The Story of the Bible (Part 5)


Announcements:

  • Lisa Weissert – Kid’s Hope
  • March 1 – Special Evening Service

Review:

Slide 2

Slide 3

  • Innocence = Garden of Eden;
  • Responsibility = Don’t Eat,
  • Failure = They Ate,
  • Judgment = Curse and Death

Slide 4

  • Conscience = Cain and Able to Flood;
  • Resp. = Do Good, Sacrifice for Sin,
  • Fail = Wicked,
  • Judg. = Flood

Slide 5

  • Human Government = Till Tower;
  • Resp. = Scatter and Mult.,
  • Fail = Didn’t Scatter,
  • Judg. = Scat. And Lang.

Slide 6

  • Promise = Till Law;
  • Resp. = Dwell in Canaan;
  • Fail = Egypt;
  • Judg. = Egypt Bondage

Slide 7

  • Law = Till Christ;
  • Resp. = Keep all the Law;
  • Fail = Broke Law, Rejected Christ;
  • Judg. = Destruction of Jerusalem and Dispersion

Note: Answers questions like “Where did Cain get his wife?” And “Were the Crusades OK?”

So that leaves us with just two more dispensations to cover this Sunday! Should be easy, right? We should be outta here in another 10 minutes! Actually this is where things get a little complicated. Steve covered 5 and left me with 2 because things get kinda confusing at this point. There are 2 left and it’s going to take me 2 messages to cover them.

Link: We need to back track just a tad or it’s going to get real confusing.

Slide 6: Did you notice the turquoise colored bubble that says Israel that is over top of “Promise” and “Law?” And then it has “Dispersion of Israel” under the church age? What is that about?

Link: A few Sundays ago we talked about a promise that God gave to Abraham. Remember it? It’s found in Genesis 12:1-3:

Gen. 12:1-3   Now mthe LORD said1 to Abram, “Go from your country2 and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 nAnd I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 oI will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and pin you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” – Accordance

Then God appears to Abraham and reiterates and expands upon this promise 7 times. One of those times, I believe Steve pointed out last week, God was very clear to show it was an unconditional covenant. God put Abraham to sleep and He alone went between the animals, to show that God would be the one to fulfill it and it depended not on Abraham at all.

After Abraham, the promise passes to Isaac, and then it passes to Jacob – whose name changes to Israel.

Later on, God appears to King David and gives him a promise a lot like the one given to Abraham, telling David that his Son would rule on a throne in an eternal kingdom forever. God does not put any conditions on this promise either.

Well, what I want to put out to you now about all of that is that the promise is traced through the nation Israel. The promise does not go to Abraham’s son Ishmael from whom come the Arabic people. The promise goes to Isaac through whom Jacob comes. The promise does not go to Jacob’s son Esau from whom the nation of Edom comes. The promise goes to Jacob – whose name becomes Israel.

The promise of an eternal land and an eternal king and a Son who will be Savior – it is made to Abraham’s line through Israel. So, the dispensation of “Promise” is a little bit different from the ones that come before because the promise is to Israel, not to the world. The rest of the world was continuing under the responsibility of conscience and human government, but God began Promise with a specific group of people, Israel.

I am of western European descent. Whatever that means. My last name is French so I suppose I’m mostly French. Go back far enough and perhaps I’m of Norman or Frank descent. Even further and I could be from the barbaric tribe of the Visigoths or the Suebi. While God was making this promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, my descents were having nothing to do with it, probably worshipping some strange idol somewhere and grunting savagely and other Barbarian things. By blood, I am even more disconnected from the Promise than Ishmael and Esau were. It’s for Israel.

Slide 7: Notice, also, that Law falls under the umbrella of Israel. When the Mosaic Law was given, it was given to the twelve tribes of Israel and their descendants. My idol worshipping, face-painted, grunting Suebi grandparents were not present.

Let’s look at Exodus 19:1-8

Exodus 19:1-8

Who are the parties present at this meeting? The people of Israel. Israel encamped before the mountain. The house of Jacob. And God is there too.

Egypt is not there, neither are the Chinese, nor the Germans, nor the French.

And God tells Moses to present to the people of Israel a covenant. A covenant that will be between them and God only. That will make Israel God’s treasured and special possession. And this covenant is a conditional covenant – if the people obey the covenant, then they are a treasured possession, a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation.

And the people agree to this covenant. They say “all that the Lord has spoken we will do.”

Link: Lest you think I am making much of nothing, go ahead and turn to Romans 9.

Romans 9:1-5

To whom do the covenants and the promises and the Law belong? To the Israelites. And this is in the New Testament mind you – the covenant and promises haven’t transferred to the Church.

Romans 2:14 agrees. It says: “For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, xby nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law.” – Accordance

So – Promise and Law are both to the Israelites and that’s what that turquoise bubble is about.

Here’s an important point: The Promise is unconditional. It depends only on God and it cannot be broken. They will inherit a kingdom in the land of Canaan with an eternal King ruling over it.

But the blessings of obedience to the Covenant of Law are conditional. If the people do not obey the Mosaic Law then they aren’t a royal nation of priests anymore.

So you see the turquoise bubble extends below the church age. This is because the Israelites broke the Law and rejected Christ. Therefore, God took away the conditional blessing of being a nation of priests. He has given the priesthood to believers in Jesus instead.

But God still has plans for the Jewish people. In the present dispensation, the priesthood belongs to those who have placed their faith in Christ. But the Promise endures and God has not forgotten His people Israel. That turquoise bubble will come on top again when we get to the Millennial Kingdom. The blessings of the Law – priesthood – depend on human obedience but the promises given to Abraham and David – land, kingdom, and king – do not depend upon human obedience.

Link: Alright, so now we’re ready to talk about the church age.

After Israel rejected the Messiah and did not keep the Covenant of Law, they were punished by the destruction of Jerusalem, the dispersion of the nation into the world, and the loss of the priesthood which now belongs to believers in Jesus.

Slide 8 – Church (I like Church, Grace has always existed, Church has not)

The church age began when the Holy Spirit came to indwell Christians on the day of Pentecost. When Jesus walked the earth He talked about His church, but He talked about it as still future. He says in Matthew 16:18 “I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” The building of it was still a future thing while Jesus was on the earth.

This is because the foundation of the church, the chief cornerstone of the church, is our Savior who died and was buried and rose again and purchased salvation for us all. The church building is built off of faith in our resurrected Lord. The church is made up of people who by faith have died and resurrected with Christ, so it had to take place after that.

So after Jesus returned to heaven, He sent the Holy Spirit to earth to indwell all believers and begin building the Church He promised. The Spirit came to indwell believers on the Day of Pentecost, and so that is the day most would say that the Church began.

Acts 2:1-4

The believers all spoke in tongues, foreign languages, which was amazing to everyone around. It was a clear miracle from God to show that this new thing came from God.

Peter then preaches to everyone around the area in the rest of the chapter in the very first evangelistic outreach event of the newly formed Church. About three thousand people became saved Christians on that day. The rest of the book of Acts tells us of the explosive growth of this new body called the Church of Jesus Christ. And the Church of Jesus Christ has been growing explosively ever since. Here we are nearly 2k years later, a collection of French and German and Philippina and Jewish, etc., etc., descent in a country called the USA in good old Bourbon, Indiana. It’s gone way past Jerusalem now and that’s wonderful!

The church age is the longest dispensation of all because we are still living in it today. I think Law was close to 1.5k years and we’re nearing 2k now. Things are a little bit different from the starting days of the church these days, but our responsibility and the responsibility before the world remains the same.

So let’s talk about responsibility. God has expectations for the world we live in today and He has expectations for the church. You and I have responsibility. And those who aren’t Christian also have responsibility.

This is the responsibility you and I need to care the most about. It’s good to know about what happened in the Garden of Eden, but we weren’t there during the Garden of Eden. We weren’t there before the flood. We weren’t there when the Law was given. When we enter the Millennial Kingdom we will be perfect, so we can’t mess that one up. But the Church Age is happening now and so we’ll be held accountable for how we live today.

So if I lost you in the details earlier, tune back in because you’re going to have to give an account to God for whether you work on this responsibility or not.

Link: The responsibility that God has given to the Church is stated in its most condensed form in Matthew 28:18-20.

Matthew 28:18-20

And Jesus came and said to them, h“All authority iin heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 jGo therefore and kmake disciples of lall nations, jbaptizing them min2 nthe name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them oto observe all that pI have commanded you. And behold, qI am with you always, to rthe end of the age.” – Accordance

Christians are commanded to be making disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Triune God, and teaching them to observe what Jesus commands.

Let’s examine these verses a little more, make sure we understand what specifically is being commanded, since this is the mission Jesus gave to the church for this age.

First, “Go” is not a command. Wait, what? Yes, go isn’t a command because it is something we are doing anyway. “Go” is passive. Everybody is going somewhere. Maybe you are going to school. Maybe you are going home. Maybe you are going to the factory. Maybe you are going to the law office. Maybe you are going to the hospital. Maybe you are going to the festival. Maybe you’re just going to the refrigerator. But you are always going somewhere.

The command is, as you are going, wherever your feet are taking you, wherever God has been directing your life and to whomever, you are to be making disciples as you go.

And the command is not simply to give the Gospel, but to make disciples. Making disciples is giving the Gospel +. Trusting in Jesus as Savior is the first step into discipleship, so you gotta preach the Gospel to make disciples. But discipleship is following after Jesus as your Lord and obeying His commandments. That comes after you are saved.

So wherever your life carries you, your responsibility is to be introducing people to Jesus so that they can be saved, and then teaching them how to follow Jesus so they can be disciples. And here’s an interesting note – if the command to make disciples applies to all Christians, then so does the command to baptize.

For whatever reason, a lot of Christians think that a pastor has to baptize you for it to count. Hey, I’m happy to baptize people. I kinda get it in a way. I was baptized by a pastor. But, actually all disciples of Jesus have the authority to baptize other Christians, not just pastors. You will see this sometimes. I’ve seen baptismal services where maybe the parents will do the baptizing, or a Christian who was very instrumental in seeing someone saved. That’s good and perfectly biblical. So is having the pastor do it. But it doesn’t have to be the pastor.

On that note, I will say if you haven’t been baptized yet and would like to be, I would be happy to do so. Submitting to that command from God is an important part of discipleship. If you had a different believer in mind for that baptism, I’d be happy to oversee that too.

Anyway, along with making disciples and baptizing, you are to be teaching the things commanded by Jesus – and that would extend to the things that His apostles taught. So all the New Testament letters. An apostle is one personally sent by Jesus to deliver messages. All New Testament letters, Romans, Ephesians, 1 Peter, 1 John. These were written under apostolic authority – so they are commands of Jesus to be taught and obeyed by His disciples.

And that’s it. That’s your major responsibility in a nutshell. Be a disciple of Jesus making other disciples of Jesus. That’s what God wants you to be doing during this dispensation.

To the non-Christian, God’s command is to obey the Gospel.

Acts 17:30-31 – 30 iThe times of ignorance jGod overlooked, but know he lcommands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has fixed ma day on which nhe will judge the world oin righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and pof this he has given assurance to all qby raising him from the dead.” – Accordance

2 Thessalonians 1:5-10

This is fevidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be gconsidered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering— 6 since indeed God considers it hjust ito repay with affliction those who afflict you, 7 and to grant jrelief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when kthe Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven lwith his mighty angels 8 min flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those nwho do not know God and on those who odo not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9 They will suffer the punishment of peternal destruction, qaway from2 the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, 10 rwhen he comes on sthat day tto be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our utestimony to you vwas believed. – Accordance

In this dispensation, God is commanding the world to repent and believe the Gospel. Our job as Christians is to give that Gospel out to the world. Hopefully that helps to embolden you on that mission to reach other people for Jesus.

A lot of times, us Christians can be very “well, I dunno, I don’t want to offend anyone, don’t want conflict, don’t want awkwardness” and so they choose not to share the Gospel. But God has commanded you to share and God has commanded them to obey. The Gospel and discipleship are what this age is all about in God’s eyes. Awkward is either you or them not obeying the command of God.

You don’t need to be and should not be ashamed of the Gospel because there is a divine command from God going out to the world that they should repent and obey it. And it is the power of God for salvation to all who believe, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. Don’t be ashamed of it. It’s what this dispensation is all about right now and you’re on the right side of history if you’ve chosen to trust in Jesus.

So if you do your part and they reject or don’t want to hear, hey, that’s on them. You haven’t done a bad thing – well, unless you have communicated the Gospel badly or in hatred – then you’ve done a bad thing. But if you’ve told it in love then they’re disobeying God, simple as that.

Now, like all dispensations, this one will end in judgment upon disobedience. In this case, the judgment comes upon those who have rejected God’s command to obey the Gospel. All those who have trusted in Jesus as Savior are not destined for wrath. 1 Thessalonians 5:9 ways “God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

At the end of the Church Age, the Church will be raptured so that they are spared from the wrath to come upon those who have disobeyed the command to believe the Gospel.

We’ll talk more about that rapture, tribulation, and kingdom next week.

Conclusion:

Church Age:

  • Christians – Give Gospel, Make Disciples, Baptize, Teach
  • Non-Christians – Repent and Believe the Gospel