The Final Curtain PT2, The Folds of the Curtain

And, you know, I started a couple of weeks back a sermon, a couple of parts of a sermon entitled The Final Curtain. And I don't know if we're at that final curtain, but we're drawing closer every day, I'll tell you that. and things are very imminent and pressing in. And thank God I'm a part of the church. I am telling you, hallelujah. You know, I talked about some folds of the curtain, and we're going to look at the last two today, verses 20 through 21. I'm going to tell you, this is probably, probably is important to verses in the Bible that we blow back so often. But if you have an incarnational theology where the word became flesh and invaded our world, these two verses come alive. verse 20 now having been questioned by the pharisees as to when the kingdom was coming he answered them and said the kingdom of god is not coming with signs to be observed now in jewish thought in that day the pharisees and and scribes and even even the commoners expected that Jesus would return, the king of kings would return, the Messiah would return and set up a political kingdom. Their thoughts was that Rome would be eliminated and their kingdom would be set up and it would rule. The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed. that didn't sit well with the Pharisees I can tell you nor will they say look here it is or there it is for behold the kingdom of God is in your midst is in your midst now that's not what the Pharisees wanted to hear I'm telling you if it's in our midst why isn't the throne set up why aren't you sitting on the throne and ruling the kingdom of god is in your midst some of your bibles might say is within you and and and i talked about that in terms of the prevenient grace of god that goes in our hearts is within us that spark of divinity that causes us to look up in part one we looked at the first fold of the kingdom of the curtain as this curtain descends we see the signage written across it the kingdom of god is supreme we talked about that the kingdom of god is sovereign that's another way of saying it the kingdom was the primary message of jesus in a supernatural sense Jesus was both the king and the kingdom now try to wrap your mind around that he was the king and the kingdom he said seek ye first the kingdom of God his lordship his reignship in your life and you'll be a part of the kingdom when you seek the kingdom guys you run face to face into Jesus and there's no way around it jesus is the alpha and the omega he is the beginning and the ending of the kingdom in romans 11 33 through 36 i really like one of the apostle of Paul's doxologies. He wrote, Oh, the depths of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments and unfathomable are his ways. Now, his thoughts and his ways are way beyond ours. For who has known the mind of the Lord or who became his counselor? That's ridiculous, isn't it? Who became his counselor? I'm not going to stand in that position and advise the Lord, I'm going to tell you. Or who has given to him that it might be paid back to him again? No way. For from him, listen to that, from him and through him and to him are all things to him be glory forever and ever and ever. Amen. He is the Alpha and the Omega. The kingdom is sovereign. It is his message. You know, I scribbled down from creation to recreation, being born again, to culmination. Going through that sanctifying process to the coming of the Lord, he is supremely sovereign. he initiated salvation and he will culminate salvation he is supreme you know us wesleyans need to dwell on that sovereignty a little bit more sometimes and in john 1 14 through 18 i mentioned the incarnational theology and the word became flesh and dwelt among us now listen to that dwelt among us he is in the midst of us and we beheld his glory glory is the only begotten from the father full of grace and truth John bore witness to him and cried out saying this was he of whom I said he was the forewarner wasn't he he who comes after me has a higher rank than I for he existed before me he was preeminent for of his fullness we have received and grace upon grace for the law was given through Moses grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ no man listen to this no man has seen God at any time the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father he has explained him revealed him he is the kingdom and the kingdom he is in the midst of you it might even be said that he is within you meaning that he is that spark of divinity, what I call the garden image. Though marred by sin, but not destroyed, that enables us to look up and seek him. We don't even, we can't even imagine that. We begin the seeking process. He enables that seeking process. it's not something we just choose he brings it through us he chooses it through us he instills it in us he is personal that's a big word he's not private my parents generation grew up with a private Jesus and I help my folks in later years understand he's not private, he is personal but he's sure not private he is spiritual in nature he is present he is in this very room right now you hear that? he is in this very room right now I don't have to conjure him up. I don't have to imagine him up. He is present in the midst of us. That's who he is by nature. He is present, powerful. The Bible says full of grace and truth. Now that's a lot of power. he is king of kings and lord of lords so i want us to look at fold two and fold three today because that sets the very foundation for these other curtain folds that are dropping if you think back i i told you the second fold and it would just be across the fold of the descending curtain, the Pharisees are subversive. Subversive. Verse 20 said, Now having been questioned by the Pharisees as to when the kingdom of God was coming. now having been questioned by the Pharisees as to when the kingdom of God was coming. Did our PowerPoint go out? Amen Amen Back up with me to Luke 11 in this chapter Jesus has confronted the Pharisees and the scribes with their own hypocrisy lack of compassion and reconstruction of scripture. We know a lot about reconstruction-ness today in our society, don't we? They want to rewrite our history, don't they? Well, the Pharisees were very set on rewriting their understanding of the Old Testament law. After this confrontation, the Bible says this, in verses 53 through 54. And when he had left there, the scribes and the Pharisees began to be very hostile, listen to this, and to question him closely on many subjects. This is one of them. When will the kingdom come? to question him on many subjects, plotting against him, to catch him in something he might say. Let me ask you a question. Have you ever been in a situation where someone asks you a question that you recognize they did not really want the answer but ask it to simply trap you into a debate and ultimately discredit you? Have you ever been in that situation? when we were in Childress there was a friend of mine that had an accident down on the highway and there was a lawsuit going on about it and Vernon was a great guy and a good friend of mine and his lawyer was one of the lawyers that was a charter member of Aldersgate. That was a great friend of mine too. And the other lawyer put me up on the stands. They wanted me to give a account of Vernon. Was he an honest guy? And that lawyer asked me, and Kim, you may have to help me on this. We chuckled at this. That lawyer asked me, he said, knowing I was a preacher, he said, Mr. Hurst, you have theological education. I said, I do. He said, well, if you got up and preached that there were green Martians running around on the earth, what do you think your wife would do? And I said, well, first thing is, I'm not going to say that. But the second thing is, If I did say that, my wife would be hauling me to the mental hospital right now. Now, that brought the courtroom down, I'm telling you. You know, I looked at Quinn, the other lawyer, and he went, you just destroyed that guy. You know, I knew his question was a setup because he wanted to discredit me and my intellectual proudness, which I don't have much, but he wanted to do the best he could up there and make me look like a fool in testifying that Vernon was a good guy, that I was just confused and misinformed about Vernon's character in this lawsuit. When I was in seminary, I will always remember this. One of my good friends who is a Calvinist and me being a Wesleyan Arminian. So basically, let me just tell you, in a short scenario, Calvinists and Arminians have argued forever about how you come into the kingdom and how you stay in the kingdom. You can narrow their arguments down to those two things, how you enter the kingdom and how you stay in the kingdom. And that's a simple way of defining it. We could go into a lot deeper detail, but that's a simple way of defining it. And I was taking a January term and my friend came to visit us. And when we got into this class I was taking that semester, it was called John Wesley's Theology. And we were learning the basic tenets of Wesleyan theology. And a guy named Dr. Arnett was teaching. And Arnett was an older gentleman, very kind and compassionate. but a fireball when he had to be. And so there's a hundred of us in this class. And Dr. Arnett kicks the class off with the devotion and prayer time. And then we begin the class and my friend immediately raised his hand and asked a question. which was way above my head, I'm telling you. My friend was a theological guru. He could walk circles around me. I went home from college over Christmas break, and he stayed there that 30 days. And when I got back in my closet in our dorm room, was a chart. He had written the entire book of Romans on this chart and memorized it. For 30 days, he had a break. He memorized the entire book of Romans. I'd say, brother, what is chapter 3, verse 2? He'd tell me. He had a mind. He was sharper in tax. Anyways, he initiates this conversation by question with Dr. Arnett about Calvin's view and Arminian view on predestination I think what the question was And my friend really had no intentions of wanting to have that question answered He asked it in order for a debate to take place. You know him. He would, wouldn't he? And he asked that question. and let me tell you what Dr. Arnett did. He recognized he was not a part of that class. He was just visiting. And I'll never forget him saying, you have already made your mind up concerning the debate between Calvinism and Arminianism. So let me just answer that question by giving you some points on what that debate is not about. and then he went through five or six points about what that debate is not about and how Calvin and Arminian were connected and brothers and thought on some issues. my friend looked at me and his jaw dropped on the tape. Just kind of in, well. And then he said to me, I'll have to go back to the library on that. Dr. Arnett knew that it was useless to argue about it because he had already answered his own questions. but he could show where we were connected and where we were brothers, which was insight to me because I didn't know there was any connection, but there is. The kingdom will not be observed by cataclysmic events nor will it simply be physical in nature. The kingdom will be among you and within you, Jesus said. It will be spiritual in nature. He's answering their question but not the way they want it answered. I learned by looking at Jesus sometimes, Jesus did that continually, didn't he? A question would come up and then he'd fire off around this corner in a different way than they expected. In John 3, 5, Jesus said, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Did that sound narrow-minded to you? It offended those Pharisees and scribes. Unless one is born of water and the spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of God That was offensive to them that day in their daytime their history at that time It was offensive, but it was truthful. Fold three, Jesus is sympathetic. He said, for behold the kingdom of God is in your midst. Now there are two ideas here that show the sympathetic Jesus and I don't like that word sympathetic but I'm going to use it because it's an S word so I'm going to use it but I'll define it for you a little bit. There are two ideas here that show the sympathetic Jesus. Number one, behold. Behold. There are numerous instances that illustrate the power of the term behold in the Bible. All across the Bible. How many times have you read it, Old and New Testament? behold behold behold Isaiah 7 14 here's an Old Testament behold the virgin shall conceive bear a son and shall call him Emmanuel God is with us Jesus said the kingdom is in the message of God is with us guys behold is a wake up call for Israel here it was the prophetic foreknowledge an awakening call to the nation of israel that god was up to something and that he would do it through a virgin now that had to blow minds i'm telling you right now god was up to something but he used the term behold. Now that's an awakening call. Do you hear what I'm saying? When you see the word behold in scripture, stop and go, wait a second. What are you trying to say here? It's an important term. Kim and I, every morning we do the wake up call. Some of you may do that also. And by J.D. Walt and their basis is you can't win today unless you win the morning and we've learned that to be true in our lives we start our day with God the rest of it flows much better now all of us have different devotional styles that's okay I'm not telling you you have to do it that way but it works for us and we pray this prayer every day wake up old sleeper rise from the dead and Christ will shine on you that's straight out of Ephesians 5 14 and it comes from the Old Testament in John 5 25 Jesus said truly truly I tell you an hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the son of God and those who hear shall live Behold Wake up You know, when I was in Childers, there was a man that sat back toward the back and they had these big columns in that church and I looked back there and he was like this during the whole sermon. A lawyer. I drink coffee with that lawyer once a week on Monday mornings. And finally I said, Richard, do you ever listen to my sermons? And he said, introduction was this, point one was this, point two was this. He said, I may have my eyes closed, but I'm awake and listening. Wake up! you see here Jesus is saying the kingdom is in your midst behold wake up open your eyes I'm right here in front of you I did not want to hear that in the New Testament another example is John 1 29 I love this one John the Baptist the baptizer for repentance the wilderness his prophet the forerunner of Christ the cousin to Jesus exclaimed behold wake up the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world it was a prophetic word of restoration of paradise you remember the old song we used to sing oh for a thousand tongues to sing the fourth stancer he breaks the power of cancelled sin singular not sins plural he breaks the power of cancelled sin you know that's a great statement he breaks not only the power forgiven blotted out sins plural but the nature to sin he breaks within us he restores us to that created image of the heavenly father and he stamps that nature upon us through the blood of jesus and the baptism of the holy spirit now that's deep stuff guys He recreates us to our garden image. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away S-I-N of the world. It is the beholding of redemption. Behold. the process of redemption has begun and it has ended it is finished secondly the terms here in your midst it's what I call the beholding of presence remember that prayer course we used to sing surely the presence of the Lord is in this place I can feel his mighty power and his grace. I can hear the brush of angels' wings. I see glory on each face. Surely the presence of the Lord is in this place. I am in the midst of you. The kingdom's not over there. And the kingdom's not over there. And there's no cataclysmic event happening right now. Now, let me sidestep for a second and say there will be in the second coming. All of that will take place. And he will establish his kingdom. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. It will be a heavenly kingdom established on this place. He will do that. But not at this time. I am in the midst of you. He is in the midst of us in this room. That's amazing. It's amazing. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to my Father. but through me. It's kind of bad. When the Ayatollah died I told Kim he just met the true God He just met him face to face. Jesus was saying to them, I'm right here. Now, my question is, why were they so blind? Why were they so blind? Go to the parable of the soils. they were hardened. Their hearts were hardened. I'm going to finish with this. You know, there's lots of circumstances and situations in life that can make us hardened people. some of the most hardened crusty old people I ever met were people to sit in the pews Sunday after Sunday after Sunday the Pharisees were religious people the scribes were theologically trained. But they were hardened. If there's one thing when I see that I in the midst of you it says to me Carrie keep a soft heart Don't be blind. Don't be blind. Scripture is so good, isn't it? Jesus is so honest. now let me read one verse to you and I'll finish because it really says it best for me even though I don't like the word sympathize it's in here Hebrews 4 14 through 16 a lot of you already are going I've read that since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens Jesus the son of God let us hold fast to our confession for we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses but one who has been tempted in all things as we are, in all things, not just some things, all things, as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore draw near with confidence to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find help in our time of need. Jesus is sympathetic. The word became flesh. You see I am in the midst of you I got the throne and I in the midst of you I left my throne and I in the midst of you I think Jesus loves and drives He loved them. And he was just saying, come on, guys, wait. Let me crack that shell. I want some of you, I'd like to see all of you in the kingdom with me. He didn't hate the Pharisees. he didn't hate the scribes he didn't hate religious people this was almost their last chance I've been there I've been there too I knew when my last chance was and thank God I let him crack my shell amen let's bow together Lord I thank you for your word that you are the way the truth and the life and that we have access through you that we can abide in you because you will abide in us. Lord, in Jesus' name I pray. Amen.