The Kingdom Perspective

Transcript:

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

How exactly does the Gospel make us into the kind of people that seek the good of our neighbors instead of the narrowness of our own interests? Why is it that the Gospel drives us to be considerate of our unbelieving neighbors, even when they might not be considerate of our values and beliefs?

Well, Paul gives us at least two reasons. First, he tells us that we are a people who look up. We are “looking [up] for the blessed hope…the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus” (Titus 2:13). Therefore, if we are defrauded in this world, if we do not get what we want in this life, we are not left hopeless. Our hope is still on its way; Jesus Christ will someday come again. The goodness and glory that will be ours at His return causes any loss in this life to pale in comparison. So, first we must look up!

But, secondly, we are to look back. This Jesus, for whom we are waiting to return, is the same Jesus who 2,000 years ago “gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession” (Titus 2:14). Jesus willingly offered up Himself for our good, when we were dumping all our bad on Him. Seeing His patience towards us should make us categorically patient with others.

Having these two things in sight keeps our souls on track, so that we can patiently and perseveringly move forward in service to others, to be “a people…zealous for good works” (Titus 2:15)

Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective.

“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

Declare these things; exhort and rebuke with all authority. Let no one disregard you.”

~ Titus 2:11-15 (ESV)

Transcript:

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

Titus was young pastor that the Apostle Paul had stationed on the First century island of Crete. Crete was a place of many challenges because of the unsavoriness of its public life. The people of Crete were known for their self-indulgence, arrogance and deception. Paul cites one of the Cretan writers who describes his own people: “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons” (Titus 1:12). It was a society marked by what we might call “truth decay”. Not tooth decay, but “truth decay”.

First century Crete, you could say, was a lot like our modern America.

How can a Christian operate in a society like this? Well, because of the nature and power of the Gospel, the Christian does not need the support of a surrounding society in order to be cheered on to greater levels of truth and justice. No. Society doesn’t bring this support to the Gospel and to the church. The Gospel and the church bring this support to society. Though the world may be reactionary, we need not be.

In the face of such “truth decay”, Pastor Titus is called to encourage his people to live lives marked by self-control, sensibility, love, perseverance in good works, family faithfulness, reverent speech, purity, etc. In other words, the gospel allows us not to be thermometers of society, but thermostats—to set the temperature of social engagement not to be set by it. We must seek to adjust the social climate not acquiescing to it.

The Gospel works this in us not so much by what it demands from us, but by what it did for us in Christ. It is the gospel of “Grace and peace from God” (Titus 1:4). Not what we do for Him but what He’s done for us. And it is this grace that changes us, and it is this grace we are called to give to others.

Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective.

“Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness, in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began and at the proper time manifested in his word through the preaching with which I have been entrusted by the command of God our Savior;

To Titus, my true child in a common faith:

Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.

This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained….

For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party. They must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach. One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.” This testimony is true.”

~ Titus 1:1-5, 10-13

Transcript:

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

Ronald Reagan (1911-2004), the 40th president of the United States, was an optimist. His news conferences and even political debates were seasoned with jokes and levity refreshing in the world of Washington. Even his political opponents were compelled to appreciate his positive public engagement.

This optimism meant he was not afraid to go toe-to-toe with the repressive totalitarian Soviet empire, famously demanding in Berlin, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” (Berlin Wall Speech, July 1987)

What gave Reagan this optimism? Well, I think a big part of this is that he had imbibed the spirit of Western civilization, which itself had been marinated in centuries of Christian ethos. Christianity is an optimistic, forwarding looking, freedom loving religion.

Now, to be clear, this is not to say there are not reasons to be negative about the history of Western civilization and the Christians that populated its landscape. Slavery, rapacious colonialism, genocide—to name a few—are all fair critiques. Nonetheless, any reasonable reading of history has to note that these negatives are not unique to the West. What’s unique is the progressive spirit that has fought against them—in many instances all but eradicating these evils. These negatives are not caused by the West’s Christian heritage. Rather, a good argument can be made that it is precisely the influence of Christianity that allowed the West so effectively to battle against these evils (to investigate this claim, see, e.g. Confronting Christianity: 12 Hard Questions for the World’s Largest Religion by Rebecca McLaughlin, Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World by Tom Holland, Timothy Keller’s chapter in “The Church is Responsible for So Much Injustice” in The Reason for God, Why You Think the Way You Do: The Story of Western Worldviews from Rome to Home by Glenn Sunshine, and Poverty and Leadership in the Later Roman Empire by Peter Brown).

Reagan encapsulated this optimistic/progressive sentiment with his numerous references to a “shining city on a hill”. Of course, this phrase was not unique to Reagan. He got it from John Winthrop (1587/8-1649), a founding leader of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Governor Winthrop, however, did not coin this phrase either. The phrase actually originates with Jesus, who said that His people will be a “City on a Hill”, lighting the way for a new world, a new way of living (Matthew 5:13-16).

Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective.

“Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain. Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. Likewise you also should be glad and rejoice with me.”

~ Philippians 2:14-18 (ESV)

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 www.christredeemerchurch.org.

Transcript:

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

Cornel West is well-known for his outspoken views on politics, race and economics. Politically and otherwise, he is left-leaning, to put it mildly. He is not a fan of Western capitalism and has severe critiques of the history of racism in the West and its lingering effects.

Whether you agree with Cornel’s political views or not, one thing you have to appreciate about him is his congenial manner and his absolute commitment to the free exchange of ideas. Cornell is a big believer in freedom of speech and is concerned about its loss, particularly in places of higher education.

Sadly, by his own estimation, such confidence in the free exchange of ideas is waning dramatically, especially among his fellow liberal colleagues.

As Christians, though, we need not be afraid of the free exchange of ideas. The Truth is never afraid of being vulnerable. The Truth is never afraid of being rejected. The Truth is never obsessed with controlling others. The Truth is never insecure. Rather, the Truth of the gospel demonstrates its strength by giving itself away, even for those that hate it (John 3:19-21; 19:1-11) and even for those that seek to suppress it (Romans 1:18). The Truth always operates in courageous love.

As Cornel West puts it: “Most people are afraid of freedom…. [But] There is no freedom without unbelievable, unprecedented, unstoppable courage.”

I’d like to add: there is no courage without Truth. It’s Truth that gives us backbone—that allows us to enter the free exchange of ideas. Truth is afraid of nothing.

Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective.

“So Pilate entered his headquarters again and called Jesus and said to him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus answered, “Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me?” Pilate answered, “Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done?” Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.” Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” Pilate said to him, “What is truth?”

Then Pilate took Jesus and flogged him. And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head and arrayed him in a purple robe. They came up to him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and struck him with their hands. Pilate went out again and said to them, “See, I am bringing him out to you that you may know that I find no guilt in him.” So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Behold the man!” When the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out, “Crucify him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no guilt in him.” The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die because he has made himself the Son of God.” When Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid. He entered his headquarters again and said to Jesus, “Where are you from?” But Jesus gave him no answer. So Pilate said to him, “You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you?” Jesus answered him, “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. Therefore, he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin.”

~ John 18:33-19:11 (ESV)

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 www.christredeemerchurch.org.

Transcript:

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

After Jesus and His apostles, arguably, St. Augustine was the intellectual and theological giant of the first thousand years of the church.

Augustine was converted to Christ in the late 300s, within just a few years of Rome becoming officially Christian. Then, like now, there was much misunderstanding as to what this meant for Christian involvement in the kingdoms of this world. If Rome was now a “Christian Empire,” does this mean it is the “kingdom of God”? Many had begun to equate Pax Romana (The Peace of Rome) with the Peace of God.

Augustine, though he loved Rome, said “no” to this misinformed notion. Augustine knew from the teaching of Scripture that Jesus’s kingdom is ultimately not of this world. Sadly, as Augustine lay dying in AD 430, vast parts of the Roman Empire were being overrun by foreign forces. The Eternal City, having first crumbled from within, was now crumbling from without. Nonetheless, Augustine had hope. He knew that in the rubble of this empire a new eternal civilization was rising, not one built on the love of power, but on the power of love. Christians do not ultimately find their hope in this present world. Earthly empires are not God’s Kingdom and earthly leaders are not our Messiah. Rather, we find we hope in God.

Now, that doesn’t mean that we do not care about what happens in the here and now. We absolutely do, and we live lives to prove it. It just means that the way we care doesn’t contribute to chaos of the present moment. Our hope is anchored beyond the crashing waves of this world.

Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective.

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

~ Matthew 5:7-12 (ESV)

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 www.christredeemerchurch.org.

Hello! I’m Pastor Don Willeman of Christ Redeemer Church, and I want to let you know about something very exciting coming up for you on Christmas Eve at the downtown Lebanon Green.

The pandemic has been a challenge for all of us, and we desperately need two things: Community and Hope. Isolation and despair are serious problems.

Normally, we’d be gathering to celebrate the holidays. But COVID is making congregating indoors very difficult!

But, at CRC we believe that God is charge, and that times of challenge are times of opportunity.

So, in lieu of our normal indoor Christmas Eve services, we are planning something very special—an outdoor Candlelight Christmas Eve Service on the Lebanon Green. This will be a socially-distanced, mask-required event, following all the recommended health protocols.

We will gather, sing and celebrate not only our shared community, but also the hope of Christmas—that God sent His only Son into our world darkness, in order that He might give us the light of His love.

So, make plans for you and your family to join us on Christmas Eve, December 24th at 4:30pm. And please invite your friends and neighbors. All are welcome! And don’t forget to click on the link below for more important details.

I look forward to seeing you! And on behalf of our congregation: Merry Christmas!

Transcript:

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

The Bible tells us that because of sin, we have a debt that none of us can repay. In our sin we have offended an infinite God, and so we have an infinite debt to overcome. This means that the only hope we could possibly have is for an infinite being to step in and satisfy that debt. But, this is exactly what God did for us in Christ Jesus.

In Christ we have “redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our sin”, that is to say we have been bought out of our debt through His life lavishly given to us and for us (Ephesians 1:7). In Christ’s great love for us, He has assumed every penny of our great debt.

Allow me to illustrate it this way, imagine you are a young woman from a poor family. As a matter of fact, you are in deep debt, a debt so deep that it would be impossible ever to overcome. But one day, out of the blue, a very wealthy man shows up at your door and offers to marry you. You are suspicious at first, even though you’ve known about this man from afar, as he is something of a celebrity. You’ve even dreamed of someday marrying him. But, of course, this is crazy, because of who you are. He doesn’t know you, and besides, you have nothing to bring to the table, but your poverty.

But, alas, this crazy dream does come true. And the moment you both say, “I do”, legally all his wealth becomes yours and all your poverty becomes his. And because of His great wealth, you suddenly find yourself not only loved, but financially secure beyond your wildest imagination.

So it is with our sin. God’s righteousness has swallowed up our debt of justice through our surprise bridegroom Jesus Christ.

Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective.

“In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.”

~ Ephesians 1:7-10 (ESV)

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 click here or to find out more about the ministry and resources offered by Christ Redeemer Church visit www.christredeemerchurch.org.

Transcript:

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

Fear has the power to constrain. Bad fear, that is fear not rooted in the fear of God, will constrain you from growing as a person. It will stunt your emotional, spiritual and relational development. Actually, depending on the nature of the fear, it may even stunt other aspects of your development. For example, some studies suggest that an obsessive fear of allergens, such as avoiding peanuts, can actually leave you more susceptible to developing a peanut allergy.

Succumbing to shame will stunt your personal growth. In order to overcome our fear of shame, we have to face it. The only way to overcome shame is to carefully walk into it and through it—to face the vulnerability of shame.

But how can we do that, when our fear of shame so cripples us?

The popular academic sociologist Brené Brown has made a career out of addressing this troublesome issue of shame.

She says: “Shame cannot survive being spoken. It cannot tolerate having words wrapped around it. What it craves is secrecy, silence, and judgment. If you stay quiet, you stay in a lot of self-judgment.”

This is precisely why God comes to us in the gospel, the “good word”. God does not keep quiet in the face of our shame. He speaks to us tenderly, but truthfully. In Christ God confronts our shame by placing it on Himself on the cross for all to see, and thus condemning it to the grave.

He wraps our shame in the Good Word of His Son Jesus Christ. Listen to prophet Isaiah:

He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief
[Yet] Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
…and with his wounds we are healed. (Isaiah 53:3, 4 and 5)

“Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away” our sin and shame (John 1:29)!

Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective.

“Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said,

“This at last is bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called Woman,
because she was taken out of Man.”

Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.”

~ Genesis 2:18-25 (ESV)

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 click here or to find out more about the ministry and resources offered by Christ Redeemer Church visit www.christredeemerchurch.org.

Transcript:

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

Fear is very powerful and controlling. Bad fear, that is fear not rooted in the fear of God, will constrain you and keep you from growing as a person. It will stunt your spiritual, emotional and relational development.

Now, one of the most powerful controlling emotions is that of shame, and it is very much related to fear. When we are tempted towards shame, we are being driven by a particular kind of fear—a fear of relational connection, or maybe better said, disconnection. Shame says, “I am fearful of being vulnerable, because I don’t want to be seen as inadequate. I don’t want to be uncovered in the nakedness of my soul. I’m fearful of being rejected and despised?”

We all experience this sense of shame at times. The Bible suggests that this fear is deeply rooted in our human psyche, precisely because it is deeply rooted in the history of the human race. When our first parents Adam and Eve sinned, their initial experience was that of fear and shame.

Listen to Genesis 3. Adam says to God: “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself” (Genesis 3:10).

Now, here’s the good news. Adam would have never had this conversation with God, were it not for God pursuing Adam in his shame. Adam had swallowed the lie of sin and shame. But God’s pursued Adam, still. And in this we see the foreshadowing of the gospel of Jesus. In the gospel, God comes after us. In our shame we do not seek God; but in His grace He seeks us. Jesus put it this way, “The Son of Man has come to seek and save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10).

Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective.

“Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.

He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.””

~ Genesis 3:1-13 (ESV)

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 click here or to find out more about the ministry and resources offered by Christ Redeemer Church visit www.christredeemerchurch.org.

Transcript:

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

The problem with the gospel of Jesus Christ is that it brings us both the worst news we could ever receive and the best.

First the bad news. The apostle Paul sums it up this way: We are dead in our sin (Ephesians 2:1). By “dead” he does not mean that we are inactive. No. Rather, in the context he means that we are born into a human race that is cut off from the life of God. Therefore, our manner of life is an offense to God. We follow the path of the devil, pleasing ourselves and not God (Ephesians 2:2-3). We are “by nature deserving of [God’s] wrath” (Ephesians 2:3). Now, what could possibly be worse than to be told you are on the wrong side of ultimate and eternal justice? This is the unbelievably bad news.

But, the gospel doesn’t stop there.

Secondly, the gospel then tells us unbelievably good news. Allow me to quote from Ephesians 2. No one has ever said it better:

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved (Ephesians 2:4-5 NIV)

This is an amazing truth! But the gospel doesn’t stop there. It is not enough for God to spare us from eternal judgment. He then pours out upon us His own eternal riches. Listen:

And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, [Why? In order to remind us forever of our failure? No!] in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

My friend, the problem with the gospel of Jesus is not that it is too negative. The problem is that is too good to be true. But it is true!

Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective.

“And you were dead in your offenses and sins, in which you previously walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all previously lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our wrongdoings, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the boundless riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”

~ Ephesians 2:1-10 (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 click here or to find out more about the ministry and resources offered by Christ Redeemer Church visit www.christredeemerchurch.org.