Introduction - The Holistic Gospel

Eden to Zion Video Series

Transcript

Introduction

I’m excited.

So, here’s the idea. We’re going to build the big-picture-gospel by walking through the grand narrative of the bible, from Genesis to Revelation. From the garden of Eden to the mountain of Zion. In doing so we will develop a biblical worldview.

I’m Stephen Buckley and I want to encourage you, that if you stick with it and stay the course, it’s likely you will never look upon the pages of scripture in the same way again. Not because I have anything new to bring, but because mainstream Christianity holds a tunnel vision view of the gospel.

We require the grand narrative of the bible more than ever

I once asked a church leader, where does history begin for you? It stumped him. A few years ago, I sat with a good number of church leaders, and I asked the question, where is Jesus now? There was silence. Once I witnessed a leader ask a room of about 50 weathered Christians who were from all over the Western world, what is the gospel of the kingdom? And after resuming from group discussion, there was not one coherent biblical answer. My heart just sunk.

If we don’t understand the start of the story, where our saviour resides, or what the gospel of the kingdom is? We have a major problem.

Political commentator Douglas Murray said this: "we have been living through a period of more than a quarter of a century in which all our grand narratives about our existence have collapsed… In the latter part of the 20th Century, we entered the post-modern era, defined by its suspicion towards grand narratives."[1]

There’s been a systemic spiritual attack on the biblical grand narrative, and to no surprise. If Christians can’t follow the overarching story line, they have no bases for their faith, which in turn means the context of the cross is confused, the driver of discipleship is misplaced, and our hope and grasp of the return of Jesus is spiritually-bloated, fluffy, and labelled as a distraction.

Now don’t worry if you don’t follow in a moment – especially if you’re a new Christian. I wouldn’t expect you to be familiar with some of these words and phrases – you will do. But first off, let me use a bit of artistic license to paint you a very real picture of a heavenly scene about the time of Jesus’ first coming.

A Picture of the heavenly atonement

Jesus the high priest stands amid the great temple complex in the height of the heavens. Envisage the surrounding paradisal gardens drumming with life, layered with myriads of angelic creatures and the assigned saints who have anticipated the moment. The flagrant aroma is pleasing to the LORD. The divine counsel poised. The thunders of instruments pause. Who could dare utter a single tone? Just as the powers of darkness would be bound at the lips for this interval. Having ascended from the tomb garden, the eternal high priest enters the Holy of Holies before the Father, silently offering his own blood on the altar for the redemption of his people and Kingdom. Seated above all, the Father sees the most precious incorruptible blood of his own Son, which still stands there to this day, as Martin DeHaan puts it, “just as pure, just as potent, just as fresh as two thousand years ago”, “pleading for us and prevailing for us.”[2] It is perfectly acceptable in the Father’s sight. Unlike the Levitical priests, Jesus immediately takes his seat, exalted and enthroned at the right hand of the Father. His work was settled, his sacrifice once and for all. Now though, He must return to the earth for forty days to reveal his resurrected glory and speak about the coming kingdom of God.

As we wonder in awe of the beauty and majesty of Christ, offering his blood to atone for our sin, one thing is certain. The debt has been paid, the engagement is on, and we eagerly wait for the bridegroom’s return as redemption draws near. Something happened at the cross of Golgotha, on the heavenly altar, as Jesus took his seat: The reality of the promised kingdom was made possible. Guaranteed by God’s holy covenants, secured by the blood of Jesus, you and I patiently endure evil while placing our entire hope in the resurrection of the dead for the marriage of the lamb within this future Kingdom.

Far beyond concluding the story, the rugged cross directs our hope toward “the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:7) at his second advent. The crucified King accomplished the rightful deeds to glorious Kingship yet to be claimed/appropriated. Indeed, the full thrust of the bible from start to finish, is in a sense, eschatological (future focused). Jesus is reigning as King in heaven, sovereign over all (Psalms 103:19), nonetheless he is not yet ruling his Kingdom in person on earth. While the Kingdom has been ransomed by the blood of the lamb, it is yet to be inaugurated at the Day of the Lord. The blood payment as propitiation for our sins two millennia past, was the legal mechanism that triggered the countdown to the future Messianic Kingdom.

The book of Daniel depicts the second coming that will usher in the Kingdom, as a rock thundering down to earth, the nation’s trembling, as it shatters the wicked kingdoms.

The gospel, friends, is far from fluffy.

Do we understand the Gospel?

John Stott once said, “I don't want an irreducible, minimal gospel, I want the whole gospel." Amen to that.

For the sake of teaching, fundamentally the grand narrative climaxes at two points, past and future, intrinsically connected: Jesus came, and is coming again. Jesus died, so that we may have eternal life. To understand why Jesus died, we must reach the starting point to base the story, and follow redemptive history that leads to the cross. To understand how he died in the way he did to pay for our sin, we must grasp the story of Israel and how they considered atonement. To understand the assurance of eternal life, we must understand what that meant in the Jewish context of day so that we can correctly orientate the story. When we do that, the good news of kingdom begins to come into focus.

There is a continuous flow of the story throughout the bible. The New Testament builds upon the story line of the Old Testament. There is no dramatic shift in the story line or reinterpretation of the blueprint for history. The expectation of the Old Testament does not evaporate in the New. The gospel is not just the books of Mathew, Mark, Luke and John. The gospel is threaded throughout the story of grace—the redemption of mankind and the earth, by God’s anointed Son Jesus. It’s the story of the Kingdom of God, Universal and Earthly. How God the Heavenly Father desires a beautiful bride for God the Son to rule and reign his mediatorial kingdom on earth. It doesn’t stop at the cross, or the tomb for that matter. It does not stop with the engagement. It’s essentially a two-part series, but we’ve lost the second part from the pulpit. We’ve forgotten the wedding ceremony because we are drunk at the engagement party.

The gospel of the Kingdom dominates much of Jesus’ teaching. Within the four gospels alone, the kingdom is spoken of 126 times (ESV translation). The “gospel” and indeed the “kingdom” is so freely on the tongues of every Christian, propping up church life, mission, and personal praxis. It is at the heart of who we are. And yet this “gospel of the kingdom” has been butchered and diminished to a westernised, gentile-suited, sugar-coated soundbite of “God loves you” of which Jesus nor the apostles ever preached.

As an introduction today, firstly, let’s briefly look at what went wrong – how is our framework twisted. Then we will focus in on two key components – one we kicked out and the other we’ve turned inside out. And finally, we’ll observe the example the apostles left for us, by taking a holistic approach to the gospel.

Questioning the Biblical Story

Where did we go wrong?

So where did we go wrong? Four words: "Did God really say" Satan asked Eve (Gen 3:1). It's the oldest trick in the book, and it's still the most successful in appealing to our pride today. When Christians question the Word of God in a fashion that flagrantly opposes the plain reading, they are falling into the same old worldly trap leading to a watered-down, cherry-picked gospel, frequently surfaced with good intentions, yet subtly re-structuring the foundations of the message and invariably presenting symptoms of self-exaltation.

Having said that, this isn’t pointing the finger exercise. I’m going to step on most toes here - I’m not interested in a blame game, that is not going to help anyone. As well as pride, there are in fact all kinds of reasons. There are churches up and down the country with good people who have inherited bad westernised theology and practices. But I’m going to be unapologetically honest.

Here’s what we’ve done…

Don’t get offended. Let me explain how.

A popular twist begins with origins

If Satan can get you off on the wrong foot… you’ll remain off-balance.

We’ve stretched the timeline by a 2.3 million multiple of its length (13.8 Billion divided by 6000) to fit the Darwinian evolutionary framework. Imagine 2.3 million more of these in a line, with life forms beginning a 750,000 multiple before this – that’s one way to confuse people.

Re-branded to theistic or progressive evolution, seriously undermining the foundations of the message, reducing the creation account to a psychological lesson, and the global flood to a fairy tale for kids. We will show it’s unscientific, unbiblical and saturated in rotten fruit.

One of the reasons Christians live such messed-up lives is because they don't understand the divine creation order of all things against the backdrop of chaos, and the coming kingdom that will set it right. Therefore, they have no framing reference to base a correct Christian life.

In connection: We have little understanding of the formation of the universe

Ancient/classical Greek philosophy remains deeply entrenched within the church, reinterpreting God’s word with a super-spiritual, everything’s-a-metaphor lens, playing havoc with the framework of faith.

The empire of Alexander the Great covered the biblical known world – Middle East, Egypt, Persia, all the way East as far as the borders of what we call India and China today. The demonically influenced Socrates taught Plato, then came Aristotle, and this Hellenistic philosophy, was carried with the Greek Empire. This pagan Greek thinking began to influence the worldview of the early church and it has had a profound impact on Western thought, and so today the church is immersed in this Platonic view. We read the bible with a Greek mindset, rather than the Jewish apocalyptic worldview of the biblical authors.

It drastically alters the way we view reality, such as the dwelling place of God; the idea of supernatural as if it were a separate dimension from the natural – a kind of dualism between spirit and matter. So, we fail to comprehend how the material and spiritual aspects relate. The ancient Greek mindset seeks to move from the material dimension, which is supposedly “bad”, to a spiritual dimension which is “good”. And it all plays out on an eternal past and future time which is cyclic. In contrast, the Biblical, Jewish worldview sees material as good, but corrupted because of the fall. Time is linear from a starting point, with distinctions between this age and the age to come.

Doctrines of the heavens and hell (or sheol / hades), unsurprisingly have been squeezed too. We will explain the heavens, plural in our coming sessions. Some have fallen for a doctrine of annihilation of existence after judgement (annihilationism). Others have reduced the eternal lake of fire to temporal pain now (a type of realized-eschatology), rather than the biblical location of the future lake of fire on earth that all will witness.

Pillars of the Faith – The Biblical Covenants

If I was to ask the average Christian to give me an elevator pitch of the Abrahamic covenant, I’d get a blank face. How is that possible when it is foundational to the gospel thread? I place my hope in that covenant being fulfilled, [whisper] and so does Abraham by the way.

It means there is great confusion over the physical and spiritual promises, because we’ve kicked the natural sons of Israel out of the church, thinking we replace them. I’ll spent more time on this is a moment.

Theology Proper

Take Theology proper – the study of God -- God’s attributes are sliced and diced, commonly focusing on our favourite like love, “God is Love” and pretend his other attributes, such as wrath, are kept back in the Old Testament. So, our understanding of God himself is skewed. It’s a question of who is it we worship? It’s a pretty big deal.

God’s ways and sovereignty

We’ve developed a very individual mentality. I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase “it’s about relationship, not religion” which isn’t really true (see James 1:26-27). God deeply cares for your personal relationship but actually God primarily works through corporate bodies. Family, church, peoples, nations.

Because we've made the faith individual (other than an event on Sunday) we’re inclined to remain at the cross.. and don't look further... The national judgements, restoration and so forth.

God’s sovereignty and providence is universal, but countering today’s culture, God is also particular in choice (Deuteronomy 7:6-8) – God chooses individuals, sexes, people groups, specific locations, for specific purposes. For example, contrary to common thought the bible says a number of nations will exist forever and Israel as the chosen people are the key component. It’s the scandal of particularity.

Perhaps most tragic of all is our version of Biblical hope

Fluffy Hope

Speaking to Joe Rogan, Richard Dawkins commented on the Christian afterlife saying: “Sitting up in heaven for… trillions of years… how unbelievably boring it would be.”[4] Of course he has a habit of attacking Christianity, but the point is that he has done a lot of research, yet has a very wrong idea of biblical hope. But it’s a reflection of mainstream Christianity with our abstract hope, sitting on a cloud with a harp for eternity, which is utterly ridiculous and unbiblical and it comes back to the Greek worldview – striving for super-spiritual existence.

While it is true that the disembodied spirits of believers ascend to heaven when they die, the eternal hope is one of a resurrected body, inheriting the earth with their King. Jesus said the meek shall inherit the earth (Matt 5:5). He taught his disciples to pray “your Kingdom come on earth”. We’re given little about the lifestyle of believers in heaven, for good reason, and yet we have masses of passages that detail the future earthly kingdom. Our hope should align with good news of the coming Kingdom, not our temporal home in heaven.

Realised-Eschatology

It hasn’t always been this way in the west. Interestingly George Ladd, writing out of California in 1964 said this: “Evangelical Christians have been so exercised with the eschatological or futuristic aspects of the Kingdom of God that it has often ceased to have immediate relevance to contemporary Christian life, except as a hope. Thus the very term, the “Kingdom of God,” to many Christians means first of all the millennial reign of Christ on earth.”[5]

So, in the 60’s across the pond, they rightly had a future kingdom perspective, but Ladd points out the misapplication.

Today in the UK, the reverse is true, we think the kingdom is already here, with a surpassing destructive application. Ladd does add that, “In England Consistent Eschatology [a term for exclusive future kingdom view] has never taken deep root.”[6] While Ladd focuses on addressing the misapplication of his day, he rightly adds, “This is not to minimize the futuristic aspect of the Kingdom. The Old Testament prophets constantly looked forward to the Day of the Lord when God would establish his reign on earth. It is also clear in the Gospels that the Kingdom of God belongs to the age to come and is an eschatological blessing (Mark 10:23-30).”[7]

So, if people aren’t applying the kingdom correctly, we don’t throw out the baby with the bath water.

I have never sat in a church and heard a sermon on the messianic kingdom – it’s wiped from its future context and applied to the present, losing sight of the true hope of God’s climactic resolution. Again, this is what we term realized-eschatology. Realizing future (eschatological) events in the here and now.

This is nothing new. In the early church false teachers were, “saying that the resurrection has already happened” (2 Timothy 2:18 ESV). That is realised-eschatology: Bringing the future hope of the resurrection at the return of Jesus, into the present. Paul described this ‘realised eschatology’ as “irreverent babble” that “will lead people into more and more ungodliness, and their talk will spread like gangrene” (2 Timothy 2:16-17).

Dominion Theology vs Suffering Before Glory

This gangrenous framework mutates into doctrines such Dominion theology – that says that we build the kingdom now and eventually take over world government set for Jesus’ return. Akin to Constantine’s army -  no!

The bible says the opposite: that things will get worse, that “in the last days perilous times shall come” (2 Tim. 3:1 KJV), and it’s in that time of distress for Jacob, Israel, that “he shall be saved out of it” (Jeremiah 30:7 ESV) when the King returns.

We’ve failed to develop a biblical understanding of suffering in this age before the glory to come. Jesus said: “Wasn’t it clearly predicted that the Messiah would have to suffer all these things before entering his glory?” (Luke 24:26 NLT). We follow this pattern: “For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.” (1 Peter 2:21). The darker this world becomes, the brighter the hope gospel of the Kingdom shines.

Peter said, “set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:13; c.f. Titus 2:13). Why? Because that is when we get our resurrected or glorified bodies and Jesus rules the earth. And yet looking at many Christians you would think we’d set our hope on the here and now.

Tangible Gospel

The gospel of the kingdom is profoundly richer than the fluffy language we frequently prescribe it from a kingdom-now perspective. Plain scripture depicting the restoration of Israel, the eternal capital of Jerusalem, Ezekiel’s prophetic temple and so forth, have been blown into complex metaphors. This over-spiritualized and indeed over-realized approach turns a wonderful message of restoration by a saving King into an intangible present reality that is unimpressive and seemingly irrelevant to its recipients.

Listen to the words of J. C. Ryle: “I believe we have cherished an arbitrary, reckless habit of interpreting first advent texts literally, and second advent texts spiritually. I believe we have not rightly understood "all that the prophets have spoken" about the second personal advent of Christ, any more than the Jews did about the first.”[8]

A sobering statement.

In Sum

Add a further dose of today's culture shrouded in relativism (no absolute truths), pluralism (all religious paths as equally valid), hedonism (pursuit of pleasure), progressivism (social Darwinism), and imagine the worldly product we put out: "God has a great plan for your life; put your hand up and you’ll get to go to heaven".

In summary, we’ve done a Thomas Jefferson on it: cutting bits out we don’t like; bloating it with ancient philosophy; stretching the story line beyond recognition; infecting it with spiritual gangrene; replacing the central characters with ourselves. Ultimately creating a God and a message that suits us, that reflects us. A Christianity that is comfortable and detached from reality.

All doctrines are filtered through these ill-stricken frameworks. For example, how you frame the creation order, determines your interpretive view of home and church order etc. Most in-house debates are arguments about symptoms of frameworks, not the framework or foundation itself.

Let me just touch on a couple of these things in more detail for a moment which are intrinsically linked, before turning to the pattern that Jesus and the apostles offered. Firstly, the centrality of Israel within redemptive history, and then the nature and timing of the Kingdom.

Two Keys to understanding the Gospel

The Centrality of Israel

Most Christians in the UK today apply the prophecies of the restoration of Israel as metaphorical. They view the idea of an ethic people who will return to their physical land, ruled by the Messiah as too literal. They believe the body of believers who make up the church has “replaced” (replacement theology) the Israel of the Old Testament or “fulfilled” (fulfilment theology) the purposes of Israel and therefore making them obsolete. Replacement theology and it’s subtle but equally damaging derivative terms (supersessionism, fulfilment theology, covenant theology and such like) according to Paul is an arrogant belief system whereby Israel has been replaced by the so called “true Israel” or “new Israel” thus spiritualizing every future reference to the ethic people, their land, and the promises of the kingdom.

They assert that because the New Covenant through Jesus Christ supersedes the Old Covenant, Israel’s blessings apply to themselves spiritually. The church today which is largely made up of gentiles is forever claiming Israel’s blessing as our own only to leave aside the curses for the Jewish people. In affect Israel has been stripped of its ethnic identity and its election as the chosen people is void; They view the State of Israel and its ethic people having no specific purpose in God’s plan.

The primary fruit of these doctrines has been a broad misunderstanding of the covenants upon which the gospel is founded, shaping a context to allow anti-Semitism to flourish. It is quite possible that the second world war would not have taken place had it not been for this widespread gentile arrogance within the church. I heard a Jewish follower Jesus once say: “Most Christians act like a Christmas tree; all fancy lights but cut off at the root”. We have contrived a very gentile gospel, expunging the Jewish hope.

The way you look at Israel, determines your gospel framework so dramatically that your faith can be placed in very different kind of hope. But if this kind of replacement theology is correct, we would expect Israel to fade away as a people – instead the opposite has happened. After two thousand years they are back in the land, and the tiny old city of Jerusalem is forever in the headlines. If they have no place—why is God drawing the world’s attention to it? And he’s drawing the churches attention to it but most of us are self-blinding. You can’t say Israel was judged in 70AD but then not count the return to the land and establishment of the state, as a blessing.

That Jesus didn’t literally fulfil some of the things in this first coming, namely ruling as a king, and restoring Israel etc, doesn’t mean we ought to spiritualise it in the present, or that it was spiritually fulfilled in Christ. He literally fulfilled the prophecies of been beaten beyond recognition and hung on a cross, and resurrected to life in Jerusalem, and he will literally fulfil the prophecies of the mighty warrior and King who rules the earth from Jerusalem. If Isaiah 53 is broadly literal, then so is Isaiah 54-66. We will see that Jesus’ Kingdom is intrinsically linked to Israel and that he will literally fulfil his promises when he returns.

In the NT, Israel is mentioned over seventy times, always meaning ethic Israel - the descendants of Abraham known today as the Jews. Israel is spoken of as having an eternal future in the NT.

In our western context, we forget the bible was written by men predominantly to men. Forty plus authors were all men, all Jewish (with a possible exception of Luke). It is Israel centric, Jerusalem centric, from Genesis to Revelation. All of the early church was Jewish. Jesus is Jewish. He’s returning as a Jewish King. Several New Testament books such as Mathew, Hebrews, Peters epistles, James, are written primarily to the Jewish Christian audience.

We need not become envious of Israel’s national calling and attempt to usurp and replace her. But rather recognise that gentiles (non-Jewish) were always in the plan to come alongside, not replace, come alongside Israel.

If some of this doesn’t make sense, don’t worry it will do. I just prefer to immerse people straight into the deep end. They learn to swim faster, and then wave to the people who have been in the shallow end for years.

The Kingdom

Biblical Definition

The Kingdom of God is the central theme of the bible. We will follow the threads of many themes throughout this series, such as creation, order, covenant, atonement, and so forth, but the Kingdom of God is an overarching theme that ties them all together.

Jesus said, “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God… for I was sent for this purpose” (Luke 4:43). To understand the Kingdom of God we must understand the story of the bible from beginning to end. Get the kingdom wrong, you get the good news of it, the gospel of it, wrong.

What is a Kingdom? The biblical word for kingdom[9] can mean and be translated as dominion, reign, sovereignty, royal power, kingship, rule. Michael Vlach explains that the use of the term determines its meaning: “like any term, the meaning of “kingdom” and similar terms is not found primarily in the etymology or origin of the word but in its usage.”[10] A kingdom biblically speaking is a physical domain, a people who dwell within, who are ruled by a King. Simply put, a land, a people, a law, with a law giver. For a Kingdom to function properly, the land must contain only rightful citizens, a righteous law, willing obedience of the people to the law, and a worthy King who is presently and physically reigning and ruling. It is a very real kingdom and any attempt to draw abstract concepts of God’s Kingdom are aligning with platonic thinking (based on ancient Greek philosophy). The Kingdom will include political, social, agricultural, artistic, technological, architectural, animal, and every aspect of life. No earthly kingdom throughout history since Adam has lived up to the biblical definition of a true and righteous Kingdom. Only God, ruling his creation with an honourable people can fulfil it.

For those of you who have been Christians a while, that should trigger in your mind questions about how you view the kingdom of God. Because if it doesn’t match that biblical definition (because likely you consider the kingdom primarily a present spiritual reality) then you are going to be surprised… and I hope reinvigorate the passion for the gospel.

We will discover that the kingdom of man on earth was lost, God has promised to restore it, and the lion’s share of the bible describes God’s patient and merciful dealings with man in accomplishing salvation of his creation.

Not Just a Figurative King

Friends, it appears that we are heading into a dark period of history and I want you to know before it gets tough, that Jesus is not merely a figurative king of your life, exclusively connecting his universal people through an invisible network. He is a real king who will one day soon arrive in apocalyptic fashion, sit on a real throne, in a real temple, and establish his real kingdom on earth, “and many nations shall come, and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths. For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem” (Mic 4:2). Presently, He is building his church, sealing future citizens of the kingdom, and our relationship with the King is one of spiritual prayer. But when Messiah King returns in glorious form, we will experience him a very real way: we will see, smell, hear, worship, learn from, touch, and know face to face. Our spirits should groan for that day.

I read recently: "The return of Jesus is spoken of in the New Testament... More than 300 times. In 23 of 27 books. In 7 out of every 10 chapters. In 1 out of every 25 verses. God wants us to continually ponder on and prepare for Jesus's return.”[11]

God Has Staked His Character On Covenantal Promises

God has staked his character upon covenantal promises that define the kingdom. The hope of the gospel is founded on these promises given to the patriarchs and detailed at length throughout the prophetic scriptures. Patently clear from the descriptive imagery, the promised kingdom the bible speaks of must be isolated into the impending context. For example, Isaiah describes people who once again live many hundreds of years (before death is eradicated); children playing with wild animals; the dead sea transforming into fresh water abundant with life; the nations melting down their weapons to forge farming equipment; peace and true justice reigning throughout the earth; and Zion and her desert will be restored like garden of Eden (Isaiah 51:3);

Chapter 51 of Isaiah describes the transformation of Zion, Jerusalem:

For the LORD comforts Zion; he comforts all her waste places and makes her wilderness like Eden, her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the voice of song. (Isaiah 51:3)

The paradise of Eden was lost, but God will go from Eden to Zion, and Zion restored in the likeness of Eden.

This isn’t fantasy, this is the good news of the future kingdom.

Gospel Origins

The gospel is sparked from Eden in the third chapter of Genesis and is explicitly stated and developed throughout the Old Testament.

Hear the words of Isaiah 40:

Go on up to a high mountain,
O Zion, herald of good news;
lift up your voice with strength,
O Jerusalem, herald of good news;
lift it up, fear not;
say to the cities of Judah,
“Behold your God!”
Behold, the Lord God comes with might, (Isaiah 40:9-10a)

Chapter 42 tells of a future time when Messiah redeems Jerusalem that everyone will see:

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns. The voice of your watchmen—they lift up their voice; together they sing for joy; for eye to eye they see the return of the LORD to Zion. Break forth together into singing, you waste places of Jerusalem, for the LORD has comforted his people; he has redeemed Jerusalem. The LORD has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.” (Isaiah 52:7-11) [Italics mine]

This is the good news. It is intrinsically connected to Zion and the salvation of the people of Israel.

And God himself establishes the Kingdom. The Father says, “I myself have installed my king on Zion, my holy hill.” (Psalm 2:6 NET)

Let me just read one more from the prophet Joel:

The Lord roars from Zion; from Jerusalem his voice bellows out. The heavens and the earth shake. But the Lord is a refuge for his people; he is a stronghold for the citizens of Israel. You will be convinced that I the Lord am your God, dwelling on Zion, my holy mountain. Jerusalem will be holy – conquering armies will no longer pass through it. On that day the mountains will drip with sweet wine, and the hills will flow with milk. All the dry stream beds of Judah will flow with water. A spring will flow out from the temple of the Lord, watering the Valley of Acacia Trees. (Joel 3:16-18)

In the meantime: “we preach Christ crucified” (1 Corinthians 1:23), because the cross made the way for the kingdom to come. Paul expounds: “For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God's truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs” (Romans 15:8).

The gospel does not change from old testament to new. It’s the same gospel, the same good news, the same God revealing the same story throughout.

In this series we will encounter the mysterious plan introduced from that moment of original sin in Eden, the promise of the seed in Genesis 3, the promise to Abraham’s offspring I will give this land (Gen 12:7), the promise to David to establish the throne of his kingdom forever (2 Sam 7:13), the promises through the prophets speaking of the Day of the Lord, when God’s promised Messiah would become the King of all kings, restore Israel, judge the nations, set all things right, “set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed… and it shall stand forever” (Dan 2:44) and through His Kingdom will come the divine “restitution of all things” (Acts 3:21 KJV). The Kingdom from God is decidedly future focused.

And it is by grace through faith in God to deliver on those promises by those who lived before the Messiahs first coming, that they will be saved… And by grace through faith in God to deliver on those same promises, all those who came after the cross, will be saved, and “therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city” (Heb 11:16).

Far from starting a new religion, Jesus proclaimed the same good news the patriarchs and the prophets spoke of—the restoration of the heavens and earth through his messianic kingdom. It would be the two distinct advents, first to wear the suffering crown of thorns, secondly to wear his kingly crown of glory, that would mystify most Jews.

The Timing of the Kingdom

We’ll deal with all the objections regarding the timing of the kingdom, such as Jesus saying, “the kingdom of God is in the midst of you” (Luke 17:21) or “the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matt. 3:2). It makes complete sense in the broader context of Jesus’ ministry. But for the moment consider this:

After his resurrection, Jesus appeared “during forty days.. speaking about the kingdom of God” (Acts 1:3). After nearly six weeks of learning from the best teacher in the universe, what is the one question his disciples ask him at the ‘graduation’? “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6). This is a great question. They are not asking about the nature of the kingdom; there is an underlying assumption that the kingdom promises of the Old Testament will be literally fulfilled. Their question is not about the nature but the timing of when it will arrive. If it had already arrived, they wouldn’t have asked that question. Jesus too, does not correct or rebuke the premise of the question. He doesn’t say “what are talking about? I’ve just spent 40 days telling you how we’ve flipped the whole message and now the kingdom is transcended into a super-spiritual reality.” No! He affirms their expectation of the future restoration of the Kingdom of Israel and answers the question regarding the timing, saying: “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority” (Acts 1:7).

Jesus spoke at great length about his return and the preceding signs. Why is Jesus returning specifically to Jerusalem? Why is Jerusalem mentioned the same number proportionally in the New as the Old Testament? Why is the New Covenant promised to Israel? Why did God declare Himself as the God of Israel? Why did the Father give the title to his Son Jesus the ‘King of the Jews’?

When you begin to see it from an Israel centric, future earthly kingdom perspective, the gospel comes to life.

Until the resurrection of the dead, Satan locked up, the judgement of the nations, Israel redeemed, declared holy and restored, global peace and justice, and Jesus presently resigning from Jerusalem, the kingdom has not come.

the holistic Pattern given by Jesus and the Apostles

Jesus and the Apostles studied and told the complete story

Lastly, We should follow the holistic Pattern given by Jesus and the Apostles.

Unfamiliar to most of us, it has been Jewish practice for thousands of years to follow a liturgical method of dividing the Torah (the teaching of the first five books of the bible) into weekly portions. These portions, in Hebrew “parashah”, are typically spread over approximately a period of a year and are then subdivided into smaller portions for daily study. This parashah approach provides the foundation of the gospel message and understanding of God’s ways and means.

Along with the Torah, the prophets and writings which make up the Tanach (what we call the Old Testament) were also divided in the sixth century BC, paired to weekly Torah readings called “haftarah”. In Luke chapter 4 when Jesus is handed the scroll of Isaiah by the attendant in the synagogue, he was simply to read that week’s “haftarah” which followed the Torah parashah. Through the parashah, haftarah, and careful study of the Hebrew scriptures, Jesus will have formed a well-rounded Tanachian worldview. The pattern Jesus gave in his life of developing a holistic approach in routine study, deeply rooted in the cannon of scripture is one we should take heed.

On the road to the village of Emmaus the resurrected Jesus demonstrates this comprehensive approach. Walking with two disciples, we read, “beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24:27). Jesus didn’t start in the middle of the story, he began from the beginning of the Torah written by Moses, and then explained all the Prophets, and all the scriptures the purpose of suffering in his first advent, before his glorious return. So again, his pattern was covering the scriptures in a holistic manner, so they could understand the full story, even on the roadside.

The apostles followed in his footsteps. In the books of Acts, we read, “I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27). Paul didn’t cherry pick pet topics. He didn’t preach half the story. He unashamedly preached and taught the whole story of God’s plan and purposes. John starts his gospel with “In the beginning” echoing Moses’ opening of Genesis. In his second epistle, Peter asks us to count millenniums of God’s patience to express His all-encompassing perspective. Peter recognized that man’s mocking of God’s promises, daily struggles, and so forth, were symptomatic of our narrow focus on our own lifespan, rather than viewing God’s grand timeline. The writer of Hebrews demonstrates his big-picture understanding, flowing from Old covenant to New with the same story line: the New facilitating and anticipating the same ending.  Mathew begins his gospel with tracing the genealogy from Abraham to Jesus, expressing the continuity of the story and grand theme of the seed.

Mark, Luke, James, et al. All demonstrate the continuity of the redemptive story. They are meticulous with the detail but the they frame it from the big-picture-gospel. They viewed their ministry as part of the over-all story line. We’ll see in a moment, the apostles public preaching reflected this.

Reasoning for the Hope

Peter instructs us to, "always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have" (1 Peter 3:15 NIV). Seldom prepared to reason for our faith, when presented with an unacquainted topic, out pops the panic verse, "God has secrets known to no one. We are not accountable for them" (Deut 29:29), swiftly followed by "so don't worry about that, just trust in Jesus". Our response in effect is: "don't worry about the start of the story or the end of the story, let me tell you about Jesus". Consequently, we receive a response of absurdity. Jesus on the cross and out the tomb is meaningless without its wider gospel context.

The central chapter so to speak—the life, death, and resurrection of our Lord and saviour—is the big how. It's the key to access the hope. The historical narrative building up to and surrounding the how is the reason we long for the hope. The hope being the target which drives all of scripture. Thus, the how-of-Jesus requires the contextual reason to precede it, all while pointing forward to the hope. Peter is asking of us to be prepared to give the “reason of the hope”—explain the reasoning behind the hope—the fall from a perfect world to an imperfect one; the curse that sin has placed upon the earth and mankind and so forth. Why would anybody except a hope without a reason for it? Why would anybody crave a key to a door they view as unnecessary? A solution requires an anticipated problem/A problem is a prerequisite of a solution. Frequently our gospel witness bids to sell a vague hope based on the how, without proper reasoning for it in the first place.

Biblical hope of a world without pain and suffering, where every tear will be wiped away; the restoration of all things (Act 3.21) to a peaceful, fruitful planet with honest rulers, an Edenic life – and to the Jew specifically the hope rests on the restoration of Israel and their Messiah as King of kings – Is in deep contrast to this age that people instinctively know has been corrupted. This hope of the good news tees-up the question which begs the how of the good news. How is this possible? How can I be a part of that world to come? The answer you know in the Messiah’s first coming.

This means aligning with the original Jewish apocalyptic gospel of restoration and redemption before addressing the mystery of Messiah suffering before glory. There is good news of what will happen because of what did happen.

The response to the cross without context

For Jews and gentiles, the response to the cross was different because their starting points were difference. The apostle Paul explains: “we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles” (1 Cor 1:23 NIV). The Jews were already on the correct path. Their worldview broadly aligned with the scriptures, understanding the story of creation, Adams sin, Abraham, the Exodus, the prophets, and expectation of a messiah. The contention for the Jew lies with Jesus declaring himself to be the messiah, thus the cross was a stumbling block to continue the journey with God. Their assumption was that the messiah would restore Israel at that same time, rather than die as their king on a cross. The regional gentiles on the other hand would hold various worldviews shaped by early philosophies, myths, and religions. For them even the idea of a Jewish Messiah was foolishness because it had no place within their framework of knowledge.

Today it is not so dissimilar. If we commence evangelism with the cross of Christ to a western gentile audience, or to Jew without acknowledging their election as a chosen people, we are likely to receive a foolish response. Discipleship too that remains at the cross out of context, will produce shallow roots.

A different approach is required for Jew and gentile. Stephen, in his Acts 7 sermon to the high priest and the crowds of Jews who listened on, initiated his spectators by retracing the story from Abraham to Jesus, reasoning that He was indeed their promised messiah. He need not describe the creator God because they are privileged to have the backstory already imprinted within their mind maps. The stoning of Stephen speaks of their hardness of heart, rather than his precise style.

Paul on the other hand reaches further when asked by Greek philosophers in Athens, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? For you bring some strange things to our ears” (Acts 17:19-20). Highly aware they are not Jewish, he re-orientates his listeners, reverting to the very beginning of the story, upon which he lays out the real God on a new canvas: “The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth” (v24). Paul moves quickly to explaining that from the first man Adam, came “every nation” (v26), and that the God of the Bible is sovereign over them (v26). That his intention is that “they should seek God” (v27), and having overlooked their ignorance he now “commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed.” Only then, having mapped out the whole timeline does he place the cross and resurrection in context (v31). Paul introduced the second coming before the first.

So, Jews who have key components of the biblical worldview must discover that the Hebrew scriptures spoke of Jesus Messiah, whereas gentiles must completely transform their worldview from beginning to end to make sense of the gospel.

The Lord has given us this holistic approach to follow, and yet rarely do we paint the grand synopsis in the setting of evangelism, in our own personal study, or from the pulpit. The result: students are left with a central chapter of the story without foundation of protology (study of origins) or clarity of biblical hope. And we wonder why so many grow cold. Both Jews and gentiles require the whole framework of redemption to provide the context for the cross. After all, who starts a book halfway through, and then reads a couple of sentences a day? So, we are required to revisit the story.

Series Intention

So, I hope I’ve convinced you to some degree that our gospel message has been too narrow at the very least, we need to reclaim the true meaning of the kingdom and Israel’s place within it, and a holistic gospel is required more than ever.

The intention of this series is to help develop that big-picture-gospel, a richer, tangible gospel, by reviewing redemptive history laid out in the bible, concentrating on the defining events including: the creation, the fall of man, the flood, the confusion at Babel, the covenants, the cross, and the new heavens and earth. Through a holistic approach we will unveil the story of the bible and discover the mysterious, glorious hope of the promised kingdom as proclaimed by Jesus and the apostles.

This is not chiefly an academic exercise, working our way through the grand narrative develops a biblical worldview which informs our understanding of God’s character and redemptive ways and means, therefore your relationship with him. A foundational framework, in which to place further study, a tool to defend your faith from, and you will have more confidence in proclaiming the gospel. And careful study of the scripture that produces good theology, is in itself an act of worship.

Format

In terms of format.

God chose to reveal his redemptive blueprint in a progressive manner throughout history. You may have heard the phrase ‘OT concealed, NT revealed’[12]. The mysteries are revealed like a scroll unravelling, according to historic realities.

After all this is how most stories are read. Therefore, we will generally follow a pattern of Biblical theology, which is studying doctrines such of the kingdom of God, arranged according to chronology and historical background. Biblical theology helps us understand God’s dealings with man throughout history and why God did it the way he did.

Having said, there be will spoilers because we can’t away wait until 20 sessions or so later until we understand something was talking about Jesus on the cross for example. So we will pause for the sake of clarity when necessary to focus in and do a systematic theology on a subject – looking at what all of scripture says about a topic.

Style, Pace, and Limitation

Sometimes it will be more like narrative, other times it may take the appearance of commentary or apologetics or preaching. The goal is not to impress or remain within one style. The goal is to provide a biblical framework with whatever tool it takes.

I don’t expect you to absorb or understand all the information as we go, even agree with me on everything. Don’t let that stop you, things will come together like one big jigsaw.

Sometimes we’ll slow it down and focus on a verse, sometimes we’ll be skipping through passages, sometimes we’ll go wide, other times deep. Sometimes it will be like drinking milk, other times chewing on a piece of red meat. We’ve got to be mature about this. I’m not here to entertain. We’re here to learn, and grow.

I’ll try to bring in a fair amount quotes to show everything is backed up by world class scholarship and teaching, and I hope will have a bible on hand.

In terms of number of sessions – I don’t know. This was originally going to be a book I have been chipping away for years and I could take time out and then publish it… but I feel like time is short and I want to get the gospel out there. So while it doesn’t quite translate from book to video, if the Lord tarries a little longer I can do a mass edit and publish that separately. But the videos will be padded out way more, and we’ll go down rabbit holes, so I can’t put a number on it. It will take as many as needed going through the main story line. And we’ll have some fun with it.

Before we get straight into Genesis 1, next time we’re going to look at worldview and hermeneutical basics.

So, I best get preparing that.

See you soon.

[1] Douglas Murray: How did the world lose its marbles? https://mol.im/a/7415169

[2] M. R. DeHaan, The Chemistry of the Blood, Zondervan, p28

[4] See, Joe Rogan Experience #1366 - Richard Dawkins

[5] George Eldon Ladd, The Presence of the Future, The Eschatology of Biblical Realism, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan, p xi

[6] George Eldon Ladd, The Presence of the Future, The Eschatology of Biblical Realism, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan, p 8

[7] George Eldon Ladd, The Presence of the Future, The Eschatology of Biblical Realism, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan, p xi-xii

[8] J. C. Ryle, Are You Ready For The End Of Time? (Fearn, Scotland: Christian Focus, 2001) p 46

[9] mamlakah or malkuth in Hebrew (Strong’s H4467), basileia in the Greek (Strong’s G932).

[10] M. Vlach, He Will Reign Forever, Lampion Press, 2017, p.28

[11] Garrett Kell on Twitter: https://twitter.com/pastorjgkell

[12] St. Augustine famously said, “The Old Testament is the New Testament concealed, the New Testament is the Old Testament revealed.”