07. Why Now, Walking With the Holy Spirit, Equipping Men
Ultimately, we’ve come to a point when we have lived at the limit of a good enough life in a broken society.
We feel like I have reached the edge of the “minimum” life. People are searching for something more in every possible idea, belief, self-help book, television show, and celebrity spokespersons but we know only God can take us to the next stage in our lives.
Jesus Triumphal Entry – Matthew 21
When Jesus entered the city on Sunday, Palm Sunday, he was greeted by cheering crowds proclaiming Him king much to the dismay of the religious leaders, Pontius Pilot, and the 10th Roman Legion, who had taken up residence in the Antonia Fortress to control the enormous crowds that swelled the city during Passover. A time where the normal population of Jerusalem grew from 100,000 to over a million people in a matter of days. Jewish unrest was rampant during the time of Jesus with numerous radical rebellions and uprising occurring all throughout Palestine. The northern territory of Galilee, Jesus’s home, was a fountain of radical thought and revolutionary movements during this time, around 32 A.D. Jesus entering the city, on Passover, with a million frustrated Jews, and the crowds loudly proclaiming him King was more than volatile
The Jewish leaders would have been shocked and outraged at Jesus’s behavior at the temple, chasing out the money changers and the Romans were on high alert because of the events surrounding Jesus in the city.
The Delegation Confronts Jesus – Matthew 21 and 22
The Parable of the Wedding Feast – Matthew 22:1-14
“And again Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying, 2 “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son, 3 and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come. 4 Again he sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, “See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.”’ 5 But they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business, 6 while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them. 7 The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. 8 Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy. 9 Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.’ 10 And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with guests. 11 “But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. 12 And he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. 13 Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ 14 For many are called, but few are chosen.”
The warning in these two parables is if we do not continue to cultivate Christians in the correct way based on biblical truths, the Kingdom of God will be taken away from us and given to someone else. This is regardless of how big our church may be, how many members we have, how famous we are on tv, how many books we sell, or speaking engagements we book.
We are all equal in the eyes of God and the Holy Spirit and we can just as easily grieve the Holy Spirit in ways potentially detrimental to our relationship with Christ, which we will go into more detail in later discussions.
Just because we stand and say, “I believe” during a church service doesn’t insure we will inherit the Kingdom of God. It is so much more in the relationship, the way we live out our lives for Christ and being present in the Holy Spirit than it is just to say a couple words and join a bible study.
Why is this important as we come to the next stage in life in partnership with the Holy Spirit? We’ve discussed “where” we are. Before we discuss “how” to get there, I believe it’s important we talk about “why” first. Why Now?
Revelation 7:9 (ESV)
A Great Multitude from Every Nation: “After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands,”
There are 85 verses in the Bible stating Jesus will not return again until the Word of God has reach:
a) All the peoples
b) The whole world
c) Every tribe and language and people and nation
d) Every knee
e) Every tongue
What is a people group?
“An ethno-linguistic group with a common self-identity that is shared by the various members. For strategic purposes it is the largest group within which the Gospel can spread without encountering barriers of understanding or acceptance.”
11,757 people groups (7.6 billion people)
How many are unreached?
7.088 unreached people groups (4.5 billion people)
“A people group is considered unreached (UPG) when there is no indigenous community of believing Christians able to engage this people group with church planting. Technically speaking, the percentage of evangelical Christians in this people group is less than 2 percent.”
How many are unreached unengaged?
3,159 unengaged unreached people groups (238 million people)
“Unreached people groups are unengaged (UUPG) when there is no church planting strategy, consistent with evangelical faith and practice, under way. Gathering believers and planting churches are the keys to establishing an effective and multiplying presence among these people groups.”
Table 71 – YWAM Group. 25 ministries bringing the gospel to the remaining tongues and people group of the World. Reaching every Unengaged Unreached People Group (UUPG). The goal is to establish a strong and viable church within each of the UPGs, so that the number of UPGs is reduced to zero. By 2020, Onestory.org, will be initiating such work in more than 5,500 UPGs (unreached people groups) by the year 2020. By 2025, all of the plans to reach the UUPG’s will be submitted by the teams we saw in the video. By 2026, all of the plans will be approved and will begin implementation. Again, we ask, why now?
Because the minimum requirements for the second coming will have been met, completing the prophecy that before Christ will come again every tongue and people group will have heard the word of God.
Now, let me be clear, I am not prophesying that I know when and where the second coming will take place. “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.” – Matthew 24:36. What I am saying is boxes will all be checked, and the stage will be set for the second coming. God could choose not to come for another 500 years but the urgency remains the same.
Matthew 25:14-30
19 “After a long time their master returned from his trip and called them to give an account of how they had used his money.” We cannot know when but we know we have to be prepared to give an account. We can’t waste anytime in performing our duties now for when God comes again. The time is now. The urgency is now.
Urgency and Immediacy just Like When John wrote the Book of Revelations
“However, if we were to canvass the prophetic utterances of the Hebrew Bible and the phenomenon of prophecy within the New Testament and early Christian worship, we might instead arrive at the conclusion that, while prophecy could include a predictive element, it was primarily a declaration of God’s action in the present. In these cases, prophecy served as an announcement of God’s evaluation of the present actions of God’s people, diagnosing problems and calling for realignment with God’s values.” – https://blog.logos.com/2016/08/3-mistakes-people-make-reading-revelation/
We will never know for certain if the book of Revelations actually comes true unless we are around for the events to occur or we are in heaven. What we can know for certain was the expressed urgency of the writing that mirrored the cultural context of where John was and the events that happened, precluding him to write the text with the assistance of the Holy Spirit.
The sense of immediacy with which John writes made it sound like the events would occur within the current generation of peoples. However, when it did not occur because the prophecy of Revelations 7:9, which we previously discussed, had not come to pass, the Christians of the day made written copies of the manuscripts; in order to, disseminate them throughout the nations. This brings up a concept which we will talk more about in later sessions having to do with the two forms of God’s will we see in the Bible relating to The Hidden will of God and the Revealed Will of God.
How do we get to the next stage in life in partnership with the Holy Spirit? Now that we’ve discussed the current cultural climate and why it’s important that we begin now, we can now discuss the how and introduce the ministry in our discussion on what we need to do.
“There is the right way and then there is everything else which is inferior. Everything can be backed up and documented. You cannot do something that is new.” – Dave Berke,
Dave is a retired U.S. Marine Corps officer, fighter pilot, ground combat leader. He was an F/A-18 pilot deployed twice from the USS John C Stennis in support of combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. He spent three years as an Instructor Pilot at TOPGUN where he served as the Training Officer, the senior staff pilot responsible for conduct of the TOPGUN course.
We are at a pivotal moment in our world history where nearly every possible idea or iteration of an idea has already been developed or created. The same can be said about God’s word. The bible in its latest canon, is the living word of God and it is infallible. Therefore, every possible way of sharing God’s word has been conceived and performed. All of the moments in its rich history tie beautifully into the dynamics of our human history.
History is commonly referred to as, God’s Story because after all, we were all created by God and I believe that all wisdom and understanding comes from Him, therefore it is His Story to us so that we may learn everything we need to know to be better men and better followers for His Kingdom.
What do we have to believe?
1. We believe God is the King above all kings
2. We believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God
3. We believe in the Holy Spirit, its power and its presence in us
4. We believe in Jesus’ crucifixion on the cross
5. We believe in the resurrection and that Jesus conquered death
6. We believe in the Holy Spirits calling for us
7. We believe He is coming back again
What we have to avoid:
We are always competing for money and market share. Enough! We aren’t competing and we are not separate. We are all part of one body of Christ. I would prefer not to use secular media as a quote for a scripture-based training program, however, in this case I found it quite fitting: “Winter is coming. We stand together or we all die” – Tyrion Lannister, Game of Thrones
The objective is to take back territory from the darkness not to squabble and fight amongst ourselves for donor bases. The sooner we all wake up to that the more equipped to tackle the real enemy we will be.
We cannot be naïve to the enemy’s tactics
Three Questions:
1. How do we improve the Kingdom?
2. How do we improve the lives of others?
3. How do we improve our own lives?
When we can search for answer to these three foundational questions, we then begin to understand what is truly at stake.