The Kingdom Perspective

Transcript:

Hello, this is Pastor Don of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective.

The central claim of Christianity—namely that Jesus is Lord—does not remove us from the affairs of this world. We are still citizens of the United States (or whatever land we call our own). However, it does affect the way we imagine and engage in the affairs of this world. As Christians, we know that the kingdoms of this world (whether they are left or right, capitalist or communist, Democrat or Republican) are not ultimate kingdoms. All the kingdoms of this world will come and go, but His kingdom is forever.

It is particularly important at this moment for followers of Jesus to lean into this reality. As we have become an increasingly secular society, we have tended to make more and more of the kingdoms of this world. By “secular,” I do not mean that we don’t “believe in God.” Actually, the data shows that we are as “believing” a nation as ever. Rather, by “secular” I mean that we think our primary hope—and so our primary citizenship and allegiance—is to be found in this world. We are convinced that we must find heaven on earth. This makes us desperate, especially if we feel things are not going our way. We become anxious that “our kingdom” is crumbling. This not only makes us irritable, but also, as Christians, it makes us ultimately useless for representing Jesus in this world.

But the gospel reminds us that, first and foremost, we are citizens of heaven (Philippians 3:20). This gives us confident hope anchored in eternity, which then allows us to move into the changing kingdoms of this world and serve our neighbors. We know that the real and lasting kingdom comes not by the love of power but by the power of love, not by superiority over others but by serving others, not by the crown but by the cross.

Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective.

“Brethren, join in following my example, and observe those who walk according to the pattern you have in us. For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things. For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.”

~ Philippians 3:17-21 (NASB)

Thank you for listening to and supporting The Kingdom Perspective! The Kingdom Perspective is a ministry of Christ Redeemer Church of Hanover, NH. To hear more episodes you can subscribe on Apple Podcasts. To donate or to find out more about the ministry and resources offered by Christ Redeemer Church visit linktr.ee/CRCHanover.

Transcript:

Hello, this is Pastor Don Willeman of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to the Kingdom Perspective.

Where do you find confidence when trouble surrounds you on every side?

Remember that scene in The Lord of the Rings where Frodo is lamenting to Gandalf about the trouble caused by the Ring.

Frodo: “I wish the ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened”

Gandalf replies: “So do all who live to see such times; but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. There are other forces at work in this world, Frodo, besides the will of evil. Bilbo was meant to find the Ring. In which case, you were also meant to have it. And that is an encouraging thought.”

Tolkien’s point, though subtle, is brilliant. Evil shall not have the final say, because there is an intention at work in our world that is higher than the intention of evil. Though the devil has the power to twist creation to our destruction, God has the power turn evil to our salvation.

How do we know this? Look to the cross. On the cross, the evil of our sin, the malice of humanity and the wickedness of the devil conspired to bring about the most twisted act of all time—the unjust murder of the Holy Son of God. But this was not the final word. The gospel is always the final word. The cross was not merely a conspiracy of evil; it was the conspiracy of God’s love. Listen to Scripture: “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

Such hope out of despair (good out of evil!) inherent in the gospel gives those who trust it undying confidence.

Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective.

“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

~ Romans 5:1-8 (ESV)

Transcript:

Hello, this is Pastor Don of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to “The Kingdom Perspective”.

How should we process the difficulties of our lives?

We should process them through the gentleness of Jesus.

Many of us are suffering all sorts of anxieties. The good news of Jesus assures us that ultimately everything that comes our way, even the difficult, is not evidence of God’s condemnation, but of His care—not His judgment but His gentleness. He’s purifying not punishing us.

Therefore, there is no need to compound your troubles by beating yourself up. Satan is our accuser. Jesus is our Advocate.

Richard Sibbes’s (1577-1635) very helpful book, The Bruised Reed puts it this way:
“Christ’s way is first to wound, then to heal. No sound, whole soul shall ever enter into heaven. Think when in trial, Christ was tried for me; according to my trials will be my graces and comforts. If Christ be so merciful as not to break me, I will not break myself by despair, nor yield myself over to the roaring lion Satan, to break me.”

He goes on to say that the weakness we experience in our troubles is designed by our Savior’s gentle hand, to cause us to cling to Him even more.

“Christ will make up all the breaches which sin and Satan have made. He ‘binds up the broken hearted’ (Isaiah 61:1). A mother is tenderest to the weakest child, so does Christ most mercifully incline to the weakest. Likewise, he puts an instinct into the weakest things to rely upon something stronger than themselves for support. The vine stays close to the elm, and weakest creatures have the strongest shelter.”

The gentleness of Jesus is our shelter. Rest in Him.

Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective.

“And He has said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.’ Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. 10 Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.”

~ 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 (NASB)

Transcript:

Hello, this is Pastor Don Willeman of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to the Kingdom Perspective.

Life is full of fears and anxieties. What should we do with them?

We should take our cues from the brave Christians that have gone before us.

Consider St. Patrick. He was not always St. Patrick, nor was he even Irish. He was an ordinary youth from Romanized Britain. However, at age 16 he was kidnapped by the Irish. At the time the Irish were notorious pagan tribal warriors, famous for stringing around their belts the skulls of their conquered foes.

After six years of slavery, Patrick finally escaped. But then God gave him a vision that he should return to the land of his captors, not in order to bring them justice, but rather to bring them Jesus. He did. And the rest, as they say, is history.

He bravely went back and faced his captors, not with fear but with faith.

By the sovereign grace of God, the Irish became Christians at an astounding rate. However, this did not happen without significant danger and threats to Patrick’s life.

And where did he turn with his fears? To the promise of Christ’s presence. The spirit of his faith-filled courage is preserved in a famous prayer, “The Shield of St. Patrick”. Here’s a bit of it:

Christ with me,
Christ before me,
Christ behind me,
Christ in me,
Christ beneath me,
Christ above me,
Christ on my right,
Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down,
Christ when I sit down,
Christ when I arise,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.

I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
Through belief in the Threeness,
Through confession of the Oneness
of the Creator of creation.

Indeed, like Patrick of old, how can we today live in faith and not in fear? The key is calling on the presence of Christ with us, moment by moment.

Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective.

“He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.”
For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler
and from the deadly pestilence.
He will cover you with his pinions,
and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.
You will not fear the terror of the night,
nor the arrow that flies by day,
nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness,
nor the destruction that wastes at noonday.”

~ Psalm 91:1-6 (ESV)

Transcript:

Hello, this is Pastor Don Willeman of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to the Kingdom Perspective.

What should we do in the face of evil and suffering?

We should take comfort in God’s providential care.

Evil and suffering do not catch God by surprise. There is not a single atom, not a single virus or cancer cell, that escapes his notice or power. He is Lord of all creation and he loves us dearly. God governs all things by the wisdom of his good providence.

Listen as the Heidelberg Catechism explains this in simple question/answer format:

Q: What do you understand by the providence of God?
A: Providence is the almighty and ever present power of God by which he upholds, as with his hand, heaven and earth and all creatures, and so rules them that leaf and blade, rain and drought, fruitful and lean years, food and drink, health and sickness, prosperity and poverty— all things, in fact, come to us not by chance but from his fatherly hand.

Q: How does the knowledge of God's creation and providence help us?
A: We can be patient when things go against us, thankful when things go well, and for the future we can have good confidence in our faithful God and Father that nothing will separate us from his love. All creatures are so completely in his hand that without his will they can neither move nor be moved.

Indeed, in troubled times like ours, we can find comfort in a God that both holds our lives in his hand and has our best interest at heart.

Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective.

“Bless the Lord, O my soul!
O Lord my God, you are very great!
You are clothed with splendor and majesty,
covering yourself with light as with a garment,
stretching out the heavens like a tent.
He lays the beams of his chambers on the waters;
he makes the clouds his chariot;
he rides on the wings of the wind;
he makes his messengers winds,
his ministers a flaming fire.
He set the earth on its foundations,
so that it should never be moved.
You covered it with the deep as with a garment;
the waters stood above the mountains.
At your rebuke they fled;
at the sound of your thunder they took to flight.
The mountains rose, the valleys sank down
to the place that you appointed for them.
You set a boundary that they may not pass,
so that they might not again cover the earth.”

~ Psalm 104:1-9 (ESV)

Transcript:

Hello, this is Pastor Don Willeman of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to the Kingdom Perspective.

What is prayer?

Prayer is the cry of desperation, a final resort when there is nowhere else to turn. It is the instinct of every human heart to look up to heaven for help when all else has failed. As the saying goes, there are no atheists in foxholes.

However, for those who know God as their Father through Jesus Christ, prayer is not merely the final resort, but more so the first response. When anxiety and fear arise, as a matter of first order, we can turn to our God in prayer. The Bible commands us to! Listen to Philippians 4: “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6-7).

In your care for one another and in your ministry to your unbelieving neighbors, prayer is powerful and irreplaceable. Pray for your neighborhood. Pray for your school. Pray for your workplace. Ask God to give you opportunities to serve those that are anxious or in need. Offering to pray for a friend or co-worker who is sick or fearful is a great way to minister to them and to help direct them to God.

We have a God who hears!

Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective.

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

~ Matthew 6:25-33 (ESV)

Transcript:

Hello, this is Pastor Don Willeman of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to the Kingdom Perspective.

Who is in control of your life?

You may think you are, but it only takes one moment of crisis to reveal you are ultimately not. God is in control. Not you. Your life is not your own. You belong to Him. Your life is in His hands. And, for those who know God as their loving heavenly Father through Jesus Christ, this is a very good thing.

The New Testament writer Jude speaks of God as the One “who is able to keep you”. “Keep” means "to guard and protect." We see similar sentiment in Romans 8 where we are told that “if God is for us who can be against us” (Romans 8:31).

And so, God is in the business of keeping His people safe in His grace. God has promised to complete the salvation He has begun in us, namely that through all the trial and trouble of this world we shall be transformed into the very likeness of Jesus Christ (Romans 8:29). This is God’s good and sure plan.

Thus, there is no reason ever to react in fear. History shows that fearful people do foolish things. Desperate people make dumb moves. However, we have no reason to feel desperate.

We are, thus, free to act in faith-filled wisdom, for we know that in whatever comes our way we are more than conquerors through him who loves us, and that nothing shall be separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:37-39).

Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective.

“Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.”

~ Jude 24-25 (ESV)

Transcript:

Hello, this is Pastor Don of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective.

If parenting is anything, it is a divinely mandated opportunity to grow in patience.

Now, for many of us, this suggestion may feel like a cruel joke, or at least somewhat tone deaf to the painful madness of parenting in the real world. We are tired of being patient!

Patience is perhaps the most difficult virtue. It takes work. Hard work. But, no pain; no gain.

Perhaps you know the old joke: you should never ask the Lord to grow you in patience—for the only way God can answer that prayer is to allow challenging people or problems into your life. Situations that force you to bear up underneath—to wait! Indeed, the New Testament word for patience, quite literally, means “long tempered” or “long suffering”.

Nonetheless, St. Paul lists patience first in his description of what love is (1 Corinthians 13). “Love is patient. Love is kind.” Etc. Indeed, patience belongs to the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). So, we can be assured that patience is exactly what Jesus is working in us.

Now, to assist you in your parenting, I’d like to direct you to some helpful resources. The book Parenting with Patience: Overcoming Anger in your Home by Chap Bettis is excellent. Likewise, Parenting by Paul David Tripp provides a good overview. Go to the transcript of this podcast on our website for details and for more suggestions.

Bottom line: we grow in our patience when we feast on Jesus’s patience toward us.

Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective.

“Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. ‘Honor your father and mother’ (this is the first commandment with a promise), ‘that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.’ Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.”

~Ephesians 6:1-4 (ESV)

“Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged.”

~ Colossians 3:20-21 (ESV)

Some parenting resources:

• Parenting with Patience by Chap Bettis
• Grace-Based Parenting by Tim Kimmel
• Parenting by Paul David Tripp

Transcript:

Hello, this is Pastor Don of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective.

As Christians, we are called to humble ourselves before the cross of Christ, so that we can experience the exaltation of His grace.

You see, Jesus is a god who by His very nature shows us both the seriousness of our crimes against God and the certainty of His compassion toward us. And He does this in one fell swoop—at the cross. At the cross, Jesus swallowed the fullness of the judgment against our sin and, by that, demonstrated the fullness of His love. Therefore, approaching God through the cross, both humbles us (it shows us our guilt) and lifts us up (it shows us His grace).

The great French thinker and mathematician Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) put it this way:
“Jesus is the God whom we can approach without pride and before whom we can humble ourselves without despair.” The good news of Jesus attacks both our arrogance and our insecurity.

And so the Scriptures say: “God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble... [Therefore,] Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.” Humility and exaltation are not mutually exclusive.

Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective.

“But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, ‘God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’ Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.”

~ James 4:6-10 (NASB)

Transcript:

Many of us are stressed—troubled by social, financial, physical and even spiritual trials. Where should we turn for help? There is no better place than the incarnation of Jesus Christ.

The doctrine of the incarnation speaks of the great mystery that, in Christ, all of God has come to us as a true human being. The fullness of God has become a member of our human race. In other words, in classical Christian theology, God is not a being that is distant and removed from human troubles. He is not “the man upstairs”. Rather, he is the man who lived among us. This means that God has experienced firsthand all our trials. He knows what it is like to feel pain and disease, to feel the rejection of a friend, to feel temptation, to feel the onslaught of anxiety, to experience poverty and loss, to face what feels like insurmountable circumstances.

Yet, the Bible likewise tells us that Jesus experienced all this without sin. Not once did he ever fail to trust His heavenly Father.

This means that Jesus both totally “gets us”, and can totally save us. The writer of Hebrews puts it this way:

15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. (Hebrews 4:15-16)

Are you troubled, needing comfort? Ponder the incarnation of Christ!

Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective.

“Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.”

~ Hebrews 2:14-18 (ESV)