It’s holding on to things that we think are accurate, things that sound as if they’re correct or what and how we think things should be.

We all pick up things either consciously or subconsciously from sources other than directly from God’s Word.

There’s a huge quantity of information available today that’s simply at odds with God’s Word, especially on the internet and doubly especially on social media and YouTube.

It seems people can get a large following so easily on these resources by publishing the sensational and pandering to people’s unwillingness to just pick up their Bible and check things out. It seems like these formats have become the new Bible Study format, which can be a good thing, but it’s up to each one of us to make sure that what we’re hearing is actually God’s Word. By that I mean the whole Word, The whole counsel of God, not doctrines built on a selected few verses, especially when they’re taken out of context.

This all fits exactly with scripture where the great Apostle Paul says in 2^nd Timothy 4:3-4,

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. 

Today, our study may put pressure on some of our preconceptions but we’re going to be looking only at what God’s Word says and although it takes study and effort to pull out the great truths of the Bible it’s always the first and last source of truth.

Numbers 23:19 says,

God is not a man that He should lie nor a son of man that He should change His mind.

So far in this sideline or interlude to our study of the Gospel of Matthew we’ve seen that there’ll be a Kingdom set up on earth, heaven on earth, after the horrific period of time we know of as the Great tribulation.

But what about the Body of Christ, The Church?

How do we, the called out believers, that body of people who have believed and trusted in the salvation of God through Jesus Christ, how do we fit into the picture of this coming Kingdom?

Well, one things for certain. The Kingdom of Heaven and the Body of Christ have completely different destinies.

The trouble is that its almost impossible to see these differences in just a couple of Bible verses. There’s a background, a jigsaw puzzle if you like, of which all the pieces have been readily available for thousands of years.

So, to understand the different destiny of the Body of Christ from that of the Kingdom of Heaven we need to look at those puzzle pieces and bring them together to form the whole picture.

The starting point is with something that not everyone’s familiar with, dispensations or ages. It’s almost impossible to get our puzzle together without those key pieces, the dispensations.

If you’ll recall, we’ve spoken before about the dispensations of the Bible, or time slots if you like. A dispensation is a period of time during which God deals with the human race in a particular way. It also refers to man’s administration or the stewardship of God’s plan of salvation throughout history.

For example, in I Corinthians chapter 9 verse 17, where Paul writes,

For if I do this willingly, I have a reward; but if against my will, I have been entrusted with a stewardship. 

The King James version, along with a number of others, translates this verse,

For if I do this thing willingly, I have a reward: but if against my will, a dispensation of the gospel is committed unto me.

In both cases Paul’s saying that the administration, or stewardship of this part of God’s plan was entrusted to him.

In Ephesians 1:10 Paul says,

That in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth—in Him. 

Some other translations have the word “dispensation” here as “divine plan”. The overall meaning is the same.

Then we go to Colossians 1:24-26,

I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church, of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God which was given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God, the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. 

Bible translators are about evenly divided here with the word dispensation and stewardship both being used, but the overall meaning is the same and that is that God has given Paul a ministry, a stewardship over a particular dispensation or age and that stewardship is a ministry to the Gentiles in the Body of Christ.

It’s very interesting to note that the term “The Body of Christ” only ever appears in Paul’s writings.

From Adam in the Garden of Eden down through to today we see these dispensations or periods of time or ages during which God deals with the human race in a particular way.

The Age of Innocence – Man and Woman are created innocent and enjoy unrestricted fellowship with God. This dispensation ends with sin and death as the man and woman disobey God.

The Age of Conscience – This is the dispensation where conscience guides man’s life and blood sacrifices are given to cover man’s consciousness of sin.

The Age of Human Government – is the dispensation of man governing themselves. Capital punishment is introduced, and man is scattered over the earth at the Tower of Babel.

The Age of Promise – Here God makes an everlasting covenant with Abraham with many blessings promised to Abraham’s heirs who believed and who obeyed the terms of the covenant.

The Age of Law – God makes a covenant with Israel that governed all aspects of life and exposed man’s sin nature and how impossible it was for man’s works to please God.

The Age of Grace or the Church Age – This is the present dispensation where God shows His great love and grace to man by redeeming him with His own blood and bringing in a new covenant written on the hearts of all who believe by faith. Those who believe and accept His salvation by faith become sons of God and become part of the Body of Christ, The Church, of which Christ is the head. As a side note God has always dealt with rebellious mankind through His Grace or we would have been wiped out as race long ago.

The Kingdom Age or The Millennial Kingdom of Christ – This is the dispensation that we’ve talked so much about in the last few episodes. The soon coming return of Christ to reign on the earth where He Himself will rule for 1000 years. Peace and righteousness will reign. It’s the reign of Heaven over the earth.

This Kingdom will fulfill the prophecy to the Jewish nation that Christ will return and be their King. We, the Church, will reign with Him.

Satan is bound during this 1,000 year period which ends with the final judgment of Revelation 20:11-14, with what’s known as the Great White Throne judgement.

The old world is destroyed by fire, and the eternal New Heaven and New Earth of Revelation 21 and 22 will begin.

The Bible becomes very confusing unless we recognise these portions of time or dispensations or ages in which God deals with the human race in particular ways.

To disregard these ages is like taking all the events that have happened through the Bible like the fall of man, the flood, the tower of babel, the reign of the kings such as David and Solomon, the captivities of Israel, the coming of Christ, The church, and the Kingdom of Heaven etc., and putting them all into a huge blender. After blending them for a while an unrecognisable substance is poured out and it’s no longer possible to separate individual events or see the importance of each one of them in God’s plan. Everything’s just sort of all lumped together.

We never see God working that way, not in His creation, nor in His Word. With God everything’s perfectly ordered and sequenced.

Now if we go back to our ages and see the Age or the Dispensation of Law, beginning at the time where Israel comes out of Egypt, we see Moses on Mt Sinai and God giving him the Law which included the ten Commandments which was the directions of God for the nation.

They were also given instructions on how to deal with sin, and how to approach God through the priesthood with sacrifices.  That was all part of their directions.  And as long as they maintained that God’s wrath didn’t really fall.

Then, after 1,500 years, their Messiah appeared fulfilling all the promises of God.  He was the whole reason the Law was given.

After 1,500 years of practicing the religion of Law, or Judaism, now God comes in with extra responsibility for Israel, and that was to recognise that Jesus of Nazareth was the Promised Messiah.

The Messiah promised to Israel!

Look at Romans 15:8 and this is the Apostle Paul writing some years after the promised Messiah had come.,

Now I say that Jesus Christ has become a servant, or minister, to the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made to the fathers, 

We’ve got to read this carefully. So, who was He, Jesus, a minister to? The circumcision!  Israel!  The Jew!

We mustn’t miss that.  He was a minister to Israel, and what was the purpose?

To confirm, or to fulfill, to bring to reality, the promises made to the fathers.

So, who were the Fathers?  Old Testament Israel – Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and then on up to David and Solomon and the Prophets, Isaiah, Jermiah, Ezekiel etc., etc.

Every one of them was looking forward to the time when God would send a Redeemer, a Messiah, and a King to the Nation of Israel to fulfill all the promises.

These promises were primarily this glorious earthly Kingdom that Israel was looking for.  Solomon’s Kingdom was just a little preview, a foretaste, of the glory that was waiting for Israel.

But they’d need to be obedient and believe Who their Messiah was when He came.

When Christ came should Israel have known who He was?  Absolutely, they should have!  The Old Testament was full of prophecy relating to His coming.  The miracles proved it. But did they recognise Him?

For the most part – no.

Let’s look at Matthew 16 verse 1 to 3 again and we see how the Jews were always looking for signs and then we see Jesus’s answer,

Then the Pharisees and Sadducees came and testing Him asked that He would show them a sign from heaven. 

He answered and said to them, “When it is evening you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red’; and in the morning, ‘It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ Hypocrites! You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times.

Do you see what He’s telling them?

He’s saying, “You hypocrites, you can foretell tomorrow’s weather, yet you can’t discern the signs of the times?”

He was referring to His own presence.

Behind what the Lord is saying is that the signs of His coming were just as plain, just as recognisable as the red sky in the morning, sailors warning, red sky at night sailor’s delight signs.

They should’ve understood that they were now in the fourth of Daniel’s empires. The Babylonians had come and gone, so had the Medes and the Persians, and the Greeks, and now the Romans were there.

They were actually living in that sign.

The Romans ruled over Jerusalem and that was the number one sign that should’ve told them that this was the time to look for the Messiah.  But they didn’t have a clue.

They should’ve been able to foretell who He was and what He was doing on the basis of the Scriptures.  But they couldn’t.

It’s the same way today.  We’re living under the exact same kind of circumstances.  The signs of the times are everywhere but few people are awake enough to see them.

What’s the number one sign that points to us living in the end times and that Christ’s coming is not that far off?

Israel’s back in the land!

That should be screaming at everybody. The Jews have miraculously come back to the Land

After the diaspora, the sacking of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple in 70 AD when the Jews dispersed among every nation under heaven, they’re now back in their own land against all odds.  They should never have succeeded.  But they did!

They didn’t do it of course.  God did it!  Because the Word says, “after you’ve been scattered to every nation under heaven, you will return.”

That’s in Deuteronomy written by Moses 3,500 years ago and now here it is.  The number one sign of the times – Israel back in the land.

No matter how much Israel’s opposed and how much they’re hated, by every nation surrounding them and the repeated attempts of those nations to annihilate them yet they’re there.  Despite the hatred towards them from the inept and useless United Nations, there they are, prosperous and strong, because they’re there by God’s design.

That doesn’t mean they’re anywhere near that promised Kingdom yet. Nor does it mean they’re back in the entire land that was promised. Not at all!

They’re still as hardheaded and in denial and rejection of their Messiah as they were when He walked amongst them. And they won’t have peace and freedom from their enemies until after things have deteriorated far, far more than today.

They won’t have what’s been unconditionally promised to them by God until they recognise Jesus Christ as the Messiah Who’s already come. Thankfully, one day, maybe not too far off, they will do this.

There are other signs.

The understanding of end time scriptures, although not spoken of much in churches, has become much more of a topic today than it ever was. That started to take root in the early 20^th century.

There’s also a massive upsurge in New Age philosophies and the occult. Millions of people, especially younger ones are coming under their influence.

Of course, very few people in the 1960s, 70s, and even the 80s could have imagined a world full of technology that’s capable of ruling the entire global money system and from a device as small as a laptop computer. Or an almost foolproof methos of personal identification that has the possibilities to allow or deny a person access to the necessities of life.

So now we see that Christ was the minister of the circumcision, the Jews, for the truth of God.

Now, to put our puzzle pieces together to get the big picture.

We want to see the Body of Christ clearly and how it will be called out from this world before the setting up of the promised Kingdom of Heaven.

To do this we’ll need to go all the way back to Genesis chapter 12, because unless we understand Israel’s role in God’s economy or The Kingdom of God, we’ll never understand the Bible or our place, as the Body of Christ, in it.

Israel’s the key player.  They have been from day one, and they will be on into eternity, and we mustn’t forget that.

The first eleven chapters of Genesis were God dealing with one race of people. And it wasn’t a pretty picture. There’s hardly a single good point in the first eleven chapters. After Adam and Eve were created, the first thing they did was rebel.  We don’t know how long they were in the Garden before they rebelled, but they did. They’re disobedient, and they’re cast out of the Garden.

Then the kids come along, and one kills the other and then it’s just one awful thing after another.  It just kept getting worse and worse and until God finally destroyed all but eight of the population in the flood.

Then after the flood, God starts again with Noah and his three sons and their wives.  It still doesn’t get any better, because 200 years later they’re gathered at the Tower of Babel.

That was another great rebellion against God, with mankind establishing of their own human gods and goddesses and beginning to worship these idols, a practice that’s never stopped right up till today.

Then after another 200 years, where everything just continues to spiral downhill, God steps in once more and brings out one man, Abram.   And here’s the big change in Scripture.

From chapter 12 of Genesis, until we go into eternity, Israel becomes the focus of all of God’s dealings with the human race.

They’re at the core of everything.  And of course, Satan knew that then and he knows it today.

As a result, he’s been attacking that nation ceaselessly ever since, trying to destroy them.

Satan knows if he can knock out Israel, then God’s program for the human race falls apart.

OK, Genesis 12:1-3,

Now the LORD had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you. 

I will make you a great nation (which of course is Israel); I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. 

I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; (And now here’s the promise that brings us, you and me, into the picture) And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” 

Now let’s jump to Genesis chapter 15 verse 7 and we see the humanity of this man, Abram.

He was just as human as we are.  Gods just promised him all these things. He said to Abram:

“I am the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to inherit it.” 

Now remember, they’re already standing in the land of Canaan, and God says, “I’ll give you this land to inherit it.”

Then in verse 8 Abram said,

“Lord GOD, how shall I know that I will inherit it?” 

“How do I know You’ll do what You say?”

Well, God says, I’ll deed it to you.

So, you come down to the end of the chapter, verse 18, God goes through the process of transferring the title deed as the ancients did it. And we read,

On the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying: “To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates. 

God deeded the whole Middle East, from the Nile River to the Euphrates, to Israel. That’s the word of God. It’s His promise.

That’s what all the Old Testament promises rest on.  That this whole Middle East was deeded to the man Abram, and that it was to be the homeland of the Jew for as long as this planet functions.  And that’s never been rescinded. That promise is as real today as it was the day it was made; you and I can be certain of that.

This is the land from where the King will reign over The kingdom of Heaven from Mount Zion in Jerusalem.

So, to understand how this amazing dispensation that we live in today, The Age of Grace, came about which will then lead us to understand where we as the Body of Christ fit into God’s plan, we need to go back to the last dispensation for a moment, The Age of the Law.

We’ll look at Exodus chapter 19 where the nation of Israel has just come out of Egypt.  This is where they became a Nation and now they’re gathered around the mountain in the wilderness of Sinai.  Moses has gone up to meet with the Lord face to face.  We read about it in Exodus 19:3

And Moses went up to God, (that is up into Mount Sinai) and the LORD called to him from the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel: 

In other words, the whole Nation of the Twelve Tribes.

Now God says in verse 4,

‘You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself.”

In other words, He brought them out of Egypt and through the Red Sea miraculously, and then brought them down around Mount Sinai.

Verse 5,

Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. 

Now, this should ring a bell relating to Adam and Eve.

What were they to do in regard to that forbidden tree? Be obedient. And were they? No! It wasn’t the eating of the fruit that would destroy them, it was disobedience, rebellion against God’s Word.

Now it’s the same way with Israel.

If they’re obedient to His Voice and keep His covenant, that’s the Ten Commandments and all that’s associated with them that He’s going to give them in chapter 20, the next chapter, then they, the Nation Israel, will be a special treasure, a jewel above all people.

Here we see the Sovereignty of God declare Israel as the favoured Nation, the Nation that’s above all other nations in every category imaginable.

The reason God can do it is because He’s Sovereign. “For all the earth is Mine, I can do what I want”, He says.

Exodus 19;6 is the key verse.

And you (remember, that’s Israel) shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words which you (Moses) shall speak to the children of Israel.” 

Now, What do you need in order to have a kingdom?  A king!  What’s the king without a kingdom?  A King of Nothing.  And what’s a kingdom without a king?  Well, it can’t be a Kingdom can it?

So, you’ve got to bring the two together. Here Israel is promised to be a kingdom, but later in that promise there’ll be king coming.

Now let’s jump to Zechariah chapter 14 and it’s so plain it’s very hard to miss it.

Zechariah 14:9,

And the LORD (Now remember, that’s all capitalized, so that’s Jehovah, or God the Son, Israel’s Messiah.) The Lord shall (that means a day in the future from this writing) The Lord shall be King over all the earth. In that day it shall be “The LORD is one,” And His name one. 

How could it be clearer? He isn’t yet, but He’s going to. He’s going to be the King of Kings and Lord of Lords over planet earth.

It’ll be a completely renovated surface of the earth. Yes, it’ll still orbit around the sun.  It’s still going to be functioning as a planet, but the surface is going to be totally renovated.

God Himself will Plow everything under and from it’ll come that glorious 1,000 year millennial reign of Christ on a renovated, regenerated, earth.

For those of us who recognise the power of God. For those of us that see His power and majesty all around us in every created thing we have no problem with this at all.

Let’s read the verse once more.

Zechariah 14:9

And the LORD shall be King over all the earth. In that day it shall be “The LORD is one,” And His name one. 

What does “In that day” refer to? That time starting with His Second Coming to the Mount of Olives. Of course, this fits perfectly with Revelation 19 verse 16,

And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS. 

 

Now we come back to Matthew were we see Christ appear at His first coming.

Before He appears, we have John the Baptist, the herald.  He’s going to announce to the Nation of Israel that their King is in their midst.

Israel has now been under the Law, Temple worship, and Judaism for 1,500 years.  Now the Messiah makes His appearance in strict accordance with hundreds of prophecies.

Matthew 3:1-2

In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” 

What’s he talking about?  The earthly kingdom that Zechariah was just talking about and over which the Son of God, Israel’s Messiah, will rule and reign.

It’s finally ready to come about.

So, now Israel is at a major crossroad.

Are they going to believe it?  Are they going to accept it?  Or are they going to reject it?

We can liken this to Kadesh-Barnea when Israel came to the border of the Promised Land.

What did God tell them?  There’s Promised Land.  It’s all yours, with all its production and all of its farming land and orchards and pastures, a land flowing with milk and honey. That means everything that it would take to produce huge amounts of dairy milk.

That would require fresh water and grass and all the other things that it takes to produce milk, and what does it take to produce honey?  Flowers and blooms and all the things that bees can use.  Well, you put all that together and what kind of a landscape does it give you?  Beautiful!  Productive!

So that’s what they were looking at.  But did they take it?  No!

In unbelief they said, thanks, but no thanks. And they went back into the desert and died like flies. How sad is that story?

But here, they’re confronted again.

The King’s in their midst, can they believe it?

No, they can’t believe it, and so they turned God’s promise down again.  The whole concept then of Jesus Christ’s earthly ministry was to prove to the Nation of Israel who He was.

This’s why He performed the miracles – to prove that He was the Promised Messiah.

But Israel wouldn’t buy it and they rejected Him, they rejected their promised Kingdom, they just rejected it all, but most of all, they rejected God.

Now let’s move to the Book of Acts.

Let’s look at chapter 1 verse 6.  The Lord’s just been resurrected and spent 40 days in His resurrected body with the apostles, on the roadways of ancient Israel from Galilee to Jerusalem.

He was proving that He’s alive, that He was the Son of God with all of His power.  Even now, after the religious leaders murdered Him, He’s still able to be the King promised to Israel.

After those 40 days are over, they’re all assembled up on the Mount of Olives with Him.

Of course, they don’t know that He’s going to suddenly take off from their midst and go back to glory, but they’re talking here on the Mount of Olives at the end of the 40 days, and we read in verse 6 of Acts 1,

Therefore, when they had come together (that’s Jesus and the Eleven. Remember Judas is dead.), they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” 

They ask, Lord, are you ready to bring in the Kingdom?

Well, He couldn’t as long as Israel was in unbelief.  Because the whole thing is tied to Israel’s recognising who He is.  Otherwise, He can’t bring it about. Now in verse 7, Jesus doesn’t ridicule their question.  It was a valid question.  Look at  what He says.

Acts 1:7

And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority.  

Today we’d say, it’s not for you to know the where and when.

Now, let’s go to chapter 2 of Acts.

The Lord has now ascended back to Glory.  He’s established with the Eleven that He’s alive and well and He can still fulfill the promise of a Kingdom.

It was a Jewish feast day, the Feast of Pentecost; and Jews have gathered from every nation in the then known world to come to the Temple for the Feast, as they did for all the feasts throughout the year.  So, we have this mass meeting of Jews from every nation and then we have the miracle of Pentecost.

Acts 2:5

And there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under heaven. 

Now, these were devout according to the Law, remember. They’re keeping the Temple worship, the sacrifices, all of it and we need to carefully note that they’re from every nation under heaven.

In other words, from as far away as India and Persia, which is present day Iran, and from what’s present day Arabia and present day Iraq, which were Babylon and Syria and Egypt and North Africa.

They’d gathered from every part of the then known world for this Feast of Pentecost.

But they’re all Jews. Jews from every nation under heaven.

Next time we’re going to place more of our puzzle pieces together so the picture of where the Body of Christs fits in with the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Heaven becomes recognisable.

Until them may God bless you richly my friends.

This Kingdom of Heaven will initially reign for 1000 years after Christ’s second coming and then after the events that occur after that 1000 years will go into eternity and will never be destroyed. The we defined the Body of Christ which consists of every called out believer in the last 2000 years. These are those who have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ and in His taking on flesh and suffering Death and burial for our sin and then rising from the dead. All those who believe by faith are the Body of Christ.

But we saw that the three entities, the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Heaven, and the Body of Christ are not all the same thing.

Then we pointed out the importance of seeing this so we can see correctly understand the Bible.

We looked at the image of Nebuchadnezzar’s vision, which God gave the prophet Daniel the interpretation of, and we saw that this image represented all the main Gentile Kingdoms of history back to the Babylonian empire. That was king Nebuchadnezzar’s own kingdom.

At the second coming of Jesus Christ, who we saw was the stone cut out without hands, He would smash the images feet made of a mixture of iron and clay and every detail of all those Gentile kingdoms would collapse and cease to exist.

The feet represent the Gentile kingdom that’ll be in place at Christ’s return.

Not one tiny scrap of these kingdoms will remain, and they’ll be gone forever. They’ll be replaced with this incredible Kingdom of Heaven, Christ’s Kingdom on earth.

It’s interesting to note how each of these Gentile kingdoms depicted in Nebuchadnezzar’s image, as powerful as they were, are losing quality and value as they’re each established.

Nebuchadnezzar’s own kingdom, the Babylonian empire, was gold. It was strong but od solid gold quality.

The Medio Persian empire was silver, still high quality but just that bit less of a kingdom than the Babylonians.

By the time the Greeks come along the quality of government has dropped substantially to brass or bronze.

Then the Roman empire is iron, a huge downward scale form gold.

Finally, the revived Roman empire that will be the empire and world government on the earth when Christ returns is a mixture of clay and iron. That’s a very unstable mix and it shows the incredibly poor quality of government that’ll be in existence then.

The world is quickly moving to that quality of government as we speak.

Now, I know that a lot of what we say in these studies is repetition.

Somebody once said in a quote “Repetition of the same thought or physical action develops into a habit which, repeated frequently enough, becomes an automatic reflex.”

If we repeatedly hear these concepts of God through His Word one day they’ll suddenly just open up.

After all Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God as Paul tells us in Romans 10:17.

 

So, we begin with Daniel who’s writing down his own vision concerning the end time.

He’s seen a vision from God also but, unlike Nebuchadnezzar’s that came as an image of a fearful man, Daniels vision came in the form of four animals.

We’re in Daniel 7 verses 13 and 14,

Daniel 7:13-14

I was watching in the night visions, And behold, One like the Son of Man (That’s, of course, God the Son, Jesus Christ of the New Testament.), Coming with the clouds of heaven! He came to the Ancient of Days (Which is a reference to God the Father.), And they brought Him near before Him. 

Then to Him was given dominion and glory …,

 

Now, let’s have a look at what we’ve got so far.

Who was first given dominion over this planet?

Adam!

Adam was given dominion over everything on the planet. Everything that lived and moved was under Adam’s dominion. But he lost that dominion because of his rebellion against when he ate of the tree.

All the things wondrous things that Adam had under his dominion far exceed what we can imagine today. Just one thing was forbidden amongst all that incredible beauty and provision, “Don’t eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Just one thing. What a picture of humanity right down through our history to today.

Of all the wonderful things we have to choose from to do, the incredible choices we have, we always desire that which is forbidden to us more.

Now, here we are about 6000 or more years later, and another Adam comes on the scene. This is the One that apostle Paul calls the Last Adam in 1 Corinthians 15 verse 45 or the Second Man in verse 47 of the same passage.

The Last Adam’s going to take back what the first Adam lost. That’s why we use the same word – “dominion.”

Let’s continue reading these verses, verse 14,

Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, That all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him.

In other words, His Kingdom’s going to cover the whole globe – not just Israel – not just the Middle East. This’s literal and we need to read it for what it says.

 

Israel will always be the apple of God’s eye, His favoured nation. It’ll be the head of the nations.

But that control’s going to be over the whole planet. It’s going to literally be heaven on earth, beyond description. Even the animals won’t prey on other animals anymore and even the fiercest of animals will be tame and peaceful and will enjoy close relationships with humans.

Isaiah 11:6 gives us a small glimpse of what it’ll be like,

The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, The leopard shall lie down with the young goat, The calf and the young lion and the fatling together; And a little child shall lead them. 

So does Satan is bound up. There’s no more sin, or death, or sickness. As we said, it’s Heaven on earth or an earthly heaven if you like..

So, let’s finish verse 14.

His dominion is an everlasting dominion, Which shall not pass away, And His kingdom the one Which shall not be destroyed. 

 

Now as we see here and as we saw at the close of the last episode, the Old Testament doesn’t put a time frame on this Kingdom, but the Book of Revelation does. One thousand years. But hold on, this verse here, verse 14 of Daniel 7, says His Kingdom’s going to reign forever.

What’s going to happen?

Well, there are some events that’ll take place at the end of those 1000 years but the Kingdom itself won’t stop. It’s not going to cease. It’s going to continue through those events and after they’ve taken place it’ll just slide on into eternity. It’ll pass into timelessness where time itself will be no more.

 

What’ll happen when the thousand years are over and the Kingdom goes into eternity, will everything somehow come together and be sort of mixed in together as one?

It doesn’t seem like that’ll happen if we look at Revelation 21 verse 1,

Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away.

This speaks of an entirely new universe. It’s not a renovation as will likely be the case at Christ’s second coming. That renovation will last for 1000 years. You see we’re still in the time dimension, not eternity.

The new universe is a complete renewal not a renovation and it’ll be able to hold up and remain perfect for eternity.

It’s worth adding a quick word here about eternity. Eternity’s not a long time. As soon as we use that word “time” it’s not eternity. Eternity is completely outside of our time dimension altogether. God Himself is Eternal meaning He’s outside of the time dimension that we as humans on this earth live in today. To us everything relates to a timeline.

Ecclesiastes chapter 3 tells us, there’s a time for everything. Let’s quickly look just 3 verses, verses 1 to 3 there,

To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven: 

A time to be born, And a time to die; A time to plant, And a time to pluck what is planted; 

A time to kill, And a time to heal; A time to break down, And a time to build up; 

A time to weep, And a time to laugh; A time to mourn, And a time to dance; 

As great as the human imagination is it’s completely unable to really grasp what living outside of time really looks like. We can’t understand any dimension outside of matter, energy, time, and space yet we know scientifically that other dimensions do exist.

 

Remember that our focus here is to understand that there’s going to be an earthly Kingdom setup that’ll be ruled from Mount Zion in Jerusalem from the ancient throne of David by The Lord Jesus Christ.

We’ll go back now to the book of Isaiah, to chapter 2 verses 1 and 2,

The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. 

Now it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the LORD’s house shall be established on the top of the mountains And shall be exalted above the hills; And all nations shall flow to it. 

 

First, notice the words “Now it shall come to pass…”

This means that it’s GOING to happen. There’re no maybes about it. It’s going to happen because God said it’s going to happen.

It’ll happen after human history has finally run its course.

 

Now verse 2 goes on to say that the mountain of the LORD’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains.

We saw in the last episode that a kingdom in the Old Testament is described as a mountain. So, this kingdom is going to be established as the overriding, the top, kingdom that’ll be over all other kingdoms.

The verse continues with, “And shall be exalted above the hills; And all nations shall flow to it.”

The hills are the smaller kingdoms or the other nations of the world. This kingdom with its capital in Jerusalem where the King of Kings will be ruling and reigning will be a place where all the nations will flow into.

In other words, it’s going to be the hub of all of planet earth’s activity.

Let’s jump to Isaiah chapter 9.

Have look at the language. It’s very self-explanatory, even though it’s written 700 years before Christ and 2,700 years before our day today. That’s a long time ago and yet the accuracy is astounding.

 

Isaiah 9 verses 6 and 7. We’ll read the whole and then break it down “Precept upon precept, precept upon precept, Line upon line, line upon line, Here a little, there a little,” That’s the way that spiritual truth was taught, slowly and patiently according to Isaiah 28:13.

So, let’s read it first and we all know the verse,

For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 

Of the increase of His government and peace There will be no end, Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, To order it and establish it with judgment and justice From that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. 

So, let’s break it down,

 

“For unto us (that’s of course the Nation of Israel,) a child is born, (Now, that’s a reference to Christ’s birth at Bethlehem.) unto us a son is given:…” At the beginning of His earthly ministry before His rejection by Israel, “He came unto his own and His own received Him not,” says the Gospel of John in chapter 1 verse 11.

Who were His own? Israel. He was given for their benefit.

Now back to our text in verse 6.

“…and the government…” What’s the purpose of government? Control of the masses. No human centred government has been or ever will be able to get the right mix of control and justice, but this One will.

We continue,

“…and the government will be upon his shoulder: (Whose shoulder? The Son that’s given, in the first part of the verse. The Son Who is given is Jesus of Nazareth.)

and his name (When He comes to be King of Kings and Lord of Lords.) shall be called Wonderful Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.”

See, He’s totally and completely God. Now to break down verse 7,

 

“Of the increase of His government and peace There will be no end,…” In other words, His government’s going to be totally in control of planet earth as well as, the rest of the universe, and “There’ll be no end to that government.” As we’ve already said, it’s going to slip on into eternity.

Now, look where The King’s going to rule this government from.

“…upon the throne of David,…” Where was David’s throne? Mount Zion in Jerusalem. And that’s exactly where Christ is going to set up His rule and reign when He returns. He’s going to rule from Mt. Zion in Jerusalem.

“To order it and establish it with judgment and justice From that time forward, even forever…” Now, the word judgment as it’s used in this context is not meting out punishment. The word judgment means “righteous rule.”

When we see the word judgment in this kind of setting, it’s not the sentencing of people to punishment. It’s a righteous, Godly rule. We’ll see the punishment type of justice in a moment.

“The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.”

This is what everything’s moving forward to – the return of Christ and the setting up of His Kingdom.

Now, all this doesn’t have so much to do with you and me as members of the Body of Christ, but this is the promise made to Israel. They’re the ones that’re looking forward to this glorious Kingdom.

Let’s go a little further into the Old Testament to Zechariah 14 and there we’ll see what’s going to happen before the coming of this glorious heaven on earth Kingdom.

 

Zechariah 14:1,

Behold, the day of the LORD is coming, And your spoil will be divided in your midst. 

Now, the majority of those who read these verses don’t really know what they mean. But the day of the Lord always refers to the Tribulation.

That’s those final seven years, from Daniel’s 70 weeks prophecy in Daniel 9 verse 24, where it’s going to be the most horrible period of time the world ‘s ever experienced. It’s called the day of the Lord, and the order of that day will be Judgment, Wrath and Punishment.

“your spoil will be divided in your midst”. In other words, Israel is going to be overrun by her enemies.

By the way we’ll be looking at Daniel’s 70 week prophecy soon.

 

Zechariah 14:2,

For I (God) will gather (by His sovereign control) all the nations to battle against Jerusalem; The city shall be taken, The houses rifled, And the women ravished. Half of the city shall go into captivity, But the remnant of the people shall not be cut off from the city. 

Now, let’s compare Scripture with Scripture. This is line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little, there a little.

We look to Matthew 24 where it’s the Lord Jesus Himself speaking.

But let’s don’t lose our train of thought from Zechariah, because we’ll be back there in a moment.

Matthew 24 is all about the Tribulation. Everything Jesus speaks of here is going to take place once that final seven years that we know of as the Tribulation begins.

So, we read verse 7, and again, this is Jesus Himself speaking.

 

Matthew 24:7

 

Mat 24:7

“For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places.”

Now, this all sounds familiar doesn’t it? But we’re not there yet. Even though we’re seeing a lot of this, it isn’t this prophecy being fulfilled yet.

It’s going to be far, far worse than anything we’re seeing today. Even though all that’s happening in this world today lets the person with wisdom know that we’re coming closer and closer.

It’s interesting to me personally that almost all the great bible scholars and teachers who’ve influenced my own Christian journey made statements that the state of the world led them to believe that this time we’re speaking of here was due to start.

Many, if not most of them, believed that the great snatching up of the Church, the Rapture, would take place before they had to face death.

Most of those blokes are now dead.

I have an answer for that and the only way I could have understood this is because of old age.

To explain, we saw last episode in the representation of the Gentile kingdoms in the image of king Nebuchadnezzar that each kingdom lost quality and value as they took over from the previous one. Today, with the revived Roman empire beginning to emerge we see a very fragile, weak, and ineffective government system.

This is depicted in the image by the feet of a mixture of clay and iron, two compounds that just don’t mix.

Now as these government systems of today continue to grow more and more ineffective and get weaker almost by the day, those who grew up in a generation earlier are very aware of the fast paced downhill deep dive of the current government systems.

You see we have a foot in two camps if you could put it that way.

We saw a government and a world system that was stronger than today, even though what we saw was much weaker than the generation before us.

So, as we make these comparisons between our early years and today we see a huge gulf, a massive downward slide from the system we grew up in.

The speed of that slide is quite astounding.

I believe this comparison is why many of those old scholars believed they’d see the rapture and not have to taste death.

For myself, I’m also truly astounded at the collapse of wisdom and justice within government, the news media and all those in authority over us.

However, when I look at the descriptions from the Bible of the state the world will be in after the Church has been taken from this earth, I realise that even what we’re seeing today is nowhere near as bad as it’ll soon get.

In this I dearly hope I’m wrong. I hope that The Lord calls us out before this podcast is published.

 

Matthew 24:8

All these are the beginning of sorrows. 

All these (these disasters and catastrophes) are the (What?) beginning of sorrows.

Now, some translations use the word “travail”. Some use the words “birth pains”, because it’s a reference to the woman approaching childbirth or delivery.

The world or the earth is approaching the delivery from the curse. And the only way God can bring it about is to bring in this utter devastation upon Christ-rejecting mankind.

So, all of these things that we’re seeing today are just the beginning.

Once it does start, it’ll be like the woman approaching delivery.

 

Matthew 24:9

“Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake.”

It’s vital to remember that Jesus is speaking to the apostles who’re representative of the Nation of Israel. He says that they shall deliver you (That’s the Jewish people.) up to be afflicted and shall kill you. (That should sound familiar to anyone having even a little knowledge of history. It’s Hitler and the Nazis all over again, only much worse.)

And you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. Notice the term? Hated by all nations for my Name’s sake.

There won’t be a single nation on earth that’ll come to Israel’s defence like many nations have today.

Even America, Great Britain, and we ourselves in Australia will turn against Israel.

All the nations of the world will turn against them.

Then it goes on like this until finally, in verse 21, Jesus steps into the midst of all these prophetic events.

 

Matthew 24:21,

For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. 

Remember this is Jesus speaking and He’s speaking to the Jewish Nation.

In other words, when He’s speaking there in 28-29 AD, He’s saying that this is going to be the most horrible seven-year period in all of human history.

Currently this self-assured, sophisticated world just laughs at the thought of it.

But you and I should be as certain as it’s possible to be because God’s Word said it.

Do we believe God and His Word?

Do we believe God doesn’t and can’t lie?

If we do then we know that these things are shortly going to take place.

If we don’t believe God and His Word, then we should just continue to skip our way merrily through this wonderful life and believe it’ll all come good when the right political party gets in or something else we can’t define will happen and all will be good.

 

Now, let’s go back to Zechariah 14 verse 2. This prophecy is what Jesus was referring to,

For I will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem; The city shall be taken, The houses rifled, And the women ravished. Half of the city shall go into captivity, But the remnant of the people shall not be cut off from the city. 

 

God says in this prophecy, “For I will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem; (For war, not for peace, there’s no United nations road map to peace or a bunch of grandstanding politicians getting involved for their own self interests.

This is for a total destruction of the Jewish people.

The city shall be taken, The houses rifled, (or ransacked), And the women ravished, (Or raped. It’s going to worse than anything any of us have seen or heard of, much worse than the Nazi holocaust.

 

Half of the city shall go into captivity, (That’s Jerusalem, remember.) “But the remnant of the people shall not be cut off from the city.”

In other words, it’s going to be complete mayhem for the city of Jerusalem.

 

Then verse 3, before the city and the Jews are totally destroyed, we read, and it’s Zechariah 14:3,

Then the LORD will go forth And fight against those nations, As He fights in the day of battle. 

The first word in the verse, “Then” refers to a precise moment.

We don’t know the day, the month, or the year, but God does.

At that very moment the Deliverer, the Lord Jesus Christ, God the Son, Israel’s Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth, arrives.

Israel’s help won’t come from the north or south or east or west, their help will come from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.

“Then the LORD will go forth And fight against those nations.”

When all the nations of the world have come to the Middle East for the sole purpose of destroying and removing the Jewish people, God Himself intervenes.

He’s going to come in what we call the Second Coming, and it’s going to be with wrath and destruction.

He’s going to come “as when he fought in the day of battle.” This refers to when the Lord fought for, Israel against the Egyptians, in Exodus 14:25 and afterwards against the Canaanites, when they entered the land of Canaan under Joshua.

 

Here’s how The Lord arrives. Zechariah 14:4,

And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, Which faces Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives shall be split in two, From east to west, Making a very large valley; Half of the mountain shall move toward the north And half of it toward the south. 

In other words, He’s going to return bodily, physically, visibly; just like He left from the Mount of Olives in Acts chapter 1.

He’ll come back in that day to stand on the Mount of Olives again. That’s in Jerusalem today.

Then the Mount of Olives itself will be split in two from east and to west. That’ll form a great river valley that’ll go from the Mediterranean to the Dead Sea and there’ll be a huge valley; as half of the mountain moves toward the north, and half to the south.

These truly are events that are far beyond our human ability to even imagine let alone explain the mechanics of it all.

It’ll be by the power of God. and if we believe in Him there’s no problem in being sure that it’ll all happen as He said.

 

Then you pick it up in verse 8. After this valley is formed, going right through the middle of the Mount of Olives headed out to the Dead Sea, it will create a great river of supernaturally fresh water. It’s going to be so supernaturally fresh that it will clean up the Dead Sea. All right now verse 8.

 

Zechariah 14:8-9

And in that day it shall be—That living waters shall flow from Jerusalem, Half of them toward the eastern sea And half of them toward the western sea; In both summer and winter it shall occur. 

And the LORD shall be King over all the earth. In that day it shall be “The LORD is one,” And His name one. 

 

And in that day it shall be. This is when Christ returns to Jerusalem. living waters shall flow from Jerusalem itself via these supernaturally created valleys.

Half of this supernatural, pure living water will flow from Jerusalem out to the Mediterranean and half to the Dead Sea.

In both summer and winter, it shall occur.

Now, the final result of all this is that the LORD shall be king over all the earth. Not just Israel. Not just Jerusalem.

He’s going to be King of Kings and Lord of Lords over the whole planet. The passage reads, In that day it shall be “The LORD is one,”

So, this is the whole, prophetic picture of the coming of the Kingdom of Heaven.

 

Now let’s jump up to Acts chapter 1 for a moment.

This is where Jesus and the Eleven are now meeting at the end of His time on earth, and He’s ready to ascend back to Glory. Look at verse 6,

Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” 

Now, what Kingdom did they have in their mind?

Solomons Kingdom. That’s when the nation of Israel was at it’s greatest.

Was Israel then ready to have that kind of a kingdom again?

Well, look at Jesus’ answer in Acts 1:7,

And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. 

See, Jesus didn’t say it wasn’t going to happen, He just said it’s not for you to know when. But it will come.

Now, look at verses 9 to 11, and the setting is they’re standing on the Mount of Olives talking about things relating to this coming kingdom,

Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. 

And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.” 

 

So, this is the apostles watching as Jesus was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.

Now look what the angels told them.

It’s exactly what we’ve just seen in Zechariah.

Why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.”

Jesus will come again in His glorified, resurrected body and His feet will touch down on the Mount of Olives from where He left all those centuries ago.

Until the next episode my friends, where we’ll look at the next important entity in the picture of the Kingdom which is the Body of Christ, The Church, may God open His Word to you and you to His Word.