Telling the Truth

Guest (Male): Stuart will begin his message in just a moment. But first, in their new five-message series, *Fighting Unseen Forces*, Stuart and Jill show you straight from God's word how you can stand strong against your spiritual enemy and live victoriously in Christ.

We'll send you a copy of this resource as our thanks for your support today to help others experience the life of abundance God wants them to have in Jesus. So call today to request your copy of *Fighting Unseen Forces*. 1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388. Or you can give online at tellingthetruth.org. Now, here's Stuart with his message, "Kingdom Come."

Stuart Briscoe: Kingdom Come, whatever it was, was what happened to you if you were unfortunate enough to have a bomb drop on your house while you're in bed. You wouldn't know anything about it. You'd be blown to Kingdom Come. Kingdom Come was also something in the ill-defined, indeterminate future.

We didn't quite know what it was. We didn't know when it would happen. It was a vague reality of some kind. We knew, of course, that the expression came from a prayer that Jesus taught his disciples. You remember the prayer: "Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come."

But in all honesty, we had to admit that we had learned this prayer without ever really being taught what it meant. "Our Father, who art in heaven." "Who art" didn't make sense anyway. We didn't use those words. "In heaven, hallowed be thy name." Didn't know what "hallowed" meant.

"Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come." We knew the words without any understanding at all. And that's not uncommon. Then it turned up here, so I thought I should spend the time defining it because it's always a good thing to know what we're talking about, isn't it? Kingdom Come.

All right, so let's dive into the Bible and see what we can learn about Kingdom Come. Now, I've already shown you the Lord's Prayer is where we get the expression Kingdom Come. And the Lord's Prayer is to be found among other places in Matthew chapter 6. I want you to turn back a couple of pages to Matthew chapter 4.

This is what it says in Matthew chapter 4, verse 12: "When Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, he returned to Galilee. Leaving Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum, which was by the lake in the area of Zebulun and Naphtali." That is simply a piece of information that brings you up to date on the itinerary of Jesus, the traveling preacher.

You say, well, okay, that's interesting. Not very, but interesting. Now, the next two words are critical, however. He then says, "to fulfill." In other words, Jesus upstakes in Nazareth, moved his base of operations to Capernaum in the land of Galilee.

It was a profoundly significant thing because in doing that, Jesus fulfilled what was said through the prophet Isaiah. Then he quotes what the prophet Isaiah said. Now, I want you to notice that word "fulfill." Just turn back if you will to chapter 1 of Matthew. I'm going to read a few verses to you, but you'll notice the connection very easily.

Chapter 1, verse 22: "All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet." And what the prophet had actually said was that a virgin would be with child and give birth to a son, and his name would be Emmanuel, which means "God with us." In other words, the prophet said that. He said that approximately 600 years before Jesus was born.

But Matthew says the fact that Jesus was born under those circumstances was a direct fulfillment of what God had predicted through his prophet. All right, so that's chapter 1, verse 22. Chapter 2, verse 15: "So he got up and took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: 'Out of Egypt I called my son.'" Fulfilled.

All right, now verse 17 of chapter 2: "Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled." Now verse 23: "And he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets: 'He will be called a Nazarene.'"

Now chapter 4, and this is what he moved to Galilee in order to fulfill what was said through the prophet. Okay, now you get a prediction and it happens, and somebody says it's a coincidence. You get two things predicted and they're fulfilled, and you say, oh, what an amazing coincidence.

You get three things predicted and fulfilled. The more predictions are fulfilled, the less likelihood there is that it is a chance coincidence. If you get 15 of these things stipulated by Matthew in his gospel, and all these predictions that are hundreds of years old are fulfilled in the life of Jesus, the whole point of recounting them is to teach the recipients of this gospel a profoundly simple but significant lesson.

It is this: God through the prophets predicts the future. And when the future unfolds as he predicted it, people look back and say God knew what was going on. God actually knew what was going on. Then they take it a step further: how did he know what was going on? And the answer is because he's God.

And then they say, well, if he's God, what does that mean? It means he's God and we're not, and he's in control and we're not. And then we say, well, if he's in control, what's he doing? And the answer is he is showing us that he has a plan and he has a purpose, and that it is being fulfilled in Jesus who has come.

All right, one more scripture for you: Isaiah chapter 9, verse 6. "For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given. And the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."

"Of the increase of his government and peace, there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this."

All right, that's another prediction on the part of the Lord revealing it through the prophet Isaiah. Now, what is this prediction? A virgin will have a son, a child. This child will be born, an unusual child. This child will have the government placed on his shoulders.

And amazingly, even though he's a child, he'll be known as Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. And this government that will be placed on his shoulders will go on increasing and increasing and spreading, and its influence will go on multiplying.

And the influence that it will have, there will be a spread of peace, there'll be a spread of justice, there'll be a spread of righteousness. And it will go on growing inexorably. And this reign, this government that will be placed on this child that is born, is something that will go on forevermore.

Forevermore. That's the prediction. That is what the prophet is saying. When Jesus comes, he's the child who is born. When Jesus comes, he begins to talk about the government being placed on his shoulders. He begins to preach peace. He begins to talk about justice. He begins to talk about righteousness. And when Jesus moved into Galilee, this is what he announced: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has arrived." And this is a statement of fulfillment of what Isaiah had been saying.

Guest (Male): You're listening to *Telling the Truth* with the Briscoes. Today, Stuart shared a message from the book of Matthew about your role in the struggle between forces of darkness and the Spirit of God. Stuart will be right back with more.

You can't always see it raging around you, but every day you're locked in a battle that threatens your spiritual, emotional, and relational well-being. Spiritual warfare is very real, and you can't afford to sit this fight out. Your spiritual enemy will stop at nothing to keep you from experiencing the abundant and impactful life you're called to in Christ.

But you can stand strong in Jesus and the power of his Spirit. And Stuart and Jill want to show you how, straight from God's word, by sending you their new five-message series, *Fighting Unseen Forces*. We'll send you this encouraging series as thanks for your gift to help people around the world hear the message of Jesus through broadcasts like this one today.

Your gift of support helps *Telling the Truth* carry the message of God's love to people across the globe so they can experience life in Christ. Call today to request your copy of *Fighting Unseen Forces* when you give: 1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388. Or you can give online when you visit tellingthetruth.org.

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Get the *Telling the Truth* app through your App Store or log on to tellingthetruth.org/mobile-app. Remember, you can also give to support *Telling the Truth* on our mobile app. Now, here's Stuart once again.

Stuart Briscoe: So we put all this together and what do we discover? God is God, we're not. He's in charge, we're not. He knows what he is going to do, predicts it, and we find it is fulfilled in Jesus.

And what we find is fulfilled in Jesus is the fact that Jesus will reign where'er the sun does his successive journeys run. And he will reign, and he will reign in righteousness, he will reign in justice, he will reign in peace.

The increase of his transforming ministry will go on and on and on. And his reign will go throughout the history of time and this world as we know it, on into eternity. And he will reign forever and forever. And Jesus, when he moves into Capernaum, summarized it all and he says the kingdom has arrived. And that was a dramatic statement he made.

What we're learning, of course, is that God has his eternal purposes. And his eternal purposes are focused on Jesus. And Jesus is seen to be the King of the eternal kingdom, and that the eternal purposes of God are going to be worked out in the coming kingdom.

Now, what do we mean by kingdom? Jesus would come into the world and the government would be on his shoulders. The increase of it would know no end. It would be all about peace and justice and righteousness. It would be established and it would be established and supported forever and forever. That in a nutshell is the plan and purpose of God for this world of ours.

Do you believe that? You see, you look at this world right now and you say to yourself, what a mess. It's getting a bigger mess, seems to be hopelessly out of control. Evil is triumphing on every hand. What a mess this is. Seems to be spinning hopelessly out of control.

They're telling us global warming is going to come, and all the ice packs will melt and cities will be deluged. People will be swept away never to be seen again. Earthquakes will happen. We're going to find half the continental America is swept off into the sea.

There are forest fires, there are tornadoes. Nature itself seems to be in rebellion. We've got fiendish movements that are terrifying people. We don't seem to be able to cope. Things are getting out of hand. A lot of people are giving up.

A lot of people are saying this thing is hopeless. Some of them are simply settling down into low-grade depression. Other people are just pulling the bedclothes over their heads and wishing the world would go away. And other people are simply carving out a comfortable little corner, and they don't care what happens to the rest of the world just so long as they can eke out a comfortable existence for themselves.

And they're all overlooking one thing: God is building his kingdom. And it started when Jesus arrived on the scene and the announcement he made: the kingdom of heaven is at hand. What does this kingdom of heaven actually look like when it comes?

Well, one of the things that Matthew told us was a story about Jesus. Jesus was ministering one day and he confronted a man who was possessed by demons. And this particular man that Jesus confronted asked for help.

And it's very interesting, Jesus, for whom a prophecy concerning him had just been announced, and part of that prophecy was this: the Spirit of the Lord will rest upon him. It was our friend Isaiah again. The Spirit of the Lord will rest upon him.

Jesus, do you know what he did? He confronted this man possessed by the demon, a victim of evil, if you like, personified. And so powerful was the confrontation that Jesus addressed him in the name and in the power of the Holy Spirit who rested upon Jesus.

And immediately the forces of evil were overthrown. And the Spirit of God ruled in that man's life. Now, the skeptics there said, "Oh, he cast out Satan by using the power of Satan." Jesus said, "That's nonsense. That's nonsense. Satan doesn't fight Satan."

"If Satan fights Satan, then his house will be divided. And a kingdom that is divided cannot stand. It wasn't Satan power that I used to overthrow the power of evil in this man's life. It was the power of the Spirit of God." And then he said this, and this is crucial: "If you have seen the power of the Spirit of God overthrow the forces of evil, the kingdom has come upon you."

And there is your definition of the kingdom coming. It is when the Spirit of God takes on evil head-to-head and wins. And it can happen in all spheres of human experience. Do you have a problem recognizing evil reigns in our country, in our world, in our families, in our marriages, in our hearts?

Of course not. How did it get there? Wasn't there originally. It was when man traded that which God had committed to them and handed it over to the evil one. The whole world lies in the wicked one. God says, "That's my world, and I want it back, and I'm going to reestablish my rule and my reign. The kingdom is coming."

And when Jesus arrived, it had burst on the scene. Wherever evil is to be found, the Spirit of God is alive and ready to counter it. And where we willingly repent and willingly submit, then we begin to discover the increase of his government knows no end. And the kingdom has come.

Guest (Male): Stuart is sharing a message today from the series *Fighting Unseen Forces*. He'll return in just a moment. Between the pressures of paying bills, taking care of your family, and keeping up with a chaotic calendar, it's easy to feel outnumbered and overmatched.

And those are just the visible challenges you face each day. The unseen forces of evil can make life seem even more overwhelming, threatening your spiritual, emotional, and relational well-being. But you're not without help and hope.

And in their new five-message series, *Fighting Unseen Forces*, Stuart and Jill Briscoe show you how you can live victoriously, knowing that with Christ and his Spirit, you're never alone. This new series is our thanks for your gift of support to help more people experience life through the resource and teaching of *Telling the Truth*.

Generous friends like you keep broadcasts like this one today going, even reaching people in places that are closed to the gospel. So if you haven't given before, now is a great time to jump in and help keep God's word going out around the world to you and many others.

And remember to request your copy of *Fighting Unseen Forces* when you call and give. Just call 1-800-889-5388. 1-800-889-5388. Or you can give online when you visit tellingthetruth.org. Now, let's hear some final thoughts from Stuart today.

Stuart Briscoe: I've been saying that the kingdom has come, but Jesus said that they were to pray, "Thy kingdom come," which must have been a bit confusing for some of the children. "Master, you said the kingdom has come." "That's right." "But you've told us to pray it will come." "That's right."

"Well, has it come or are we to pray it will come?" The answer is yes. It has come like that sliver of light in the sunrise, but it hasn't fully come like the sun at its zenith. But scripture tells us about the kingdom coming and arriving at its zenith.

Let me just read it to you here. "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign forever and ever." Now, those of you familiar with the Messiah, you'll remember that tremendous chorus when they begin to sing this. And you've probably sung it in one of the choirs at times.

I've done it on numerous occasions. But when I think about it, I'm thinking to myself: this is the zenith. This is the kingdom fully come. It arrived—well, it was predicted first of all, then it arrived when the baby was born, the Mighty God, the Wonderful Counselor, the one on whose shoulders the government rested.

Then he arrived on the scene 30 years of age and he says the kingdom has arrived. And then he says now pray that it will continue to come. And then we look into the distant eternal future and the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdom of our God and the kingdom will finally come.

Now, where are we on that continuum? I love the picture of the Spirit of God encountering the forces of evil in the human heart of the individual. Do you find that happening in your heart? And ladies and gentlemen, when the Spirit of God confronts the forces of evil, it's not a picnic. It's called spiritual warfare.

And that is precisely where the church belongs today. Matthew also told us this: "This gospel of the kingdom must be preached in all nations as a testimony against them." Then listen: "Then will the end come." The church is on a collision course between the forces of evil and the activity of the Spirit of God. What precisely is my role? And what am I willing to do?

Guest (Male): Before we go, we want to remind you that this month, when you give to support *Telling the Truth* broadcasts like this one, we'll send you Stuart and Jill Briscoe's five-message series, *Fighting Unseen Forces*.

This powerful new series will help you stand strong in Christ and in the power of his Spirit against the enemy so you can live victoriously each day. Please request your series when you call 1-800-889-5388. 1-800-889-5388. Or you can give online when you visit tellingthetruth.org.

We're glad you've listened in to today's message, "Kingdom Come," from Stuart Briscoe. Come back next week for more biblical truth. Experience life here on *Telling the Truth*.