PREACHED:OL,5-01-05,PM

 

“MICAH AND THE MESSIANIC KINGDOM”

 

INTRODUCTION:

 

    Acts 28:23, 24, 30, 31

 

A.      Two elements to Paul’s preaching: Identity of Jesus and the Kingdom.

 

                   1.       How can we preach the same message?

 

                             a.       Begin where Paul began—prophets.

 

k    Micah 3…Description and Destiny of Sinful Israel -

 

A.      Vs 8-12. “But as for me, I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the Lord, and with justice and might to declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin. Hear this, you heads of the house of Jacob, and rulers of the house of Israel, who detest justice and make crooked all that is straight, who build Zion with blood and Jerusalem with iniquity. Its head gives judgment for a bribe; its priests teach for a price; its prophets practice divination for money; yet they lean on the Lord and say, ‘Is not the Lord in the midst of us? No disaster shall come upon us.’ Therefore, because of you, Zion shall be plowed as a field; Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins, and the mountain of the house a wooded height.”

 

          B.       Lessons we should heed:

 

1.                 They had forgotten that you reap what you sow.

 

2.                 They perverted wrong into right.

 

3.                 They were greedy and materialistic.

 

4.                 Leadership led the way into apostasy.

 

5.       They had the warped view that God was with them and blessing them though they were rebellious and disobedient.

 

6.       They were willfully blind to their true condition.

 

7.       They were destined for ruin, destruction and desolation.

 

l    Micah 4…Hope in Repentance, Restoration and the Messianic Kingdom -

 

A.      Vs 1-5. “It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and it shall be lifted up above the hills; and peoples shall flow to it, and many nations shall come and say: ‘Come let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.’ For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between many peoples, and shall decide for strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore; but they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree, and no one shall make them afraid, for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken. For all the peoples walk each in the name of its god, but we will walk in the name of the Lord our God forever and ever.”

 

          B.       Importance…Isaiah says the same…(Isa 1:21-2:5)

 

1.       Same pattern used by Isaiah – “Unfaithful city” Jerusalem to be punished followed by “Latter Days” promise of Messianic blessings…

 

          B.       Six great truths revealed about the Messianic Kingdom.

 

DISCUSSION:

 

u   TIME OF THE KINGDOM’S ARRIVAL

 

          A.      “It shall come to pass in the latter days…”

 

                   1.       Heb. – end time

 

          B.       New Testament identifies:

 

                   1.       Events on Pentecost -

 

a.       Acts 2:16, 17. “…this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel (2:28-32): ‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh…”

 

b.       Pentecost introduced the “latter days” & the Messianic kingdom.

 

v   NATURE OF THE KINGDOM

 

          A.      Spiritual not earthly

 

                   1.       What was to be established?

 

a.       “The house of the Lord”  - The Lord’s temple!

 

          B.       The New Testament Identifies -

 

                   1.       What was established on Pentecost? CHURCH!

 

C.       Eph 2:19, 20. “…through him (Jesus) we (Jews and Gentiles) have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you (Gentiles) are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.”

 

1.       I Tim 3:15. “…the household of God…is the church of the living God…”

 

a.       And that fits with the events of Pentecost because it was the church that was established that day!

 

Ž    THE PLACE OF THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE KINGDOM

 

A.      “the mountain of the house of the Lord….Zion… Jerusalem…”

 

1.                 Where did the events of Pentecost transpire?

 

a.       Jerusalem!

 

                   2.       Where did the sending forth of the gospel begin?

 

                             a.       Jerusalem!

 

                   3.       What is spiritual Zion, Jerusalem, the city of God?

 

                             a.       The Church!!

 

1)       Heb 12:22-24. “But you have come to Mt Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem...and to the church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven…”

 

4.       Of what were they—as Paul said—“fellow citizens”?

 

a.       Heb 12:28, 29. “Therefore, let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.”

 

   THE REALM OF THE KINGDOM

 

A.      “…peoples (all kinds) shall flow to it, and many nations shall come, and say, ‘Come let us (all these races, all

these nations) go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob…”

 

1.       Mark 16:15, 16; Matt 28:18-20; Acts 11:18. “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.”  Gal 3:28. “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus…”

 

y   THE NATURE OF THE KINGDOM

 

          A.      Peace -

 

1.       “…they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore…”

 

2.       Eph 2:13-16. “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off (Gentiles, peoples, nations) and peace to those who were near (Jews). For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father…”

 

a.       John 18:36. “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world,

my servants would have been fighting that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from this world.”

 

‘   THE RULER OF THIS KINGDOM                                   

          A.      Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world…”

 

B.       John 18:37. “Then Pilate said to Him, ‘So you are a king?’ Jesus answered, ‘You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to me.’”

 

1.       It is interesting that the church is described as “…a pillar and buttress of the truth…”  (I Tim 3:15)

 

C.       In Micah 5, the prophet identifies the place from which the Ruler of the Messianic kingdom would come:

 

1.       Vs 1, 2. “Now muster your troops, O daughter of troops; for a siege is laid against us; with a rod they strike the judge of Israel on the cheek. But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from ancient days…”

 

                             a.       Where was Jesus born?

 

                                      1)       Bethlehem!

 

b.       How did Jesus describe himself to the Jews?

 

1)       John 8:56-58. “’Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.’ So the Jews said to him, ‘You are not

yet 50 years old, and have you seen Abraham?’ ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was I am.’”

 

CONCLUSION:                                         

 

§C  What is the point?

 

             A.   Simple and yet profound:

 

1.       The Kingdom will not come in the future, Christ will not lead a great epic, end-time battle that will usher in his thousand year reign in his kingdom on earth, BUT THE KINGDOM IS NOW IN EXISTENCE AND CHRIST IS ALREADY REIGNING OVER IT!

 

a.       That kingdom is the church and we are a part of it if we have obeyed the gospel!

 

                                      1)       Col 1:13, 14

 

2)       Rev 1:4-6. “Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom…”

 

B.       Have you done what they did on Pentecost to become a part of Christ’s kingdom?

 

1.                 Acts 2:38, 41