There are those texts and subjects in the Bible that it seems it doesn't matter how long you study them, they're just always a little bit beyond your reach. So I confess, as we begin, that is where I am today. I want to start in Matthew chapter four today, but I find that I can't. I'm just not quite there yet. It's not because I haven't thought about Matthew chapter four, I've been thinking about Matthew chapter four for a long time. I guess this is just me, maybe other guys do this too, but it seems like before I can really get to the text that I want to preach, I have so many things I need to clear up before I start. It's kind of like an endless list of housekeeping items before company can come over. You know you want everybody to come, And this doesn't mean you should just leave and let me stand here and talk to myself for the next couple of months while I kind of get ready. Because this is part of getting ready. It's not just getting me ready, it's getting our minds ready to kind of grasp what Matthew is trying to do. And what Matthew's trying to do in chapter four is something that he's been doing for several chapters, but we really haven't talked about a particular matter that I want to talk about today that I hope will equip us to deal with Matthew chapter four, because in Matthew chapter four, Matthew does something more clearly than he's done in past chapters. What I want to talk to you about today is a doctrine, and it's known as the doctrine of recapitulation. It's hard to spell, it's hard to hear, It's hard to get a grasp on, at least in my own mind. I'd be much better if somebody came and said, I want to do a sermon on the doctrine of covenant theology. And when I say something like that, many of you would go, oh, that's what you want to talk about. Because in many ways, in talking about the doctrine of recapitulation, we are talking about the doctrine of covenant theology, or we're talking about the doctrine of the federal headship of Jesus. Now, for others that are here today, you may be already so lost two minutes into this, you're like, I have no idea what he's talking about. Doctrine of covenant theology, what is that? I was lost enough on recapitulation. What's covenant theology? So I want us to kind of slow down and back up a little bit. And in thinking about this doctrine of recapitulation, I'm hoping by the time we're done today, not only can you spell it and say it, you will know what it means, and you'll know why it matters. Because I think if we miss the doctrine of recapitulation, we are going to miss Matthew chapter four. We're gonna miss what Matthew's trying to do in his presentation of Jesus being led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tested and to be proven as the Messiah, the long-awaited one promised by God. So to do this today, I wanna do a few different things. I want us to consider the term itself, the word. I want us to think about what the word means, the significance of it. With that, I want us to look a little bit at the theological import of the word. And I wanna bring in a couple of guys from church history that I think can help us in addressing this subject. One from the second century, probably the leading theologian in the second century of the church, a brother of yours that you've never met. Some of you have never heard of him, a man by the name of Irenaeus, who was a bishop in France, kind of southeastern France, at that time known as the region of Gaul. Then I want to come to the 17th century, and I want us to hear from perhaps the greatest of the Puritan theologians, but I know when you say words like the greatest, you know, you get into kind of opinion, but he is certainly arguably one of the greatest theologians of the Puritan era, if not throughout history, and that would be John Owen. I think both of these men can help us get ready for the journey of Matthew chapter four. Now, if I was just gonna be on Matthew chapter four for a week, we'd just do it and be done and go on, but I wanna linger a little while on Matthew four. There's just so much to think, not just of the temptation of Jesus himself in Matthew chapter four, but the doctrine of temptation, the reality of temptation itself on a practical level that you and I face every day, we are tempted. We're even gonna pray here in a little while with the Lord's table that God would not lead us into temptation. If we understood more temptation, we understood it better, we would understand why Jesus says pray that you not even be led into temptation, much less led into sin. I often find myself praying that God would keep me from sin. You ever pray that? God, just keep me from sin. Do that Jesus told you to pray, keep me from temptation. And if you could stay away from temptation, you'd stay away from sin. That's how we get into it, right? We're enticed and drug along as things lure us here and there. But let's shelve that for just a little while. I want us to, like I said, back up and take care of some of these housekeeping items. And then I'd like to kind of end with making some applications of this doctrine and why it matters. So if you're thinking in terms of an outline, I want us to consider the term, the theology, kind of a historical focus on the term as it makes us ready for Matthew chapter four, and then look at some applications. So let's think about the term itself, recapitulation. It's interesting, in the word recapitulation, the first five letters simply say recap. You can almost get the word and the meaning of the word by the idea of a recap, a summary. You're gonna pull everything together and give kind of a recap of what you covered before. Maybe that happens like in a meeting you get into during the week and your boss says, hey, let's just give a quick recap of what we talked about last week and let's like pull all that together, let's sum it all up. Well, some have considered the word recapitulation to be like a summary. In fact, the word is used as a summary of necessary points. It's used in the book of Romans itself. Turn over there in Romans chapter 13. It's only used a couple times in the Bible, which kind of limits us to its biblical usage. But in Romans chapter 13, I believe it's around verse nine, It says, oh, verse eight, we'll back up there. Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another, for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. For this, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet. If there is any other commandment, here it is, is recapped or is summed up in this saying, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no wrong to a neighbor, therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. So when he thinks about all the commands that he could list, let's just sum them all up in this one command, love your neighbor as yourself. Have you ever said to yourself something like, you know, if God's word is so complicated, God's commands are so complicated, if he would just sum this thing up in one word, I could do that. Well he did, he summed it up in one word, love your neighbor as yourself. Now go do that. How's that gonna work for you? It doesn't make it any easier to have it all summed up in one word. It's just like a focused gut punch. Now it's just one thing that like hits you right in the face, all right? Yeah, I can't do that. I don't do that very well. But this is the way the word is being used in summing things up, in kind of pulling everything together at one focused point. One theologian from the 20th century spoke of this particular term showing that Christ is at the center. Christ is exercising his lordship over the whole of the world and he's commenting here on Ephesians chapter one about God summing up all things in heaven and on earth in Jesus Christ. Edy, a Scottish theologian, speaks of it as a recollection or a regathering of all things in Christ. He says, Christ as center. Now the word itself, recapitulation, is from a Latin word, recapitulatio, which has a Greek term Anakephaliosis. Now you're thinking, what in the world is that, anakephaliosis? Let me just break it down a little bit. Kephale is the main root of the word and it means head. Ana means again. It literally means to provide a new head, to orient everything around a new focal point, a new center, a new head. Specifically, the head that everything is going to be oriented around is the Lord Jesus Christ. If you turn in your Bible to Ephesians chapter 1, the passage that Vishal just read for us, I'd like us to look back at Ephesians 1 for just a moment. This is the only other place in the New Testament that I know of that this term is used. And in Ephesians chapter one and verse seven, we read there that in him, that is in Christ, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight, he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his kind intention which he purposed in him. He purposed in him, the father purposing in the son, with a view to an administration an economy, a way of pulling things together suitable to the fullness of times, that is, what is that future plan of God pulling all things together under an administration that will organize and kind of pull it all together? He says here, it is the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth. We're not just talking about salvation, We're talking about pulling together things in the heavens, the angelic realm, things on the earth, the creaturely human realm where we're redeemed, pulling them all together and bringing things back under a new head, a new center. Now, if we think in terms of like summing things up, it is used outside the Bible in relationship to math. And the kids are all like, oh man, math, now we're back in school. Isaac's smiling. Way to go, Isaac, there he goes, all right. And you're the man I wanna be, Isaac, you know, loving math. I just can't quite get it out of me. But anyway, I'm sure it's just sin, brother, and I need to work harder at it. But if you lay out all your numbers in a line, that'd be like a column, right? All right, one over another. And at the very bottom, what do you get? You get the sum. Somebody helped us out there, all right? You get the sum, you get the total. Now in the ancient world, they would put that total where? At the top. That's where the sum would be, at the head. That's the chief total of everything. That's the focal point of what's going on. and standing over the head of all things in God's eternal economy, his eternal plan, is going to be the glorious Lord Jesus Christ who's over all things, everything being pulled back together in him. Now don't confuse this for some kind of universalism where everybody's saved and there's no hell and the devil's redeemed or something crazy like that. There have been some in history that have said things like that. But no, all of God's redemptive purposes for a new heaven and a new earth and for all to focus in on the Lord Jesus Christ, he will be ruler, he will be chief, he will be head over all things. And there is a sense in which even in relation to those that are in hell and judged forever, Christ still stands as head and supreme power. Don't think that hell somehow falls outside of his rule. Richard Muller in his Latin and Greek dictionary of theological terms, he says this, this new headship is the new headship of Christ that supersedes the old headship of Adam. And in the work of salvation, Christ undoes the sin and undoes the fall of Adam. Calvin says that Paul, to show whereby we are all in a state of dreadful dissipation, pulls this word up, and Calvin translates it as gather. That idea of pulling things together. And he says that all of us are in this state of dreadful dissipation till such a time as our Lord Jesus restores us. And this has reference not only to us, but also to other creatures. In brief, it is as though he had said that the whole order of nature is as good as defaced. and all things decayed and disordered by the sin of Adam till we are restored in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let me just make this very simple and very clear, hopefully. Maybe you're thinking, I don't quite get what you're saying. Let me ask you, when you were in the world this week and you lived Monday through Saturday at your job, at the store, driving around, watching the news, watching politics, wondering what's gonna happen, do you have a sense that things are not right in the world? That will not always be the case. When Christ is placed as head and chief over all things in a new heaven and a new earth and a new creation and all is summed up under him and he is the sum of all things, he is the center point, he is the one that everything's gathered together around, all will be made right. and all of his redeemed will be fully glorified, and the creation will cease its groaning, and the angelic hosts in heaven will no longer have to watch over and care for and minister to saints in this fallen, wretched world, because they will be forever with the Lord, glorying in him, still longing to look into and longing to understand the fullness of redemption, and the fallen angels with Satan will be in an eternal lake of fire, and all those who follow him will be there with him, and they will all be under the headship of the Lord Jesus Christ. Calvin says, although we see God's wonderful wisdom, power and goodness, justice and righteousness in all creatures. Sounds like Sunday school, doesn't it? For those of you adults that were in here. I kept coming up on that phrase all the time. And that was interesting to me how the Sunday school and the sermon were kind of in my mind, at least, kind of coming together. He says, though we see God's wonderful wisdom, power, goodness, justice, and righteousness in all creatures, nevertheless, there are, listen, there are marks of sin, both high and low, and all creatures are subject to corruption. And all is disordered because God hates and rejects the current state. The restoration, therefore, has to be made by the Lord Jesus Christ. Charles Hodge, Princeton theologian from the 19th century, speaks of Christ ruling and reigning as a universal regent. He said, in that picture, man is reconciled to God, and all who bear God's image are reconciled to man. Angels are ministering spirits to him, and all holy intelligences delight in him. Not only has harmony been restored to the universe, and the rupture occasioned by sin repaired, but being still in rebellion are placed under Christ's control, as well as the unconscious elements and spheres of nature. Thus, this summation. is seen in the form of the government of Christ where he serves as the universal regent of the world. Everything is placed under him as their head. This blends a little bit here of our first two points of thinking about the term itself, recapitulation. I hope that it's a little clearer in your mind what's going to happen with that and the theology of it all exalting the Lord Jesus Christ. Just to kind of drive this home a little bit more, I want to share with you several things from John Owen in his book on the glory of Christ. And it's kind of like a recounting of how we got here, if you will. And in typical Owen fashion, it's like long, all right? And I'll give it to you in multiple points. And if you're taking notes and you can't keep up or whatever, see me later and I'll show you where you can find this. Owen takes us back to the beginning, before anything was, and he speaks about the very being of God. And he says that God alone has all being in himself. Again, an overlap with Sunday school here, and we talked in Sunday school about how you and I, we are dependent beings. Or we could say we're just becomings. We're just things that are changing every day, becoming what we weren't, and by the grace of God, being shaped and molded into the image of Christ. But God alone has all being in himself. And secondly, in this state of God, having all being and goodness in himself, antecedent unto any act of wisdom or power without himself, to give existence unto other things, God was and is eternally in himself, all that he will be, all that he can be unto eternity. What Owen is saying here is that God has being in himself and he has no becoming. God has no change. It's not every Sunday that bulletin, if you will, overlaps in my mind, but as we came there in Hebrews chapter 13, in verses seven and eight, and reading in Hebrews 13, eight, that Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Why is this? Because he's God. Jesus in his being. I remember hearing somebody just a few years ago, it was someone in the charismatic movement, they were saying that, you see, speaking in tongues is for all ages, because Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. and he always does the same thing. I'm like, that's not quite what that's talking about. Are we gonna speak in tongues in heaven? Well, no, no, that's not what that's saying. Jesus will be the same. From everlasting to everlasting thou art what? Thou art God. He's speaking to us about his very being. And as that infinite being, he is in no sense becoming. He is all that he will be, all that he can be unto eternity. The third thing that Owen mentions here is that this being and goodness of God, by his own will and pleasure, acting themselves in infinite wisdom and power, produce the creation of everything. This God who had been in existence from eternity to eternity in complete felicity and complete peace and with no change created out of nothing that which is. Creation wasn't made out of some little intensely compact particle of matter that all of a sudden just couldn't stand it any longer, and whew, it happened. God creates, out of things invisible, everything that is visible. A fourth thing Owen mentions here in trying to trace this progress, this state from eternity to eternity. He says that in this state, all things that were made depended immediately on God himself without the interposition of any other head or influence or rule. In other words, he made the world and he sustains the world that he has made. We speak of the decree of God to create, and how does God carry out his decree? By the works of what? Creation and providence. watches over all that he has made. And thus, Owen says, fifthly, that in the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth, and he provided here, when he does this, two distinct rational families that should depend on him according to a law of moral obedience. Rational families. What are these? These are the angels, and these are men. He says that this order, number six, he says this order of things was beautiful and comely. In other words, it was perfect. What does it say? Day six, God makes everything that he's made. He looked at everything he had made and he said it was not just good, but very good. It was beautiful. It was exceedingly good. By the end of day six, everything was as it should be. It was very good. A seventh thing, he mentions that this beautiful order in itself, this union between the two families of God was disturbed and broken and dissolved by the entrance of sin. And hereby, part of the family above, that is part of the angelic hosts, and the whole of the family below, that is Adam and Eve, fell off from their dependence on God and ceasing to center in Him as their head. You can probably see where he's going with this. They fell into variance and enmity among themselves. Number eight, Owen says that the angels that sinned God utterly rejected forever. As an example of his severity and the whole race of mankind, he would not utterly cast off, but determined to recover and save a remnant of them according to the election of grace. God, who has all being in himself, makes a perfect and glorious and beautiful world where everything is all exceedingly good, but there is a fall. There is a rebellion, a rebellion in the heavens, a rebellion on the earth. How be it adds Rowan, he says, number nine, he says he would not restore them into their former estate so as to have two distinct families, each in an immediate dependence upon himself, though he left them in different and distinct habitations. But he did plan to gather them both into one under a new head in whom the one part should be preserved from sinning, that is the angels, and the other delivered from sin committed, that is the remnant of mankind. Oh, and then goes to say, he says, number 10, this then is that which the apostle declares in these words, and he quotes here from Colossians chapter one. This is the text we read earlier. as our call to worship. Let me remind you what it says. To gather together in one all things which are in heaven and on the earth, even in him. And so he expresses it in Colossians 1.20, to reconcile all things unto himself in him, whether they be things in earth or things in the heavens. You can see here in the plan of God to bring things back together as they should be. Number 11, this new head wherein God has gathered up all things in heaven and earth into one, one body, one family, on whom is all their dependence, in whom they all now consist is Jesus Christ, the Son of God incarnate. And notice Owen doesn't say that the new head is simply the second person of the Trinity. That would be true. But he specifically says that the one in whom all things are pulled back together is the incarnate Son of God. This is essential for us to kind of keep in our mind. Recapitulation by Christ cannot happen until he comes as man, like Adam, to undo what Adam did. He began to stay up in the heavens and wave a wand. God doesn't have a wand. This is not a movie. He takes a body to himself. He assumes human flesh. Number 12. And I only have this one and one more before you pass out and think it's like a 47-point Puritan list. It's just 13. It's like nothing, 13, no problem. Some of the folks from faith community, as you're thinking back to John Owen on the New Covenant, we did 17 points on that. And of course it took me like a year and a half or whatever to get through it. Number 12, he says this, to answer all the ends of this new head, To answer all the ends of this new head of God's recollected family, the new gathered family, all power in heaven and earth, all fullness of grace and glory is committed unto him. This is where Jesus will say things like, all authority on heaven and earth have been granted to me. This is not to say that Christ, the second person, Jesus, the second person of the Godhead, does not have all power. He does in his divine nature, but speaking in terms of his position as mediator, as head of this new covenant, to answer the ends of this new headship, all power in heaven and earth, all fullness of grace and glory are committed to him. Finally, Let's mention 13th, that it is true that he acts distinctly and variously towards the two parts of the recollected family of angels and men according to their different states and their conditions. For angels do not have need of redemption as fallen man. We need a reparation by redemption and grace, Owen says, which angels do not. Angels are capable of immediate confirmation and glory, which we are not until we come to heaven. Therefore, he assumes our nature that it might be repaired, and he gives us union to himself by his spirit, which exalts us to a dignity and honor meet for fellowship with them. in the same family under that one head, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, Owen says, in typical Puritan fashion, this is a brief account, all right? This is a brief account of the mysterious work of divine wisdom in the recapitulation of all things in Jesus Christ. And herein, he is transcendentally glorious. Or his glory herein is far above our comprehension. Now we'll come back, Lord willing, to Owen here in a moment. But remember, he's writing a book on the glory of Christ, and this particular chapter in his book on the glory of Christ, I took this from chapter 11 in his book, it is on the glory of Christ in the recapitulation of all things. And I would highly recommend, I'm sorry I keep hitting this thing, I keep forgetting it's on my face. This is something of a theological grasp, a theological overview of what's happening. Owen is not the only one I want you to hear from though. I want you to hear from another man by the name of Irenaeus. Now, Irenaeus was a second century church father. He lived probably 120, 130 or so to about 200, He is a bishop, a pastor, an elder in the church in Lyon, France, just northwest, we might say, of the top of the boot in Italy. And he's there in Lyon, and he comes there in 177, and he's made the bishop of the church. He had been in Leon for some years, maybe four or five years, having studied in Rome, and he came to Leon after a great persecution had broken out among the saints in Leon, and Pothinus, their bishop, had been killed in the persecution. And Irenaeus is appointed, installed as the bishop of the church, And at this particular point, it's just the bishop of one church, he's not the bishop of any other churches, and he is probably working in close connection with the elders of the church. Irenaeus becomes a strong defender of the incarnation of Jesus Christ. He is writing in a day when there is a teaching that is on the rise known as Gnosticism. Gnosticism taught, in the particular form that he was familiar with, that the body of Jesus was not a true body. It just had the appearance of a body. This is a docetic form of Gnosticism known as Valentinianism. Valentinius was a teacher that had made inroads into the church, and Irenaeus writes five books against this encroaching Valentinian Gnosticism. One might think in the Bible of the little book of 1 John. Now, 1 John is probably written somewhere in the mid-1st century, so it predates the full-blown form of Greek dualism and Gnosticism that existed in the 2nd century, But you might recall in 1 John 4, it says things like this. Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you will know the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. And every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist of which you have heard that's coming and now is already in the world. There were already people in the first century, mid first century, who were denying that Jesus was indeed the incarnate divine son of God, the Christ. The idea in the Greeks, this strong, deep, Greek dualism that spirit and matter cannot touch. They can't come together in any way. The Gnostics had taught that the most pure spiritual being of God was far removed from the world. If you think that God is removed from the world in deism, if you've heard of deism, deism has this idea that God made the world, wound it up like a clock, and just kind of left it to run down. He's not involved in the world. The deistic God is a dualistic type of a God. But it's even more so than that. This God, this pure spirit God in Gnosticism, can have nothing to do with the world. And simply put, through a series of emanations that kind of spin off of this divine being, eventually we get to this evil divine type being that is the God of the Old Testament who makes the world and everything in it. Because to make the world would be wicked. because you would have to touch matter to get there. But there was another emanation from the most pure spirit that eventually comes down to the world as well, and that's Jesus. But the idea of an incarnation is inconceivable to these Gnostics. So they just have Jesus appear like a phantom to have a body. He can't really have a body. One of the church fathers, it may have been Gregory of Nazianzus, I forget, but the comment was made, I think by a couple of them, they said that, that which is not assumed cannot be healed. And the idea being that if the Lord God does not come to us and assume our flesh to be tempted in every way and tried in every way as we are, yet without sin, and to bear the punishment due to us and to die on the cross for our sin, that which is not assumed cannot be healed. If He doesn't assume human flesh, He can't heal human flesh. We are dependent upon a God who has assumed human flesh. We are dependent upon the doctrine of the incarnation. The doctrine of recapitulation cannot happen without the doctrine of incarnation. We need an incarnate Christ. But already in the first century, those antichrists were at work denying that Jesus had come in the flesh. And by the time we get about a hundred years later plus, Irenaeus is fighting off the Gnostics. They're in full bloom, if you will, but not like those pretty flowers that you're waiting for. This is just the full bloom of heresy. When Irenaeus goes to sum up the doctrine, I mentioned there were five books that he wrote, and you'll be happy to know today we're not going to read all five books. I do want to draw your attention though to two of the books, book three and book five. And I would commend them to you. I would commend them to your reading. Don't be afraid of them. They're like old, you know, things that are old are like scary. Yeah. Kids think things that are old are scary. I don't want old things. I want something new, all right? Well, all things new are like all things that glitter. They're not really gold, and they're not always good. And this is not to say that everything you're going to read in Irenaeus is great. It's not. Sometimes you're going to have some squirrely stuff that Irenaeus is going to say. But I would commend to you the reading of the books. I think they're very helpful. I don't think, guys, on our Tuesday study we're going to get to anything really by Irenaeus in the book we've been reading. But maybe we'll mention something. But in Book Three and Book Five in particular, he addresses the issue of recapitulation. Book One is primarily like an expose, if you will, on Valentinian Gnosticism. So if you want to know what Valentinian Gnostics thought, and I know everybody this morning woke up hoping to know what they taught, all right, go to Book One in Against Heresies, and the good news is they're on audio. There you go. You can listen in the car or something like that. Or submit your kids to them at night. Come on kids, let's listen. Pastor Jason said this was great stuff. Well, good luck mom and dad on that one. But book three, he gives, he opens book three or at least a chapter in book three. It's chapter 18, but the chapters are short. with kind of a summary of the doctrine. And let me just read to you from what he had to say, speaking of the incarnation of the Son of God. He says first that, I have shown, past, that the Son of God did not then begin to exist. In other words, in his incarnation, he did not at that point begin to exist. being with the father from the beginning. The son had always been with the father. But, and here's his summary of this doctrine of recapitulation, though he does not mention the term recapitulation. But don't go for the word fallacy thing. You don't always have to have the word to have the idea, all right? We've got the idea here. But when he became incarnate, he was made man. He commenced, listen to this phrase, he commenced afresh the long line of human beings. It was like a redo. He commenced afresh the long line of human beings and furnished us in a brief, comprehensive manner with salvation so that what we had lost in Adam, that was our previous federal head, if you will, namely to be according to the image and likeness of God that we might recover in Christ Jesus. What was lost in Adam is regained in Christ. Sounds pretty Pauline to me, all right? All men in Adam die. All men in Christ are made alive. Now here's just a quick lesson of categories here. Everybody in the world, Everybody that's ever lived, everybody that will ever live until the end of time, everybody that is in this room is either under one of two heads. You are either in Adam, number one, or you're in Adam, number two. Get my ones and twos right. Your head is either Adam, and in Adam, you are dead. In Adam, everything is disoriented. Kids that were in the baptism class, remember our little guys on the board? Adam, in Adam, in Christ, in Adam, everything is in disarray. But in Christ, it's not to say in this world everything's perfect, but everything is ordered according to Christ. and everything in our sanctification is being strengthened and made right, and one day we will be presented blameless with great joy, being in our head the Lord Jesus. Everybody in this room, you can look at yourself and look around, but don't really look around right now. Just listen. Everybody here, whether you're a baby or whether you're the biggest boy or girl here, You're either in Adam or you're in Christ. And you might think, I didn't pick to be in Adam. You were born in Adam. You were born in sin. You were born wayward. You were born estranged from God. You were born in your covenant head, Adam. and everyone and everything in Adam dies. Dies. And everyone and everything in Christ is made alive. Irenaeus knew that, and Irenaeus knew that Jesus had to become incarnate, and when he did so, he commenced afresh. the long line of human beings and furnish us in a brief, comprehensive manner, salvation. That we might recover the image and the likeness of God and be made new. This is the way he sums up the doctrine of recapitulation. He sees in chapter, in book three and chapter 21 and paragraph 10, somewhat of an Adam Christ typology. He sees Adam being born from the virgin soil and formed by God from the dust of the earth. It's interesting that he takes the phrase that God had not sent rain and man had not tilled the ground, hadn't turned the ground, as the virgin soil of the new planet that he had made. And he forms from that this first man, Adam. And then God later comes and takes this young virgin maid and from her draws a human flesh, a human soul, if you will, a human nature from Mary. Christ the eternal Son of God can come and assume a human nature and from one the virgin soil making Adam, from one the virgin maiden making Christ, we now have these two heads of humanity. He says, If the former was taken from the dust and God was his maker, it is incumbent that the latter also, listen, the latter also being Jesus, making a recapitulation in himself should be formed as man by God to have an analogy with the former as respects his origin. There is an analogy between Adam and Christ in regard to their origin. And in this way, the Lord Jesus, the word of God, the eternal word of God, recapitulating in himself his own handiwork. And on this account, does he confess himself to be the son of man and blesses the meek because they shall inherit the earth. God sent forth Paul, quoting Galatians. Irenaeus says God sent his son made of a woman. Or in the book of Romans it says concerning his son who was made the seed of David according to the flesh, who was predestinated as the son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead, Jesus our Lord. In book five, jumping ahead, There is recapitulation in his incarnation. There is recapitulation in his birth. Christ taking on flesh brings us into friendship with God. Now, we're gonna come back to Irenaeus in future weeks. But I wanna take that idea and I wanna draw your attention to the book of Matthew for just a moment. This is called cracking the door, dipping my toe in just enough so I can say I did it, Matthew chapter four. And I wanna draw your attention here into Matthew chapter four, but also chapters one through four. And I want you to see how in these opening chapters, and specifically in chapter four, this doctrine of recapitulation is happening in the life and ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. I think this doctrine prepares us for Matthew, and it will do it most powerfully in chapter four. But if you would just kind of turn to chapter one, and I just want you to kind of think with me as we just kind of gently move through the chapters. We're not gonna really reference particular verses or read particular verses, but I just wanna mention several things to you by way of reminder. If you've been with us for several months or maybe six, seven months now. It's been a while since we were on Matthew, but you'll probably recall, and you've probably read the opening chapters of Matthew before, even if you weren't here for that, and you might remember some of these stories. But Nick Batzig, who is a contemporary Presbyterian preacher, he has an article or a series of articles on Christ performing this typological recapitulation. And in it, he had a list of some things, and I've added a few things to his list. I don't know why he left those out, but anyway, I'm just gonna kind of... gently kind of walk through these. And I want you to be thinking about this idea of how Jesus is recapitulating. He's replaying the work of Adam. And then he's also replaying the work of Israel. And interestingly, you might think in terms of Adam being the first son, doesn't Luke say in Luke chapter three, in the genealogy of Jesus, he refers to Adam as the what? As the son of God. Israel is referred to as the Son of God. Jesus is referred to as the Son of God. I think it's Batik who mentions the idea of a protological son, the first son, Adam, a typological son, Israel, and the eschatological son being the Lord Jesus Christ. Think about how Matthew presents the gospel, the story of Jesus. In the opening, Chapters of the book, Jesus is born as the son of Abraham, as the son of David, he is incarnate, he is enfleshed, he's a literal physical son. He's a physical descendant of Abraham, a physical descendant of David, and he has to escape persecution and suffering, and he flees down where? He flees to Egypt. Is this not what happened to Israel? Is it not true that Adam himself in a sense had to flee being cast out of the garden? He goes. down into Egypt. He comes through the water and is brought into the wilderness. There's like a replay happening of the movements of Israel as a nation in the presentation of Jesus. After the wilderness and those wanderings, going to the mountain, he goes up onto the mountain where he gives a proper and a right interpretation of the law of God. What happens to the children of Israel as they wander through the wilderness? They come to Mount Sinai. Moses goes up into the mountain and receives the law of God. He comes down from the mountain and they begin the ministry of Christ in the land of Judah there and Samaria and Galilee, which is akin to the promised land of the Old Testament. It's interesting to me that one of the first things that Moses does when he moves the people into the promised land is, or Joshua, excuse me, because Moses doesn't actually go in, but Joshua leads them in. They conquer the land and they begin to divide up the tribes. Jesus, when he goes into the land in his ministry, the scripture speaks of him as binding the straw man. And then Jesus is spoken of as appointing leaders that will be leaders of this new community, this new Israel, these 12 apostles. You ever wonder why there are 12 apostles? Why not 10? That's a good even number, right? Why not 20? Why 12? 12 apostles, 12 tribes. It's interesting, in the Old Testament, you can read through, like in the book of Numbers and other places, frequently, with every generation, there is a new appointment of leaders for each tribe, and each tribe has one. One leader. This happens at least three or four times that I'm familiar with. What's happening here with Jesus as he brings the apostles and scatters them throughout the land and the ministry where the strong man has been bound, the enemy is being overcome, Jesus appoints men to lead his new band, his new Israel. Jesus begins to flex, if you will, and exercise his kingly rule ultimately Jesus speaks as a prophet and teaches the people. Jesus acts as a priest and gives himself this presentation of death on the cross where he intercedes for the transgressors and makes a sacrifice for their sin. Like Israel before him, Jesus is exiled on the cross. He goes where? Outside the gate. The people of Israel are cast due to their sin outside of the land. And then in the resurrection, he's restored to the blessings of God or secured for the people of God Paul can then say things like, all the promises of God are yes and amen in the Lord Jesus Christ. Where all the promises made to Israel are secured by Christ who is the true Israel and is made spiritually ours by faith. Jesus is the true Israel who recapitulates all of old covenant Israel's experiences in the work of redemption. Why does this matter? Well, notice in Matthew chapter four, let's look there specifically. In Matthew chapter four, Jesus following his baptism, Jesus going through the water is driven, is led by the Spirit into the wilderness. We'll come back and visit this next time, but in thinking of the children of Israel leaving Egypt, they go through the waters and they are led into the wilderness where they are tempted. Every one of the temptations of Jesus, I sent out A little text this past week, I think, on Signal. For those of you that were hungering for a new chiastic structure, I'll look at Jason. Jason and I like chiasms. But Matthew chapter four is clearly laid out in a chiastic structure. Every one of the temptations of the Lord Jesus Christ recapitulates, replays one of the temptations of both Adam and Israel, and we'll see that as we move through the text. Adam failed. Israel failed. Christ succeeds. Now, why does this matter? There's so much that could be said, but let me just kind of make a few points of application. We've already mentioned that all in this room are either in Adam or in Christ. Let me speak to those of you for a moment who are in Adam. Now, Wouldn't it be nice, well it might be uncomfortable, but it'd be really nice, for the preacher anyway, if all those in Christ had a little green light on the top of their head. And all those in Adam had a little red light on top of their head. And I could see it, and you could see it, and we'd just like what? We'd just like all know, right? Well, I think that'd be nice. But that might be really weird. And that might make everybody so uncomfortable, you'd never come. But let me speak to you who are in Adam. Some people know they're in Adam. There are some people who are so lost and so hardened to the gospel, they know they are lost. They are sensible to their lost condition. Perhaps they're sensible to their lost condition because they've been so hardened and so antagonistic to things of God for so long, they have just a seething hatred for God. Others are sensible to their condition because God has worked in their heart so as to awaken them to sense their need. And that may be you. That may be you who is hardened to the point of hatred toward the God who made you, who created you in his image, who made you for his glory, but you care not for the God who made you. Or perhaps your heart is sensitive to the fact that you are outside of Christ, and you are grieved over it, and you are weary, and you are weighed down by sin, but you simply do not know what to do, and you plead, God, do something. Maybe you plead with friends, do something. Let me speak to you for just a moment, and just to make application of this doctrine of recapitulation. My friend, you need a new head. You need someone to come and gather everything together. You need someone to take the pieces that your life is falling to part in. You need someone to take the rebellion that is in your heart. And you need someone to bring it all together. And you need to find your life summed up under the headship of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible speaks of that as you need to be converted, you need to be saved, you need to be brought from death to life. How does that happen? Well, it doesn't happen by anything that you can bring about in your own power. The Bible describes men in Adam, the Bible describes women, the Bible describes children outside of Christ in Adam in their covenant head as dead. Ephesians 2 says that, speaking to the church in Ephesus, you were dead in your trespasses and sins. All have sinned, the Bible says, and fallen short of the glory of God. And in your sin, friend, listen, you are dead. You're estranged from God. You don't know him. You're far off from him. But if he's graciously made you aware of your lostness, what an opportunity for you to hear the offer of the gospel. that though the wages of sin is death, listen to me, the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. And God in his great love has demonstrated his love for you in this, that while you were a sinner, Christ died on your behalf that you might be saved. There is in the atonement of Christ an offer of the gospel that if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you will be saved. If your heart is hard, and your heart is antagonistic to God, and you want nothing, then friend, hear, hear the warning. Because if you die in Adam, you will die in your sins. And if you die in your sins, there is no hope for you. Because there's appointed to man once to die, and after that to face the judgment. There is no post-mortem evangelism. There is no offer of the gospel after you die. If you don't know the Lord Jesus Christ, then on the moment that you die, you simply wake up in hell forever. Oh, why did he get loud? Why did he get energized? Because, friend, forever never ends. It's irreversible. There's no overs. There's no second chances. There's just you die in your sin and you wake up in hell forever. And the only thing that changes at that point is one day when the end comes, God raises up everyone that is in hell and he has them face the judgment. And if their name is not found written in the Lamb's book of life, they are cast forever into the lake of fire. In other words, it's just hell that's permanent. You need a new covenant head. You need someone to rule and reign over you. And I have good news. There is a kind and good and merciful Savior of men who will bring you to himself. He who calls upon the Lord shall not be what? shall not be disappointed, and you might sit there and say, but I've tried, I've called upon him, I've called, I've called, I've called, and I say to you, call again, and call again, and call again, and may your last dying breath be you calling upon the Lord to intervene and have mercy upon you. that you would keep on asking and keep on seeking and keep on knocking because your only hope, your only hope is that Christ will open the door, that Christ will come in, that Christ will save you, that Christ will be your head. That's your only hope. Parent, if it's your child, then plead for your child. How often have you felt as a parent like Job? You ever wonder about Job? There in the opening chapter of Job, Job's constantly offering sacrifices for his kids. He's under another covenant, we don't offer sacrifices like that, but get the point. Job's worried about his what? Job's worried about his kids. Kids, have your mom and dad ever worried about you? Then you have a good mom and dad. Not that worrying anxiety is righteous, that's not the point. But a parent that's not concerned for their children is a bad parent. Parents, do you always give your kid their way? It's being a bad parent. Don't give them their way. A child that gets his way all the time is a disgrace to his mother. You're gonna raise your kid to be a disgrace to their mother? Give them their way all the time. If your kids are always looking at you saying, you should always say no, you might be doing something right. If you're concerned for your child, then like them, you only have one hope. You only have one. And your hope is not that you'll get smarter, you'll get better, take a better parenting class. Parenting classes are great. You getting smarter would be great. Us knowing more would be great. But the one hope you have for your child is that Christ will save them. So friend, listen, if your child will not pray for him or herself, then you pray for them. You pray for them. And you pray for them again. And when you feel like it doesn't work, you pray for them again and again. We need a new covenant head. And a second point of application here is just to be encouraged. that there is one. There is one. It is Christ. This is not just presenting you with the problem. This is providing you the solution. You need a new covenant head, and the new covenant head has been provided, and he is the only one that is fit and capable of being that covenant head. There is no one else in all of creation, there is no one else in all of eternity that could ever be gifted enough and capable enough of being the covenant head of this new community that will pull all things together in heaven and on earth. Christ can do that. Christ will do that. You need Christ as your covenant head. If you remember that last line of Irenaeus where he said that Christ becomes incarnate, that what might be restored between you and God was friendship. I thought what a great word. It's not a super theological word, it's not a real complicated word, but it's a great word. What was Abraham? Abraham by faith was called the what? the friend of God. Friends, God, through the incarnation of Christ, he who has assumed humanity, who will recapitulate all things one day in heaven and on earth, has this glorious offer in the gospel. that you, by the work of Christ, by the incarnation of the Lord Jesus, by the coming into this world as the second Adam, you can be the friend of God. What beauty, what glory. And he is, as the Proverbs would say, a friend that sticks closer than a brother. He will never leave you. He will never forsake you. He will ever be with you. Let's pray together. Our God, we bless your name. We thank you for your many mercies. We thank you for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, who has assumed human flesh, who has lived a righteous life, who has borne the sin of men, who has taken upon himself the stripes that we were due. He has been crucified, died, buried, descended into hell, and he has been raised on the third day in power and in glory. We ask, O God, that you might, for the glory of your name and the magnification of Christ and his work, that you might this day have mercy on those who are here who are in Adam still. Might you make them alive, might you make them aware of their sin, might you move them to run to you for mercy and for grace, and might they find in the Lord Jesus Christ one who is willing One who is able to save. And if they're discouraged and coming before they feel that they have not been, not attained that conversion, that forgiveness, that salvation that they so need, would you stir their heart up? That they'd be diligent to keep asking, to keep seeking, to keep knocking, to know that you and you alone can save and that you indeed are the only hope of man. For my brothers and sisters who are here, might you encourage them in their head, the Lord Jesus Christ. Might you encourage them by just glancing at their Savior who has done all to rescue them. We bless you and thank you for the work of Christ. and recapitulating and gathering up and summing up all things to himself that he might receive all praise, all glory, all honor, we ask in his name.