Blog Archives - Ironworks Pike Community Church

Is Christ's Kingdom In The World Today?

1/18/2017

"Kingdom" doctrine is a big deal with a lot of ministries today. But is it all being taught well? Or are Christian people being given extreme expectations that end up leaving them broken and disappointed?

The Old Testament predicts a glorious time when God's presence will visibly re-establish itself upon the earth. Messiah will conquer God's enemies, and idolatry will stop. Man will beat his swords into plowshares, and will learn war no more. This bundle of Biblical hopes eventually became known as the "kingdom of God." These was the Jewish expectations when Jesus came, and it explains a lot of the puzzlement and frustration with Him that the people felt. Christ often had to point out that there were many other kingdom prophecies about Messiah suffering and dying (such as Isaiah 53) that the people either were ignoring or had never learned.

Jesus in Matthew 13 show Him re-defining the kingdom. Jesus says that the kingdom would manifest now through preaching, and there would be varied responses to the preaching (13:1-23). The kingdom would have true and false believers co-existing alongside each other, like plants in a field or fish in the sea (24-30, 47-50). God's kingdom would start out tiny and grow up to be very large (31-32). It would penetrate society like yeast working though dough (33). People would stumble across God's kingdom almost by accident (44-46).

The Old Testament predicted God's kingdom will come down to the earth from heaven suddenly, visibly, catastrophically, by force, and enacted by the Messiah personally. It would judge the whole world, and condemn all the unbelievers. Jesus said the kingdom will come through the earth slowly, invisibly, progressively, through secondary workers, by means of teaching, preaching, and persuasion. The kingdom would forbear with unbelievers, and allow false and the true disciples to co-exist for a time.

Christ never said the OT prophecies were untrue, or that they wouldn't happen. He revealed new information -- mysteries hidden before He said them -- that this is a new time and mode for God's kingdom. These are the ways that the kingdom of God is manifesting in these times, as well as through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and miracles of the Spirit.

The kingdom of God is not fully realized now. That idea leads to untrue expectations and quick disappointment about what to expect from God in this world. But the kingdom of God is not absent from this world, either. The Christian Church, the general assembly of the First-Born, is the avatar of Christ's kingdom in the earth. Through us the kingdom of God is affecting the current age.

The Sobering Truth About Hell.

1/8/2017

This is a logical outline of this morning's message:

Introduction: As much as we rejoice in the Bible's promise of Heaven, we must also reckon with its' warnings about Hell. Christ believed there is a Hell, and urgently warned people against it.

A Short Set of Facts About Hell:

God originally created Hell for Satan and his demons (Matthew 25:41). So when people choose to follow Satan's path of pride and rebellion against God, that is why they inherit Satan's punishment.

Hell exists because God is love. Contrary to conventional wisdom, God's love is not an argument against Hell. Psalm 33:5 says that God loves justice and righteousness. Psalm 5:4-6 says that God abhors evil and evildoers. Love cannot rejoice in iniqutiy, but only rejoices in the truth (1 Corinthians 13:6). God's love is not leniency or laxity.

Hell exists because God is light (1 John 1:5). People claim that God could not create a Hell, but they say this because they do not reckon with His fierce, unbending righteousness. God does not grade on a curve, for anyone.

Hell is a place of just punishment for sins. It isn't a meaningless, reasonless place of sadism and pain. Revelation 22:14-15 lists specific sins for which people are forever shut out of God's holy city. Hell is a place of penal retribution. It is pure, perfect justice, unsoftened by any mercy.

But God says no one need go to Hell:

God finds no pleasure in the death of the wicked (Ezekiel 18:32). His delight is in repentance, restoration, and blessing. God judges sin and sinners because in His righteousness He must, but He delights in mercy. The fault for condemnation rests entirely on the sinning person.

Christ wept over the looming judgment on rebellious Jerusalem (Luke 19:41). Everything Christ said or did was a perfect revelation of God the Father. This incident reveals Christ's heart for lost people, even when their punishment is deserved.

God speaks to the whole world, every day. Nature speaks for God to everyone in every place (Psalm 19). The apostle Paul said that God speaks through the histories of nations, and life's circumstances, to motivate men to seek Him, grope for Him, and perchance find Him (Acts 17).

God sent Christ the Son into the world, save the world (John 3:17). This is why no one can accuse God of not caring, or not doing anything to stop human beings from going to Hell. However, this fact cannot be known from nature, but only known and believed through Scripture.

God keeps on raising up Christian lay-witnesses, preachers, teachers, full-time Christian workers, and missionaries, to bring the message of Christ to the world. Many of them sacrifice their lives in the process. If a man reaches out to God, God will always reach back to him (ex. Cornelius, Acts 10:1-6). No one is beyond God's power to successfully get the good news of Jesus Christ to them.

Do not be deceived: If there is no Hell, then there is no Christianity, because the reason Christ came was to save us from it.