Today we're beginning this brand new series entitled The Last Kingdom. And for some of you, when you saw this is going to be the title of the series, for those of you who follow us on social media when you saw this, if you were hoping, some of you were hoping I would begin like this. I am Utrid, son of Utred. Few of you get this, right? No idea what I'm talking about. Anyway, I'm a huge Bernard Cornwell fan. He's one of the best historical fiction writers in the world, I think. I've read, I think everything he's read and written. And years ago we started this series that Netflix then turned into this Netflix series called The Last Kingdom. I think there are 13 books in the series. I read them as they came out. Then once they all came out, I read all 13 again.
And then I watched the Netflix series and some of you remember that. But here's the thing. Even Bernard would admit that England or Ingleland was not in fact the last kingdom because the authors of the New Testament, and here's what we're going to talk about for the next few weeks. The authors of the New Testament make a compelling case that the last kingdom will actually last forever. And the reason they were so convinced, the reason the authors of the New Testament were absolutely convinced is because they had met, camped with, laughed with, learned from, wept with, celebrated with the king. God's final king who came to establish the last kingdom. So I have an agenda in this series, and I don't usually say I have an agenda in a series, but I have a goal in this series. And this is a big goal, and I don't know if this is going to happen.
My goal in this series is that all of us would accept Jesus, not just as our savior. Hopefully you've done that. And if you haven't done that, we talk about that all the time. But that by the end of this series, maybe by the end of today, that you would be willing to accept Jesus for who his closest friends acknowledged him to be and accept Jesus for who his fiercest enemies feared that he might be. That every time that you pick up a Bible and every time you read anything from the New Testament, my goal by the end of this series is that every time you read anything from the New Testament, that you would see what has been there all along and that you would never, ever, ever be able to unsee it. And if you grew up in church, like I did, any kind of Christian church, then this represents, this will represent a bit of a paradigm shift.
And you might find yourself going, "Okay, I think he's making this up because if this is true, I should have heard about this before. Why didn't I hear about this before?" So I want to go ahead and not give you permission, but actually encourage you to fact check me. This is not something that's over in some corner. This is what should have been front and central all along, front and center all along. So my redundancy and my repetition today and throughout this series is on purpose, is I attempt to drag all of us. And it's not your fault. It's not your fault at all. It's the fault of people who do what I do, but to drag all of us back to the place that we would recognize and accept Jesus as the one whom Jesus claimed to be from the very beginning and the New Testament authors present him as throughout.
So here we go. If you grew up in any kind of faith system, not just Christianity, but any kind of faith system, whether it's church or synagogue or temple or whatever it might be, as when you were a child, if you grew up in a faith system at all, as a child, you were given a simple faith template, a belief system of some sort. The technical term would be that you were given some sort of theology or belief about God. And that simple framework that you were given as a child, just like I was given as a child, it served as the framework for everything related to faith. Something to hang all of our beliefs on, our convictions on, our traditions on, the way we did things, the way what we expected of one another, what we expected of God that was sort of a framework and you just hung all those things on it.
Whenever you ask your parents or your priest or a pastor a question, they would answer the question and put that answer and hang it kind of on that general framework. Your general framework determined whether or not you read the Bible, it determined how you read the Bible, it determined which Bible you read. And then when you left home, once you grew up and left home, you took that simple framework with you. And in most cases, most of us, to some extent, we revised it a little bit or we modified it or maybe you modernized it. But the point is, once you were given that template and you didn't question it because adults gave it to you, once you had that template, that theology, if you read the Bible, if you were in a Christian family or went to a church, you had verses of scripture that backed up your theology or you found support for your template in the Bible because your church or your denomination emphasized those verses that supported that simple template.
Now, in many modern faith traditions, or I should say in many, many modern Christian faith traditions, certainly mine, Jesus' primary role, if you were to say, who is Jesus? What is Jesus all about? Jesus' primary role and his primary title, that's what we're going to talk about, was this, Savior. Jesus is the savior. Jesus is my personal savior. I asked Jesus to be my personal savior. He's the savior of the world. He's a forgiver. He's a rescuer. He's a redeemer. And all of those attributes you can find in the New Testament and all of those attributes are functions are things that Jesus acknowledged about himself. They're all true. They're all in the New Testament. But practically speaking, bear with me. Practically speaking, when it came to your day-to-day lives and our day-to-day lives, Jesus got relegated to, okay, not trying to be irreverent, call a friend.
If you're in trouble, you call on Jesus, a conscience reliever. I did it again. Lord, please, in Jesus' name, forgive me my sin. Then I go out and did it again. I keep going, this is so embarrassing, God. I keep doing the same sin over and over and over. But I was told that you'll forgive me my sin. If you're faithful in just forgive me on my sin and cleanse me from all unrighteousness. Also, it was kind of like sinner racer that Jesus is the sinner racer. Bottom line, even though you probably never used this terminology, central to Christianity, Jesus is a savior. He's your ticket to heaven. But savior is not the primary title or even the primary role Jesus claimed for himself. In fact, check this out for yourself. Maybe you'll find something I can't find. I can't find a single place in the entire New Testament where Jesus referred to himself as the savior or gave himself this title.
Other people did. And he in fact came to save us from our sins. That's one of his roles, but it wasn't his primary title. It's not the title he gave himself. This is important. And it's not the primary title his friends gave him or his enemies or the early church. In the opening lines, in the opening lines, and I hope you'll fact check me. I hope that can't possibly be true. It'll get you to open your Bibles maybe for the first time in a long time. In the opening lines of every New Testament document, Matthew Mark, Luke, John, Peter's letters, Paul's letters, the Book of Revelation. Jesus is associated with a title. Jesus is associated with a title. He's given a title that points to an epic, and I mean capital E, epic narrative that incorporates all of human history. And it incorporates you as an individual and me and your parents and your children and future generations.
But the framework is so different. The New Testament framework, the framework that the authors of the New Testament give us, the framework that is so different than the one that we were raised on or confronted with as an adult if you became a Christian as an adult. It's so different than what we were presented with that it's hard to see. In fact, this is why when you read, especially the parables of Jesus and some of the things the Apostle Paul would teach later, it's so different that we treat those things again, kind of like that ornament, right? You got your Christmas tree up and you got this ornament and you're like, "Honey, I don't really think this goes with our tree this year." And I'm not even sure where to hang it. So when you read the parables of Jesus and you're like, "Okay, we love prodigal son.
We got that one. I love the good Samaritan. We got that one." But kind of the rest of them are like ... And he starts them all this way. The kingdom of heaven is like, the kingdom of God is like. The kingdom of heaven is like, the kingdom of God is like. We're like, I don't know what to do with that. I don't know where to hang that on the tree. And the authors of the New Testament are shouting at us. Those things aren't ornaments. They are the tree, that you have it backwards, that you have taken one of Jesus' primary roles and you've made it a title. And now you look at everything Jesus said and everything Jesus said through a framework that is not the correct framework and you're missing the plot and you're missing the plot line. That's what I want to try to convince you of.
And I will just acknowledge upfront. None of this is original with me, but unfortunately the people that talk in these terms and have written about this, they're pretty much ignored because the paradigm is so solid and in place that the rest of the language that we're going to talk about kind of bounces off. So I want to begin with the gospel of Luke and I want to begin at the beginning. And I want to begin with this particular text because it is so familiar and we consider it seasonal. We consider this Christmas. But Luke would tell you, wait, this doesn't have anything to do with Christmas. This isn't seasonal. This is foundational. And yes, we read this recently. I'm aware of that. That's why I chose it. An angel appears to marry a peasant girl, Galilee, a nobody scares her to death, of course. And he says, remember this, many of us can quote it.
Don't be afraid, Mary. You have found favor with God and you're going to have a baby, a son, and you don't get to choose his name. His name's going to be Jesus and he's going to be special. He will be great. He will be called, unlike anyone who's ever been born, the son of the most high. He will be in a unique way, the son of the creator of the universe. He will be the son of God. And thanks to him, you'll get to go to heaven when you die. That's not in there. That's our template talking. Oh, good. God sent a savior so I can go to heaven when I die. And Luke's like, "What are you talking about? Just shut up and listen. I'm trying to introduce you to something extraordinary. And all you Christians can think about is yourself and what's going to happen when I die." It's like, this isn't about what happens when you die.
This is about what happens right now in your life and you are invited to participate in it. This isn't about us. Lucas introducing us to what he tells us, but somehow it's just so easy to miss. The Lord, he goes on, he says this, "The Lord God, the Lord God will give your son a throne." The throne of his father, David, we're going to come back to that, is in King David and your son will reign. Well, no, I thought he'll save. Now that's a function. That's not his primary role. That's not his primary title. That's ancillary. We'll talk about that next week. Luke says, "Pay attention." He will reign over Jacob's descendants. How long? Forever. Wait, forever is a long time. Luke's like, "Let me finish." His kingdom will never end.
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, they are not the stories of heaven and hell and who goes to heaven and who goes to hell. Who's in and who's out? It's much bigger than that. Luke is documenting the story of your king, God's final king, the last kingdom that will last forever. This is about God coming into the world and wading through the complexities and the tragedies and the awfulness of the kingdoms of men to establish his final kingdom. And if you kept reading the book of Luke, you would discover. This is why it's called good news, that you, no matter what you've done, no matter what you do, no matter what you will do, no matter how many promises to God you break, that you are invited to not just believe in it, you are invited to participate in it right now, today, here, at work, at home, school, in the community, that you are members and have been invited to function and live as members of God's final kingdom.
It's never going away. It has already been launched. And when that becomes the paradigm through which you read the New Testament, everything Jesus taught makes a lot more sense. The New Testament authors were unanimous and unambiguous. Jesus is a king. This is why I've been using this language. He is God's final king. And now that you know that, I dare you to pick up the New Testament and try to prove me wrong. Unfortunately, the term Christ is an unfortunate, and I'm going to explain this to you in detail. In fact, detail you're not even interested in, but we got to get a little geeky in order to get through this because this is such a paradigm shift. The term Christ is an unfortunate lack of translation that has enabled the church to bury the lead and reduce Jesus to someone who just came to save us from our sins.
And consequently, we lose the plot line. And consequently, so much of what Jesus taught doesn't make any sense and we can't find a place to hang it on the tree. It causes us to diminish his, not just his role, but who he is rather than recognize him for who he claimed to be and who the people closest to him believed him to be. So real quick, here's the kind of nerd out a little bit moment. Here's the backstory, okay? Pay attention, because I don't know, this would just make you smarter in general conversation. Most of us, I would gather, I would assume most all of us are familiar with or at least heard the term Messiah before, right? Term Messiah. The term Messiah, it's a Jewish term, it came from a Hebrew word, means we associate it with Jesus, God's Messiah, but it actually is just a term that means anointed one, specifically one anointed to be a king.
That's how it was mostly used, anointed to be a king. So Messiah means anointed which means king. One of the easiest ways to understand this is to think about our English word inaugurate or an inauguration. When I say the word inauguration, you think president of the United States or president, but the word inaugurate simply means to induct someone into an office. That's what the word means. But in our culture, it has become so closely associated with presidency that when you hear about an inauguration, you just think, "Oh, president of the United States," even though the word doesn't actually mean that. Well, the same happened in ancient Israel with some rabbinic traditions, not all, that the term that meant anointed one or anoint became closely associated with a future Messiah, but they understood the future Messiah to be a king, God's final king that would one day come and rescue all of Israel.
Interestingly enough, the term Messiah only appears seven times in the New Testament. Now that's important. It's important because the New Testament was written primarily to Greek speaking people, non-Jewish people who had no idea what a Messiah was. That was like a Jewish thing, Messiah. So the authors of the New Testament, they go out of their way to clarify Jesus' identity for their first century, non-Jewish audience, people like us. So instead of using the term Messiah, which meant nothing to Greek speakers, it was just a term that meant anointed one, they used the Greek term that means anointed one as one in terms of one who's been anointed as a king. And that particular word, again, it's like the word inaugurate, which is an average term that got associated with a specific event. That term, instead of Messiah, was this term Christos. It simply meant an anointed one.
Anyone who was anointed as a king was considered an anointed one. Like any president of the United States, we would say he's an inaugurated one. Same thing. So throughout the New Testament, what you find is you find this Greek term Christos associated with Jesus, which went any Greek reader. Again, they didn't bury the lead. Any Greek reader, understood. Jesus, not Christ, Jesus, the anointed one. Hesu Christu. Hesu Christu over and over and over and over. So years after, maybe 25 years or so after, maybe more, after the resurrection of Jesus, there's this group in Antioch that these Gentiles, we've talked about this before, that become followers of Jesus and the Gentiles, the non-Jesus followers in that large metropolitan city see these crazy people. Some of them were friends of theirs, some of their sons and daughters, and they're talking about a dead Jewish, itinerant rabbi preacher who claimed to be a king.
And now they're worshiping this dead rabbi as a king because they say he rose from the dead. And what do you call these people? I mean, this is crazy. They keep talking about the anointed one, the anointed one. God's king, this king has come. So the people resisting this movement are the ones that coined the term that has become so common in our culture and for actually ever since. They came up with this term Christianos. Christianos. This is the followers of the anointed one, followers of the anointed one, followers of this dead, supposedly resurrected king because even the detractors and the enemies of the church understood what these people were claiming, right? This was not about, you say your guy forgives sins. We say, all right, this was not about sin forgiveness. This was 100% about the right to rule and they got labeled. This meant followers of the anointed one, followers of a king.
Then we're going to dig deep into this next time. I'm just going to touch on it quickly. Then at Jesus' trial, you remember he's arrested, brought before the Sanhedrin, the Pharisees, they gang up and they beat him and they're questioning him. And they finally hear him blaspheme because he claims to be from the holy one of God. Then they take him to Pilate. Pilate question him, questions him. We're going to look at that next week. It's just so powerful. And Pilate listens. I mean, Pilate basically says, "I think this is just a Jewish thing. Why are you bringing into me? " I mean, apparently he's broken some of your ridiculous laws that nobody cares about, but you guys anyway. So you take him and you deal with him and people break your laws all the time. We've given you some leeway. You can beat him.
You can have him flogged a little bit, but you can't put him to death. So you deal with him the way you want to deal with him. And do you remember how they respond to Pilate? Again, here's why I'm pointing this out. Nobody is confused.
Only modern Christians are confused and not just modern Christians, even premodern Christians. We'll explain why in just a minute. Nobody in the first century is confused about who Jesus claims to be. It's what they say to Pilate. Hey, Pilate. It's not that simple. If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar. Why are you bringing up Caesar? Anyone who claims to be a sin forgiver, anyone who claims to be a ticket to the Jewish heaven, anyone who claims to be a miracle worker, anybody who claims to be a comforter, anybody who claims to come through for you when you need them. Anybody who claims to be your best friend.
Pilate, anybody who claims to be a king opposes Caesar. And everybody knows. He claims to be a king. This had everything to do with who ultimately has the right to rule. From the opening lines of the New Testament to the final lines, nobody's confused. A king had come. God's final king to establish God's kingdom on earth and everybody is invited to participate in it. But I got to speed this up. Unfortunately, unfortunately, this is the part you might want to check out if you don't believe me. Unfortunately, when the New Testament was translated into other languages from Greek, instead of translating the term Christos, which meant anointed one or king, there was another Greek word for king, actually a couple. But instead of taking this Greek word Christos and translating it, they transliterated it, which means they took each Greek letter and in the English version of the New Testament, they took English letters and they came up with a different term.
That's where the term Christ comes from. Christ is not a translation of the term Christos. Christ is simply taking these letters and coming up with English letters and they created a word, Christ. This began to mean whatever the church wanted it to mean, and eventually it became a name rather than a title. And when it became a name rather than a title, the plot line was lost, but not on everybody and not on you because now you know. And now that you've seen it, you can't unsee it because every time you read the New Testament and you see Jesus Christ, Christ, Jesus, our Lord, Jesus Christ, Christ, Jesus, our Lord, you're going to read it differently. I hope you do. God's anointed one. Jesus. Jesus anointed one. Jesus anointed one. Jesus, King, Jesus, God's final king. The story, the narrative, the emphasis, the purpose of your faith is not about a ticket to heaven.
It is so much bigger than that. It is about a king and it's about a kingdom. And here's the thing, and I'll wrap up. Okay? Look up here. We see what we're looking for. This is just a general principle. You want to catch your kids doing something good, you'll see it. You want to catch them doing something bad, you'll see it. You don't even have to be looking. You can hear it, right? Okay. We see what we're looking for always. And when you were introduced to the Bible as a child, perhaps your whole thing was God is love, God is love, God is love. So you start reading the Bible and you're looking for God as love. And it's in there. Or you're raised like me where it's all about ethics and morality and fidelity and being a good person. And I mean, if you're looking for the rules, it's in there.
And the whole time, the authors of the New Testament are screaming off the pages. Now, yes, but that's not the plot line. A king has come. When you open up the pages of the Bible, look for a king because you are invited to participate in a kingdom, the last kingdom. Now, hopefully, beyond your skepticism, if there's some skepticism, you're asking this question. Okay. Okay, so what? Now what? So what? Now, what does this mean for me? What does this mean for you? What does this mean for us? What does this mean for the world? And those are big important questions and we're going to explore some of those. But I'll give you one disorienting clue as to what this means for you.
If you will attempt to recenter your faith, if you will attempt to recenter your faith around the arrival of a king and the establishment of a kingdom, rather than a ticket to heaven, you will discover why everyone who knew Jesus and everyone who knew why he came considered his message 100% good news for all people. And perhaps for you, your resistance to your king will diminish and go away and perhaps you will accept for the first time not a ticket to heaven, the invitation to participate in God's final kingdom with his amazing last king. And it will change you. And once upon a time, it turned the world upside down and we will pick it up there next time in part two of the last. Hey, thanks so much for watching. If you enjoyed this video, please make sure you check out the links on your screen for what to watch next and check out the description below where we are going to provide you with free resources designed to help you make better decisions and live with fewer regrets.
And again, thanks for watching.
