the world on the Gospel changed it. And instead of simple obedience that produces a Christ likeness, they ended up with something far from that so that today you can be a member of many churches who call themselves Bible believing churches and you can be divorced and remarried and you can swear oaths to people and you can accumulate wealth for yourself. In short, you can disobey everything Jesus said if you pray a sinner's prayer and get your ticket to heaven which is irrevocable and you're good to go. That happened through philosophy and vain deceit. And it can happen to us the church I went to as a boy started talking about well after they had this expressive individualism for instance with the covering and they tried every little nuance they could think of to make it so it was a genuine spiritual expression of the thing they finally got tired of the whole thing and they said well does the Bible really teach that? Well let's see. And guess what? They found out the Bible doesn't teach it after all. They used the philosophy of the world, vain deceit the rudiments of the world on the Gospel. My friends, I plead with you today do not do that. So what happens? They find most of their verses believe it or not in the epistles. You can't do much with Jesus' teachings except just take them the way they are but you can go to the epistles and there's a lot of logic there and some philosophical thinking and you can sort of spin it a little bit and then you end up like NT Wright said the evangelicals have never known what to do with the teachings of Jesus because after they're done with all their spinning and created all their systematic theologies they don't fit what Jesus actually said and that was Paul's concern. Kingdom believers start with the Gospels the Gospels aren't more important than any epistles. Hear me I don't want anybody to go out and misquote me but they see the Gospels as primary these are the teachings of Jesus and Paul's teachings are just as important but they must be seen in harmony with what Jesus said and then you have a proper theology you obey Jesus and you say well Paul's a little hard to understand there but here's what Jesus said so what Paul said has to harmonize with that so this must be what Paul meant you understand what I'm saying it is a kingdom theology focused on the king Paul feared that Christians would use the world's logical and philosophical message on Jesus actual teaching an example thank you he thought he should cool me down a little bit I guess and that's exactly what happened I just described it to you and of course the worst compromise was the compromise with violence it opened the Pandora's box now you have Christians after we have used the world's methods on Jesus' teachings with cherry pick verses to form systematic and very impressive logical systems to come to conclusions that are suspiciously like we really wanted all along now we have Christians marching off to Jerusalem to kill Muslims Christians now we have Christians torturing and burning other Christians at the stake now we have Christians conquering the Native Americans in the name of Christ now we have Christians enslaving blacks obeying the preachers who preach from the pulpits now we have a war to end slavery where tens of thousands of people are killed now we have the conquest of Latin America under the sign of the cross with all of its horrible massacres now we have all the wars of western Europe that were fought for hundreds of years between Christian groups where they've tried to fight it out isn't that an awful story that is the horrible consequence of not obeying Jesus our Anabaptist forefathers said this is a true interpretation if it contradicts anything Jesus said or did he's the hermeneutic by which we interpret the scriptures Kingdom Theology has a passion for perfect Christ likeness we hang on every word he said at everything he did well what about Matthew 23 where he really let it out Pharisees and our vipers and hypocrites and so on did you ever consider what tone of voice he might have had when he said that if you look at the end of the chapter I think he probably was saying it with a weeping voice oh you vipers you hypocrites but if we spin our theology then that helps us understand that he probably really barked it out at them and really laid it out and laid them all flat and he did not come to condemn the world I'm trying to explain to you how this happens because it happens among us it's very easy if there's something we're having a difficulty with and our self wants to get off the cross it's very easy to find verses and put a little bit of the world's logical and rudimentary spin on those verses and you can come to the conclusions you want to come to that's a gospel theology let's talk for just a few moments for the remaining time about a kingdom society the gospel is more than a call to an individual kingdom ethic when I hear people talk about kingdom Christians I'm listening very carefully are they just talking and this is important I'm not saying this is not important but does their consideration of a kingdom Christian with an individual who obeys Jesus he's a kingdom Christian well that's what he should be doing but that's not a kingdom theology the kingdom theology pictures a kingdom society after all a kingdom is not one person a kingdom is a society of people and God always wanted a people not just individuals sometimes it got down to the point where there was just one individual but God always wanted a people in the Old Testament he wanted a nation who demonstrated what a nation looks like whose God is the Lord and even though under Solomon we find out after Solomon died it wasn't the best example of the nation it was far superior to any other nation even in its rather degraded state because the queen of Sheba came and she said I was told in my own land about this the ideals of this nation but I realize now that I'm here I haven't heard the half there's no nation so blessed there's no nation whose laws are so just there's no nation who is so beautiful as this nation that's what God wants Ephesians chapter one introduces the church and it says three times in that first chapter like a refrain to a song to put God's glory the glory of God's grace on display God wants a nation of people now we often hear well today the nation doesn't have any a location yes it does the local congregation is a location an actual place where you can go and see the kingdom of God I don't like that idea that it has no particular geographic location it has many geographical locations but they are identifiable locations where you can go and see the kingdom of God God always wanted a people does he still want a people first Peter chapter 2 verse 9 ye are a chosen generation just like Israel was ye are a royal priesthood just like Israel was it was mediating God's grace a blessing to anybody who came in contact with them ye are a chosen generation you are a holy nation just like Israel was ye are a peculiar people just like Israel was a very special people very favored people why that you should show forth the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light the world needs to see the glorious of God's grace and the beauty that attends any person who allows that grace to operate on their lives and any community that allows that grace to operate on their community the world needs to see that the world needs to see a group of people who recapture not perfectly but credibly because when they fail they will repent they recapture credibly what the whole world would look like if everybody obeyed Jesus and people can look at that and they say there is the lost ideal it's in my heart I know what that ideal should be there it is those people are living that ideal I have not lived that ideal I am a sinner I am selfish I break all those things I see those people doing but look at it it's beautiful I want to be part of it and this gospel of the kingdom was to be preached to the whole world the motivation for most people was to go out to save people from going to hell that's a good motivation I am not denying that but the real call was to go and preach the kingdom of God and establish colonies of heaven so people all over the world could see the society that God always wanted and by God's grace and Christ's death and resurrection and the Holy Spirit can now be a reality not perfectly but credibly that has a tremendous appeal I have had many people tell me on the telephone I left the church years ago because I was sick and tired of its negative message if I had heard that message preached I would still be a Christian today but that message has tremendous appeal the Marxists actually promised that they promised a society where it was from each according to his means and to each according to his need and they won one third of the world that that promise had never delivered on it they make the promise and then they try to impose it by force and it ends up with a few elites making everybody else equally miserable while they pocket the cash and somehow the world never learns that you can't impose this by force it only works when people that have consistently learned to keep self on the cross and then you'll get a credible picture of this if every person focuses on keeping self on the cross and sees themselves as working out all kinds of practical applications together that demonstrates the gospel and this beautiful kingdom God always wanted a people to showcase the glory of his grace to showcase what the original society was supposed to look like to showcase what that society can be even now through the redemption and power of the Holy Spirit but I have to give this caveat I've been sort of alluding to it all along this is not the absolute kingdom of God I think this is why some people react to this message they think well the kingdom is coming in the future this church isn't the kingdom it's not perfect, no it isn't that kingdom does not need to be washed and sanctified by the blood of Jesus this is the perfect realization this is not a perfect realization this is just simply a credible representation of that kingdom on this earth giving a credible picture of what that should be and it is credible because like I said if it functions the way it should our failures are resolved by repentance by the way the citizens of this kingdom do not practice sin I have people who make excuses for themselves they talk to me and say well everybody sins now wait a minute Christians do not practice sin they may sin but there's something there that won't let them take the next step they're convicted, they repent, they make it right they don't walk in sin the sinner practices sin and God forbid that we have anybody in our churches that practice sin that don't find themselves checked by the Holy Spirit whenever they commit a sin alright what are some characteristics of this kingdom well I've listed four and I think we can move over these rather quickly a close community the word the bible uses is fellowship it's a greek word koinonia it means partnership it means communion the same word it means full participation in each other's lives this is how the bible describes it and the multitude of them that believe were a one heart and one soul isn't that beautiful now the bible doesn't tell us things that are unrealistic if it says that's what happened here then that is a possibility but it won't happen automatically I've been famous for saying this the only thing that happens automatically is sin this will be the result of cross bearing obedience on the part of every member and the church as a whole and they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and fellowship in the breaking of bread and prayers and had all things common I don't think that just means their money I think it means their practices I think they just did together it was one big cultural picture to the world what it means to live a kingdom life their lives were constantly intermingled now we come up with a problem how do we do that well you have to remember that the church began in the cities Ephesus Corinth Philippi in fact paganus is the french word for people who live in the country and the heathen of course live out on the heath now I'm not here saying you're all pagans that live in the country I'm only trying to challenge you with what actually happened here at the beginning these people were in the city they actually were all within walking distance of each other they were able to be in each other's houses they were able to break bread from house to house they were able to spend time together praying and singing on a regular daily basis they were a highly visible society of the redeemed now I don't know how to solve this problem the Amish are going to love me for what I'm going to say next but it was the automobile that scattered us that make it possible for some of us to drive a half hour an hour to church every Sunday well there's not too much intermingling happens when that's the case and I'm not in any way trying to make anybody feel guilty I don't know what to do about this but there's not going to be much of a visible community there's not going to be very much real fellowship unless we somehow figure out a way to get our community closer together and I'll just leave it at that and now you're thinking Hutterite and what we do with that is we go to Acts chapter 2 and Acts chapter 4 and we apply a lot of theology to it and by the time we're done with it we've thrown those chapters out of the Bible I think we should take a different approach I think we should look at those chapters and say I don't know how far we can go with this ideal but here is an ideal that we want to pursue can I give that as a challenge so the next time in the Sunday school don't throw those chapters out of the Bible say look let's think seriously how we maybe could pursue this ideal there's something about geographical closeness of believers that make possible a level of fellowship you're not going to have in any other way it's just that simple my brother Luke that passed away not too many years ago went to a rehab center for troubled boys and of course he never was too excited about this when I talked about it but he called me one day and said John I'm experiencing what you talk about and it's wonderful I'm living here with brethren and we work together every day and we're close and there's fellowship like you wouldn't believe and I said well I'm sure glad you found that out so I don't know what to do about this but I think God would like to have a highly visible community picture for the world to see a little colony of heaven in fact Philippi one of the cities was just that it wasn't a colony of heaven but it was a colony it was a Roman colony and when you went to Philippi you walked through Greek territory you heard Greek language you saw Greek customs, you saw Greek clothing you saw Greek laws everything was Greek until you stepped inside the city of Philippi and it was Roman and there you heard the Latin language and there you saw Roman customs Roman togas and there you saw Roman laws and there you saw Roman culture were those people saying like many people who are part of the kingdom of God and they're saying oh did this Philippians say oh it's such a burden to be a Roman in the middle Greek territory no that is not how they felt about it they would have said to you we are Romans is that how you feel about the kingdom of God that's how I feel I'm excited to be different I'm excited to have a different language I'm excited to live by different laws I'm excited to have a different king I'm excited to look different I'm just excited to sing differently I'm excited about all the things that are a tremendous contrast to that failed culture out there this was Rome Philippi somebody has said this was Rome away from Rome the kingdom of God is heaven away from heaven in fact I had to call her one day she listened to my talk about this for a while and she said are you saying that this should be heaven on earth I said yes lady that's what I'm saying it won't be perfect remember but then just don't run off and say nobody's perfect no no no the pursuit of perfection is what God loves he loves that passion to be like Christ he loves that passion to be like his original society he loves that passion for the world to see what he always had in mind a people if you please a community of faith a fellowship a partnership of people so we talked about a close community let's talk a little bit about kingdom economics and you all knew I was going to talk about this these people they have treasure they've accumulated a lot but it's laid up in heaven and they do it by giving in fact 2nd Corinthians 9 7 says they're cheerful givers that word in the greek is hillarose giving is what they love to do they're hilarious givers because they see giving not as an expense like the telephone bill or the electric bill they see giving as an opportunity to put their money and their stuff somewhere else where they will always be able to enjoy it that's how they look at giving and so I tell people that really when the offering basket is passed there should be chuckles all up and down the pew I mean this should be a hilarious experience I'm being a little facetious of course but really we need to change our whole mentality about giving people who believe in investments they'll drive an old car they'll wear shabby clothes they'll not spend anymore on their house than they have to they certainly won't waste their money in any way because they know that somebody has said the compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world they know what an investment can do are you investing the bible says Paul says that our goal should be equality are there rich people in your church and poor people in your church that's not a kingdom picture the kingdom picture is there's an equality Paul says there's abundance of supplies for your need and whatever so that there's an equality Paul's saying that's what we all should be striving for equality now I know there are a lot of questions to be answered there's a lot of practical things here and I'm glossing over them of course but they're the problems where we can have wondrous beauty wrapped around trouble okay you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich yet for your sakes he became poor that you through his poverty might be rich do you imitate that that's what Jesus did he didn't accumulate well he dispersed it so that everybody else could enjoy it so this is a picture of an equitable society and it's voluntary that's what makes it so beautiful it's coming from the inside out it's coming from Christ on the throne self on the cross and people are delighting in this equitable society that they're participating in selfishness is broken I often have to wonder what would have happened if the gospel really had been taken to the rest of the world you think about it in fact I'm tempted sometimes to have a church called a full kingdom full gospel church but I know somebody else has taken that term and I don't want it to mean that but we do should be preaching a full gospel can you imagine what would have happened the gospel first went to Russia a thousand years ago it would have included the gospel peace every Christian would have been taught it's wrong to kill it's wrong to fight, it's wrong to be violent it's wrong to hurt people number two it's wrong to accumulate wealth wealth should be shared suppose that had been the gospel that was preached and practiced throughout Russia the Marxists would have never had anything to say in fact the sad part they came to our Mennonite communities and they didn't see that there either they saw extreme wealth and extreme poverty in our own Mennonite communities and the Marxists were not impressed and they mercilessly killed our people because they were the epitome of what they were trying to destroy what a tragic story I try to imagine what it would have been like if the whole Christian of Russia had not gotten the message to the Mennonite colonies they would have said here it is here's what we're trying to get accomplished these people have already done it we'd better listen to their message but that did not happen and Jesus said more about this subject than he said about any other subject except the kingdom of God and yet somehow we'd lost over it I remind you from our talk last year worship is worth ship it has to do with values Christianity in terms of morals Christians don't steal, Christians don't lie Christians don't fornicate, Christians don't do any of those things that's right but there's another category that we don't pay much attention to and that's values now values isn't what's right and what's the difference to what's right and what's wrong it's the difference between what's most important and what is least less important and if you read chapter 11 of Hebrews that whole chapter is about values there's nothing about morals in that chapter it's all about people who have the approach of Christ to be greater riches than the treasures of Egypt and it's interesting we call that the faith chapter ah so values, faith has more to do or at least particularly faith is closely connected to our values well I'll tell you why because you're valuing like Abraham an unseen world and you're living the reality of that in a world of tangible temptations and that takes faith we need to talk about values you're worshiping whatever you value the most is it money is it your vacation is it hunting is it fishing what is it that you talk about most of the time and get the most passionate about and get the most excited about and everybody knows it if you get on this subject with so and so you're gonna hear a lot out of him well then that's your number one value and I ask us all to examine what is that what is it that brings the most excitement and the most outpouring of our hearts when we're around people I must bring this message quickly to a close Jesus said and he said you can't serve God in mammon so you're either worshiping and serving one or the other the third point that I'd like to make servant shepherds I'm just reading what Jesus said and he said into them the kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors but Jesus shall not be so by the way Jesus only ever said twice the world does this but my people do this this is one of them the world's leaders lord it over people and make people submit to them and he also said material things do the Gentiles seek but seek ye first the kingdom of God so we are people who really focused on nonconformity and rightly so there are two areas where Jesus said there will be a stark difference the people who are in charge of the congregation they're shepherds they lead by the way did you ever notice that the word authority has the word author in it a person who's in authority is a person who originates and helps people with all kinds of exciting things to bless them a true authority does that well I didn't finish reading this and he said into them the kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors but ye shall not be so but he that is greatest among you let him be as the younger and he that is chief as he that does serve for whether he's greater he that sitteth at meet or he that serveth is not he that sitteth at meet but I am among you as he that serveth one amazing example of this is Jesus when he was at Capernaum I'm going to read what it says it was after a whole day this was in the evening this was after Jesus had spent a whole day ministering and when the sun was setting all day that had sick with diverse any sick with diverse diseases brought them unto him and I assume that it was everybody in the city that was sick it must have been a huge multitude of needy people and listen to this and he laid his hands on every one of them and healed it must have taken hours after the man was already tired Jesus never appointed his disciples to be his secretaries to see who he had time to talk to or to keep the children away no he never did that he never had that mentality of shepherding the true authority and he said be not ye called rabbi for one is your master even Christ and all of you are brethren and call no man your father upon earth for one is your father which is in heaven neither be ye called masters I have to wonder about these names we give to positional situations I don't know he says be very careful not to use these names with people we don't want people to be viewed as somebody who is controlling other people be ye called masters for one is your master even Christ but he that is greatest among you shall be your servant whose servant shall exalt himself shall be a base and he that dumbled himself shall be exalted he spoke with authority because he did provide constant inspiration and blessing to everybody he met and finally the ideal resistance which we call non-resistance but it's actually a powerful form of resistance Jesus said to sword wielding Peter put up your sword into its place for all they that take the sword shall perish by the sword of Tertullian said when Christ disarmed Peter he disarmed every soldier and the church obeyed that for 200 years that's historical record if you're talking to someone who's not believing in non-violence take them to the history 200 years in fact it was coterminous with the pox romana the 200 years the unusual 200 years when the world was basically at peace while the Christians and when that ended when the Christians finally compromised the pox romana was over and the world was back at war again and the Christians took credit for the pox romana they said it's because of our prayers that the demons of war are defeated I pray every morning that the demons of war in this world will be defeated I invite you to pray along with me this was the Christians and then the Christians this was yes the church and then the church compromised the ideal resistance is to turn the other cheek to give the cloak to go the second mile to unselfish sharing and I'd love to talk for a long time on this but we're coming to the end and we need to close we overcome evil with good so these are the characteristics of the kingdom of God it's a close community it has a kingdom of theology which is simply obeying Jesus it has an ideal it has a kingdom a kingdom economic which loves to give it thinks in terms of laying up treasure in heaven it never considers that anything accumulated on this earth would ever have any ultimate worth and finally it is resisting by overcoming evil with good I conclude with a story my friend Clarence Fretz who was the principal paradisement in a school where I first taught was a missionary to Luxembourg and on one trip back after his furlough he was on a ship with some evangelical I think maybe the man was a Presbyterian and they got to talking and Clarence discovered this man was non-resistant and he said to him he said were you taught to be non-resistant oh no, no, no well how did you come to be non-resistant he said here's how it happened he said the last time I was crossing the ocean returning to Africa from my furlough I opened my Bible and the Bible says give to him that would borrow the turned on out of way now I'm not saying you have to take this the way he took it but please don't apply the rudiments of this world on it either he said I looked at that and I said to my wife if we did that in Africa those people would rob us blind that makes no sense so he said the next morning I opened my Bible to have devotions and there it was same verse he said the whole way across the ocean that verse just stuck in my mind like a cockle bur I could not get any other verse to study that just I could not get away from that verse so I said to my wife let's do it what do we have to lose except our stuff so I said we went back to Africa he said it didn't take long for the people to learn our new policy if you came and asked for a chair you got the chair if you came and asked for the table you got the table and he said pretty soon everything in our hut was gone and we were sitting on the dirt floor and saying now what do we do meanwhile down in the village they were making fun of the missionary he was and that went on for maybe a couple weeks and finally somebody had the courage to say you know what he's the bandwidth real character any cowards can do what we did I'm taking my chair back yes I think I'll take the table back yes I'll take the silverware back well they had silverware whatever he said I don't know if we got everything back or not but he said I do know this they said to me sir just that God gave everything because of our need we did not understand your message now we do and he said then people began to respond now that's interesting here was a man who had the courage to take Jesus at his word maybe he carried it too far I'm not saying everybody has to do exactly what he did please understand me but he did what he understood Jesus was saying to him he did not know that the end was going to be the way it was are we going to do that with all of Jesus' teachings he did it with non-resistance are we going to do it with economics are we going to do it with all the other things I talked about this morning that's the question I'll leave with you let's practice the way of the kingdom it's the way of Jesus' teachings an example practiced by the power of the Holy Spirit and the miracles he wants to do in our hearts and in our community Father we thank you this morning there have been many people through history that have done just what this missionary did and have had the same kind of results in different ways Oh God forgive us for our clever rationalizing forgive us for our expressive individualism forgive us for our camouflage selfishness and pride and oh God help us to see ourselves as you see us and help us to respond accordingly we pray