Ministry in a Multi-Cultural and Unchurched Society

Ses s i on 2: The Stor y of God

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Christ’s death for our sins – His payment of the penalty declared against us – was His legal victory whereby He erased Satan’s legal claim to the human race. But Christ also won dynamic victory. That is, when He was justified and made alive, adjudged and declared righteous in the Supreme Court of the universe, Satan, the arch foe of God and man, was completely disarmed and dethroned. Christ burst forth triumphantly from that age-old prison of the dead. Paul says that He “spoiled principalities and powers” and “made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it” (Colossians 2.15).

~ Paul Billheimer, Destined for the Throne , p. 87.

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D. Two manifestations of the Kingdom of God: The Already/Not Yet Kingdom (Oscar Cullman, Christ and Time , George Ladd, The Gospel of the Kingdom )

1. The first advent: the rebellious prince bound and his house looted and God’s reign has come

2. The second advent: the rebellious prince destroyed and his rule confounded with the full manifestation of God’s kingly power in a recreated heaven and earth

IV. The Christo-centric Order: Jesus of Nazareth as Centerpiece in Both God’s Revelation and Rule

Jesus’ message was the Kingdom of God. It was the center and circumference of all He taught and did. . . . The Kingdom of God is the master-conception, the master-plan, the master-purpose, the master-will that gathers everything up into itself and gives it redemption, coherence, purpose, goal.

~ E. Stanley Jones, Is the Kingdom of God Realism?

A. His mission : to destroy the works of the devil, 1 John 3.8

B. His birth : the invasion of God into Satan's dominion, Luke 1.31-33