Dive into the rich tapestry of the Bible as we navigate the concept of ascension and specifically the ascension of Jesus to power. We will use Solomon's ascent to power as a parallel, exploring how these ancient narratives cast a light on our modern spiritual journey. With Pastor Ryan Brown's keen insights, we draw out details that bind the Old Testament to the New Testament, revealing Christ's enduring sovereignty. Our conversation extends to the roles of proclamation and allegiance in the Christian life, as we discuss the gravity of acknowledging Christ's kingship and how it shapes our destinies.
Concluding on a note of introspection, we ponder the mission set forth for us as witnesses to the kingdom of God, emphasizing the empowering guidance of the Holy Spirit rather than our own efforts. The episode is rich with the transformative potential that faith holds, from identity reformation to the generational impacts of our spiritual choices. We invite listeners to join us as we continue to learn and grow in our faith.
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Dive into the rich tapestry of the Bible as we navigate the concept of ascension and specifically the ascension of Jesus to power. We will use Solomon's ascent to power as a parallel, exploring how these ancient narratives cast a light on our modern spiritual journey. With Pastor Ryan Brown's keen insights, we draw out details that bind the Old Testament to the New Testament, revealing Christ's enduring sovereignty. Our conversation extends to the roles of proclamation and allegiance in the Christian life, as we discuss the gravity of acknowledging Christ's kingship and how it shapes our destinies.
Concluding on a note of introspection, we ponder the mission set forth for us as witnesses to the kingdom of God, emphasizing the empowering guidance of the Holy Spirit rather than our own efforts. The episode is rich with the transformative potential that faith holds, from identity reformation to the generational impacts of our spiritual choices. We invite listeners to join us as we continue to learn and grow in our faith.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RealBibleStories
Notes: https://sermons.church/archives?church=PalmsBaptistBibleStudy&id=126
Website: https://real-bible-stories.square.site
Check us out on these Streaming Platforms: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1912582/share
Hello and welcome to Real Bible Stories. Join us as we deep dive into the historic, religious, cultural, political and emotional context surrounding the real lives of real people in the Bible and the stories we've all grown to love. You know I never get tired of that opening. Hello and welcome to Real Bible Stories If this is your first time joining us today. My name is Imran Ward and we are joined by my wife, selena. Hello. And Pastor Ryan Brown. What's going on everyone?
Selena:He's back from youth camp in Hawaii.
Pastor Ryan:Yeah, he's just been doing the most he made it through. He's been a sprint the last couple weeks.
Imran:How was youth camp? I actually don't think I got to ask you how that went?
Pastor Ryan:Oh, it was amazing. We had, you know, you guys ever pray that prayer. That's kind of it's like it's almost like you, you don't ask too much of God, like you temper your prayer right as if, like it's too much for God, like, all right, lord, just give me three. Just give me three good responses, and you know I'm not asking too much. Right, you could do that Right, like and he just I think he's chuckling, he's like I'm he, he vastly yeah he vastly exceeded everything I had prayed for.
Pastor Ryan:Um. We had salvations. We had about 15 make recommitments back to faith um return to Christ. We had I mean, particularly the Saturday night we were there. It was the first time I had seen the youth truly worship. So in the beginning of camp you see them. They have their arms around each other and they're singing. But it's in communal and it's sweet, nothing wrong with it and they're singing, you know, but it's in communal and it's sweet right. Nothing wrong with it. But like they weren't, it wasn't on your knees repentant worship right.
Pastor Ryan:And you see, saturday night, like there was a couple of them, like they're in, you know they're hugging each other and you see them just kind of leave their friends, go off on their own on their knees, tears, crying, screaming the worship song. We went back to the cabins that night because that was kind of the plan. Was we really asked them to be in one of four categories of decision? One was to come to Christ, make a decision. The second one was to return to him. The third one was to continue on just becoming a better disciple, becoming more like Jesus, and the last one was I'm not ready to make any of those decisions yet, but I do have questions, so I'm willing to continue to engage in conversation about it. Right and um, the whole point was to go back to your cabins as, in cabin time as a group, let's, let's talk about our decisions and what that looks like practically. Of course, every cabin looked a little different, but by and large, most of them were full of tears and confession of sin and real church.
Imran:What was the age group you all took with you?
Pastor Ryan:Junior, high to high school.
Imran:It was like 13 to 18 type of thing.
Selena:It was throughout the community right Like different churches.
Pastor Ryan:We did have a couple other churches join us. Churches who are a little bit smaller don't have a well-established youth program. So we support them with a lot of our events. We bring them in.
Imran:And it ended up being what 61 total.
Pastor Ryan:Yep, yeah, well over 60 we brought.
Imran:We budgeted for what? Was it 40 or 30?
Pastor Ryan:No, yep, yeah, we're over 60. We brought and, uh, we budgeted for what, was it 40 or 30? No, so camp last year we only brought I don't say only, but we brought 22, and we had made it like a ministry goal to bring 30 this year and yeah, we ended up and god was like I have a glance for you.
Pastor Ryan:Yeah, we ended up tripling it and, man, yeah, some salvation, some, some, some surprises of where some of the kids are that we never would have guessed like you. There was one where, just the way she is, you're like oh she, oh she. She must've been saved when she was like six, right?
Pastor Ryan:And you know. But she was like no, I'm kind of part of the question category I'm not sure I'm ready and I do want to learn more, and it's like wow, like I didn't know, that's where you were at. There was others where I thought they were saved and they stand up in front of all their peers Like I'm ready to make a decision, and that kind of surprised you. And then there was some other ones where you're like I'm not sure where they stand, they seem kind of lost, and then you just see them kind of come to life out there. I mean, it was just really good, that's awesome.
Pastor Ryan:It was good for the youth. It was good for the leaders too, for them to see that. I mean, we had this one kid, he was really cool, he junior higher and he never really felt the spirit before. He's like, yeah, he's like I don't know how to explain what I'm feeling, but like my whole body's tingling and I feel it's even tingling in my teeth. And, of course, our first, question is did you eat something. Is your tongue going numb?
Pastor Ryan:No, you know like, well, yeah, that's the spirit then you know, but it's not allergies.
Imran:Confirm.
Pastor Ryan:It's not drugs. Yeah, and he was like I love it. He was like, ah, I didn't know, the spirit felt like this and, um, it was just, it was really really good, so, and then, yeah, after that I get ready to fly to Hawaii for work and do that sprint and then flew in 1 am Saturday morning and we had a youth barbecue that Saturday when you all made burgers from scratch like killed the cow fled the cow but they did like make the sausages and stuff.
Imran:No, we did Got the pork actually filled the intestines, Grind the sausage and did all that.
Pastor Ryan:Then barbecued it and then went from there to a birthday party, then straight from there to a two hour softball practice.
Imran:had to put on and straight to dinner with pastor David and pastor does have a day job, and he's also a preacher man taught this morning and now I'm here. Yeah, absolutely. I'm hoping that if I get back by dinner I'll be able to actually relax this weekend, and you know what it is, because it's post Super Bowl, so you don't have like an excuse to sit in front of the TV.
Pastor Ryan:That is true. So you have to do. I still have hockey, though. I still have hockey man.
Imran:Yeah, all right, anyways, but yes, we're jumping into or I guess we're kind of going back to because while you were out for all this stuff, we had set free kind of handling and holding it down. Appreciate you all, set free church for holding it down. But now we're going to jump into what it means to be a witness.
Pastor Ryan:That's right, and it's not necessarily good question to ask. But when you hear the calling, and particularly the identity that Christ gives us, to go be a witness, what do you generally believe that to mean?
Selena:The way you live your life.
Pastor Ryan:Okay, yeah, by the things you do, the things you say, the way you treat people, bearing good witness right, would you agree?
Imran:with that, emran. Well, when I think about the concept of witness, uh, I think I agree with selena, that is how you live your life, but it's also how you lived your life previously as well, because it's not just what you're doing now. That's your witness. It's how it relates to where you came from. So, like set free church, there, the passion of that church is so powerful because of how crazy some of the backstories are from some of the people that are in it. The pastor there was previously incarcerated and he's grown from there to being the pastor of this church. The whole Set Free community, coming from the kind of a lot of insanity there, just makes the witness of how they're living their life now so palpable, so real and so honest and something that, like, I just love to be around. So, um, it's, it's. It's not just how you're living your life now.
Pastor Ryan:It's in contrast to what you were saved from the testimony piece. Yeah, and I I think most people would probably agree with all that Right and it is all those things. Um, this is a layered thing, um, but I would also say I think most people would probably agree with all that right and it is all those things. This is a layered thing. But I would also say, I think, on the forefront of what we are bearing witness to and really the responsibility of what we are given, it actually tends to be much more simpler than that. You know, I think this is a good example of sometimes. I think we in the church don't like how easy and simple the faith is. Oh, in the sense that, like the messages and what Jesus taught, like, is it really that easy, right?
Imran:Like is it really? I mean, he says, my burden is light, right.
Pastor Ryan:And we have a hard time. So we almost sometimes have to make it more. And that's one element. I think another element is, as things kind of build over time, we tend to kind of build our own thing around it. Not that there's anything wrong with that or that any of that is untrue. But I think, before you start kind of getting into well, how I live my life, how I talk, where I came from, my testimony, all that understanding initially what it, on the forefront, at its basic level, means right.
Pastor Ryan:And so we're going to kind of explore that title that we are witnesses to Christ. What does that really mean? What are the you know kind of?
Pastor Ryan:the assumptions the implications around it, and it's going to be kind of a cool study, I think, because we're going to be in a lot of Bible, but we're also going to be talking a concept that touches many other things.
Pastor Ryan:So this, I think, may not only illuminate this particular identity, but it's going to illuminate a lot of other ideas about Christ, um cause this exists within kind of a model, you know, and um, christ would often teach in terms of a model to help communicate realities to us, right, he does that, with marriage being the bride of Christ, you know, um, so so he does this a lot.
Pastor Ryan:And here's an example of, of something surrounding, I guess, the theology of Christ that um was meant to help us, at least in that day. It was meant to help them understand the reality of some things, right, but, but also the implications of it, and so that's going to be really cool. And I would say the third thing, before we really dive into it, we're going to be spending most of our time actually back in first Kings, even though our, our Selena will read it here in a second Our, our anchor passage here is in Acts, chapter one, but, um, this is going to be another example of how interwoven scripture is you know there's like over, you know, 60,000 something cross references in the Bible.
Imran:Um or something is just referencing something else right, or or or.
Pastor Ryan:It's either speaking to something that you see fulfilled later or speaking back to something right, like, but it is such an integrated, the Bible itself is such an integrated text, you know, across 40 different authors, across thousands of years, um, that if that were to even be written by one person deliberately, you'd be like this person is an absolute genius, right, and which isn't the case. It's. It's over 40 years, a lot of time. So you just see the Holy spirit's fingerprint on it, right, but, but part of that it's it's.
Pastor Ryan:It goes to also a practical thing with Bible study, I think, where you can read a story and you're like okay, cool story, but what's the point of that? How does that draw me closer to Christ, which is particularly the story that we're going to primarily be in, which is the ascension of Solomon. This whole drama that surrounds this really takes up two chapters in 1 Kings. How does this draw me closer to God? Right? How do I become more like Jesus in that kind of story? That could also be a little brutal, you know, like what is going on, right? So this is going to be a good example of understanding how even older concepts, or understanding concepts over text will help illuminate things that are discussed later. So with that, I think, selena, you want to hit our base text in Acts 1?.
Selena:Yep. So Acts 1, verses 7 through 9. He said to them the Father has set by His own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes and a cloud hid Him from their sight.
Pastor Ryan:So this piece of text is what we would call the ascension of Christ, and it kind of, you know, we're about to get into, um you know, the season of, of of the resurrection right. Um, I refuse as much as possible to use the word Easter. I hate Easter, the term, it's, it's, it is where does the term come from?
Pastor Ryan:It's a derivative of the goddess Astaroth, which is one of the goddesses that the Philistines worship that God actively tries to destroy. That you read in the Bible. Right, it was a thing of Rome trying to unite Christians when that became politically prominent yeah.
Pastor Ryan:But you also had this. It was like 50-50, right, like how do I unite an empire who is, you know, a lot of Christians and Jews? Yeah, and then you got you know the pagan beliefs and that's why they meshed and merged certain festivals together Christmas is the same way with winter solstice and things like that, but I Easter is, I call it resurrection day or the feast of first fruits, like I, just so everybody knows that's my thing I'm not saying.
Imran:you call it Easter, you're going to hell.
Pastor Ryan:I'm just saying for me, I just but my point is, but the feast of first fruits was an actual Jewish that was the actual Jewish holiday right.
Imran:He was resurrected on the feast of first fruit, right that's why Paul calls him the first fruits of the resurrected. And that's why it ends up being a double Sabbath. Right when we talked about one of the earlier episodes, it had always been that.
Pastor Ryan:Yeah, the reason they went to the tomb when they did was because that was the first day after the Sabbath that they were able to actually do the death rites right.
Pastor Ryan:So my point is that we're going into the season and we talk a lot, right A lot about the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ rightfully so, of course. Christmas season we talk a lot about the birth right, the incarnation, but you very rarely ever hear anybody talk about the ascension. And I feel like I mean, if you think about what, what did that just say there in verse nine? So after he said these words, this was the last thing he said. It says he was taken up before their very eyes and a cloud hid him from their sight. If you were to keep reading in verse 10, it says so. They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them men of Galilee. They said why do you stand here looking into the sky? The same Jesus who has been taken from you into heaven will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven. This is an incredible event.
Imran:Yeah.
Pastor Ryan:All right, this was an absolutely like, if the resurrection wasn't enough, right them to see. This is absolutely incredible. You actually see, like in, for example, peter's writings, like in 1 Peter you see him reference this multiple times Like the Ascension had a massive impact on not just the 12, not just those closest to him, but it had a massive impact on everybody who saw it. This was obviously very significant and it's called the ascension, right, the ascension of Christ. Well, all that plays, the whole idea of ascension and idea of witness is all playing within this common model, is, I guess, what you would call a? Um, the Royal dynamic. I guess you can say so we're going to talk through that here in a second. But what I want to do is kind of to set that up, to kind of show how interconnected these things are and what things can teach us. I want to go back to first Kings and first Kings, chapter one. Um, you essentially have a rebellion of one of David's sons.
Pastor Ryan:So, one of David's sons is Adonijah, and this is a different son. David had already fought a rebellion against his son Absalom. This is a different son, and I'll read in verse five it says now Adonijah, whose mother was Haggith. That was another essentially Great name. That one didn't withstand a test of time.
Imran:That one.
Pastor Ryan:English ruined that one forever your old Hag mother there.
Imran:I mean, I bet her nickname was Hag, but all right, but yeah so one of the other, I guess concubines of David.
Pastor Ryan:So Adonijah, whose mother was Haggith, put himself forward and said I will be king. So he got chariots and horses ready, with 50 men to run ahead of him. His father had never rebuked him by asking why do you behave as you do? He was also very handsome and was born next after Absalom. Adonijah conferred.
Imran:They stopped doing that after. Like in the New Testament. There's a couple places in the Old Testament where they refer to people as, like, handsome or not good looking and stuff like that. We'll talk about it in a second, because let me just finish this little piece up here I think David would reference to be handsome during the story of David and Goliath.
Pastor Ryan:Sorry, We'll talk about it here. In a second We'll talk about the handsome man.
Imran:What an interesting thing.
Pastor Ryan:Adonijah conferred with Joab, son of Zariah, and with Abiathar, the priest, and they gave him their support. So handsome. A couple things with this is that one don't you notice? It says his father had never rebuked him by asking why do you behave as you do? Meaning that the character of Adonijah was one of nobody really like this was a surprise. Nobody would expect this from him.
Imran:Is David known as someone who would rebuke his sons?
Pastor Ryan:He fought an entire war against one of his sons.
Imran:That's fair, that's pretty rebuking.
Pastor Ryan:So nobody had expected this of Adonijah. Oh gosh, adonijah, there we go. But then the next thing it says is that he was also very handsome. Now we can talk about handsome men.
Imran:Dude, I was just surprised that I saw it again.
Pastor Ryan:But if you remember it's kind of a continuation when we had done?
Imran:David and Goliath.
Pastor Ryan:Those couple weeks. If you remember, saul was selected because he was tall and handsome.
Imran:You look at and they said David was handsome too.
Pastor Ryan:But not his stature. Yes, they said his older brother was tall and handsome and I looked at David and he's like, yes, he was handsome, but he wasn't tall and big in stature. Yeah. Right. So he's kind of like a pretty boy, where a lot of the context for them is handsome, is is is. Well, they have the stature, they're tall, they're you know maybe muscular right.
Selena:It's kingly in a sense.
Pastor Ryan:Um, it's somebody that you look at naturally and say, oh, I want to follow that guy. Yeah, right, like that. That is somebody like cause they're good looking and they have everything put together right.
Pastor Ryan:And nobody had ever rebuked him for his behavior or nothing, right? So it's what this is doing right now is trying to set up, I guess, why Adonijah had, why this was a real threat to Solomon, because David had promised Solomon's mother that Solomon would be king. So it's, the text is trying to set up that this is a real threat. Right, he has good character or a good reputation. He's good looking. Right, he's handsome, he's like you said. You know he's royalty, he looks kingly. And then it says that he was born next after Absalom. One of the reasons Absalom was raging his war was his rights that he believed that he had to. The throne was one that he thought he would do better than his father, but he would have been the next heir before, right? Did he kill his first son in that war? Yeah, that's a whole other thing.
Imran:It's really interesting. We go to 2 Samuel, but now the second son is actually the rightful heir because of that war. Yeah, that's a whole nother thing. Um, it's really interesting to go to second Samuel, but now the second son is actually the rightful heir because of the. You got it Right.
Pastor Ryan:So it's showing now, even in terms of posture, in terms of expectation, if you were to go follow the next, you know, oldest kind of thing, right. Yeah.
Pastor Ryan:So, um, and then notice out, says now in Adonijah, conferred with Joab, son of of Zariah, and with Abiathar the priest. So remember, israel was supposed to be ruled by God and God alone. And then they had the time of judges and they began asking for a king. And they were never meant to have a king, they were meant to be ruled by God. So God said, okay, I mean, if you want a king, I'll give you a king. They're like no, we choose Saul. So notice that, the same, you know.
Pastor Ryan:Go back to the study of David and Goliath right, tall, handsome, has the title, has the prestige. Right, has the reputation, all of that of the. Remember what it says back in 1 Samuel 19, or, I'm sorry, not 1 Samuel 17,. Men look at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart, right, so? But it's saying that this is a real threat and it shows there was supposed to be a king. And then with the king, you had the high priest and they were supposed to kind of govern together.
Pastor Ryan:So, abiathar the priest, who was a well-known priest. So now it's showing a cabinet. Not only does Adonijah have like credentials, but now he has a posse with him to include his high priest right, you notice that he's built that dynamic duo Right. This is a political play. And he says and they gave them their support. And he says and they gave them their support. You also find in verse 19, he said he also invited all his other brothers, the king's sons, all the royal officials of Judah, but he did not invite Nathan, the prophet, or Benaniah or special guard, or his brother Solomon.
Imran:I have a question. Is it explained earlier why David's like hated by his kids right now?
Pastor Ryan:Not this one in particular. That's kind of the point of the story. What's shocking about it is that this came out of nowhere, but this story is more anchored around Solomon than it is David, so we'll kind of lead to it, right, which is really more going to point us to Christ, right, which?
Pastor Ryan:is kind of the primary point of it. But notice, he also invited all his other brothers, the king's sons, all the other royal officials of Judah. He did not invite Nathan the prophet, who was the high priest at that time, benaniah, or the special guard, you know, the one to protect the king, or his brother, solomon, right. So in other words, in the very beginning, you see that Adonijah says I'm going to be king, declares himself king, gets chariots and horses and 50 men to run ahead of him, which is important. Later, then he gets the support of all the royal officials, all the other brothers of David or sons of David. He has his high priest right. And then there's a few that he had left out Nathan the prophet, benaniah, the special guard and Solomon.
Pastor Ryan:Okay, but then we were. So that's all the support for Adonijah. Okay, they didn't get to Solomon. It says but Zadok the priest Benaniah, son of Jehoiada, nathan the prophet Shimei. It says but Zadok the priest Benaniah, son of Jehoiada, nathan the prophet, shimei and Ray and David's special guard did not join Adonijah. So most of those are expected, except for Shimei. If you guys remember who Shimei was, this was like David's political rival his entire life.
Imran:And there's this point to which Shimei, is he blood or he's just like another dude?
Pastor Ryan:He's another dude, but a dude of reputation. So when Absalom was rebelling against David, there's a lot of things going wrong for David in the kingdom. Shimei is the one who was following along David's caravan and was throwing rocks at him, cursing him, and his mighty men say was throwing rocks at him, oh no, Cursing him. And his mighty men say let us go strike him down now for treating the king this way. And we talked about this all the way back, actually, in the episode we did on Esther.
Imran:Okay.
Pastor Ryan:The OG of the OT. We talk about this story because he gives a command. He says for as long as I live, shimei lives, so that maybe God will restore back to me favor and blessing and grace. So he made a covenant that he would never kill Shimei, no matter how shameful. So what's interesting here is that Shimei did not go against David. It's a very interesting. It's kind of a surprise as well. We'll talk more about it here in a second. But where I always did not go with Adonijah, he did not go against Solomon, so he backed Solomon at the very least.
Pastor Ryan:Other support, you see, for Solomon verse 28, it says King David said to call him Bathsheba, who was the mother of Solomon. So she came into the king's presence and stood before him. The king then took an oath. As surely as the Lord lives, who has delivered me out of every trouble, I will share and carry out this very day what I swore to you by the Lord, the God of Israel Solomon, your son, shall be king after me and he will sit on my throne in my place. Okay, so David has now swore to Bathsheba Solomon will be king. I will make Solomon king. We will figure this out. He will be king. I understand what they're doing, but he will be king, so skip to verse 32.
Pastor Ryan:It also says King David then said call on Zadok, the priest Nathan, the prophet Benaniah, son of Jehoiada. When they came before the king, he said to them Skip to verse 32. It also says anoint him king over Israel, blow the trumpet and shout long live King Solomon. Then you are to go up with him and he is to come and sit on my throne and reign in my place, for I have appointed him ruler over Israel and Judah. So, in other words, what David said was I'm going to make Solomon king today. Right, to make sure that this happens, he's going to be made king today. So he essentially, if you notice, if you were to go back to what Adonijah did, david did the same thing for Solomon Go get my mule, go get my people, go ahead, blow the trumpets, make it known, declare long lives right.
Pastor Ryan:So, he's doing the exact same thing. Just keep in mind what both of those are, because those are going to feed into what we're talking about. Okay, so let's talk about the outcome. Verse 49 at this, all of it. So when Adonijah and all his guests and all the people who had aligned with him heard about what David had done for Solomon, how he had pushed them through, blew the trumpets how he came in and started sitting on the throne Right, yeah trumpets how he came in and started sitting on the throne right Now.
Pastor Ryan:I want you to kind of notice the emotion in this. At this, all of Adonijah's guests rose in alarm and dispersed, but Adonijah, in fear of Solomon, went and took hold of the horns of the altar. Oh no, so essentially what you have is this game of thrones situation. Right, Adonijah is trying to seize the throne for himself outside of Solomon. David keeps his covenant with Bathsheba and makes Solomon king and makes sure he falls through by ascending him up to his throne right At that particular point, because David's still alive and he was on his own mule and his own throne. Right, he understands that, publicly speaking, it was very clearly communicated to the people who David's choice was right Before he died. So now Adonijah, realizing he's essentially lost the political battle, right, he gets afraid. So what's the outcome for everybody who aligned themselves with Adonijah? Let's talk about Adonijah first.
Imran:And this is without one arrow being slung, well, not yet.
Pastor Ryan:Well, we'll get to it in a second. So chapter 2, verse 24. So now, as surely as the Lord lives, he who has established me securely on the throne of my father, david this is Solomon speaking has founded a dynasty for me. As he promised, adonijah shall be put to death today. So King Solomon gave orders to Benaniah, son of Jehoiada Remember now, notice who that was right, that was one of the ones who remained loyal to Solomon in that time, and he struck down Adonijah and he died. Okay, so how did this turn out for Adonijah, his brother, who tried to ascend the throne ahead of Solomon? Right, solomon gets declared king Solomon, you're done. Kills him. That's right. Solomon gets declared king Solomon, you're done. Kills him.
Imran:Abiathar the priest so just to make sure I'm not confused Solomon wasn't the first one that rebelled.
Pastor Ryan:Solomon didn't rebel. Solomon was who David put his blessing on and anointing on to replace him as king of Israel.
Imran:Adonijah was the one who rebelled first, and then Absalom rebelled first, absalom rebelled first and Adonijah rebelled second.
Pastor Ryan:There you go. So the other ones who aligned themselves with Adonijah, abiathar the priest, right, who's going to be the new high priest? Yeah, to Abiathar the priest, the king said go back to your fields in Anathoth. You deserve to die, but I will not put you to death now because you carried the ark of the sovereign Lord before my father, david, and shared. So essentially, solomon kind of gives some grace to Abiathar the priest, even though he had aligned himself with Adonijah. He said look, you carry the ark, you serve my father, you remain loyal to my father through hard times. You deserve to die, but I'm going to let you live. And then you got Joab.
Pastor Ryan:Now, when the news reached Joab, who had conspired with Adonijah I'm sorry, this is verse 28. When the reached Joab, who had conspired with Adonijah I'm sorry, this is verse 28. When the news reached Joab, who had conspired with Adonijah, though not with Absalom, right? So he didn't conspire with Absalom in his rebellion, but he did with Adonijah he fled to the tent of the Lord Because, remember, the temple hadn't been built yet. Solomon's temple has not been built. Solomon was just made king. So you still have the tabernacle, right. So the tent of the Lord, the tabernacle. So you fled to the tent of the Lord and took hold of the horns of the altar.
Pastor Ryan:King Solomon was told that Joab had fled to the tent of the Lord and was beside the altar, and Solomon ordered Benaniah, son of Jehoiada, go strike him down. And then in verse 34, there's this whole drama in between of trying to get him out of the tabernacle, essentially, but in verse 34, he eventually gets killed. Okay, so the whole point of going through all this, this entire story, right Kind of how I started. How does this make me closer to God?
Selena:Yeah, Like this is a lot of drama, Like this is very dramatic, Would make for a great, you know.
Imran:HBO series. Hbo would take this and run with how have they not done more Bible, more Old Testament, hbo, what?
Pastor Ryan:does this do for me In terms of drawing me closer to Christ and to understand what is going on here? And understanding that model helps us understand what Christ tells us later in Acts 1. So let's kind of talk about the different elements of what we just read. Okay, now that we have a context, a non-Christ context, right Within this royal dynamic you had really I mean there was multiple things, but four primary ones. Okay, the first royal dynamic was what you called the ascension, so for somebody to ascend their throne, to ascend the throne, or I guess you would maybe call it the coronation.
Imran:Okay, man, that made me think of Frozen Sorry.
Pastor Ryan:The coronation. The coronation ceremony for Frozen 1.
Imran:Yeah Well, whenever you need a, I was like oh, I know exactly what that is. Yeah, yeah, yeah, thanks, Disney. Well, whatever you need to. I was like oh, I know exactly what that is. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Pastor Ryan:So the Ascension or the, the coronation right, like um who's the King Charles of England?
Imran:It's like the formal declaration right this person.
Pastor Ryan:So when you look in Acts, chapter one, about the ascension of Christ, what is Christ doing in that? Why is it the ascension? What's?
Imran:he ascending, he's physically ascending to his throne.
Pastor Ryan:He's ascending to his throne. Okay, it's a royal idea. He is ascending to his throne. Jesus is the crowned king, One. Just like how David had thrown his support and validation over Solomon. Right, God has thrown his support and validation over Solomon. Right, God has thrown his support and validation over Christ. He is going to be king. Does that make sense? This man is who my choice is. Now there's going to be a lot of rebellion in the world. There's going to be a lot of people who claim and try to be king, but God says my support is around Jesus of Nazareth.
Pastor Ryan:He is going to be king, right. So that's the ascension. The second element of this dynamic is what you would call the announcement. So when a king had ascended his throne, what he would do is he would send out witnesses to announce and proclaim the king's ascension. Okay, so generally, when we talk about these witnesses, they were really first given to the high officials in cities. So think about it going out to governors and senators and the mayors, right, Like they would receive. Like, hey, so-and-so is now king, is now emperor of Rome, right, and they would take that and they would have their people and say, hey, go announce in the streets that Tiberius has ascended his throne, so is this what Israel was trying to do when Jesus rode on the donkey.
Pastor Ryan:That's more of a messianic play out of Zechariah, Because I know he talks about going on the mule right, but that does have kingly hints in it, though right For the same reason. It was a messianic prophecy that the suffering servant would enter in on the mule. But it is kind of, in a sense it's coronation, in a way that then that's Palm Sunday right's coronation in a way, um that then that's Palm Sunday right.
Pastor Ryan:And then he gets killed, right, which is? We'll talk about all that Cause I think a lot of your, your, your minds are already starting to see some things right Cause, um, but, but I want to focus on right here, though, is the announcement piece that when a King ascends, he chooses witnesses to go ahead of him to announce his ascension.
Imran:Yeah, okay, yeah, cause it's. The episode is not necessarily about the ascension of Christ, it's about now we're getting into the witness themselves.
Pastor Ryan:Like okay, so what are? What is the responsibility? You are to go be my witnesses.
Imran:Yeah, what does that responsibility actually mean?
Pastor Ryan:So now we're there you go Right. So now you get Christ as he's ascending his throne and he's now sending his witnesses out.
Imran:right and the job of the witness you will be my witness, and now we go into the job.
Pastor Ryan:And what was the job that the witness was to have?
Imran:And it's very simple Declare Go tell it on the mountain Right, go, declare Christ as king.
Pastor Ryan:And everywhere. That was the message that Jesus Christ is Lord Right. That's the message To be a witness. On its most simple front and within this formulation is you are to go proclaim to Judea, samaria, to the ends of the earth Christ has ascended His throne, christ is King.
Imran:Okay Dang that kind of already flies into the face of what we said. What it means to be a witness is because, if the primary purpose is to be the proclamation, if you're just trying to live your life a certain way, you're only going to proclaim if someone asks you oh well, why do you live your life a certain way? It's like, well, I'm glad you were asked and you bring up Christ that way, which for some people that's like what it might be necessary for where you are in your spiritual journey.
Selena:But if you truly believe, like your Lord is Lord, then you would act that way.
Imran:Correct. But to go out and proclaim is a different thing, like if your job is to go out and proclaim. Your job isn't to just go out and wear a t-shirt and hope someone asks about it. Your job is to go out, you know, open the scroll and declare the Lord is coming, you know.
Selena:That's why you send processionals first.
Imran:It's an inversion right.
Pastor Ryan:So it's an inversion of how we described it, how me and Selena described it. So what we do to say, live a life that people ask questions about, so then you can have conversations. What this is saying is actually the opposite. It's not that you wait for people to ask you you're supposed to go proclaim it.
Pastor Ryan:Even if you haven't gotten your life together yet. And then when they ask you um, let's talk about this, because it kind of goes into the point three, so we may hit this again. Um, but since we're focused here within the story this is why we went over this story you have Adonijah declaring himself king and you have Solomon, who was like I thought I was supposed to be king, and David throwing his support right. So you got David right and you have Adonijah. So you have two options.
Pastor Ryan:You have a king right To be a king, for you to go be the and notice what it says with Adonijah right.
Imran:Sorry, did you mean Solomon and Adonijah? Two options to be king? Yes, what did I say? He said David. Oh, I'm sorry, david's the one that's currently king. Solomon and Adonijah.
Pastor Ryan:But remember what it says, though, here about Adonijah, verse five again in chapter one Adonijah, whose mother was Haggith, put himself forward and said I will be king. So he got chariots and horses ready, with 50 men to run ahead of him. Why are these 50 men running?
Imran:ahead of him. What are they proclaiming? They're the witnesses.
Pastor Ryan:They're running ahead of him proclaiming Adonijah is king right. So the point is is that there's always going to? There was always, there was always any time a king, a new king came up. It was very rarely, actually ever, a peaceful transition.
Imran:Yeah.
Pastor Ryan:There was always people trying to make claim to a throne, trying to usurp right so that's an existence, right? So the idea that you go out and you say, no, christ is king, well, they're going to be like, because they have people they put their support behind. Why is Christ king? And then that gets into the element of what you guys are talking about. Why is Christ king? Why are you?
Imran:because you had to make a choice.
Pastor Ryan:You had to align yourself. Who do you support? Adonijah or Solomon? Who do you support Christ or the kings of the world? Right, and the idea is, when you declare, proclaim Christ as king, as a witness, then they're like well, why are you putting your support behind Christ as king? Well, let me tell you what he did for me, and that's when the testimony comes in. Right, but I think, a freeing thing about this. The job was not to argue or convince people.
Pastor Ryan:It was to proclaim it was just to go say it, go proclaim the reality Christ has taken his throne.
Imran:Christ is king.
Pastor Ryan:You just proclaim the reality. I don't need to have a PhD in apologetics to try to convince you of why that is. I should be prepared to give you a reason and an answer, as it says in first Peter three, 16,. Always be prepared to give an answer for the hope that you hold right. Like so, you should always be prepared to give an answer of why you put your allegiance behind Christ. But when it comes at the end of the day, we put more burden on ourselves than we need to.
Pastor Ryan:We think I have the job solely like I'm going to mess this up If I start talking to this person and they're just kind of like dude, you're crazy, you're one of those weird Jesus freaks, like get away from me. And you're like I'm really bad at this witness thing. I can't, I shouldn't be doing this Right, I just messed up eternity forever for this guy.
Pastor Ryan:Cause I couldn't do right and it's like no, that is not on us. Yeah, that is not on us. We are to be the ones who just proclaim the reality, and this is, I think, was, also very interesting.
Imran:I wanted to highlight the um, the. The phrase uh, don't shoot the witness. I. The phrase uh don't shoot the witness I think is funny, Cause we often hit that phrase but it's like it's not saying don't shoot the person who saw something happen. Right that was for is don't shoot the person going out and proclaiming Right, cause we would use messengers to go between kingdoms and and like pass knowledge or make declarations, stuff like that. And so when they say don't shoot the wish with the witness. It's like if the king sends forth someone to I don't know one of their lords and says, hey, make sure you do this thing, increase your taxes or whatever, you shouldn't kill that person because they're not the one making that decision. The enforcement mechanism and the decision maker is that king, what?
Pastor Ryan:happened to all the witnesses who aligned themselves with Adonijah when it failed? That's why I went through the outcomes. What happened to Adonijah? What happened to Joab? What happened to all the people who had aligned themselves with Adonijah? What did Solomon do? Well, he killed them.
Imran:He killed them so and this gets to like but it's because it wasn't just a job they made the choice to throw their weight behind that person.
Pastor Ryan:The first thing you need to understand about this model and dynamic that is acts one is communicating, particularly with his ascension is, first and primarily, a decision. You have to make a decision of who you support as king.
Pastor Ryan:Right, you have to make a decision, just as they had to make a decision between adinaja and solomon. You, we, every one of us, has a decision to make. Who do we declare king to be? And, just like then, depending on how you make that decision has life or death consequences. Right, you align yourself with the wrong king. Right, or the wrong usurper, you're done for right. That's the context of what is happening anytime those ascensions happen. So you have to make sure, whoever you align yourself, you better make sure that they prevail. Right, which goes into this whole purpose. Right, that we're not to convince or argue. You've already made your decision. Now I'm just proclaiming my own decision. So it's not even just a reality of hey, christ is King, but it's also a proclamation of where I stand.
Pastor Ryan:It's a proclamation of my loyalty. So this, when we start what you were talking about earlier, selena, well, how you live your life, how you speak, right, all those elements it is a proclamation, with your life as a witness of one, that Christ is King. Well, why is Christ King? Well, I'll give you a reason. But you also see where my loyalty is and my decision and how I live my life and what my King tells me, because the world may have a lot of problems with Christians and some of them even have a hard time with Jesus, um, but mostly everybody, at this point at least in the Western world, have an understanding and expectation of what it means for Christ to be king over someone's life, and they're very quick to very quickly understand and realize when you're not acting according to the commands of your king. Right, like, what do you mean? Christ is king and why are you over here in a strip club? All right, they know they're very well astute of that, right. So when it talks about bearing witness in your life, it's still a valid thing, because you are still proclaiming yeah, right. The only way that's not the case is that, if you then don't be what he told you to be, which is a witness, you say, well, I'm not going to proclaim it at all. So now my wife may not be having a negative impact on on the gospel, because I'm also now not doing what God told me to do, which is proclaim the reality that he's King. Does that make sense? So, either way, you're being disobedient, you're not doing what he told you to be as a witness or, in you know, living poorly, or you are, by living poorly, providing negative witness to that fact. Right so, right. So you have the witnesses that would go out ahead and make their proclamation, but there's these three kind of other elements here that are at play.
Pastor Ryan:The next element of this royal dynamic is, I guess, what you would call the establishment. This is the establishment of the throne. This is once somebody had kind of clearly been understood nope, they're king, right. In this particular case, it was Solomon. David threw his support behind, did all he needed to to make sure he propped up Solomon. So there was no doubt in the minds of the people. Well, the very next thing Solomon does is he has to establish his throne. So he ascended it, he sat on the throne, but now he has to establish his throne, and the establishing it could tend to be a little bloody right. That meant that you had to rid the kingdom of all potential rivals and destroy anyone who had pledged loyalty to a different usurper. You're cleaning house, right, adonijah? You stood against me. You knew what the promise was. You knew it was supposed to be mine. You try to usurp it, you, you. You lost, but now you're obviously a threat.
Imran:You're done.
Pastor Ryan:Yeah, right. So you could almost put it in terms of biblical terms the establishment of the throne. Um, it's, in a sense, it's almost like what Christ is doing now up until judgment day. It is defeating the world of rivals to establish his throne properly. And then there's a decisive point in time, just as there came for every one of the men in this story that they found death right.
Pastor Ryan:He was patient, though, don't you notice, in Solomon's in particular? In terms of his establishment, he had shown mercy while also showing justice, right. So, as judgment day will be, we will fully understand God's justice and God's grace and mercy on that same day. If you aligned your loyalty to Christ, you're going to be glorified with him. If you stood against him and you never made that decision to declare him king, you're going to have that same fate, right? It's kind of the model that it's showing. So you have the establishment.
Pastor Ryan:Now, those three things are kind of. What's operating over the top of that is this other concept called the parousia, okay, which is a royal term, and what that meant was the coming or the presence of the king Parousia, once your throne, once you ascended your throne or you had your coronation, that's called. That would be a parousia. That is the king, the newly king, who's ascending his throne, entering you know, and to go up to the throne, there's the coming and the presence of that new king right in that coronation. So the coronation itself is a parousia, right? So you have, that's its own thing. But over the top, is this idea of a parousia the coming or presence of a king. If you've ever seen the movie Gladiator, yes.
Pastor Ryan:You know when he returns from. So he kills his father, marcus Aurelius, right, and he's coming back to Rome and you have all the people out there with their throwing flowers and he's in his chariot waving, and that's a parousia. Okay, so that that is an idea of the parousia of the king. Um, now in the parousia once the throne was finally established, okay, those same witnesses who had went out and proclaimed the ascension of the king would then also proclaim the coming of that king. In particular, a new king would usually tour his kingdom, of course, right.
Pastor Ryan:As any good leader should Right, he would go around, inspect what you expect. Right, and let them know I'm here, I love you all, right? Yeah, so he would tour his kingdom and all the other cities, and when that would happen in the parousia of that's, its own parousia, because, yeah, you had the coronation in Rome, but when you go visit, Athens what happens there?
Pastor Ryan:Well, it's another parousia, it's the coming and the presence of the King, right? So what would happen at a parousia is the most loyal subjects in that city would leave the city, line the roads for the king as he's entering into that city, and they would kind of fallen behind and march behind him as he entered the city. So the idea is that you go meet your king outside the city so you can enter the city with them. Does that make sense? They would follow him essentially behind him in his glory. So, um, and and once that happened to, by the way, they'd get into the city. You would generally have, like this, really long feast for the King. Um, the King would reward his loyal servants with gifts, and, um, it was kind of like this challenge coins, you know yeah this big party, right, but during that establishment phase there'd be like multiple parishes of peoples who would claim that throne, right?
Pastor Ryan:So which is what you see with Adonijah, and it's what you saw ultimately with Solomon at the end. So what Christ is talking about here and back to Acts 1, we're talking about the ascension of Christ, who's ascending his throne. He's sending out his witnesses to the ends of the earth to proclaim Christ has ascended his throne. Within that time, there comes the establishment with the message that you need to be prepared for the parousia of Christ. The parousia of Christ, in church terms, is what we call his second coming. Does that make sense?
Imran:I have a few examples here, because he did the ascension and we are doing the proclamation, and so this parousia would be the second coming in that process.
Pastor Ryan:Right, and that and this and this kind of model, that that is painted for us in Acts, right? Okay, a couple of examples of when the term parousia is used in Scripture. You'll notice they're all pretty much. There's 24 total in the New Testament. It's obvious I'm not going to go through all of them.
Imran:So the second coming of Christ is Christ coming to tour his kingdom.
Pastor Ryan:Essentially.
Imran:As in heaven on earth as it is in heaven, and then being disappointed, destroying it and building a new one, and then being disappointed destroying it and building a new one, not being disappointed.
Pastor Ryan:He's not going to be disappointed at anything he's establishing.
Selena:So that's after the announcement, and we're currently establishing.
Pastor Ryan:He's establishing his throne.
Imran:I thought he was coming back taking us.
Pastor Ryan:And he's like do away with this and building the new earth. There's different views of what that means. One thing I think is very, very clear is that we were intended for earth. Right, god didn't make a mistake by putting us here, for us to sin and just for them to save us and just bring them up there and destroy you. Right, the whole idea is that we had a job here. So that's why revelation ends with Christ returning to earth and establishing the new heaven and the new earth right where we are going to live with him.
Pastor Ryan:So I don't want to go down that rabbit hole okay, but the big concept here, with all those elements right, you got the ascension, you got the announcement, you have the establishment and then you have the parousia, right. So listen to 2 Thessalonians 2, verses 1 through 9. It says now, concerning the parousia of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him. We ask you see how we being gathered to him. We ask you, brothers and sisters, not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by the teaching allegedly from us, whether by prophecy or by word of mouth or by letter, asserting that. You notice how that's? Following almost the exact same story everything that is called God or his worship, so that he sets himself up in God's temple proclaiming himself to be God.
Pastor Ryan:You notice how that's? Following the almost the exact same story of what you read back in first Kings, chapter one and two. Right, do not think that the parousia of Christ has already happened. He says that they're going to be other parousias. Don't let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs. Just as a Dineshah rebelled, there'll be a rebellion of the man of lawlessness. Until he has revealed the man doomed for destruction, he will oppose and exalt himself over everything that is called God or his worship, so that he sets himself above up in God's temple for claiming himself to be God. Right, what you're talking about is dueling. We have a usurper trying to take Christ's throne.
Selena:Yeah, so would that be like the Antichrist that we've talked about?
Pastor Ryan:I would say it's probably more Satan than anything working across trying to declare himself God over God.
Pastor Ryan:He says don't think that the parousia has happened yet. Christ has not come back again in his parousia. It won't happen until this rebellion happens, until Christ establishes his throne. Right Is essentially what it's saying. If you were to keep reading, it actually says verse five of 2 Thessalonians 2,. Don't you remember that when I was with you, I used to tell you these things?
Pastor Ryan:This is Paul speaking and destroy by the splendor of his parousia. The parousia of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works. He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve this lie. So all you're talking about is dueling parousias, just as you saw here in 1 Kings 1. But it's putting that same in the context of the coming of Christ. So you have the ascension. You had him doing, his establishment of it, with the expected parousia of Christ, with we being the witnesses in between who are just meant to go out and proclaim the reality of our allegiance. Christ is my king, right.
Pastor Ryan:Another good example. This one's not as long, but this is to the same church in Thessalonians, but it's 1 Thessalonians 4, 15. Good example this one's not as long, but this is to the same church and Thessalonians, but it's first Thessalonians four, 15 through 17. It says now, according to the Lord's word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the first Thessalonians, what first Thessalonians four. Four versus 15 through 17, 15 through 17.
Imran:Yes, yes.
Pastor Ryan:According to the Lord's word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the parousia of the Lord, will certainly not proceed, those who have fallen asleep, for the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a loud command and with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive in our left will be caught up together with him in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air in his parousia. So if you notice in that one right there, the same model, right, notice the loud command, voice of the archangel, the trumpet call of God, right, just what happened when Solomon had his parousia? What happened when Solomon had his parousia? David told him go ahead, blow the trumpet, get all the people proclaim go, ascend my throne, right, and your parousia, right.
Pastor Ryan:He's describing that parousia. But then if you also remember that's absolutely wild when they would come into the city, right, what would happen? What all the loyal subjects do? They went out to meet. They went out to meet him and would follow him behind in his glory. For that parousia, right. What does he describe right here for us?
Imran:There's going to be an announcement, the loud shout, the dead will rise.
Pastor Ryan:And then it says after that we who are still alive or in you know for the analogy essentially in the city, will be caught up together with him in the clouds. So the city is the earth.
Pastor Ryan:So to meet him in the air as he comes into Right to go meet him up there to return with him in his glory, for his parousia, for his coming right. So that's kind of like the larger concept, right? So you see this play across in 1 and 2 Kings, or 1 Kings, 1 and 2, and how this kind of applies to this identity that Christ has given us. So let's just kind of peel that back right. We already had talked about one of the things that identity gives us is a decision, right? So when you got multiple parousias, multiple claims to the throne, who do you align with to the throne? Who do you align with? And a lot of people, I think they don't put it in these terms, obviously, because we don't talk in these terms anymore, but what you see, practically people do, they align themselves to politicians.
Pastor Ryan:You see, people align themselves to cultural issues to money, to.
Selena:Ourselves.
Pastor Ryan:And that was the other one that pride ourselves. Well, no. I'm not with any of those. It's like well, if you have not declared crisis King and you haven't declared anybody else as King, that's probably because you are declaring yourself King.
Imran:Yeah, it's like atheism. Atheism isn't real, cause there's something's your God in your life, right. Something's your God in your life. It's either you're your God in your life money, a politician, like you said, or something else, but something is a God in your life, right. And so by saying you're an atheist, you're just saying you're following something else.
Pastor Ryan:But right, an atheist would say you're an atheist too right? You just you reject all other 720 gods that are in the encyclopedia. You just follow one. Right, like the point is is in this construct is you have to choose. You have to choose who your king is, and that decision is a life or death decision.
Imran:So there's no choice.
Pastor Ryan:There's no choice. Right, you have to align yourself, you have to have allegiance to somebody and something, and you do. There's somebody or something you serve.
Imran:Yeah.
Pastor Ryan:Right and um.
Imran:you know, we were just even talking and if it's you, then you know that sucks, cause you're probably like we're not that great. No, yeah, you probably shouldn't just be serving yourself.
Pastor Ryan:That's kind of. That's also why most people aren't following you Like you know what I? Mean Like it's like you're nobody else's King. Um, cause you ain't that great, right, you're just great to you. Um, but the, the mirror says I look great. We were talking.
Pastor Ryan:I'm a handsome um you know, you guys were talking on the podcast about Nicodemus and, um, what it means to be born again, which was really good, Right, I was telling you guys before how blessed I was by having them come in and do that, but one of the interesting things that I was telling you about is a story from the Talmud about Nicodemus' daughter and that Rabbi Yohanan, who was kind of a contemporary and also a rival of Jesus in his day. Like the Gospel of Matthew was written probably largely as an antithesis to a lot of the teachings of rabbi Yohanan. So in the Babylonian Talmud it tells a story of rabbi Yohanan who's leaving a city and, um, I know you guys already heard this, but it was just. This is a good example, right.
Imran:I didn't.
Pastor Ryan:But uh, the rabbi Yohanan's leaving a city and he sees the daughter of Nicodemus going behind and picking out straw from the dung of horses and cows so she can eat. And this catches him by surprise because he said wasn't rabbi Nicodemus very generous and benevolent? Like why are you here begging and pulling straw out of poop to eat? And they ask him where's your father's wealth? And she's like, well, you here begging and pulling straw out of poop to eat. And they ask him where's your father's wealth? And she's like, well, you just please help me. And he says well, hold on Seriously where's your father's wealth?
Imran:What?
Pastor Ryan:happened to your father's wealth, because somewhere else in the Talmud it also describes Nicodemus as being one of the three richest men in all of Israel in that time. Right, so what happened to your father's wealth? And her response, I think, is really cool. She says his new master came in and destroyed his last master. Yeah, essentially, what does that mean? Right, and if it's the same Nicodemus we're thinking of, I think it indicates that Nicodemus, his new master, christ, came in and destroyed his last master, which was money. You have to make a choice. Right, you have to align yourself to somebody, because Christ will establish his throne. Right, he's already reigning on his throne, he's already ascended his throne, he's already up there, but the establishment is still there. You still have rebellion. You still have multiple parousas going on of glory of no, I'm king, no, I'm king, I'm king, and one day he's going to put it all to death.
Imran:He's going to say all right.
Pastor Ryan:Yeah, I'm sorry.
Imran:Islam, muhammad Nope that's not it, buddha, nope, that's not it.
Pastor Ryan:He's going to put to death any rivals and it's going to be very clear he's going to establish his throne on that day. And where you align yourself matters right.
Imran:Yeah, I think that that's a perfect antithesis story to when Jesus is asked by the rich young ruler what he must do to get into the kingdom or to win favor with God, and Jesus says you know, sell all you have and follow me. And in the opposite of Nicodemus, that rich young ruler doesn't do it. He can't separate from that true God in his life which is his money, and he walks away. So it's awesome to see that the opposite is there for Nicodemus, where he does allow his first God to be destroyed so he can follow Christ. He does allow his first God to be destroyed so he can follow Christ.
Pastor Ryan:You know, we had, we were up at youth camp. We had I took, I took them up to this. They call it an inspiration point. It was after, I think, our morning chapel on Saturday. I bring them out there. I wanted them to go do about a half hour personal reflection time. So I'm like, go find a nice spot on the mountain, you're just going to reflect. You have a journal, reflect on you, right, really, what's wrong with you? No, but just like last year, a big storm hit week after leaving.
Pastor Ryan:Uh so we barely missed it, but no, so it was actually pretty nice. But so they're out there, and but leading into that, I brought them all kind of in. I said one of the things Jesus talks about is that before you make the decision to follow him, you need to count the cost. He said you will look very foolish, Like he's, like you don't build a house, right, and not count the cost of building the house first, so that you just kind of like I'm going to build a house and start building a house and you're like. You're just kind of like I'm going to build a house and start building a house and you're like you're half finished. Now you look really foolish, right, he says don't follow me and not be able to finish right, Count the cost of what this means.
Pastor Ryan:On the inverse of that, though, and what I kind of posed to them, I said but nobody ever counts the cost of sin either. So there's times where we like make decisions that I don't want to submit or be obedient to that thing, yeah and you, but we never measure the cost of that, right, Like it does. Is that one night out with the boys or is that? Um, you know that it is pornography right, Like whatever it is does? Is that worth costing you your marriage right? Not being able to see your kids every day, putting your kids through a divorce? Mom, live them somewhere. Dad, live another one. You're paying alimony, You're splitting. You know weekends and you know what I mean Is. Have you measured that cost of just to have this one fun night? Do you ever count that cost of sin as well?
Pastor Ryan:And I think for us, the decision is I need to count the cost of who I put my allegiance into as king, and Christ offers us far more than any king on this earth can offer to include money, far more than any king on this earth can offer to include money. Because ultimately, one day, all those billionaires that you look up and you envy and you're like, oh, I wish I had that jet and I had that yacht and I had the freedom, the financial freedom, just to go you know what I mean. All those people will die. They will all die someday and I don't know where they're going to land on things, but I do know that wherever they land is going to be the same point that I land when I die. Right, we're going to go stand before the same Lord, and that's really what matters. And what he offers me in my allegiance and decision towards him offers me far more than just this life, but what extends beyond it, Right? So we have to make a decision. So the idea of you are to go be my witnesses assumes you've already made a decision of loyalty.
Pastor Ryan:The second thing it also offered, though, is understanding the purpose of the proclamation right, which is that we are to go proclaim it. Well, Christ is King. Your biggest problem in your life is you, and the solution you need is Christ, and we need to proclaim the kingship of Christ. Proclaim Christ as king. You don't need to argue with anybody, you don't need to convince anybody, you don't need to go I guess I'd get a PhD in apologetics at some Christian university Just go, proclaim the reality, have a reason of why you've put your allegiance there.
Pastor Ryan:But you know, in John 15, this will be even more freeing if it hasn't been communicated enough yet the burden of bearing witness to the glory of Christ isn't even ours. He tells us that we're to be the witnesses to proclaim the message that he is king, but the actual bearing witness of christ's glory in this world is not even ours. You know who. He assigns it to the holy spirit. It's the holy spirit's job, right? So just as christ wouldn't entrust us to our own salvation right, because if I could save myself I'd probably lose it. Right? And if I can't save myself, and I certainly couldn't keep it? Right.
Pastor Ryan:And the gospel of John in particular, it all surrounds the glory of, or the hour of glorification, the glory of Christ being the cross. He didn't entrust that to us. So then why would he entrust the witness of his glory to us? He says no, no, no, no. All that's anchored on me. I will make sure I bear witness of my own glory. So in John 15, he tells us that responsibility has been given to the Holy Spirit. So if you look back at the very beginning in Acts 1, right Verse 7, he said to them it's not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. He's talking about his parousia. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and then you will go be my witnesses to Jerusalem. You notice that, yeah. So the responsibilities with the Spirit, we're only able to even do the job of being the witnesses to proclaim His kingship through the power of the Spirit. Right so, you can't fail, right you really can't.
Selena:There's nothing.
Imran:It's not on you.
Pastor Ryan:Yeah, it's not on you, it's not your responsibility. God accounted for your stupidity before he saved you and before he called you right. He knew what your strengths were. He knew what your weaknesses are. He knows what makes you uncomfortable and makes you comfortable. He knows your story, he knows everything about that and he accounted for all that. You can't mess this up, yeah, but but I feel rejected. People reject me when I bring it up sometimes. Yeah, probably you don't understand that their initial response to you is not the same thing as what they actually received, and maybe their response to you is so aggressive because you actually penetrated deeply.
Imran:Yeah, now you got them convicted. You know what I'm saying.
Pastor Ryan:Like you don't know any of that, but it's not your job to know any of that, because it's not also not your responsibility. But the spirit knows what's going on. Yeah, Some will plant the seed, some will water the seed.
Imran:Some will plant the seed, some will water the seed, some will harvest.
Pastor Ryan:Some will harvest, but that is not our responsibility.
Imran:Yeah.
Pastor Ryan:So you can't fail at this mission. I think that's one of the coolest things about this identity and this mission that he gives. He says just be faithful to do it.
Imran:Yeah.
Pastor Ryan:But you can't fail at it Like you can't. You're not going to offset the course of eternity because you said the wrong thing or in the wrong time. Right, he's accounted for it all. That's not your burden to carry. He loves you, but we are not good enough to bear the responsibility of bearing witness to Christ's glory. We're to be vessels of the Spirit. That's why the Holy spirit will come upon you. You will receive power and then you will go be my witnesses. Yeah right, um, because the spirit is the one who actually has the um is the one who's charged with the glorification. I just also want to just kind of say like um to this whole point about like the ascension itself. By the way, um Peter says this in second Peter one 16,. He says we do not believe in fancy fables, but we are eyewitnesses to his majesty.
Imran:Yeah.
Pastor Ryan:Right, like he see, they saw a resurrected Jesus. They see the resurrected Jesus ascend. They were there at Pentecost. They saw the resurrected Jesus ascend. They were there at Pentecost. They saw the miracles. We are eyewitnesses to the majesty of Christ. This isn't some weird fable. We're not talking about Greek mythology with this. This is something that we ourselves saw with our own eyes, and he's writing this to a community of people who are like, yeah, I saw it with my own eyes too.
Imran:It's like my mom saw that my mom was the one healed you know, it's like all of that stuff happened.
Pastor Ryan:But that's why the point of scripture is to reveal Christ's glory to the church, and the point of the church is to reveal Christ's glory to the world.
Selena:Yeah.
Pastor Ryan:Right, but that both of that is done through the powering of the spirit. I think that's another thing. Just kind of just make a little point with that. Sure, when you read your Bible, understand the point of reading your Bible is for the spirit to reveal God's glory to you.
Pastor Ryan:Yeah, like we, we, we, I think sometimes we, we start reading and we're like you know, um, I had a really bad day at work or I'm having, you know, trouble with my love, life and relationships and we start reading it for a very specific. The point of scripture is to reveal God's glory to you so you can go reveal his glory to the world, to be eyewitness, to be witnesses to the fact that he is king. But I think, on just this last point with it, okay, I think the other thing that this identity gives us in knowing all that, when you kind of bring it in collectively, is that we are highly honored in that selection. We kind of miss it, right, but the witnesses that were selected by the king, do you remember who they were? The high court officials. These were people of like great authority, great value, right, like they weren't just giving it to anybody.
Pastor Ryan:So the idea that he comes to us and says you are to be my witnesses to my glory, you're to be the witnesses to my ascension to the throne, is a big deal. It would have been a really big deal to them, like none of these people, that he says that to the fishermen, right, like the tax collectors. You know the the former um prostitutes. None of them would have ever conceivably been selected to be the witness to a King's ascension within the worldly domain.
Selena:Yeah.
Pastor Ryan:There's no way you would go to like hey, choose all the prostitutes and the tax collectors to go. Proclaim my ascension.
Imran:Yeah, that's not how that works. And also, even if that was the case, um, it's a Holy spirit thing to even make that successful, because people knew their backstories, like aren't you the fishermen, aren't you that woman of the night? Aren't you the tax, the tax collector? Right, it's like they would have dismissed them at a hand if it wasn't the spirit working through them. You know, so it's-.
Pastor Ryan:Well, right, and you see that theme right, like when we went through the one with the calling of Peter and Andrew and James and John, right, yeah, that they see a rabbi who says come and follow me, the affirmative rabbinical statement that you are enough to come be my disciple that all those men hadn't heard. Right, they were told they weren't good enough. He says no, you're good enough to come be my disciple.
Imran:Right, here's another massive affirmation right, and it's just like You're good enough to be my witness, right.
Pastor Ryan:It's just this weird paradox. I love it because we've been. There's another thing I had. We had gone through in camp, but it's like the Christ came to show us we are not as great as we think we are, and yet we are much better than we think we are.
Imran:Yeah.
Pastor Ryan:Right, like he's like you have no idea who you are. He's like you are so much better than you think yourself to be, but you're not what you think yourself to be. No, no, no, no. You ain't God, you ain't Lord, you ain't King of your life, you ain't good, you ain't that good, right, but you're so much better than you also believe yourself to be, and you're the sense of self, uh, deficiency, and you know what I mean.
Imran:Like I think it's like, um, the the way I'm kind of hearing you describe it it's like God's like saying you are so much less than you think you are on your own, but through me you are so much more than you could have ever imagined yourself to be. Exactly you know, it's like I will carry you so much further than anyone, even yourself, could have possibly have thought, but on your own, you you're not even close.
Pastor Ryan:Peter right, who was one of the ones who you know was fishing in the Sea of Galilee, who Jesus had come and recruited, is now writing in 2 Peter 1.16 after the death, resurrection, ascension and after Pentecost right, we're talking like a decade, you know, over decades later. We do not believe in fancy fables, but our eyewitnesses to his majesty right.
Imran:Even Saul, who was like he was pretty good on his own before, god, knocked him down and then and blinded him and then turned him towards, towards him, and now became the most prolific writer in the new Testament and was so much more than he, probably, than he would have thought he would have been, instead of just being um a popular rabbis um next in line he then became the most prolific writer, paul is.
Pastor Ryan:Yeah, I think Paul is actually a really good example of the fact that in Paul's day Paul is not what Paul is today in Christianity, right Like we kind of I would say almost sometimes improperly place Paul higher, like elevate Paul. Right Like in Paul's day he wasn't prolific. Peter James, john, like those were the pillars.
Imran:He was very combative with him when we were talking about the Galatia series, right, and they always had people coming in behind him undermining him.
Pastor Ryan:Paul was not that prolific in his day, so all that time he's suffering, all the time he's in prison, all the time that he's frustrating and working through these churches, like well, you guys just like stop it. Right, like the angst he feels, like do I need to come back to you and correct this? Right, like all of that is being done not from the encouragement of the fact that, like hey, I'm, I'm a rockstar Christian celebrity and first century Judea or Asia minor or Greece, right, um, he was just bearing witness. Right, he's proclaiming the kingship of Christ. He has no idea the impacts that those letters had across humanity, across thousands of years since. Right, he has no idea the impact that he had just in his proclamation.
Imran:Well, maybe in heaven he sees it, Maybe I don't know, but it wasn't his responsibility.
Pastor Ryan:He's probably not worried about it, right? The spirit knew what the impacts Paul would have.
Imran:Paul didn't know and Paul never really saw it in his life right the spirit knew what the impacts Paul would have.
Pastor Ryan:Paul didn't know and Paul never really saw it in his life, right?
Imran:Um. So I see another amazing thing. It's like, even from a even from a generational perspective, we do not know how much more Christ has for us. It's like we may not even be able to see it in our lifetime, but our kids, our kids, kids, um, we'll see that. It's like we may not even be able to see it in our lifetime, but our kids, our kids' kids will see that, wow, god really used this person, right.
Pastor Ryan:More than they ever thought they would have used them, they would have been able to accomplish on their own. Yeah, and you never. We have a hard time ever seeing just beyond our situation.
Imran:Yeah.
Pastor Ryan:Right Beyond the breakup.
Pastor Ryan:Which is very human Beyond the. You know the struggle, the breakup, which is very human Beyond the. You know, um the struggle, and but, like, if you look back in time, like I, even like, look at myself when I was in my early twenties, it's like I would have never thought my life is what it is today. Um, for the good, though right, Like I would have never if you would have told me when I was I was just telling the story we went to dinner with, you know, Daryl Lackey and Pastor David last night, Because you know, Daryl preached this morning at Palms and went to dinner with him last night. I was telling him about the first time that I'd shown up to Palms back in 2006. There's a drunk, hungover Marine in the far back row, Didn't?
Pastor Ryan:even want to be there because it was a Baptist church and you know all those things that.
Selena:Did Trisha drag you to church?
Pastor Ryan:No, no, no, no. It was actually a mutual friend of ours who were like hey, we found this church out in town. We're going to start going. I'm like, oh, if it's a Baptist church, I don't know. And they're like you should come. All right, I'll come with you one week. And, um, when and like it became a big spiritual step in my life to say all right, my goal is not to show up hung over a drunk at church tomorrow. Right yeah.
Pastor Ryan:And he wants to be conscious for the service, and who would have thought that you know? Gosh 20 years later yeah, that I was being ordained as a pastor at that same church and I would have never guessed that. Yeah, you know, god saw it then, right. So even at the time I'm beating myself up, feeling all this conviction, like I can't believe I'm drunk at church, right, like um, and just getting beat up and beat up, and beat up, and he's like yeah.
Imran:And those and those for you that are drunk at church right now. God's watching and God's got a All right. You know not the plans, and I know what that conviction feels like and just getting beat up and beat up and beat up. You may be the next pastor.
Pastor Ryan:God also looks at him and says, yeah, like he. I know he was looking at me. He's like Ryan, you just wait, yeah, wait, 10 years, you'll see what I did with you, right and um, and I think that that could apply to so. So that's what I'm saying is like get used to the idea One you do not bear responsibility for bearing witness to Christ's glory. You bear a responsibility to being obedient to what the spirit tells you to do. That's why, in the whole Galatians study, it was all about walking in the spirit.
Pastor Ryan:Right Walk in the spirit.
Pastor Ryan:The spirit will tell you what to do, because the spirit is someone that has control and authority over bearing witness to God's glory, right? So we kind of got off point, though. On number three, though, is the fact, though, that we are also highly honored, right, and I think what's cool about it is that the reward of it, so those witnesses would go out and proclaim. But remember, when the parousia came right, when the king and his parousia would enter the city, the loyal subjects and witnesses would go outside the city and join the king in his glory with his triumphal entry, right, and then that whole week there's like this festivity there's food, and then that king gives his loyal subjects gifts, right.
Pastor Ryan:When you read the end of Revelation, right, what you see is Christ coming back, and one of the first things that's described is there's this big banquet, there's this big party, and it also describes him giving us crowns. It starts off with all these promises I will give you the victor's crown, I will give you access to the tree of life, I'll give you all these things. He will reward his loyal subjects. You get to return and be with him in his glory and his magnificence. Just be faithful and obedient to what he tells you to be, just go proclaim it. Let's go proclaim the reality, be prepared to give a reason of why you've made the decision you've made. Um, that's why your testimony matters, um, and make sure you live your life according um to that reality that you proclaim that Christ is King.
Imran:So, I think that that's awesome and I definitely want to tie everything that we said here, because there was an amazing testimony that was given just recently on the church's Facebook page and I think it really ties in together all the stuff we talked about here, um about that life of witness right, the proclamation to live a life that's in accordance to how the King wants your life to be lived, um to go out and meet him as you come into the, as he comes into the city, to receive the reward, all of those things promised. I think we're really highlighted in this, this post that we received. I'm not going to highlight him specifically, but I do want to read his words because I think that it's just such an amazing testimony to that witness. And so he says I was asked if my conversation was a miracle or my conversion was a miracle. My response was was once a hope to die dopified and one who stuck needles in my arm. Today I've been married for almost 23 years and have sorry, 20 years and have three grandkids three kids and two grandkids. I'm trying to read, and I once was alone, without hope. Today, I am pursuing my master's degree in process of setting up and in the process of setting up a nonprofit with, eventually, my own life change center.
Imran:God is definitely a God of miracles. Be ready to glorify God and watch what he does. Thank you, jesus Right, and so I hope you carry those words with you as you go into the week. That it's the responsibility is not on us. It's going to be done through the Holy Spirit, and God's plan is much broader than anything that you can see. All he asks us to do is to proclaim and live our life in accordance with what he has called us to do, and with his kingship All right.
Imran:And with that we will see you next week on the next episode of Real Bible Stories.
Selena:Thank you for tuning in to Real Bible Stories. If you enjoyed this podcast, be sure to leave a review, share and subscribe to be notified each week when we upload new episodes. Real Bible Stories is produced in partnership with Palms Church in 29 Palms, california. If you would like more information or want to check out archived sermons and Bible studies, please check out the church website at palmsbaptistchurchcom or check them out on Facebook, instagram or YouTube. Real Bible stories can be found wherever podcasts are found. Thank you again and we will see you next week.