Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 783 | Phil Doubts Modern Prophecies & Jase Challenges What People Think Heaven Is

Episode Date: November 8, 2023

The guys explore the when, where, and who of Jesus’ kingdom on earth and in heaven. Jase is confident in his idea of what eternity will be, and the guys suppose that trying to literally discern the symbolic language of the Bible is a losing battle. Jase’s mind is blown by the concept of housing the Holy Spirit in his earthly body. In this episode: Luke 17, verses 20-37; 1 Corinthians 12, verse 13; Ephesians 2, verses 19-20; Isaiah 28, verse 16; Acts 7, verses 51-53 — Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? Welcome back to Unashame. We've been in Luke 17, and as we said at the beginning of getting back into our text, is kind of a, what would you say, how would you call it, it's a disputed text in terms of its application. using. And so we went pretty deep into not only this text, but also in Daniel, where Jesus quotes. And so part of our overtime, we kind of did a little bit deeper dive into the book of Daniel. Yeah, I went through the whole chapter nine and got into a little bit of the symbolic writing, which some people believe are literal. Because he had the 77s and you kind of broke it down in the three that Daniel lays. out there were seven there was 62 there was one the idea is that there seemed to be three eras

yeah is the point i mean because we kind of make the bigger point because you get into the weeds if you have the mind that when you read symbolic language you must come to an understanding of all these things you're going to be miserable the rest of your life in your in the bible study you know because all of a sudden you know an angel is telling gabriel which is in daniel nine what he's giving him insight. Well, this angel's talking, and he's using symbolic language a lot like what you read in Revelation.

Correct. There were angels of plenty in that book, and you were getting these visions from heaven. So symbolic language was used. I mean, I think the people who are trying to literally make an application it's just not going to work. It's going to be hard.

Another word is apocalyptic language because it's obviously talking about destruction, which we made that point. In the overtime, we read the rest of Luke 17, and you get the idea that these were end-time judgments that Jesus quotes,

he quotes Noah, he quotes a lot. Yeah, and we believe that he's referring to an end-time judgment that was going to happen in Jerusalem. AD 70, which it did. Right. Yeah, and I mean, I think it's worth of note. It says it all.

Look. What does it say? I ride with King Jesus. You don't go wrong with that. That's got it on the cup. I think it's worthy of note that the emphasis, the emphasis that Jesus himself had on the temple. And, you know, there's two of these, and I don't know if they're the same. episode or not. I don't think they are, but there's the John 2 passage and then there's the

where Jesus cleanses the temple. And in that particular moment, that's when he says, destroy this temple and I'll rebuild it in three days. Of course, they're like, what's he talking about? It's taking us however many years to build this thing. How are you going to build it three days? 46 years, yeah. 46. And then it says, but Jesus was talking about his body. So there's this idea. So he was very interested in the, in the, temple. And then there's the other time, which I think was probably another, it wasn't the same instance that's mentioned in Mark chapter 11.

And think about this. This is Jesus's triumphal entry into Jerusalem the last week of his life, which I would think is a big deal, right? He's coming in to fulfill this prophecy where he's riding on the cult and doing the whole thing. And he's coming in into Jerusalem. And guess where he went, the first place he went. Temple.

The temple of chapter 11 of Mark, verse 15. And they came to Jerusalem and he entered the temple and he began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple. And he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. And he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. And he was teaching them and saying to them, is it not written? My house shall be called of house of prayer for all. the nations, which is, by the way, that's part of this mystery that's unfolding here in this temple

theology that we're talking about. It's that this new temple that he's going to establish is a summation or the consummation of what he intended the entire time was to bring Jews and Gentiles all into the presence of God. But you've made it into a den of robbers. So their crime here was not just that they were selling things at the temple. It's that they that they they misunderstood what the temple was for, what Jesus says, my house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations. And the chief priest,

verse 18, and the scribes heard it and were seeking a way to destroy him. For they feared him because the crowd was astonished to his teachings. And when the evening came, they went out of the city. So I think about, what did Jesus do that aroused them to such anger? What was it that,

that really, that he said, that really bothered him? what started up was that he was addressing the temple and he was reestablishing it for what God intended it to be. So then in the very next chapter, he or I guess it's actually two chapters later, he goes back to the temple. And he came out of the temple chapter 13. And one of his disciples said to him, this is a reference to what Jason mentioned in Matthew's account is in chapter 24. They say, look, teacher, what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings.

What are they talking about? Talking about the temple. And Jesus said to him, do you see these great buildings? There will not be left one stone upon another that will not be thrown down. He's talking about the coming destruction of the temple in AD 70. That's what he's talking about. In fact, in the previous chapter, he said that, or at the end of this chapter, he says something interesting. he says that this generation in verse 30,

truly I say to you that this generation will not pass until all of these things have taken place. So he's speaking to people and he's saying everything I just told you that's going to happen, it's going to happen and this generation will not pass away before these things happen. Well, guess how long a generation was in Jewish culture? About 40 years. Jesus said this in 80, 30 something. And I mean, guess what happened within 40 years span? The temple came down.

So I think it's just, I just wanted to point out a Christ emphasis on it because you had brought up Jason in the overtime segment. You had brought up Stephen, which he also said something about the temple that's what got him killed. That's an accident. Yeah. So I wanted to bring out kind of Jesus's emphasis on it because I think it will help us understand a little bit more of what this has to do with the kingdom and how this picture continues. to flow out through scripture. And you mentioned that sermon from Acts 7. When Stephen preaches it, he's basically speaking the whole system he says has now changed.

And then they kill him because he said it. And then the guy overseeing his death is Saul of Tarsus, who later in Acts 17 quoted Stephen in his son. Yeah. And think about, I thought about this other day, because if we're talking about, and I hate to use the term because y'all probably hit the crickets, but we've said it if now, probably not. This eschatological temple that is being talked about here, this is a temple. You can't separate this temple and the purpose of this temple from God wanting to dwell

with his people and his people now defined as all types of people who will come to him by faith. That's the whole point of Paul's argument in Romans 9 through 11. It's not DNA that makes you God's chosen people. It is children of the promise that God promised to Abraham is children of faith. It's those who will come to him by faith that are the promise. And so there's this idea here of everybody coming in. And so it's interesting to me that when Stephen, when Paul first heard Stephen say this, Stephen was talking to Jewish people. But when Paul says it in Acts chapter 17, who's he talking to?

Yeah. And Greeks. Yeah. And Stephen's said it in 48, I want to give the verses 3.50 when it said, however, the most high does not live in temples made by men. As the prophet says, and this is Isaiah 66, he quotes in Acts 749, heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord? Or where will my resting place be? Has not my hand made all these things? things. Of course, then Stephen made a practical application, and they picked up rocks and stoned him. I mean, that just infuriated. But why do you think, let me ask a question, why do you think, I have a thought on this, but why do you think the statement that God doesn't

live, the Lord God Most High does not live in temples built by man's hands? Why do you think that's so offensive to both Jews and Gentiles? Because both were offensive. it. I mean, Stephen got killed for it and Paul got ridiculed. Because two of the world's leading religions came from where that temple was, Judaism and Islam. They both came from the same place. And now the third, I think maybe, I don't know if it's the largest religion, Christianity came from just outside the camp there on a cross as a fulfillment to that being destroyed. which is Jesus. But I do want to say this.

Jesus fulfilled it on the cross. I mean, that's where he fulfilled the law. That's where he brought freedom for the Israelite nation to be put in him for the Gentile world. What happened later at the destruction of Jerusalem was just judgment that was predicted on putting your, eggs in that basket as far as your salvation. Well, and think about it in the in the Acts 17, the Greeks and the Romans after them, they believed in temple worship as well. Because remember when

Paul comes in and looks like to say, man, you got gods everywhere here. But I want to tell you about this unknown God, just in case you miss one, because that's the one. So to your point, Zach, it wasn't just Jewish worship or Samaritan worship, which by the way is exactly what he told the woman at the well, didn't he? Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know. We worship what we

do know for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. They are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks. God is Spirit and His worshippers must worship

in spirit and truth. That's it. Well, that's my point though. No building needed. No building. But my point is, they're still fighting over putting that building up over there. Yeah. Yeah, but in Acts 17, though, even it's not just, it's not just Islam and Israel. It's also Gentiles.

And we're all in this boat, right? So, I mean, because he's speaking to Gentiles in Acts 17, and they're highly offended by what he's saying. I think the reason why it's so offensive of what Jesus was claiming about the temple and what Stephen proclaimed about the temple and what the Apostle. and what the Apostle Paul proclaimed about the temple and what Peter acclaimed about the temple about Jesus being the cornerstone and we're living stones built on that. I mean, what's so offensive about this is,

here's what I think it is practically. Like, what does all this mean? Because we have gotten deep, and I'm glad we have, but what does it mean? I think this is why it's offensive. Because as a human, I want to control God. I want to put God in a box. I want to put him in a temple

so that he can be contained. I think it's the whole that is that is the default of humanity it is the default of sin let me let me be God and I'll worship God as long as he I can and I know where he is well then it's based on your performance instead of his if you keep all the decrees and you do the rituals right and you externally look like you got it together then you'll you'll make it them. But I think that's Paul's argument in Romans, right? He gets to Romans three. And he's like, he's trying to make a logical appeal here. You can't keep it. And he's trying to like this argument and absurdum where you're pushing out the argument to its logical conclusion. And he's saying, if you push this out and you want to attain your own righteousness, let's just look at that for a second.

And then when he gets, so he's building that case. He blasted the Jews. Then he blasted the Gentiles, and he blasts the Gentiles and he blasts the Jews and he comes back and says in chapter 3, everybody, like everybody has sinned and fallen short of his glory. And I think that's why what he's building here is this new idea that it was, and I'm glad you said it was accomplished on the cross, that Jesus established this and finished this work on the cross. And what happens is, as a result of that, now those who would freely come to Christ and put their faith in his finished work, not their own unfinished work, then we can be grafted into this kingdom. And then Jesus is resurrected. He's become, Prophet Isaiah says, a cornerstone of the new temple. And then we're built on that stone as living stones. And when the apostle Paul talks about sexual immorality, for example, in 1st, 156, you know what his argument is?

You're the temple. You're the temple. God lives in you. The Holy Spirit lives in you. You house God himself. And I think about, like, what would we, I heard Francis Chan do this at a event I was at recently. And he said, what would you do if you look to the person next to you? There's an empty chair, and all of a sudden,

This woman who you knew to be Mother Mary who housed God. And pregnant Mary walks up and you know that she houses God in her belly. How would you treat her? How would you act around her? And of course, everyone's, you're imagining this. You'd like, you would do what, I mean, you would give her the utmost reverence. And then he made this most provocative statement. He said, if you're a believer in this room, you house God in your body.

I mean, think about that. You house God in your body. When Jesus, it says, it means Emmanuel God with us, how much more can God be with us than to live in our bodies? Like, God is in the body of the believer, according to Paul in 1st Corinthians 6. And I truly believe that that is the kingdom. It's here. It's now. Yes, it's not in its full fruition.

Yes, we're longing for final consummation and glory. Yes, we live in a world that's broken, but we are not waiting to taste the goodness of God until we die. We can taste the goodness of God right now in 2023. Kevin Keller told a good illustration about this. He was talking about something else, but I'm going to use it here because I think it was very profound. But he was talking about a guy came in. They did a little revival sermon, and it was basically, you know, you can't be a Christian

unless you're witnessing for Jesus. He's like, the guy was in the audience, and he had all the verses, you know, and it was just such a compelling argument that he was convicted. And he's like, I mean, I don't think I'm a Christian because I'm not out there sharing Jesus. And so he tried it, he was rejected,

didn't go well, he didn't feel like he was doing good, you know, so then he came to Keller. And he was like, I know this is right. but I just, I'm failing and I don't think I'm a Christian. And so Keller said, I said something that was, you know, maybe I shouldn't have said, but it just popped out. It was like, well, don't do it. You can't do that.

Stop doing it if you think by doing it, you're going to become a Christian. That's not the way this works. Of course, he went to the, God's performance. He went to the cross and the resurrection. And he said, to my surprise, then you couldn't shut him up. Once he just realized that I'm not doing that to be saved, I am safe. He's like, then he couldn't shut him up. He was just going off telling the world and it liberated him from the same concept of thinking,

oh, I got to go out there and share Jesus so I can find God's favor. other than God showed his favor when I didn't deserve it. You know, you get into Romans 5 while I was a sinner. He was trying to earn what he already had. He was trying to earn over something good. But in his mind, he just thought that that was attached to salvation. And he was, you know, his own personality was getting in the way once that was liberated because that's what grace does.

Yeah. It frees you to realize, oh, this is not about me. this is the greatest story I've ever told. I thought it was interesting when Zach was describing the way he did about housing the Holy Spirit, how that's changed this temple concept. It shows you, though, how strong human nature is. And I think you're right on target, Zach, about trying to house God somewhere, and how over the course of now the 2,000 years since Jesus was here and let us know what we were going to be doing,

I mean, especially now in the last few hundred years of Western civilization, we have attempted to bring temple worship back under the banner of Christ. Because now we just build an edifice, and then we start putting rules on the edifice about, you can do this here, you can do this there. You can't do this inside the building, but you can do it outside the building. Oh, you said. I mean, I've heard so many pastors say, let's invite the presence of the Lord in. And I thought, wait a minute. When we walked in, he's not got this backwards. That's inviting me in.

I know. What are we going to do him a favor today and say, hey, that's what? I think this is the conundrum, though. This is the thing, though, when you put God, and you're not going to put God in the building, by the way. But when you think you're putting God in a temple and say, God, you stay in there, this is why it's a false gospel. Because what you're saying is, you're saying that the true prize and true heaven is your own autonomy, your immortal autonomy, and that's how we view heaven. Go in there, God, so that I can, and I want to contain you and do what I got to do so that I can have my own eternal autonomy. That is not the gospel.

The true gospel is that heaven is not personal autonomy that goes on forever for eternity. it's union with Christ. So then all of a sudden, when we understand that we are the temple, this is what Christ came to bring, and this is the gospel of the kingdom, that God lives in his people. It's union, it's intimacy, its connection, it's us living as we were created to live, which is to be worshippers of him.

God, as John Piper says, God is the prize. That's the big shift that happens when we begin to understand. that our bodies house God and this idea of the kingdom is that God's the prize. He's the ultimate. That is heaven. It's not something else. It's John 173. Eternal life is to know the one true God in Jesus Christ's son whom he sent.

That is eternal life. You see the same evidence over all this on how we're going to worship. You know, you just think about it. I mean, there's so many debates and you can't do this and we ought to do this and we shouldn't do this. And when you realize we've got this cart before the horse here. Yeah. I mean, I like it when some people worship and it makes me uncomfortable. But, you know, they come straight out of the world.

They're so in all. And they don't know enough Bible to even, you know, have a one-hour conversation about it. But they're just so moved. They do things that they don't know that, oh, we don't do that here. You know, that may be a little too far. And I just think that we've turned this into how it looks in a building in a temple to God because we think we know what's best. And it just shouldn't be that way. No, I agree.

And I mean, but that's again, back to Zach's our point. That's why this is so important that we couch it and frame it that we don't, what we want to make sure we understand is the kingdom of God has a king. He has come. He has established. He's still waiting until the end. And Jay's, I love the way you framed it when we were first reading this passage. You said that this 80-70 was a part of this discussion. And it is.

It was an in-time judgment. I think it ended this dispensation of mosaic law and now ushered in something different. And the church was established during those 40 years, you know, after Jesus left. But the second coming, we still look forward to. Oh, exactly. So it's not like we're kicking it out and say we're post-millennial, like, know it's already all been done and there's every time i have this argument you know and people are like what what are you saying jesus is not coming back i'm like well when did that ever enter the the

equation but i think it's the same concept people like taking old testament prophecy and they like looking at the times and trying to figure this out even though jesus said on numerous occasions you're not going to figure out when i'm coming but we try to figure it out yeah because we want to put God in a box over here and say okay because we deep down we think well if I know that I have 21 days to when Jesus comes back I'm going to make sure I get everything in order so when he comes back he'll look at me and say oh you did good and you're just you're looking at this wrong it's a pretty good distance between after the first one Peter preached to him repent and be baptized. They did.

He's still there. Many other words he warned him. He pleaded with him. Those who accepted his message, they were baptized in about 3,000. So that's 3,000 on the ground, boots on the ground. Let's see. They devote themselves to the

Apostle's teaching, that's smart, and to the fellowship, yeah, to the breaking of bread and in prayer, yeah. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers had everything that they were together, had everything in common,

which is hard to get a house full of people to be that way, selling their possessions and goods. They gave to anyone as he had need. We might work on that in these modern times. Every day they continued to meet today in the temple courts. They broke bread in the homes, ate together. glad and sincere hearts. Praising God and enjoying favor of all the people,

and the Lord added their number of those who were being saved. I'm just saying that's a lot of simplicity mentioned on the first converts. Yeah, I agree. Just think about that. That's right. They basically, it's like a family. So, Dad, you made this. What happened to the family aspect of it all?

You made this point earlier. So the disciples, the. The last thing they asked Jesus as he was leaving is when. And he says, you don't need to worry about that. You just need to wait. Here's what's going to happen. And then the last thing they ask him in Acts 17 is where. So they've asked him when later, and they asked him where.

And he says, where there's a dead body, the vultures were gathered. In other words, wherever there's a lot of death coming forward, that's going to be where this is. Well, when did that happen whenever Jerusalem was destroyed? So, I mean, I think, I think, again, it makes sense in the context. And I'll just so, it's a thought, that kind of step is still going on over there. But that's the confusion. Is everybody still waiting for something? You're like, no, it's here.

Yeah, you think about, like, what is this? I mean, I know we're being somewhat redundant, but there's so much in the Old Testament about what we're talking about. And, you know, we've been reading through, as I mentioned earlier, prophet Isaiah. Think about this quote. Like, how do you make sense? of this, like when you hear what Jesus is saying on the Mount of Olives, you hear what these predictions about the coming of the kingdom, this whole idea of the temple. Isaiah 28, 16, therefore,

thus says the Lord God, behold, I am the one who has laid a foundation in Zion, a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone of a sure foundation, whoever believes. leaves will not be in haste. So he's painting the picture here of some kind of foundation in cornerstone that is sure, reminiscent of the language of Daniel that can't be shaken nor destroyed. Well, if you read Isaiah chapter 27, he talks about this, how he said he's going to take basically these stones, the stones of the temple,

and turn them into chalkstone. I mean, he's just going to crush them. I mean, they're going to be crushed. We need a durable temple. We need a durable stone. And so when he says this in Isaiah 28, that's what is mentioned in Mark 12 when Jesus clears the temple. And they said the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. It's a reference to Isaiah 28.

This was the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes, or Ephesians chapter 2. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household. of God built on the foundation of the apostles here, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the cornerstone in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple of the Lord. You say, how does it grow into a holy temple? How does a temple grow first of all? A temple is made a brick and mortar, not this temple.

And as you come to him, a living stone rejected by men, but in the same, sight of God's chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones. Well, I thought stones were dead, not these stones, are being built up into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Scripture, and this is, again, this is Peter, behold, I lay in, I'm laying in Zion, a stone, a cornerstone, chosen and precious and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame. So the honor is for you who believe, but also for those who do not believe, the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. I don't know what to make of all this talk about a cornerstone if Jesus is not establishing some type of new temple.

I don't know how you know. What does that mean? And that we are that temple. I mean, it's very obvious from those texts you read and confirmed by the two people. who were the early church leaders, Paul and Peter. So I did this in an earlier podcast, but I just want to be a little more extensive. Because to dumb it all down, because you say, well, how come, you know, Jesus is talking about the destruction of Jerusalem in some of these passages that people nowadays

refer to as the second coming because they're, for whatever reason, may be fearful, that somehow we're excluded. when Jesus comes back. But Paul did the same sort of thing when he wrote to the Corinthians. In chapter 2, 1 Corinthians 2, he started off early saying his message and in verse 4, 1 Corinthians 2 4.

His message and preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of God's, of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom but on God's power, which is really what the contrast of how you worship in a temple compared to Jesus dying, being buried and resurrected through his love and grace.

So then he doubles down on that in 1st Corinthians 4 in verse 20, when it says, the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk, but of power. So then he gets to chapter 6. And this is a famous passage. Phil knows this one well. Verse 9, it says, don't you know that the wicked

will not inherit the kingdom of God? And he goes through the list. Sexally immoral, idolaters, adulterters, homosexual offenders, thieves, greedy, drunk. They will not inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed.

You were sanctified. You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus by the Spirit of God. So then he gets to chapter 12. In verse, just watch how this is put together. In verse 12, the body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts, and though they're many parts, they're one body. So it is with Christ.

We were all baptized by one spirit into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, we were all given the same spirit to drink. Then he talks about love. And then he reminds the Corinthians, of the gospel chapter 15 one through four but then he does something interesting i made this point but i think it has a more powerful impact after i read all that in verse 22 of 15 it says for as an adam so in christ so in christ all will be made alive for as an adam all die so in christ all will be made a lie christ each in his own turn christ the first fruits then when he comes those who belong to him now here's the key verse then the end will

come. So when Jesus comes back, we're not saying he's not coming back. He's coming back. The end will come. And watch what happens when he comes back. When he hands over the kingdom to the father, after he has destroyed all dominion, authority, and power, for he must reign until he must put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. So then you say, so, well, how is that going to happen? Well, he answers that question when he gets to verse 35. Someone may ask, how are the dead raised? That's where everybody wants to get to about the kingdom. And when you saw what Paul did in the first 15 chapters,

he talked about bringing the Spirit's power, convicting people of their sins by preaching the Gospel of Jesus, by offering the Holy Spirit to not only change you, that is what some of you were, but to give you His Holy Spirit. Well, that same Spirit that's in you, not only will it transform you on the earth and make you a part of the kingdom of God, which he will hand over to the Father to the Father when he comes back,

but it will also, then he gets into that. It will transform you, verse 42 of 15, so it will be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable. It is raised imperishable. Look down to 51. I tell you mystery, we will not all sleep. or die, but we will all be changed in a flash. And the twinkling of night, the last trumpet will sound,

the dead will be raised, imperishable, we will be changed. And he gets down to verse 57 and says, but thanks be to God, he gives us the victory to the Lord Jesus Christ. I think that's the problem why this became an argument. There's two transformations that happens. There's a death, there's a burial, and there's a resurrection of Jesus. One is for our sins. he gives us the Holy Spirit as we surrender to him.

The same spirit will raise us up at the last day, and I guess we will formally be part of the eternal kingdom, because then we can't die. And to that point, we hadn't mentioned this yet, but when he died, remember what happened in the temple, the physical temple? Yep. That curtain that was separating the people

from the presence of God was torn into. Which is why Paul could say, that is what some of you were. That's right. Your sins were nailed to the cross right there. There's no longer based on your performance and how you're going to worship and how many rituals you keep and which sacrifices you bring and how pure they were.

And that all ended right there. That's right. And it doesn't mean that Israel was now, that's why he kept saying Jews and Greeks alike in Jesus. He fulfilled. That's what brought us to this moment. And it's all for, you said, well, you read this about the, was that 1st, 5th, about the, the God came in power.

It's a matter of, yeah. So think about what that power is. And this is funny because we, one of our pastors preached on this a few Sundays ago. And I had to get up at the end of the sermon and say, let me just tell you real quick and what that power is. It's what this podcast is based on. I mean, Paul says it in Romans chapter one that I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes. You can't separate this whole flow from Jew and Gentile alike.

And that's why when he talks about the power of salvation, he expands that out in Romans chapter one for who? for all who believe first for the Jew then for the Gentile. And so this is the flow. This is the call. This is the mystery. This is the whole. It's the whole thing that God is coming to all people. And so when you start at the very beginning of the Bible,

if you subscribe to the belief that I have and a lot of other people that the first temple was the garden, and then you fast forward through the entire scripture, and you end up at the very. end of the Bible in Revelation chapter 21, the second to the last chapter of the Bible. Listen to what it says here about the temple. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, and the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorn for her husband. I heard a loud voice from heaven, or from the throne, saying, behold, the dwelling place of God is with Mary.

man. Uh-oh. What's the point of the temple? Does God dwell with man? Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people. And God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away their tear, every tear from their eye. Death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore. The former things have passed away. And he who has seated on the throne said, behold, I am making all things new. Also, he said, write this down for these words are trustworthy and true. And he said to me, it's done. I'm the alpha and the omega, the beginning, and the end to the thirsty. I will give the spring of water of life without payment, reminiscent of the woman at the well passage, by the way. The one who conquers will have this heritage. And I will be his God and he will be my son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for the murderers, the sexually immoral, the sorcerers.

idolaters, all the liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death. He said, what does this have to do with the temple? Well, he says he came and he looked for the temple, skipping down to the end of the chapter, he's looking for the temple, and guess what? Verse 22. I didn't see a temple. I saw no temple in the city, and here's why.

For its temple is the Lord, God, Almighty, and the Lamb. and the city has no need for sun or moon or shine on it for the glory of God gives it light to it and it's it's it's it slam and by this the nations will walk that's I mean that's the summation of kind of the whole thing right there that God's the temple God's the temple well I left this out on purpose but it goes in with what you just said but in 1st Corinthians 6 19 which most people use this verse as an excuse not to you know dips or eat too much or whatever. But after everything we've read up until this point, just think about this, when Paul said, do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own.

You were bought at a price. Now, he said that in the context of don't be sexually immoral. Why? Because you're married to Jesus, which was the point with the woman at the whale. she had been married six, six, seven times, and she was living with a guy. And he's introducing, you know, a new husband, spiritually speaking. And it's the same concept when you combine Jesus' death on a cross,

which is where in this section what he was talking about, when he said, don't you know the wicked not going to inherit the kingdom of God, but that's what some of you were. And he's now introducing the idea that this temple can be you. So when I visited Israel three or four years ago, the actual temple, how's the Holy Spirit, went to visit where the old temple used to be. But if I'd have said that, people looked them in. They'd probably picked up rocks.

Which goes back to Stephen in Acts 7. Really? That's the truth. Yeah. Father said, hey, you know what? I'm the temple of the Holy Spirit. What response would that give? So I want to reset in our last few minutes here, reset the context back to Luke,

because we've basically taken two podcasts to show you this view of the kingdom and why we think it's here, why we think it's already established. And so when you read these judgment contexts like we're in Luke 17, there may be more at play than just waiting on the second coming, although that includes judgment for sure. That's the ultimate judgment. But I wanted to take you back because I told you this was kind of a section. In Luke chapter 13, way back, some Pharisees came to Jesus in verse 31 and said, leave this place and go somewhere else.

Herod wants to kill you. It sounds like some people were actually looking out for him. And then he tells him, you know, go to this Fox and tell him this. But then he said something interesting in 33. In any case, I must keep going today and tomorrow on the next day for surely no prophet can die outside Jerusalem. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together. And he's talking about himself, to him, as a hen, gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. Look, your houses left you desolate.

I tell you will not see me again until you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. I believe he starts right there in the ensuing chapters of 14, 15, 16, because remember we were talking about the rich man, Lazarus, these pictures of judgment. Everything gets to this point, because remember, in context and Luke, he's speaking to the Pharisees, and he's saying, look, you have missed it. You've killed the prophets, all the ones who pointed at me, and here I am, and you're rejecting me as well. And then he gives them this ultimate picture. This is going to be the end of it. So I think that's why the end-time judgment is so important. Of course, that also includes the ultimate judgment. Well, that's why when the Pharisees asked, and we've skipped over this for a reason,

but in 17 and 20 and 21, when they asked when the kingdom would come, which has been what we've spent, the last two podcasts talking about. Right. He did not answer when. He said, where? That's it.

He said, the kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, here it is or there it is, because the kingdom of God is in your midst. That's right. Or some versions say is within you or among you. Or among you.

What was he saying? I would like to say that he was saying what we've been barking about for the last two hours on these podcasts. You can actually house the Holy Spirit. Now, obviously they didn't know what he was talking about because he hadn't died, been buried and resurrected. The Holy Spirit hadn't been poured out. Correct. But he also gave a future declaration that the Temple of Jerusalem, which represented the mosaic lifestyle and was the hub of the religious world for hundreds of years, he was saying, look, that's going to be destroyed.

Not one stone is going to be left on another. And did it happen? It happened. That's right. The temple turned into a money-making enterprise. Oh, yeah. Big time. Yeah, I think it's interesting that the parallel between all these ministries, right?

You got Jesus as the one who set the protocol. But then Stephen, going back to Stephen, because what did Jesus tell him? He said, you just read that passage about you've rejected all the prophets. Listen to what Stephen says in his sermon, the one that got him killed. I don't know why this made him mad, but apparently they got mad when he said, you stiff-necked people, uncircised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did so. I mean, it's the same thing that Jesus said.

Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the righteous one, whom you have now betrayed and murdered. You who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it. you think, man, what did he say that made them so angry? It was an indictment. I mean, this is an indictment that you always rejected the prophets. And I read, I don't know if this is like, I haven't verified this, but even the prophet Isaiah,

you know in Hebrews 11 when it says that some were sold in two and they were sewn up in sheep skins and that's all that picture of the. Yeah, Hebrew's 11. Yeah. Yeah. One of the scholars that I read said that tradition is that that's how the prophet Isaiah. he was actually martyred and he was sauled in two and they think that that hebrews passage is in reference to him but but all these prophets who talked about this coming kingdom who talked about this coming king who talked about the messiah they were never accepted in their day and so i think

that but we still do the same thing today even as like christians i feel like sometimes we we want to put god in that building the church the church building we want to i mean we want to like let's do it in there, keep the kingdom in that building in that 501C tax structure, keep the kingdom in there. Do not let that kingdom get into my heart, because if it gets into my heart, then it's going to require more. It's going to demand everything. Yeah, that's why it makes more sense when he got to the end of Luke 17,

and they said, where, Lord? Because he gave these two examples that I don't think we ever read, but when he had said in verse 26, just as it was in the days of Noah, so also it will be in the days of the son of man. People are eating, drinking, marrying, being given in marriage, up until the day of Noah entered the art. Then the flood came and destroyed them, just like Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying, selling, planting fields.

But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down. It'll be just like this in the day the son of man, is revealed. So we have given our argument, well, we think this is talking about the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem in AD 70. And so then he ends in verse 37 saying,

where, Lord? Now they're asking, you know, where? They ask when, now where? They asked, he said, where there is a dead body, there the vultures will gather. And so he gives you a picture of this destruction of Jerusalem.

The temple being destroyed. Look, and there's buzzards. And so when you do what Zach says, modern day religion, when you try to have your religion in a temple that's a building where you think that's based on my performance and how well I do there, look outside and there's, if you see a bunch of buzzards circling it, you've got a wrong view of the kingdom of God. I didn't do that.

He did that. I mean, that's the way he described that, which is very unusual. But what is he given a picture of? That's died. That's a dead concept. You're never going to find God's favor in your performance and you keeping rules and ritual. It's never going to happen.

That went by the wayside. They've never got that built again, which is strange. It's been 2,000 years. And I believe it's because we're the temple of God. And you know, Steele's saying, Jason, how hard is it to kill a sacrificial cow in your own mind? Well, it took 40 years for the New Testament church to move themselves out of temple. Remember their early issues were all over circumcision.

So they struggled with it, and that's why he waited 40 years before he did it. Look, and for the thousands of reasons that Jesus is better and his kingdom is better and putting your faith and trust in him is better. He says it over and over and takes great pains in all four Gospels and in all the letters that followed. It's for everybody. Jew or Greek. You're in.

Realize that you're human. There's a God. You're not Him. And Jesus saved me and surrender to him and be a part of the kingdom. All right. So we're out of time. We've got over time. We'll try to tie this off and then move on to chapter 18 on our next podcast.

So come over and. and hear us talk about this a little bit more, blazedtivy.com slash unashamed. Thanks for listening to The Unashamed podcast. Help us out by rating us on iTunes. And don't miss an episode by subscribing on YouTube and be sure to click that little bell to get notified about new episodes. And for even more content that you won't get anywhere else, subscribe to BlazeTV at blaztv.com slash unashamed.