We're gonna begin this morning in Revelation chapter 20. As I told you last week, we're going to be looking into a study of what is the importance of the doctrine of premillennialism. That's a mouthful right there. And I may have already lost some of you. Some of you may have thought, oh, not too interested in that subject. That doesn't sound really relevant. However, I hope that you will stay with me and that through the course of this message as we look into scripture, you'll understand the importance of such a topic. When we're talking about doctrine, I want you to understand that our practice as Christian, it all flows from our beliefs. This is not only true in the Christian life, it's true in all of life for all different religious people. that whatever you believe is going to issue forth in how you live your life. And so doctrine is important. Some doctrines are more important. Some doctrines are less important. But when it comes to the doctrines that are taught in the Holy Bible, all of them are important. God didn't waste time in giving us his book on things that were not important, but he addresses us on the subjects that are most relevant to how to live a godly life, how to live as Christians in this present age. And so as we have been studying through the book of Revelation, we've been approaching the book of Revelation from a premillennial perspective. That is, that we view the book of Revelation as future prophecy. The premillennial doctrine is that Christ is returning before he establishes a thousand-year kingdom that is described here. That's why I had you open to this particular chapter in the ultimate book of the Bible. So let's read together the first six verses here in Revelation chapter 20 and notice how many times the author, John, relates the time period of Christ's rule. Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer until the thousand years were ended. After that, he must be released for a little while. Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection. Over such, the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years. That sounds like an important passage. Here we come to the end of the book, or towards the end of the book, and John is told that Satan will be bound, that believers who have been martyred will be resurrected, and that we will reign with Christ for a thousand years. And that phrase, a thousand years, is repeated a number of times in these verses. Now, we haven't gotten yet to this part of Revelation in our study, but everything that we're studying in the seal judgments, the trumpet judgments, and the bowl judgments, and all of the details surrounding this prophecy is leading us up to Revelation chapter 20. And therefore, the way that we've understood the previous parts of the book are going to inform the way that we understand Revelation chapter 20. When we talk about different views of the book of Revelation, I'll remind you of what we started off our study with, that there's four major ways that the book of Revelation is read. And it's not just relevant to the book of Revelation, but it's relevant to all of the prophecy that's contained in the New Testament. what Jesus predicted about his second coming in Matthew 24 and in the other synoptic accounts of the Olivet Discourse, what Paul wrote about concerning the coming of Christ in particular in his Thessalonian letters, but not only those focused sections, but really many other verses in the New Testament that speak of Christ's coming and even going back into the Old Testament. How do we understand the prophecies of Isaiah? How do we understand the prophecies of Ezekiel? These major portions of God's word are affected by your overall eschatological view. Eschatology just means the study of last things, the things that are going to happen at the end of this age. And some people view the prophecies of Revelation and also the Olivet Discourse and much of what Paul wrote on the subject as already happening in the past. We call that the Preterist view. Preter just means past, so that's the past view. Others see it throughout the whole church age being presently fulfilled, that some of it has been fulfilled, some of it is still to be fulfilled. And that's a historicist view, that it's happening throughout history from the time that the book was written until the time of Christ returns. Then our view is the futurist view, that these prophecies have not yet begun to be fulfilled, or very few of them have been fulfilled, but that the bulk of the prophecies of the New Testament are going to be fulfilled in what we call the 70th week of Daniel, the last seven years of history before Christ returns. That's the futurist reading of New Testament prophecy, including the book of Revelation. And then finally, there's the timeless view, which is called idealism, that the prophecies of the book of Revelation do not have any specific fulfillment, either in the past, present, or future, but that instead they're just pictures of the timeless battle between God and Satan, and therefore can have just about any application to current events that you see as relevant. Now, why is that important? Why is this significant? Well, as I said, it has to do with reading whole sections of the Bible and putting the rest of the Bible into its proper context. I want you to understand this. Truth is all interconnected. Truth is all related. And so if you have a false belief about one thing, it's going to have an effect on something else. If you, perchance, believed that the Earth was the center of the solar system, well, then that's going to affect your calculations of the stars, and that's going to affect your astronomical viewpoints, and it's going to have spillover into other areas of scientific knowledge and understanding, and truth all interconnects. And if you make one misstep, then that can lead you to another misstep. And so I want you to understand that the doctrine of premillennialism, the teaching that Christ is coming back before a literal thousand-year kingdom on this earth, is not just a discussion about the timing of Christ's rapture in regards to the millennium. Now, there are differences, of course, there, but it is much bigger than that because these views of premillennialism, amillennialism, and postmillennialism, those three different views are not just arguing about timing. Like when we're talking about pre-tribulational rapture or post-tribulational rapture, that's just an argument about timing. Those different rapture views all view the rapture as basically the same event. It's just a matter of when exactly does it happen. And that's not the case with premillennialism or postmillennialism. You might think that it would be because it just sounds the same, but it's not. Because if you are premillennial, that's because you have a different view of what the kingdom of God is. And if you're postmillennial, you have a different understanding of the nature of God's kingdom. And the kingdom of God is no small theme throughout the Bible. That if you don't understand what the nature of God's kingdom is and what our relationship to God's kingdom is, that's going to affect a whole host of other doctrines. Most importantly, it's going to affect what you view as the nature of the church. Is the church the kingdom? Are we bringing people into the kingdom? Are we building the kingdom when we're building the church? You may have heard that terminology from a lot of amillennialist and postmillennialist teachers. But we as futurists, we as premillennialists, believe that the church and the kingdom of God are distinct entities. That we proclaim the kingdom, and we're getting people ready for the kingdom, and we're anticipating the kingdom, but we are not the kingdom. We are the church. And understanding the nature of the kingdom is essential not only to understanding the nature of the church, but also the mission and the role of the church. Think about the word kingdom for a moment with me. The word kingdom We often think of it just in spiritual, biblical, Christianese terms because we live in a Christian culture that has been influenced for millennia by amillennialism and now in more recent centuries, postmillennialism. And so when we think of the word kingdom, we often think of it just in a kind of a Christianized term. But if you actually get down to the meaning of the word in history, it's a very political word. It's a word that has to do with nations, it's a word that has to do with government, it's a word that has to do with laws, kings, rulers. And so when we're talking about the kingdom of God, if you don't understand what the kingdom of God is, well then that's going to confuse you as to what is our relationship as the church to our nation. and the other nations? What is our responsibility as the church to our nation and to other nations? And so it really gets very much involved with your missiology. Missiology is the study of the mission of the church. What is our mission? What are we here to do? What's the political nature of our mission? What's the spiritual nature of our mission? And there's going to be differences among those who are amillennial, those who are premillennial, and those who are postmillennial. And I want to get into some of that with you today to help you understand the importance of this doctrine, practically speaking. All doctrine is important. All doctrine has practical ramifications. And let me unpack for us some of the practical ramifications of premillennial doctrine. It's not just about the timing of the event. It's about the nature of God's kingdom and what our calling is in this present time. All right, you could boil it down to this question. How do we as Christians engage the culture around us? There's a lot of discussion about that. There's a lot of writing going on about that. How do we engage the culture? What does Christ command? What is our responsibility? What is our mission to the world around us? And that's kind of an important question. If we get that wrong, we're gonna be making a lot of mistakes in how we conduct ourselves as God's people. So, this morning then, I want to focus on the kingdom of God as defined by the Old Testament prophets, as affirmed by Jesus and the apostles, as written about in the book of Revelation, that Jesus Christ came in order to reign, a political word. over the house of Jacob, the name for Israel that is used here in the poetic passage, and of his kingdom, his political nation. There will be no end. Let's talk about politics, all right? We're supposed to keep politics out of the church, but there it is. It's right there in the Bible. And here I've got six points for you to consider with me this morning on the importance of premillennialism. We're going to be taking a look at, as I've already mentioned, how practice flows from doctrine. What you believe is going to then issue forth in how you conduct yourself. What we believe about the church is going to then lead us to our practice as a church. And then I want us to remember from the outset the golden rule. Then we're going to be taking a look at some of the critiques of premillennialism, some of the concerns that other Christians who have different views on this, what they think are the weaknesses of premillennialism and why they don't like it. And then we'll take a look at the New Testament's definition of the church's mission. And then we'll take a quick look at church history, time permitting. And then I want to end with five dangers of the other views. That would be amillennialism and postmillennialism. And I'll define those a little bit more clearly as we go along. But first, let's start off with a reminder that practice flows from doctrine. And therefore, you need to be aware of the presuppositions of the Christian commentators that you listen to. Whether you're listening to Christian commentators on radio, or on television, or on the internet, or reading their books, wherever you like to go for Christian news and information, whenever Christians are talking about, well, this political person said this, or this political person did that, and what is our Christian response? How are we supposed to think about that? I want you to be aware to put your tuner up to the theological presuppositions of the Christian commentators that you're listening to. There's a lot that's being talked about, there's a lot that's being discussed among pastors and Christian influencers, much books that are being written on the subject right now on how is the Christian church supposed to engage the culture. Seems like this is an area that has exploded in interest in the last few years because our culture has gone bananas and Christians are trying to figure out, well, what do we do when the culture goes bananas? What is our response supposed to be? And as you listen to different people, I want you to do a little bit of legwork to find out what do they believe about the Millennium? What do they believe about the Kingdom of God? Now, There are some wonderful conservative voices out there speaking on subjects like this. And yet, you want to be aware that some of them have different presuppositions and have therefore a different idea of what the church's mission is in the world. Whether you're talking about a Doug Wilson or a James White who are post-millennial in their views. or you're looking at somebody on the more progressive side of Christianity who has a lot of involvement with engaging culture in the Southern Baptist denomination, or he used to be, Russell Moore, you can do a little bit of searching to find out what church do they go to, have they done any public teaching on the Millennium, and find out whether or not they are premillennial. And I encourage you to listen to premillennial teachers, even when it comes to your Christian news and information. Now, I just did a quick search and I found out the millennial views of all those people I just mentioned and others who I also listened to at times online. However, I'd like to say a word here that it was a little bit harder for me to find out the millennial views of women. who are involved in this type of work online. My wife likes to listen to Elisa Childers and Allie Beth Stuckey as women who have a conservative biblical perspective on social issues that are affecting the church, but I couldn't find anything from Elisa Childers or Allie Beth Stuckey on their premillennial views. I could find them on the men that I just mentioned with a pretty easy search, but when I went to their websites, they didn't have a doctrinal statement that specified their millennial views, and I couldn't do a search to see any articles or any podcasts that they had done on that. And so, sadly, there's a lot of Christian influencers out there who have not made it very clear what their doctrinal positions are. And I suspect that the reason for that is they're trying to get as big of an audience as they can. And they think, well, if I tell people I'm premillennial or if I tell people I'm postmillennial, that might turn some Christians off and they might not listen to me. And, you know, that's actually a good warning. Maybe you shouldn't be listening to those who do not view the mission of the church and the nature of God's kingdom biblically, as I understand it. That's just a little warning that practice flows from doctrine and you want to have your doctrinal ears on to be listening to what presuppositions people are speaking from and that you don't just start to adopt their practice without examining the foundations that those practices are flowing from. Now, also at the outset here, it's important for us to remember the golden rule. Whenever we're interacting in any kind of public debate, whether it's an in-house debate like this one, most amillennialists and postmillennialists that I'll be talking about today are Christian brothers. They love the Lord Jesus Christ, and there's many Christians who have a different view on the millennium than I do, and the nature of God's kingdom, who I've been greatly benefited by their ministry in many ways. I could mention the name of R.C. Sproul, or Greg Bonson, or James White, or going further back in Christian history, John Calvin, or Augustine of Hippo, that these men were not premillennialists, and yet they wrote wonderful things, and loved the Lord, and are very faithful in many ways in their Christian instruction. However, with that being said, we must recognize that even though we agree on many points, We are like coaches on a team and we're arguing about what should be the winning strategy. We recognize we're on the same team, but we've got this season coming up, and we've got to decide what's the main thing, what's our purpose as a team? Is the main thing to keep in mind that we're supposed to build unity and have fun and have a great season just because of how well we get along with each other? Or are we a win-at-all-cost type of team where you've got to do your part, and if you have to sit on the bench and just show up for practice, then that's your part, and you might not get any playing time because we're here to win? That there's different mindsets, there's different ideas about what is the nature of our mission this season. And that's the way it is in the church. We recognize we're on the same team, but there are some different ideas about what are we exactly here to accomplish? What are our goals and how do we meet those goals? And the argument over premillennialism and amillennialism and postmillennialism is that kind of argument. What are we doing? How are we going to achieve success? What are our goals? How do we know if we're reaching those goals? What do we blame if we're not reaching those goals? And then, therefore, there's a lot of confusion. If all the coaches could get on the same page as to what our purpose is and what our plan is, we'd be much more successful as a team. Sadly, that's not the case. And that's why these things are worth talking about, but they're worth talking about in a spirit of love, a spirit of service. Talking about others the way that you would want them to talk about you. Believing about others what you would want them to believe about you. Not casting aspersions that are not justified, not making generalized accusations that are not fair, not using bombastic titles for sermons on the internet like, dispensationalism is not a Christian religion. We don't want to do that type of thing. Instead, we want to honor our brother, honor our sister, serve them, and love them in the way that we discuss these things. Yes, we're zealous for the truth, but we're not just zealous for the truth that benefits us, that makes us look important, that gives us more of a following, but we're zealous for all of the truth. We're zealous for the truth that honors Christ and builds him up, and we hold these truths, the truths about the nature of God's kingdom and the work of the church in the world today, in relationship to the other truths, in relationship to the other truths, so that we value and love those who are in agreement with us in so many areas, and yet there are important disagreements that are worth discussing. I think that's the right spirit in which to approach a topic like this, the debate around premillennialism. I told you I was going to talk about amillennialism and postmillennialism, so I better do that before I forget. Amillennialism, as a refresher for those of you that have been here for a while, or an introduction for those of you who are new to this subject, is the belief that we are in the kingdom now, that there is no future literal kingdom on the earth that fulfills the promises that God made to Israel in the Old Testament, but that all those promises were spiritualized in the church, and that it wasn't about the land, and it wasn't about Jerusalem, and it wasn't about the Jews, but it's really just about Christ, it's really just about his rule and reign in our hearts, and that kingdom of God is now, and the kingdom of God is growing and being built as the church is built up, that the church has replaced Israel to some extent in God's plan. and that there's no future kingdom. That's why it's called amillennial. Amillennial means no. Millennial means thousand year kingdom. No thousand year kingdom, but we're in the kingdom now. The post-millennial view is the view that the Christian church is going to be successful in the conversion of the nations to Christ. That when the Great Commission was given and we were told to go and make disciples of all the nations, that that's what's gonna happen. All the nations are gonna become Christian and then Christ is going to come back. That Christ comes back after the kingdom of God has been established on the earth through the preaching of the gospel and the ministry of the church. Those are different views of Christ's coming and the nature of the kingdom and how the kingdom is brought in. Premillennialism believes that things are not going to get better and better, that the church is not going to Christianize the nations, but that instead the nations are going to go from bad to worse like we had in our scripture reading. and that Christ is going to come back to a world that has rejected him, not a world that has accepted him. So very different expectations of what's going to happen in the future between post-millennialist and pre-millennialist, whereas all millennialists have a very different definition of the nature of God's kingdom in general. Much more, obviously, could be said about each of these three systems of belief concerning the prophecy in Scripture. That's a very general introduction to the differences. All right, so we want to be remembering the golden rule when we discuss and debate anything with anyone. If you're discussing and debating politics with a non-Christian, remember the golden rule. If you're discussing and debating economics with a Christian, remember the golden rule. Whatever it is you're discussing or debating, whatever it is you're doing in life, treat others the way that you want to be treated. And if not, then you're not acting very Christian, because this is the command. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, love your neighbor as yourself. And how do you love your neighbor as yourself? Well, you treat them the way that you want them to treat you. Let's do that. Let's always keep that in mind. I'll try. I'm not going to be perfect at it this morning even. Number three, we're going to talk about the concerns that other people have with the doctrinal system, the belief that Christ is coming back before the thousand-year kingdom and that the prophecies of the book of Revelation are literal future events that take place in that 70th week of Daniel. That's premillennialism. The first concern that people have with the doctrine of premillennialism is practical. All of these are practical concerns. We're looking at the practical impact of this doctrine, is that it's pessimistic. People say, you premillennialists, you're so pessimistic. You think that the apostasy is going to come, you think that Antichrist is going to come, the whole world's going to be deceived. Christians are going to be martyred and killed and that the world's going to be completely dark and bleak and God's judgments are all going to be poured out and then Christ comes all because the church failed in its mission to disciple the nations. And so how is the church supposed to be excited and encouraged about discipling the nations and building the church when you believe that it's all going to end in failure? And you believe that it's all gonna end in failure pretty soon because all you pre-millennialists always believe that you're living right at the end of history when Christ is about ready to come back. So you've got this really pessimistic view about the church and its mission and the success of the gospel in the world. Well, that is a concern. What does it mean for us as a church if, in fact, we have this view that Christ is coming back to a world that is not in subjection to him? Well, look with me at Luke chapter 18. Come back to Luke chapter 18 in your Bibles. We'll be dealing more with each of these critiques of premillennialism as we go along this morning, but just a brief comment here from Luke chapter 18. Now, if premillennialism is pessimistic, it's only pessimistic in certain regards, and it's only pessimistic because of what Jesus Christ himself said. Look at Luke chapter 18, verse eight. Here at the end of Jesus' teaching on the unrighteous judge and the persistent widow, he says this, I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. That is those who are his saints who are crying out for his justice. He will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth? Now, that is a question that if you're understanding the grammar, understanding what's going on here, it's a question that expects a negative answer. Jesus is saying, when the Son of Man comes, he's not going to find faith on the earth. So if we are pessimistic about the end of this age and the lack of faith that's going to be present on the earth, well, I think we have good reason to be pessimistic about it, but that doesn't mean we're pessimistic about everything. It just means we're pessimistic about this because that's what the Bible says. So how do we maintain a zeal for the mission of the church while at the same time having this pessimistic outlook? That could be another sermon. We'll save that for another time. Number two. The second concern of those who are opposed to premillennialism is that our teaching is short-sighted and it causes Christians to not do long-term planning. That we're not concerned about the next generation or our grandchildren because we don't think they're gonna be here. We don't think they're gonna get to grow up. We think that Christ is coming back, we're all gonna be raptured and so why make any long-term plans? Why build for the future when we're not gonna be here because of the rapture? And that's a critique that many people have of premillennial doctrine, premillennial churches. They say, you guys are pessimistic and you're short-sighted. You think we're going to fail, and you think that Christ is coming to take us out of the world, and so you don't build anything for the long term. Well, we'll talk about that as we go along, but I want to acknowledge the accusation. Number three. Pessimistic, short-sighted, and disengaged. We've been talking about how is the church supposed to engage with the culture? How are we supposed to engage with the world around us? And the critique of premillennials is that we don't engage. We just sit in our little holes and wait for Christ to come back, and the world can just go wherever it's going. Disengagement is the critique of premillennialists. And therefore, some amillennialists, and postmillennialists in particular, will blame us for the moral decay of Western society. They'll say, your view, it undermines the church's mission and causes her to just retreat, waiting for Christ to come back. We just slump down and defeat. This is a quote from a video I watched this week, making these accusations. And we stop making disciples, and we stop advancing, we stop pushing back the gates of hell, and we cease holding the culture accountable. And then, should we be surprised when the pagans run into all kinds of rank and disgusting error? The same speaker went on to say, if dispensationalism, that's a futuristic premillennial view, causes the church's removal from the world, and the world then becomes rotten, then dispensationalism is to blame. So here it is. It's my teaching and the teaching of others who've come before us that has caused the rot and the ruin of Western civilization. Blame me. You see how people get very animated and very excited about this discussion and this debate. And we don't always remember the golden rule. We don't always treat others the way that we want to be treated. So what we can learn from listening to these accusations and listening to this quote is that whether you are premillennial or whether you are postmillennial or amillennial, we agree that it is important to your view of missiology. They critique us because they think that our mission is badly affected by our premillennial views. And so this reinforces what I started off the sermon with, that your practice comes out of your beliefs. And if you have bad practices, it's because you have bad beliefs. And so we want to be careful and make sure, are my beliefs biblical? Are my practices in accordance with those biblical beliefs? So really the debate is not, is premillennialism pessimistic, short-sighted, or disengaged? But the debate is, What is our biblical mission, and how are we supposed to carry that out, and then therefore, are premillennials doing that? Are they carrying out the mission that Christ has given to us in the church? So, that brings us then to point number four, which is the church's mission. What is our mission? And of course, the go-to passage for the church's mission is Matthew 28. So let's all turn to Matthew 28 from Luke chapter 18. Back from Luke's gospel to the first gospel in our Bibles, Matthew, and the final chapter of Matthew's gospel, after Jesus has been resurrected, he gives his great commission to his disciples there in the final verses of the book. Let's read it. Matthew 28, you probably have it memorized, a number of you have it memorized. Starting in verse 16, Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. So, the mission is given to us in light of Jesus' authority. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given. It doesn't say will be given, it says has been given. And so the post-millennialists, they love this passage, and they say, well look. Christ has all authority. We don't have to wait for him to come back to have all authority, not just in heaven, but on earth. He's got all authority on the earth. And therefore, because we believe he has all authority on earth and that the kingdom of God is established and that we can build the kingdom and grow the kingdom, the kingdom of Christ's authority, that's the spirit in which we go out in the Great Commission. What is the premillennial response? How do we say, well, we also believe this passage, we believe that Christ has all authority in heaven and on earth, and that therefore we are to go into all the nations and fulfill the commission? Well, it's because of that very important truth that I introduced to you the last few weeks, the mediatorial kingdom versus the universal eternal kingdom. that Christ has all authority in heaven and on earth in the sense that he is restored to the position of power and authority that he had with the Father before the world was. At the right hand of God, God is eternally king. He is universally king in light of all of the Old Testament teaching and Daniel and the Psalms and the New Testament and everywhere that God's kingdom in that universal sense, that eternal sense, is the authority of Christ. He is there with God's authority. However, the mediatorial kingdom is what we are waiting for, what we are expecting. And that distinction, that difference, has a huge impact on how you view the nature of the church and its political ramifications and its political responsibilities. And that's going to be very significant as we continue. But notice the commission is to make disciples, How do you make disciples? Well, you baptize them in the name of the Father, and you teach them to observe all that I've commanded. So what do we do here at this church? We baptize people in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. And those people we teach to do everything that Jesus commanded. Now, what does it mean to do everything that Jesus commanded? Well, where do we find out everything that Jesus commanded? Well, of course, you go to the Gospels, And then you go to the epistles, the letters of the apostles in the New Testament to find out by the Holy Spirit what are the specifics that fill out this general command. You know, here's something I really want you to take note of. This is a very important principle. The general commands of scripture, like this one, go and make disciples, it's filled out by the specific commands that are contained in the rest of the Bible. God doesn't just give us a general command and then say, figure it out. But God gives us a general command and then he tells us, okay, do this, do this, do this. And as we go through the New Testament, we've got a lot of commands that tell us what is the church supposed to be doing? How do we fulfill our mission? What are we responsible for before God? And that's what I reviewed this week. One of my favorite things to teach on is the mission of the church. And when I get an opportunity, I always want to go back and review, what is the church all about? And my favorite passage for this is in Ephesians chapter four, turn with me to Ephesians four, verses 11 through 16. Where do you go in the New Testament to find out what is the church supposed to be doing? How do we carry out this great commission in specific? And of course, it's all over the New Testament, but Ephesians is a great book. Ephesians is your book on the nature of the church and the purpose of the church and the work of the church. And it starts with doctrine and then it ends with practice because practice flows out of doctrine. And so in Ephesians 4, we're starting to get into the practice of what is the practice of the church. And it starts off with the big picture, what is our goal? Here we are, we're God's team. We're gearing up for the season. What is our goal this season? And that's what Ephesians 4, 11 through 16 tells us. It says this, he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry. So you've got this foundational group, apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, pastors, teachers, and they're given to the church so that the saints, which is all of you, all of us, can do the work of ministry. That gives you the big picture idea, the work of ministry. What's the work of ministry? The purpose of it, what's the goal? Notice the second part of the verse there. For building up the body of Christ until, how do we know if we've been successful? It's when we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Do you see it? What's the vision? What's the goal? What is our reason for being? It's that the whole church would be united in spiritual maturity and Christ-likeness. Paul wrote about this to the Colossians and he said, mature in Christ, perfect in Christ, that you'd be completely Christ-like, you'd be completely godly in your life. And you say, well, Timothy, that's a pretty internal focus, that's a pretty inward focus. The church is supposed to be outward focused. We're supposed to be out in the world, changing the world and making the world a better place for our children and our grandchildren. And I say, Well, I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing, but that's not what I read in the New Testament. What I read, not only in this passage, but if you do a scan of Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, you go through the Thessalonian letters and Paul's letters to Timothy and Titus, and then you go through the general epistles and you see what Peter wrote and what James wrote and what John wrote, and it's all very internally focused. I did it this week just as a review, and I've been preaching through these books, I've been preaching through the Bible for over 20 years, and I'll tell you, the New Testament, it's obsessed with the purity and unity of the church. It's concerned as the church. It's concerned as the health of the church. Not just us here this morning. It's concerned and obsessed with the health of the whole church. How do we fulfill our mission in the world? How do we make disciples? It's by building strong churches. That's what we do. How do we build strong churches? Well, we do everything the New Testament is concerned about, everything that it's focused on. Let's finish out this passage, and then I'll talk a little bit more about that. Let's keep reading there. In verse 13, we're supposed to do this until we are mature, the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that, here's the purpose statement, we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine. Doctrinal purity is what we are striving for in the church. wind of doctrine, the human cunning, the craftiness and deceitful schemes, the New Testament is constantly warning us about the danger of false teaching infiltrating the church. We need to be obsessed about purity of doctrine within the church. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way. He's saying it another time, he's saying it another way. What are we supposed to do? We're supposed to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ. from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, each part working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. If you have a different view of the mission of the church than what I'm proposing here, you might say something like, well, Timothy, of course Ephesians is going to be about building up the church. This is the letter on the church. If there's any place in the Bible that's gonna focus on our mission to build the church, it's this one. But don't become narrow in your vision. Don't think that the whole New Testament is just about building up the church. This is just one passage. And so I say, well, let's go through the rest of the New Testament. Let's go through every other letter. How many commands in the New Testament do you think are given to Christians in their churches to share the gospel? There are commands, but they are very few in number compared to all of the commands, hundreds of commands that have to do with the purity and unity of the church. What does that tell you? When there's a handful of commands about sharing the gospel, but there are hundreds and hundreds of commands about purity of doctrine, purity of life, loving one another, the use of our spiritual gifts, the building up of the church, husbands loving their wives, and wives submitting to their husbands, and building strong families, and all of that internal focus, I think the lesson we're supposed to take from that is that evangelism grows out of healthy churches. Evangelism grows out of healthy churches. I'm not saying don't evangelize, not at all. I'm just saying that if we focus our energies and our efforts where the New Testament focuses its energies and its efforts, we will be more successful than if we focus on the result and not on how we get to that result. If we skip over the step of building healthy churches, our evangelism is gonna be weak. Our evangelism is gonna be ineffective. And that's what we've seen among evangelicals in the last 50 years. Weak, ineffective evangelism because of weak, ineffective churches. So, here's my challenge to those who think that the church, as taught by premillennialism, is withdrawing from society, and that it is pessimistic, and, what was the third one? Whatever. Those who want to criticize premillennialism and its practical impact, go through the New Testament, and point out to me one specific command that premillennial churches aren't doing, and that they're not doing well, in comparison to our amillennial or postmillennial brothers. What exactly are you criticizing us for not doing? And where does the New Testament tell us to do it? That's my challenge. I've been studying and teaching the Bible a long time, and if there's something that I'm not doing, if there's something that I'm not seeing, if there's a command that I'm not fulfilling, point it out to me. If we're doing it wrong, we'll change. Now, the other side might say, well, the same thing. Timothy, let's turn this around. Let's be fair, where are we failing to keep the commands of the New Testament? Where are we not protecting the church from doctrinal error? Where are we not teaching biblical ethics for family and how to love one another? Where are we failing to keep the specific commands of the New Testament? And I would say that's a good argument except for the fact that I never accused you of not doing any of those things. You are doing those things. Post-millennialists, all-millennialists, you do a great job of teaching the New Testament in churches that are committed to the Scriptures, in churches that believe in Sola Scriptura, in churches that have genuine faith and love for the Lord and belief in the Gospel. You're doing great. The problem I have with your doctrine and your churches is that you're adding to the commands of Scripture. I'm not saying you're taking away from the commands of Scripture. I'm saying you're adding to the commands of Scripture. And that is dangerous. That is harmful. Why? Well, our head coach, the Lord Jesus Christ, he's laid out for us what he wants us to do. He's laid out for us what he wants us to practice, what he wants us to work on, and if we all say, okay, that's great, we're gonna do those things, but we're also gonna do these other things, that but we're also gonna do these other things, it takes away time and energy and focus from really doing the things that he told us to do. I do this with my kids all the time, you know, I'll tell my kids, you know, do this job, and they do a half job, and then they go and do other things. And it's like, come on, do the job, finish the job. And that's the way I think Christ and the Father are up in heaven looking at the church and said, I told you what to do. We said, well, we did it. And now we're doing some of this other stuff and it's good stuff. He said, well, I didn't tell you to do those things. Okay, do what I told you to do. And nowhere, now challenge me on this, if I'm wrong, show me, but as far as I can see, nowhere in the prayers of the New Testament, in the examples of the apostles' own ministry, in the commands that the Holy Spirit wrote through the writings of the apostles, nowhere do they lay upon Christians, like pre-millennials like me, the burden and the responsibility for transforming culture. If culture is going down the tubes in the West, it's not because of faithful preaching of the word. It's not because of the keeping of the commands of the New Testament. It's not because of doing church discipline. It's not because we've sent out missionaries. It's not because we're not building strong churches and strong families. That's not the reason why the West is in decline. Don't blame premillennialism for Satan's work, Satan's kingdom. and God handing people over to their idolatrous hearts. The darker the world gets, the more lighthouses shine. The church needs to be strong in this moment, in this time, when the world has gone bananas, let's show them some sanity. And that's what premillennialists believe, that the church is a house of sanity. in a world full of insanity. And we're gonna fulfill the Great Commission by baptizing those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And we're gonna teach them to obey all that the Lord commands. And if the world outside gets worse and worse, well that's just what the Bible said was gonna happen. But we just keep on doing what God told us to do. because we're walking in triumph. We're walking in victory. We're not looking around wringing our hands saying, oh, we failed, why is the culture so Christless? But instead, we're looking around and saying, oh, we are succeeding. Look at the church that is so Christlike. Don't add a burden to the church that is not the church's burden to bear. Don't lay a guilt trip upon the church that is never what God told the church to be responsible for in the first place. That's my critique of amillennialism and postmillennialism in light of the church's mission laid out in the New Testament. Yes, you can come up with all kinds of good things that could be possible implications, theologically speaking, from your theology. But where is it in the command? Where is it in the text? Show me in the text and I'll do it. Alright, so that is our fourth point. Now, for time's sake, we're gonna skip over our fifth point. Church history is always interesting when you get into discussions of premillennialism, amillennialism, and postmillennialism. We'll leave that for another. And instead, I really wanna focus on the five dangers of the other views. And as you see, I've already let the cat out of the bag on what some of those dangers are. But let's take a look at them in order here. Number one, mission drift. What I'm concerned about for those who are not premillennial is mission drift. As I see people get on board with post-millennialism or people get on board with amillennialism, what I often see is more energy being poured into politics and less energy being poured into the teaching and preaching of God's word and the building up of the church. What are our duties as pastors? To teach the word, to shepherd the flock, According to the commands of the New Testament, Christian news and information gets Christians so much interested in the culture war that we start to forget what our mission is in the world. It's not to change the culture, it's to build the church. And how do we build the church? Obeying the commands of the New Testament, that's how we do it. There should be more talk about the commands of the New Testament and getting churches to do what Jesus Christ told us to do. And less talk about how do we change people's perceptions about certain political issues. The church, it needs to be doing what Christ told us to do. So I'm worried about the mission drift that happens. Secondly, I'm worried about how this leads us to create political alliances instead of engaging in evangelism. If you had the chance to sit down with Donald Trump or Joe Biden, if you had the chance to talk with Ben Shapiro or Jordan Peterson, what would you want to talk about with them? Would you, like faithful Christians, talk with them about their need for Christ? How they've been led astray by false religion, false teaching, how they're still in their sins and on their way to hell? Or would you want to talk with them about something political? What's your mission? Why are you here? Yeah, Jordan Peterson can do a great job talking politics. I'm glad he's doing it. Just like I'm glad that the doctor that I go to see is doing great work as a doctor. That's his thing. Go, do it. What's the church? the only organization in the world that is commissioned to preach the gospel, to save souls. Let's be careful that we don't start making political alliances instead of engaging in evangelism. We are here to make disciples. Thirdly, I'm concerned about needless offense to the Jewish people. Say, well, Timothy, why would you be concerned about that? Because the New Testament is concerned about that. Romans 9-11, three chapters in the most important book in the New Testament are devoted to the church's relationship to Jews. And how important it is that we do not nullify the promises of God to the Jewish people as amillennialists and postmillennialists most often do, almost all the time, in their doctrine and their teaching. And this creates a barrier, a stumbling block to the evangelization of God's chosen people. It has practical effect, it has practical ramifications on the completion of our mission. And our mission is not just to the Gentiles, our mission is to the Jews. I don't want to cause needless offense by bad theology. Number four, poor Bible interpretation. In order to avoid a premillennial view, in order to have one of the other views about God's kingdom, what do you have to do with hundreds of Old Testament and New Testament prophecies about the coming kingdom of God? You have to spiritualize them. You have to make them say something other than what is obvious according to their own context and their own meaning. Once you start doing that with Scripture, even if it's just in eschatology, it becomes easier. I'm not saying everyone does this. I'm not accusing all Amillennialists of spiritualizing other parts of Scripture. But, all I'm saying is, if you can spiritualize the promises of God to Israel, then why can't you spiritualize Genesis chapters one and two? Why can't you spiritualize the New Testament's teaching on men's and women's roles? Why can't you just make it say whatever you want according to your theology? So I'm concerned about non-premillennial teaching, that it undermines good Bible interpretation. Just understanding the words in their own context sets a bad precedent. It's worth discussing, it's worth pointing out. Number five, this is the last one, this is the most important one, that's why I put it last. Less focus on Christ's return. I'm not saying this is true of every amillennialist or every postmillennialist. You know, I'm just talking generalities here. Look at the thousand years that premillennialism was lost in the church. From the rise of the state church until the recapture of some of these doctrines post-Reformation. And how much study was done on the book of Revelation during that thousand years? Almost nothing. How much did the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church talk about the return of Christ? Hardly ever. How many commentaries have been written on the prophecies of the book of Revelation by non-premillennial authors? There's some, there's a handful. You know, they kind of feel it's their duty. But who has a passion for the return of Christ and talks about it constantly? Premillennialists do. in accord with the New Testament. You know, some people will criticize pre-millennialists, they'll say, oh, you guys always think you're the last generation, and you're not planning for the future, and every Christian generation for the last 2,000 years thought they were the last generation, so you're just being pretty foolish to not learn the lesson from all those previous generations of Christians who thought that Christ was coming in their lifetime. And that's exactly what Christ told us not to say. Christ said, be careful. that you don't start to think, my master is delayed and is coming, now I can do whatever I want. Christ is coming, and he's going to judge you, not according to the doctrinal system of any human being, he's going to judge you according to the commands of the New Testament. He's going to say, did you do what I told you to do? Did you focus on what I told you to focus on? I'm here to help you do that. You're here to help me do that. For all those amillennialists out there who are gonna watch this message, both of them, I'm here to help them to do that. And they're here to help me. You know, all we wanna do is keep the commands of the New Testament. All we wanna do is keep the command to fix our hope completely on the grace to be brought to us at the revelation of Jesus Christ. What's my hope? Am I a pessimist? I'm not a pessimist. If you know me, you know that I'm full of hope. But my hope isn't that the church is going to succeed in Christianizing the world. My hope is that Christ is coming back, and he's going to do exactly what he says he's going to do in the book of Revelation, and that we are going to receive the reward that he has promised to us, and that the eternal kingdom of God is going to be established and last forever, and that Christ is the mediator of that kingdom, is going to rule and reign for 1,000 years. And then after that, we get to enjoy the new heavens and the new earth. I'm filled with hope. Not hope in the church, kind of a sorry lot we are. My hope is in Christ, and there's nothing sorry about him. As a closing prayer, I want to leave you with this thought. What does it mean when we pray for God's kingdom to come? You know, all Christians pray the Lord's Prayer. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done. But not all Christians mean the same thing by it. Wouldn't it be nice if we meant the same thing by it that Christ meant by it? Wouldn't it be nice if we all agreed on that? And if I'm wrong, then I want to be changed. I want to think about it the way that Christ said it. And I hope that that's your attitude too. That you're not concerned about your traditions and your beliefs and your background and your group and your interests, but that you just want to know. Christ, what did you mean? What did you say? I want to think like you do about your kingdom. May God lead the whole church into a unified understanding of God's kingdom. And so may we all be able to do the work that he's given us to do as a united team and achieve the victory that God has destined us to have. Bow your heads with me. Our Father in heaven, We want to hallow your name, to consider you to be so sacred. Your name, your reputation. Father, forgive us for the things that we've done that have sullied your reputation, for the failures that we've had as your children to live up to our high calling in Christ and to make full use of all that you've given to us to be able to bring the church of Jesus Christ to full maturity, to build our families on Christ. Lord, to gain and grow in wisdom in all aspects, to have your word dwelling richly within us so that we know how to act in every situation. Forgive us for how we have brought dishonor to your name by failing in so many ways. And Father, we do pray that your kingdom would come. We pray that as Jesus Christ is at your right hand, waiting for that moment when he is called upon by you, Father, to judge the world in righteousness, to gather his elect, to destroy his enemies, and to sit on David's throne, Lord, we pray that that kingdom would come, that it would come soon, and that we would be found faithful until the end, and that when Christ comes, he will find us to have faith. Amen.