now Lord we ask for help again as we come to look into your word and try to understand the tremendous thing that you turned loose on the earth uh when you came and lived and taught and gave your life on the cross rose from the dead founded the church lives in the church and continues today to be here with us now the truth is that none of us here probably have the fog EST idea what you want to accomplish with this and so we give that up to you and ask you to have your way in what is said and what is done not only this evening but in the times we're together here this week and then putting it into practice in our lives so give us what we need Lord in the way we need it move us on in the path of discipleship and glorious Union with you in this life and forever we ask you to do that to honor the name above all names Jesus our lord amen finishing up what we were talking about last time now the substance and essence of the Kingdom what the kingdom is now this is the great problem that faces people who try to talk about the gospel thank you very much whoe that's better um that uh try to talk about the gospel and special about the kingdom talk about the kingdom in becomes invariably Ed in social and political issues that's not new that's the way it was in Jesus's own day they could not conceptualize what it would mean for him to be king other than as the king of a political order and you may recall in the first chapter of the book of Acts as they go out and walk out to towards the Mount of transfiguration Jesus is getting getting ready to become uh no longer visible to them and he's ascending back to the place where he has at the right hand of the father even now that's a real place by the way in the universe uh we don't know where it is wouldn't know what to do with it if we did we' just try a Babel thing probably except this time it'd be a spaceship try to get a spaceship to go there uh I wouldn't want to approach it um really that's a real place and Jesus is still there but he's also still here and the continuing incarnation of Jesus is in his people uh but as they went out you may recall on the in the first chapter of the book of Acts they're still asking the question Lord will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel now what they meant by that was are you going to get a government in Israel that is capable of whipping everybody that's what they meant by it and you know having observed what he could do they had good reason to believe that if he wanted to do that he could make it happen we talk jokingly about people who walk on water he really did it he understood how to suspend gravity uh just think of what he could have done with his powers in terms of weapons and so on well that's pretty scary now he knew that nothing would be gained that way and that's why he took a different route just to reassert yourself in human Kingdom as that was understood would do nothing for the project of History the one that God had put a foot and was carrying through with that I've referred to as the Divine conspiracy he knew that but still in Acts 1:3 and we're going to take a little walk through the book of Acts tomorrow because there's a real hermeneutical problem here that we need to address as some people think that Paul preached one gospel and Jesus preached another that Paul preached the gospel of of forgiveness of sins and the church and that Jesus preached one about the kingdom of God and so forth and so on and there's just a whole Wilderness of confusion and many many great forests have been sacrificed to publish books on topic and uh it's it's really sad because they just can't get it out of the head it's got to be a political Kingdom now here's what I'm saying to you and it's extremely important to get this because you have to be in a certain manner an ontologist if you're going to understand the scripture an ontologist is one who understands being what it is for things to be and what kinds of things there are and we talked about the trinitarian nature of God the spiritual nature of God and so on and what we have to understand is that the kingdom of God is simply God's ruling it's his ruling it's his governing that's the kingdom of God and what Jesus came to preach was not that there is a kingdom of God what Jesus came to make available was entry into the kingdom of God see when you when you see the record of his message his message is never there is a kingdom of God well people would have looked at him like he was an idiot I mean yeah what else is new everyone knew there was a kingdom of God they knew that and they were looking for it to come as a political reality on Earth because they had confidence that the promises of God to the Jewish Nation would be fulfilled that's why they were sure that it was going to come that's why ever so often you'd have a bunch of people get up and get an army and say let's go do it now uh but uh the basic reality of the kingdom of God is simply the person of God and the instrument instrumentalities by which he rules and we had time we could talk about those instrumentalities they are uh of course God's Own direct action they're his Spirit they're his son they're his word they're Angels that's why you see God is called lord of hosts over and over in the Old Testament was because he was recognized to have this incredible Army of angels the hosts were Angelic probably more Angels than there are numbers there's a whole lot of them there are a lot of numbers too aren't there um but still that's the nature of God is to create at that level and um uh there's the church there's other people who are godly people who serve God that those are all part of the kingdom of God and then of course there there's your kingdom and mine and the biggest threat to the kingdom of God in my life is my kingdom and then there's a kingdom of darkness and these these three kingdoms are what make up the scene of battle in human life and when you look at all the terrible things on earth and you say why why are those people in the Sudan doing that to those other people in the Sudan and so on you have to understand that these are kingdoms that are carrying out the will of human beings or darker agents still and the will of the human beings and the darker agents are against the will of God so now you almost have to pause over that for a moment and say Let It soak in the kingdom of God is God acting now some of his actions are not things that he has to attend to all the time for example probably the arrangement of Furniture in your apartment or house expresses your will but you don't have to stand there and hold the chairs in place right they can express your will without that and God's will is expressed in Arrangements that he has established laws that he has laid down so that things behave in certain ways and then creation runs by those and for our part a good deal of the respon responsibility we have as human beings is to learn those laws and how to live by them and how to be responsible in the production of good that is appropriate to human beings given the nature and the place that they have that we've talked about so now the only thing outside of the will of God is rebellious human and Angelic Wills those are the only things outside everything else else conforms to God and um another thing we need to say about the kingdom before we go on is it is not in your heart it ain't there it's in reality and your heart is in it if anything but there's a there's a people bounce back and forth from saying that it's a political order to it's being just a sort of little morm thought in your heart and it isn't either one of those that it is God reigning it is God ruling so those are things we need to make sure that we keep in mind now we don't want to become sticklers about the language that is to say we don't want to new start a new kingdom of God denomination or something like that you know and many times in the history of CH of the church you've had the reality of the Kingdom without the language one of the clearest points of that was soon after the Protestant Reformation and there have been other times I mean they talked about the kingdom of God but that was not they did not make it the center of their presentation of the Gospel what is essential is not the language but the reality and around the time of the reformation and afterwards during the time of the Puritans in England and uh the PST then a little bit later in Germany uh they had an understanding of the offer in Christ to be something that included your whole life and that is the crucial Point like if you're preaching a gospel that does not mean Redemption for your whole life you haven't got the right one listen to these words of Paul after going through that wonderful presentation that we talked about about the cians and the Greeks and the Jews and all of that he goes on to say that Christ is all and in all and then he says put on therefore is the elect of God holy and beloved bowels of mercies and kindness and longsuffering and humility and and meekness of Mind forbearing One Another forgiving one another if anyone has a quarrel against any as Christ forgave you so so also do ye isn't that wonderful wouldn't you like to join be a CH in a church like that and above all these things he says put on Agape Divine love which is the bond of perfect of perfectness of the Perfection these these wonderful progressions you see like in Romans 5 uh second Peter 1 and Colossians 3 all was culminate in love Agape is the Capstone ties a ribbon around it you might think of it's the bond of perfectness and he says and he goes on to say let the peace of God rule in in your hearts to which you're also called in one body and be ye thankful let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing with Grace in your heart to the Lord why don't we do that and then to cap that wonderful passage off that runs from Colossians 3:1 through 3:17 and you know if you haven't memorized it I really encourage you to memorize that it'll it'll it'll do a lot for you verse 17 whatever you do in word or deed do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ giving thanks to God the Father through him now that's not the only place that says it but this is one of the best statements as to what it's all about so think about it in a moment whatever you do in word or deed now that pretty well covers it doesn't it can you think of anything that's left out whatever you do in word or deed do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ now what does it mean to do it in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ it means do it on his behalf and from his resources whatever you do see that's the inclusiveness that we're talking about and that is the reality of the Kingdom that's the vision of the kingdom of God and we want to live in that but what I'm saying now is we don't need to get sticky about the words we want the reality and the language and the concept of the kingdom of God is very helpful and we do also have the fact that that's what Jesus that's how he put it but the kingdom of God is all inclusive it takes in everything it means we can trust God with everything that whatever we let him have charge of in our lives he will take that into the kingdom of God now remember how can you can you translate that for me that means he will take it into his ruling and reigning now that's why the stuff in say Matthew 6 which Jesus you know talks about the birds and the flowers and all that sort of stuff and you wonder what's this guy talking about you say well maybe we want to set that to music make a song out of it's so pretty no it's sober reality see it's one of those many cases in Jesus case of Jesus where you just wonder could this guy possibly be real what's he talking about he says don't be concerned about tomorrow is my advice to you is just trust God don't worry about things anything that's what it means to trust Jesus is to believe that he's in charge of everything that you let him be in charge of and if something happens you don't like he'll bring something good out of it something happens that injures you he'll turn it into something good so you can sum it up by saying I like to use this language because I think the lord gave it to me some quite a long time ago and it really seems to make people squirm and what he's really saying is this world is a perfectly safe place for you be now how can you say that to someone who's suffering and dying and being martyred or something of that sort well that's how big the kingdom is and we're got to talk more about how that works out but the important thing is to realize that wholeness don't worry about the language if you got a better way of putting it then that's fine you won't have any quarrel with Jesus about that or with Paul it's perfectly all right to put it in other words if you get the reality but the reality is now that I'm invited to take everything that pertains to me bring it to Jesus put it at his feet leave it there you know the old song If the world from you withhold of its silver and its gold and you have to get along with meager fair you know those words just remember in his words how he feeds the little birds bring your burden to the Lord and leave it there now when you're worrying you're not leaving it there you go pick it up and turn it over and look at it and lay it down again maybe just leave it there just take your hands off and go do something else now that's what Jesus is teaching when he teaches in The Sermon on the Mount and when he says don't be worried about anything lovely language there excuse me let's just look at some words there from the sixth chapter he's carrying on about these birds again and he says verse 25 of Matthew 6 for this reason I say to you don't be anxious for your life as to what you shall eat or what you drink or for your body as to what you shall put on is not life more than food and the body more than clothing now some people don't know that they are look at the birds of the air they do not seow neither do they reap nor gather into Barns and yet your heavenly father feeds them are are they not worth much more are you not worth much more than they now an interesting exercise is try to price someone in Birds how many birds would you think someone is worth how many birds are you worth two crows and a cocko see Jesus is saying look God has an order in which things fit and you're a part of that order and you can trust that which of you by being anxious can add a single Cubit to his lifespan what does what good does it do by anxious being good being what does it do you he goes on to talk about these uh the way God cares for things so verse 31 don't be anxious then saying what shall we eat drink what shall we clothe with for these things the Gentiles eagerly seek now remember Gentiles mean people who don't know God people who don't know God are the ones who spend their time worrying about what they're going to eat and drink but seek first that is put it first to be involved with his kingdom seek first his kingdom now that means find out what God is doing and doing with him what is God doing do that with him now see I I like to suggest wordings for language that we don't commonly associate any meaning with so now what do you what meaning do we normally associate with seek first the kingdom of God well I mean you would face that challenge what do you associate with it and for most folks I think they don't associate anything with it think pretty thoughts or maybe you know sing a beetle song or something of that sort and just sort of emote I'm suggesting to you that this means to find what God is doing and do it with him and a good key to that of course is to look at what he says in the law and in what comes forward in Jesus and when you do this all other things will be added now you might want to put a cross reference there to Joshua 1 18 here's a verse that runs parallel this Psalm 1 also runs parallel with it if you remember that Joshua 1 18 says this book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth but you shall meditate therein day and night no time out for watching friends you have to give that up what's I going to do to your life give that up probably you're going to do better to have the law running than friends running I mean all of these weird things that they have on television Seinfeld you ever look at Seinfeld what a vision of the good life I think the 23rd psalm is better than sefel don't you no commercials this book of the law will not depart out of your mouth but you shall meditate and really the ideas there you'll kind of be muttering it meditate day and night that's why it says it won't depart out of your mouth that you may observe to do according to all that is written therein then you will make your way prosperous and you'll have good success why because by doing that you have aligned yourself with the kingdom of God see the whole human project now is to get get the human being aligned with what God is doing that's God's kingdom and that includes of course things that we do in Ministry it would include uh all of the things that we associate with manifesting the presence of the kingdom it would include dealing with demons if that's necessary dealing with sickness if that's necessary doesn't mean you're always going to win because you're you know Jesus didn't misfire but probably you and I are so limited actually I don't know what it would do to me if I never lost I mean can you imagine a person who whenever they pray for anyone they just get healed well Jesus was like that but frankly I would be afraid for me if I came even close I don't so I don't have to worry about that but I see enough of it that I know it's real but it also applies to just things like driving down the road that would be included in whatsoever you do in word or deed wouldn't it driving down the road so I do that in the name of Jesus transforms everything sometimes I'll drive all the way and just saying hallow would be thy name hallow would be thy name see a good thing is to get a good phrase and just keep it floating for a long period of time Our Father who art in heaven Hallowed be thy name name thy kingdom come thy will be done just keep that circul so you can teach yourself to pray without ceasing by using the word of God and just letting it run that it become a part of your body some of you know about what is called the breath prayer of each of Russian Orthodoxy where they you have people who train themselves in such a way that by their very breathing they are accustomed to saying they they simp they use a phrase Jesus Christ Son of God have mercy on me I think that's a little morbid myself and I i' I've done that and you can do that I think you can substitute some other language Hallowed be thy name is wonderful just try it okay just try it just train yourself to just say Hallowed be thy name while you living through all the things you live through see that'll help you do what Jesus is talking about here but Jesus says seek the first of the Kingdom everything else will be added see that's the promise of the scriptures that's the reality of living in the kingdom of God and so Jesus adds a little joke here at the end of Matthew 6 you know he does inject a little humor into things and this is one of those cases he says don't be anxious for tomorrow because tomorrow will have enough evil to provide for tomorrow and you won't have to borrow any for today because you'll have enough today to last you till tomorrow so just leave it over there see and that's what he's saying for tomorrow will take care for itself each day has enough trouble of its own so he's just trying to inject a little humor a little Pleasant humor into this situation you don't need to borrow from troubles from the future because you have enough today that's the way the days are and he's just saying Turn It Loose turn it loose see because you're living in the kingdom of God so uh that's uh that's the picture that we want now now if you can get that out like as as I mentioned uh right after the the Protestant Reformation uh people the whole issue of forgiveness was so big that it included everything you read an old book like John owens's book on forgiveness of sins and you'll see that forgiveness just included everything thing people were so into the release from bondage to sin and they didn't just think of forgiveness in terms of getting the guilt off but rather getting the sin off do you know that old hymn that says be of sin the double cure Rock of Ages cleft for me let me hide myself in thee remember that part of where it says be of sin the double cure cleanse from Wrath and make me pure right so it isn't or the old Wesley in hymn he breaks the power of cancel sin see sin that has been cancelled before God can still have power over you but full redemption in Christ means you walk away from it you don't even need it anymore he breaks the power of cancel sin and sets the prisoner free and that understanding was something that really was Kingdom even though they didn't use the word because it was allinclusive of life and that's what we're aiming for is that kind of all-inclusiveness we want to understand that every moment can be a holy and when we read our our things that people often know like um brother Lawrence is practicing the presence of God and so and one of the reasons why that grabs people so is because it resents the whole life and that theme of practicing the presence of God which goes back before brother Lawrence uh is a way of understanding Kingdom reality all right well now we'll have some more work to do on that but we want now to turn to Paul's wonderful uh vision of his work as being a work that invol involve the proclamation of Christ and if we Pro Proclaim Christ rightly the effect will be to Ravish people with the reality of the kingdom and that's how you make a disciple you make a disciple by ravishing people with the reality of the Kingdom see now that's why Jesus gave you the two Parables the parable of the treasure in the field and the parable of the of the great Pearl you remember those now here again I'm going to scoot on because I'm just going to count on you knowing the scriptures so I won't go read those but you remember he told a parable he said the Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who found a treasure in a field maybe oil or gold or something of that sort and so he just covered it up and he ran and got all of his resources together and bought the field the Pearl Merchant had a lot of little pearls and he found a great big beautiful pearl and so what did he do he went home got all of his stuff together all of his resources together and bought that Pearl now do you think he was saying oh I have to give up my little pearls my precious little pearls no he wasn't doing that he realized that this is his greatest opportunity he was glad to give them up the man who got the field thought this was the big deal I mean he he's he was ready to do what he could to get to buy that field because he understood as an investor now you see once you understand who Jesus is and what it means for your life you realize that discipleship to Jesus is the greatest opportunity you will ever have in life that puts a different cast on things and when it comes to reaching people who are not who don't know this see if you understand that you're offer offering them the greatest opportunity they will ever have in life now if you don't understand it they won't that's why the things I'm going to talk to you about tonight are so important is because actually it seems like very often people who profess the name of Christ do not understand the greatness of what they've been given so now here's Paul and Paul says in his letter to the Ephesians in the third chapter in the e8th verse unto me who is the least of All Saints is this grace of given is this Grace given that I should pre preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable or some versions use the word unfathomable uh you can't fathom it it's unfathomable that means you never reach the bottom that's what unfathomable means you can't reach the bottom no matter how far you go there's still more The unsearchable Riches of Christ the greatness of Christ you may have seen a book by JB Phillips called your God is too small and JB Phillips laid his finger on a chronic problem and that is the failure to think God is as big as he is and the failure to understand also the greatness of Christ and so much of our problem when we go out to the world to try to share with them the good news is we're not thinking big enough about Christ we have a tiny Christ a puny Christ Christ who doesn't compare well with others who might be in the race now I don't want to come down on elron hubard but just to use him as an illustration because he's here right I mean just put elron hubard down beside Christ what do you think that's going to look like well actually elron hubard is going to stand by Christ someday and you and I are going to stand by Christ when the uh when the operation is over here and and we're going to look at ourselves in the light of who Christ is everyone is it's going to be a comparison you remember Paul talked about that in Acts 17 on Mars Hill so take the often I'll have a a young person who has found that I'm a Christian and they may come into my office and say something to me like well I'm really surprised I here you are you're a philosopher you write all this crazy stuff and do all these things why are you a disciple of Jesus of you know they often don't use that precise language that what that's what they mean sometimes they use the precise language why are you a disciple of Jesus my answer is really always the same I don't mean to be smart Al about it my answer is another question who else did you have in mind who else did you have I mean seriously now once you get past the Buddha mahat scond and John linen except now nobody knows John linen anymore used to they did they don't bring him up anymore that's about the end of the list who is to be compared to Christ now everyone's following somebody usually they're following three or poor people half the time they don't even know who they were they there's an amalgam you know as we go through life first it's our parents and then it's our peers and then it's a performer or Sports hero or then maybe it's a professor in some philosophy department or some other department you know really I mean that's the way it goes and I mean when you kids come into the University or in college they often find one or two professors that are really great for them didn't that happen you certainly that was that way in my case I just a couple and these were the ones that boy they really as we say turned me on but they they got me to working and and I admired them greatly you see but for goodness sakes to set them down beside Jesus Christ and yet often in the order of human Affairs people don't get much above that see they're not looking high enough they're not thinking about what's determining their life you know it's a good question for each of us to ask who am I really following now sometimes we're fortunate we have a father or mother in my case I guess my fraternal grandmother was one of the most influential people in my life this was an incredible person and she was incredible mainly because she had lived a life of in in unbelievable godliness and goodness and I'm very thankful for her but again you can't put her Christ down beside of her see the the the goodness of people ordinarily is quite fathomable but generally uh you can't get to the bottom of Christ no end to the riches we want to talk about that some tonight and why that is there now Paul you see had a personal standing here with Christ that was exceptional for one thing he was nurtured on Israel and the glory of the unique Covenant people and he talks about that in various places like Philippians 3 and elsewhere he talks about how he had come from this the stock of Benjamin Pharisee of the Pharisees studied under um galeel in Jerusalem was ahead of all of his peers in persecuting the church and so on so he starts out from a very exalted position as a Jew and as one who knows God in that connection but then as you recall he had a personal Encounter With Jesus that was history making shall we say now I think you have had a personal Encounter With Jesus and that's um that's right and as it should be and there's no reason why that encounter should not be as life transforming as Paul's but Paul's had some unusual features to it because of Paul had special responsibility in teaching and uh as I said earlier or maybe I didn't I'm going to say it now Paul was really the first one who got it he got the message of Jesus and that's why if you look at him in contrast to even the other Apostles and their behavior uh he really was distinctive uh he understood the loneliness of Jesus he understood the humility the fact that Jesus came to be a servant and not to be served and he followed in that path but see underlying that was his experience of the Glorious reality of Jesus Christ post Resurrection he'd met him and after he met him uh as far as we can tell from what he tells us there were a long periods of time perhaps while he was in uh Exile in Arabia or maybe later on when he returns to Tarsus and the tradition there is that when he returned there his own family drove him out and there's still a cave down there close to Tarsus where they will show you this is Paul's cave this is where he lived after he was driven out of his family and so there was a long there were long periods of time in Paul's life before he came into Public's Ministry uh where he was shall we say personally tutored by Jesus Christ and he understood that the gospel that he had been given was given to him by Jesus Christ firsthand now you remember he didn't get to be there with the other guys while Jesus was here in the flesh and this was often held against him but it is true for him to say as he does in 1 Corinthians 15 that even though he was like one born out of due season still the grace of God had worked more effectively in him than in all of them do you remember that statement that Paul makes 1 Corinthians 10 15:10 it says yet even though I was born out of season still I worked more effectively and then he catches himself you'll recall and says not I but the grace of God in Me I worked more effectively than they than all did and at that time I think probably that was the correct thing to say so Paul had that experience of the Vivid reality post-resurrection reality of Jesus Christ there are other things in his experience we can't take time for them tonight but if you look at what his experience of Christ was you see that it was a very exceptional one and this is a part of what he conveys when he talks about the unfathomable Riches of Christ Paul is the one who understood the hope and intention of God for all of the people on the Earth and that's why he says to me this grace is given that I should preach among the Gentiles so uh he had to fight the Battle of car he carried the battle of the church Beyond Juda ISM and he is the one that uh enabled the church to say yes you can be saved you can be Jesus's person without being Jewish and that was a big step forward okay so now what are the riches of Christ we want to spend some time on four dimensions of the riches of Christ and the first one is that the physical Cosmos belongs to Christ and is totally at his disposal now you know that's riches that's real riches right I mean the psalmist tells us that the cattle on a thousand hills Belongs to the Lord but that is small cheese compared to all of the riches that go into the universe the physical Universe it's all his now this is one of the things where you come in contact with with the prevailing ideology I mentioned earlier this book of Carl San called Cosmos he opens that book by saying the only thing there is is the cosmos that's the only thing there ever has been and that's the only thing there ever will be well you know there's one sense in which that's trivially true if by Cosmos you mean everything that exists well then it's true that everything that exists is all there is it's not very interesting right he didn't mean that what he meant was the physical Cosmos is all there is now we we have a much better appreciation now even than when Sean talked about the reality of the physical Cosmos but it's all his you see and this is part of the riches the unfathomable Riches of Christ he uh manifested that when he was with us here uh In the Flesh he manifested it his uh disciples and and very often they really didn't know what to make of it they didn't quite understand it there's an interesting uh picture here in Mark chapter 6 and uh this is after Jesus had U fed a bunch of hungry people uh in verses uh 35 36- 38 or 44 sorry through 44 and it's one of the occasions in which uh he he uh produced food um he started with Five Loaves and two fishes and um broke them looking up into heaven looking up towards heaven verse 41 says the reason Jesus by the way looked into heaven when he prayed and you'll see that he often did was because the one he was talking to was in heaven so he looked at him you don't have to bow your head by the way and close your eyes when you pray you know that's that's something that was invented in Sunday School classes to keep kids quiet you can look around you can look at what you're praying for you can look towards God see so act as if somehow this is all here because it actually is see and um I've I I remember a young lady once that totally revolutionized her prayer life she was taking on about how boring it was and I said well try praying with your eyes open it totally revolutionized her prayer life it's shocking to people often to hear this Billy Sunday when he prayed would pace around on the platform with his eyes wide open and looking here and there and praying as he went well there's nothing wrong with that Jesus didn't say now bow your head and close your eyes that isn't in the law of Moses and we have to be real about this business Jesus looked into the heavens and he prayed and they fed all those people 5,000 men reason it mentions men is to say it weren't in Counting the children and the women there a bunch of people there he fed them well how did he do that well he knew how to produce matter he knew how to do that now watch this they get in a boat and they start over and he sends them over to the other side of the see in verse 45 and if you haven't seen this you might want to follow this so he goes up in the mountain to pray now they're out in the middle of the ocean or in middle of the Sea of Galilee in the night the Fourth Watch that's pretty late and they're having a hard time rowing and here comes Jesus walking on the water and see he was the master of all of that now stretch your mind on this folks okay I mean it takes effort to think this out that he actually could do that and what that means about who he was now we know a little bit about how to turn matter in energy that's what you do when you put wood in the stove or turn on the the gas jet cook your eggs you turn matter into energy and that energy then transforms matter again we find it very difficult to transform energy into matter that's very hard these big cyclotrons that you have in Switzerland and they were building a big one in Texas and quit on it you remember was came too expensive well those were efforts to create just a little bit of matter by firing particles opposite directions and when they would hit they create just a little bit of matter for just a few seconds Jesus knew how to do it without Machinery well he should he's the one that put it all together in the first place isn't isn't that the story that he made everything and see when you come to deal with issues in prayer and you realize you're dealing with the person who did that it strengthens your faith to know that with God nothing is impossible right you have to understand who Jesus is and the greatness of Jesus and the greatness of God the Father to understand why that works that way now look what happens here when Jesus comes to them walking on the water he first he scares them half to death in verse 49 and and Jesus says to them take courage it is I do not be afraid and he got into the the boat with them and the wind stopped and they were greatly astonished now the next verse is the one I'd like you to think about the next verse says for they had not gained any insight from the incident of the loaves okay they were astonished that the storm stopped Jesus says what's the deal didn't you learn anything what's loaves got to do with storms why should they have not been astonished do you see the issue they were astonished because the storm stopped they should have understand understood something from the lows so that they would not have been astonished right they should have said uhhuh this Jesus he does that kind of thing right but they didn't get it they it says their heart was hard now what that means is the stuff didn't sink in didn't sink in they should have said wow Jesus is really in charge of all this stuff so the wind stop yeah that's the way it should be see we don't often put this together I used to have a a friend in the chemistry Department USC who is a shall we say a declined Baptist he since declined re re reup I'm glad to say and he was a chemist and he used to like to Ras me a little bit and say said now now Dallas you believe that Jesus really turned that water into wine he said well if you know if they if you did that it would require so much energy that it would melt the pots now I didn't have the heart to say to him a PhD in chemistry that if Jesus could handle the wine he could probably take care of the pots see you have to understand who you're dealing with this is the one who has the key to physic in fact he holds it all together as we read earlier from Colossians 1 if you remember that that passage see the early disciples believed that the physical Cosmos belonged to Christ and was totally at his disposal because they had seen his power over nature and his power over death and one of the things that was most telling to them about the unfathomable Riches of Christ was that he was resurrected that he rose from the dead again you know I have I I have so many of these illustrations of Christian young man on the campus was talking to a professor in religion at Easter time and mentioned the Resurrection the man said well you know of course that's impossible that's contrary to the laws of physics well now this was a young man of course he wasn't going to fly in the face of this distinguished Professor anyway let's see all you have to do is say now would you show me the laws of physics According to which that's impossible there aren't any because you see physics does not deal with reality as a whole it deals with the physical reality and even that from a particular point of view right but things get thrown around whether it's Carl San or somebody else my chemistry buddy or this professor of religion as if somehow this could not possibly be true let me tell you something that let me put it in general terms there's often an impression that somehow something has been found out that shows the reality of God and his power over the universe to be wrong nothing has been found out and I do this so often that I get bored with myself for doing it you see because I have to say to young people over and over and over again now show me where in the science book it says so forth and so on it doesn't say it in the science book and if any science book did say it it would be rejected because everyone in those fields knows they do not say it see they blow it up and they extract something they say well this is a statement about all reality no it's not it's just a statement about matter for example and physical energy it's not a statement about all reality I see we have to keep that in mind because when we start speaking about the kingdom of God and about Jesus and we talk about them as spiritual then we ourselves have to know and be sure that we're just not passing hot air right we're talking reality we're talking about something that's real the spiritual world is real it is a field of energy in that it does work in fact it's the greatest energy in the universe the word which God spoke to express his creative action is power beyond any comprehension and that power is still working well I'm taking too much time here let's move on so the riches of Christ the second thing to be mentioned is Christ as the master of the moral life now Jesus is the one who above all understands moral reality and Order and moral over is able to bring people to moral goodness that is he doesn't just talk about it he knows how it works and we're going to spend time tomorrow talking about some details on this but when Jesus for example begins to talk about moral reality in The Sermon on the Mount he starts out with Matthew 5:20 unless your goodness your moral goodness goes beyond the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees you can't make contact with the Kingdom of the heavens now that's really important to understand because what he's saying here is if you're going to get down at the level of real goodness and we uh know that that means real love the whole all of those parts of the self that we talked about being permeated with agapy love your body your soul your social relations your mind including your thoughts on your feelings your will itself all set in love see if you're going to do that you have to be in touch with something that enables you to do it and on the other hand if you're not going to move to that level you can't contact what will enable you to do it see the righteousness of scribes and the Pharisee was a righteousness which consisted in what you did actually more importantly for them what you didn't do so we'll talk about this more tomorrow but Jesus begins his illustration with Thou shalt not kill and the the next one he talks about is Thou shalt not commit adultery because it was right back to these two things that we talked about earlier sex violence and we talked about why people turn to that it's because they've turned to their body and with their body they can do these things and then we talked about how even perversion moved on from that now why does Jesus start there see Jesus starts there because he knows that the root of murder is anger and contempt so every year in the United States we have 25,000 30,000 murders up and down depends on the year so why do those things happen people don't just think well you know I think I'll go out and murder someone today they don't do that well maybe there are a few people that are so Twisted that they do that you I don't want maybe maybe Jeffrey Dalmer or someone like that did that kind of thing I'll just go out and murder eat someone today but most people most murders happen because people are angry and have contempt for others sometimes the person who gets killed is the one who has the contempt because you know out here in Southern California you better be careful about whom you dis you know this well this is this is contempt right so you diss someone here you may be the one that gets the bullet on the other hand you might put a bullet in someone because you have contempt for them you and so we use language like I wasted them you ever hear that language isn't that interesting to apply to a human being I wasted them well you wouldn't say that unless you had already decided they were contemptible so now what Jesus does is he understands the roots of moral evil and he understands that it is rooted in self-will that is thwarted and frustrated and that gives rise to murderous rage we say so now he says instead of talking about not killing people let's talk about not being governed by anger let's deal with the root of the situation and now that's where Jesus is the master of the moral world he knows what to deal with now Thursday I supposed to get on a plane and cl fly to Cleveland and when I get on that plane I'm not going to worry about not going to Detroit or Orlando or someplace like that I don't go to Cleveland by thinking about all the places I'm not going I just pick the one that's going to Cleveland all the rest of it takes care of itself see if you're not got the wrong stuff on the inside you don't have to worry about killing people it isn't going to happen because you're not that kind of person and thank goodness most people aren't that kind of person they may have some anger in them and most people who are not in Christ if they're pushed far enough can actually be brought to think of killing or even to do some killing out of hatred and anger but for most people um they're not pushed to that level so they don't kill but they still have in them something so James says you remember what James says little brother of Jesus says okay so you didn't kill anyone but if you hate your brother you're already a murderer in your heart right now see that's the analog to Jesus is teaching about adultery in the heart there's murder in the heart see this so what you want to do Jesus understands this what you want to do is you want to get the murder out of the heart you want to get the adultery out of the heart so if you're not into cultivated lusting you're probably are going to have a problem with adultery now tomorrow we have to talk in more detail about the difference between the thought the Temptation and the deed and these are things that we have to be very careful about Jesus understood though to make the present Point Clear Jesus understood that what you do is you don't try to not do what is wrong you don't go there because because you're not even in Temptation if you want to avoid the deed stay out of Temptation to stay out of Temptation you have to deal with the heart right he understood that I've got a line here on the screen you'll see the utter failure of the classical World in this regard the classical World Plato and Aristotle and some others later on like the stoics and the epicureans who were still around when Paul got there you remember in Athens they were all focused I mean that really the the whole business of early philosophy was how to lead a decent life how to lead the good life how to be a good person and it was thought that in order to lead a good life you had to be a good person and there's a lot of discussion about that and U um I have to work a lot on on this in my work in philosophy but the main point is simply that these early thinkers totally failed with this issue of being able to bring people to moral goodness actually they didn't understand moral reality one of the most beautiful books in the world besides the Bible is Plato's Republic It's a Wonderful book I studied over and over with my students I recommend it to you because it's as relevant today as it was when it was written or even more so and Plato's Republic looks like it's about the Republic but it's actually about about the human soul it's a study of the human soul and how the soul works and in particular it's devoted to the question how can we train and develop people so that their soul actually works as it should some of you may have read it and you know that Plato's view was the good person is one with a balanced soul in particular it's a soul where reason is doing its job the appetites are doing its job and the emotions are doing their job and the idea is that the emotions are supposed to align with reason to govern the appetites well it's it's certainly a fascinating Theory and a wonderful story and his view is the way you get this is you develop an educational system in which people who are able to reason well rise to the top and they then are able to get the emotions in order and so that will handle the appetites and then the state also would reflect that same order and then Aristotle basically has the same Theory except he's his view is that you don't get this by education you get it by legislation and what you do is you organize the government in such a way that it establishes institutions that shape Souls that are good and then people do the things they're supposed to and so on well of course it didn't work and you look at the history of Greece and the history of Athens and you'll see the miserable thing that it fell into the Greeks couldn't couldn't stop killing one another and actually Greek history as an independent deal up until very recently ended when they had to invite the Romans in to keep them from killing one another and the world in which the people before Christ existed and then the world in which the people at Christ time existed the epicurian was one where people were just striving to sum get a hold of moral reality and they never could do it and that is why the Christian teaching by the time of St Augustine especially but even earlier that is why the Christian teaching won the hearts of the ancient world was because it presented the beauty of Christ and the goodness of Christ but it didn't just do that it showed people how to actually have it how to actually do it now that may be hard for us to conceptualize CU we're a long way from that and we don't take that as a major project and I hope that's you I hope you say that dummy up there saying another false thing because we have to talk about this right I say we don't undertake it seriously moral education is a non-entity we have a few little things like character counts for kides in middle school and and that's a good thing but when those kites go on to high school they hit a moral Wilderness if not a moral sewer and nothing steadies them or holds them and there's nothing taught to them except a brand of secular legalism secular phariseeism and that in general is what we run into and if you've ever hit the diversity Mill or some of the other catch words that are used to express this kind of secular legalism in our educational system you know what I'm talking about uh but you can obey all of that and still be a despicable person and there's no basis for it now this is where the track record of the Christian Church while it's very spotty also makes it clear that there is a way of being a genuinely good person and that is in following Jesus Christ and becoming his disciple and accepting his teachings now you see you I mean when we just just thus far in our discussions you see how problematic that is right and I'm not trying to give you a bad time but for example people seriously consider whether or not they would be willing to give up anger or even contempt now most people in this room are easier with contempt than anger but I often ask congregations or groups that I'm lecturing to in the University or other settings if I had a pill that I could give you and you would never be unkind again would you take it if there was an operation that you could go to the hospital and have your anger taken out would you do it if that meant that you couldn't be angry again or your unkindness taken out would you have that taken out people seriously hesitate suppose I had an operation that would make it impossible for you to lie wait a minute you never know when you need a lie right would I want to undermine my strategy for living so seriously as to make it impossible for me to get angry be unkind or lie you know uh the story I'm sure didn't happen but we like to tell these stories about the little girl in Sunday school who has asked what is a lie and she replies it's an Abomination to God and a very present help in time of trouble see that's that's why why we maybe we wouldn't like to have that taken out you never know when you're going to need to lie right well I'm not I don't want to come down hard on that but just as an illustration you see Jesus Christ stands for a kind of Purity in life that most people today would be very hesitant to embrace and one of our reasons why like recently there's been a big brewhaha about business ethics and in the wake of inran and all these other failures and um I know I went was down at Austin Texas a while with some other people looking into this matter of what can we do well the truth is business ethics isn't ethics even business what they call business ethics is how to stay out of trouble it's not how to be a good person no one's talking about that it's how to stay out of trouble with your clients with the law with your fellow professionals that's all they really talk about they throw a little theory around but the one thing you will not see is teaching in how I can use my professional status to be a good person you will never see that discussed but that's really the only issue because if you're not interested in being a good person when the pressure comes down you'll be able to find ways of avoiding the regulations that's the failure that's implicit in all forms of legalism Jesus knew that and that's why Jesus doesn't deal with actions and we'll uh sorry to say this again we will have to deal with this more in detail tomorrow just or maybe it's Wednesday just to make sure that we get a good view of exactly what he does do and he understands the order in the moral life and he understands how he understands that you have to bring people to moral goodness through repentance for what they've done and that's a sound psychological truth any of you know the 12 Steps of AA and you remember what a big place is played in the 12 steps with confession and repentance and restitution now there efforts to lighten up on that a bit you know but the the original 12-step program was a gift of God to people that the church should have been helping but it could not because it was caught up in self-righteousness it didn't want to deal honestly with people who were having problems with alcohol see that's the that's the curse of the church is this idea that well you gather up the respectable types and you put on a good front and you set a good example and you have money and all this sort of thing no no well what about the people that Jesus hung out with see that's this is a story that is not new and many of our organized churches in this country have gone down the drain because the neighborhood has changed and they don't want those kind of people that are living right under their Windows am I right about that see I've watched this for years there are plenty of people to fill churches you know if all our churches and synagogues were filled on Sunday you know what percentage of people would be in church 3 to 5% we're not short on people we're not short on people in need need what we need to do is to minister to the ones who are there and that was Jesus's way but he didn't go through through the collection kind of sorting out and say well this one is not the kind that we want he took people where they were that was part of his moral vision and uh that's why people were drawn to him well let's go into a couple of other things uh number three here what is the what are the riches of Christ the security and glorious future individual the individual human being in Christ so that's why we have these great passages now and we can't go over all of them tonight but for example Luke 12 that's again that's the Lucan version of some that I read to you out of Matthew 6 about not being anxious listen to these words of Paul be anxious for nothing this is Philippians 4:6 be anxious for nothing but in everything with prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving let your request be made known unto God and the peace of God will set a guard around your hearts and Minds beautiful teaching then he go goes on to say um me goes on to say finally Brethren whatever is true whatever is Honorable whatever is right whatever is pure whatever is lovely whatever is of good repute there's any Excellence if any worthy of Praise let set your minds on these things and he says the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me and that's how he preached this it was what you see in me do those things practice those things and the God of Peace will be with you so see he not only tells you what to do he tells you watch me I do it that way be anxious for nothing Matthew 18:10 is a beautiful passage Jesus is talking about children and what happened to children and you recall how often he returned to their to that subject and I'm sure it must have been important to him because he knew the terrible things that happen to children and he says in that passage after warning people about hurting children he says their Angels do always behold the face of My Father which is in heaven now you have to back up and ask yourself what in the world does that mean right so I have to try to give some meaning their Angels do always behold the face of My Father which is in heaven well I suggest to you that that means that everything that happens to a child is attended to by God and that he has individuals personally responsible to see to it that children are cared for in the kingdom of God on this side of of death or the other side and this is a staggering thought but it's one you must think if you are to believe in the goodness of God you have to believe that he not only takes care of sparrows but he takes care of children and you say how how can that be when you look at what happens to children in this world then you have to make that up by saying it is because no matter what happens to them in this world the goodness of God sees to it that those children continue to exist and in conditions which make them thankful to be no matter what happens to them you have to go beyond death Jesus says you never experienced death well once again what does that mean do you know this passage John 8: 51-52 many people know John 11 this is what Jesus says at at the at the tomb of Lazarus they know that one he that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live and he that liveth and believeth in me shall never die never die aren't you planning to die John 8:51 and 52 he says that those who keep my word will never see death and again will'll never experience death and he really blew the audience out of the building when he said that and you read that passage it's where what does that mean never experienc death The Riches of Christ are they so great as to include that you know Amy Carmel you ever hear of Amy carmichel wonderful missionary to India who knew what suffering was and was triumphant over it there's a book of hers called the gold cord and in it there's a little piece called three Tender Mercies I want to read you a story from that a few paragraphs her name was LaLa she was 5 years old a Brahman child of much promise Amy carmichel was in India she had sickened suddenly with an illness which we knew from the first must be dangerous we couldn't ask a medical missionary to leave his Hospital a day and a half distant for the sake of one child but we did the best we could we sent an Urgent Message to a medical evangelist trained in naor who lived nearer and he came came at once he arrived an hour too late but before he came we had seen this it was in that chilly hour between night and morning a lantern burned dimly in the room where Lala lay there was nothing in that darkened room to account for what we saw the child was in pain struggling for breath turning to us for what we could not give I left her with Mabel Wade and ponal and going to a side room cried to our father to take her quickly I was not more than a minute away but when I returned she was radiant her lovely little face was lighted with amazement and happiness she was looking up and clapping her hands as delighted children do and when she saw me she stretched out her arms and flung them round my neck as though saying goodbye in a hurry to be gone and then she turned to the others in the same eager way and then again holding out her arms to someone whom we could not see she clapped her hands had only one of us seen this thing we might have doubted but we all three saw it there was no trace of pain in her face face she was never to taste of pain again we saw nothing in that dear child's face but unimaginable Delight we looked where she was looking almost thinking that we could see what she saw what must The Fountain Of Joy be if the spray from the edge of the pool came can be like that when we turned the next Bend to the road and the sorrow that waited there met us we were comforted words cannot tell how tenderly by this that we had seen when we followed the child almost to the border of the land of Joy I ask you did this child see death what's it going to be like well I want to suggest you among other things for example you won't know that you have as we say died until as much later so if you're planning on seeing death give up you won't see and that is the basis upon which the early church understood that Jesus had abolished death look at 2 Timothy 1:10 2 Timothy 1:10 take time to look at it in mark because what I find is that people generally do not pay attention to these verses and the ordinary rule of people in the Christian churches is to avoid death and the topic of death like a plague because they're scared to death of it and they don't know what to do with it and they won't even talk about it have you got 2 Timothy 1:10 read it real loudly to us would you please sure but it has now been revealed through the appearing of Our Savior Jesus Christ who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to life through the gospel who has what death destroyed destroyed it and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel see in other words now for the first time we understand what life and immortality are because Jesus has brought that forward are you with me one more thing the future of the created Cosmos this is a part of the riches of of Christ the incredible greatness and beauty of the physical Cosmos is something that will never pass away don't worry about it going out of existence it is not a self-contained system as we have already seen in our discussions it is sustained by the power God now astronomers tell us that there is in the universe oh somewhere around 92% to 95 or 4 or 8 you know how these things go A few a few billion here or a few billion there doesn't change it that much but they tell us that 90 some per of the universe consists of what they Co call cold dark matter now they have no reason to believe in cold Dark Matter except it would explain how the universe that is visible warm light matter behaves so they have problems like why do the galaxies distribute themselves the way they do they can't explain it they can't even explain on the hypo hypothesis of the of the uh Primal soup that existed before Adam's form why the universe begin to Clump in certain ways see they can't explain that the truth is we know almost nothing about the ultimate nature of the physical Universe I want to suggest to you that the cold dark matter which explains the behavior of the physical Universe in this ways is actually God that this is the Jes Jesus who upholds all things by the word of his power now you say how do you know that well U I'm open to anything that can be scientifically demonstrated but one thing that is not going to be scientifically demonstrated is the ultimate nature of the universe we have to go at it through the laws that we can discern from the behavior of things that we can observe but no one is able to explain why we have the laws we do and any cosmologist will tell you that and if they could explain the laws that we do they would never be able to explain the origin or the initial conditions under which those laws begin app that's not in the purview of science as we know it never will be and I realize of course that you you need to question that you need to think I'm just saying it I'm saying that the Universe actually the greatness and Beauty and the future of the universe is secure and it will if anything just get greater and greater I don't say that because I have an insight into astrophysics I say that because I believe in The God Who made the Universe I believe in him because he has intruded on this universe in the form of Jesus Christ so there will be a new Heaven and a new Earth the one we've got is in pretty bad shape the new Heaven and new there will be a New Jerusalem and you get a kind of an outline sketch of that by looking at Revelation 21 and following that's a part of the riches of Christ I want to give you these questions and we're going to return to them tomorrow the things that I say great teachers but actually great talk show host wind up talking about the same thing and small talk show host these are the four questions that face human beings and they fa they are faced with them just by the fact that they live and these questions are the nature reality what is real and what is not what do you have to deal with in life now we started talking about that this morning this issue of knowledge and how knowledge and Truth helps us come to terms with reality being Christ people Christ man and woman in this world means that we affirm the reality of the kingdom of God what is reality it is God and everything that comes from his hand Jesus affirms that and teaches that who is well off who is who's who has the good life who is blessed and the answer is anyone alive in the kingdom of God is blessed they are well off again we'll work on that further tomorrow this today is in many respects just a kind of an in general outline and introduction of so for example what about the poor well Jesus says blessed be the poor because they're poor and being poor is a wonderful thing did he say that he didn't say that did he he said blessed are the poor for they too can have the kingdom of God and blessed are the poor in spirit that is people who don't have any religious things going for them not a smell of religion they smell like fish like Jesus's apostles see all of his apostles were poor in spirit they didn't have any going for them in the spiritual realm it's interesting that he chose people that to make his Messengers to the world and it is certainly because he didn't want anyone taking a human f fix to the world as the gospel he wanted people who understood that the cure for the world is life in the kingdom of God who's a really good person anyone who's permeated with Agape Love is a good person that's who that is so then love comes forward out of the nature of God brought to human beings Christ shows you how to realize it what it is and then finally how do you become a really good person you become a really good person by becoming a disciple of Jesus that's how you do it now Jesus answers each of these in a manner far superior to anyone else and when I make that claim I don't make it bombastically or defensively just compare remember what I said earlier you look at Jesus and you say who else see Peter put that in language we preach from isn't it right you know when they all left shucked off and left the crowds disappeared and Jesus said will you also go away and Peter used that language to whom shall we go well that's a real question isn't it now the people who live around here in Hollywood in Los Angeles they live in Manila they live in Bombay and they have exactly the same question how does Christ compare to Krishna how does Christ compare to Buddha to elron hubard to see that's that's the issue that we face and he answers these questions now and to us this grace is given that we should preach to a pagan World The unsearchable Riches of Christ so what is the one mistake above all that we can make fail to present Jesus Christ adequately that's the one mistake if you present Jesus Christ adequately then what can be done for human beings will be done for them if you don't do that if you have a gospel that presents him in a some way that for example he's an early advocate of the democratic way of life the G the gentle cynic of the Jesus seminar well you know the woods has been full of gentle cynics we know what they can do we know what early Advocates of the American way of life can do it ain't much but on the other hand if you just present him as a sacrifice for sin you will also fail to present the unsearchable Riches of Christ and except in a world which is key to the issue of the Forgiveness of sins as the whole thing to be dealt with by human beings except in a world like that the message you present will fail to make disciples see that's the question I have to deal with does the gospel I preach have a natural tendency to produce disciples to Jesus Christ or does it just produce more consumers of religious goods and services see we have a nonparticipant spectator version consumer version of Christianity in this country and that's where we get people going from church to church to find a better service to consume not rooted in the body of Christ at all not focused on discipleship and personal transformation not focused on living in the power of God in a way that you can bring that to bear on circumstances if you're in business or government or in your family or Community where you can stand as Christ person and expect the kingdom of God to make a difference you yourself could never make if your life depended on it this is a time to be alive I don't know if you know Simon V she's not an outstanding example of Christian but a very painful and tortured person who was drawn towards Catholic Christianity towards the end of her life she was very famous scientific family Herman vile great mathematician was her brother she she was a French Jewish Family that turned towards at least the Catholic Christ towards the end of her life she said you could not have wished to be born at a better time than this when everything has been lost what does that mean that means if we want to do something we have to start with ground zero planning that means we have to to think about the job to be done without regard to the people who are already on the grounds and taking care of those people and looking out for them and making sure that they turn out to be right what is the job to be done the Great Commission States it and we'll be talking about that tomorrow now the Great Commission says well I mean you have to get the book ends on it you remember this was a situation in which they had really taken a beating right they hadn't had a good time they had hitched their wagon to the star and the star went and got himself crucified and the Word was out on them so they had sort of been ducking and hiding in the bushes and now Jesus arranges to be with them a few times and he goes ahead of them back to Galilee there he has his last discussion with them apparently and he says I have been given say over everything in heaven and in Earth you remember that I've been given say that's kingship okay now if you want to turn to Matthew 18 18-2 you can do that but just follow me now here's what he's saying this is the resurrected Christ I have been given say over everything in Heaven and Earth well go back to Philippians 2 Colossians 1 we read this morning I've been given say now he says to them as you go make disciples he didn't say make Baptist or Catholics or even Christians he said make disciples okay now what are we talking about here we're talking about Ground Zero planning what are we going to do now the first thing is we're going to make disciples we're going to make disciples and then as we make disciples they're going to be brought into the trinitarian presence right what did Jesus say baptize them in the name of the father Son and Holy Spirit I hope you don't think that means get them wet while you say over them in the name of the father Son and Holy Spirit it means to immerse them in trinitarian reality Jesus said where two or three are gathered in my name I'm in midst so that means when these disciples come together what's happening is not a program that they're putting on they're not doing a performance they're watching for the hand of God to move in their midst now then when you've done that then the last stage is you teach them to do everything Jesus said right and then he bookends that with and look I'm with you every minute until the job is done starts with I've been given say over everything ends with with you every minute in between is the plan what I've just given you is Jesus's plan for church growth it is the most successful plan for church growth that has ever been on the earth and in fact it is the most successful plan for any kind of group that's ever been among human beings if we preach the unsearchable riches of Christ rightly we we are ready to move into that plan if we do not we can never go there and we'll have to do something else and my dear friends that is the history of the church very largely doing else so you go down Through the Ages and you watch the E and the flow and you come up to the present and you say what are we doing today could you give an example you talk often about Jesus compared to Buddha or yeah U sure Muhammad could you maybe take like one or two examples and say okay this is what Muhammad would say or his view of well I mean to start with things like this the Buddha died of food poisoning he'd never been resurrected that's a big jump right there now if you look at Buddhism and look at what it's based on you'll realize things like this it's often shocking to people because people like to toy around with Buddhism especially in an academic setting it's often shocking to realize that the best thing that can happen to you if you're a Buddhist is that you would stop existing and never come back and I'm not making that up I mean that's standard Buddhism you that's called Escaping The Wheel of birth and death which means you're not reincarnated and you cease to exist as an independently existing thing right now we have paavi here and he probably knows this stuff better than I do and if I'm wrong pavei you must throw a book at me but see that those are just illustrations uh Buddhism is not shall we say then used to use the language of some Scholars it is not a life of herming um teaching it's a life denying teaching so for example the object of life is to abolish desire and that's how you escape the wheel of birth and death the fire sermon of the Buddha starts out with everything is full of fire what is fire desire how do you uh Escape desire is the question and then you have the eight-fold path of teaching about right thinking right words right deeds and so on and that does that so I just think you if you look at it in terms of the metaphysics involved which is also another story of how you can how how you can arrange reincarnation on that story if you don't have a self that has a continuity to it that's a part of the metaphysics and then there's a moral side to it a teaching about how to live it is a not a life affirming Doctrine uh the whole story of the Buddha is this is an awful place and it is an illusion the world is an illusion the Veil of Maya it is called and so in Enlightenment for the Buddhist is to realize that this world is an illusion that means among other things you are an illusion or another way of putting this is to say you are identical with everything else so I think you just have to compare then other things you can do is compare the kind of Buddhist life at its best civilization Buddhist culture at its best with Christian culture at its best you compare the ones at worst they're all about equally bad right because I mean Christian culture at its worst has been about as bad as it can get right we just have to embrace that to say that's true you can't deny that I mean the awful things that Christians so-call have done see but all cultures are about equally bad when you look at the worst end but when you look at the good end I think they're not equally good and when you compare them I think uh what Christ has been is far above uh the others so you know if one is wrong about that you accept that and that's the way I approach it I mean if I'm wrong just show me you know let's talk about it give me give me what you know that's the way I go about it it seems and I may be Mis understanding you but that you're operating in a system kind of devoid of any need for proof of anything and that that is somehow a benefit or or a positive um in other words you're stacking you're up what you've said a number of different times is show me the textbook The Experiment who's been there and seen it and until you can I'm happy to go with what I know well I think I have some another evidence the reality of Christ both before and after his resurrection and the reality of the Kingdom as experimentally known through finding what God is doing on that assumption getting involved with it and seeing what the reality of it is so where where is it then that we're going we seem to go wrong with I think most of us probably get pretty stumped people want to argue about I know that's one one reason why we need to say these things and we need to get other people involved in it because for example I'm in a position where because of whatever I've done that I can say okay show me because I know this I've worked through this stuff and I have no fear I mean Carl Sean is not going to bring forth a physics book that shows that the physical Cosmos is the only thing that has ever existed and will there's just nothing there and this isn't something new this is something that's been known since Aristotle it's established on General logical grounds it isn't a matter of further scientific research so we're free to say well let scientific research go see we're not we're not hiding or ducking or say avoiding anything and we will admit a fact that's established as an fact as a fact Jesus is not hiding he's not running if you could find a better way he would be the first to say to you take it you know you can't imagine Jesus hearing a better way and saying rub sort of rubbing his chin saying well you know that's very good but it's not U it's not Christian you know you're not going to say that you could if you believe that about Jesus you couldn't follow him two steps you know that he is on the side of Truth he's on the side of what's established what's factual what's reasoning he's not dodging facts what we have now is a secular system that Dodges facts by making General assertions that they have no way to prove but they have an Authority that allows them to get away with it so Carl Sean spends millions of dollars producing a television series that is a beautiful thing to see if you've seen it you know that if not I encourage you to get a hold of it and look at it's wonderful it just has all these falsehoods in it it has all these unfounded claims and so that's why we need people and I believe pastors need to think about see one of the myths is that your ordinary Pastor can't do all this stuff they can too any sensible person can do it you don't have to become an astrophysicist or a philosopher for that me matter you don't just just follow the argument but you see you have to have confidence that you can do this that God is on your side and that then will allow you to do the elemental work you may have to learn a little bit about what logic is and so on but you need that anyway way you don't need much what we need now is just good education what our the curse of our land is that we have all of these uneducated people with higher degrees and they are uneducated they don't know what good method is they wouldn't know truth if they ran over it in fact they have almost nothing to do with truth they laugh at truth truth is a subject of humor on the campuses what's big is research and research is stuff you can get funded for you can't get funded for truth but you can get funded for research well see that has to do with the authority structure that we live in it doesn't have anything to do with truth itself or knowledge but things have now been so confused that we as Christians have to be prepared to stand up and deal with these issues without become we don't have to spend years becoming experts in it just follow the argument listen to a few people who uh who really are able to think like Phil Johnson up at Berkeley and uh uh who's our astrophysicist friend out here H can't think of his name I'm having a senior moment uh but I mean there are lots of good people who are doing this they are specialist and they can do the work and they're the ones that can can show you why there really is not a good argument on the other side so there's a lot to be done there now that's why I started with you where I did today we if we're going to understand if I as I see it I mean here you are a bunch of you you know it's shocking to me to look at out here and see a bunch of young people most of the places I go and I look out it looks like snow it's true uh it's not just a I mean it's there no young people and I'm thrilled to be here where there are young people you're going to do something about this see and I'm I'm delighted to be able to talk to you because now you can pick up and go on and what I was don't be worried about it just do the work as a Christian follow out the teachings of scripture because your scripture is a profound Book of Knowledge and if you treat it that way it will respond in that way if you treat it as a book where you go to prove that your Traditions are right you'll come back empty because frankly most of our Traditions have no Foundation they're just stuff that's grown up Peter called it the vain traditions of the fathers most of us our denominations were born out of some kind of negativity just think of a group of religious people being known as Protestants you know what that protest you're known for protesting can you go to heaven on that get up there and say well you know God I protested but you look at our various groups they're all born out of negativity go to the scripture to see what is positively taught about life and reality and put it to the test that's what we can do that gets us back to ground round zero planning now we're going to we're going to do something following Jesus Christ as if there was nowh no one already there that had to be justified for what they're doing you understand what I'm saying I mean take the educational system I often say to people in the university and elsewhere if you set out to devise an educational system you would never come up with the one we've got and it's true and when you begin to look at it you realize this is not Ground Zero planning this is planning done with sort of an eye to an improvement here and an improvement there but the main thing you have to do is take care of the people who are already in the game am I making any sense see now you can't go at Christianity that way if you're going to take care of the people who are already in the game forget it if you'll do your ground zero planning and we'll be talking more about this it'll do the best thing you can for the people who are already in the game because many of them are good people sincere people who want to follow Christ but they are hindered by taking care of a lot of stuff that is irrelevant and that's one of the beauties of the Great Commission which I gave to you now is that it strips all that away strips it all away now what are you going to do just do what it says