Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 844 | Jase Gets Handed a Baby in an Airport & Phil’s Inner English Teacher Comes Out

Episode Date: February 29, 2024

Jase finds himself unexpectedly cradling a child at an airport, to the disbelief of those around him. Phil’s experience as an English teacher comes out as he examines some uses of the past tense to describe a Jesus who’s still alive. The guys marvel at the turnaround of Peter during the forty days after the resurrection, and Jase points out a possible reason for Jesus’ performing of miracles during that time.  In this episode: Acts 2, verses 14-41; Hebrews 1, verses 1-4; Hebrews 2, verses 3-4; Mark 2, verses 18-22 https://philmerch.com — Get your “Unashamed” mugs, shirts, hats & hoodies! https://PhilRobertsonBook.com — Get your signed copy of Phil Robertson's new book before they're gone! -- Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? All right. Welcome back to Unashame. We have gotten off to quite the start this morning. I feel like it's like you got four pit bulls on a leash and there's a Chihuahua in the middle of the center of a song. Oh, it's a bulldog. He's a big, big old dog. Maddie, did he just call you a Chihuahua? Are you the Chihuahua, Maddie? Everybody started the pie. podcast before it started.

I think we're just excited that you're back, Zach. Yeah, Zach. This is a warm welcome. I mean, the energy left. But immediately he was touched by something because he said, as soon as I said, you know, what in the world? On these tenses about, you know, things that happened in the past and things in the future.

And I heard what he said. He said, I got a theory. He said, I got a theory. Who is this? I did. I missed that conversation. I wasn't even here when y'all started that conversation. No, you were here.

You were here, Judge. But you were like Pink Floyd. You had voices in your head. Well, Phil didn't have his headset on, and y'all are talking in my ear to Phil. And Phil's talking to me, but I have two voices in my head. And Maddie was talking to me also. And it was getting weird. I said, this is like Pink Floyd.

There's someone in my ear. I'm waiting on the, look. Here's the first sentence in the book of Acts. In my former book, well, that's, I think, in the past. Yeah, he had written a book before. He bound to written a book before. Probably Luke, since it's the same guy named the author. I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he was taken up,

well, after giving instructions to the Holy Spirit and the Father, after he was chosen, after his suffering, after, he showed himself to these men. Because he had just died, yeah. And convincing proof was showing convincing proof he was alive. I mean, he spells it out. Here's what's happened. Jesus has died, been buried, and raised from the dead. And he's fixed to say, this man was handed over you, handed over.

It's already over. God set purpose, four knowledge. You with the help of wicked men. nail them to the grill. That's past tense. This is what's happened. Yeah. And I just don't understand why they get to this and they're still saying,

no, the kingdom is not even mentioned. These people's teaching. I don't understand it. Yeah. How they can. Your point is. Mark, Luke, and John is about Jesus. The crucifixion of Jesus, the death of Jesus, the burial of Jesus, the empty tomb.

Yeah. They still did not understand that Jesus had to die. Yeah, it's the good news. I mean, these things happened, and they get to the Book of Acts, these people that are, I don't know what you call them. And they just don't look at it like a past tense has occurred. They were looking into the sky as he was gone. He's out of here.

Yeah. I mean, Mark, Luke, and John, there's a different day. Now the kingdom of God is here. He spoke about it. He spoke about it. So going in the book of Acts, what I can't figure out is why they say the past is not there. These things happened. The kingdom comes.

We're reading about it, Acts 1 and 2 there. Yeah, it's here. The spirit was more than that. Awesome. All over the world. Came together. glad to be a part of it. Me too.

So what did I miss when I was gone? Well, that was a review. Phil said you missed it, Zach. And so get it. Hey, you're part of the greatest kingdom that's ever been created because it was created from heaven, God himself, spirit-filled people on the earth. But the people who say it never happened, they're saying, no. It didn't come.

They're saying Acts 1 and 2, that doesn't happen. Yeah. No, I agree. There are a lot of people in our world that believe Acts 1 and 2 never happened. I know. And that it's there. It's downright sad. Yeah.

So, Zach, that's where we went. We moved from Luke into Acts because we felt like, you know, when you study Luke, and it gives you such a depth of the kingdom of God. God, the kingdom of heaven, that we felt like we needed to just keep that going a little bit and kind of show us this higher view of Acts, the idea that it really did roll out. And, of course, the first, you know, chapter and a half, it's about the Holy Spirit being poured out. And we talked quite a bit about that, the last two or three podcasts, about, you know, his role, both in the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and also the empowerment.

And we talked about tongues, of course, and miracles and things that associated with that. So it kind of got us to Acts chapter 2. So that's where we've been. That's why Acts chapter 1, therefore, it is necessary to choose one of the men who have been with us the whole time. The Lord Jesus went in and out. He goes, picks up what John's the Baptist, what was going on, beginning from John's baptism to the time when Jesus was taken up from us. all these things have passed and i can't believe they say now the kingdom we're waiting on that book of revelation over here i'm like say what i said man it's like it's like it's like acts it doesn't

exist but i think it's hard my my theory is it's hard to it's hard to discuss the kingdom of god well one because it's it's it's already here but it's not yet here it's both of those things both of those are true it's already here but it's not fully consummated yet and so that's hard to understand something and the other reason i think it's difficult is you think about the way it's described in scripture you know one references it's like the wind you know it moves and it comes and it goes and you can't really you can't put you can't like put texture to it sometimes it's it's it's uh it's moving it's vibrant and then in mark two i think and also in matthew nine has the same account of jesus

when he's having this conversation about fasting, and they ask him a question. They say, why do your disciples not fast, but the Pharisees do? And Jesus's answer is pretty interesting. He says, you don't fast when the bridegroom is with you. Now, when he leaves, speaking of himself, when I leave, and this is that kind of reference of that same conversation he had in John 14th through John 17, which Jason and I talked about over the phone when I got to kind of the recap. Yeah, we had a great conversation about this earlier about connecting that text and about the coming of the Holy Spirit with all of this, which I think you all may have gotten to on the podcast.

We do. But that same kind of idea is what he's talking about in Mark 2 when he says that the bridegroom is with you, you're not going to fast when he's with you. But when he leaves, now then they'll resume their fasting. And then he says the weirdest thing, if you don't understand and connect this with the kingdom, it doesn't make any sense. But he says, he says, what I mean by that is. is he said, you don't take a new piece of garment, a new patch that's made out of a new garment and sew it onto an old fabric. Because when you wash it, what will happen is is that the one that's new, which is representative of the kingdom,

it'll shrink, it'll contract, and it's going to rip away from the old garment, and the hole's going to be bigger than it was before you patched it. And he's given this picture of the kingdom. So that's the kingdom like contracting. down. And then he gives the inverse of that. He says, you also don't pour new wine into old wineskins because if you do, then there's old wine skins that are crusty, they won't be able to hold the expansion of it and it'll burst. And so you're getting this idea, you're getting this idea that the kingdom is a lot more than something you can, you can't attach it to it to old systems.

That's the, that's the patch going on the old garment. You can't do that because it'll pull away. And you can't put it in a container. You can't contain it in old systems either. And I think one of the reasons why we have a hard time understanding this teaching on the kingdom is because we're trying to put it in old context. We're trying to put it in old frameworks. We're trying to put it in old containers. And Jesus is like, it's not going to fit in there. This is new one.

It's not going to fit in your human constructed systems. you're going to have to throw that away and you're going to have to understand that I'm doing something new here. And one of the primary pieces of that is the coming of the Holy Spirit. Yeah, and everything pointed to that. And it's also, you know, we studied the book of Hebrews on the podcast. What you just described, Zach, was the exact purpose of the Hebrew writer, writing the book of Hebrews, to show the old system and the way the way that. the kingdom was all across Jewish history to then Jesus coming along and being the superior

in every one of those old shadows or old copies or old forms, all the different words that's used in the book of Hebrews. Then it gets to Hebrews 12 and it describes what the kingdom is. And it says, this is a kingdom that's an all-consuming fire. It cannot be shaken. It cannot be moved. But you described it correctly. It's here.

We're a part of it. Yet we're still waiting on that final step, which, of course, you get that from Hebrews 12 as well. So it really is to us. I mean, it seems simple, but obviously there's a lot of different, you know, viewpoints that are out there on it. And, you know, we're just trying to get you to see how we see the scripture laid out here. It seems pretty, pretty straightforward. Yeah, there's the, there's the idea, too, here. I don't know how far y'all got. But, yeah, Acts 2 is really this moment that we've all been talking about in the gospel, Luke and Mark, when we did Mark.

when we did Matthew of this idea that God doesn't dwell in the temples built by man's hands. He is, the temple's coming down, 80, 70, the Mount of Olives, you know, and Jesus was looking around and said, you know, and the disciples like, man, look at these incredible structures. And Jesus was like, yeah, all that's coming down. Every one of these stones is going to be turned over. The temple's coming down, which it did, by the way, in 8070. And we've made the case in the beginning that one of the core teachings of understanding the kingdom here, kingdom now, kingdom come teaching is that there's a new temple that Jesus was establishing himself as the cornerstone of that temple and then us being living stones built on that temple. I know this is repetitive because we talk about it a lot. But Acts 2 is the moment that happens.

That's right. This is not just simply the spirit coming in. And this is not about, I mean, speaking in tongues is like, that's the, that's the gravy. That's not the meat or the biscuit of this thing. The meat of this thing is the Holy Spirit is coming to live inside of people. And that's the Acts 28, passage that we all grew up on, to repent, be baptized every one of you. The name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sin and you'll receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. That gift is God, God's going to come now and he's going to make his home inside of us.

through the Holy Spirit. So in the last podcast, we basically bookended Acts 2. We talked about the Holy Spirit, his role, this outpouring that happens, how that came to be, how that was viewed. And then we kind of jumped ahead to the end of Acts 2 and showed the response, which you just mentioned, Zach, to this first, I guess, sermon or teaching that Peter lays out. And then the results of it. We talked about how they were together. They had everything in common. And we hit that.

So today, I wanted us to deal with just the sermon itself because it's so powerful and it's so life-changing. And obviously it started this whole movement that we now know and this kind of weakened man that we made the point 40 days before this, Zach, he was denying Christ. Yeah. And now he's standing up and delivering this first message that impacts. these first 3,000 people. So we'll get in, let's get into that text, but let's take a break. So we're in Acts 2, 14. Peter stands up, raises his voice and addresses the crowd.

And we had talked about the language deal. And obviously, this is now him saying, okay, you know, they're not doing what they were doing earlier with the praising of God and the tongues. And we talked about that miracle in hearing things in their own language. Now it's one voice. and it's the first idea. And he addresses the Jews, fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem. So this is primarily, as we've sat along, aimed at the Jewish audience for the first 10 years or so before we ever get the Gentiles into this situation. He says, listen carefully to what I say. These men are not drunk because that's what they thought when they were speaking in tongues.

These men are not drunk, as you suppose, it's only nine in the morning. So I don't know. Is that an intro, Jay? Is that a joke? Is that him trying to set up like preachers do when they give you a little something? Because it was kind of an odd way to start that he says, hey, come on, guys. Now the morning these guys are drunk. I mean, it's kind of an odd thing that he references.

I don't know. That was kind of weird. Well, I brought this up the last podcast, you know, in Ephesians, where he brought up, don't get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery, but be filled with the spirit. And then he's like seeing praises. speak Jesus. So, you know, there is some excitement about having the gifts of the Holy Spirit, obviously, because whatever they were doing, which they, all it says is they were declaring the wonders of God

because these people believed in God. So the verse that says that is verse 11. it says, you know, all these different nations were represented, but they were all Jews from different nations. And it says in the second part of verse 11, we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues. So I'm going back because he hadn't started talking about Jesus yet. He was just talking about what they were familiar with, the wonders of God, through their history where God had intervened, whether it was the getting them out of Egypt or whatever it was.

And the excitement of them being able to do that in another language made them think they're drunk. They're like, it's nine in the morning. I don't know if that's a joke. Because most people, even when you get to First Thessalonians 5, it says, you know, most people get drunk, get drunk at night. You know, there's actually a verse that says that. And you're like, well, what's the point there?

I don't know. Maybe they're trying to hide out or whatever it is. Because he's talking about live as people of the day. Yeah. Be God's flashlight. He was doing a contrast between light and darkness. So, I don't know. I just, I always thought it was as a preacher, you know, I try to get up and get a little feel for the room and the audience and the place I'm speaking at,

or speaking of the people I'm speaking to. And so a lot of times I'll kind of open something, maybe something I've observed in the room or something somebody said. It just seemed like that to me, but who knows? Well, the point is, though, it's hard for human beings to view something, and we're going to talk about miracle signs of wonders

because even in his opening part about Jesus, you know, he goes through 17 and 20, one and he says this is this is a pro what you're seeing yeah is a prophecy that is being fulfilled which this is this was god speaking through prophets it wasn't like he's just saying somebody said this one day this was actually what god said was going to happen yeah which is talking about absolute truth he's really going to zero in on that in chapter three but we'll get to that. But when he gets to 22, which we can go back and read and talk about Joel's prophecy,

but he says Jesus himself, Jesus of Nazareth, was a man accredited by God. Just think about that statement, accredited by God by miracles, wonders, and signs, which God did among you through him as you yourselves know. Well, here, now Jesus is at the right hand of God. and he's pouring out his spirit, and he's now fixing to unleash his spirit. And what I believe, which we went through that a couple of podcasts ago, that I believe these were the apostles, because when it says, are not all these men speaking in tongues, Galileans?

So I believe they were imparted these gifts, and one of them was to be able to speak languages from the, their mouth that they had not studied. Yep. But it comes down to this fact. People have a hard time believing that God would do that, even if they see it. So they make some weird comment that doesn't make sense. That's like, well, they must be drunk.

You know why they're saying that? Because they don't believe that there is a God who's living and active among human beings. That's right. Yeah. Which is the irony of it is that when they see this taking place, they see, these men speaking in one language and then it's being received and heard in another language. When they witness this, the irony is this, and this reminds me by the way of Genesis three, whenever Satan tempts and how, they're always a little bit of truth in what these

accusations, but listen to their accusation here in verse 13 of Acts chapter two. But others mocking said, they are filled with new wine. and the irony of that is that they were filled with new wine. I mean, this is the Mark 2 passage. I was just represented. They aren't filled with new wine, but they didn't understand what that new wine meant. And they're trying to put, they're trying to put a texture and a context of this. And they're like, we don't know what's going on.

But whatever was going on, I do think it's, it's, we got to remember that what did Jesus say at the beginning? Right here at the, let's see, this is at the very beginning of Acts. So when they come together, they asked him, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? He said to them, it's not for you to know the times or the seasons that the father has fixed by his own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. So whatever is happening here in Acts 2, there's some kind of power that's coming down out of heaven that's being manifested in people that is, it's different. Whatever it is, they don't have a, they do don't have a reference for it. But it's about to, I mean, it's about to turn the world upside down.

I can promise you that. And so he, I'm going to back, Jay, before we get ahead on the, on what he says to the Joel prophecy, because I do think that's, that's huge. And it is interesting that Peter now, this is the third time that he's talked about a fulfilled prophecy. He talked about it back with Judas, you know, what was going to happen to him. he talked about it with the replacement of Judas, that the idea was that was a prophecy that needed to be fulfilled. So again, he's connecting with this Jewish audience, even his own people. And so then he comes to Joel, which Joel is a very short book. It's only three chapters. And it's basically speaking into obviously what was going on in their day, which was the split

kingdom. But then there's this really interesting passage that he quotes and now says this is the fulfillment of. And so, you know, again, the Jewish mindset, they're all listening to him. And they're, they fully understand Joel. And they've probably always wondered what this passage meant. What did Joel mean when he said these words? And Peter's like, here, it's happening right now. He says, no, this is what was spoken about the prophet Joel. In the last days. And let me just talk right there. The last days of what? The old temple. There you go. The old system. Yeah, the old system. what else could it be? He's speaking to Jews about the last day.

So again, we jettison that to the end of time, but just think about who he's talking to and why he's talking about. In the last days, God says, I will pour out my spirit on all people. So that's what's happening, according to Peter, according to Joel. Your sons and daughters will prophesied. Your young men will see visions. Your old men will dream dreams.

Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my spirit in those days and they will prophesy. Now, Peter's already shown. He's doing it already. This is his third one. I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below. Blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness.

Here's that apocalyptic language we've been seeing all throughout. And the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. and everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved, which is very poignant because that's exactly what's about to happen in these next moments of what he's talking about. So our point is when Jesus... What... What is that point about them struggling with when?

What? Well, is this it? When Jesus had, was exalted, a new day had dawned. And the spirit being poured out means that people could be new creations. Because Jesus is exalted, the spirit could indwell human beings. Simultaneously, it predicted the doom of a system of law

where you could somehow be justified, which all that did was, you know, we could get into Romans and see that that made us conscious of sin, and sin made us conscious. of we're doomed. But that day's over. And part of that would be the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. The temple was never rebuilt.

And even if it was, it's insignificant because Ephesians 2, at the last couple of verses, we rise and become the holy temple of God because of God's spirit and dwelling in us. And it fits perfectly. If you look at it, when he gets done with his speech that he started, this man was handed over to you by God set purpose and foreknowledge, Jesus. And you with the help of wicked men put him to death by nailing him to the cross,

that's happened in the past. Yeah, that just happened. God raising it from the dead. That just happened. Freeing him from the agony of death because it was impossible for the death to keep his hold on it. then he ends it up by saying and it makes being baptized take on new meaning when the people heard this they'll let all easily be assured of this god has made this jesus which all of y'all crucified both lord and christ well when the people heard that they were cut to the heart and said what do we do

and he told them he said repent and be baptized we're going to allow you to plead the death penalty. You will die to sin. You repent and you're baptized. You start over again. There's a new day come here. Now we're fixed to bury you

to get rid of you and a pool of water and raise you up and the promises for you, your children and all who are far off on whom the Lord our God will call. I just don't understand why people don't look at this.

tech and it leads into their baptism yesterday there was four of them five of them and this is why they came and this is what we talked about and back in the past these things have happened well this was the starting point yeah this is this is the starting point of a new era which runs into what we're doing right now sitting at this table a couple of thousand years ago so here's what he does though which dad is, which is very interesting, when he lays out exactly what just happened, and they know this, he goes again back to the Old Testament. And again, he's proven his case to Jewish people that this is everything we've been talking about and pointing to is in this moment.

And now he quotes David. He starts out by quoting Joel, but now he's talking about the greatest king that's ever lived, the greatest king who then also had a covenant made with him that, from his house, the house of David, would come an eternal king. He said basically these days are over. They're over. They're done. David's dead.

He's still got his barrel over. We know where the hole in the ground is. And I'm so impressed with Peter because, again, 40 days ago, he just, he didn't even have the wherewithal to stay. Oh, my goodness. Because look at his logic. So he says in verse 25, he's, he's. Here's, he's going to quote David, and this is from Psalm 16, I saw the Lord always before me

because he is at my right hand. I will not be shaken. Therefore, my heart is glad. My tongue rejoices. My body also will live in hope. This is David talking, because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your holy one see decay. Everybody that's read this up to now has probably thought David was talking about himself,

but he wasn't. Yeah. You have been made known, you have made known to me the paths of life, and you will fill me with joy in your presence. And then he says, brothers, I can tell you confidently that the Patriarch David died and was buried and his tomb is here to this day. So he's saying he couldn't have been talking about himself because he died and stayed buried. Yeah, he's reinterpreting, I'm really correctly, he's interpreting correctly the old

Testament, which we've made the argument before in this, that that's what a lot of the New Testament writers are doing here. But he's making this appeal here. Because you think that what about this whole decay? My body's not going to see decay. You won't let your holy one see decay. Well, if he's talking about David, yeah, then the logic is surely he's decayed. I mean, he's been in the tomb for a long time.

And his body's probably just dust now. He is fully decayed. And I think that that's why I was trying to connect earlier, you know, when he talked about the kingdom coming in power, this is this is the moment in the text where he's establishing the credentials for that power that the kingdom's going to come in. It's by the way, the resurrection of Jesus, which is why he says, God raised him up. This is verse 24 before he makes this point. Verse 24, God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death because. it was not possible for him to be held by it. It was not possible for death to hold this quality of life that is the Christ.

And then he's making this apologetic. He's making this case for why that to be true. And he's speaking to people of Israel. So they would have known these prophecies, but they may not have interpreted them as prophecies in this moment. I'm not sure if they did or not. But he's certainly making a bold, strong, logical case here. He is. And what's amazing to me is, and they're listening and they're thinking, whoa,

because you remember every time that they would, Jesus would run crossways with the people he was teaching, they would always say, well, we're children of Abraham. We're children of Moses. We're, you know, we're David is our king. You know, they always went back to that Old Testament. And then every time Jesus said, well, you aren't children of Abraham because he looked to me. Moses looked to me. David looked to me. You know, everybody pointed towards the Messiah. And so he's making this case that the one who just was on a cross and raised out of the tomb. And then he even makes the point in the ascension because he says in verse 34, David did not ascend to heaven.

And yet now he's going to quote another passage. Psalm 110. The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. So now even goes to that. He's so, who's David talking about? he's not talking about himself. He's still awaiting. And so, and Jesus made the same point with about the same passage.

He was like, who is David talking about? He's talking about me. So I just, I found it fascinating. First of all, that it shows you the power of the Holy Spirit because Peter could not have come up with this in 30 days. Nope. I mean, this had to come directly from God, but now he was ready to receive this message and to impart it because this is a brilliant.

theological explanation to the Jewish people about the man that you thought you just killed and got rid of is actually now you're king. And it's also beyond a theological explanation, which it is certainly that. He says that verse 30 being therefore a prophet and knowing that God has sworn with a note to him that he would set one of his descendants on the throne. So he's again making the case here. He foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of course. Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption because he was

raised within just three days. This Jesus, God raised up, and this is another key point here. And of that, we all are witnesses. And when you go to 1st Corinthians 15 and you read what Paul says in 1st Corinthians 15 about how many witnesses saw the resurrected Jesus, it was more than 500 people over a period of 40 days. So this wasn't like, oh, we have. like a little siding. This is like, no, we spent time with this guy

for 40 days. So how many people are involved in this? Uh, at least 500. And Paul says, most of them are still living, by the way,

which if you're making this up, just, just, you wouldn't say that because the first question I'm going to ask you, if you tell me that is, well, who, they're still living?

Well, who are they? Where do they live? And I'm going to go check with them, which, so you know that was going on. You know that kind of like, uh,

fact check was going on. But this is, this is also a, the testimony here that they're, they're claiming to be eyewitnesses of a resurrected Jesus, which is key, because that's giving validity to they're giving a case from the Old Testament saying it was never talking about David. It was talking about Jesus. And the reason why we know this is because we saw the resurrected Jesus. We saw him. And then these guys went to their death, by the way, and never recanted any of that claim. But it also says that the Bible is about Jesus. And when you read, you know, Hebrews 1, and kind of think of what Jesus, why he's, why the Bible is about him.

And the famous line, I guess, is that he's prophet, priest, and king in that he was the final prophet. He was speaking the very words of God. He's representing God. But then, you know, he's priests. Well, he's representing us. And he proved that through his death on a cross and being at the right end of God. These days from now on, starting there, it's the end of it. Yeah, and he's coming to an end.

But he's our advocate right now. But then when you think of why, you know, him being king, it kind of hit me when I was studying this, that, because people don't like the idea. Most time when they talk about God being king, they talk about he rules over us. You know, when people hear that, they're immediately, oh, I don't want somebody ruling over me. I want to be free. Well, he made you free, which is what is being priest is all about. But I kind of thought about him being king.

Why do we need a king? We need a king because of the enemies that are against us. And I'm talking about enemies like sin, death, evil powers. That's why we need a king, which is what he conquered. So when you read Hebrews 1, it kind of makes sense because it says in the past God spoke to our forefathers. through the prophets at many times and in various ways. Well, Peter just quoted three instances, two different Joel and David, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his son,

whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. The sun is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. I mean, in the beginning was the Word. And after he had provided purifications for sins, well, there's him acting as our high priest, which Hebrews goes on to go into that in much detail. And so eventually it says,

so he became as much superior to the angels. But what I want to point out is when Peter started that sermon and he said Jesus of Nazareth was a man, which is a key phrase. he's a man from Nazareth and he's going to repeat that over and over and over and by him becoming a man and going to the right hand of God it shows all of us okay this is doable this this is possible he became a man showing me that I can live again I can live forever through his spirit but then in chapter two of Hebrews he brings up this idea because it said

he was a man accredited by miracle signs and wonders and I tried to study and find a way to describe those uniquely? It's like, what's the difference in a miracle, a sign, and a wonder, and maybe y'all can impart some wisdom on that? But they seem to all point around things happen supernaturally and for different responses. But there's supernatural occurrences that only God could do that defy the nature of the earth and laws of earth, things that are earthly. But he brings that up in chapter two, and he says in verse three, how shall we escape

if we ignore such a great salvation, what Jesus has provided? This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him. God testified to it by signs, wonders, and various miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will. And I'm only bringing that up because a lot of people read Acts 2 and they get hung up on the miracle signs and wonders. Even Paul had to write a letter to the Corinthians because the church there who had been imparted some of these gifts from the apostles because I'm of the opinion that the apostles had this special gift to do based on are not all these

men, Galileans, and then even in Acts 2, 40, where is that at, uh, 43, every woman's filled with all and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. And even in chapter three, Peter's going to heal a man that was, couldn't walk from birth. So God did this, but when you read Hebrews 1 and 2, you see that these things pointed to Jesus's authority. So even when Jesus was exalted and he pours out the Holy Spirit and gives the apostles this ability and even the ability to pass that on, as humans, they got hung up on those actual gifts instead of what that was actually pointed toward, which is Jesus. Yeah, they were testified to Jesus. man, what a great point that you said at the beginning of that whole comment you just made, that the whole thing is about Jesus.

The whole thing is about Jesus. And one of the things that you can do when you're analyzing any kind of religious scheme is that you ask the question, man, when I walk away from this experience, is the name of Jesus ringing in my ear? Because if it's not, if the miracles are ringing in your ear, ear or if some kind of, you know, theology is ringing in your ear or eschatology is ringing in your ear, whatever the ologies are that would ring in your ear. If it's not ringing Jesus, I would argue that you probably want to reevaluate that. And that's why we love this idea of this kingdom message so much is that it does. You can't have a kingdom without a king.

And I love this definition. I want to read it to you real quick. I just pulled it up when you said that out. I mean, that, Jace. This is from Dallas Willard in the divine conspiracy. what he, this how he defines kingdom. God's own kingdom or his rule is the range of his effective will. So what does that mean? Well, it's where what he wants done is done. And the person of God himself and the action of his will are the organizing principles of his kingdom. But everything that obeys those principles, whether by nature or by choice, is within this kingdom.

And so when we think about, like, you can. can't escape the fact that you're part of a kingdom. I have my own kingdom. My wife has her own kingdom. And Willard talks about this too that my kids had their little kingdomats. And those kingdoms come into a family and they're competing with one another. And there's division. And there's there's there's the hard things that we're dealing with because we have different wills and different things we want to see happen. But when our will comes under the effective will of God and we're operating under what God wants to be done. That's when the harmony occurs and that's when the beauty of God's kingdom unfolds. And where the Holy Spirit plays in all this is

how in the world would I ever know what God's will is if it weren't for His Spirit living in me? That's the point that John makes in John 14, Jesus makes in John 14 through John 17, is that the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, when He comes, Jesus says He will guide us. into all truth. So the spirit is testifying in us what is God's effective will? What does God want to be done? I just wanted to make the point though. So why the miracles? Because I, I mean, I know we're taking a sidetrack here, but I think it's such important issue in churches today. You know, do miracles happen today? Why did he do the miracles? And I thought of a weird analogy. I didn't read this in a book that's happened to me, but I had something. I was traveling back from

for yesterday and I had something weird happened and it just kind of made me think oh maybe this is why god did the miracles was a person I do not know because because look sometimes I travel and people they recognize me then sometimes I travel and it seems like everyone recognized me which was that yesterday is what happened I had so many conversations I met so many people just from one place to another. Everywhere I went, it was like we would have a big gather up, and I met all these people. This is on your way. This is on your travel home? Yeah, on my way home. Did you stop at Buckees or someplace like that? No, I avoid Buckees, but the airport yesterday was as, was as I could imagine. But I'm saying it was a positive because I love people, and I, the more we've talked about

being the kingdom, members of the kingdom on Earth, I tried to. have Jesus conversations with every person I encountered yesterday. So it really, some of the conversations I had were exciting. But I had something happened, and I wanted to give you an illustration on this. Maybe just crazy or wrong. So what happened was, because if you don't know who I am, you know, I told somebody this in amongst the conversations. I'm either one of the duck guys, and so people want, you know, they always face one of the

duck guys. But if you don't know who I am, I'm a threat. I'm someone you're scared of, just based on my outward appearance. There's very little middle ground in there. So a woman came up and handed me her baby. Now, let's think about this. This is the most precious thing in the world, in my opinion, is a baby. And if I just polled y'all and just forget what I'm telling you now, but if I just said, would you hand your baby to someone you didn't know? Your answer would be no. So, so here this happened. Well, there was a person beside me who didn't know who I was and saw what happened. And she said, I can't believe you know all these people. And I said, I don't know these people. And she said, well, who are you? I said, I did a show on TV, you know, about, about,

And it was kind of a humorous family show. And she said, but that woman handed you her baby. And I said, yeah, I wouldn't have done that. And she looked at me like, I said, it's not that I don't treasure that baby and I don't love that baby. I said, but she thinks she knows me. I said, and she does, because we are who we are. And I said, what she concluded, because we're believers in. I kind of did a little sermon.

I said, we believe in God, and therefore I have, you know, the Holy Spirit of God, which she started backing her head up when I said this because that scared her. But I said, because that's not a good thing to do. You shouldn't just hand your babies to complete strangers, someone you've never met. I said, but she did it because she felt like she knew me. Now, I said, the problem with that is, I said, in religion, a lot of people have handed their babies to people because they thought they knew them and they preached God. And those preachers and priests, we all know what happened.

They abuse kids because they thought they were representing someone trustworthy. But just in that conversation, it kind of hit me that how do you know who is true and who is right? Well, all people are flawed. And so no matter what happens, no matter what you claim, you know, even from the apostles' perspective, God decided to use miracles to remove all doubt. And because people could just be making it, how do you really know somebody? And how can you trust what they're saying? And I think that's why God used the miracles.

Because no matter what would happen, he needed something that was undeniable. And then we have that recorded in a book of history covering hundreds of years, if not thousands. Yeah, thousands of years from all these different writers. And so in actuality, we get to read those miracles and we get to read what God said and form an opinion and a relationship with him. And the miracles in here matter because the more you read, the more you say, you know, even though I haven't met God face to face, I really believe this to be true,

where I would hand him my child and say, I'm devoting my child to you. And so that's just kind of my theory on that, because that is a strange thing, because you're like, well, why did this all seemingly stop? You know, after the apostles died and after that era, why are there not all these miraculous things going on? And you can read all the verses, you know,

when he told his disciples, these signs will accompany those who do this in Mark 16 or whatever. So I don't know. I mean, some people, some people would argue that they haven't stopped. And then there's some that would argue that they have. There's a very, very, uh, exactly. That's what I want to talk about. Yeah. I would say, I would say before we say that, though, let me ask you a question.

Do you, would you agree with this that that, that, because what you're saying, I, I, I, think is true, and there's implications of that, which is the question is this, the people receiving and experiencing these miracles, did they have, like, faith in these miracles to, like, oh, we know this is possible, or was this so shocking that everybody around them is like, wait, what is happening? And I think it's the latter. I don't think that, because that's one thing that I've wanted to experience miracles and and people have tried to link maybe the lack of anyone experiencing miracles.

Well, you just don't have a faith or you don't have, you got to believe it. Well, I'm like, but do these people believe in speaking in tongues when this happened? I'm like, I don't think they even know what it was. I mean, they're like, they didn't know what it was, right? They're looking at this and they're saying, oh, they're drunk. I mean, everyone was amazed by it. It wasn't something that we're like, oh, yeah, this is just what we do, man. We just speak in tongues.

We have blow torches on our head, and we speak in languages. that other people could understand. I think it was shocking. And it was shocking. I think it was very shocking. But I think these were things that were to lead you to Jesus. I've always said Jesus is better than miracles. But fast forward to modern day, you can't say that God is not working and alive.

And when you pray and people are healed, which I believe happens and God works. But I don't believe that he had this same plan for my life. modern day as far as the only way we're going to get Jesus is if we do some kind of miracle because then I think you're you're taken away from the word of God which we have this now we can we can read this now that's not to say if God doesn't want to do a miracle he may I'm all ready for it I mean you can't sit here and say well God you know if God can't do a miracle because Jay said, well, you know, we're just focused on Jesus here. Well, that'd be a dumb way to think.

I think where it gets off is two things. One, when the miracle doesn't point to Jesus and it points to itself, then that's not of God. And then the second thing is, is when you tie the miracle to some type of performative faith that you have to have a certain degree of faith in this. And a lot of people that I've talked to in ministry have been really, really harmed by that because they've gone into these places where they were taught that, and they never got the healing, and they never got the miracle, and they never got it, and they thought, man, is there something wrong with me?

Because they were told, well, that's a lack of faith on your part. And I just don't see that in the scripture that God's pouring out miracles based on how faithful we are. You know that's true because a lot of those people that witnessed the miracles didn't believe in Jesus. So obviously it didn't work. All right, we're out of time. interesting discussion. We'll pick it up on the next

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