So let's open our Bibles to Isaiah 65. We're going to read a few verses, one from Isaiah 65, one from Romans 8, and then one from Revelation 21. Today's consummation new creation, this brings us to the fourth and final part of Cycle 1. The fourth and final part of Cycle 1. And then next week, Lord willing, we'll begin cycle two, which we'll begin looking at the covenant and the covenants. Okay, so what we've done so far, just to lay it out, is the meta-narrative, the big picture story, the one drama of God is creation, fall, redemption, and consummation, new creation. All right, that's what we're going to look at today, the final. Then what we're going to do is the covenants will give us a few weeks to see the skeleton, if you will, to change the imagery, the skeleton of the body. And then our third and final cycle that begins after Christmas, we'll be putting the meat on the bones. We'll be fleshing out the skeleton. But we want to have the foundation as the one story. Then we want to have what ties it all together, the covenant or covenants. and then we want to look at the meat, or the content of each book of the Bible. Here's an assignment, and this is not due until we come back from Christmas break. It's not Thanksgiving break, it's Christmas break. So hopefully you'll have plenty of time to do it. But I gave you two outlines. What I'd like you to do is try your best to put that to memory. All right, one is the Graham Goldsworthy timeline that we've already glanced at, we've glimpsed at, you know, in class, but I'd like you to put that to memory to the best of your ability, those years, 2000 to the coming of Christ. I think it would be very helpful to you. The second thing, if you would, is I want you to be ready to take a little quiz when you come back from Christmas on this. You're going to write out the Moses, the prophets, and the writings in the way that I've given you on that handout. You're going to write that out along with of the Protestant layout of the Old Testament. So I'm going to ask you to do what you probably already know, hopefully, and if not, this will be a good chance to do it. Memorize all the books of the Old Testament as you understand them in the Protestant canon. All right? So you're just going to say Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy. You're going to go through. But then I want you to be able to lay it out as Moses, Prophets, and Writings, the 24 books as well. Okay? So that's after Christmas. That would be the first thing we do. We're going to take a little quiz. Okay? When I come back. I think that'll be fun. All right, so today is consummation. Today is consummation. And let's just look at where we're going. We're gonna have a main theme stated. We're gonna look at a pattern. We're gonna define consummation. And then we're going to look at seven of God's promises in Israel's hope that make up really the Old Testament. And we're gonna look at it in a picture form until the coming of Christ, okay? So that's what we're gonna do. Let's read God's word. Isaiah 65, 17. For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind, but be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create. For behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy and her people to be a gladness. Amen. All right, now turning to Romans 8, one of the promises that we will see fulfilled in the New Testament One of the promises consummate is what we just read, that there'll be a new creation, a new heavens, and a new earth. Isn't that wonderful? That's clearly revealed in the Old Covenant through Isaiah's gospel. All right, Romans 8. Verses 18 to 25, listen to the word of God. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption. and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. and not only the creation, but we ourselves who have the first fruits of the Spirit grown inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope, for who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience." And it's all about consummation there, beloved, about new creation. about the hope that was Israel's and is now ours in Christ. And then finally, Revelation 21. Some of the final words of the Bible remind us that God's purpose and goal of creation was to bring his rule and reign over a people in a special place. God's rule as king over a people in a special place. Paradise restored and escalated. All right. Paradise restored and escalated. And that's what we see at the end in new creation. In Revelation 21.1, John says, I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. a sense reading of God's word. That's our consummate hope. That's the hope of every believer from the beginning of the first time the gospel was ever preached in Genesis 315 to the second return of Christ Jesus, that the gospel hope for every believer is that there'll be a new heavens and new earth. There'll be a place where God again will dwell with man and that the people will dwell with God in his presence because of his grace and his mercy, and we will be with him forever. And so you note in verses two and three there that that's really the goal or purpose, the eschatology of God's entire history. The eschatology of God's entire historical decree is revealed in Revelation 21, three, that the dwelling of God is with man. What was lost in Eden is regained and escalated. He will dwell with them and they'll be his people. So you see, the main theme of the Bible there is that the king will rule over his people in a special place. The king will rule over his people in a special place. So let's pray. Our Father, our God, we thank you so much for your grace and your mercy, your kindness, your love for us in Jesus. And we pray that we would more deeply understand these truths of scripture. We thank you that we have this one drama that leads us to doctrine and then doxology. For from you and through you and to you are all things. especially your self-revelation, your revelation of yourself, your revelation of your purposes, your revelation of your love, and ultimately your revelation to us in Jesus Christ. We pray today that you would help our hearts and minds to grasp the things that you lay out for us in the Scriptures, and that Israel's hope, believing Israel's hope, not merely ethnic Israel, but believing Israel's hope, The true children of Abraham's hope will be our hope in Christ today. And we pray that it would help us as Romans 8 teaches us that we have a hope that though we don't see it, we'd believe it and walk by faith. Give us your Holy Spirit. Help your servant as he makes these things known. Help me to be clear. Help Christ to be exalted. In Jesus name we pray. Leave your Bible open to Revelation 21 for a moment, and I want to write something down. The main thing today that connects us and links us to the next cycle, all right, is the covenant, the coming king, and his kingdom, and the consummation. So the covenant is what we'll look at next, more particularly. So as you've learned, creation, fall, redemption, new creation or consummation. So the next task for us all to learn will be the successive covenants that God reveals and how in each one of the covenants, they're part of one covenant. And as each covenant is revealed, it tells us more about that one covenant. So the covenant, the coming king and kingdom, and the consummation. And I want you to note, as you'll see on that historical line, and as I would like to try to show you today, is when we're talking about consummation, we're simply talking about the pattern here that I hope will be close to our interpretive hearts of promise and fulfillment. You know, the church does not replace Israel. The church fulfills Israel's hope. The church takes part in Israel's hope. The church does not replace Israel. The church is the true Israel as believers. We need to define consummation. I think Revelation 21.2 is a good place to do that. Revelation 21.2 tells us that when John sees this consummation, this new creation, he sees it as the holy city prepared as a bride adorned for a husband. So he sees that special, glorious, paradisical place, this paradise. that's coming down from God prepared for a people to dwell with God. You see that? But he uses the language of marriage, doesn't he? And that's important because when we use the term consummation, we're oftentimes referring now to marriage. You're talking about a betrothal or engagement, and then you're talking about consummation of the marriage once the couple is married. And that's a good way to look at it. The time of promise is a time of betrothal. And the time of fulfillment is a time of consummation, where we consummate our relationship with Jesus Christ most fully in our resurrection, in our being like him, in our dwelling with him, and being in the presence of God. But consummation can mean other things. I encourage you to think of it as betrothal and consummating that marriage as a spiritual marriage in heaven, because that's the imagery we get in some of the parables and even at the end of scripture, you know, the marriage feast of the lamb in Revelation 19. So think of betrothal. You've been betrothed to God. That's the language of Hosea 2. And you will, in Christ, we are consummated. Our relationship with him is consummated by the Holy Spirit. I'll say more about that, Lord willing, toward the second part of the class. But for now, let's think of this. When you hear the word consummation, you can think of, as we do, a spiritual marriage in heaven. You can also think of it as perfection, completion, or finalization. So what God had planned from the beginning before the foundation of the world is completed. That's what consummation means. And part of the consummation is the new creation. Now, does someone tell me why I didn't just call this new creation, creation, fall, redemption, new creation? Why am I emphasizing consummation perhaps more than new creation? Yes, it does emphasize the relationship. Yes, ma'am. And I think new creation is just one, just part of the hope of the consummation. There are seven things that we want to look at. And that's very good. Yeah, I think it's so important to emphasize that when we're talking about this main theme of the covenant, let me just summarize it here. We're talking about the main theme of the covenant. What we're really talking about is God making a promise to his people. Now, there's a lot more we'll learn in the next few weeks, but when you hear that, you first say, God is faithful to keep his promises. That's what you always want to hear in covenant, I think, first and foremost, okay? So it's promise. You can put that in parentheses if that helps you. And then the coming King and Kingdom, He's the one we receive as the fulfillment of that promise. He's that personal Savior. He's the Son of God. He's our Savior who redeems us, who died for us through His blood. And He's the one who brings in the consummation, the perfection. He's the one who brings in the goal of God before the foundation of the world. He's the one who leads us into perfect completion, perfect glorification, we might call it. So you could say that this whole theme, you see the pattern of promise and fulfillment. And here in the Old Testament, the way that they would see it was that the Old Testament of Jesus' time would have seen creation and then flood. That would have been a tremendous event. And as 2 Peter 3 calls it, this time period was called the world that was, and the world that was. And 2 Peter 3 uses that language. And so that was a very popular language of Peter's time, the world that was. And then they distinguished two ages, this present age and the age to come. this present age and the age to come. The present age was characterized by sin, death, suffering, pain, trial, tribulation. And the age to come would be symbolized by seven things we're going to look at together. Consummation. The age to come would be the consummation. The age to come would be the perfection of all God's promises, the fulfillment of all God's promises. Everybody follow me? All right, so let's look at the seven things together. I want to refer to the great Lord of the Rings here, second only to, well, Let's see, after Pilgrim's Progress and Calvin's Institutes and somewhere up in the top 10. How about that? We got the Lord of the Rings, all right? And if you recall, Sam says to Gandalf, and it should break your heart, it should pierce you through with joy and pain. Sam says to Gandalf, after the horrors experienced in Mount Doom, he said, is everything that is sad going to come untrue? That's what consummation is about, is that everything sad about the fall in this present age is going to come untrue. And Tolkien called this something. I don't want to say it right now because it'll get us into something else. But so this is getting at the hope of restoration. This is a Christian heart being pierced with pain and joy because we know that the consummation promises that that everything sad is going to come untrue. Isn't that wonderful? In fact, in Revelation 21, you have just that, don't you? Because in Revelation 21, verse 7, you have them saying that God will wipe away every tear from our eyes. All the pain will be gone, the suffering. Verse 21, 5, all the former things will no longer be remembered. So indeed, All the sad things will come in true. Well, there are seven things that were part of God's covenant promises or Israel's hope. OK, so you get where I'm coming from when I say covenant now, God's covenant promises. OK, and I want you to hold that tight because, again, we're going to expand on the covenant for the next four or so weeks before Christmas break. And these are God's covenant promises that made up Israel's hope for the consummation, okay? So while we're studying the Old Testament, we wanna study creation, we wanna study fall, we wanna study redemption or salvation, and then we're gonna study what their hope was, okay? That's what we're doing here. And the first thing was, of course, a coming Redeemer. A coming Redeemer. Isn't that wonderful? A coming Redeemer or a Messiah. All right. And let's look at a few scriptures. We looked last week at Genesis 315. And what did Genesis 315 teach us, beloved? Somebody tell me in summary form, what does Genesis 315 teach us that is the first time we hear of a coming redeemer? Yeah, the Proto-Evangelion or the Proto-Gospel, the first gospel, right? And what was that first gospel in its substance? What would that first gospel be? Yes, James. Yep, that there's a conflict, there's a real spiritual warfare, and the dragon slayer, the seed of the woman, the dragon slayer would slay the serpent dragon on our behalf and give us the victory in his conquering grace and power. Isn't that wonderful? So that's the first time we hear of the coming Redeemer is Genesis 3.15. And there are lots of places we can look in the Old Covenant, but let me show you a few places. In Genesis 22.18, We'll just do some verse overviews here, and I'd have you follow along in a Bible. If you don't have one, right outside the conference room in the hall, there's a little book table that has Bibles if you go get one. I want you to see these things. In Genesis 22, verse 18, The Lord is speaking to Abraham and he says to Abraham, in your offspring or in your seed, shall all the nations of the earth be blessed because you have obeyed my voice. And so we hear more fully that Abraham's seed will be the blessing for the whole world or for both Jews and Gentiles. And that's the truth from the very beginning. If you look in Galatians for a moment, keep your hand there. It's important to remember Galatians 3.16 as we trace this promise of the coming Redeemer. It's important to keep in mind Galatians 3.15 or 3.16, I should say, Galatians 3.16. Whenever the promise is being made to Abraham's seed, that's the promise tied to the first gospel, the seed of the woman. The seed of the woman is Abraham, the seed of the woman is Israel, and the seed of the woman is ultimately whom? Jesus Christ. And so that seed can be referred in the Old Testament as plural, and it can also be singular. So it can refer to Israel as a people, and it can refer to one which is a Messiah or Redeemer. Now why would that be important, beloved, knowing what we know on this side of things? Let me read Galatians 3.16 and then you tell me. You tell me what the truth is. You ready? In Galatians 3.16, now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring or seed. It does not say and to offsprings, referring to many, but referring to one and to your offspring or seed who is Christ. So why would it be important that part of Israel's hope of consummation would be that a coming Redeemer, a Messiah, would come that's oftentimes reflected collectively as a people and sometimes as one? What teaching would that tell us in light of the New Testament? Yes, sir? Amen. There's only two covenants in the world. There's only two, one with Adam and one with Christ, the second Adam. And it unites the covenant head, the coming Redeemer, the Messiah to come with the people. In other words, it establishes not only representative headship or federal theology or covenant theology, as James just very brilliantly taught us and reminded us, but it also emphasizes union with Jesus Christ. and all of His benefits. So everything that Messiah's seed is going to receive is what His people will receive in and through Him. What Jesus Christ has promised, His people are promised in and through Him. So the consummation is for Jesus Christ first, and then in Jesus Christ for us. Let's look at a few other passages in Deuteronomy 18. I have to keep my eye on the time here as we look at scriptures for each one. What I'll do is the scriptures that I don't actually read to you, if you'll turn to Deuteronomy 18, I will send out to you as a handout this week, okay? So you can look them up. But the coming Redeemer in Deuteronomy 18 is mentioned in verse 15 of Deuteronomy, where it says, the Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me, Moses said, from among you, from your brothers. And it is to him you shall listen. All right. Verse 18, I will raise up for them a prophet like Moses or like you from among their brothers, and I'll put my words in his mouth and he shall speak to them all that I command him. Ultimately, that's the coming redeemer. That's the one they were awaiting on. Now, beloved, remember, keep in mind, as we're going from Moses to the prophets to the writings, what is it we're also to be reminded of? It's there's a progression. OK, there's an expansion. There's more information being taught and given as we go through history and we get closer to the time of fulfillment. OK, so you're going to learn more in the prophets about the coming redeemer. You're going to learn more in the writings about the coming Redeemer. Example, you ready? Isaiah 7. What do we learn in Isaiah 7 in the prophets about the coming Redeemer? Who knows off the top of his head, her head, his head? He's born of a virgin. His name will be God with us. Isaiah 9. We could stay a long time in Isaiah, by the way. It is called the fifth gospel for a reason, because perhaps there's nowhere else in the Old Testament gives us such a wonderful, beautiful, glorious picture of the Redeemer. In Isaiah 9, what do we sing at Christmastime? What do we always, hopefully, we're reminded of? For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. A way to get at an example using these, what we call oftentimes Christmas or Advent scriptures, what we could get at to really, I think, illustrate what consummation means is that at Christmas, we understand the joy and the beauty of the coming of Christ. The consummation is about the second greater, more beautiful Christmas. It's the Christmas that never ends. It's the Christmas that's not followed by winter and darkness and short days and cold and rainy nights. It's the winter followed by glory, or it's the Christmas followed by glory. It's the Christmas that never ends. And so the way to look at the consummation is that the return of Christ ultimately is the consummation, ultimate consummation, the finality, the final act. And with His coming comes a beautiful, perfect Christmas. I think that's a very helpful way. The joys that we grasp at Christmastime are nothing compared to the joys and the hope to be revealed to us. All right, so I'll send you out more, but Isaiah would go on to tell us that this coming Redeemer would be the very glory of God that people would see, that would bring comfort to God's people, that He would be a shepherd that he would also be a suffering Savior. That somehow he'd suffer. And he would suffer on behalf of Israel. And that's what we're taught. In the writings, in 2 Samuel, and we're going to do, Lord willing, a whole class on 2 Samuel 7. In the writings, we have a promise that David's throne would never end. In 2 Samuel, the coming Redeemer will sit on David's throne. In fact, we're told, particularly in 2 Samuel 7.12, When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your seed or offspring after you." You see how the seed of the woman versus the seed of the serpent, you see that seed or offspring throughout the scriptures? I think it's helpful if you begin with seed of the woman in Genesis 3.15. Just every time you see offspring, put in there seed and put in there Christ and me. in union with Christ. And I think you'll be very encouraged to see how much gospel is in the Old Testament in places that you didn't imagine. Because there we have that one will come from David's seed. So this won't only be Adam's seed, the woman's seed. It won't only be Abraham's seed, not just Moses' seed, not just a brother like Moses. Who will this be? David's seed, particularly. And what will happen is, verse 13, he shall build a house and the throne of his kingdom will be forever. And here's where we see something about God that is a further revelation that we'll get into when we get to 2 Samuel. You ready? But I will be a father to him. That's a further revelation that this is not just a God-people relationship of a covenant, but there's a father-son relationship. Like David to Solomon, but much greater. This is the father with his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. So there's more given there if we're careful to catch it. In Daniel 7, we're taught, And I think it's worth looking at Daniel 7, another one of the writings. In Daniel 7, verses 13 and 14, we're taught this. Daniel has this vision in chapter 7 verse 13, I saw in the night visions and behold with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man and he came to the ancient of days and was presented before him and to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all people's nations languages shall serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away. So this seed of David, the seed of the woman, will be a seed of David. God will have a relationship of father to son to him, and more fully, his everlasting dominion will be over all the earth. He'll be the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And there's still that distinction between God and the Son of Man. So it's Triune Theology coming out that is concealed to some degree in the Old Testament, revealed more fully in the New. But that Triune Theology should be noted that there's a distinct one. There's the Ancient of Days, and He gives to this one like the Son of Man. his dominion and his authority. So that is one who's distinct from, yet equal with God, as we find out in John 1. So this is glorious. The coming Redeemer is going to be, you ready, seed of the woman, seed of Abraham, one greater than Moses, seed of David, the Son of God, the Father? and a son of man. And when you open your New Testaments carefully with Matthew, you've got a genealogy that links all those pieces together so that you'll know exactly where Matthew is going. The king has arrived. Here he is. He's the promise. He's the coming redeemer who's been promised. He's the Messiah. And that's why chronology or the genealogies are so important. And when we get to Covenant, we'll trace the genealogies all the way back to the 10 genealogies that make up Genesis. Genesis has a framework of 10 genealogies, and we'll trace them to the end of the Hebrew Bible with Chronicles, and then how it links then to Matthew's genealogy in Matthew 1. We've looked at that briefly, but I think it's worth looking at again. So the coming Redeemer is the first thing, and because of time, we won't look at all the things, but let's mention a few that's connected with the coming Redeemer. What this first record gives us hope about is the coming Redeemer tells us ultimately that God is going to come in the flesh, that God's Son is coming, that there's a person, there's a human being who's coming to be Redeemer, Messiah. The second that we want to say is the coming kingdom. And boy, there's so much that we could say about that. Now, the kingdom, as we'll see when we get to covenants, the kingdom comes through the covenants, okay, successively and progressively. But ultimately, this Messiah would rule and reign over the nations. And I will send you out a worksheet with several scriptures, but ones that come to mind right off the top of my head that are from my notes are Psalm 2, Psalms 2, 72 and 110 that God's King will be an everlasting kingdom. As we looked at Isaiah 9, it would be an everlasting kingdom. Daniel 2, Daniel 7 tells us it's going to be an everlasting kingdom. And so that was a big deal that the kingdom of God was going to come. The kingdom of God was going to come. The third thing was the new covenant, the new covenant. And that's in contrast to the old covenant, right? was broken, the Old Covenant oftentimes being shorthand for the Mosaic Covenant, the covenant that was made with Moses as mediator at Sinai. But let me say something that we're going to talk about more as the class goes on, but I've got to say it over and over, I think, because we miss this. Though the Old Testament or the Old Covenant is contrasted with the New, the old covenant and the new covenant are still part of the one covenant of grace. Whether Moses or Christ, the two covenants are still part of one covenant of grace. That's so important to emphasize, okay? And I'll say more about that, but that was the other one. Jeremiah 31, if you turn there, Jeremiah 31 is a very important scripture for remembering the covenant, the new covenant. And you know what's so beautiful about Jeremiah is he's speaking to the people who are in exile. So they're in a very low place. They're very in a sad place, a place that we might say that they're tempted to hopelessness, you know? And we're told in the midst of this hopelessness comes the word of God. Isn't that wonderful that our gracious God speaks to give hope? And he tells them in Jeremiah 31, 31, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares Yahweh. For this is the covenant I'll make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. I will put my law within them. And I will write it on their hearts. And that's going to be done through the possession of the Holy Spirit. And I will be their God and they shall be my people. Isn't that wonderful? You know, we sometimes will kind of, I think, miss that Jeremiah 29, 11 hope in that context. We sometimes have it as our graduation plaques, and that's a nice thing, you know, that, you know, I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord. And that's okay, you know, because it is ultimately for individuals, it's for us. But ultimately, that's about the new covenant. You know, that's about that hope. It's about consummation. I have plans for you, not just for your life, you know, presently. He does indeed have that. There's a truth to that. But in an ultimate sense, the plans that I have for you, says the Lord, are plans of consummation. So everything we're talking about today is what he means when he says, I have plans for you, plans to prosper you, okay? Plans to bless you, all right? So, new covenant, and let me see. Yes, sir, yes, sir, Steve. Well, there'll be some differences that we'll look at when we get there. Yes, sir. There'll be some differences. One that comes to mind right away is the outward signs and seals of the covenant of grace will change. Yes, that's one very big, important one. Where it was circumcision and Passover, it will be fulfilled with baptism and the Lord's Supper. But both will be an inaugural rite in blood. just like circumcision, baptism, symbolizing that in blood, or inaugural rite, and the cleansing that comes, and then the Lord's Supper, like the Passover feast. There's still a meal to follow. And so it's similar, but it's different in signs. That's one big one we'll look at. Yeah, I should have read it, but I was looking at time. Go ahead. Amen. Very encouraging. Very encouraging. There'll be a knowledge of the Lord and, in particular, a possession, an assurance of knowledge about one's salvation that was not available in the Old Covenant to that degree. And I think that's what's so important when Romans 3 tells us that the sins of the Old Covenant were passed over, so to speak, until the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. They were passed over symbolically, right, through sacrifices. So the final sacrifice had not taken place. And so the New Covenant promises a forgiveness of sins that brings a great deal of assurance. See, looking at this, beloved, just helps us remember not to lay flat our Bibles, but to see it as a progressive story that continues to progress as we go from creation to consummation, and always be reminding that there'll be some similarities. There is one big story, but there'll be some differences, and we just want to take that note and go, hmm, that's interesting. Look at the differences. I wonder why in Christ that would be different. And then you can figure that out. It's wonderful when you do, because then you're making these distinctions about the work, the person and work of Jesus Christ. So the fourth is the restoration of Israel. And this is, you know, after the exile, the Israelites are basically in a state of death. And so what's promised, essentially, is resurrection. All right? And remember, how does the... How does the Old Testament end with Chronicles? Does someone remember what's the last line of Chronicles before we get to Matthew's genealogy? How does the Old Testament Bible end? Let them go up. And so one of the hopes of the restoration from exile, particularly the restoration of Israel, would be a type of resurrection. A couple of scriptures, again, I'll send this handout out, but I think with the scripture here, one of the best to use is Amos 9. If you look at Amos 9 with regard to the restoration, I think this is just outstanding here. In Amos 9, let's read verses 11 through 15, okay? This is about the restoration of Israel. And Amos is speaking to a people who are basically dead, symbolically. What I mean by that is, do you remember in Ezekiel 37, the dry bones? And God speaks and the dry bones live. OK, so that's a that's a picture, a prophetic picture of resurrection, isn't it? And so what we have with the restoration of Israel in Amos 9, 11, he says in that day, I'll raise up the booth of David that is fallen and repair its breaches and raise up its ruins and rebuild it as in the days of old. And then verse 13. Behold, the days are coming, declares Yahweh, when the plowman shall overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes, him who sows the seed. And the mountains shall drip sweet wine and all the hills shall flow with it. And I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel. And they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them. And they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine. And they shall make gardens and eat their fruit. And I will plant them on their land. And they shall never again be uprooted out of that land that I have given them. So that land, remember, beloved, speaks of paradise. It speaks of God's rule. It speaks of God's presence. It speaks of God's salvation, of God's favor, of God's blessing. And so the restoration of Israel will be the restoration to paradise. It'll be a resurrection. And you know how we know this as a partial fulfillment? In the Council of Jerusalem, All right? When the apostles are making decisions based on the Jews and Gentiles recognizing themselves as one people, Peter stands up and says, this is the fulfillment of Amos 9. In other words, Peter and the apostles see that the bringing in the Gentiles is the beginning fulfillment of the restoration of Israel. that having one people under God who are headed for paradise together. All right. Now, I'm going to have to speed up, if I may. Hang in there with me. All right. There's three more things we're going to look at. And let's talk about it. So the next thing I would say is the outpouring of the Spirit, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. And this is found particularly in Joel 2. And it's fulfilled in Acts 2 with Pentecost. So there was an outpouring of the Spirit. The Spirit from creation has been present with and busy working as the third person of the divine triune God. He worked in regenerating Old Testament saints, giving them real hearts. I mean, no one has ever become a believer apart from word and spirit, no matter what time they lived in. So they would be believers through a prophet's preaching or through the word as the spirit gave them life and gave them new hearts. But not until Pentecost would you have the spirit actually indwelling mankind like you did in the garden. So the spirit indwelled Adam in a way that was unique before the fall that was only Christ had the Holy Spirit in that same way. There were mediators in the Old Testament who possessed the spirit as mediators of the people but not all the people possessed the spirit As as one as as the very temple of God This the spirit was with them. The spirit was working in their midst, but the spirit was not within them That is very important. That is the blessing of a new covenant That's the blessing of being post Pentecost people beloved. We have the Holy Spirit in a way Old Testament Saints did not All right, so the outpouring of the Spirit, Joel 2, Acts 2. The next one is the Day of the Lord. Can someone tell me, especially when we go into the prophets, what is the Day of the Lord? Especially the Book of the Twelve is very concerned about speaking of the finality or the consummation with regard to the Day of the Lord. What is the Day of the Lord when you think of it, on the Day of the Lord? Yep. It's judgment. It's the return of Christ. Again, I'll send scriptures out for you, but Obadiah's entire prophecy is really about the day of the Lord. Several passages in Isaiah. I do want to show you something, beloved, from Isaiah 61. If you'll turn to Isaiah 61, we have really the coming Redeemer and the the kingdom and the day of the Lord all together in these verses. I want you to look at this. Does everybody get this reality that we can talk about further, but does everybody get the reality that not until the coming of Christ did another man possess the Holy Spirit in the same way that Adam and a few major meteors of Old Testament possess it? Does everybody get that? That it was Jesus Christ who had to possess the Spirit in His fullness. After His completed perfect work in heaven, He received the fullness of the Spirit in glory, and then He poured it out on all flesh. Does everybody understand that progression? Pretty much? Fairly? You getting at it? Do you hear what I'm saying, at least? It'll take a while to sink in, but it's very important that we're focusing on the Spirit never, ever will do any work in God's people without being mediated through God's appointed servant. So in the old, there were prophet, priests, and kings who mediated the Spirit, who were anointed in a special way, but not all the people. It was not until Christ THE prophet, priest, and king possessed him in full that all the people would possess him. That is so important. See, Pentecost is oftentimes overlooked and misunderstood. He possessed him as a mediator, anointed by God. But in heaven, he possessed him in glory. What Adam failed to do, he accomplished through his life, death, resurrection. And in glory, he was glorified as a man in a way that no other man has been. And he received the Spirit in power and fullness as mediator that then from God's right hand poured out the Spirit on all his people. So remember that goal of Adam was to be obedient unto glory, and he failed. So Christ came and undid what Adam failed to do, and then did what he didn't do and received the Holy Spirit in fullness. So Adam would have received the Holy Spirit and would have never lost the Holy Spirit, but would have been confirmed in glory if he'd have been obedient. That's a good question. All right. So listen to Isaiah 61. This is fulfilled in Christ. But at this time, Isaiah says, the spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to those who are bound, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our God. So the day of the Lord simply is the day of vengeance. It's the day that the Old Testament speaks of separating the sheep and the goats. It's the judgment day. Now, watch this gospel grace. You ready? Listen to this. This is so important. Luke 4. Look at this. This is so exciting. All right. May you never forget this. In Luke 4, Jesus' first sermon. Imagine, you know, maybe a little holy nervousness about what text to choose. He knows exactly he's being guided by the Spirit. And he picks up, you got Isaiah's scroll? Because I got a word. He picks up Isaiah's scroll. You got Isaiah 61? Yeah, where it was. Grab it. So he says, listen to this, verse 16 of Isaiah, Luke 4, Jesus came to Nazareth where he had been brought up and as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day and he stood up to read and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written. The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed and to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. What's missing? The day of judgment. All right, now hold on to that for a second, because that's what Paul means when he says it's the day of salvation, last part of the class. But I want you to hold on to that. The day of the Lord. It's delayed. Just hold on to that. I'm going to go back to that. But look at verse 20. And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. He began to say to them, today the scripture has been fulfilled. This would have puzzled the Old Testament theologians there. How's that? The day of the Lord, the prophet said, would come. And Isaiah himself said the anointed one would bring in the day of the Lord, the day of God's vengeance. Heavens and new earth. New heavens and new earth. So you see, I will create a new heavens and a new earth. So the reason why we're calling this consummation is because the new heavens and new earth are part of the consummation. Okay? Okay. Let's go look at the board now over here and keep that Luke passage in mind because it's very helpful as a template for what's going on in the New Testament. So if you'd have been the average person in Isaiah's congregation, you would have understood that you were living in the present age and you were waiting on the age to come, the fulfillment. Okay? You ready? And as you were waiting on that, let me stand right here, you would have understood this to be the consummation. And so you would have understood that the seven things we just went over were to happen when Messiah came. So you're waiting on a coming redeemer, a kingdom, a new covenant, a restoration, resurrection and outpouring of the spirit, a day of the Lord, a new heavens, new earth. And Jesus Christ, the true Messiah, opens up the scriptures and he misses that part. Did he make a mistake? There's a different a different way that we want to understand this that's consistent with what we have in Scripture. This was the way they understood it. I'm sorry. I've got to talk on this side. But this was the way that people were expecting the consummation to come. All right? This is the way it actually came. You ready? All right, let's still put creation. We'll still put flood here. And then we'll still put present age. But then we're going to do something a little different right here. At this coming, where the seven things were to take place as part of consummation, what happened was there was a cross. So, in the present age, God would come in the flesh. That's the incarnation. And on the third day, he would rise from the dead. Everybody following? The event now would be that in Jesus' resurrection, 40 days later, he would be So the age to come came with the first coming of Jesus. This is the let's just put this as the first advent. The first advent, first coming. What they thought would happen all at Messiah at this point happened to Jesus Christ through cross and resurrection. So what happened is Jesus was the coming redeemer. He brought in the coming kingdom. The new covenant began through his blood on the night that he was betrayed and crucified. The resurrection or restoration of Israel happened to him on the third day. He fully received the spirit in his ascension as king enthroned on David's throne at God's right hand. And the judgment of the day of the Lord fell on him on the cross. And a new creation was born when the stone was rolled away. The stone was the beginning of a new humanity and a new creation. When he walked out, he walked out as a new man, possessed by the Spirit, having completed all the work that Adam, Abraham, Israel and us failed to do. and living the life that we were all called to live, dying the death that we all deserve and being raised to everlasting life. And so, beloved, what's important about this is that this is the second coming. Here, this is what we're waiting on. And all of the things of the consummation await full fulfillment. full fulfillment. This time period in which we live as travelers, as pilgrims, we live in a place of tension, a place that's called the present age, that's characterized by sin and death and suffering, tribulation, while also those who are possessed That's the significance of Pentecost. Once Jesus was resurrected and enthroned and heir to all the consummate promises that were made in the covenant, He was the covenant keeper. He's the one who gets all the promises. He was raised from the dead and He sits at God's right hand as King of kings and Lord of lords. But there's a time period, a place of tension here that we live in between those who are possessed by the Spirit and those who are still struggling in this present age. So in other words, the age to come has dawned at Pentecost. The consummation has begun. The final act has begun. But we live in the tension between the already and the not yet. That's the consummation, as we should understand it from the New Testament perspective, is that this is the time period when the age to come has dawned with Pentecost. Isn't that wonderful? But we live as those united to Jesus Christ. Paul will say that we're raised with Christ and seated with Him in the heavenly places. What do you think he's talking about? We're already those possessed by the Spirit in union with Christ and heirs of all the covenant promises, but they will not be realized until the second coming. And then the seven things that Israel hoped for will be fully fulfilled. They've only just begun. but they have indeed begun. And so, the Bible can say that Jesus is the Redeemer King who's come. It can also say, thy kingdom come, thy will be done. So we still pray thy kingdom come. Why? Because there's a not yet part of this. There's still the place of already the tension between the first and the second coming, the living that struggling pilgrim life between sin and death and reality of the fall, while at the same time having our heads in the Spirit in heaven. We literally do have our heads in the clouds, or you should have them. By God's grace, understand that you're already possessors of the age to come. And I want to give you two scriptures in just a second. That's what Jesus is talking about when he talks about neither in this age or in the age to come, or when Paul says this present age, it's crooked and perverse. Compared to the new creation, look at all the other good stuff, your heirs of the new covenant through Jesus's blood, you've already been raised with him, resurrection, Israel's being restored through the gospel, the outpouring of the spirit you've received in your union with Jesus Christ and the day of the Lord has passed over you. because the day of the Lord came on Christ. So that on this day, when the day of the Lord comes and he separates the sheep and the goats, you'll only receive his smile and his blessings and his love. But the rest of the world will indeed receive the day of the Lord's judgment, the vengeance of God, his just vengeance. And then we will all walk hand in hand with God in the new heavens and new earth. The betrothal period is this. The consummation is when we see Him face to face. So you ask me, has the consummation begun or not? Is it now or then? Yes, absolutely. It is. It has begun. You have a blessed wedding ring that your Savior has given you through His promise and through His blood. You have word and you have sacrament that He's betrothed Himself to you and it's just a matter of moments before He returns to consummate that marriage with you. When you see Him face to face and He will, what the word that He's begun in you, He will complete. This is why the Bible says that the only thing to be put, that Jesus reigns over heaven and earth and the only thing to be put beneath His feet is death. This is the final death, the final day, the judgment day, the day of the Lord. You see how, just give it just a second, you see how why if you had not have the Spirit of God to go up to Jesus Christ and say, explain your eschatology to me, because I'm kind of confused. I've been waiting on all these things and my Redeemer is saying he's going to a cross. And the kingdom, if it's come, why aren't you wiping out all the bad people? And if the new covenant has began, well, I have the forgiveness of sins, but what about all those other promises tied, those blessings? Why am I still feeling suffering and pain? Why is this savior telling me to wear a cross, carry a cross? And restoration, if it's begun, then why is Rome still reigning over me? And why is most of Christian church history one of persecution and struggle? Why do we still say, how long, O Lord? And if the outpouring of the Spirit has happened, why don't we possess Him more? That's why Paul calls Him the first. And the day of the Lord came on Jesus and the new heavens and new earth. Well, the types and shadows we don't have time to go into, but here's your assignment. Here's a fun thing for you to do is go home and look at the outlook of the expectations and try to do this. Try to say, what are the types and shadows before these things were fulfilled with the coming of Christ? A lot of fun. Good exercise to do. Let me read you a scripture from First Corinthians. In First Corinthians 15. The first time I ever saw this picture, beloved, I was reading Gerhardus Voss, his Pauline Eschatology. Basically, this is based on his book, the Pauline Eschatology, where he's talking about this present age age to come. He's showing us all of these things. I have found for you a wonderful handout that is cleaner than this, that I'll be happy to send you. But it's worth realizing, what's the practical takeaway on this? It is this, that in this world you'll have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I've overcome the world. Hang in there. Because you've been betrothed to Christ, he's given you the ring, he's given you his promise, he's given you the signs and seals. The sacraments are rings. They're like wedding rings. Remember, the sacraments are like wedding rings. He's not just told you he loves you, he's proved his love to you by giving you the word, his promise, his love, and then his signs and seals. He's given you baptism. He's given you bread and wine so that you will never ever doubt that he loves you until he returns. And then the seven things of consummation will come to pass and we will live in a new heavens and new earth. Let me read two scriptures and then we'll close, okay? 1 Corinthians 15, listen to this in light of what we just read, okay? And see if this makes sense. You ready? Are you ready? All right, 1 Timothy, 1 Corinthians 15, verse 20. You ready? In fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. See that? The first fruits of those who've fallen asleep. So Jesus is the pioneer who's gone before us to heaven. Verse 21, for as by a man came death, And by a man has also come the resurrection of the dead. For in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive, but each in his own order. Christ, the firstfruits," see? So Christ is in heaven, having received the fullness of the Spirit and glory. He's the firstfruits. Then, that is coming, those who belong to Christ. All right, you following me? Then comes the end. All the seven will be fully fulfilled. When he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and every power, this present age will come to an end." In fact, we need to emphasize that. Isn't that wonderful? The present age will be gone. The former things will be passed away. All things will be made new. Where are we at? Verse 24, then comes the end when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power, for he must reign, that's what he's doing now, until he has put all his enemies under his feet. And the last enemy to be destroyed is death. And so, as Romans 8 says, beloved, we live in a time of hope. In Romans 8, what we began with, I'll end with, okay? Turn to Romans 8, 18 to 25, and we'll end with that. So God makes a promise through covenant that we're going to get into more fully as we progress, that the coming king and kingdom has come and will fully come. The coming king and kingdom has come with the first coming, but will fully come at the consummation, and the consummation is the full fulfillment of all that's already begun. And you and I live here as pilgrims in between. To put it in a different way, we live as people not just of two kingdoms. In fact, I would say don't think of yourself as people of two kingdoms or two cities first. Those are good. Think of yourself as people of two worlds, of two ages. That's more foundational to the rest. You are people, we are people of two ages, two worlds, this present age and the age to come. That's more biblical. And what comes out of that is, yes, we're part of two kingdoms and two cities as well. But let that be implication, not foundation. Foundation, biblically, is that you're a people of two worlds, two... I wish I had more time for Scripture. Can I read one more Scripture before? And then I'm going to read Romans 8, because I forgot. I have one that I think will really give you excitement. It got me excited. I forgot. Hebrews 6 is one of my favorite passages. In Hebrews 6, listen to how the author of Hebrews says it. Then we're going to go to Romans 8 and close, OK? In Hebrews 6, listen to what he says. He says in chapter 6, verse 4, it is impossible in the case of those who've once been enlightened, those who've been part of the covenant community, who've tasted the heavenly gift and have shared in the Holy Spirit, that is, in possession of the Spirit in covenant, not necessarily through regeneration. Verse 5, and listen, have tasted the goodness of the Word of God and the powers of the age to come. So you see, what I want you to get there is that the powers of the age to come are what you enjoy in Christian worship. The Spirit and the Word, the Spirit and the means of grace, the Spirit and prayer, the Spirit and fellowship. Isn't that wonderful? So the powers of the age to come is everything you need for life and godliness. The powers of the age to come are possessed by those who have Christ and His Spirit. So that's the language to use. You're people of two ages, two worlds, and then the implication of that is you live in two cities and two kingdoms. Chapter 8 of Romans, verses 18 and following. You ready? This is so exciting. This is so exciting. Now listen to what we just learned and see that we are indeed part of the consummation already. Verse 18, he says, I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. You see that? Isn't that wonderful? That's the consummation fully full. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves who have, you ready, the firstfruits of the Spirit. grown inwardly as we await eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. That's just another way of saying we're waiting on glory. We're waiting on the consummation. We're waiting on the consummation of our marriage to be glorified with him. Verse 24, for in this hope we were saved. Now, hope that is seen is not hope for who hopes for what he sees. But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. So we're living in a time of tension, a time between two worlds and two ages. And we already live in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus and our union with him. And we are those who struggle, but we hope for what is to come in him. And that makes sense of our lives, doesn't it? It also reminds us that our ultimate goal still is that fullness of the consummation that we've already begun to live by the Holy Spirit now. And so let's live like people of another world, okay? Aliens and strangers and exiles here in this land until the coming of our bridegroom. All right, shall we pray? Our Father and our God, we're grateful for all of your love and your kindness and mercy in Christ. We thank you that you are the covenant God who's promised us all these wonderful things. And you've given us a king and a kingdom that's already begun in the death and resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ. We thank you that he is king of kings and Lord of lords overall. And we thank you, Father, that we await his return. In fact, we say with the Spirit, we say, come Lord Jesus, Maranatha, come quickly, Lord Jesus, restore all things. Let us really enjoy the consummation, but let us enjoy the first fruits of the consummation as we've been given the Holy Spirit, we've been united to Jesus Christ, we are new creations already. And so we pray that You would help us to live freely, humbly today, knowing you more deeply and growing in grace and knowledge of you. And we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.