Mat 5:17-20, Until Thy Kingdom Come, Witness of the King and Kingdom.

Class Outline:

Tuesday June 11, 2024

 

Idea: Christ gave the church commissions which focus entirely on people inside and outside the church.  

 

Christ gave commissions to the disciples after His resurrection. 

 

Christ came to fulfill all things in the OT, but the church is not in it. 

 

He hinted at this program of postponement in parables. Wheat and tares, MAT 13:24-30. 

 

He clarified in His commissions - they (and we) were to be His witnesses until the kingdom came. 

 

When Christ says that He came to fulfill the OT, He does not have the church in mind.

 

The confusion of the disciples after His death becomes ours as well, even after His resurrection, in trying to discern the kingdom from the church (amillennialism, postmillennialism, covenant theology, replacement theology). These ideas and more, which are anti-Millennial, have confused many believers and led them astray. They have muddled the Hebrew Bible and all eschatological NT texts. 

 

Jesus taught them for 40 days after His resurrection speaking of the kingdom of God and giving them commissions for the church. 

 

Satan has learned the commissions well and has used many schemes to move our hearts away from fulfilling them. You and I have been duped. 

 

During the forty days Jesus gave the disciples several commissions (MAT 28:18-20; MAR 16:15-18; LUK 24:46-49; JOH 21:15-17; ACT 1:7-8). 

 

Summary of the commissions - the work of the church until He and His kingdom come. 

 

Bear witness of the Messianic King, including His death, burial, and resurrection (LUK 24:46; ACT 1:8). 

 

Preach the gospel, repentance and the remission of sins to all nations (MAR 16:15; LUK 24:47). 

 

Disciple all nations (MAT 28:19). 

 

Believers were to be fed, baptized, and taught to observe all that Christ commanded His disciples (MAT 28:19-20; JOH 21:15-17). 

 

Unbelievers were to be warned of divine judgment (MAR 16:16; cf. JOH 3:18, 36). 

 

The church, her members, have a lot to do. The whole of it is centered on people, not buildings.

 

Application: Your Christian life is commissioned to affect others.

 

It demands your life. You cannot do it with any appreciable fruit unless you have given yourself to the King completely. 

 

You will in no wise be an effective witness of the gospel, nor a discipler, nor a teacher of all He commanded unless you follow it.

 

Know how blessed you are. You are saved, righteous, in union with and married to the King, a member of the kingdom so confirmed that the Bible states it as a reality now, elected, adopted, predestined. Rejoice, none of the things in this world, nor the sin of the flesh have a hold on you. You have overcome them all, now live like it and, I say again, rejoice.