This morning my texts are taken
from the King James Bible specifically, and I do that because of the
familiarity of this translation above all others. And let me
say that right here that these texts will seem that they're
unrelated, but they are related. And I think we'll see why as
I get into this. The first text that I'll read
is from Matthew chapter 28 verses 18 through 20. And there the scripture says,
And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given
unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, teach all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and of
the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever
I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always,
even unto the end of the world. The second text is taken from
Luke chapter 2 verse 1. And it came to pass in those
days that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all
the world should be taxed. The third text is from John chapter
3 verses 16 17. For God so loved the world that
he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish but have everlasting life. For God sent his son not
into the world, not into, I'm gobbling this, for God sent not
his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world
through him might be saved. Previously, I spoke to you about
Israel to identify who are the people of God. We talked about
that from Paul's letters and from the things that Jesus had
to say about his people. That led to a second sermon about
prophecy because you can't address Israel and the church without
talking about prophecy and the interpretation of prophecy. And
we talked about prophecy having a context and it's important
to understand its place both in time and history and in the
scripture. That leads to another topic because
prophecy as we read in the New Testament and in the Old Testament,
seems to focus on the end of the world. That's a hot topic. It's always
a hot topic. We need to come to an understanding
of the world. What is the world? It's critical
for our understanding and our interpretation of prophecy. We've
discussed it before. I'll mention it again. You can
turn on the TV or the radio or go to the Christian bookstore
right now, today, and find any number of speakers, broadcasts,
books, talking about the end of the world. And of course, it's now. It's now. It's obvious it's now. in the year 1000, it was obvious
then that it was now. And as we talked about in identifying
the people of God and the interpretation of prophecy previously in 30
A.D., it was now. Well, it can't always be now.
It can't. So we have to try and come to
an understanding of what world are we talking about. It's meaningful
for us to try and figure that out, to understand it, to come
to a perspective on what world are we talking about. It's important
we understand context. Even prophecy has a context. Everything Jesus said was spoken
in a real time, in a real place, to a real people. So we've got
to figure out what its original setting was to begin to get a
handle on what was being said and why it was being said. So
let's set some context. It's important. The time, 30 A.D., 2,000 years ago. 2,000 years ago, the
place, what we would now call Asia Minor, the Middle East,
the Middle East, the subcontinent that bridged Africa, Asia, and
Europe. That's the place. You can look
on a globe today and still see that place. That is the place.
The geopolitical situation, which is also important that we understand
what was going on in history at that time, and here is the
situation, the powerful Roman Empire ruled that part of the
world. They ruled Europe from South
England through France, Spain, all the way over to Germany,
through the Middle East, into India and North Africa. They ruled and they ruled harshly. They kept the people subject.
with a barbarity and a brutalness that is historic. Israel was once a glorious and
powerful nation, but at the time, 30 A.D., it was not. It was a beggarly subject state
under Roman rule. And let's not forget that they
had been a subject state for a long time. They were 200 years
under the Persian Empires as a subject state. They were 270
years as a subject state under the Greeks. And now, at this
time, 30 AD, they had been a subject state under Roman rule for 100
years or so. Israel has not been a freestanding
nation for a long time. Nobody living at that time knew
what it was to be a free people. And they chafed under that. They cried out. They hoped. They put their hopes, their dreams,
their aspirations in the appearance of a Messiah. A man who would
come and deliver them. That was the geopolitical situation. Let's look at the religious situation
of the day. Israel reckoned themselves to
be the people of God. And with good reason. Let's not
forget that. They had been so selected through
Abraham to be the people of God. But this did not mix, mesh with
their reality. that they were a subject state
to a vile pagan nation. Their king was a political appointment
of Rome. Nobody ruled politically in Israel
without the acceptance, the appointment of Rome. And their religion was
corrupted as well. The high priest was also subject
to Rome. They were allowed to practice
their religion so far as Rome allowed. The people of Israel
were angry. They were angry at their Roman
oppressors and they were angry at their Jewish rulers who had
sold them out to the worst of pagans. That's the situation
of the day. That is the boiling pot of Israel. At a rolling boil fixing to bubble
over the top. 30 A.D. Now, built into all of this as
we look at these verses, as we talk about these verses, as we
try to come to an understanding, we have to understand the different
views of people. Everybody looks at people and
sees something and it's guided by their understanding of who
these people are and why they're that way. The Romans, the rulers,
those who had control of the time and place, looked out and
they saw Rome as the divine people. They represented civilization.
All others, All others, regardless of whether they were Jews or
Philistines, all others were barbarians, uncivilized, lesser
people. The Jewish point of view was
like and kind, actually, because the Jews as a people group recognized
themselves to be the divine people, the people of God, and all others
were pagans, were Gentiles, were unworthy, lesser people. Then
within the Jewish ranks you had a diversity of interpretation
as well. There were the common Jews and
the ruling Jews. And there was animosity there.
Because in the Jewish mindset of the day, Your average Jew
on the street was rabble. They were hardly worth your consideration. And unless you were attached
to the ruling class or somehow attached to the temple, you weren't
worthy either, even though you were a child of Abraham. So you
look at these different interpretations, these different views of people,
and then you see the Scripture and you can begin to sense what's
being said there. You can see the contempt of the
Pharisees and the Sadducees for the common Jew as they banter
back and forth with Jesus. And believe me, they saw Jesus
as someone from the streets, unschooled, not from the ruling
class, and not worthy. That's how they saw the common
people. All of this is built into the
Scripture. You cannot read the Scripture
without taking into consideration these views, the time and the
place and these views of the different people groups and gain
a deep understanding of what's really being said there. It's
critical to our understanding. Now, let's throw in another. consideration. The world. This is important. The word world
does not always mean world. Now that sounds rather Clintonesque. What is the meaning? What does
is mean? Well, the world in context can mean different
things and it's complicated by the fact that our word world,
the English word world, is used for four different words in Greek. So, you read the word world, and it may be one of four different
words. That's important to understand.
That is the reason for the verses that I read in the beginning.
The common thing to all of those was the word world. And yet these
verses are chosen because they use at their base the different
Greek words translated world. And it's important to see that
and understand that. Let's look at the words that
we translate in the King James as world. The first word is gi. And gi means physical land. This word gi is the root of our
word geography. Gi, physical land. The second word that is translated
world is cosmos and it means An orderly creation. It's the same root word that
we use to get our word cosmetics. Cosmetics. What do you do? You
take somebody ugly and make them look beautiful. Cosmos. Orderly creation. Another word that is translated
as world. is oikumene, which means habited,
civilized area. Oikumene. The fourth word translated
world in the King James is aeon, which is a time span. It's not
physical, it is a time span. Now the significance of these
words becomes clearer when we look at them in their application
in the scripture, in their place. And to do that it's real easy
because you can take a tool such as the Young's Analytical Concordance
and you can see the words listed with their scriptures. And I
did that. A pattern becomes apparent when
you look at the four words translated world. You look at the Greek
words and where they're used. And the word oikomene, which
again means habited or civilized area, is used in passages talking about
the empire, the Roman Empire. the civilized world. The example that you saw in the
original passages is that Caesar Augustus decreed that the world
should be taxed. Now, we understand completely
that he did not mean that China would be taxed, but he did mean
the entire empire Roman Empire would be taxed. It is the civilized
world. Again, let's go back to the Roman
viewpoint of the world. There are the Roman people, the
citizens of Rome, who are civilized. And then there's everybody else
who is a barbarian, little more than an animal. Oecomene, the
civilized world, the Roman Empire. is used in passages to describe
all people. All people. God so loved the
world that He gave His only Son. That
comes from the dissertation, the time that Jesus was speaking
to Nicodemus. And Nicodemus is a Pharisee,
a ruler of Israel, and his mind told him, his life teaching told
him that there were the Jews and everybody else was not even
worth considering. And Jesus told him, God so loved
the world. He wasn't talking about the dirt.
You don't get that from the scripture that God loved the rocks and
the dirt. That wasn't what he was saying,
but he was saying that all people in all places, even those outside
of Israel, God loved them. So cosmos is used to describe all the world, not just Israel.
It's used in contrast. The other word, Aion, is used in passages that refer
to the Jewish nation and religion. The Jewish nation and religion. And this is where we get into
who are the people of God? What about prophecy? What about
the end of the world? What about the end of the world? These passages speak of the aeon,
the age, the time period. Now, this has become important
to us because we're versed in the King James Bible. The King
James Bible was world changing. I cannot and will not deny that. It was the vehicle that God used
to take the Scripture around the world through the English
language. It set a standard in translation
that we still hold high today. It also established many traditions
in translation that unfortunately we still hold today. Understand
that there is scholarship in translation and there is tradition
in translation. And tradition should always be
examined. Scholarship should always be
honest and tradition should be examined because we all fall
into habits. Habits become traditions. They
may be right, they may be wrong. And it's interesting In the preface
to the New International Version Bible that I have at home, it
says that the New International Version was translated following
the methods and tradition of previous translations. That's the problem. And one of
the problems that floats to the top at such a time is that so
many translations still use one word, world, for four Greek words,
even today. That, in part, is tradition. That is tradition. Scholarship
today does indeed recognize that there are four different words.
And some of the newer translations are now making that distinction,
but some are not. Some are not. And as we argue
back and forth then about the King James Version being the
only true English translation, we perpetuate this confusion
in the word world. We hang not only our familiarity
with the Scripture on the word world, but we hang some of our
theology on the word world. And that can create problems
if not a crisis. We look at Luke chapter 2. We
discussed it a minute ago. And it came to pass in those
days there went out from Caesar Augustus that all of the empire
should be taxed. All the empire. John 3.16, For God so loved all
people that he gave his only begotten
Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but
have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son to all people to condemn them, but
that all people through him might be saved. Now it's interesting that Matthew
28 verses 18 through 20 uses gi, which is physical earth,
land, and ayam in the same verse. And Jesus came and spake unto
them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
That's gi, physical earth. Therefore, go ye therefore and
teach all nations. That word, by the way, is ethnos. That's where we get our word
ethnic from. That's kind of an interesting
sideline. But go and teach all nations, baptizing them in the
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching
them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And lo,
I am with you always, even unto the end of the age. Aeon. Aeon. Not D. Not Oikomene. That's good. Not Cosmos. But Aeon. Referencing a time frame. That begs the question then,
what time frame are we talking about? What would end by Jesus
coming? You see, built into the word
world is a whole lot of things. Scripture is heavy and loaded
with meaning, but you have to see the words for what they are
and what they say to gather what the meaning is. It is interesting
to note that our English Scripture, and I must say our English Scripture,
speaks of the end of the world and the last days of the world. But those passages that speak
of the end of the world and the last days of the world are speaking
of the Aeon. The Scripture does not in any
place speak of an end to the cosmos. It does not speak of the end
of the oikomene or of the gi. That's an important distinction
that is lost as we talk about the end of the world. It's very important to make that
distinction and then we can begin to see what Scripture is talking
about in prophecy. There's a lot being said now,
always, ever present about the end of the world. And brothers
and sisters, we're in the end. It's obvious. Read your newspaper. Watch the news. It's there. And
anytime somebody in the nation of Israel sneezes, that's just
another proof that it's all about to end. I don't think so. I think there's
something more important being said in the Scripture than even
what we perceive to be the end of the world. I think we were talking about
the end of an age, of a system, of a covenant, and the establishment
of an everlasting covenant and an everlasting kingdom, world
without end. The significance is great. The
scriptures are loaded with meaning. Sometimes we have to mine deep
to find out what that meaning is because we've got years and
years of interpretation and tradition layered on top of these things. But to dig deep, to try and understand
should never scare us because Christ told us that the Spirit
would come to us. and lead us into all truth. So
to ask these questions and to dig into the Scripture and try
and find more meaning should not scare us, but encourage us
because we have the assurance of Jesus Christ our Lord that
He will lead us into truth. And the truth is grander and
more glorious than we could even imagine. and loaded with more
meaning that we can put on it ourselves. The Scripture is incredible. The Scripture is the Word of
God and it's given to us that we may see and see clearly our
God in Christ. I will end there hoping that
maybe this has inspired some thought and maybe as we look
at the end of the world We can gain some peace through understanding
as to what's being talked about, and maybe not look over our shoulder
at shadows all the time. The Word of God is comfort to
our heart, and it does speak of an end. There's no question
about it. But it also speaks of the establishment
of an everlasting kingdom, world without end. Brothers and sisters,
I hope that we can see that kingdom, that we can feel that kingdom,
that we can live in that kingdom and hold to its glorious revelation
in Jesus Christ.