Oops, got the wrong notes here. I hope I didn't make a mistake. Nope, there we go. Yeah. Yeah, I enjoyed last week. I mean, I wouldn't mind doing that again. All right, welcome to the church. Let's pray together and we're gonna look look at some things from last week just to kind of get us caught up and then move on. Look at some new stuff. Let's pray. Well, thank you for this time for us to be together. We thank you for your word. We pray that we would be instructed by it. And I do pray that you would give us your spirit and take these truths from your word and seal them to our hearts. Cause them to remain with us, to take root in our lives and to grow and flourish and cause fruit to be born. I pray particularly, Father, that you would help us to see that we are those upon whom the ends of the ages have come, that we are the future kingdom in the midst of the present, and that we have the sign of that future sealed to us, applied to us. God calls us to think differently about ourselves, to see ourselves differently, for our good and for the glory of your own name, for the honoring of your own name. Be with us to that end. We ask in Jesus name. Amen. Okay, we're talking about the church and we've covered a lot of ground. Last week, we talked about the fact that the church is a holy community
and that that holiness, it's a multifaceted thing, but it's, you know, there are a couple of ways, I suppose, that could be, in which it could be characterized. There is a positional holiness or a declared holiness. We are, referred to throughout the scriptures as saints, we are the holy ones, those whom God has set apart by himself and for himself, but there is another sense in which we're holy, and that is in these marks of the church, there are to be things that are true of us, that people can look on and see and that people should be able to see that there's something different, something distinctive about the church. And we suggested last week that, while typically, there are three marks that people think of when they talk about the church. The environment with there, okay, preaching, and we have the whole council of God in mind here, and the whole council of God, as I think about it, is the gospel. You know, you can think of the gospel in a sort, in a narrow sense, a specific sense, the core kinds of things that you would talk through with someone who is not a Christian. You know, you would begin with the existence and character of God who is holy, and then you could move to the, to the existence and character of man who is not holy, who is unholy, and because of his unholyness, is under judgment and is exposed to the threat of the wrath of God. And then you can talk about next in sort of the logical order of things, you talk about the person and work of Christ, who Jesus is, as the sinless one, who lived a life of perfect obedience, and then suffered the wrath of God in the place of sinners. And then you summon people to accept what Christ has done by faith. That's the gospel in a, you know, in a very narrow and very specific sense, but the gospel can be taken in a larger sense, I think, as you think about the good news, it is the good news, the specific good news, of the work of Christ in behalf of Savior, as Savior in behalf of sinners. That is good news, but I'll tell you, the whole council of God is good news. The love of God set upon me from before the foundation of the world, apart from my deserving, apart from my deserving. I'll tell you, that is good news. That is great good news, and the determined purpose of God, because he has set his affection upon particular sinners, to provide for them a Savior in the midst of time, and then to give the Holy Spirit who summons people to that Savior, and then the determined purpose of God to finish what it is that he's begun, bring it all to completion, bring us to glory, bring us to himself, bring us into the arms of a loving Savior who will embrace us forever. That's good news. That's good news. So when we talk about preaching the gospel, we talk about it, I think of it in both senses. I think about it in that very specific sense, the more narrow sense, but in this larger sense, and as we said last week, if there is a failure to preach the whole council of God, something is being withheld from God's people, which is good for them. There's anything in this, which is being withheld from God's people, they're not being given what God has appointed for their well-being. So the whole council of God has to be preached for the glory of God and for the gladness of God's people, for the joy, for the goodness of God's people. What's the second mark? The sacraments, the administration of the sacraments, the right administration of the sacraments. Right, not right, but right, correct. And there's always a connection between the sacraments and the word of God, the whole council of God, the two things can never be separated. If you separate these two things, then we begin to have a real problem. The sacraments have always to be connected to the preaching or to the word of God, which is, as the confession says, the only infallible rule in matters of faith and practice. It is the final arbiter, the final authority, the one court of appeal that you can trust implicitly for determining what it is you're to believe and how it is you're to live. Okay, so you can't ever dissociate the sacraments from the word of God and then the third is
okay, discipline in the church. And we talked about that in its two aspects yesterday, there is the last week, there is the regular discipline of the church or the regular disciplines of the church which involve the means of grace, those things which God has appointed and which he employs in our lives. Can I digress for just a minute and just remind you that typically we think of the means of grace, I don't know if that language is familiar to you, but the means of grace are things like the reading of scripture and prayer and attendance at public worship and the sacraments of the church and the fellowship of God's people. We tend to think of these things as things which we use and when we use them, we get something out of them, we benefit by them. That's not untrue, that's certainly true, but I'd sure like to encourage you to think a little differently about it. I'd like you to think about it theologically and realize that the means of grace are things which God has appointed and which he uses in your life. He employs these things as you employ them. These are the things which God has appointed for his church, for his people, that his people might know the life which is in the salvation which Christ has purchased for them. They are means which we employ. Nobody reads my Bible for me kind of thing. Nobody goes to church, I did it. Nobody goes to worship for me. Nobody takes the sacrament for me. I employ these things, I use these things, but what we need to understand is that these are things which God has engaged in. God has involved in these things and he has appointed them that he might use them as means to the end that I might be conformed to the image of Christ and in vain conformed to the image of Christ, I know life and not death. So I think it's good to think about the regular discipline or disciplines of the church as those things which God employs and then there is the corrective dimension of this when the sheep wanders, the shepherds employ the staff and it is the great shepherd who employs his staff in correcting, in seeking to restore sheep who have wandered away. There is that corrective restorative discipline which the church has to be engaged in, but I suggested last one that there is really a fourth mark of the church and I think it's awfully important and this has been discussed and debated and talked about in the history of the church and I think it's an awfully important thing for us to consider the fourth mark of the church being love. By this we'll all men know that you are my disciples if you have love one for another and I suggested there is a sense in which love could be seen as the rubric, the umbrella, under which all the rest of these things are gathered, that love is the principle mark of the church and that love manifests itself in any number of different ways, generally gathered under these three traditionally thought of marks of the church. It is a loving thing to preach the whole council of God. It is a loving thing to administer the sacraments in a right way. It is a loving thing to do the regular discipline of the church and to do corrective discipline in the life of it. These are loving things. These are expressions of love but the whole environment, the whole dynamic, the whole the loving, if you will, in the life of the church is to be love and what I suggested last week is that you can have all of these things and not have love. I know love is a hard thing to define. It's kind of like beauty. What is beautiful to one person? Another person might like, you know, winset. I mean, some people like turnips and some people like carrots and some people like steak and some people like fish and some people like one more than the other. Love is sometimes hard to define. It's hard. It's not like a proposition. I mean, if you look in a dictionary of philosophy, there are pages and pages and pages on love. But I think even though it's hard to define, I think we all know it when we see it. We all respond to it when it is expressed to us and what I said last week is that you can have these three things and not have this and what do you have? You have noise. You got noise. You may have formalism. You may, who know, you may be doing right things but if it is not permeated by this mark of the church, then it's just your noisy gun. So that is not in any way to diminish the significance of these things because as I suggested last week, these things really are expressions of love to do these things. But love being in the scriptures anyway in the teaching of Jesus, on the lips of Jesus, this being the principle mark of the church. By this will all men know that you're my disciples if you have loved one for another. So we talked about holiness. We talked about the marks of the church and then we went on to begin to talk about the church as a heavenly community. The church is a heavenly community. Now, we started that last week by looking at Philippians, the third chapter in the 20th verse where the Apostle Paul says, reminds those Philippian believers that their citizenship is in heaven. Their citizenship is in heaven. Now, that was particularly graphic language for people living in Philippi because as I said, Philippi was a city built by the Roman government in the midst of a Greek culture, in the midst of a Greek world. It was a military outpost. And so what Philippi was to a Roman was a Roman outpost. And the people who populated it were Roman citizens, citizens of Rome living in this other part of their greater empire but in an alien environment. So when Paul writes to the Philippians and says, remember this, your citizenship is in heaven. They have around them a life-size day-to-day illustration of the point that he's trying to make. He's encouraging them to think about the city of Philippi as a Roman outpost and its inhabitants pretty largely citizens of Rome, citizens away from their capital city, people away from their homeland. And that's the first thing that I wanted us to think about, as you think about the church, is a heavenly community. This is an outpost of heaven. The church is an outpost of heaven. This isn't our homeland. I just was reading last night before I went to bed. I mean, this was a wonderful, wonderful article. I don't know how many of you have heard of or read first things, but in the April edition, April 1997, there's a wonderful essay by a guy named Gilbert Milander, M-I-L-E-A-N-D-E-R. And in this essay he reflects upon his moving from Oberlin Ohio to Valparaiso, Indiana. He had been a teacher in Oberlin and had lived there for 18 years. And he reflects upon the fact that after living in a particular place for 18 years, he made a decision to move to another place and had to get himself realigned with a different faculty, with new friendships, the post offices in a different place, the high school is in a different, everything is different. And why in the world would somebody do something like that? And it's really a wonderful essay. It gets at the heart of the things that we long for and it gets at the heart of the fact that we don't get the things that we long for in this fallen world. And it underscores the idea that we are pilgrims. Moving in this life is a painful sort of reminder that we're pilgrims in this life. And whether we go or stay, the fact remains that we're pilgrims, we're sojourners, we're travelers, we're ambassadors, we're representatives of a foreign king. And that this is not our permanent homeland. Hebrews 13 talks about the fact that we have no abiding city here. And Abram is held up. How is he held up? He's held up as a model of faith. He is held up in the book of Hebrews as a model sojourner who looked to a city whose builder and maker is God, who didn't experience the fulfillment of all of the promises. In fact, that whole list of people in the Hebrews chapter 11, the same thing is said about all of them. They never experienced the fulfillment of the promises that were made first to Abraham. And then in every generation following Abraham. Why? Because they were sojourners. Because like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, they live in tents and tents are impermanent dwellings. This isn't home, beloved. We want it to be, it was supposed to be because of the fall, it isn't.
But thankfully, the savior of your souls, the lover of your souls, has gone ahead of you to prepare for you a permanent dwelling place, a home, which is your permanent and final home. So it's just, I mean, that's a tough thing for us to get our hands on, get our arms around. The idea that this is a, you remember Larry Norman? Does anybody remember Larry Norman? Right? Some of the older people in the crowd may remember Larry Norman. We're just visiting this planet. You remember that record that he did?
We're just visiting this post-attemporary thing. I've heard that 20 years, 25 years ago. I first became a Christian. This rock and roll guy does this album in title. We're just visiting this planet. Temporary dwelling place, aliens and strangers of pilgrim people, just like pilgrim and pilgrim's progress, away from the celestial city but on our way there. Okay? So the church is a heavenly community. Our citizenship is in heaven. But here's the other thing that needs to be said about this. While that is our future home, while that is the place to which we are headed and in which we will finally arrive, that future place is here in a partial form but that future place is here. Okay? Our home is heaven but the reality is that heaven does exist in the midst of the earth and heaven exists wherever the church is. The church is an outpost of the heavenly glory and a real expression of the heavenly glory. Okay? Now I'd like you to look at the book of Isaiah. I don't want to read some passages for you and then I'm going to draw you a little picture and just talk about it a little bit. Look first at Isaiah 11. This is a theme in the book of Isaiah. The theme is and really the whole thrust of Isaiah is one of looking ahead to the messianic age. Okay? This long four age which the followers of Jesus were on pins and needles about. Right? I mean, as we've been looking at the book of Acts, I've talked about this several times, I refer to it several times. The disciples just before Jesus is taken up into heaven, the disciples say to Jesus, is now the time. You know, we've been waiting. We've been waiting. We've been waiting. We've been waiting. It's now the time that you're going to restore the kingdom to Israel. I mean, they were thinking that this greatly long for an anticipated event. The emergence of the messianic age was finally upon them. Okay? And what the messianic age meant, that all of the, you know, all the rotten people would get thrown out, all the good people would be in scourced in Jerusalem forever. And there would be a reign of peace and all of the blessedness of the messiah would be poured out upon the people of Israel. Okay? I mean, the Romans would get squashed finally and all of the other Gentiles would, would finally be cast aside. And Israel would be the ruling and reigning people in the midst of the nations of the earth with messiah in her midst and all the blessedness. So that's what everybody was looking forward to. And this thing was like a snowball rolling down a hill, you know, as the days and weeks and months and centuries went by. There was some fluctuation in it, but the sense of anticipation, the sense of longing only grew as one prophet came and then another came and they all sort of referred to it and kind of built up everybody's expectations about it. Okay? A real, a real heightened sense of expectation. And when Jesus shows up on the scene and people are getting healed and folks are, you know, demons are being cast out and powers and principalities are being silenced and dead people are coming back to life. It's like, whoa, this is it? That's why there were so many thousands of people who followed Jesus initially. Why the crowds were so big right out of the shoot, right? Miracles. I mean, taking some fish and some bread and feeding thousands of people with this stuff. It's here, you know, it's here. Well, that expectation is grounded in places like the book of Isaiah. So let me just read, I want to read several passages. Isaiah 11, right, verse 1, there shall come forth a rod from the stem of Jesse and a branch shall grow out of his roots. Who's Jesse? By the way, David's dad. Okay? So, so what's that got to do with this branch and stuff? This rod, this shoot. What's that got to do with this? Right. We'd come from the Davidic line, okay? Some ancestor down the road of David is being referred to here, okay? Now, what's going to characterize the emergence of this rod of Jesse, this stem, okay, that comes forth, this branch? The spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. Now, you remember in the ministry of Jesus even when he was a teenager, how the, you know, the Pharisees, the teachers of the law, the people in the temple were dumbfounded by the wisdom of Jesus, by his perceptions, by his understanding, by his knowledge, okay? And you remember in the gospels how frequently people would hear Jesus' teach and they would say things like, we've never heard anyone speak this way and they would be impressed by the authority of his preaching, okay? The spirit of the Lord rested upon him. His delight is in the fear of the Lord and he shall not judge by the side of his eyes nor decide by the hearing of his ears. What do you think is in view there? He will not judge by the side of his eyes nor by the hearing of his ears. Now, I don't want to be unfair, okay? But how do politicians make judgments? By the side of their eyes and by the hearing of their ears, by polling data, by the winds of favor, setting motion by the people, okay? This one upon whom the spirit of the Lord rests isn't going to make judgments in that way. He won't judge by the side of his eyes or by the hearing of his ears. How will he judge? He does know the heart. He will judge on the basis of the wisdom which he possesses by virtue of the fact that the spirit rests upon him, okay? He'll tell the truth, he'll tell the truth. With righteousness, he shall judge the poor and decide with equity for the meek of the earth. He shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips, he shall slay the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt of his loins and faithfulness, the belt of his waste. The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb. By the way, the lion and the lamb? I don't know where that originates, but it doesn't come from Isaiah. It's actually a wolf or a mosquito, okay? The wolf shall dwell with the lamb. The leopard shall lie down with the young goat, the calf and the young lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze, their young ones shall lie down together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play by the cobra's hole, and the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper's den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea, and in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, who shall stand as a banner to the people, for the Gentile shall seek him, and his resting place shall be glorious. Now, you see how there's a progression in this thing? There is this reference to the rod of Jesse, then there is attention focused upon this one, who will be the fulfillment of what is promised, but then there is a corporate dimension to this thing, and what is it that characterizes the corporate dimension as this one is in the midst of this corporate gathering? It's blessedness, it's peace, it's tranquility pictured in these different ways by the wolf lying down with the lamb, which really is a more complete picture. It's the wolf in sheep's clothing that you're concerned about. But the wolf actually will dwell in the midst of the herd. There will be this peace, this tranquility, okay? And there are other images that are set there before you, but then there's this phrase in that day, and in that day there shall be this root of Jesse, who shall stand as a banner, as an ensign to the people, and the Gentile shall seek him, and his resting place, the place where he is, where he dwells shall be a place glorious, okay? So you have this one upon whom the Spirit of God rests, you have this reign of peace, and then you have this corporate benefit which people enjoy as a result of that, okay? And it isn't just the Jews, but it's Gentiles who come to this ensign who come to this banner. What, I mean, what does this sound like to you? Right? It sounds like the church, doesn't it? It sounds like Jesus in the midst of the church. It doesn't sound like the church. No, it doesn't sound like the church. We're coming to that. Right. It does sound like the New Heaven and the New Year. Isaiah 32.
Isaiah 32 began in verse 12. People shall mourn upon their breasts for the pleasant fields for the fruitful vine. On the land of my people will come up thorns and dryers. Yes, on all the happy homes in the joyous city, because the palaces will be forsaken, the bustling city will be deserted, the forts and towers will become layers forever, a joy of wild donkeys, a pasture of flocks, dot, dot, dot, and then verse 15. Until the Spirit is poured out from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is counted as a forest. Then justice will dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness remain in the fruitful field. The work of righteousness will be peace and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever. My people will dwell in a peaceful habitation in secure dwellings and in quiet resting places, though hail comes down on the forest, and the city is brought low in humiliation. Blessed are you who sow beside all waters, who send out freely the feet of the ox and of the donkey. So there's a picture of desolation, but then there's this event which occurs. What is the event? The coming of the Spirit, the Spirit being poured out, another reference to the Spirit. Isaiah 42. We could read for hours. Isaiah 42, verse 1. Behold my servant whom I uphold, my elect one and whom my soul delights. I have put my spirit upon him. He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles. He will not cry out nor raise his voice, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. A bruised read he will not break, and smoking flacks he will not quench. He will bring forth justice for truth. He will not fail nor be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth, and the coastlands shall wait for his law. Here is this one again upon whom the Spirit rests, and what do you see is the fruit, what do you see is the outcome, the outworking of the work of this one upon whom the Spirit rests. He is one of compassion. He doesn't break the bruised read. He doesn't squash the weak one. The smoking flacks. He is tender and compassionate. He doesn't yell and scream. He doesn't make a lot of noise. Right? He will never fail or be discouraged. And again, justice, righteousness is mentioned as being characteristic of this one. Isaiah 43, or I'm sorry 44, this nat, I tell you there's an effect of the fall, and there's an effect of the fall for you. What? Murderer. Murderer. Somebody's uncle. Isaiah 44, begin at verse 1. Yet here now, O Jacob, my servant, in Israel whom I have chosen, thus says the Lord who made you, and formed you from the womb, who will help you, fear not, O Jacob, my servant, and you, Jesheron, whom I have chosen, for I will pour water on him who is thirsty, and floods on the dry ground. I will pour my spirit on your descendants, and my blessing on your offspring. They will spring up among the grass like willows by the water courses. One will say, I am the Lord's. Another will call himself by the name of Jacob. Another will write with his hand the Lord's, and name himself by the name of Israel. The spirit again, the presence of the spirit, resulting in certain things, and the spirit is likened in this passage to water, without which no one can live, and an abundance of water. Let's just do one more. Isaiah 59, verses 15 to 21.
Now let's see here. Verse 16, he saw that there was no man. Well, now back up, okay, just let me start at verse 13. In transgressing and lying against the Lord, and departing from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart, words of falsehood, justice is turned back, and righteousness stands afar off. For truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter. So truth fails, and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. What a great picture that is. A person who departs from evil becomes the object of attack. There's an environment that's being described here, and it clearly is not a safe environment for anyone who would want to be known as righteous. Then the Lord saw it, and it displeased him that there was no justice. He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor. Therefore his own arm brought salvation for him, and his own righteousness it sustained him. For he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on his head. He put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloak. According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay, fury to his adversaries, recompense to his enemies. The coastlands he will fully repay, so shall they fear the name of the Lord from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him. The Redeemer will come design, and to those who turn from transgression in Jacob says the Lord. As for me says the Lord, this is my covenant with them, my Spirit who is upon you, and my words which I have put in your mouth shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your descendants, nor from the mouth of your descendants, descendants, says the Lord, from this time and forevermore. Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For behold the darkness shall cover the earth and deep darkness the people, but the Lord will arise over you, and his glory will be seen upon you. The Gentile shall come to your light and kings to the brightness of your rising. Who's that about? The Messiah. We've looked at a half a dozen passages, five passages here from the book of Isaiah, but you begin to get this sense of momentum that there is created throughout the whole of the Old Testament, the sense that there is some great person and some great event to come in the future, and what is the characteristic mark of that person and that event? The Spirit. The Spirit, the Spirit rests upon him, the Spirit is poured out from heaven, the Spirit appears over and over and over in connection with this great one and this great period that is to come. And there is this little phrase that appears in very many of the prophets, it was in the first passage that we looked at, I referred to it in the Isaiah chapter 11, the phrase in that day, in the Isaiah 11, verse 10. Now, whenever that phrase appears that phrase in that day,
it is a reference to this whole messianic era, this whole messianic period, this messianic age, which is characterized by the presence of the Spirit. In that day, future, at that time, in those days, you'll see it all over the place in the prophets. And it is always this reference to this messianic age, to the coming of this one who will stand as an ensign in the midst of the peoples, to whom the Gentiles will come and whose reign will be a reign of peace and blessedness. Now, the question is, when did it start? Or has it started yet? Is it still a future thing? Or is it a present reality? Well, look at Hebrews, the first chapter, okay? Now, if you've been around these things a little bit, you probably know this, if these things are somewhat new to you, then I'll be the first to tell you that the letter to the Hebrews was written to Hebrews. This is probably a mixed audience, but pretty largely a Jewish or Hebrew audience was in view, and there's all kinds of illusion in the book of Hebrews to the Old Testament, to Moses, to the Levitical Order, the Presley Order, to Melchizedek, and all of these things that are pretty strange and foreign, maybe to us, but which were a part of the vocabulary of life for the Jews of this time. And look at what the writer says at the very beginning. God, who at various times, and in various ways, spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, okay? Various times, various ways, spoken times past to the fathers by the prophets has in these last days spoken to us by his son, whom he has appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the worlds, who being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, having become so much better than the angels as he has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. Now, if you're a Jewish person and you hear the writer of this letter, use these words in these last days. And then he goes on to describe this one, who is clearly Jesus, the one who suffered and died and who then was exalted, lifted up, seated in his heavenly throne room upon his throne. Okay? That one being described, this phrase is used, what are you going to conclude? What are you going to think? In these last days he has spoken by his son. It's not a future thing anymore. It is a present reality. The reign of the branch from the stump of Jesse has begun. The promised who stands as an ensign in the midst of the people has begun to reign. And the Gentiles have come and are coming to the brightness of his rising. Okay? You see, with the coming of Jesus, you know, here you've got history, beating along in the direction of the consummation of all things in Christ. And here you have this great event where Christ comes and he is the man of the spirit and he inaugurates the reign of the spirit. He inaugurates the kingdom of the spirit. He begins this period of the spirit, which is to continue forever. Okay? Now, when the theologians talk about this, as they reflect upon the Bible, it's not like they dream these things up out of their heads. They look at the data of Scripture. And they're realistic people. And they say, what Mark said when I asked the question, doesn't this look like the church? And Mark said, no, it doesn't look like the church. As I look at the church, I don't see a reign of peace. I don't see the kind of justice and righteousness that I want to see prevailing. I don't see the wolf lying down with the lamb. In fact, you find out Paul, when he admonishes the Ephesian elders before he goes off to be tried, he admonishes the Ephesian elders and says to them, some from among you are going to rise up like wolves in the midst of the flock and bite and devour the flock of Jesus Christ. Okay? I mean, how do you how do you make sense of this? Because the writers of Scripture point ahead to this period of time, to this great one and to this great period. And the writer of the letter to the Hebrews says, in these last days, at this time, right now, no longer a future thing, but a present thing, this promised one has come and this reign has begun. How do you make sense of this? Well, you make sense of it in this way. It is real, it is present. And I'll tell you, sometimes I read some of those Old Testament passages, and then I listen to Paul and even listen to Jesus and think about what it was that was a accomplished in a few short decades in the early life of the church. You know, and I ask myself the question, why am I so pessimistic? Why am I so pessimistic? Is it just because I'm Irish? You know, you know about the Irish. I mean, all of their wars are glorious and all of their love songs are sad, and it's the weirdest thing about the Irish. Well, it's a both-hand kind of the thing. It is an already and a not yet. It is a present reality which still awaits a consummation at the end of history. So there's one thing that describes what life is going to be like before Christ comes. One word. It's the word mixed. It's the word mixed. People ask me how I'm doing. I say mixed. People say, how's life treating you? Not really. I'm not trying to be clever about this because I'm not all that clever. People ask, how's life treating you? I say, not very well, but the Lord is treating me wonderfully, right? I mean, it is a mixed thing. History right now, from the time of the coming of Christ, has these two dimensions, these two elements to it. There is this old history that continues and which will end, but there is this new history which has emerged and it will never end. It will continue forever. The reign of Christ is an eternal reign. The point is that the king is reigning now, and the point is that at Pentecost Christ poured out his spirit upon the church, and it is the spirit who is the mark, the distinguishing characteristic of the reign of the exalted Messiah. I don't need to read Acts chapter 2. You know Acts chapter 2, that all the believers are gathered together and they're sitting around waiting and praying and the spirit falls, and Peter interprets that event in his first sermon as a fulfillment of the promise in the second chapter of Joel, where God says, I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh, not just upon priests, not just upon kings, not just upon prophets, but I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh. An old men will have visions, and young men will dream dreams, or old men will dream dreams, and young men will have visions, however it works. The women alike, on old people and young people, the spirit will pour out indiscriminately upon all flesh. That's what characterizes the reign of the Messiah, and the reign of the Messiah is a heavenly reign, and the church of Jesus Christ right now, you, this gathering right here, this gathering right now is the kingdom of heaven. This is where the spirit dwells, this is where Jesus threw his spirit reigns. It is through us here that he will continue to extend his kingdom into all the earth, okay? The church of Jesus Christ is the heavenly community, not just in terms of citizenship, but in terms of possession, possessing the spirit and the blessedness of the spirit in our midst. Now, you know you read through Paul's letters, I read through Paul's letters, and I, you know I'm sometimes, maybe you are too, I'm sometimes intimidated by the kinds of expectations that there seem to be in Paul's letters, in various other places in the New Testament, about how we're to conduct ourselves and how we're to live our lives, and the demands, the high calling that there is, set before us as believers. You know why should we have any reason to think that any of that might be fulfilled in our lives? Why do we have any reason to think that there might be something so distinctive, so different, so sweet, so savory, so pleasant among us that the world would take a look, pay attention to us by virtue of what it sees in us. Why? It's because of the spirit's presence in the midst of the church. It is because this is where Christ is exerting his reign. There is a sense in which Christ rules and reigns over everything. Everything that he has created, he is Lord over, okay? There is that sense in which Christ rules and reign reigns as King of the Kings and Lord of the Lords. But there is another sense in which Christ rules and reigns and is present, and that is in this very specific way in the life of his church. He is poured out his spirit, who is the distinguishing characteristic and feature of the Messianic Age, and he rules and reigns in this very specific way in the midst of his church. And because he does, it is not wrong for us to have high expectations, okay? Now you know we sort of get back to this thing we talked about last week, two weeks ago. This called a holiness, which there is all throughout the scriptures. The Holy Holy for the Lord your God is holy. That's this high and lofty thing that we're talking about.
Here's how I'm beginning to think we have to think about these expectations. I don't have high expectations for you. I know you and you know me, but I ought to have high expectations about what Christ is able to accomplish in me and through me. My expectations are not attached to you ultimately. My expectations are attached to the fact that Christ is the ascended and reigning King. And he dwells in the midst of his people by his spirit. And his spirit is a transforming, empowering, righteousness affecting, peace affecting, justice affecting spirit.
So the reason we have high expectations for what goes on in our midst is not because we have high expectations of one another. It is because we have high expectations of Jesus and what Jesus is able to accomplish in the midst of his people. All right, so let me just mention some implications here. By the way, other places in the New Testament where the spirit is mentioned in this regard, 2 Corinthians 1, 21 and 22, Ephesians 1, 13 and 14, where the spirit is referred to as a seal and as a down payment, the first fruits of that which is promised to us. Let me just mention some implications here. First is that it seems to me the church is different from the world. Maybe that's self-evident, but the church is different from the world. It is different by definition. There is a union between Christ, the man of the spirit, and the church upon whom, in whom by his spirit he dwells. The church is different from the world. The church is different from the world in terms of its authority. The church is different because the spirit of Christ dwells in the midst of the church. There is a union between the church and Christ. The church is different from the world in terms of its authority. The authority of the church is a heavenly authority. It is not a visible authority. It is an invisible authority. It is not a material authority. It is a spiritual authority. The authority is no less real because it is unseen or invisible. In fact, it is a greater authority. Someone came up to me last week and said, I got to get this thing straight, you know, about the difference between the authority of the world and the authority that exists within the church. What is the relationship of these two things? Because I said something about this last week and I said, well here, let me give you an example. Chris Hayes was standing here and Joe Wallwork was the one asking the question. I said, let's suppose that Chris Hayes came to its murder and you, Joe, are an elder in this church. How do these two authorities intersect with one another? The authority of the world would prosecute Chris Hayes for his crime. And if it really honored life, if it really had a regard for life and for justice, a life would be exacted because a life had been taken. And this one who had murdered in a premeditated way would be executed. That's the authority of the world. But Joe, you're an elder in this church and you meet with Chris before his execution. And you then come to the session of the church and say, I believe that Chris has repented of his sin, recognizes that what he has done is wrong. And he wants to be restored to the fellowship of God's people. The church exercises an even greater authority by hearing his confession and restoring him to the fellowship of God's people. He still must suffer the consequence of his action before the state. But he may die a happy man knowing that what awaits him is the presence of Christ. You see the greater authority is the church's authority. The church has Christ rules and reigns in the midst of the church and gives to the church wisdom. The church has the powers of the keys of heaven to bind and to loose. And so the church can say to Chris Hayes, we trust that God will give you the grace to die well. If he doesn't repent of his sin, the church, by virtue of the authority that Christ has entrusted to the church, the church may say through those who Christ has appointed exercise judgment in these matters. The church may say as nearly as we can tell you are apart from Christ. And what awaits you upon your execution is not just physical death, but eternal spiritual death. You see, and that spiritual authority, though not seen, is a greater authority even than the authority of the state. So the church is different from the world in that she is united to Christ. She is a heavenly community. She is an outpost of heaven. Her authority is different. The third implication is we live in two worlds. We're citizens of two different realms. We're to live here faithfully. We're to submit to the laws of the state. We're to pay our taxes. We don't have the right to steal somebody else's automobile even though that automobile belongs to Jesus. And I'm a citizen of his realm. I can't break the laws of the state. I have to submit to the laws of the state, but I submit to a higher authority. And when the higher authority requires of me that I violate the laws of the state, no matter the inconvenience to me, I violate the laws of the state. The classic passage in this regard is Acts 4. Just read this. And what's going on here is that everybody is preaching. I mean the spirits come and everybody is fired up and they're out talking in the streets and folks are getting converted. And it's wonderful stuff. And then the authorities don't like the fact that their numbers are diminishing. And so they come after Peter and James and John and all the rest and they tell them to stop it. Stop doing this. Stop preaching in the name of Jesus. Verse 18 of Acts 4. So they called them and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered and said to them, whatever, or whether it is right inside of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge. But here's the deal. We cannot, but speak the things which we have seen and heard. In other words, you make a determination as authorities over us about whether or not in your opinion it is right for us to continue doing this. But our minds are made up. We are constrained that we must preach and teach in the name of Jesus. If you want to put us to death, put us to death. And they're threatened with that and a little bit later they go on their way rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer in the name of Jesus.
So we live in two worlds. We are called upon to live as good citizens. We are called to be faithful in this realm. I mentioned this before when the Christians of the early centuries at the time of Augustine were under fire and the emperor perceived them as being a threat to the empire. But Augustine wrote and said, you don't need to worry about the Christians. They'll be the best citizens you have in your empire. You don't want to know why? Because a higher authority than you commands them to submit to your authority. And they will be good citizens because they're required to be good citizens by the king of the kings. And that's what we're called upon to do. We live in two worlds. Sometimes there is tension. As I said at the very beginning, there is always a tension between these two realms. There is always a tension between Jerusalem and Babylon. Never shall the twain meet. And the state of affairs between Jerusalem and Babylon is always and only one of greater or lesser peace and harmony. The two are never merged. They never overlap. They're always distinct and there's always a tension to a greater or lesser extent. And then the last thing to say sort of tied into the thing that we've been saying from the beginning of this is that we have no abiding city here. This is not our home. Our city we have yet to see. Our city is the new heaven and the new earth. And when that new heaven and new earth comes, when this reign of Christ is no longer simply inaugurated but consummated, brought to completion, then the things that are depicted in Isaiah will be true for us completely and entirely. The point is that they are here now and we have reason to expect that some measure, some real measure of the reign of Christ should be in evidence among us. Okay. We'll stop. So the churches are heavenly community. Next week we're going to look at the fact that the church is a gathering community and then maybe move on to talk about some of the specifics of our life together. Okay. We really need to stop. But if you have a comment or a thought, why don't you bring it next week and we can talk about it. Already not yet. Both stand, mixed, mixed up. Yes, mixed up. Okay. Let's pray. Lord we bless your name and pray so very much that in our lives as individuals, in our marriages, in our families, in our life together, we pray so very much that by your spirit you would exert yourself, overcome sin and darkness, cause peace, righteousness, justice, blessedness, and beauty to reign in our midst for the sake of your own name, do we ask this? And though there may be great cost for any one of us or all of us together in this, would you give us grace to pay that price, to suffer that cost? Again, that you might make a name for yourself that you might establish your own praiseworthiness in our midst. We ask in your name.