Opening Prayer
Dallas Willard:
Now Lord, we ask for help again as we come
to look into your Word, and try to understand
the tremendous thing that you turned loose
on the earth when you came and lived and taught,
and gave your life on the cross, rose from
the dead, founded the church - lives in the
church and continues today to be here with
us.
Now the truth is that none of us here probably
have the foggiest idea what you want to accomplish
with us. And so we give that up to you and
ask you to have your way in what is said and
what is done not only this evening but in
the times we are together here this week and
then putting it into practice in our lives.
So give us what we need Lord, in the way we
need it. Move us on in the path of discipleship
and glorious union with you in this life and
forever. We ask you to that to honor the name
above all names, Jesus our Lord. Amen.
What the Kingdom Is
Dallas Willard:
Finishing up what we were talking about last
time now, the substance and essence of the
Kingdom. What the Kingdom is. Now this is
the great problem that faces people who try
to talk about the gospel.
Thank you very much, Pete. That's better.
That try to talk about the gospel, and especially
about the Kingdom. Talk about the Kingdom
becomes invariably enmeshed in social and
political issues. That's not new. That's the
way it was in Jesus' own day. They could not
conceptualize what it would mean for him to
be king other than as the king of a political
order. And you may recall in the first chapter
of the book of Acts as they go out and walk
out to towards the mount of transfiguration,
Jesus is getting ready to become no longer
visible to them. (Acts 1:6-11) And he's ascending
back to the place where he is at the right
hand of the father even now.
That's a real place, by the way, in the universe.
We don't know where it is. We wouldn't know
what to do with it if we did. We'd just try
a Babel thing probably, except this time it
would be a spaceship. Try to get a spaceship
to go there. I wouldn't want to approach it.
Really. That's a real place, and Jesus is
still there. But he's also still here. And
the continuing incarnation of Jesus is in
his people.
But as they went out you may recall on the
- in the first chapter of the book of Acts,
"Lord will you at this time restore the Kingdom
to Israel?" (Acts 1:6) Now what they meant
by that was, are you going to get a government
in Israel that is capable of whipping everybody?
That's what they meant by it.
And you know, having observed what he could
do, they had good reason to believe that if
he wanted to do that, he could make it happen.
We talk jokingly about people who can walk
on water. He really did it. He understood
how to suspend gravity. Just think of what
he could have done with his powers in terms
of weapons and so on. Well, that's pretty
scary.
A different way
Now, he knew that nothing would be gained
that way. And that's why he took a different
route. Just to reassert yourself in human
kingdom, as that was understood, would do
nothing for the project of history. The one
that God had put afoot and was carrying through
with - as I've referred to as the divine conspiracy
- he knew that.
But still in Acts 1:3, and we're gonna take
a little walk through the book of Acts tomorrow,
because there's a real hermeneutics problem
here that we need to address. Some people
think that Paul preached one gospel and Jesus
preached another. That Paul preached a gospel
of forgiveness of sins and the church, and
that Jesus preached one about the Kingdom
of God and so forth and so on. And there's
just a whole wilderness of confusion - and
many, many great forests have been sacrificed
to publish books on this topic. And it's really
sad because they just can't get it out of
their head. It's gotta be a political kingdom.
Now here's what I'm saying to you, and it's
extremely important to get this. Because you
have to be in a certain manner an ontologist
if you're gonna understand the Scripture.
An ontologist is one who understands being,
what it is for things to be and what kinds
of things there are. And we talked about the
Trinitarian nature of God, a spiritual nature
of God and so on. And what we have to understand
is that the Kingdom of God is simply God's
ruling. It's his ruling. It's his governing.
That's the Kingdom of God.
Jesus and the Gospel
And what Jesus came to preach is not that
there is a Kingdom of God. What Jesus came
to make available was entry into the Kingdom
of God. See, when you see the record of his
message, his message is never - there is a
Kingdom of God! Well, people would have looked
at him like he was an idiot. I mean, yeah,
what else is new. Everyone knew there was
a Kingdom of God. They knew that. And they
were looking for it to come as a political
reality on earth, because they had confidence
that the promises of God to the Jewish nation
would be fulfilled. That's why they were sure
that it was gonna come. That's why every so
often you'd have a bunch of people get up
and get an army and say - let's go do it now.
Reality of God's rule
But the basic reality of the Kingdom of God
is simply the person of God and the instrumentalities
by which he rules. If we had time we could
talk about those instrumentalities. They are
of course God's own direct action. They're
his Spirit. They're his Son. They're his Word.
They're angels. That's why, you see, God is
called Lord of Hosts over and over in the
Old Testament. It was because he was recognized
to have this incredible army of angels. Hosts
were angelic. There are probably more angels
than there are numbers. There's a whole lot
of them. There's a lot of numbers too, aren't
there? But still that's the nature of God
is to create at that level.
And there's the church. There's other people
who are godly people who serve God. Those
are all part of the Kingdom of God. And then
of course there's your kingdom and mine, and
the biggest threat to the Kingdom of God in
my life is my kingdom. And then there's the
kingdom of darkness. And these three kingdoms
are what make up the scene of battle in human
life. And when you look at all the terrible
things on earth and you say - why are those
people in the Sudan doing that to those other
people in the Sudan, and so on, you have to
understand these are kingdoms that are carrying
out the will of human beings or darker agents
still. And the will of the human beings and
the darker agents are against the will of
God.
So now you almost have to pause over that
for a moment and say let it soak in. The Kingdom
of God is God acting.
Now some of his actions are not things that
he has to attend to all the time. For example
probably the arrangement of furniture in your
apartment or house expresses your will. But
you don't have to stand there and hold the
chairs in place, right? They can express your
will without that.
Reality of God's laws
And God's will is expressed in arrangements
that he has established, laws that he has
laid down so that things behave in certain
ways and then creation runs by those. And
for our part a good deal of the responsibility
we have as human beings is to learn those
laws and how to live by them and how to be
responsible in the production of good that
is appropriate to human beings given the nature
and the place that they have that we've talked
about. So now the only thing outside of the
will of God is rebellious human and angelic
wills. Those are the only things outside.
Everything else conforms to the will of God.
And another thing we need to say about the
Kingdom before we go on is - is it is not
in your heart. It ain't there. It's in reality,
and your heart is in it, if anything. But
there's a... People bounce back and forth
from saying that it's a political order, to
it's being just sort of little warm thought
in your heart. And it isn't either one of
those. It is God reigning. It is God ruling.
So those are things we need to make sure that
we keep in mind.
Language and Reality in the Kingdom
Now we don't want to become sticklers about
the language. That is to say we don't want
a new - start a new Kingdom of God denomination
or something like that. You know. And many
times in the history of the church you've
had the reality of the Kingdom without the
language. One of the clearest points of that
was soon after the Protestant Reformation,
and there have been other times. I mean they
talked about the Kingdom of God, but that
was not...they did not make it the center
of their presentation of the gospel. What
is essential is not the language but the reality.
And around the time of the Reformation and
afterwards during the time of the Puritansin
England and of the Pietistsand a little bit
later in Germany, they had an understanding
of the offer in Christ to be something that
included your whole life. And that is the
crucial point. If you're preaching a gospel
that does not mean redemption for your whole
life, you haven't got the right one.
Listen to these words of Paul after going
through that wonderful presentation that we
talked about about the Scythians and the Greeks
and the Jews and all of that, he goes on to
say that Christ is all and in all. (Colossians
3:11) And then he says, "Put on therefore
as the elect of God holy and beloved, bowels
of mercies and kindness and long suffering
humility, and meekness of mind, forbearing
one another, forgiving one another. If anyone
has a quarrel against anyone, as Christ forgave
you, so also do ye." (Colossians 3:12-13)
Isn't that wonderful? Wouldn't you like to
join, to be in a church like that?
Reality of love
And above all these things he says, put on
agape. Divine love which is the bond of perfectness
of the perfection.
These wonderful progression you see like in
Romans 5, 2 Peter 1, and Colossians 3 always
culminate in love. Agape is a capstone. Ties
a ribbon around it, you might think. It's
the bond of perfectness.
And he says, and he goes to say, "Let the
peace of God rule in your hearts to which
you are also called in one body and be ye
thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in
you richly and always teaching and admonishing
one another in psalms, hymns and spiritual
songs singing with grace in your heart to
the Lord." (Colossians 3:16) Why don't we
do that?
Reality of Jesus' name
And then cap that wonderful passage off that
runs from Colossians 3:1 through 3:17 and
you know, if you haven't memorized it, I really
encourage you to memorize that. It'll do a
lot for you. Verse 17: "Whatever you do in
word or deed do all in the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ giving thanks to God the Father
through him."
Now that's not the only place that says it,
but this is one of the best statements as
to what it's all about. So think about it.
Whatever you do in word or deed, now that
pretty well covers it doesn't it? Can you
think of anything that's left out? Whatever
you do in word or deed do all in the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now what does it mean to do it in the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ? It means do it on
his behalf and from his resources. Whatever
you do. See that's the inclusiveness that
we're talking about. And that is the reality
of the Kingdom. That's the vision of the Kingdom
of God, and we want to live in that.
Reality is more important than the language
But what I'm saying now is we don't need to
get sticky about the words. We want the reality.
And the language and the concept of the Kingdom
of God is very helpful, and we do also have
the fact that that's how Jesus that's how
he put it.
But the Kingdom of God is all inclusive. It
takes in everything. It means we can trust
God with everything that whatever we let him
have charge of in our lives he will take that
into the Kingdom of God.
Living in the Reality of the Kingdom
Now remember how can you...can you translate
that for me? That means he will take that
into his ruling and reigning. Now that's why
the stuff in say Matthew 6 which Jesus you
know talk about the birds and the flowers
and all that sort of stuff. And you wonder
what's this guy talking about? You say well
maybe we'll set that to music. Make a song
out of it. It's so pretty. No it's sober reality,
see? It's one of those many cases of Jesus
where you just wonder, could this guy possibly
be real? What's he talking about? He says
don't be concerned about tomorrow. My advice
to you is just trust God. Don't worry about
things. 
Anything!
Trust Jesus
That's what it means to trust Jesus is to
believe that he's in charge of everything
that you let him be in charge of. And if something
happens that you don't like, he'll bring something
good out of it. Something happens that injures
you, he will turn it into something good.
So you can sum it up by saying - I like to
use this language because I think the Lord
gave it to me quite a long time ago, and it
really seems to make people squirm. What he's
really saying is this world is a perfectly
safe place for you to be. Now how can you
say that to someone who's suffering and dying
and being martyred or something of that sort?
Well, that's how big the Kingdom is. And we're
gonna talk more about how that works out
. But the important thing is to realize that
wholeness. Don't worry about the language.
If you've got a better way of putting it,
that's fine. You won't have any quarrel with
Jesus about that or with Paul. It's perfectly
all right to put it in other words if you
get the reality. The reality is now that I'm
invited to take everything that pertains to
me, bring it to Jesus, put it at his feet,
leave it there.
You know the old song, "If the world from
you withhold of its silver and its gold, and
you have to get along with meager fare." [Lyrics
to Leave it There] You know those words? Just
remember in his words how he feeds the little
birds. Bring your burden to the Lord, and
leave it there. Now, when you're worrying,
you're not leaving it there. You go pick it
up, and turn it over and look at it and lay
it down again, maybe. Just leave it there.
Take your hands off it. Go and do something
else.
Now that's what Jesus is teaching when he
teaches in the Sermon on the Mount. And when
he says don't be worried about anything, lovely
language there.
Don't be anxious
Excuse me. Let's just look at some words there
from the sixth chapter. 
He's carrying on about these birds again.
And he says verse 25 of Matthew 6, "For this
reason I say to you don't be anxious for your
life as to what shall you eat or what you
drink, or for your body as to what you should
put on. Is not life more than food, and the
body more than clothing?" Now some people
don't know that they are. "Look at the birds
of the air. They do not sow, neither do they
reap nor gather into barns and yet your heavenly
father feeds them. Are they not worth much
more...Are you not worth much more than they?"
(Matthew 6:26)
Now an interesting exercise is try to price
someone in birds. How many birds would you
think someone is worth? How many birds are
you worth? Two crows and a cockatoo. See,
Jesus is saying - look, God has an order in
which things fit. And you're a part of that
order, and you can trust that. Which of you
by being anxious can add a single cubit to
his life's span? What does...what good does
it do by anxious being anxious, what does
it do you?
He goes on to talk about these - the way God
care for things. So verse 31, "Don't be anxious
then saying what shall we eat, drink, what
shall we clothe ourselves with? For these
things the Gentiles eagerly seek." Now remember
Gentiles means people who don't know God.
People who don't know God are the ones who
spend their time worrying about what they're
going to eat or drink. Excuse me.
Put the Kingdom first
"But seek first," that is put it first, to
be involved with his Kingdom. "Seek first
his Kingdom." Now that means find out what
God is doing and do it with him. What is God
doing, do that with him.
Now, I like to suggest wordings for language
that we don't commonly associate any meaning
with. So now what do you - what meaning do
we normally associate with, seek first the
Kingdom of God? Well, I mean you would face
that challenge. What do you associate with?
And for most folks I think, they don't associate
anything with it. Think pretty thoughts. Or
maybe, you know, sing a Beatles song or something
of that sort. And just sort of emote.
I'm suggesting to you that this means to find
what God is doing and do it with him. And
a good key to that of course is to look at
what he says in the Law and in what comes
forward in Jesus. And when you do this, all
other things will be added.
Now you might want to put a cross reference
there to Joshua 1:8. Here's a verse that runs
parallel with this. Psalm 1 also runs parallel
with it, if you remember that. Joshua 1:8
says, "This book of the law shall not depart
out of your mouth, and you shall meditate
therein day and night." No time out for watching
Friends. 
You have to give that up. What's that gonna
do to your life? You end up...probably you're
gonna do better to have the law running than
Friends running.
I mean all of these weird things that they
have on television. Seinfeld. You ever look
at Seinfeld ? What a vision of the good life!
I think the 23rd Psalm is better than Seinfeld,
don't you? No commercials. "This book of the
law will not depart out of your mouth. But
you shall meditate," and really the idea there
is you'll kind of be muttering it. "Meditate
day and night." That's why it says it won't
depart out of your mouth. "That you may observe
to do according to all that is written therein.
Then you will make your way prosperous and
you will have good success."
Why? Because by doing that you have aligned
yourself with the Kingdom of God.
Align yourself with God
See, the whole human project now is to get
the human being aligned with what God is doing.
That's God's Kingdom. And that includes of
course things that we do in ministry. It would
include all of the things that we associate
with manifesting the presence of the Kingdom.
It would include dealing with demons if that's
necessary, dealing with sickness if that's
necessary.
Doesn't mean you're always going to win, because
you're not. You know Jesus didn't misfire,
but probably you and I are so limited. Actually
I don't know what it would do to me if I never
lost. I mean, can you imagine a person who,
whenever they pray for anyone they just get
healed. Well, Jesus was like that. But frankly
I would be afraid for me if I came even close.
I don't, so I don't have to worry about that,
but I see enough of it that I know it's real.
But it also applies to just things like driving
down the road. That would be included in whatsoever
you do in word or deed, wouldn't it? Driving
down the road. So I do that in the name of
Jesus. Transforms everything.
Sometimes I'll drive all the way and just
sing, "Hallowed be thy name." Hallowed be
thy name. See, a good thing is to get a good
phrase and just keep it floating for a long
period of time. "Our Father who are in heaven,
hallowed be thy name, thy Kingdom come, they
will be done." Just keep that circulating.
See you can teach yourself to pray without
ceasing by using the word of God and just
letting it run. Become a part of your body.
Some of you know about what is called the
breath prayer of Russian Orthodoxy. Where
you repeat - you have people who train themselves
in such a way that by their very breathing
they are accustomed to saying - they use a
phrase, "Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy
on me." I think that's a little morbid myself.
And I have done that, and you can do that.
I think you can substitute some other language.
"Hallowed, by thy name," is wonderful. Just
try it, OK? Just try it. Train yourself to
just say "Hallowed be thy name" while you're
living through all the things you live through.
See, that will help you do what Jesus is talking
about here. Jesus says seek first the Kingdom,
and everything else will be added. See that's
the promise of the Scriptures. That's the
reality of living in the Kingdom of God.
And so Jesus adds a little joke here at the
end of Matthew 6. You know he does inject
a little humor into things. And this is one
of those cases. He says don't be anxious for
tomorrow, because tomorrow will have enough
evil to provide for tomorrow. And you won't
have to borrow any of it for today, because
you'll have enough today to last you till
tomorrow. So just leave it over there. See?
And that's what he's saying, for tomorrow
will take care of itself. Each day has enough
trouble of its own. So he's just trying to
inject a little humor, a little pleasant humor
into this situation. You don't need to borrow
troubles from the future, because you have
enough today. That's the way the days are.
And he's just saying turn it loose. Turn it
loose. See because you're living in the Kingdom
of God. So that's a...that's the picture that
we want now.
Understand your forgiveness
Now if you can get that - as I mentioned,
right after the Protestant Reformation, people,
the whole issue of forgiveness was so big
that it included everything. You read an old
book like John Owen's book on forgiveness
of sins, you'll see that forgiveness just
included everything. People were so into the
release from bondage to sin, and they didn't
just think of forgiveness in terms of getting
the guilt off but rather getting the sin off.
Do you know that old hymn that says, "Be of
sin the double cure. / Rock of Ages cleft
for me let me hide myself in thee." Remember
that part where it says, "Be of sin the double
cure? / Cleanse from wrath and make me pure."
[Lyrics to Rock of Ages]
All right. So it isn't... Or the old Wesleyan
hymn, "He breaks the power of canceled sin."
[Lyrics to Oh For A Thousand Tongues to Sing]
See, sin that has been canceled before God
can still have power over you. But full redemption
in Christ means you walk away from it. You
don't even need it any more. "He breaks the
power of canceled sin and sets the prisoner
free." And that understanding was something
that really was Kingdom.
Even though they didn't use the word because
it was all inclusive of life. And that's what
we're aiming for is that kind of all inclusiveness.
Practice the presence of God
We want to understand that every moment can
be holy. And when read our things that people
often know like Brother Lawrence's Practicing
the Presence of God. And so one of the reasons
that grabs people so is because it presents
the whole life. And that theme of practicing
the presence of God which goes back before
Brother Lawrence is a way of understanding
Kingdom reality.
All right. Well we'll have some more work
to do on that.
Paul and the Gospel
But we want now to turn to Paul's wonderful
vision of his work as being a work that involved
the proclamation of Christ. And if we proclaim
Christ rightly, the effect will be to ravish
people with the reality of the Kingdom. And
that's how you make a disciple. You make a
disciple by ravishing people with the reality
of the Kingdom.
The greatest opportunity
See now that's why Jesus gave you the two
parables. The parable of the treasure in the
field and the parable of the great pearl.
(Matthew 13:44-46) Do you remember those?
Now here again I'm gonna scoot on, because
I'm just going to count on you knowing the
Scriptures so I won't go read those. But you
remember you told a parable.
He said, "The Kingdom of heaven is like a
man who found a treasure in a field. " Maybe
oil or gold or something of that sort. And
so he just covered it up, and he ran and got
all his resource together and bought the field.
Right.
The pearl merchant had a lot of little pearls,
and he found a great big beautiful pearl.
And so what did he do? He went home, got all
of his stuff together, all of his resources
together and bought that pearl. Now do you
think he was saying, oh I have to give up
my little pearls! My precious little pearls!
No, he wasn't doing that. He realized that
this was his greatest opportunity. He was
glad to give them up.
The man who got the field thought this was
the big deal. I mean he was ready to do what
he could to get to buy that field, because
he understood it was an investment. Now you
see, once you understand who Jesus is and
what it means for your life you realize that
discipleship to Jesus is the greatest opportunity
you will ever have in life. That puts a different
cast on things. And when it comes to reaching
people who are not - who don't know this,
see, if you understand that you're offering
them the greatest opportunity they will ever
have in life. Now if you don't understand
it, they won't.
That's why the things I'm going to talk to
you about tonight are so important. It's because
actually it seems like very often people who
profess the name of Christ do not understand
the greatness of what they've been given.
The riches of Christ
So now here's Paul, and Paul says in his letter
to the Ephesians in the third chapter in the
eighth verse, "Unto me who is the least of
all saints is this grace given. Is this grace
given that I should preach among the Gentiles
the unsearchable," or some versions use the
word unfathomable. You can't fathom it. It's
unfathomable. That means you never reach the
bottom. That's what unfathomable means. You
can't reach the bottom. No matter how far
you go, there's still more. The unsearchable
riches of Christ. The greatness of Christ.
You may have seen a book by J.B Phillips called
Your God is Too Small, and J.B. Phillips laid
his finger on a chronic problem. And that
is the failure to think God is as big as he
is, and the failure to understand also the
greatness of Christ. And so much of our problem
when we go out to the world to try to share
with them the good news, is we're not thinking
big enough about Christ. We have a tiny Christ,
a puny Christ, a Christ who doesn't compare
well with others who might be in the race.
Now I don't want to come down on L. Ron Hubbard,
but just to use him as an illustration because
he's here. I mean just put L. Ron Hubbard
down beside Christ. What do you think that's
gonna look like? Well, actually L. Ron Hubbard
is gonna stand by Christ someday, and you
and I are gonna stand by Christ when the operation
is over here, and we're gonna look at ourselves
in the light of who Christ is. Everyone is.
There's gonna be a comparison. You remember
Paul talked about that in Acts 17 on Mars
Hill. So take the...
The one to follow
Often I'll have a young person who has found
that I'm a Christian, and they make come into
my office and say something to me like, "Well,
I'm really surprised. Here you are a philosopher,
you write all this crazy stuff and do all
these things. Why are you a disciple of Jesus?"
Often you know, they often don't use that
precise language. That's what they mean. Sometimes
they use the precise language. Why are you
a disciple of Jesus?
My answer really is always the same. I don't
mean to be smart alecky about it. My answer
is another question. "Who else did you have
in mind?" Who else did you have in mind? I
mean seriously.
Now once you get past the Buddha, Mahatmas
Ghandi, and John Lennon - except now nobody
knows John Lennon anymore. Used to they did.
They don't bring him up any more. That's about
the end of the list. Who is to be compared
to Christ?
Now everyone's following somebody. Usually
they're following three or four people. Half
the time they don't even know who they were.
They...there's an amalgamy. As we go through
life first it's our parents, and then it's
our peers. And then it's a performer or sports
hero or then maybe it's a professor in some
philosophy department or some other department.
You know really, I mean that's the way it
goes.
And I mean, when you - kids come into the
university or in college they often find one
or two professors that are really great for
them. Didn't that happen to you? Certainly
it was that way it was in my case. It was
just a couple. And these were the ones that
- boy - they really turned me on. But they
got me working and I admired them greatly,
see.
But for goodness' sakes, to set them down
beside Jesus Christ? And yet often, in the
order of human affairs, people don't get much
above that. See, they're not looking high
enough. They're not thinking about what's
determining their life. You know it's a good
question for each of us to ask. Who am I really
following?
Now sometimes we're fortunate. We have a father
or a mother. In my case I guess my paternal
grandmother was of the most influential people
in my life. This was an incredible person.
And she was incredible mainly because she
had lived a life of unbelievable godliness
and goodness. And I'm very thankful for her,
but again you can't put her...Christ down
beside of her. See the goodness of people
ordinarily is quite fathomable, but generally
you can't get to the bottom of Christ. No
end to the riches. We want to talk about that
some tonight and why that is there.
Paul's Unique Understanding
Now Paul you see had a personal standing here
with Christ that was exceptional. For one
thing he was nurtured on Israel and the glory
of the unique covenant people. And he talks
about that in various places like in Philippians
3 and elsewhere. He talks about how he had
come from the stock of Benjamin, Pharisee
of the Pharisees, studied under Gamaliel in
Jerusalem, was ahead of all of his peers in
persecuting the church and so on. So he starts
out from a very exalted position as a Jew,
and as one who knows God in that connection.
A special encounter with Jesus
But then, as you recall, he had a personal
encounter with Jesus that was history making,
shall we say. Now I think you have had a personal
encounter with Jesus, and that's right and
as it should be. And there's no reason that
that encounter should not be as life transforming
as Paul's; but Paul's had some unusual features
to it. Because Paul had special responsibility
in teaching, and as I said earlier or maybe
I didn't, I'm gonna say it now. Paul was really
the first one who got it. He got the message
of Jesus. That's why if you look at him and
contrast to even the other apostles and their
behavior, he really was distinctive.
He understood the lowliness of Jesus. He understood
the humility, the fact that Jesus came to
be a servant and not to be served. And he
followed in that path. But see, underlying
that was his experience of the glorious reality
of Jesus Christ post-resurrection. He'd met
him; and after he met him, as far as we can
tell of what he tells us, there were long
periods of time perhaps while he was in exile
in Arabia; or maybe later on when he returns
to Tarsus. And the tradition there is that
when he returned there his own family drove
him out. And there's still a cave down there
close to Tarsus where they will show you - this
is Paul's cave. This is where he lived after
he was driven out of his family.
A new understanding of the gospel
And so there was a long, there were long periods
of time in Paul's life before he came into
public ministry, where he was, shall we say,
personally tutored by Jesus Christ. And he
understood that the gospel that he had been
given was given to him by Jesus Christ firsthand.
Now you remember he didn't get to be there
with the other guys while Jesus was here in
the flesh. And this was often held against
him. But it is true for him to say as he does
in 1 Corinthians 15 that even though he was
like one born out of due season still the
grace of God had worked more effectively in
him than in all of them. (1 Corinthians 15:8)
Do you remember that statement that Paul makes?
1 Corinthians 10, 15:10, it says, "Yet even
though I was born out of season still I work
more effectively," and then he catches himself
you recall, he says, "not I but the grace
of God in me." I work more effectively than
all did. And at that time I think probably
that was the correct thing to say.
So Paul had that experience of the vivid reality,
post-resurrection reality of Jesus Christ.
There are other things in his experience.
We can't take time for them tonight, but if
you look at what was his experience of Christ
was you see that it was a very exceptional
one. And this is a part of what he conveys
when he talks about the unfathomable riches
of Christ.
Paul is the one who understood the hope and
intention of God for all of the people on
the earth, and that's why he says to me this
grace is given that I should preach among
the Gentiles. So he had to fight the battle
of - he carried the battle of the church beyond
Judaism. And he is the one that enabled the
church to say - yes, you can be saved, you
can be Jesus' person without being Jewish.
And that was a big step forward.
Discovering the Riches of Christ
OK. So now what are the riches of Christ?
We want to spend some time on four dimensions
of the riches of Christ.
The Physical Universe
And the first one is that the physical cosmos
belongs to Christ and is totally at his disposal.
Now you know that's riches. That's real riches.
Right. I mean the Psalmist tells us that the
cattle on a thousand hills belongs to the
Lord, but that is small cheese compared to
all of the riches that go into the universe,
the physical universe. (Psalm 50:10) It's
all his.
Now this is one of things where you come in
contact with a prevailing ideology. I mentioned
earlier this book of Carl Sagan'scalled Cosmos.
He opens that book by saying the only thing
there is, is the cosmos. That's the only thing
there ever has been, and that's the only thing
there ever will be. Well, you know there's
one sense in which that's true, really true
if by cosmos you mean everything that exists.
Well then, it's true that everything that
exists is all there is. It's not very interesting.
Right. He didn't mean that. What he meant
was the physical cosmos is all there is.
Now, we have a much better appreciation now
even than when Sagan talked about the reality
of the physical cosmos. But it's all his,
you see. This is part of the riches, the unfathomable
riches of Christ. He manifested that when
he was with us here in the flesh. He manifested
it to his disciples and very often they really
didn't know what to make of it. They didn't
quite understand it.
Power over matter
There was an interesting picture here in Mark
chapter 6, and this is after Jesus had fed
a bunch of hungry people. In verses 35, 36-38
or 44 sorry - through 44 and it's one of the
occasions in which he produced food. He started
with five loaves and two fishes. And broke
them looking up into heaven - "looking up
towards heaven" verse 41 says. And the reason
Jesus, by the way, looked into heaven when
he prayed - and you'll see that he often did
- was because the one he was talking to was
in heaven. So he looked at him.
You don't have to bow your head by the way
and close your eyes when you pray. You know
that's something that was invented in Sunday
School classes to keep kids quiet. You can
look around. You can look at what you're praying
for. You can look towards God. See? So act
as if somehow this is all here, because it
actually is. See. And I remember a young lady
once that I - totally revolutionized her prayer
life. She was talking on how boring it was.
So I said try praying with your eyes open.
It totally revolutionized her prayer life.
It's shocking to people often to hear this.
Billy Sunday when he prayed would pace around
on the platform with his eyes wide open, and
looking here and there and praying as he went.
Well, there's nothing wrong with that. Jesus
didn't say, now bow your head and close your
eyes. That isn't in the law of Moses.
And we have to be real about this business.
Jesus looked into the heavens and he prayed.
And they fed all those people. Five thousand
men. The reason it mentions men is to say
it wasn't counting the children and the women.
There's a bunch of people there. He fed them.
Well, how did he do that? Well, he knew how
to produce matter. He knew how to do that.
Power over energy
Now watch this. They get in the boat and they
start over in...he sends them over to the
other side of the sea in verse 45, and if
you haven't seen this, you might want to follow
this. So he goes up in the mountain to pray.
Now they're out in the middle of the ocean,
middle of the Sea of Galilee in the night,
the fourth watch. That's pretty late. And
they're having a hard time rowing. And here
comes Jesus walking on 
the water. You see he was the master of all
of that. Stretch your mind on this folks.
OK? I mean it takes effort to think this out.
That he actually could do that and what that
means about who he was.
Now we know a little bit about how to turn
matter into energy. That's what you do when
you put wood in the stove or turn on the gas
jet, cook your eggs. You turn matter into
energy, and that energy then transforms matter
again. We find it very difficult to try and
transform energy into matter. That's very
hard. These big cyclotrons that you have in
Switzerland. And they were building a big
one in Texas and quit on it. Do you remember?
It was too expensive. Well those were efforts
to create just a little bit of matter by firing
particles opposite directions; and when they
would hit, they'd create just a little bit
of matter for just a few seconds. Jesus knew
how to do it without the machinery.
Well he should. He was the one who put it
all together in the first place. Isn't that
the story? That he made everything. You see
when you come to deal with issues in prayer
and you realize you're dealing with the person
who did that, it strengthens your faith to
know that with God nothing is impossible.
Right? But you have to understand who Jesus
is and the greatness of Jesus and the greatness
of God the Father to understand why that works
that way.
Power over nature
Now look what happens here. When Jesus comes
to them walking on the water, he first he
scares them half to death in verse 49. And
Jesus says to them, "Take courage; it is I."
Do not be afraid. And he got into the boat
with them, and the winds stopped, and they
were greatly astonished.
Now the next verse is the one I'd like you
to think about. The next verse says, for they
had not gained any insight from the incident
of the loaves. (Mark 6:51-52) OK. They were
astonished that the storm stopped. Jesus says,
what's the deal? Didn't you learn anything?
What's loaves got to do with storms? Why should
they have not been astonished? Do you see
the issue? They were astonished because the
storm stopped. They should have understand...understood
something from the loaves so that they would
not have been astonished. Right? They should
have said, ho hum. It's just Jesus. He does
that kind of thing. Right? But they didn't
get it. They...
It says their hearts was hardened. Now what
that means is the stuff didn't sink in. Didn't
sink in. They should have said, wow, Jesus
is really in charge of all this stuff. So
the wind stopped. Yeah, that's the way it
should be. See we don't often put this together.
I used to have a friend in the chemistry department
at USC who was shall we say declined Baptist.
He's since declined - reupped, I'm glad to
say. And he was a chemist. And he used to
like to razz me a little bit. See now Dallas,
you believe that Jesus really turned that
water into wine. He said, well if you know,
if you did that it would require so much energy
that it would melt the pots. Now I didn't
have the heart to say to him, a Ph.D. in chemistry,
that if Jesus could handle the wine, he could
probably take care of the pots. See you have
to understand who you're dealing with.
This is the one who has the key to physical.
In fact he holds it all together as we read
earlier from Colossians 1. (Colossians 1)
You remember that passage. See the early disciples
believed that the physical cosmos belonged
to Christ and was totally at his disposal,
because they had seen his power over nature
and his power over death.
Power over death
And one of the things that was most telling
to them about the unfathomable riches of Christ
was that he was resurrected. That he rose
from the dead.
Again you know I have so many of these illustrations
of Christian young man on the campus was talking
to a professor in religion at Easter time
and mentioned the resurrection. The man said
well you know of course that's impossible.
That's contrary to the laws of physics. Well
now this was a young man and of course he
wasn't going to fly in the face of this distinguished
professor anyway. You see all you have to
do is say now will you show me the laws of
physics according to which that's impossible?
There aren't any. 
Because you see physics does not deal with
reality as a whole. It deals with the physical
reality and even that from a particular point
of view. Right.
But things get thrown around whether it's
Carl Sagan or somebody else, my chemistry
buddy, or this professor of religion as if
somehow this could not possibly be true. Let
me tell you something that I'm putting in
general terms. There's often an impression
that somehow something has been found out
that shows the reality of God and his power
over the universe to be wrong. Nothing has
been found out!
And I do this so often that I get bored with
myself for doing it. You see, because I have
to say to young people over and over and over
again, now show me where in the science book
it says - so forth and so on. It doesn't say
it in the science book. And if any science
book did say it, it would be rejected because
everyone in those fields knows they do not
say it.
See they blow it up and they extract something,
and they say, well, this is a statement about
all reality. No it's not. It's just a statement
about matter, for example, and physical energy.
It's not a statement about all reality.
Now see we have to keep that in mind, because
when we start speaking about the Kingdom of
God and about Jesus and we talk about them
as spiritual, then we ourselves have to know
and be sure that we're just not passing hot
air. Right. We're talking reality. We're talking
about something that's real. The spiritual
world is real. It is a field of energy in
that it does work. In fact it's the greatest
energy in the universe. The word which God
spoke to express his creative action is power
beyond any comprehension. And that power is
still working.
Well, I'm taking too much time here. Let's
move on. So the riches of Christ.
The Moral Life
The second thing to mentioned is Christ as
the master of the moral life. Now Jesus is
the one who above all understands moral reality
and order and moreover is able to bring people
to moral goodness. That is he doesn't just
talk about it. He knows how it works. And
we're gonna spend time tomorrow talking about
some details on this.
But when Jesus for example begins to talk
about moral reality in the Sermon on the Mount,
he starts out with Matthew 5:20: "Unless your
goodness," your moral goodness, "goes beyond
the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees,
you can't make contact with the Kingdom of
the heavens."
Now that's really important to understand,
because what he's saying here is you're going
to get down at the level of real goodness.
And we know that that means real love, the
whole all of those parts of the self that
we talked about being permeated with agape
love. Your body, your soul, your social relations,
your mind - including your thoughts and your
feelings - your will, itself all set in love.
If you're gonna do that you have to be in
touch with something that in enables you to
do it.
And on the other hand if you're not going
to move to that level, you can't contact what
will enable you to do it.
See the righteousness described in the Pharisee
was a righteousness which consisted in what
you did, actually more importantly for them
what you didn't do. So we'll talk about this
more tomorrow but Jesus begins his illustration
with, "Thou shalt not kill." And the...the
next one he talks about is, "Thou shalt not
commit adultery," because it moves right back
to these two things that we talked about earlier
- sex and violence. And we talked about why
people turn to that. It's because they've
turned to their body, and with their body
they can do these things. And we talked about
how even perversion moved on from that.
Power over moral evil
Now why does Jesus start there? See Jesus
starts there because he knows that the root
of murder is anger and contempt. So every
year in the United States we have 25,000 - 30,000
murders, up and down it depends on the year.
So why do those things happen? People don't
just think, well, you know, I think I'll go
out and murder someone today. They don't do
that. Well, maybe there are a few people that
are so twisted that they do that. Maybe Jeffrey
Dahmer or someone like that did that kind
of thing. I'll just go out and murder and
eat someone today. But most people - most
murders happen because people are angry and
have contempt for others.
Sometimes the person who gets killed is the
one who has the contempt. Cause you know out
here in Southern California you'd better be
careful about whom you diss. You know diss?
Well, diss is contempt. Right? So you diss
someone here you maybe the one who gets the
bullet. On the other hand you might put a
bullet in someone, because you have contempt
for them. You...
And so we use language like, "I wasted them."
Do you ever hear that language? Isn't that
interested to apply to a human being? I wasted
them. Well, you wouldn't say that unless you
had already decided they were contemptible.
So now what Jesus does is he understands the
roots of moral evil. And he understands that
it is rooted in self-will that is thwarted
and frustrated. And it gives rise to murderous
rage, we say. So now he says, instead of talking
about not killing people, let's talk about
not being governed by anger. 
Let's deal with the root of the situation.
And now that's where Jesus is the master of
the moral world. He knows what to deal with.
Power over anger
Now Thursday I'm supposed to get on a plane
and fly to Cleveland. Now when I get on that
plane I'm not gonna worry about not going
to Detroit or Orlando or someplace like that.
I don't go to Cleveland by thinking about
all the places I'm not going. I just pick
the one that's going to Cleveland, all the
rest of it takes care of itself. 
See if you're not got the wrong stuff on the
inside, you don't have to worry about killing
people. It isn't gonna happen, because you're
not that kind of person.
And thank goodness most people aren't that
kind of person. They may have some anger in
them, and most people who are not in Christ
if they are pushed far enough can actually
be brought to think of killing or even to
do some killing out of hatred and anger. But
for most people they're not pushed to that
level so they don't kill, but they still have
in them something.
So James says - remember what James says,
the little brother of Jesus? He says OK. So
you didn't kill anyone. But if you hate your
brother, you're already a murderer in your
heart. Right. Now see that's the analog to
Jesus' teaching about adultery in the heart.
There's murder in the heart.
See that so what you want to do Jesus understands
is what you want to do is you want to get
the murder out of the heart. You want to get
the adultery out of the heart. So if you're
not into cultivated lusting, you're probably
not gonna have a problem with adultery. Now
tomorrow we have to talk in more detail about
the difference between the thought, the temptation,
and the deed. And these are things that we
have to be very careful about.
Jesus understood though, to make the present
point clear, Jesus understood that what you
do is you don't try to not do what is wrong.
You don't go there because you're not even
in temptation. If you want to avoid the deed,
stay out of temptation. To stay out of temptation,
you have to deal with the heart. Right. He
understood that.
Understanding of the soul
I've got a line here on the screen you'll
see. The utter failure of the classical world
disregard. The classical world, Plato and
Aristotleand some others later on like Stoics
and Epicureans who were still around when
Paul got there you remember in Athens, they
were all focused.
I mean that really the whole business of early
philosophy was how to lead a decent life.
How to lead the good life. How to be a good
person. And it was thought that in order to
lead the good the life, you had to be a good
person. And there's a lot of discussion about
that, and I have to work a lot on...on this
in my work in philosophy. But the main point
is simply that these early thinkers totally
failed with this issue of being able to bring
people to moral goodness. Actually they didn't
understand moral reality.
One of the most beautiful books in the world
besides the Bible is Plato's Republic. It's
a wonderful book. I study it over and over
with my students. I recommend it to you, because
it's as relevant today as it was when it was
written or even more so.
And Plato's Republic looks like it's about
the Republic but it's actually about the human
soul. It's a study of the human soul. And
how the soul works and in particular it's
devoted to the question how can we train and
develop people so that their soul actually
works as it should.
Some of you may have read it. You know that
Plato's view was the good person was the one
with the balanced soul. In particular it's
a soul where reason is doing its job. The
appetites are doing its job, and the emotions
are doing their job. And the idea is that
the emotions are supposed to align with reason
to govern the appetites. Well it's a...
It's certainly a fascinating theory and a
wonderful story. And his view is, the way
you get there is you develop an educational
system in which people who are able to reason
well rise to the top, and they then are able
to get the emotions in order. And so that
will handle the appetites. And then the state
would also reflect that same order.
And then Aristotle basically has the same
theory except he's...his view is that you
don't get this by education. You get it by
legislation. And what you do is you organize
the government in such a way that it establishes
institutions that shape souls that are good.
And then people do the things they're supposed
to and so on. Well of course it didn't work.
And when you look at the history of Greece
and the history of Athens and you see the
miserable thing that it fell into, the Greeks
couldn't stop killing one another. And actually
Greek history as an independent deal up until
very recently ended when they had to invite
to Romans in to keep them from killing one
another.
Understanding of moral goodness
And the world in which the people before Christ
existed and then the world in which the people
after Christ's time existed, the Epicureans,
was one where people were just striving to
somehow get a hold of moral reality. And they
never could do it. And that is why the Christian
teaching by the time of St. Augustine especially
but even earlier, that is why the Christian
teaching won the hearts of the ancient world.
It was because it presented the beauty of
Christ and the goodness of Christ, but it
didn't just do that. It showed people how
to actually have it, how to actually do it.
Now that may be hard for us to conceptualize,
because we're a long way from that. And we
don't take that as a major project, and I
hope that you...I hope you say that dummy
up there is saying another false thing, because
we have to talk about this tomorrow. I say
we don't undertake it seriously.
Moral education is a non-entity. We have a
few little things like character counts for
kiddies in middle school. And that's a good
thing, but when those kiddies go on to high
school, they hit a moral wilderness, if not
a moral sewer. And nothing steadies them or
holds them, and there's nothing taught to
them except a brand of secular legalism, secular
Phariseeism. And that in general is what we
run into.
And if you've ever hit the diversity mill
or some of the other catch words that are
used to express this kind of secular legalism
is our educational system, you know what I've
talking about. But you can obey all of that
and still be a despicable person. And there's
no basis for it.
Power for pure lives
Now this is where the track record of the
Christian church, while it's very spotty,
also makes it clear that there is a way of
being a genuinely good person. And that is
in following Jesus Christ and becoming his
disciple and accepting his teachings.
Now you see...I mean when we...just thus far
in our discussions you see how problematic
that is. And I'm not trying to give you a
bad time, but for example people seriously
consider whether or not they would be willing
to give up anger. Or even contempt. Now most
people in this room are easier with contempt
than anger. But I often ask congregations
or groups that I'm lecturing to in the university
or other settings, if I had a pill that I
could give you and you would never be unkind
again, would you take it? 
If there was an operation that you could go
to the hospital and have your anger taken
out, would you do it? If that meant that you
couldn't be angry again. Or your unkindness
taken out, would you have that taken out?
People seriously hesitate.
Suppose I had an operation that would make
it impossible for you to lie. Wait a minute,
you never know when you need a lie. Right.
Would I want to undermine my strategy for
living? So seriously, as to make it impossible
for me to get angry, be unkind or lie. You
know the story - I'm sure didn't happen - but
we like to tell these stories about the little
girl in Sunday School who was asked, what
is a lie? And she replies, it's an abomination
to God and a very present help in time of
trouble. See that's why we maybe wouldn't
like that have that taken out. You never know
when you're gonna need to lie. Right.
Well, I'm not - I don't want to come down
hard on that, but as an illustration. You
see Jesus Christ stands for a kind of purity
in life that most people today would be very
hesitant to embrace. And one of our reasons
why like recently there's been a big brouhaha
about business ethics. And in the wake of
Enron and all these other failures. And I
know I went...was down at Austin, Texas, a
while with some other people looking into
this matter of, what can we do?
Well, the truth is business ethics isn't ethics
even. Business - what they call business ethics
- is how to stay out of trouble. It's not
how to be a good person. No one's talking
about that. It's how to stay out of trouble
with your clients, with the law, and with
your fellow professionals. That's all they
really talk about. They throw a little theory
around, but the one thing you will not see
is teaching in how I can use my professional
status to be a good person. You will never
see that discussed, but that's really the
only issue. Because if you're interested in
being a good person when the pressure comes
down, you'll be able to find ways of avoiding
the regulations.
Power for repentance
That's the failure that's implicit in all
forms of legalism. Jesus knew that. And that's
why Jesus doesn't deal with actions. We'll...sorry
to say this again, we'll have to deal with
this more in detail tomorrow just to - or
just to maybe it's Wednesday. Just to make
sure that we get a good view of exactly what
he does do. And he understands the order in
the moral life, and he understands how - and
he understands that you have to bring people
to moral goodness through repentance for what
they've done. And that's a sound psychological
truth.
Any of you know the Twelve Steps of AA? And
you remember what a big place is played in
the Twelve Steps with confession and repentance
and restitution. And there are efforts to
lighten up on that a bit, you know. But the
original twelve step program was a gift of
God to people that the church should have
been helping, but it could not because it
was caught up in self-righteousness. It didn't
want to deal honestly with people who were
having problems with alcohol. See that's the
curse of the church is this idea that well
you gather up the respectable types, and you
put on a good front. And you set a good example
and you have money and all this sort of thing.
No, no. What about the people that Jesus hung
out with? See this...this is a story that
is not new. And many of our organized churches
in this country have gone down the drain,
because the neighborhood is changed, and they
don't want those kind of people that are living
right under their windows. Am I right about
that? See. I've watched this for years. There're
plenty of people to fill the churches. You
know if all our churches and synagogues were
filled on Sunday, you know what percentage
of people would be in church? 3 to 5 percent.
We're not short on people. We're not short
on people in need. What we need to do is to
minister to the ones who are there.
And that was Jesus's way. But he didn't go
through...through the collection kind of sorting
out and say, well this one is not the kind
that we want. He took people where they were.
That was a part of his moral vision. And that's
why people were drawn to him.
Well, let's go on to a couple of other things.
Number three here. What is the - what are
the riches of Christ?
The Future of Humanity
The security and glorious future of the individual.
The individual human being in Christ. So that's
why we have these great passages now, and
we can't go over all of them tonight. But
for example Luke 12, that's again that's the
Lukian version of something that I read to
you out of Matthew 6 about not being anxious.
Listen to these words of Paul, be anxious
for nothing. This is Philippians 4:6, "Be
anxious for nothing but in everything with
prayer and supplication with thanksgiving,
let your requests be made known unto God.
And the peace of God will set a guard around
your hearts and minds." Beautiful teaching.
Then he goes on to say, he goes on to say,
"Finally brethren whatever is true, whatever
is honorable, whatever is right, whatever
is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of
good repute, if there's any excellence, any
worth of praise, let...set your minds on these
things." And he says, "the things that you
have learned and received and heard and seen
in me." (Philippians 4:7-9)
That's how he preached this. It was what you
see in me. Do those things. Practice those
things, and the God of Peace will be with
you. See he not only tells you what to do,
he says watch me, I do it that way. Be anxious
for nothing.
Caring provision
Matthew 18:10 is a beautiful passage. Jesus
is talking about children and what happens
to children. And you recall how often he returned
to their, to that subject. And how I'm sure
it must have been important to him, because
he knew the terrible things that happened
to children. And he says in that passage,
after warning people about hurting children
he says, "Their angels do always behold the
face of my Father which is in heaven."
Now you have to back up and ask yourself what
in the world does that mean? Right. So you
have to try to give something. Their angels
do always behold the face of my Father which
is in heaven.
Well, I suggest to you that that means that
everything that happens to a child is attended
to by God. And he has individuals personally
responsible to see to it that children are
cared for in the Kingdom of God on this side
of death, or the other side. And this is a
staggering thought, but it's one you must
think. If you are to believe in the goodness
of God, you have to believe that he not only
takes care of sparrows, but he takes care
of children.
And you say, how can that be when you look
at what happens to children in this world?
Then you have to make that up by saying it
is because no matter what happens to them
in this world, the goodness of God sees to
it that those children continue to exist and
in conditions which make them thankful to
be no matter what happens to them. You have
to go beyond death.
Freedom from death
Jesus says you never experience death. Well,
once again what does that mean? Do you know
this passage John 8:51-52 ? Many people know
John 11. This is what Jesus says at the tomb
of Lazarus. They know that one.
"He that believeth in me thou he were dead,
yet shall he live. And he that liveth and
believeth in me shall never die." (John 11:25-26)
Never die? Aren't you planning to die? John
8:51 and 52, he says that, "Those who kept
my word will never see death." And again will
never experience death. And he really blew
the audience out of the building when he said
that, and you read that passage it's very...
What does that mean? Never experience death?
The riches of Christ, are they so great as
to include that?
You know Amy Carmichael? You ever hear of
Amy Carmichael? Wonderful missionary to India
who knew what suffering was and was triumphant
over it. The book of hers called The Gold
Cord and in it there's a little piece called
"Three Tender Mercies" . I want to read you
a story from that, a few paragraphs.
"Her name was Lala. She was five years old,
a Brahman child of much promise." Amy Carmichael
was in India. "She had sickened suddenly with
an illness which we knew from the first must
be dangerous. We couldn't ask a medical missionary
to leave his hospital a day and half distant
for the sake of one child. But we did the
best we could. We send an urgent message to
a medical evangelist trained in Naior who
lived near her, and he came at once. He arrived
an hour too late, but before he came we had
seen this."
"It was in that chilly hour between night
and morning. A lantern burned dimly in the
room where Lala lay. There was nothing in
that darkened room to account for what we
saw. The child was in pain struggling for
breath turning to us for what we could not
give. I left her with Mabel Pannanbal and
going to a side room cried to our Father to
take her quickly. I was not more than a minute
away, but when I returned she was radiant."
"Her lovely little face was lighted with amazement
and happiness. She was looking up and clapping
her hands as delighted children do. And when
she saw me she stretched out her arms and
flung them around my neck as though saying
goodbye in a hurry to be gone. And then she
turned to the others in the same eager way
and then again holding out her arms to someone
we could not see, she clapped her hands."
"Had only one of us seen this thing we might
have doubted, but we all three saw it. There
was no trace of pain in her face. She was
never to taste of pain again. We saw nothing
in that dear child's face but unimaginable
delight. We looked where she was looking almost
thinking that we could see what she saw. What
must the fountain of joy be if the spray from
the edge of the pool can be like that? When
we turn the next bend in the road and the
sorrow that waited there met us, we were comforted.
Words cannot tell how tenderly by this that
we had seen when we followed the child almost
to the border of the land of joy."
I ask you did this child see death? What's
it gonna be like? Well, I want to suggest
you among other things, for example, you won't
know that you have, as we say, died until
much later. So if you're planning on seeing
death, give up. You won't. See? And that is
the basis upon which the early church understood
that Jesus had abolished death.
Look at 2 Timothy 1:10. Second Timothy 1:10,
take time to look at it and mark it. Because
what I find is people generally do not pay
attention to these verses, and the ordinary
rule of people in the Christian churches is
to avoid death and the topic of death like
a plague cause they're scared to death of
it, and they don't know what to do with it.
And they won't even talk about it. Have you
got 2 Timothy 1:10 ? Read it real loudly to
us, would you please?
Male:
Sure. "But it is now been revealed through
the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ who
has destroyed death and has brought life and
immortality to light through the gospel."
Dallas Willard:
Who has what death?
Male:
Destroyed.
Dallas Willard:
Destroyed it. And brought life and immortality
to light through the gospel. See. In other
words now, for the first time, we understand
what life and immortality are, because Jesus
has brought that forward. Are you with me?
The Future of the Universe
One more thing the future of the created cosmos,
this is a part of the riches of Christ. The
incredible greatness and beauty of the physical
cosmos is something that will never pass away.
Don't worry about it going out of existence.
It is not a self contained system as we have
already seen in our discussions. It is sustained
by the power of God.
Now astronomers tell us that there is in the
universe, oh somewhere around 92% to 95 - or
4 or 8, you know how these go; a few billion
here or a few billion there doesn't change
it that much. But they tell us that 90 some
percent of the universe consists of what they
call cold dark matter. Now they have no reason
to believe in cold dark matter, except it
would explain how the universe that is visible
warm light matter behaves.
So they - problems like, why do the galaxies
distribute themselves the way they do? They
can't explain it. They can't even explain
on the hypothesis of the - of the primal soup
that existed before Adam's form, why the universe
began to clump in certain ways. See, they
can't explain that.
The truth is we know almost nothing about
the ultimate nature of the physical universe.
Mysteries of physical nature
I want to suggest to you that the cold dark
matter that explains the behavior of the physical
universe in this way is actually God. That
this is the Jesus who upholds all things by
the word of his power. Now you say, how do
you know that?
Well, I'm open to anything that can be scientifically
demonstrated, but one thing that this not
going to be scientifically demonstrated is
the ultimate nature of the universe. We have
to go at it through the laws that we can discern
from the behavior of the things we can observe.
But no one is able to explain why we have
the laws we do, and any cosmologist will tell
you that. And if they could explain the laws
that we do, they would never be able to explain
the origin or the initial conditions under
which those laws began to apply.
And that's not in the purview of science as
we know it, never will be. And I realize of
course that you need to question that. You
need to think about it. But I'm just saying,
I'm saying that the universe... Actually the
greatness and beauty and the future of the
universe is secure, and it will if anything
just get greater and greater. I don't say
that because I have an insight into astrophysics.
I say that because I believe in the God who
made the universe. I believe in him because
he has intruded on this universe in the form
of Jesus Christ.
There will be a new heaven and a new earth.
The one we've got is in pretty bad shape.
The new heaven and there will be a new Jerusalem.
And you get kind of an outline sketch of that
by looking at Revelation 21 and following.
That's a part of the riches of Christ.
The Ultimate Questions
Let me give you these questions, and we're
gonna return to them tomorrow. The things
that I say great teachers but actually great
talk show hosts wind up talking about the
same thing and small talk show hosts. These
are the four questions that face human beings.
And they are faced with them just by the fact
that they live. And these questions are the
nature of reality.
What is reality?
What is real and what is not? What do you
have to deal with in life?
Now we started talking about that this morning.
This issue of knowledge and how knowledge
and truth helps us come to terms with reality.
Being Christ's people, Christ's man and woman
in this world means that we affirm the reality
of the Kingdom of God. What is reality? It
is God and everything that comes from his
hand. 
Jesus affirms that and teaches that.
Who is blessed?
Who is well off? Who is - who has the good
life? Who is blessed? And the answer is anyone
alive in the Kingdom of God is blessed. They
are well off. Again we'll work on that further
tomorrow. This today is in many respects just
a kind of general outline and introduction
of things.
So for example, what about the poor? Well,
Jesus said blessed be the poor, because they're
poor. And being poor is a wonderful thing!
Did he say that? He didn't say that, did he?
He said blessed are the poor, for they too
can have the Kingdom of God. And blessed are
the poor in spirit, that is people who don't
have any religious things going for them,
not a smell of religion. They smell like fish
like Jesus' apostles.
See all of his apostles were poor in spirit.
They didn't have any thing going for them
in the spiritual realm. It's interesting that
he chose people like that to make his messengers
to the world. And it is certainly because
he didn't want anyone talking a human fix
to the world as the gospel. He wanted people
who understood that the cure for the world
is life in the Kingdom of God.
Who is a good person?
Who's a really good person? Anyone who is
permeated with agape love is a good person.
That's who that is. So then love comes forward
out of the nature of God, brought to human
beings. Christ shows you how to realize it,
what it is.
How do you become a good person?
And then finally, how do you become a really
good person? You become a really good person
by becoming a disciple of Jesus. That's how
you do it.
Now Jesus answers each of these in a manner
far superior to anyone else. And when I make
that claim, I don't make it bombastically
or defensively. Just compare. Remember what
I said earlier. You look at Jesus and you
say, who else?
See Peter put that in language we preach from,
isn't it right? You know when they all left
shucked off and left, the crowds disappeared
and Jesus said, will you also go away? And
Peter used that language, "...to who shall
we go?" (John 6:68) Well, that's a real question,
isn't it?
Now the people who live around here in Hollywood,
in Los Angeles, they live in Manila, they
live in Bombay, and they have exactly the
same question. How does Christ compare to
Krishna? How does Christ compare to Buddha?
To L. Ron Hubbard? To - see that's the issue
that we face. And he answers these questions
now. "And to us this grace is given, that
we should preach to a pagan world the unsearchable
riches of Christ."
Presenting Jesus
So what is the one mistake above all that
we can make? Fail to present Jesus Christ
adequately. That's the one mistake. If you
present Jesus Christ adequately, then what
can be done for human beings will be done
for them. If you don't do that, if you have
a gospel that presents him in a some way that
for example he's as an early advocate of the
democratic way of life, the gentle cynic of
the Jesus Seminar. Well, you know the woods
has been full of general cynics. We know what
they can do. We know that early advocates
of the American way of life can do. It ain't
much.
But on the other hand if you just present
him as a sacrifice for sin, you will also
fail to present the unsearchable riches of
Christ. And except in a world which is key
to the issue of the forgiveness of sins as
the whole thing to be dealt with by human
beings, except in a world like that, the message
you present will fail to make disciples.
Make disciples
See that's the question I have to deal with.
Does the gospel I preach have a natural tendency
to produce disciples to Jesus Christ? Or does
it just produce more consumers of religious
goods and services?
See we have a non participant, spectator version,
consumer version of Christianity in this country.
And that's where we get people going from
church to church to find a better service
to consume. Not rooted in the body of Christ
at all. Not focused discipleship and personal
transformation. Not focused on living in the
power of God in a way that you can bring that
to bear on circumstances if you're in business
or government or in your family or community.
Where you can stand as Christ's person and
expect the Kingdom of God to make a difference
you yourself could never make if your life
depended on it.
This is the time to be alive. I don't know
if you know Simone Weil. She's not an outstanding
example of a Christian, but a very painful
and tortured person who was drawn towards
Catholic Christianity towards the end of her
life. She was from a very famous scientific
family. Andre Weil the great mathematician
was her brother. She was a French-Jewish family.
But turned towards at least the Catholic Christ
towards the end of her life. She said, you
could not have wished to be born at a better
time than this, when everything has been lost.
What does that mean? That means if we want
to do something, we have to start with ground
zero planning. That means we have to think
about the job to be done without regard to
the people who are already on the grounds
and taking care of those people and looking
out for them and making sure that they turn
out to be right.
Do the job
What is the job to be done? The Great Commission
states it, and we'll be talking about that
tomorrow. The Great Commission says, well,
I mean you have to get the bookends of it.
Remember this is a situation in which they
had really taken a beating. They hadn't had
a good time. They had hitched their wagon
to the star, and the star went and got himself
crucified. And the word was out on them. So
they had sort of been ducking and hiding in
the bushes. Now Jesus arranges to be with
them a few times, and he goes ahead of them
back to Galilee. There he has his last discussion
with them apparently.
And he says, I have been given say over everything
in heaven and in earth. Do you remember that?
I've been given say. That's kingship. OK now
if you want to turn to Matthew 18:18-20, you
can do that. But just follow me now. Here
what it says.
This is the resurrected Christ. "I have been
given sway over everything in heaven and earth."
Well go back to Philippians 2, Colossians
1 we read this morning. I've been given sway.
Now he says to them, as you go, make disciples.
(Matthew 28:18-20) He didn't say make Baptists
or Catholics or even Christians. He said make
disciples.
OK now what are we talking about here? We're
talking about ground zero planting? What are
we gonna do now? The first thing is we're
gonna make disciples and then as we make disciples
they're going to be brought into the Trinitarian
presence. Right.
Baptize and teach
What does Jesus say? Baptize them in the name
of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I hope
you don't think that means get them wet while
you say over them in the name of the Father,
Son and Holy Spirit. It means to immerse them
in Trinitarian reality. Jesus said where two
or three are gathered in my name, I'm in the
midst. So that means when these disciples
come together what's happening is not a program
that they're putting on. They're not doing
a performance. They're watching for the hand
of God to move in their midst.
Now then when you've done that, then the last
stage is you teach them to do everything Jesus
said. Right? And then he bookends that with,
and look I'm with you every minute until the
job is done. It starts with I've been given
say over everything, ends with I'm with you
every minute, in between is the plan. What
I've just given you is Jesus's plan for church
growth. It is the most successful plan for
church growth that has ever been on the earth,
and in fact it is the most successful plan
for any kind of group that's ever been among
human beings.
If we preach the unsearchable riches of Christ
rightly, we are ready to move into that plan.
If we do not, we can never go there and we'll
have to do something else. And my dear friends,
that is the history of the church very largely
doing something else. So you go down through
the ages and you watch the ebb and the flow,
and you come up to the present and you say
what are we doing today?
Questions and Discussion
Chris Backert:
Could you give an example...
Can you compare other perspectives of reality?
Chris Backert:
You talk often about Jesus compared to Buddha
or...
Dallas Willard:
Yeah, sure.
Chris Backert:
...Mohammed. Could you maybe take like one
or two examples and say, OK this is what Mohammedwould
say, or his view of reality.
Dallas Willard:
Well, I mean to start with things like this:
the Buddha died of food poisoning. He's never
been resurrected. That's a big jump right
there. Now if you look at Buddhism and look
at what it's based on, you'll realize things
like this. It's often shocking to people,
cause people like to toy around with Buddhism
especially in an academic setting. It's often
shocking to realize the best thing that can
happen to you if you're a Buddhist is that
you would stop existing and never come back.
And I'm not making that up, I mean that's
standard Buddhism. That's called escaping
the wheel of birth and death, which means
you're not reincarnated and you cease to exist
as an independently existing thing. Right.
Now we have Pavi here and he probably knows
his stuff better than I do. And if I'm wrong,
Pavi, you can just throw a book at me. But
see that - those are just illustrations. Buddhism
is not - shall we say, to use the language
of some scholars - it is not a life of hearing
teaching. It's a life denying teaching.
So for example the object of life is to abolish
desire, and that's how you escape the wheel
of birth and death. The fire sermon of the
Buddha starts out with everything is full
of fire. What is fire? Desire. How do you
escape desire is the question, and then you
have the Eightfold Path of teaching about
right thinking, right words, right deeds and
so on. And that does that.
So I just think you, if you look at it in
terms of the metaphysics involved which is
also another story of how you can...how can...how
you can arrange reincarnation on that story.
If you don't have a self that has a continuity
to it that's part of the metaphysics.
And then there's a moral side to it, the teaching
about how to live. It is...it is not a life
affirming doctrine. The whole story of the
Buddha is, this is an awful place, and it
is an illusion. The world is an illusion.
The Veil of Maya it is called. And so enlightenment
for the Buddhist is to realize that this world
is an illusion. That means among other things
you are an illusion. Or another way of putting
this is to say you are identical with everything
else. So I think you just have to compare
them.
Other things you can do is compare the kind
of Buddhist life at its best civilization,
Buddhist culture at its best with Christian
culture at its best. You compare the ones
at worst, they're all about equally bad. Right
because I mean Christian culture at its worst
has been about as bad as it can get. Right.
We just have to embrace that and say that's
true. You can't deny that. I mean the awful
things that Christians so called have done,
see. But all cultures are about equally bad
when you look at the worst end.
But if you look at their good end, I think
they're not all equally good. And when you
compare them I think what Christ has been
is far above the others. So you know, if one
is wrong about that, you accept that. And
that's the way I approach it. I mean if I'm
wrong, show me. Let's talk about it. Give
me what you know. That's the way I'd go about
it.
Yes any others, any other questions or comments?
I've blown your fuses. Anyone else. Here we
go.
Why do we go wrong in our reasoning?
Bill Bean:
It seems, and I'm maybe misunderstanding you,
but that you're operating in a system devoid
of any need of proof for anything and that
is somehow a benefit or positive. In other
words, you're stacking your options - what
you've said a number of times is, show me
the textbook, the experiment...
Dallas Willard:
Sure. I mean if, yeah.
Bill Bean:
...And until you can I'm happy to go with
what I know.
Dallas Willard:
Well, I think I have some other evidence,
the reality of Christ both before and after
his resurrection, and the reality of the Kingdom
as experimentally known through finding what
God is doing, on that assumption getting involved
with him and seeing what the reality of it
is.
Bill Bean:
So where, where is it then that we're going,
that we seem to go wrong with? I think most
of us probably get pretty stuck with people
who want to argue with verification.
Dallas Willard:
That's one reason why we need to say these
things and we need to get other people involved
with it. Because, for example, I'm in a position
where because of whatever I've done, that
I can say, OK, show me. Because I know this.
I've worked through this stuff, and I have
no fear. I mean, Carl Sagan is not going to
bring forth a physics book that shows that
the physical cosmos is the only thing that
has ever existed and will. There's just nothing
there.
And this isn't something knew. This is something
that's been known since Aristotle. It's established
on general logical grounds. It isn't a matter
of further scientific research.
So we're free to say, well, let scientific
research go. See. We're not - we're not hiding
or ducking or avoiding anything. And we will
admit a fact that's established as a fact.
Jesus's is not hiding. He's not running. If
you could find a better way, he would be the
first to say to you, take it.
You know you can't imagine Jesus hearing a
better way and saying - short of rubbing his
chin, saying, well, you know that's very good,
but it's not...it's not Christian. You know.
He's not gonna say that. You could - if you
believed that about Jesus, you couldn't follow
him two steps. You know that he is on the
side of truth, he is on the side of what's
established, what's factual, what's reasoning.
He's not dodging the facts.
What we have now is a secular system that
dodges facts by making general assertions
that they have no way to prove, but they have
an authority that allows them to get away
with it. So Carl Sagan spends millions of
dollars producing a television series that
is a beautiful thing to see. If you've seen
it, you know that. If not, I encourage you
to get ahold of it and look at it. It's wonderful.
It just has all these falsehoods in it. It
has these unfounded claims, and so that's
why we need people, and I believe pastors
need to think about...
See, one of the myths is that your ordinary
pastor can't do all this stuff. They can too!
Any sensible person can do it. You don't have
to become an astrophysicist or a philosopher
for that matter. You don't... Just follow
the argument. But you see you have to have
confidence that you can do this. That God
is on your side. And that then will allow
you to do the elemental work. You have to
learn a little bit about what logic is, and
so on, but you need that anyway. You don't
need much.
What we need now is just go to education.
Our - the curse of our land is that we have
all of these uneducated people with higher
degrees. And they are uneducated. They don't
know what good method is. They wouldn't know
truth if they ran over it. In fact they have
almost nothing to do with truth. They laugh
at truth. Truth is a subject of humor on the
campuses.
What's big is research. And research is stuff
you can get funded for. You can't funded for
truth, but you can get funded for research.
You see that has to do with the authority
structure that we live in. It doesn't have
anything to do with truth itself or knowledge.
But things have now been so confused that
we as Christians have to repair it to stand
up and deal with these issues without becoming...we
don't have to spend our years becoming experts
in it. Just follow the argument, listen to
it. A few people who, who really are able
to think like Philip Johnson up at Berkley
and who's our astrophysicist down here? I
can't think of his name. I'm having a senior
moment.
But I mean there are lots of good people who
are doing this. They are specialists, and
they can do the work. And they're the ones
that can show you why there really is not
a good argument on the other side. So there's
a lot to be done.
Now that's why I started with you where I
did today. We... If we're gonna understand,
as I see it, I mean here you are a bunch of
you. You know it's shocking to me to look
out here and see a bunch of young people.
Most of the places I go I look out it looks
like snow. It's true. It's not just a - I
mean, they're no young people. And I'm thrilled
to be here where there are young people. You're
gonna do something about this. See. And I'm
delighted to be able to talk to you, because
now you can pick up and go on. Don't be worried
about it! Just do the work as a Christian.
Follow out the teachings of your scripture,
because your scripture is a profound book
of knowledge. And if you treat it that way,
it will respond in that way. If you treat
it as a book where you go to prove that your
traditions are right, you'll come back empty.
Because, frankly, most of our traditions have
no foundation. They're just stuff that's grown
up. Peter called it the vain traditions of
the fathers.
Most of us our denominations were born out
of some kind of negativity. Just think of
a group of religious people being known as
Protestants. You know, what that - protest.
You're known for protesting. Can you go to
heaven on that? Get up there and say, well,
you know God I protested.
But you look at our various groups, they're
all born out of negativity. Go to the Scripture
to see what is positively taught about life
and reality, and put it to the test. That's
what we can do.
That gets us back to ground zero planning.
Now we're gonna do something following Jesus
Christ as if there was nowhere, no one already
there that had to be justified for what they're
doing. Do you understand what I'm saying?
I mean take the educational system. I often
say to people in the university and elsewhere,
if you set out to devise an educational system,
you would never come up with the one we've
got. That's true.
And when you begin to look at it, you realize
this is not ground zero planning. This is
planning done with sort of an eye to an improvement
here and improvement there, but the main thing
you have to do is to take care of the people
who are already in the game.
Am I making any sense? See now, you can't
go about Christianity that way. If you're
gonna take care of people who are already
in the game, forget it. If you do your ground
zero planning, and we'll be talking more about
this, it will do the best thing you can for
the people who are already in the game. Because
many of them are good people, sincere people
who want to follow Christ, but they are hindered
by taking care of a lot of stuff that is irrelevant.
And that's one of the beauties of the Great
Commission which I gave to you now is that
that strips all that away. Strips it all away.
Now what are you going to do? Just do what
it says.
