[Music] if you know just to summarize things we've talked about god's original desire to have a human family coexisting with his supernatural family heaven comes to earth we have eden we have the creation of humankind as god's imagers his proxies his stand-ins and whatever vocabulary helps they are his children they are fit for sacred space they are tasked with making the rest of the world like eden to spread the goodness of god to spread life as god wants it lived everywhere on the globe that's destroyed with the fall the first of three rebellions the fall brings upon humanity a death problem and a separation from god that rebellious path continues we have the precursor event to the flood genesis 6 1-4 which produces a number of bad results in immediate old testament history we have a lethal threat to the people of god israel in the form of the nephilim and their descendants moses joshua and david take care of that problem but what they cannot address is the fact that fallen sons of god the watchers against supernatural rebels teach deceive misdirect blind human beings to their own self-destruction they accelerate depravity there are you know there's an animus there humans are essentially taught to more efficiently destroy their own lives and the lives of those around them their hearts are turned to idolatry god judges that with the flood he consigns the rebellious supernatural beings to the pit to the abyss chains of gloomy darkness in the language of peter and jude by the way i think revelation 9 describes the release of the watchers as a precursor to the end of days which ultimately is a transition to you know the day of the lord and the future age the age to come but we've got a serious problem there and then we have the babel problem where the nations are divorced from god they are assigned allotted is the biblical word to the sons of god who corrupt them and in turn show their own corruption by turning the hearts of everyone to idolatry soliciting worship from humans instead of directing them back to the true god and ruling them according to the moral character of the true god they turn their populations into their slaves and destroy them this is why the psalmist cries out for an end to this situation so humanity is fragmented it is in a maelstrom of depravity it is separated from the true god and the knowledge of the true god it's just one big mess it's one big chaotic mess and so the expectation is that the seed of abraham the seed the messiah is going to show up and fix this all three of these all all of these conditions and again we can't drill down into all these things but i mentioned there are certain theological signals to the birth and the genealogy of jesus that are aimed at the watcher story we can't get into that now we know about the resurrection the the cross event the cross the death of jesus and the resurrection we know that that takes care of the death problem because resurrection again he is the first fruits of the resurrection and we will inherit the resurrection we will be raised with him at the last day to eternal life again we know those points of the theology so we know how the work of jesus cures the death problem it brings the believer back into the family of god but i want to focus here on a few things in the gospels and in the epistles and ultimately in the book of revelation that sort of touch on the other two things the problem of depravity the problem of cosmic geography especially there are things in the new testament that what we just described in the last hour little seeds of that little bread crumbs of those things are seeded throughout the new testament and the problem is our ability to detect them because we don't quite know what we're looking at because we have not spent enough time in our old testament understanding it in its own context to be able to see the breadcrumb trails but they are there my book reversing hermon drills down specifically on the genesis 6 story how does that story bleed into the new testament and specifically the mission of jesus again we'll say a little bit about that here but i want to focus on cosmic geography because that's i think there's an important aspect of that that's really tied into our destiny that really matters and i think especially for our gathering today so you're only going to get a little a little taste of what's lurking in your bible what will jump out at you if you're aware and it's it's good stuff really it is so the ministry of jesus you know jesus first coming the first advent he is going to inaugurate the kingdom means he's going to kick-start the kingdom of god the rule of god on earth once more and he's also going to make a mockery in his own special way of the cosmic powers so he does this in different ways and just again just a smattering here it's no coincidence that the inauguration the beginning of the kingdom when jesus begins his ministry he starts talking about the kingdom i mean john had done this as a precursor as well but he starts saying things like the kingdom of god is present the kingdom of god is among you you know so on and so forth when he starts talking about the kingdom when he inaugurates his ministry he also to demonstrate his authority he couples those announcements with specific episodes of the expulsion of demons if you look in your new testament you will see when the kingdom gets talked about you have these sorts of events that is not a coincidence it's intentional it's deliberate and i think one of the more interesting ones is here in matthew 8. we're probably gonna go a little past three o'clock but oh well just drag me away i've been good to this point okay jesus heals two men with demons when he came to the other side to the country of the gadarenes or the gerasenes and in other synoptics gospels two demon-possessed men met him coming out of the tombs so fierce that no one could pass that way and behold they cried out what have you to do with us o son of god have you come here to torment us before the time and then we get the pigs and the swine and all that what i want to draw your attention to is how the demons address jesus okay oh son of god usually when people address jesus they call him son of david in the gospels it's a consistent pattern but here the demons somehow know that he's not just the son of david he's the son of god if you go over to the same account in mark crying out with a loud voice he said what have you to do with me this is legion so it's still more than one what have you to do with me jesus son of the most high god. in luke luke is going to use the same language son of the most high now what i want to draw your attention to is isn't it unusual or doesn't it draw your attention that when jesus goes into territory that is under gentile control they're raising pigs okay that's an indication okay and you know historically this part of part of the land was under gentile control in jesus day that when he's among jews they refer to him either as jesus or the son of god or some pejorative you know but when he's in gentile turf and he confronts supernatural powers they refer to him as the son of god and the son of the most high why should that stand out because he is lord of the gentile nations as well jesus goes into gentile places and does things to telegraph a simple point i am not the messiah of the jew alone i have dominion over territory that is under the authority at least to this point of other gods and they know it they call him son of the most high where do we see that language in the old testament the babel story okay it's designed to take your mind back by using that specific phrase back to the conditions of cosmic geography in the old testament and to telegraph the point that the supernatural beings know who this is now i agree with paul and we'll get to paul in a moment where paul in 1st corinthians 2 you know verses 6 through 8 said you know had the rulers of this world which is a pauline phrase for supernatural powers and the gospels use it too satan is called the ruler of this world and all that but paul says had the rulers of this world known what the outcome would have been they would never have crucified the lord of glory in other words they're not idiots they're not thinking like oh jesus is here and he's here to die on the cross and so if we kill him that's the beginning of the end for us let's do that now they know who he is and they know why he's there why else would the son of god show up why else would the son of the most high show up he's here to do this silly eden thing again he wants to reclaim the nations he wants to kick start eden again he wants to bring the nations back into the family he wants to restore eden he wants god to have his way well we're not going to let that happen so the easy solution for them is to kill him which is exactly what god needs to happen okay now jesus knows the plan he knows the mechanism for this but they don't like paul says had they known they never would have done this they're not idiots also what jesus does when he starts talking about the kingdom the first time he sends out disciples he sends out 70 some of your new testaments will say 72. it doesn't matter because it refers to the same thing why 70 he doesn't send out 12. you know 12 disciples 12 tribes of israel no he sends out 70. why 70 if you use the traditional hebrew text of genesis 10 the nations involved in the babel story if you count them there's 70 of them in the septuagint they're 72 because the translator divided two you divided a couple pairs that's why you get the number difference but both numbers refer back to the table of nations that were divided at babel if you are a literate jew and you happen to be either on the scene or you read the gospel where jesus the son of david son of the most high starts talking about the kingdom and sends out 70 disciples who have authority over demons you know what's going on you know what this signals he is here to take back the nations i am not the god and the messiah of the jew alone i am lord of every last inch of turf here and this is a symbolic gesture to make that point it's a cosmic geographical act to those who have babel ringing in their heads you know this is this coincides with satan quote falling like lightning from heaven luke 10 18. you also get the dragon cast down in revelation 12 which again if you read the passage and i already referenced it refers to the first coming of the messiah the first coming of the messiah results in some sort of casting down of the devil what is that what might that mean okay again this isn't original to me but i think this is the view that makes the most sense given all the other things we've talked about and a lot of the things we haven't talked about today the serpent figure the original rebel that we know as satan was cast down in eden to the underworld to the to the the earth and and in in israelite cosmology the underworld is in the earth so he's cast out of heaven to the earth he becomes lord of the dead so it can't refer to that because this is something different that is associated with the announcement of the kingdom okay my view is that what this means is that satan is expelled from the presence of god or the the role of the accuser who brings charge against people because he owns them another way of saying it if satan has rightful ownership of every human life because everything dies one of his roles that's described elsewhere in scripture is to accuse the brethren if you you know look at this role the terminology of the accuser is drawn from different passages you know job one and two is probably the most familiar just for the idea of accusation but he lays claim to every human being on the planet when the kingdom of god is begun and the king announces it and the king is going to give his life to make the kingdom of god a reality that's over and done with in what way here's the point anyone who's a member of jesus kingdom is no longer under the authority of the lord of the dead because of the resurrection so if you are a member of that kingdom this dude over here has nothing to say he no longer owns you your destiny is no longer with him he is a prosecutor without a case okay that's what he is and again what i'm what i'm suggesting is when these things happen when they're said in the gospels they have a context that drifts back into the old testament that needs to be you know noodled a little bit when it gets to that now i've alluded to this one here's a map this is god's leading of moses and joshua when they i'll try to get out of my own way here when they are done with the 40 years of wandering as i mentioned before god directs moses and joshua to go up the other side of jordan the eastern side if you're looking at the map from your direction it's not canaan proper it's the other side and he tells them in deuteronomy 2 and 3 let's just take a look at it even though i alluded to this before deuteronomy 2 and 3 he says you know the writer says as soon as all the men of war had perished and were dead from among the people the lord said to me today you are to cross the border of moabit r and when you approach the territory the people of ammon do not harass them or contend with them for i will not give you any of the land of the people of ammon as a possession because i've already given it to the sons of lot who are again peripherally related to abraham i've already given it to the sons of lot it's also counted as a land of rephaim rephyim formerly lived there but the ammonites call them zamzumim a people great and many and tall as the anakim but click in there find my mouse but the lord destroyed them the lord destroyed them before the ammonites and they dispossessed them and settled them in their place as he did for the people of esau who lived in seer when he destroyed the horites before them and dispossessed them and settled in their place even in this day as he did for the avim who lived in the villages as far as gaza the kaftarim you know he came from kaftar these are all also roots of the philistines and he goes down through the list and he says look on the other side of jordan you don't molest the people of moab and ammon because i've already either given it to descendants of abraham and there's no giant problem there i already took care of that descendants of esau you know cleared them out the ammonite you know we don't have a problem there what we do have a problem with is bashan the region up here to the north at the top of the map bashan let's get a better look at it this is the region of bashan you see the sea of galilee right here bashan is the again the territorial name ashtaroth and edrai are two significant cities you see if i have you know i have this note here just a few notes about the region of bashan in canaanite it was known as bethan th which is a word for serpent that's a little creepy the israelites are going to be a little creeped out by that asteroth and edry in canaanite in ugaritic that's a canaanite language or northwest semitic language those two cities are mentioned by name and they are described as gateways to the netherworld they freaked even the pagans out okay so it's like we just don't you know like we don't really want to go there it's just bashan is kind of creepy to begin with and we don't want to hang out at these places because these are gateways to the netherworld to the underworld in old testament times at the at the top of what we'll see in a moment at the the top of bashan the region there there's a mountain it's mount hermon we'll come back to that point but at the foot of mount hermon was built a temple to baal baal is referred to as the lord of the underworld in canaanite literature he's lord of the dead ba'al zabul the elizabel in the gospels but al-zabul is ugaritic for prince baal baal is baal zabol is the word for prince the lord of the dead this is why baal is a satan figure okay in a lot of this this material prince bale i mean so this read this is not where you'd go like for r r okay where do we want to go for vacation this year oh dad i've got a great idea let's go to bashan you know it really it's just you know think of something else okay so here we are a little bit more of a blow up you've got bashan sea of galilee here in jesus day just fix that location in your mind you've got asteroth and ed dry nearby there again sea of galilee a little bit north this is going to be actually adjacent to where the temple of baal was erected in old testament days is caesarea philippi in the also known in jesus day as banias or ponus with a p what happens at caesarea philippi it's at the foot of mount hermon okay in the region of bashan this is like this is like ground zero for just awful evil chaotic nasty stuff what happens at caesarea philippi this is the place that jesus goes with his disciples and they're at you know there they are caesarea philippi you've got the the grotto of pan pond banias bashan all this stuff the gates of hell and this is the place where jesus has this conversation with his disciples where he says who do people who do men say that i am and they decide well some say this and some say that you know and he asked peter who do you say i am and he says thou art you are the christ the son of the living god and jesus says that's good peter you know don't get a big head about it because the spirit of god had to show you that you're not that smart okay but we'll give you some points he says you know you're peter and upon this rock i will build my church now i finally got to bashan and specifically to this location last year it's really hard to miss the rock it's dominated by a big rock a cliff and inside is the grotto of pan in jesus day it was also a temple of zeus which is a real slap in the face to the true god because zeus was conceived as the most high in in pagan religion but a lot of people argue about this okay they say well you know the way we should interpret this is jesus is saying you know pier peter and upon this rock i'm going to build my church and petross peter sounds like petra rock so jesus is making a pun and peter's the first pope so we should all be catholic and the protestants say no no no no no no the the rock is is christ himself and and the rock was god in the old testament because that's what first corinthians 10 says the rock was was jesus the rock was god and so we're going to take that and import it into the gospels and none of us should be catholic we should all be protestant okay what i'm suggesting and i'm again i'm not alone i didn't come up with this view this is a fairly common view that the rock they're talking about is where they're standing okay because it was known as the gates of hell it's the place where the lord of the dead was worshiped and you know you got these locations in the region that you go visit the lord of the dead you know it's this place so i don't think the protestants or the catholics are correct on this i think jesus is saying you all know what this place is upon this this rock right here i'm going to build my church this is where it begins and the gates of hell a lot of our translations have this is esv the gates of hell will not prevail against it now you'll notice at least here you see the word against has a little arrow and it doesn't have any english words under it that's because the word against in english is not represented by a greek word in the original text it's supplied by the translator to help it make sense see the gates of hell will not prevail against it sounds like the church is taking a beating and the church is going to survive while the gates of hell beat against it it'll be okay because it's the church no actually you should translate it without that preposition and then you'd come up with something like the gates of hell will not withstand it see that reverses the image now it's not the church taking the beating it's the church administering the beating okay so i mean what you have jesus saying here is is in effect you all know what this place is i'm going to turn satan's domain into his tomb okay we are going to reverse what's going on here and and the real kicker is well we'll get to that to that part oh let's let's just go i'll get to the kicker in a moment right after this incident it says after six days i mean they're there at caesarea philippi six days jesus took with him peter and james and john and led them up a high mountain and if you're there you just look around and like where's the high mountain here i mean we got this big rock here that's a cliff but it's not a mountain it's a oh there's one right over there how could we miss it it's mount hermon what happened at mount hermon again if you're reading second temple jewish material about the genesis 6 story mount hermon is where the watchers descend and covenant together with themselves to corrupt humanity so jesus takes peter james and john up into mount hermon and what happens there it's the transfiguration so like you know jesus goes there and he manifests who he really is he exposes himself you know in his glory as if to say what i'm here do something about it okay my view is that when jesus does this at caesarea philippi and mount hermon he is picking a fight this is well into his ministry and the reason i say that is what happens after this is just some stuff about hermon the the the gospels actually don't identify the mountain the church tradition says it's mount tabor you know why because constantine's mom said it was i'm not making that up constantine's mom was a serious believer and she fancied herself as like an archaeologist and so she went around to places in the holy land and said this is what this this is where this happened this is where that happened this is this place and people like hey you're the emperor's mom we're not going to disagree you know and it just becomes church tradition but the the gospels never identify it and if you're in the region there's only one mountain candidate there and that's hermon but oh wow you know and again it's not just me lots of people take this view i'm giving to you but it's really interesting that after these two events you read this in mark after he goes to caesarea philippi and he pokes satan in the eye and he goes to mount hermon and digs you know that whole bunch okay it says this he began to teach them he began to teach them that the son of man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed and after three days rise again he's picking a fight it's time to get the show on the road now peter freaks out if you remember the passage this is the passage where peter says no way you know like this isn't going to happen to you and then jesus has to say look get behind me satan and the whole point is if you oppose this you're on his side you're an adversary don't put yourself in an adversarial position to what i have to do what i'm going to do this is why i'm here but he begins to teach them that he has to die so what happens they leave this area they go to jerusalem and that's when you have palm sunday and a week later he's dead mission accomplished it's a provocation jesus goes to these places and provokes a response and you know you know the gospel story is about satan entering into judas and you you know all you know the rest of that but he does these things to provoke and set the stage for what must happen he must die why does he have to die to defeat death you have to have a resurrection you can't have a resurrection unless you die it's as plain as day but they don't it doesn't register with them and again i don't want to poke fun at the disciples because i don't think they were they were dumb the the real issue is and i discussed this in unseen realm at length here's the passage in paul i alluded to earlier among the mature we do impart wisdom though it is not a wisdom of this age or the rulers of this age who are doomed to pass away oh yeah they are paul has read psalm 82. you're going to die like men but we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of god which god decreed before the ages for our glory none of the rulers of this age understood this for if they had they would not have crucified the lord of glory the disciples didn't understand it either do you realize this little little bunny trail here do you realize there isn't a single passage that has in the old testament that prophesies a messiah who will be god incarnate who will die a sacrificial death and rise from the dead now all those individual items are somewhere in the old testament and most of them kind of cryptically the point is that the plan is scattered throughout the old testament the pieces are not put together we only have the pieces put together because the new testament is written in hindsight okay in the unseen realm i talk about this is i refer to this as the messianic mosaic it's like a puzzle it's like you have to put a puzzle together without the box lid okay the pieces are just fragmented it's only afterwards that the picture becomes clear i mean i love luke 24. this is after the resurrection and they have the risen christ the disciples assembled there the risen christ is standing in front of them and they don't get it that luke actually says that jesus had to open their minds so that they could understand and again it's not that they're dumb it's that they didn't know all the pieces or how the pieces went together they only know this in hindsight you know jesus tell them this the spirit's gonna guide you into all this you know the spirit's gonna help you out and he does you know and you know that that's why when when they you know when the gospels get written and you know the disciples are out there doing their thing in the book of acts they come to understand how everything fit together and the text will say and then they remembered what jesus said about this or that passage it's like oh you know another piece goes right where it belongs they're they're assembling it as they go and as they go about their ministries they don't know it now supernatural evil doesn't know it had they known it they never would have done it is paul's point you know so they are duped they are led by the nose and duped by jesus and by the father to do precisely the thing that was the beginning of the end for them because there's no going back the kingdom has been planted and now it will grow jesus says you know i have to ascend to the father the ascension is actually just as important as the resurrection why because unless i ascend the spirit will not come and this is why i mean we could go into all sorts of stuff here but just as jesus is identified with the father he is god but he's not the father and all that stuff so the spirit gets talked about in the new testament as he as if he's jesus but still distinct you'll have phrases like spirit of god spirit of christ interchanged in the same verse twice paul says refers to jesus as the lord who is the spirit paul's not denying trinitarianism he's just identifying the two and elsewhere he'll separate them this is how again we talk about jesus in relation to the father the same thing happens with the spirit in relation to jesus how else can jesus say behold i am with you always even to the end of the age or where two or three are gathered together there i am in their midst you know you you have a physical resurrection and yet there's in some sense there's this unity in some way of jesus in the spirit but the spirit will not come until jesus ascends he ascends to be at the right hand of the father to if you've got a kingdom you've got to rule you've got to be a ruler okay the spirit you know again we'll get into some of this the spirits coming is pretty important again for depravity let's look at acts briefly you have restoring the one family of god and reclaiming the nations okay this is the story of pentecost again how many times how many sermons have you heard on the story of pentecost you know both because it's important and because it's important you hear it a lot it's familiar except for what you're missing it's like most of the bible really when the day of pentecost arrived again and it's not because we're dumb and they were smart it's because we don't have the world we don't have the eyes that they had to catch certain things when the day of pentecost arrived they were all together in one place and suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind and it filled the entire house where they were sitting and divided tongues as a fire you know settle on them now i want to just i have the the column here i have the word divided clicked on and the column this is the greek term diamorizo okay to be divided well if we search for that term in the septuagint the septuagint was the bible of the early church and the new testament writers three quarters of the time they quote the old testament they used the greek translation of the old testament to make their point sometimes they quote from the hebrew and then they do the translation on the fly but other times they quote from the septuagint the greek translation of the old testament because you know the world speaks green if we search for diamorizo in the septuagint it doesn't show up that many times 19 but one of them lo and behold is deuteronomy 32 where the nations are dividing so that might be a coincidence okay keep reading now they were dwelling in jerusalem jews devout men from every nation under heaven and at this sound the multitude came together and they were bewildered because each one was hearing them speak in his own language if we click on bewildered we look at the greek term there it's soon if we search for that in the septuagint guess where that shows up genesis 11 which is the story of the tower of babel we've got two terms in the book of acts which is about people being enabled to speak in other languages because the nations have other languages not just one that hook us back into the division of the nations at babel i would suggest to you that luke wants us to think of the reversing of the nations here he wants us to think of babel because now all of a sudden the language issue isn't going to matter god is going to supernaturally or you know have people speak in these other languages why what is god doing at pentecost well here here's a map i know you can't really see it that well but if you know you could look later in your in your bible in the back this is a map with all of the place names from acts chapter 2. again this is just acts 2 this is pentecost the list if you read the list in acts 2 proceeds from east and right hand side here east to west it moves in a westerly direction it starts with the easternmost geographical points and starts moving toward the sea and then when you hit the sea it divides up and covers the northern mediterranean and the southern mediterranean all the way through cyrenica in africa which is almost to italy you know or rome but we get italy in the list as well you say well is that supposed to mean something yeah it is a number of those names a number of those names are plucked out of the table of nations in genesis 10. others get a new name because we're going from semitic language to greek the point is that the people in jerusalem they're jews they're scattered all over the known world they're scattered among the nations the 70 nations known to the biblical writers they're jews how'd they get there exile they were scattered to the wind because of their idolatry they were put into the nations that god disinherited and divorced himself from why would god do that because god plays the long game god knows that at some point the messiah is going to come he's going to die he's going to rise again the event of pentecost is going to occur where jews from all of these nations are going to show up in jerusalem and they're going to see something pretty spectacular they're going to see people of their own kin group speaking in the other languages from the regions they're from and they're going to be telling them the story of this guy from nazareth who said he was the messiah and he was crucified by the romans and he rose on the third day and they're going to believe three thousand of them believe and you know what they do after they believe they go home they're like little cell groups planted among the nations this is why when paul and other people get to some of these places there's already believers it's like a dandelion you know god essentially blows the dandelion and the seed of the kingdom scatters all over the mediterranean to the nations the messaging is pretty clear god is now about the business of reclaiming the nations for himself if you read through the rest of the book of acts again it's not a coincidence remember acts chapter 1 you shall be my witnesses in jerusalem judea samaria and the uttermost parts of the world samaria we we have an episode in acts chapter 8 about samaria why is samaria interesting samaria was the northern kingdom it was apostate after the kingdom divided and when the northern kingdom was conquered the assyrians in this case came in they uprooted the populations and deported them to other parts of their empire and then they took people from other parts of the empire and imported them back into samaria and those people would get married and have babies and you have half-breed jews the samaritans and the jews have nothing to do with them because they're not pure but god is interested in them the gospel goes to samaria and right after the samaritan episode this is fill up with the ethiopian eunuch okay all the way in the south all the way down to the south you know the left side of the dead sea there's somebody even from there now this is a little more interesting because we're not told in the old testament why ethiopia would be significant but we are told in the inner testamental period there was a long tradition and archaeological evidence abundant evidence and textual evidence as well that a group of jews left judah during the time of manasseh and possibly earlier to escape the idolatry there and they moved down the nile and they built a colony at elephantine and there were other jews that settled a little west again in these african regions the gospel needs to go to them too you see a pattern already the gospel is being taken to the jew first and also then to the barbarian that actually started with the barbarian the greek because of acts 2 but while that was again theological messaging the book of acts proceeds in a more orderly fashion it wants the jewish reader to know well you know yeah this is your messiah too so let's just do it geographically we hit samaria check that off the list we've got ethiopia check that off the list because there's a jewish presence there philip after he witnesses to the ethiopian eunuch you just read it the spirit plucks him out of the chariot and deposits him in a zodis what's a zodis azodus is one of the philistine cities it is in a region that was not under the dominion of the kingdom of solomon at its height the kingdom of solomon the kingdom of david missed that one but the writer of acts luke wants you to know that that belongs to god it's actually covenant territory in the original territorial promises every place that matters to the jewish promises to abraham gets picked up in either acts 2 or the rest of the book of acts damascus paul's headed you know this is where paul has his conversion why is damascus mentioned in the book of acts remember back to the story of abraham when lot gets kidnapped and abraham has to proceed you know to rescue him he pursues and the rephaim are in this list in genesis 14. he pursues this band that captured lot with 318 men he rescues lot and where do they find lot where do they catch up to them and rescue lot damascus do you remember god had said every place that your eye can see and the place that on your your feet tread on is going to be your land god didn't forget that again that the place names are here for a reason to the jewish reader luke wants to communicate the gospel was taken to every place that jews are and that's important because the the the jewish nation needs to be brought back together all 12 tribes not just two they're still in exile even in the new testament period only two of them ever came back but god has to heal this rift and then he's going to use them he's going to plant them all over the the known world they're going to go back home you know wherever they're at they're going to get witness to they're going to believe they're going to be there because this is now a beach head for the kingdom of god in the gentile world the gospel is seated in all these places and you go through the book of acts it's to the jew first also greek this is this is paul's pattern as well and it's conveyed visually let me we could go through you know the last gentile or the last jew to be converted is the one in damascus before you get to cornelius cornelius is again a god-fearing gentile it's a transition point in the book of acts all the jewish stuff has been taken care of but now we have to get the gospel because he jesus is the messiah of the nations not just israel and so we get the ministry of paul and paul you know we know what paul does but one of the cool things about paul is he has this obsession with spain okay romans 15 20 thus i make it my ambition to preach the gospel not where christ has already been named lest i build on someone else's foundation but now since i no longer have any room for work in these regions i mean i've you know been everywhere i needed to go and since i have longed for many years to come to you i hope to see you in passing as i go to spain he wants to he's on a ship he's in chains okay and he's either writing part of romans there or he writes it once he gets into rome and he hasn't seen them yet because he's in jail and we don't know the exact circumstance you know when romans was written but he has not seen the believers at rome yet so he's writing them i can't wait to see you guys you know romans 1 i want to impart unto you some spiritual gift we got big plans and it's like dude you're in chains like you know what's going on here and he actually says to them i hope to see you in passing as i go to spain paul you ain't going anywhere you know you're you're manical to the ship here paul is convinced and he really earnestly wants to go to spain and i like i like to say what does he like the food i mean what what's what's the thing about spain why who who would care why does he have spain on the brain it's because he knows genesis 10. here's our map of genesis 10 the disinherited nations spain if you know your geography is right there and it's tarshish you say well who cares let's go back a little bit the book of acts covers all of the geographical nations the geographical regions disinherited by god at babel to this line this is a little bit past italy there's only one nation in the entire table of nations that is not covered it's tarshish it's spain paul knows this paul is the apostle to the gentiles again i can't prove it but i believe that paul believed he would not die until he reached spain that's the outlier i have been to every place that is under dominion of these other gods that was disinherited at babel except for one my mission is not over until i get to the last one so there you have it i mean why else would he care why else would he care about spain because it's tarshish he you know he quotes isaiah 66 as well which talks about the kingdom including tarshish and all this stuff he knows what he's doing here's another thing about paul paul does refer to demons occasionally first corinthians 10 21-22 he actually quotes deuteronomy 32 17 there about avoiding fellowship with demons but most of paul's vocabulary are these words and you're familiar with them if you've read the new testament rulers principalities powers thrones authorities you know all this kind of stuff what do they all have in common they are terms used both in the new testament and outside the new testament for geographical rulership in paul's world he's not just dealing with demons demons are low level the big players are the ones that control the nations to whom authority was given as a punishment and who became corrupt this is the those other guys they're they're the spirits in prison we don't really need to worry about them until maybe the day of the lord okay okay but the ones we really need to worry about now are the ones who control and have dominion geographically his vocabulary reflects his worldview it reflects his theology epistles in revelation the believer's destiny and this will be where we end a couple slides here i've already mentioned again the the unusual feature that the language of god's supernatural family sons of god holy ones in the old testament overwhelmingly refer to again the supernatural kids that god has in the new testament the words holy ones and sons of god children of god never refer to the supernatural beings they refer to human believers the language shifts again it's not a coincidence believers are the sons and daughters of god the kingdom is the beginning of this eden this edenic vision restored let's just give you a few examples john 1 12 but as many as believed on him or in him to them gave he the authority to become the sons of god it's john 1 12. first john 3 behold what manner of love the father has bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of god the children of god and that's what we are galatians 3 26 if you are christ's if you are christ's if you belong to christ you are abraham's seed and heir according to the promise it doesn't matter if you're jew or gentile if you belong to christ you are abraham's seed now that's a dramatic statement because who else is abraham's seed that would be jesus okay he is the seed romans 8 14 the creation groans and travails waiting for the manifestation of the sons of god it's waiting for the new eden who populates the new eden the sons of god who are the sons of god that would be us earlier in romans 8 he refers to anyone who has the spirit is a child of god children of god sons of god hebrews 2 i think is the best passage for this you know it's a great new testament divine counsel passage for it is fitting that he for whom and by whom all things exist in bringing bringing many sons to glory should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering for he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source this is why he jesus again in the context is not ashamed to call them brothers saying i will tell of your name to my brothers to my siblings okay better way to translate it brothers and sisters siblings i will tell of your name to my siblings in the midst of the congregation what congregation it's the council of god in the midst of the congregation i will sing your praise do you realize that when you pass on or again when the either the lad of the lord comes you will be introduced in the divine counsel to god and god will be introduced to you by jesus that's the picture that's hebrews 2. again the language is intentional revelation 2 i think is is great nevertheless hold fast to what you have until i come the one who conquers the one who conquers the one who overcomes and who keeps my words until the end i will give him authority over the nations okay this is jesus speaking about you the one who overcomes i will give him authority over the nations he will shepherd them with an iron rod jesus is quoting a messianic passage not about himself but about you that's just crazy like jesus don't you know proper hermeneutics but you know this is about you and he said no yeah i get that but it's about you too why because we're siblings he will shepherd them with an with an iron rod he will break them in pieces like jars made of clay as i also have received from my father i will give him the morning star it's an interesting phrase morning star language in revelation 2 28 is messianic it refers to a divine being who would come from judah again we know this from numbers 24 17 a star will go out from ju from jacob and a scepter will rise from israel later in the book of revelation jesus used the same language of himself i am the root and descendant of david the bright morning star jesus grants his authority to you okay you rule the nations with him as if that's not enough we got revelation 3. okay this is you know we've all seen the picture of jesus knocking at the door and that's all we remember the passage okay behold i stand in the door and knock if anyone hears my voice and opens the door indeed i will come into him and dine with him there you go there you go with the cosmic meal i will come into him and dine with him and he with me the one who conquers i will grant to him to sit down with me on my throne as i also have conquered and have sat down with my father on his throne okay if we're going to rule the nations with a rod of iron if we're going to do who rules the nations now the fallen sons of god now paul as i said earlier connects the resurrection of jesus with the nullification of their power he does this in five or six passages that the resurrection somehow results in the defeat of the rulers the authorities the principalities of power so and so forth what that means is i mean i i wish well the audi the audio was terrible but i got invited to a pagan podcast a couple of years ago you're going to love this i get an email from a guy who signed the email as hercules you know when you get an email from hercules there's a lot of things that go through your mind so his his show was called the voice of olympus and in the in the email he says look he goes you know i know you're a christian i'm a pagan he goes but i just read your little book supernatural and i loved it will you come on my show and so i'm like well this will be interesting why not so i said yeah and and again i i've actually been on the show twice now but and i recommend listening to it i reck i know why you're laughing and i'll tell them that too okay um so you know i go on this show and he's excited and he tells me he's like i just can't have this conversation with like anybody else i i it's hard for me to find people to to talk about this sort of stuff but i'm thinking yeah i bet it is so but again he's really really nice guy we just had a good time but for the first like 10 minutes of the show he's reading me greco-roman pagan religious texts with the deuteronomy 32 world view and i'm like this is awesome i mean i'm really learning something here i mean i knew of a few references and you know plato but like this guy this guy knows them and he goes because this is why i was so excited the bible has the same world view as this other stuff and he says i have one question it's a really good interview i got one question because i got one question if yahweh the most high in the bible set this whole thing up where he divorced the nations and he assigned other gods to them and then those people are supposed to you know not be related to yahweh but but these other gods and this is the situation that develops what does he want and i'm like oh i'm so glad you asked because it was a good opportunity because this is what i felt like paul for a day or at least a couple hours because paul goes into a pagan city and he knows that they share the world view so he can go into to you know pagan turf and he says look look fellows i i know what you're thinking you're thinking look we worship the gods we worship and you jews do something else because this is the way the gods want it the nations are allotted to the gods and that means you know if if we like forsake our gods we're in big trouble because they're going to be angry at us because they're the ones that set this thing up and so paul would say well i mean that's pretty good you know we had the same world view but but there's a little twist on it that you're missing the most high yes you're correct set up this system this is why in the biblical story everybody knows the true god at one point and then you get all these pantheons and stuff so you're right the most high sentenced judged the nations and a lot of these other gods to them he didn't want them to be worshiped but that's what happened we got psalm 82. we know that that's what happened and and yeah that's the biblical view and the biblical story but the neat thing and here's what you're missing the neat thing is that the same most high became a man jesus of nazareth and he died on the cross and he rose from the dead and now the same most high is coming to you the same one that gave these gods their authority in the first place has now taken it back their authority is nullified you don't need to be afraid of these other gods when i tell you that the most high wants you back in the family so i actually gave this answer to this guy on the show and you know i i don't know what you know at least a seed was planted he had me back so he wasn't real mad but the funny thing was and i think this is why stovall's laughing during the commercial breaks of this show there's this deep dark sinister voice that comes on in between your segments and says this is the pagan podcast network all pagan all the time and i thought not today so it was it was fun but but i mean think about the world view this is why paul says look when christ rose from the dead their dominion ended they have no legitimate authority over the people they enslave now they're not going away because they want their turf they want to resist but greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world i mean this this is this is not just the pauline message it's the message of the gospel so you don't have to feel like you're doing something wrong like you're you're violating the most high's will because he's the one that's that you know he's the origin originator of all this because of what happened at babel paul says he not only wants you back he insists on it they do not have legitimate authority anymore just like satan has no legitimate claim over the soul of any member of the kingdom of god this you know christ ascends the spirit comes and that helps us combat depravity i mean the messiah is supposed to address all of these problems we talked about in the last hour and you know this is part of our destiny so the last slide here i said we would come back to this this graphic you know if we're here and we have you know back here we have legitimate authority this is our destiny to have authority over the nations in the new eden okay this is the book of revelation the end of days the transition to the age to come we will in fact displace and replace the sons of god who are in rebellion this is why we're introduced in the council in hebrews 2 because believers are the reconstituted family and counsel of god that's what we are and paul as i alluded to a little earlier his language becomes decipherable when you look at the at the the structure how they conceive the council the sons of god are is the elite tear in the middle and so paul in 1st corinthians 6 says don't you people know apparently they didn't that the holy ones will judge the world most of your translations are going to have saints i really hate that translation by the way holy ones it's supposed to take your mind back to the supernatural realm to the divine counsel composed of holy ones and paul says don't you know that the holy ones will judge the world and if the world is to be judged by you that would mean you're the holy ones are you incompetent to try trivial cases don't you know that we are to judge angels we will judge the middle tier in that we will replace it and we outrank the bottom tier we are the ones who share the throne we are the ones who will rule the nations with the rod of iron get all these descriptions in the end we have a global eden with humanity blended into the family of god you've got the two families brought together humanity is fit for sacred space sacred space covers the entire globe and and the end point is god gets his way that's why it ends with with a global eden god gets what he originally wanted but we've got this whole you know epic arc of the history of salvation going on between eden and this other eden over here and there are just things again we're wrapping up here still well there are just things that again will you'll lose the meaning of certain things if you don't do what you can to [Music] you know try to pick up the bread crumbs you know of of what's going on you know we spent a lot of time talking about spiritual warfare for instance you know spiritual warfare is about the conflict between two kingdoms we are never told you know what i i should i think i might have included this oh yeah i did let me go to one this one slide right here we are we are told to uh we're never told to go into certain areas and cities and regions and just yell at demons we're not told to do that you know demons again are low-level players they if they inflict harm upon individual persons but intelligent evil that has geographical dominion and is concerned with empires like in daniel it has better things to do than turn people into sock puppets made of flesh it's got bigger bigger fish to fry it is about controlling people through you know intelligent means how would you control a population in an empire you manipulate the humans that are in charge i mean in that case they're basically willing idolaters so it's not really that difficult but the same thing happens now intelligent evil wants to move herds it wants to control hearts and minds it's about how you think it's about big things like who am i what's my mission idolatry in other words being distracted from the worship from loyalty to the true god to anything else it's about self-destruction through the things we do or that we don't do intelligent evil knows what buttons to push and it doesn't have you don't have to have a demon behind every every rock you don't have to have a demon made me do this no we can destroy ourselves just fine by ourselves but to move herds of people in one direction or the other and toward idolatry and away from the truth that takes an intelligent plan and supernatural beings can do this again if i were a supernatural evil being i know what i would do i would get to leaders in government and in media because if i get a handful of those people dedicated to chaos that's going to be real effective i'm not going to work hard i'm going to work smart now what are we told to do we are tasked not with you know going out and doing you know strange rituals and yelling at demons and all this kind of stuff what are what are they scared of i'll tell you what they're scared of they're scared of the kingdom of god because in first in in romans 11 paul specifically talked he's talking about he's talking about the return of the messiah he's talking about the revival of israel okay and he specifically says and he says it in corinthians as well that essentially the lord is not going to come back until the fullness of the gentiles has been brought in because then that will launch initiate the revival of israel so that all israel will be saved again that's it's a debate debated thing as to what the phrase means but what i don't want you to lose sight of is the fullness of the gentiles is key to the day of the lord and the return of the lord fullness of the gentiles is the fulfillment of the great commission so what we are tasked with is what jesus actually told us to do before he ascended go you therefore and make disciples of all nations see that's matthew 28 19 but you know what the verse earlier says to it all authority is given to me in heaven and on earth it's not just for the jew it's for all the nations go therefore and make disciples of every nation it's the fullness of the gentiles idea and i was talking to stovall last night i think people when you talk about this they get paralyzed by the by the the overwhelming feel of the task i've left this on on the board for a reason the problem with the fulfillment of the great commission it's not getting done for a number of reasons but one of them is not math this is from a pew survey recently it actually used census data as of 2014 there were 25.4 percent of the u.s population that that called themselves evangelicals evangelicals were supposed to know what the gospel is now you can say well a lot of evangelicals really don't okay i'll grant you that let's cut it in half instead of 80 million you know that percentage it calculates out to 81 million let's go with 40. the world population at present rate is estimated right now 2018 anyway 7.6 billion it's supposed to be near 10 billion by 2050. if 40 million people again half the evangelical population evangelizes one person each in 2019. by this time next year we'll have 80. and then in 2020 we'll have 160. and then we have 320 640. now in only four years we're up over a billion by 2026 or 2027 23 years early we cover every last human being on the planet look the problem is not math but it's very easy to get overwhelmed with the thought of the task it's not math so why isn't it getting done it's not it's it's not getting done because of other issues we're frag we're fragmented in the church how are we supposed to make how are we supposed to illustrate life as god intended it to be in eden where everything is unity there's wholeness again a little slice of what it must be like to live in god's house in his presence there's justice there's wholeness there's loyalty to the true god you know through the gospel you know if you listen to me for any amount of time the gospel is about believing loyalty everything we covered today frames what it means to be a believer i like to use naaman i mean i i rarely preach sermons but i my first sermon since 2004 i think was like last year and i did the naaman passage the name of the leper because naaman and the widow of zarephath are used by jesus as two examples of faith like why didn't he pick abraham or like you know somebody famous i mean who are these they're pagans they're both pagans naaman and the widow of zeraphath is from sidon the entire side she's she's phoenician okay why is he picking these people because they both do things that demonstrate they will worship no god other than yahweh you know naaman says now i know that yahweh is the god of all gods and i will worship no other okay it's belief that this is the true god he is who he says he is and for some reason that i don't quite understand he loves me he made a covenant with israel i'm allowed to join that if i throw my loyalty over to him and will worship no other hey i got news for you naaman's not keeping the torah naaman goes back to syria there is no torah he's never going to you know like do a festival he's never going to do jewish stuff but he has the one thing that he needs he knows the one thing that is critical and crucial and he assigns his loyalty to the true god and that's that's his theology end of story and again the widow of zaraphat does the same thing in different actions that she does again what's the point well the point is believing loyalty is the issue now we're asked to believe the gospel the gospel is that this same god yahweh gave the most high became a man died on a cross and rose again for the sins of the world this is the only means of salvation john 14 6 i am the way the truth and the life no man no one comes to the father except by me that's what you need to believe it has nothing to do with your performance while we were yet sinners christ died for us he didn't die for us while we were cleaning up our act while we were learning theology you know while we were filling the blank before we had a single thought about you know caring about what god thought at all while we were yet sinners while we paul says while we were enemies okay christ died for us so this i mean this is the task and we're supposed to illustrate the message of salvation we become part of god's family we're supposed to live in a certain way so that the people outside will want to be part of the community but if we have our own fragmentation you know our own issues if we can't take care of them here how are we going to restore jesus reputation [Applause]