And take your Bibles with me if you would, and we're going to begin today in a passage. If you're a regular in this church, you've probably read this with me many times, but it's not a passage that we naturally go to or that we naturally think about. We're gonna turn to Daniel chapter seven. It's on page 885 in the Pew Bibles. Daniel chapter 7. And if you have looked ahead at the notes today, one of the applications that I want to encourage you to do is to read through this chapter numerous times this week. I'm persuaded that whenever two big ideas come out in the Gospels, this is the background. The first one is whenever Jesus refers to himself as the Son of Man. Now, let's think about this for just a second. Everybody today most people, except the fact that there was a man in history named Jesus, okay? And for them, the big and the driving question, the very important question is, is Jesus God? So when Jesus says son of man, people are like, well, of course he was a human son. We don't, who disputes that? I wanna know if he's the son of God. And then on the other side, When we hear the word son of man, we think, well, that's nothing that significant. But in fact, I want to argue to you that if anything, the son of man, that title, is more important than the phrase, which does appear several times, the son of God. And this passage is the key to understanding why more than 70 times in the Gospels, Jesus refers to himself in the third person. There's only one person that I know these days that's doing this. How many times have you heard Donald Trump talk not about me or I, but about Donald J. Trump? And you're like, dude, that's you. Okay? Most of us, ordinary people, when we talk about ourselves, we talk about I or me or something else. But Jesus is doing something unusual when he talks about the Son of Man. He's talking about this person who fulfills this passage. Secondly, then, is this issue of the kingdom. And I've had the children count. I'm not gonna do that today because we're not gonna read the whole passage. But I want you to see in this passage, two things happen. Number one, this person called the Ancient of Days gives a kingdom to someone called a Son of Man. This is in Daniel 7.13. I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven, there came one like a son of man. He came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him, and to him was given a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him." So on one hand, we have this phrase, the son of man, and then secondly, in verse 14, is this dominion slash kingdom and what that is. And notice that it's an everlasting kingdom which shall not pass away or be destroyed. This is not a normal kingdom, friends. The kingdom of Assyria was there and gone. The kingdom of Babylon was there and gone. The kingdom of Persia was there and gone. The kingdom of Rome lasted longer, but it was there and gone. And it was during that kingdom, the Roman Empire, that the kingdom of God was established through the death, resurrection, and particularly today, the ascension of Jesus Christ. There is a kingdom unleashed in the world that is completely different from any other That's what I want you to see today. And then one last piece from Daniel 7. Three times here it talks about the kingdom being given to the saints. Okay, this is the background. It's mysterious. We're not going to try to interpret all of Daniel today. Oh my goodness, we've done that before. But I want you to see that whenever this word is coming up in the New Testament, this is the background. So we're gonna look at the highlights today about this kingdom. So we're going to begin in Daniel 7, and we'll read verses 9 through 18. Daniel 7, beginning at verse 9. As I looked, thrones were placed, and the Ancient of Days took his seat. That's a name. His clothing was white as snow, the hair of his head like pure wool. His throne was fiery flames, its wheels were burning fire. A stream of fire issued and came out from before him. A thousand thousands served him, and 10,000 times 10,000 stood before him. The court sat in judgment and the books were opened. And then jumping down to verse 13. I saw in the night visions and behold with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man. And he came to the ancient of days and was presented before him and to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom. that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and His kingdom one that shall not be destroyed. As for me, Daniel, my spirit within me was anxious, and the visions of my head alarmed me. I approached one of those who stood there and asked him the truth concerning all this. So he told me and made known to me the interpretation of the thing. These four great beasts are four kings who shall arise out of the earth, but the saints, literally the holy ones, of the Most High shall receive the kingdom. and possess the kingdom forever. Forever and ever. And then jump with me down to verse 22. Verse 22. Until the Ancient of Days came and judgment was given for the saints of the Most High and the time came when the saints possessed the kingdom. And then jump down to verse 27. and the kingdom and the dominion and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High. His kingdom shall be an everlasting kingdom and all dominions shall serve and obey Him." This is God's Word. And then turn with me, if you would, to our text for today, Acts chapter one. I decided to move a little slow through this early part of Acts. Luke is identifying themes that he's going to be picking up and developing much more in the book of Acts, and I'm gonna try to refer back to these foundational sermons. And so today we're going to, our text for today is Acts 1 verse 3, and then verses 6 through 9. So verses three and six and nine in particular, but we'll read the totality of this passage. Again, I hope that God is writing these words upon your heart and that you can grab hold of these various ideas early in the book and build upon them and explain them more clearly. So Acts 1, beginning at verse 1. In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day he was taken up after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during 40 days and speaking about the kingdom of God. And while staying with them, he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which he said, you heard from me. for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. So when they had come together, they asked him, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? He said to them, it is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth." And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up and a cloud took him out of their sight. This is the word of God. Well, my question for you today is very simple. Do you get the kingdom? The kingdom. The kingdom. The kingdom is in so many ways like the backbone on which all kinds of other doctrines get attached. Jesus calls you sons and daughters of the kingdom. Jesus says that the kingdom of God is within you. There's all kinds of things, all kinds of teachings that revolve around the kingdom. So today I'm trying to draw the distinction between God's kingdom and the world's kingdom. We use the word kingdom in many ways. This week I heard somebody on the news talking about the United Kingdom. I thought, oh, there's a good example. The plant and animal kingdoms. Or somebody talking about their own little kingdom. The Bible also uses this word in various ways. In the Old Testament, the primary way was in a national sense. So in the Old Testament, usually when the Bible's talking about the king and the kingdom, it's talking about the Jewish kingdom, the kingdom of Israel, sometimes fairly small because they've lost ground to the other kingdoms around them. And sometimes, like under Solomon, quite expansive because they've taken additional territory. By the way, the same trend continues in the Middle East even up to this day. We've heard about that in the news a lot recently. But I want you to notice that even as there is this political kingdom called Israel, there's a message. The message of the prophets, which is talking about a different kind of kingdom. Jesus builds on the prophets. And in fact, Jesus has a new description of a spiritual kingdom that is unlimited. It's not just one of the kingdoms of the world. It is the kingdom over all the kingdoms of the world. Now you should know that in serious political discussion, such as our denomination has had in the past, when you start to talk about this, like to the federal government, they get really uncomfortable because they're like, wait a minute, you mean there are millions of Christians throughout our entire kingdom? that whose ultimate loyalty is to another kingdom, we don't like this message. This message is not going to sell. And in fact, whether we're talking about the Christian Amendment Movement, which our church was very much a part of in the past, there were conversations with President Abraham Lincoln about some of precisely these issues. I want you to see that if you don't understand, if you don't get the kingdom that we're talking about here, then you're missing one of the central threads that ties the Bible together. Because this kingdom, God's kingdom, or what Jesus calls over and over the kingdom of God, is not limited by nationality. It's not limited by wealth. It's not limited by space, or by time, or really by anything. And in fact, what we have is that the Son of Man proved the reality of this kingdom by the historical event of His ascending into the clouds. So, as we talk today, I want you to see that Acts chapter 1 is these 12 witnesses that Jesus has called. He's been leading them, leading them. And while they watched, Jesus ascended. That's why we call it the ascension. His body apparently floated up off the ground. His physical body. And then there was a cloud that encircled him in some way, and he was gone. And they're left in shock, staring up into the heavens, saying, what just happened? That's the historical record from below. And then, Luke wants you to know, oh, I know where this kingdom is talked about. Now flip back to Daniel chapter 7. And the key word, there's one word that Luke includes because he wants you to see this connection. So Jesus, all through the book of Luke, has been calling himself the Son of Man, the Son of Man over 70 times in the Gospels. Now there's this historical event called the Ascension, but we need to see why the Ascension matters. Look now at Daniel 7 and verse 13. Now you have to think about where is Daniel. Daniel's not down on the earth. Daniel's having a vision of things that are happening in heaven. Daniel 7.13, I saw in the night visions and behold with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man and he came to the ancient of days and to him was given a kingdom. Friends, I'm persuaded that this is a fundamental link. And the apostles didn't get it. So let's look at this today. I want to look at this really comparing and contrasting. I want to begin with the kingdom of God and then want to move to the kingdom of Israel And then return to the way that I believe that the Kingdom of God is established forever in this passage. So point number one, assertions about the Kingdom of God. Assertions about the Kingdom of God. And I want you to see that all this time between the resurrection of Jesus on Easter Sunday and his ascension, which by the way, remember, is 40 days later, and then the pouring out of the spirit on Pentecost, that is 50 days later. So this is an important time. And Jesus is appearing to them. Remember, he's able apparently to materialize inside of a locked room, but he's also able to eat bread. They're able to grab a hold of Jesus. He's able to say to Thomas, put your hand in my side, touch me and see, stop doubting and believe. But this idea of the kingdom of God, that phrase there at the end of verse three, if you are a student of volume one of Luke's gospel, then your brain just does an explosion. Oh yeah, this is what Jesus was talking about. 32 times in the gospel of Luke alone, the phrase the kingdom of God is used. Jesus says at the very beginning, I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God. Luke 6.20, blessed are you who are poor for yours is the kingdom of God. The one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than John the Baptist. Luke 7.28. The kingdom of God has secrets that need to be discerned through wisdom. Luke 8.10. The kingdom of God would be visible within the lifetime of Jesus' original hearers, Luke 9.27. The kingdom of God has the smallest of beginnings, but will grow to be a massive tree, Luke 13.18. You must cry out, you must long for the kingdom of God, Luke 16.16. Luke 16.16. Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus answered, the kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed. For behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst. Luke 18, 29 and 30, those who have made sacrifice for the kingdom of God, quote, will receive many times more in this time and in the age to come eternal life. Friends, do you see how Luke is writing a sequel? He's not going into great detail because he assumes if you're watching the second movie, you probably watched the first movie. If you see this phrase, the kingdom of God, Luke is relying on you to do the work of remembering where Jesus talked about the kingdom of God. And so this is what Jesus has been speaking about and what he's speaking about apparently even in between the resurrection and the ascension. But this leads us to the second point today. And this is where again, I find comfort because I discover that the apostles are not so bright. They're still working at that earthly level. And so they've been waiting, waiting, waiting for the opportunity. Verse six. So finally they're together. Jesus apparently resurrected, present with them. They say, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? So there's two things that you've got to understand they missed on. You can even mark this in your Bible. Number one, It's not the kingdom to Israel. And number two, it's not at a particular time. Those two things are cluing us to the fact that they completely missed the point of Daniel chapter 7. This kingdom is a forever kingdom. And it is the kingdom of God. Those two things. So if we begin with a careful, and this would be, this is the other assignment for you this week, is to reflect upon the kingdom of God. I've given you a resource down there, love to talk with you more about that if you're interested. But this is a book that I'm much more regularly recommending now as a basic discipleship resource. But when they call it the Kingdom of Israel, it becomes evident that what they're looking for is they're looking for God to break in and just fix all their problems. If God would just come back, then everything would be fine. Then my team would win. Then there would be peace. And Jesus is going to come back. But I want you to observe the fact that they don't understand what Jesus is talking about. Notice, okay, so point number two now, assumptions about the kingdom of Israel. And these are assumptions we make all the time about our own kingdom. Notice how the disciples immediately recast Jesus' kingdom of God teaching into the kingdom of Israel. One is a kingdom that originates with the creator. The other is a historical, ethnic, political kingdom. If you're going to get the kingdom, you need to consciously move out of your present earthly kingdom that shapes the way you think. My mom and dad, one time, I remember we were sitting at the table, they said, Brad, we really want you to go overseas. Because until you get out of your country, you have a really hard time holding your country out in your hand. And they helped me get overseas several different times, and I will be forever grateful for that. Because it helped me to begin to see, oh, the way I think about my country isn't the way my Pakistani brothers and sisters think about America. I remember standing, looking over into Gaza. and realizing, oh, the people of this land, they're still in many ways thinking about Israel as a political kingdom that owns ground. And you have ground that we should own. No, you have ground that we should own. Friends, the gospel is as relevant today to Americans and Israelis and Palestinians and Ukrainians and Russians and all the other nations as it's ever been. Why do we keep fighting over dirt? We've got plenty of it in our own kingdom, but we got to have just a little bit more. And the result is the wars of the world. I've included there three other verses that I think are beginning to get at why this tension. There's a tension between these two. I'd like to read 2 Samuel 7, beginning at verse 12. This is God's promise to David. When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, that's Jesus, who shall come from your body and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be to him a father and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes, that word is used in Isaiah 53, by his stripes we are healed. But my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. Now friends, when this prophecy was given, it was given in a time and at a place to an actual physical king. And so the people were looking and watching, okay, which of David's sons is going to fulfill this promise that this kingdom of Israel will last forever? And then, generation by generation, one of the things you need to know is that it's clear when looking at the Bible as a whole, Israel began to diminish in its power, its influence. It became a shadow of what it once was before. First, the Northern Kingdom was taken by the Assyrians in 722 BC, and then beginning in 605 BC, the Kingdom of the South, the Kingdom of Judah, was systematically broken apart. And everyone was left saying, what about the kingdom? Did God break His promise? And the Apostle Paul provides the answer for us when he says, not all Israel is Israel. He's not a Jew who's won inwardly, won outwardly through circumcision, but he's a Jew who's won inwardly. And being Jewish is a matter of the heart. It's a matter of believing God's promises. There's other verses we could look at, but I want you to see that there are these lurking assumptions about the kingdom. By the way, I think one of the greatest errors that people make in their eschatology is asking this same question. So when do the Jews get back Israel? And we're saying, we're Israel. Israel as a kingdom was the type and the shadow. And God may well have a plan for the Jewish people, that's another discussion. But I want you to see that God was using a shadow to help us to understand something prophetic, something magnificent, something that is already here. You enter into this kingdom by faith. And in Israel, in the Old Testament, there were those people who kind of did the minimal part of Judaism, but they didn't go to temple. They didn't sing the songs of David. They did circumcision. They didn't eat pork, all the outward stuff. But it was not a matter of the heart. It was a matter of patriotism. It was a matter of being a good ethnic Israelite. And the same thing today. People, but now it's Christianity. Now it's, well, what's the minimum I have to do? If I go to church, am I a good Christian? No. If I give tithes, am I a good Christian? No. What do you have to do? You have to believe. Believe, but I don't believe that. Well, then you're not in the kingdom. That's the blunt message here. They were seeking to understand, but in some way they did not yet understand. And in fact, thus the central role, Acts 1.8 of the Holy Spirit in this whole thing. So I really believe that this is the contrast that Luke is setting up. Now we must hasten on to point number three, and that is ascension to become the king of kings. I believe that verse nine is now where we're seeing this kingdom of God in its fullness. And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up and a cloud took him out of their sight. Remember we said earlier that they were down on the earth and they saw that cloud, they saw the Son of Man in the cloud. Daniel chapter 7 verse 13, we see the prophetic vision from heaven of the Son of Man coming in a cloud. Not to the earth, that's how many people read it, but rather the Son of Man coming in a cloud into the presence of the Ancient of Days. And so the Ascension is intimately connected to the glorification of Christ. He's given this kingdom by the Father in order that all peoples, nations, and languages might serve Him. How does that happen, friends? It happens as people finally come to the end of their rope about hope for the kingdoms, plural, of this world. Politics is not going to fix it. The United Nations is not going to fix it. The United Kingdom, just to go back to that from the illustration, is anything but united. We have wars, rumors of wars. We have optimism that then turns to pessimism for one half of the country, and now we're on the other side. Now, the other half of the country gets to be optimistic for a while. Donald Trump will never save you, at least in a biblical sense. So remember, in one way, a lot has changed in the kingdom in which we live. But in another way, nothing has changed. We still need the kingdom. Do you get this kingdom? Do you understand that the reign of Christ is eternal? He doesn't have to get elected. No coup can take Him out. He doesn't have armies with swords. He has armies with books. And His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom. Do you see this kingdom? Unless a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. John chapter 3. Unless one is born of the water and the spirit, he cannot get into this kingdom. Have you been born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead? In point number three, what we're seeing here is now, in fact, this kingdom takes on a concrete form and a static form in the New Covenant. That now here is Jesus in His glorified state. He's the King of kings. He's the Lord of lords. He's the governor of the nations through His resurrection and ascension. The kingdom of God has come in a more full way in the world. Jesus was announcing that kingdom, but now Jesus has taken that kingdom. He reigns in that kingdom. Now, here's where it gets complicated, because I want to remind you that what I'm emphasizing and I'm going to really emphasize today is the present the presence, the real presence of this kingdom in world history. This is why I believe that Christianity is forming and shaping world history. This is why I get excited when I see that the Bible is just about translated into every single language on the planet. This is why missions matter. This is why We need to pray that God would plant His churches in some of the roughest areas, the roughest neighborhoods of the planet. Because what's embedded in this kingdom is a promise. It's given to the saints. We are responsible for it in the world. And it's given to us so that this message of Christ's resurrection and ascension, present reign, kingdom of God, can break into the hearts and minds and lives of people. And I want people to feel like, oh wait, I've never really gotten that. Well, look at what Luke is telling us. Look at what the entire edifice of the Book of Acts is built upon. The Kingdom of God present in the resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ. Jesus spoke of the Kingdom of God over and over and over. The disciples still didn't get it. And yet, when the Holy Spirit comes upon us, and when we understand that we have an inheritance waiting for us, and that the Holy Spirit is the down payment, the guarantee, the ironclad guarantee of what is in store for those who believe. Friends, it changes everything. It changes the way you think about politics. Don't put your hope in politics. Don't get overly optimistic, those of you who are on the present side, and don't get bitter, and don't believe that God has abandoned us because your team didn't win. It's always back and forth. There's no other way. But friends, the kingdom of God is eternal. It is for us right now, and we can enter into that Kingdom of God through faith, be born of the Spirit, and then, we can talk about this, but be born of water. I believe, personally, this is a reference to water baptism. And water baptism is a sign of entrance into the Kingdom of God. Oh friends, there's much to say, but I conclude today by asking you, Do you get the kingdom? Let's pray. Oh, Lord our God, how we thank you for your care and for your love. We thank you, Lord, that your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom which shall not be destroyed. that Lord Jesus Christ sits on a throne, not for a moment, not for a voting cycle, not even for a lifetime, but he sits on an everlasting throne, reigning over an everlasting kingdom. Lord, help us to see that kingdom. Help us to see that it is in fact the kingdom of God that becomes the template for nations of the earth to establish justice and liberty and righteousness in the rules of particular earthly kingdoms. Lord, thank you for how much the kingdom of God influenced the founding fathers of our nation. Lord, help us to remember and recover that history of men who professed Jesus Christ even as they were senators and representatives and presidents in the very earliest days of our nation. Oh Lord, we pray that you would help us to see that these kingdoms are not in inherent conflict, but in fact, the kingdom of heaven is going forth into the world and is designed to transform the kingdoms of this world. Lord, how we pray that we might see the day when more and more kingdoms acknowledge Jesus Christ as the King of kings and the Lord of lords, as the one governor of the many nations. Lord, show us how you would bring this to pass. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.