the practice of Christ and his
church and thus what we are doing is observing how the Spirit of
God through Luke and his personal conversation with Theophilus
who is a type of all believers is going to unfold for us the
work of Jesus Christ continued in the life of the church and
thus what we are desiring to do is to enter into that work
which he so faithfully began and purposes to conclude when
he returns again. We left off at verse 2, and we're
going to start there, and then we'll be able to work through
our outline beginning at verse 3. Theophilus was told by Luke
that everything that Christ had done from the beginning of his
ministry to the point that he was taken up, after that he,
through the Holy Ghost, had given commandments Unto the disciples
unto the Apostles whom he had chosen and we left off last week
there affirming the significance of the Holy Spirit being the
vehicle through which Christ gave The Commission to the Apostles
we affirmed that one thing that we did not touch on toward the
end are emphasized Was that when he gave them? Commandment to
go into all the world and preach the gospel and he breathed on
them in John's gospel chapter 20 verse and said, Receive ye
the what? The Holy Ghost, which was a prophetic
announcement on Christ's part. The Holy Spirit was not yet given
because the Spirit would be given at a specific time to fulfill
specific scriptures, just like Christ came at a specific time
to fulfill specific scripture. God does not operate in a, in
a way of a random, uh, chaotic sort of whimsical, arbitrary
fashion. God acts in a very orderly structural
way. And as we are careful to go through
the book of acts, we will see that he will be fulfilling portions
of old Testament scripture that are laid out in prophecy. If
I wanted to kind of jump ahead, I could tell you that right now
in Acts chapter one, we are between Pentecost or between Passover
and Pentecost. We are between Passover and Pentecost,
two old Testament feasts, which pointed to the sacrifice of Jesus
Christ and the first fruit that will come out of his atonement
and his resurrection. So the window of time that we
are in, in Acts chapter one, is between the time of the Passover,
which was in April of the year in which Christ was crucified,
and Pentecost, which would be a 50 day transition from Passover
to Pentecost, from Passover to Pentecost. So we are making our
way from the Old Testament to the new by way of putting the
old away and establishing the new. Christ knows exactly where
he is in this period of time of which we are told in verse
three is a 40 day period for him to do certain things. So
upon his resurrection, our Lord Jesus Christ, He commissions
the apostles by breathing on them, saying, receive ye the
Holy Ghost. And if you will, you'll notice what he said in
John chapter 20. One other thing, and it's in
your outline, but I want you to see it. In John chapter 20, this
is critical to the character and nature of their mission.
In John chapter 20, as he commissions them to go into all the world
with the gospel, he is going to make sure that they understand
something Critical and that is as we have in our and had in
our last point the character and commission of the Apostles
was to preach the forgiveness of sins John chapter 20 Verse 23 are you there? Let me start back at verse 21
Then said Jesus unto them peace be unto you as my father has
sent me even so I send you you see what he's doing The father
sent the son, the son is going back to glory. The son is going
to rule in glory. We'll see that the son is going
to send the third person. He will be the, uh, the apostle
present with us and the apostle present being the third person
will take the apostles themselves and qualify them to their apostolic
calling. As my father had sent me. So
I'm sending you, you guys see that as my father has sent me,
so I'm sending you. And what Luke does in Luke's
gospel and in the book of Acts, when he says he through the Holy
Ghost has given commandment unto them, he is highlighting the
essential role of the third person operating in the life of the
second person sent by the first person who is going to now qualify
and ordain the church to do what the second person did. Now what
the second person did is what the church is going to do, and
the church is going to do what the second person did by the
same means by which the second person did it. You got it? So it's important
for you to hear what Luke meant when he said, and he through
the Holy Ghost gave commandments unto them. And this is what we're
reading in John chapter 20. The implications are clear. He
says to the disciples to whom he has come now, He's saying
to them, as my father has sent me. Now, if we were to take that
and do an exegesis on that particular statement, what we would understand
is the father sent him in prophecy, the father sent him in patterns,
the father sent him in pictures, all through the Old Testament,
lo, I come in the volume of the book it is written of me. Then
the father sent him in person, in the incarnation. And when
the father sent him in person in the incarnation, he did not
merely send him by himself. He sent him through the Holy
Ghost. For it was the Holy Ghost that
overshadowed Mary, which gave Christ his human nature by which
Christ could do all the work that he did. In other words,
Christ was supervised by the third person from the moment
he took on a human nature. The third person was operating
with the second person through the whole process. And the second
person now is about to transfer his obligation to his disciples
by way of the Spirit of God. As the father has sent me, so
send I you. How did the father send the son?
By the third person. Y'all got that? The second person
was sent by the third person. Now the second person is sending
the church, which is his body, him being the head, the same
way in which he was sent by the third person. This is going to
be the emphasis that will open up for us for the next couple
of chapters as Christ emphasizes to them, don't get sidetracked
by all the other issues that you're wanting to bring up. You
remain at Jerusalem until you receive the third person. So he says, as the father sent
me, so send I you. Now listen to this. And when
he had said this, he breathed on them and said unto them, receive
ye the Holy Ghost. Those words would resonate in
the minds of the apostles. the day that the Holy Spirit
would come, and they would realize that Christ was speaking prophetically,
but he was speaking concretely. He wasn't speaking in a subjunctive
form that is a wishful form. It was prophetic, but it was
concrete. It was certainly going to happen. And in the minds of
the apostles, who are sitting there observing our Lord exercise
a prophetic ceremonial gesture by breathing on them, by breathing
on them, they are going to have that vividly in their mind from
the moment that the third person settles on them by way of ministry
until the time that they die. They will know that they are
sent by Jesus Christ. It will be a concrete conviction
in their soul that they are apostles of Christ directly. Are you guys
following me? It will be a concrete conviction
in their soul that they are Christ's apostles directly. See, we can argue for Barnabas
and we can argue for Silas and we can even argue for Timothy
and we can argue for a few others in the book of Acts. We can even
argue for brother Luke as being apostles of a sort. But what
you cannot argue is that Christ had 12 apostles whom he personally
sent. And these would be the persons
who would be the foundation to the new Jerusalem that you and
I are gonna see so vividly in the next few weeks. They are
the foundations. The 12 tribes are the 12 gates.
The 12 apostles are the 12 foundations of the new Jerusalem. This is
how God builds his church. And so we read now something
of import that will unpack itself over and over and over and over
again in the book of Acts. And that is the nature and character
of the commission. This is an inherent truth that
we call the gospel, that the apostles are called to engage
in. Upon receiving the Holy Ghost,
our Lord Jesus says this, whosoever sins you remit, they are remitted
unto them. And whosoever sins you retain,
they are retained. You guys see that? It will be
in the context of them preaching the forgiveness of sins. the
forgiveness of sins, that they will have authority from God
to go into every nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue. It will be
in the context of the forgiveness of sins. The forgiveness of sins
for God is the ultimate good news that he presents to sinners. There is forgiveness of sins. The forgiveness of sins for God
is the consequence of this elaborate work that Jesus Christ did in
his incarnation, in his ministry, in his sufferings, in his death,
and in his resurrection. So for God the Father, the forgiveness
of sins is no small matter. No small matter. And for him
to send men into the world to tell the world there is now forgiveness
of sins is the shout of triumph from heaven because of the atoning
work of Jesus Christ. Now that's going to be the nature
of the ministry of the apostles where he says, whosoever sins
you remit will be remitted. Whosoever sins you retain will
be retained means that they will have, as we'll see here shortly,
they will have authority to say to some, you may enter into others. You may not enter. This was given
to the apostles because they would have an unusual in a fusion
of the spirit of God in their life, by which they would be
able to discern people who are not coming through the front
door of the kingdom. And we'll be having that message
on Sunday as we deal with the true nature of conversion, what
it literally means to be born again. But the apostles will
be qualified exclusively to discern. You'll see this in the book of
Acts, where they will be forbidding certain persons to enjoy the
forgiveness of sins, because they won't be coming right. And
so the apostles will have that authority. And by the way, you'll
see, if you are careful, you'll be able to reflect upon that
with Christ himself. I simply say that because the
nature of the ministry, go back to Acts now, chapter one, so
we can work our way through this. The nature of the ministry that
the apostles will be engaging in will be the ministry of telling
men and women all over the world that there is the forgiveness
of sins. So if you have your outline,
we're gonna be working through verses two through nine now. And the
next point that I wanna bring up is he showed himself alive,
verse three, to whom he showed himself alive after his passion,
the word passion there is pathos in the Greek. It means his sufferings.
It means his crucifixion, you guys got that? By many infallible
proofs. He showed himself alive by many
infallible proofs. Now, the interesting thing with
this statement, he showed himself alive, is it would almost be
redundant if it wasn't for the necessity of the language being
explained. The word really means to present
himself. He presented himself. He presented
himself. You see the Greek term peristemi?
It's a compound word, which means to stand next to. Okay to stand
next to I'm getting ready to explain that to you in the resurrection
of Christ what he does is spends time demonstrating that he has
literally Risen from the dead and so as God what he is doing
is presenting his body He's presenting his body to multitudes of people
who will be witnesses of the post-resurrection of Jesus Christ. It's a presentation of his body.
Give you an example in Acts chapter 1 verse 10. We'll deal with this
toward the end of the study. Notice the language in Acts 1
10. And while they were looking steadfastly towards heaven, the
apostles, as he went up, behold, two men stood by them. You guys see that phraseology?
That's our same Greek word peristemi. And in the same fashion as those
two men were standing by the apostles, these are angels standing
by them in proximity over against the apostles. So the language
is suggesting that what Jesus did with his own body was to
stand over against his body to present his body to those who
become, who will become credible witnesses of his resurrection.
They're not just merely that Jesus rose from the dead. It's
not just merely that he went about showing himself. He went about presenting himself
as authentically raised from the dead. Because the resurrection
is going to be the heart of the message. It is at the heart of
the resurrection that the reality of all gospel propositions stand. If Christ did not rise bodily
from the dead, we have no gospel. But what I want you to understand
is his resurrection and his showing himself to the disciples, not
just the 12 or the 11, but a whole group of people. He spends 40
days presenting himself. Let me present myself to you.
I want to present my body. So now his body is on display
before everyone who is marveling at the fact that they saw him
before he died, and then they saw him after he rose again.
So now stay with me now. I know this don't mean much to
you, but in reality, you would need God to do that for you too. If you saw Christ before he died,
And then you were bedazzled by his death as we all would. And then he rose again from the
dead. What you and I would need for him to do is to present himself
to us in such a fashion as to overthrow every possible argument
that we are delusional. that we are seeing a phantom,
that this is some type of mind game, or he has played a major
con and trick on us. It is for this reason the term,
he is presenting himself to us, is used. He is showing the reality
of the resurrection of his body, that his body is literally raised
from the dead. So I want you to read with me
a few verses in relationship to this concept. Presenting himself,
presenting himself. Go with me in your Bible to Romans
chapter six, verse 13. I'm gonna read about five verses
in relationship to this concept because fascinatingly, Enough
the idea of Christ presenting his body To the disciples who
would be his witnesses By which they would have such a conviction
of the reality of the resurrection of Christ the fact that Christ
is presenting his body to them is going to serve as a model
of a model of the eschatological presentation of the body of Christ
to God the Father on the last day. Let me say it again. Just
as Christ is presenting his body, and I told you this three or
four weeks ago, there is a great day coming wherein there will
be a final presentation of all of us before God. There is a
parallel then between the presentation that Christ is making with his
own resurrected body and its correlation to the church, which
is going to be his resurrected body on the last day. Do you
see the correlation? Now, I need you to see the correlation
because these correlations are going to affirm what we are saying,
and that is this. that the practice of the church
in the book of Acts will merely be an extension of the practice
of Christ as revealed in the Gospels. There will be nothing
done distinctly different by the church, which is his body,
than that which Christ did who was the head. The presentation
of himself in a post-resurrected bodily state to affirm the fact
that he had triumphed over hell and the grave and sin and the
curse of the law is going to also be seen on the last day
when every member of his body is presented to God by Christ
himself. You see a foreshadow of it right
here. And the thing that has caused
men and women to so boldly lay down their life over and over
and over and over again, even to this present hour for the
message of the gospel is that they believe that when Christ
rose again from the dead, they rose with him and that because
there's a man in glory, they are also in glory just as sure
as he is. You got that? You got that? This
is very important to know. This is critical to the foundation
of our hope. This is critical to our joy. This is critical to our boldness.
This is critical to our confidence. The moment you separate yourself
from Jesus, you are adrift at sea all by yourself. You need
an anchor to your soul. And the anchor to your soul must
already have gone into heaven for you as your forerunner. That's
what keeps you from dismantling in the midst of the sea when
you toss to and fro. We have a forerunner in Jesus
Christ who has entered into the heavens for us and he is the
anchor of our soul. And it's because of our union
with him. This is why we must be taught the gospel. This is
why the scriptures must be opened up constantly. This is why we
must see ourselves in him since everything we are he was for
us. everything he is we are in him
so so this is this is such a important concept so now here's what God
says to his body are you with me this is what he says to his
body in Romans 6 verse 11 through 13 and I could start at verse
10 knowing this for in that he died that is Christ he died under
sin once but in that he lives he lives unto God Likewise, or
in the same fashion, there's your parallel clause, right?
Reckon ye yourselves also to be dead indeed unto what? But alive unto God, how? Through
Jesus Christ our Lord. See, now don't ever talk about
being alive to God apart from Christ. It's no such thing as
being alive to God apart from Christ. No man or woman has a
right to claim life in God. Apart from Christ, who is God's
life, right? What we say then is this in him
is life. And if I'm in him, I have life. So what the new Testament does
by way of redundancy is reminds the church that your life is
Christ's life in you. It's not your life independently,
separately, autonomously. You only get to claim life in
so much as you are in union with the one who is the prince of
life. Because I live, you shall live also. Do you guys see that?
So here's the reckoning that we are dealing with in Romans
chapter 6 verse 13. And we are reckoning, that is,
we're giving an account, we're framing our thoughts, we are
training our thoughts, we are subjecting our thoughts to these
realities based on this truth. According to the analogy of baptism
in verses 1 through 4, when Christ died, we died, we died. When
Christ was buried, we were buried. When Christ rose, we rose. And
since he rose and lives, we also have risen and live. Thus, you
and I ought to reckon ourselves in that light. And this is where
the flow of the argument for our ethic comes in. Here it is.
Let not sin, verse 12, reign therefore in your mortal bodies,
the mortal body is the issue, that you should obey it in its
lust thereof. He's making a clear connection
between the power of Christ's resurrection for us and the power
of Christ's resurrection in us, so that our sin nature does not
dominate our life. Neither yield ye your members
as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but what? Yield yourselves. See the phrase,
yield yourselves. That's our Greek word, peristemi.
Present yourselves unto God. Present yourselves unto God. Present yourselves unto God yield
yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the what?
And your members as instruments of righteousness unto God I submit
to you that that's what Jesus did Upon his resurrection on
the third day. He spent 40 days presenting himself
to his own body, affirming to the body that the body has risen
from the dead and the body has triumphed over sin and the body
has triumphed over death and the body is possessed of life
now so that the body can claim what the body is by virtue of
the body presenting itself to it. I know that's kind of redundant,
but it's important to get. Did you get it then, Brother
Keith? Very good, isn't it? It's very good. See, so here's
the point. I don't get to claim. that sin has dominion over me.
If Christ rose from the dead and he has presented himself
with sufficient proof that he has risen bodily since I'm united
with him. What I need is grace to comprehend
who I am in him. So the next verse that comes
into play around this particular concept of showing himself or
presenting himself Is Romans chapter 12 verse 1 you've heard
it before but I want you to see I'm gonna let us look at several
verses on this point before we move forward So now when the
Apostle Paul who is also one who was qualified to have seen
Jesus after his resurrection Gives us imperatives in the New
Testament, and I've shared this with you before Imperatives and
indicatives are two distinct concepts an indicative is what
you are What you are an indicative is what you are You are the light
of the world. You are the salt of the earth.
You are the body of Christ. You are the church of the living
God. You are the servant of the most high God. You are sons and
daughters of God. You guys understand what I'm
saying? These are indicatives. It's what you are. Indicatives
are not what you do. It's what you are. You have been
born again. You got that? It's indicative
of what you are, not what you do. So what we are is the premise
for what we do. So now watch this. When you read
in the New Testament commandments to do, it is to be assumed that
the premise is already established for God is not asking a person
to do anything who doesn't already have the premise established.
Are y'all with me? What then needs to be understood
by the believer is that New Testament obedience, for which God the
Father has the right to tell his sons to obey, right? We have
three paradigms, father, son, husband, wife, king, servant,
right? When God tells us to do something, I've told you this
before, if God tells you and I to do it, we ought to be shouting
hallelujah, because the presupposition is that I'm his son. I'm his
son, I'm his servant, and I'm his bride. It presumes an established
relationship with all of the necessary qualifications by which
now I can act. If I am not in Christ, God's
not telling me to do anything but to believe. You understand
what I'm getting at? So then once the imperatives
are given in the New Testament, such as verse one, I beseech
you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, you see that
last qualifier, the mercies of God. You can circle that and
put on the margin of your outline by the gospel of God, by the
cross work of Jesus Christ, by your union with him, by his atoning
work for you. That's what mercy means. I beseech
you on the basis of the mercies of God. I'm not beseeching you
on the basis of just who you are. I'm beseeching you on the
basis of the finished work of Christ. Y'all got that? Very
important to know when you're reading the New Testament imperatives,
because otherwise you will be finding yourself driven to want
to respond to those imperatives out of legalism, out of words,
out of merit, rather than relationship. When God calls you and I to do
something, it's based on relationship, not merit. God's not saying do
something for me because you owe me. He's saying, do something
for me because you know me. See the difference? Look at verse
one again. Here it is. I beseech you therefore,
brethren, by the mercies of God that you what? Present your bodies. Same term. Circle it. If we break that preposition
down, I've done this many times. I'm not going to bore you. But
if you break the preposition down, there's two words. para
is a prefix or a preposition and it always means to stand
over against para para para medic and so when we use the word in
the greek the term parable parable and he spoke in parables and
without a parable he did not speak that means he would give
a spiritual lesson and then apply a parable to explain the lesson.
So the lesson was, you must be born again, right? That's the
lesson. Then he will say, and being born again is like the
wind that blows. So the lesson comes along, or
the parable comes alongside of the lesson to bring clarity to
the lesson. Am I making some sense? So it's
not just sharing parables. He's throwing alongside a picture
aid to help you comprehend the doctrine and view. And what's
going on here is fundamentally the idea of para para parable.
The word STEMI is from which we get the word to stand, to
stand, to stand. And so he's saying here in Romans
chapter 12, one, you and I, in this present life, according
to our relationship with God, which is based on mercy, are
to present our bodies as living sacrifices. Got it? You present
your bodies. Now here's the reason why you
present your bodies. Are you ready? Because you have
nothing else to present. You have nothing else to present
but your bodies. Because the work is done down
here and the work is done in the physical dimension by way
of our primary calling, which is to be a witness. Now, you
ain't witnessing to nobody in your head. You witness in your
life. Are you following me? So pastor,
can you explain briefly what it means to present your body
a living sacrifice? Yes. So with my mouth, I declare the
gospel of the grace of God to men and women. You got that?
And with my hands, I help men and women comprehend the blessings
of the gospel. And with my feet, I go wherever
I need to go in order to whip my mouth, declare the gospel,
and with my hands, help men and women get the gospel. Y'all got
that? So it's our bodies that are the vehicle by which God's
witness is going to be established in the earth in the same way
in which Jesus did it. You cannot be a witness for God
without using your body. Soon as you are discarding your
body you might as well be in glory But you and I are called
to be what witnesses. That's the whole point. That's
the whole overarching point Romans chapter 14 verse 10 Romans 14
10 we're moving closer to the eschaton the last day and the
presentation of which the Apostle Paul is so vividly aware ladies
and gentlemen as the Apostle to the Gentiles and as a Jewish
scholar he is very much aware that there will be a Presentation
of every human being before God on the last day. He's critically
aware of that So I'm gonna repeat several verses that you've heard
before maybe not in this context, but you'll get it You will know
tonight if you haven't ever heard it before is you and I must present
ourselves before God We're gonna be before God. We don't meet
God. I We're gonna meet God 14 verse
10 Again verse 9 for to this end Christ both died and rose
and revived that he might be Lord both of the dead and the
living But why are you judging your brother or why do you set
it? Not your brother for we shall
all Stand before see the first stand before that's our turn
before the judgment seat of Christ We shall all stand before the
judgment seat of Christ. 2 Corinthians 4.14, 2 Corinthians
4.14. I think I'll just do one more
because I know you got the point now. And everywhere you contemplate
the idea of a judgment day, or even upon your own physical depth,
know this, that there is going to be on your part and on mine
at some point, an appearing before the Lord. You have to appear
before him. I'll make that clear after I
state this verse and demonstrate once again by the concept of
appearing and presenting ourselves before the Lord, that what we
are doing is taking Old Testament practice and paradigm and carrying
it over into the New Testament because the old and the new are
tied together by the person of Christ, right? See, the new is
concealed in the old and the old is revealed by the new. So
there is this collaboration between the two sides Manifested in the New Testament
now, there are things in the Old Testament that are put away
There's no doubt about it But there are things that are carried
over and one of the realities that are carried over is this
reality. We must all appear before God
2nd Corinthians chapter 4 verse 14 we start back at verse 13
we having the same spirit of faith According as it is written.
I believe and therefore have I spoken we also believe and
therefore speak knowing That he which raised up the Lord Jesus. There's a subject again. What
the resurrection watch this Raise up the Lord. Jesus shall raise
us up also by who and Shall present us with you You know what Paul
just said you can be a you can be sure of this. I That the same
God that raised Christ from the dead is going to raise us from
the dead and we're all going to have a great presentation
on that day. In the Old Testament, you can read it in the book of
Job. Remember what Job says in the opening of the book of Job,
chapter two, I believe. And in those days, the sons of
God appeared before the Lord. Remember that? And what God taught
Israel in the book of Deuteronomy is that three times a year, your
meal Persons must appear before the Lord and let them appear
before the Lord with a sacrifice Three times a year the males
were representative of the whole group. They were to appear before
the Lord Appearance before the Lord means that every living
soul has to meet God and Particularly his covenant people so you and
I can be sure that this is what's being underscored go back to
acts 1 now I'm just gonna state these as they are laid out in
your Outline because I want to move fairly quickly to the second
point the showing of himself was for the authentication of
The message and claim that they would be setting forth for which
they would be persecuted And for which some would die and
that is Christ rose again from the dead bodily the Spirit of
God would have to take that Proposition and bear witness in the heart
of those who would hear it stated by the Apostles and others however
for the Apostles They are qualified to be apostles because they literally
saw the Lord after his resurrection for over 40 days with what should
be stated in verse three, not many infallible proofs, but overwhelming
evidence. That should be the way the term
is used. Overwhelming evidence. In fact, the Greek word, I mean
the word there in your, Translation if you have a King James or another
Bible that says infallible you guys see the term infallible
The infallible isn't that term is not in the original language
What's in the original language is Paul off many and then the
Greek term for proofs many evidences Christ presented himself alive
after his resurrection or his crucifixion by many evidences
by many proofs Being seen of them how many days? And speaking
of the things pertaining to the kingdom. So in your outline,
what I say is he presented himself. That is, he stands next to his
body to show the disciples, show them, show them that he is alive. We're going to look at one verse
in Luke 24 on that account. He does it for 40 days. That's
a long time. 40 days. That's a mutton 10 days,
right? For on our calendar. He does
it in the scripture context 10 times. If you were to go and
do the research, you would find that it is recorded that Jesus
showed himself to the women, to the disciples, to the disciples
repeatedly, to the whole group as a collective over 10 times. Actually, it was 10 times specifically. So over a 40 day period, 10 times
did he meet with them. Over a 40 day period, 10 times
did he meet with them. And this encompass Mary Magdalene,
Mary the mother of Jesus the other Mary all the sisters who
believe all the Apostles and then according to Paul in first
Corinthians 15 verse 6 and 7 over 500 brethren So I want you to
get this now Jesus wasn't in a corner after his resurrection
Just like he wasn't in a corner before he was not in a corner
after to get together with 500 people and give them repeated
evidences and An authentic overwhelming convincing evidence of his physical
resurrection meant that he was working He was spending time
with people he His resurrection wasn't for him to just kind of
float around Jerusalem I'm gonna show you that in a moment Christ
wasn't floating around Jerusalem. He was hanging out with people.
He was touching them. He was hugging them And most
constantly, which is what I love, he was eating with them. Because
this is what the text is getting ready to teach us. And this is
going to give us a connotation as to our call as well. In your
outline, 40 days, 10 times. And what was he doing? Eating,
drinking, and fellowshiping. Eating, drinking, and fellowshiping.
And in fact, here's how you read it in verse four of your text.
So when he showed himself alive after his passion in many infallible
proofs, seeing of them 40 days, speaking of the things pertaining
to the kingdom, we'll address that a little later, and being
assembled together with them. See that phrase? And being assembled
together with them. Now in your mind's eye, you have
all four gospel accounts, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, where they
all consistently depict Jesus at the table eating with his
disciples. Isn't that right? All of it. And in fact, in the gospel of
John, it does it three times. And the point is this. The resurrection
of Christ bodily was substantially affirmed by his sitting and taking
food and eating it with them. Go with me in your Bible to the
gospel of Luke. I'll just show you the one account
in Luke. Now, I want you to think now, put your feet in the disciple
shoes. You still tripping. Because you
were, you, you, you were, you had apostatized a couple of days
ago. You had abandoned the faith a
couple of days ago. The, the heat was on at such
a level of severity. You scattered. Unbelief draped
you so much. Self-preservation sat in and
you were gone smite the shepherd and the sheep shall be what and
they were gone and You scattered and then you hid you hid in Fear
of the rulers coming to get you and kill you like they killed
him There's nothing about the crucifixion of Christ of which
the disciples could boast that they hung in there with the master
None of them hung in and in his mercy He comes to where you are,
not waiting for you to come to where he is, not even waiting
for you to recover from your fear, from your apostasy, from
your rejection, from your denial of him. He comes to where you
are because he knew it was necessary for them to be in this humble
position when he showed up in his post-resurrected state. See,
God always resists the what? He has to. And so there was one
last purging that took place on the part of the disciples
at Christ's crucifixion that was essential. I have to scatter
them because they got too much pride in them. I mean, they're
talking about sitting on his left hand, on his right hand. See,
they still jacked up about the kingdom business, right? They
stayed even after the resurrection. But see, now you know what did
happen? 40 days had gone by. They're eating and drinking with
the Lord. They're kicking it. And they say, yeah, yeah, yeah,
he rose. Lord, now what about this kingdom business? They're
back to that again. Cause they're human just like
you and I are instead of missing the point. But the 40 days was
for them to be completely convinced that this was a living, breathing
man who had risen from the dead, not a phantom, not a ghost, not
a spirit, not an illusion, not a delusion, a real living man. Y'all got that. Secondly, not
only is he a real living man, In one of your points, the last
one, and under point number one, not only did he show himself
40 days, 10 times collectively, eating, drinking, and fellowshipping,
but he was operating in power. In power. In power. I'm jumping ahead, we'll get
to that in a moment. But Luke chapter 24 puts it this way,
and I want you to see this language here, because this is designed
to help us appreciate the effort that our master put in to help
the disciples to substantiate their calling as apostles. Without
this, I don't think that they could do it because their message
was Jesus rose again from the dead. I'm at Luke chapter 24
and I'm going to start at verse 36. Are you there? And as they
thus spoke, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them and said
unto them, peace be unto you. But they were what? and a Friday
and suppose that they had seen the spirit. See, that's the problem.
Got it. Oh man, we seeing stuff. This
is the paranormal stuff that y'all watch late at night when
you trying to figure out, is that stuff real? Verse 38. And he said unto them, why are
you troubled? And why do thoughts arise in your heart? See, Christ
has come back from the dead to quail all of these thoughts.
They will not endure the persecution for the cause of the gospel until
Christ dissipates every unbelieving thought and brings them into
subjection to the word of God so that they can believe the
testimony of the Old Testament in relationship to what they're
experiencing. And I thank him for it because I'll say this
as we look at this text. It's possible for you and I to
see something and experience something and still not be persuaded
of the nature of it. And what's critical about this
part of our contemplation is this. What Jesus will do for
the 40 days is affirm the scripture testimony that he rose from the
dead bodily. It won't be merely empirical
evidence that he's giving them. because empirical evidence can
be the figment of our own imagination. It can be an optical illusion.
It can be an audible illusion and multiple other illusions.
After all, virtually every funeral I preach, somebody inevitably
gets up and says, Jesus came to me last night and told me this child was saved
every funeral. So I said, Lord, I ain't gonna,
I'm gonna act like I didn't even hear that. Cause I'm going to
have to, the whole message is going to get jacked up if I have
to deal with that. Some, sometimes people feel like they have to
have some fantastic phenomena occur to give assurance to people
that their loved ones are all right with God. Well, child of
God, you, you folks that go to grace, don't ever say that. Don't ever lie on God. Do you hear me? Watch this. If that person that's
laying in the casket didn't make their calling in election sure
on this side, ain't nothing you can say to affirm nothing about
that which took place after they died. Are you hearing me? Forget it. Forget it. Cause see, most of us that are
rational, we understand you didn't meet Jesus. Sorry. We know you
didn't meet Jesus. You might've met a devil. It
might've been that burrito or that taco, but it wasn't Jesus. See, because what our Lord uses
to substantiate concrete saving faith in your life is the scriptures. This is what Luke 16 is about.
Lord, said the rich man, send Lazarus to go tell him. No, no,
no. Lazarus, he'd been telling him.
His witness is over with. They wasn't listening to him
then, but they still got the book. See what I'm saying? So I actually
quoted it from you for you in second Corinthians chapter 4
around verse 13 God has spoken I have believed and therefore
I speak Faith is hearing God's Word Believing God's Word and
therefore declaring what God says because of what God has
said not because of what I experience Y'all got that But this would
be absolutely essential to their testimony as the Apostle. So
here's what got Christ does and when he had thus spoken He showed
them his hands and feet. There you go. Presenting his
body to them. The evidence, got it? He showed
them his hands. Look at my hands. And they had the opportunity
to examine it. Remember doubting Thomas? How
he told the disciples, because they came to him and said, Thomas,
we saw him. He rose. He says, I don't believe
you. See, until I see the brother for myself, I ain't believe you.
And then not only when I see him, I got to stick my hand in
his side. I got to, I got to feel it. Thomas, stick your hand
in your side. Go in. And the revelation came,
didn't it? My Lord and my God, it came. And here's the revelation that
came. It wasn't merely that when he stuck his hand in his hand,
the whole prince in his hand, and in his side where the sword
had pierced, what Thomas recognized when he stuck his hand in his
side was that this man was living in his post-resurrected bodily
state. by the quickening power of the
Spirit of God. This is what I meant by power
in the last verse. The first man, Adam, is a living
soul. You know what that means? The
life is in the blood, in the physical body. The last man,
Adam, is a quickening spirit. You know what that means? When
he rose from the dead, he was engulfed and alive by the Holy
Ghost. It's what kept his physical body
alive, having already conquered death, having already obtained
eternal redemption, having already established the new covenant,
having already foreshadowed for us life in the afterlife, which
means in glory, we won't have blood running through these veins
because it's in this first dimension that the blood is necessary for
the life is in the what? You poke a hole, a brother in
the right place, he bleeds out and he's out of here. But our
lord didn't have any blood in his body. This is what he said
in the gospel of luke. He says flesh and bone Spirits
don't have flesh and bone Why didn't he say flesh and blood
because there was none the blood had all been poured out at his
crucifixion on the ground It's the witness in the earth. He
was living by the spirit. Am I making some sense? He was
living by the spirit now. This is before the full-fledged
glorification. That's a whole nother doctrine
This is post-resurrected pre-glorified status, but he's living by the
spirit. He's living by the spirit and
is blowing the disciples away because under the ministry of
the spirit, you know what he's doing? He's still eating fish
and cornbread, fried fish, catfish and cornbread. That means you
watch this. That means even in the resurrection, we get to keep
our taste buds. This is what I love about glory.
My taste buds will remain. I'm telling you, now watch this,
here it is. That's why I love him, because
the Lord, he loves to eat. Here it is, verse 40 through
42. And when he had thus spoken, he showed his hand to his side,
and while they yet believed not for joy and wondered, they were
wondering, he said, do you have any what? See, presenting his
body. Verse 42, and they gave him a
piece of broiled fish That's cool for you health people. And
a honeycomb. Here it is. Are you ready? He
took it and did eat it. What? Before them. Before them. And what's beautiful about this
whole account is if you go back as we work on what we call the
crystal centric hermeneutical paradigm out of Luke 24, you
remember those two brothers on the road from Jerusalem to Emmaus
and how Jesus was ministering to them? If you start back at
verse 28, listen to what they say about Christ fellowshipping
with them after the resurrection. I'm going to make an ethical
point on this before we go on verse 28. And as they drew nigh
into the village from which they went and to which they went,
he made as though he would have gone further, but they, what
see when you love Christ, you want them to be with you all
the time saying, abide with us. Got it. The fellowship from Jerusalem
to Emmaus was so good. It had gotten late. They were
headed home. They had arrived at their place.
Jesus said, all right, I'll see you guys later. They said, no, no,
no, no, no. Would you please stay with us? This is how you
know, this is how you know. Blessed are they that hunger
and thirst after righteousness. This is how you know the Spirit
of God is operating in you. Do you love Christ? Do you want
to fellowship with Christ? Do you want Him to abide with
you? See, you are in real trouble if you can let Jesus lead when
He shows up and He's unfolding the Scriptures the way He was
doing. Can you imagine that journey from Jerusalem to Emmaus and
Christ is just opening up the Word, pointing everywhere in
the Scriptures to Himself? For he expounded, that's our
Greek term, hermeneutics. He expounded in all the scriptures,
beginning at Moses and the prophet and the Psalms and all the scriptures,
the things concerning himself, we call that biblical theology.
Can you imagine how their mind was being blown as Christ was
opening the scriptures to them while they're walking home? Then
all of a sudden they get to their door and Jesus keeps walking.
Hey, Lord, stay. And as soon as you ask him to
stay, he will stay. Are you hearing me? You have
not because you asked not. But if you ask, he will stay.
And once he stayed, now they moved into a deeper experience
of fellowship. Look at it. Verse 29, they constrained
him saying, abide with us for it's towards evening and the
day is far spent. And he went to Terry with them.
Verse 30, and it came to pass as he sat at meat. There it is
again. As he sat at meat with them, he took bread and blessed
it Broke it and gave it to them. You know what we call that we
call that Bible study spirit anointed Bible study Christ exalting
Bible study where the Spirit of God takes the Word of God
which is the bread of God and Blesses it and breaks it open
and then gives it to us. This is what we have in Preaching
and teaching where the anointing is taking the truth of God's
Word and actually feeding our souls. Is that true? The soul
is now enjoying the food and meat of the word of God. And
listen, they're blown away at the experience. Listen to what
it says. And it came to pass, I'm sorry, verse 31. And their
eyes were opened and they knew him, they perceived him, they
comprehended that it was him. And he vanished out of their
sight. And they said to one another, did not our hearts, what? Burn
within us while he talked with us by the way, That was the first
experience. Secondly, and while he opened
to us the scriptures, do you see that? And they rose and ran
to Jerusalem, told the 11 that were with them, saying, the Lord
is risen indeed and hath appeared to Simon, verse 35. And they
told what things were done in the way and how he was known
of them in the what? You see how the spirit of God
guided them to conclude this dynamic. of communion with Christ
in the context of the breaking of bread. And this is my point. The term breaking of bread is
a metaphor for deep and profound communion and intimacy. It is
that of which Christ said in Luke chapter 22 and is given
to us in Revelation chapter 19 as the great supper of the lamb,
the marriage supper of the lamb. We look forward one day to sitting
at the table. Do we? We look forward one day
to sitting at the table with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, all the
prophets, all the New Testament saints, feeding at the table
with our master. And in fact, that's what he told
his disciples. With great desire have I desire to have this meal
with you. And I won't eat it again until
I eat it new in the kingdom of God. Are y'all hearing what I'm
saying? Till I eat it new. So there's a passion on the part
of Christ in terms of his desire for communion with his people,
in the context of eating and drinking. Because see, you know,
we got problems in the Western culture. We really do. And I'm
not going to make this a big aside, but Easterners and Middle
Easterners, whenever you come over to their house, and this
is where us Southerners got it from. If we're going to sit down
for five minutes, food going to be set in front of you. This
is how we do it. This is how we do it. You understand you're not going
to sit with me for 20 minutes at bar. You got, you got some
chicken in there. You got some steak in there.
You got some salad in there. Break out the food. Listen, because
the, it is something about that meal time that causes everyone
to relax and to open up and to be honest and to be sincere and
to be real. Got that. And to be real. And this is what God calls the
fellowship of the church to be. So just one more verse, Acts
chapter 10. Let's see how vivid this concept
was in Peter's mind. Acts chapter 10. Here's what
Peter says in Acts 10, as he's explaining again to Cornelius
and his band, the work that God was doing through the Lord Jesus
Christ, verse 38, the last part, for God was with him. And we
read over it now over in verse 40, And him God raised up the
third day, showed him openly. There it is, showed him openly.
That phrase there means showed him plainly. What you and I are
talking about is how Christ convinced everyone to whom he was shown
or he appeared that he had risen bodily. He showed him openly. See, this is what, this is not
what Peter said in second Peter chapter one. We did not come
to you with cunningly devised fables. declaring unto you the
majesty of the Lord. But we were eyewitnesses of his
glory. This is what he's saying. This
thing was wide open to witnesses chosen before to go and declare
it. Now here it is again. Verse 41. Not to all the people, but unto
what? Chosen before of God. Do you
know a true witness is chosen before God? Do you understand
that? The witnesses that serve God
are chosen before the world began in the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ by God, the father, to be a witness of Christ and their
enthusiastic witness of Christ is the consequences, consequence
of union with Christ and fellowship with Christ. May I submit to
you, you won't talk about Jesus where you have not been spending
time with him. It's just true. It's just true. If you haven't been fellowshipping
with the master and the relationship is distant for all kinds of reasons,
your mouth is shut. It is fellowship with the master
that gives boldness and confidence and eagerness to talk about Christ
as soon as the door opens. Cause you want people to know
what you know and to enjoy what you have. Am I making some sense? This is critical to the witness
of the believer. And thus he says, Not to all
the people, but unto witnesses chosen before God, even unto
us, here it is, here it is Peter, who did eat and drink with him
after he rose from the dead. See the emphasis? Did eat and
drink with him after he rose from the dead. Go back to our
text. Go back to our text. I'm going to only be able to
deal with one more point before we close. And then we'll come
back next week and deal with the other points. You can keep
your outline and we'll pick it up next week. The third kingdom
manifestation, the third kingdom manifestation. You will know
that in verse three, and this will also be stated again in
verse six, that Pete, uh, that the Lord Jesus Christ spoke to
them things pertaining to the kingdom of God. You see that
in the last part of verse three, And then again in verse six of
Acts chapter one, now when they therefore were come together,
see that phrase come together? They're eating again. In verse
four when it says, and being assembled together, that's the
Greek term mean to sit and eat. And when they therefore were
come together, they asked him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this
time restore again the kingdom to Israel? See it? They're off
on the hunt again. Completely missing the point. of which Jesus will correct them
by saying, you have missed the point. The kingdom of God has
been here. It has been here. So let me help
you. There are four manifestations
are four modes of the kingdom. The first is the patriarchal
mode. You guys see that in the PowerPoint, the patriarchal mode.
What do you mean pastor? I mean that when God operates
in this world, he operates in this world in the manifestation
of his purpose and his will through people whom he calls to himself. He called Adam. He called Enoch. He called Noah. He called Methuselah. He called all these men and they
were the patriarchs. They were the patriarchs. They
were the ones through whom God spoke. They were the ones who
established God's kingdom in the earth in that first kingdom
manifestation. They're called the patriarchs.
If you have a problem with that, look up the term fathers and
you will find that God starts the world with fathers and fathers
run from Genesis all the way to first Samuel, where in first
Samuel, the people say, we want a king. Okay. Moreover, if you read Hebrews
chapter one, verse one, we have what we call our biblical theology
in a synoptic statement. God, who at sundry times and
in different manners spoke to our fathers. Got that? He spoke to our fathers by the
prophets who were also the fathers. Abraham was a prophet. Noah was
a prophet, Enoch was a prophet, Methuselah was a prophet, Adam
was a prophet. Whenever you are a true believer,
you are a prophet. You have the right to declare
what God has revealed to you. And so God was working through
the fathers because the patriarchal system was the initiatory system
that God set up in the world. Let us make man in our image,
in our likeness, let him have dominion, let him proliferate,
let him spread, let him become multiplied in the earth. It would
be done in the family context. Are y'all following me? The devil
knew that, that's why he went after the woman. Cause he understood
that God's model was a patriarchal model. Then we had the battle,
right? God's seed versus his seed in
the context of the family. The role of the fathers was to
exalt God in the home so that the home would be a kingdom home
and the kingdom home would continue to operate for several thousand
years, 2000 years from, um, from Adam. Hypothetically, we could
argue it 2000 to 4,000 to Noah. I'm sorry, to Abraham, from Adam
to Abraham, 20 generations. And in the days of Abraham, God
says, I'm gonna make a great nation out of you. But that nation
would be under the paradigmatic form of fathers, Abraham, Isaac,
Jacob, and the 12 tribes. Y'all got that? They are the
fathers. They're the fathers. And so the
first system is the patriarchal system. The second system is
the monarchial system. What's a monarch? It's a kingdom
with a king in it. Y'all got that? So let me just
talk about that briefly and I'll pick it up next week. The monarchial
system is a paradigm that God meant all the time. Remember
there are four models, king, servant, father, son, husband,
wife, right? And they're all interrelated.
God has always been the king of the universe Do y'all know
that? Is god king? Y'all gonna see
this real real clear next week, but god has always been king
now He's king of all But only some recognize him as king He
doesn't have a problem with that Because certain aspects of god's
glory is to show people what happened when you don't obey
the king Do you understand that? So it's not a problem for God
to have foes. So, so don't worry. Oh Lord,
everybody not worshiping you. Not everybody was meant to worship
him, but everybody will bow the knee to the king. Do you understand
that? All right. So some people will
worship him because they love him. Other people will bow before
him because in the mouth of the king, there's authority. And
he will exercise sovereign fiat and divine power over all those
subjects that refuse to bow the knee to him. This is what the
book of Acts is going to be all about. God has set his king on his holy
hill of Zion. You got that? But Israel, when
they were privileged to be God's theocracy, Exodus chapter 20,
God gave the constitution. I am the Lord, your God, which
brought you out of the land of Egypt. I'm your king. You shall
have no other gods before me. I'm your only king God's a monarch
and this is why he built the Ark of the Covenant. This is
why he built the mercy seat This is why he had the cherubim. This
is why the Shekinah glory sat in the mercy seat on the mercy
seat in the Holy of Holies The king was in the midst of Israel,
right? God was Israel's king now Israel
would have been just fine if they would have stuck with what
we call a theocracy and A theocratic kingdom with god as monarch.
He plainly said it. I will be your king I am your
king. You know what? I love about king.
David king. David Was one of the only kings that understood
that when god raised him up to be king God raised him up to
only be a vicar of who the true king was And when when you read
the psalms, you know what david said the lord is king Jehovah
is king the great king and the great god. He sits in zion He
never viewed himself as really truly the king only a victor
only a shadow only a representation Of the true king god was king
But god said in deuteronomy in the wilderness He says, you know,
there's a day coming when you folks are going to be just like
all the other nations of the earth And you're gonna say give
us a king like all the heathen And that's when it started going
downhill the monarchical system, but god would redeem it because
the monarchical system would point to god's son So we have
the monarchical system under Israel in that theocratic government
that fell apart from 1500 BC until the days that Jesus came.
And I'll just say this before I move to the third model, which
is where we are. By the time Jesus Christ comes into the world,
we do not have Israel operating as a theocracy. And they certainly
were not a monarchy. because they had refused God.
Remember what God told Samuel? Samuel, don't, don't, don't you
be mad. They didn't reject you. They
rejected me. I'll deal with this. By the time
God sent his son, Israel was in servitude to the Roman empire. They were a servile state with
little petty tyrants like Herod and other little, uh, peons who
were like governors of regions in Israel. Israel had no authority
in the world at that time. And Israel hasn't had it since
even up to now. Are y'all hearing me? They are
not a monarchy. They are not a theocracy. They
are a simple, common, democratic country like all the pagan countries
of the world at this present time. The third model, what we
call the third kingdom expression, is the ecclesiastical. Manifestation
of the kingdom. What do we mean by Ecclesiastes
the church? Ecclesia is the word for the
church Y'all got that it's the word for the church Now when
Christ came He came as the cornerstone of the church He came as the
head of the church. He came as the priest of the
church of the church He came as the prophet of the church.
He came as the apostle of the church, the whole of the kingdom. Ecclesia was in Christ. Are y'all with me so far? I want
you to get it now. The whole of the Ecclesia was
in Jesus. You know what that means? When
his cousin, John the Baptist said, repent, the kingdom of
God is at hand. The king is on his way. The head
is on his way. The prophet is on his way. The
priest is on his way. The lamb is on his way. The chief
cornerstone is on his way. Behold, there he is. I told you
he was coming. So now I must decrease. He must
increase. And Christ took up where his
cousin left off. Repent. The kingdom of God is
at hand. Believe the gospel. And so Christ
was preaching the kingdom all throughout his ministry. Are
y'all hearing me? And so what I want us to understand
is when you hear notions that are coming out of the church,
that somehow the kingdom is set aside for some grander time in
the future. You don't get that in your Bible
when you do a careful exegesis of scripture. Christ talked about
the kingdom all the time. In fact, he talked about the
kingdom in several, uh, several aspects. Let me just plainly
lay these out. He, he declared that the kingdom
is now, didn't he? The kingdom is at hand, repent.
And he went everywhere preaching the gospel of the kingdom. Every gospel says this. He talked
about the kingdom of God being a what? Mystery. Isn't that Matthew
13? He did a full treatise on the
character of the kingdom. It's spiritual and mystical essence
the parable of the sewer in the sea the parable of the wheat
in the terror the parable of the fishnet the parable of the
pearl of great price the parable of the hidden treasure parable
after parable after parable teaching us the nature of the present
kingdom because the kingdom is both spiritual and Mystical y'all
got that He had to teach his disciples that because he wanted
his disciples to understand how to perceive the presence of the
kingdom since the leaders of Israel, the Pharisees were demanding
that he showed them the kingdom. Luke chapter 17, show us the
kingdom. And you know what he says? The
kingdom of God does not come with physical sight for the kingdom
of God is in the midst of you. Y'all remember that? Luke chapter
17 around verse 30, 31 or so. So the kingdom of God is a mystery.
It was a mystery then, and it's a mystery now. The kingdom of
God is heralded by the gospel. When you go through the book
of Acts, you'll see it in our outline several times all the
way from Acts 1, 8, 12, 14, 22, 19, 8, 20, 25, 28, 23, and 31.
Do you know how Paul closed out the book of Acts? Paul closes
out the book of Acts. By preaching and teaching the
kingdom of God, no man forbidding him. What are you saying, pastor? When we preach the gospel, we
are heralding the kingdom. For in preaching the gospel,
we are saying that God has set his king on high at his right
hand, and he is ruling over the universe for his own glory and
the salvation of his people. The kingdom of God is present.
Not only is the kingdom of God present, the kingdom of God is
what? You know what jesus said in matthew chapter 16 verse 18
and 19. He says I give unto you the keys
of the kingdom of heaven You got that and the gates of hell
will not prevail What you bind will be bound what you loose
will be loose Authority in the kingdom y'all got that Authority
in the kingdom access into the kingdom of God. How do you get
into the kingdom? You must be born again That's what you're
gonna learn on Sunday for a couple two or three weeks that you can't
walk in You can't buy your way in can't earn your way in can't
work your way in you got to be born into it Got it. You got
to be born into the kingdom and then the kingdom has its king. We're not waiting for the king
to come Do y'all understand that? see Peter's first sermon is going
to explain that the reason why you folks are mesmerized at what
these 120 are doing is because the scripture says God has raised
him, set him at his own right hand, and Jesus himself has sent
the promise of the father unto you. That which you see is a
consequence of God's king sitting on his throne, exercising his
covenant rights. Y'all got that? So the second
person sends the third person. So we who are the church can
be witnesses to the second person through the third person. And
we can say to the world, the same way that Jesus said to the
world of his day, the kingdom of God is at hand. Believe on
the Lord, Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. The kingdom is
accessible. The kingdom is a mystery. The
kingdom comes with power. kingdom has a king. The kingdom
is authoritative. We can say it because we have
experienced it. The same means by which we were
brought into the kingdom. We tell men and women, this is
how you enter into the kingdom and that's what the church has
to understand. We are merely an extension of the ministry
of Jesus Christ who was sent by the father to glorify him.
The spirit of god was sent by the son for us to glorify Christ
in this matter called the kingdom. Y'all got that? We'll take this
up next week. Let's pray father. Thank you for this time. Thank
you for my brothers and sisters Thank you for the word of the
kingdom. Thank you for the king of the kingdom Thank you for
the grace of the kingdom the mercy in the kingdom Thank you
for the keys to the kingdom the power that comes with the kingdom
all of the virtues and benefits of the kingdom Thank you for
the food of the kingdom hallelujah Thank you for the promises of
the kingdom and we thank you for that fourth state which is
the final state of glory. We know one day you shall come
back and we will be glorified together with you when you are
finished with your program. In the meanwhile, help us to
stay near the cross. Help us to drink from Calvary.
Help us to be washed in the blood of the lamb constantly. Help
us to be filled with your spirit. Help us to be bold, to tell the
world Jesus Christ is sovereign, absolute soul reigning Lord over
all things. for his father's glory and for
the good of the church. As we go our way, give us traveling
mercies. We pray in Jesus name.