Ep 85 A Royal Honor: The Real Call to Witness

Episode Transcript
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Imran (00:05):
Hello and welcome to Real Bible Stories.
Join us as we deep dive intothe historic, religious,
cultural, political andemotional context surrounding
the real lives of real people inthe Bible and the stories we've
all grown to love.
You know I never get tired ofthat opening.

(00:25):
Hello and welcome to Real BibleStories If this is your first
time joining us today.
My name is Imran Ward and weare joined by my wife, selena.
Hello.
And Pastor Ryan Brown.
What's going on everyone?

Selena (00:36):
He's back from youth camp in Hawaii.

Pastor Ryan (00:40):
Yeah, he's just been doing the most he made it
through.
He's been a sprint the lastcouple weeks.

Imran (00:43):
How was youth camp?
I actually don't think I got toask you how that went?

Oh, it was amazing.
We had, you know, you guys everpray that prayer.
That's kind of it's like it'salmost like you, you don't ask
too much of God, like you temperyour prayer right as if, like
it's too much for God, like, allright, lord, just give me three
.
Just give me three goodresponses, and you know I'm not

(01:06):
asking too much.
Right, you could do that Right,like and he just I think he's
chuckling, he's like I'm he, hevastly yeah he vastly exceeded
everything I had prayed for.
Um.
We had salvations.
We had about 15 makerecommitments back to faith um
return to Christ.
We had I mean, particularly theSaturday night we were there.

(01:30):
It was the first time I hadseen the youth truly worship.
So in the beginning of camp yousee them.
They have their arms aroundeach other and they're singing.
But it's in communal and it'ssweet, nothing wrong with it and
they're singing, you know, butit's in communal and it's sweet
right.
Nothing wrong with it.
But like they weren't, itwasn't on your knees repentant

(01:51):
worship right.
And you see, saturday night,like there was a couple of them,
like they're in, you knowthey're hugging each other and
you see them just kind of leavetheir friends, go off on their
own on their knees, tears,crying, screaming the worship
song.
We went back to the cabins thatnight because that was kind of
the plan.
Was we really asked them to bein one of four categories of

(02:13):
decision?
One was to come to Christ, makea decision.
The second one was to return tohim.
The third one was to continueon just becoming a better
disciple, becoming more likeJesus, and the last one was I'm
not ready to make any of thosedecisions yet, but I do have
questions, so I'm willing tocontinue to engage in

(02:35):
conversation about it.
Right and um, the whole pointwas to go back to your cabins as
, in cabin time as a group,let's, let's talk about our
decisions and what that lookslike practically.
Of course, every cabin looked alittle different, but by and
large, most of them were full oftears and confession of sin and
real church.

Imran (02:56):
What was the age group you all took with you?

Junior, high to high school.

Imran (03:00):
It was like 13 to 18 type of thing.

Selena (03:02):
It was throughout the community right Like different
churches.

We did have a couple other churches join us.
Churches who are a little bitsmaller don't have a
well-established youth program.
So we support them with a lotof our events.
We bring them in.

Imran (03:17):
And it ended up being what 61 total.

Yep, yeah, well over 60 we brought.

Imran (03:22):
We budgeted for what?
Was it 40 or 30?

No, yep, yeah, we're over 60.
We brought and, uh, we budgetedfor what, was it 40 or 30?
No, so camp last year we onlybrought I don't say only, but we
brought 22, and we had made itlike a ministry goal to bring 30
this year and yeah, we ended upand god was like I have a
glance for you.
Yeah, we ended up tripling itand, man, yeah, some salvation,
some, some, some surprises ofwhere some of the kids are that
we never would have guessed likeyou.
There was one where, just theway she is, you're like oh she,

(03:49):
oh she.
She must've been saved when shewas like six, right?
And you know.
But she was like no, I'm kindof part of the question category
I'm not sure I'm ready and I dowant to learn more, and it's
like wow, like I didn't know,that's where you were at.
There was others where Ithought they were saved and they
stand up in front of all theirpeers Like I'm ready to make a
decision, and that kind ofsurprised you.

(04:10):
And then there was some otherones where you're like I'm not
sure where they stand, they seemkind of lost, and then you just
see them kind of come to lifeout there.
I mean, it was just really good, that's awesome.
It was good for the youth.
It was good for the leaders too, for them to see that.
I mean, we had this one kid, hewas really cool, he junior
higher and he never really feltthe spirit before.

(04:33):
He's like, yeah, he's like Idon't know how to explain what
I'm feeling, but like my wholebody's tingling and I feel it's
even tingling in my teeth.
And, of course, our first,question is did you eat
something.
Is your tongue going numb?
No, you know like, well, yeah,that's the spirit then you know,
but it's not allergies.

Imran (04:50):
Confirm.

It's not drugs.
Yeah, and he was like I love it.
He was like, ah, I didn't know,the spirit felt like this and,
um, it was just, it was reallyreally good, so, and then, yeah,
after that I get ready to flyto Hawaii for work and do that
sprint and then flew in 1 amSaturday morning and we had a
youth barbecue that Saturdaywhen you all made burgers from
scratch like killed the cow fledthe cow but they did like make

(05:19):
the sausages and stuff.

Imran (05:20):
No, we did Got the pork actually filled the intestines,
Grind the sausage and did allthat.

Then barbecued it and then went from there to a
birthday party, then straightfrom there to a two hour
softball practice.

Imran (05:32):
had to put on and straight to dinner with pastor
David and pastor does have a dayjob, and he's also a preacher
man taught this morning and nowI'm here.
Yeah, absolutely.
I'm hoping that if I get backby dinner I'll be able to
actually relax this weekend, andyou know what it is, because
it's post Super Bowl, so youdon't have like an excuse to sit
in front of the TV.

That is true.
So you have to do.
I still have hockey, though.
I still have hockey man.

Imran (05:56):
Yeah, all right, anyways, but yes, we're jumping into or
I guess we're kind of going backto because while you were out
for all this stuff, we had setfree kind of handling and
holding it down.
Appreciate you all, set freechurch for holding it down.
But now we're going to jumpinto what it means to be a
witness.

That's right, and it's not necessarily good
question to ask.
But when you hear the calling,and particularly the identity
that Christ gives us, to go be awitness, what do you generally
believe that to mean?

Selena (06:33):
The way you live your life.

Okay, yeah, by the things you do, the things you
say, the way you treat people,bearing good witness right,
would you agree?

Imran (06:44):
with that, emran.
Well, when I think about theconcept of witness, uh, I think
I agree with selena, that is howyou live your life, but it's
also how you lived your lifepreviously as well, because it's
not just what you're doing now.
That's your witness.
It's how it relates to whereyou came from.
So, like set free church, there, the passion of that church is
so powerful because of how crazysome of the backstories are

(07:08):
from some of the people that arein it.
The pastor there was previouslyincarcerated and he's grown
from there to being the pastorof this church.
The whole Set Free community,coming from the kind of a lot of
insanity there, just makes thewitness of how they're living
their life now so palpable, soreal and so honest and something

(07:28):
that, like, I just love to bearound.
So, um, it's, it's.
It's not just how you're livingyour life now.

It's in contrast to what you were saved from the
testimony piece.
Yeah, and I I think most peoplewould probably agree with all
that Right and it is all thosethings.
Um, this is a layered thing, um, but I would also say I think
most people would probably agreewith all that right and it is
all those things.
This is a layered thing.
But I would also say, I think,on the forefront of what we are
bearing witness to and reallythe responsibility of what we

(07:54):
are given, it actually tends tobe much more simpler than that.
You know, I think this is agood example of sometimes.
I think we in the church don'tlike how easy and simple the
faith is.
Oh, in the sense that, like themessages and what Jesus taught,

(08:16):
like, is it really that easy,right?

Imran (08:18):
Like is it really?
I mean, he says, my burden islight, right.

And we have a hard time.
So we almost sometimes have tomake it more.
And that's one element.
I think another element is, asthings kind of build over time,
we tend to kind of build our ownthing around it.
Not that there's anything wrongwith that or that any of that
is untrue.
But I think, before you startkind of getting into well, how I

(08:44):
live my life, how I talk, whereI came from, my testimony, all
that understanding initiallywhat it, on the forefront, at
its basic level, means right.
And so we're going to kind ofexplore that title that we are
witnesses to Christ.
What does that really mean?
What are the you know kind of?

(09:07):
the assumptions the implicationsaround it, and it's going to be
kind of a cool study, I think,because we're going to be in a
lot of Bible, but we're alsogoing to be talking a concept
that touches many other things.
So this, I think, may not onlyilluminate this particular
identity, but it's going toilluminate a lot of other ideas
about Christ, um cause thisexists within kind of a model,

(09:30):
you know, and um, christ wouldoften teach in terms of a model
to help communicate realities tous, right, he does that, with
marriage being the bride ofChrist, you know, um, so so he
does this a lot.
And here's an example of, ofsomething surrounding, I guess,
the theology of Christ that umwas meant to help us, at least

(09:53):
in that day.
It was meant to help themunderstand the reality of some
things, right, but, but also theimplications of it, and so
that's going to be really cool.
And I would say the third thing, before we really dive into it,
we're going to be spending mostof our time actually back in
first Kings, even though our,our Selena will read it here in
a second Our, our anchor passagehere is in Acts, chapter one,

(10:14):
but, um, this is going to beanother example of how
interwoven scripture is you knowthere's like over, you know,
60,000 something crossreferences in the Bible.

Imran (10:29):
Um or something is just referencing something else right
, or or or.

It's either speaking to something that you
see fulfilled later or speakingback to something right, like,
but it is such an integrated,the Bible itself is such an
integrated text, you know,across 40 different authors,
across thousands of years, um,that if that were to even be
written by one persondeliberately, you'd be like this
person is an absolute genius,right, and which isn't the case.

(10:53):
It's.
It's over 40 years, a lot oftime.
So you just see the Holyspirit's fingerprint on it,
right, but, but part of thatit's it's.
It goes to also a practicalthing with Bible study, I think,
where you can read a story andyou're like okay, cool story,
but what's the point of that?
How does that draw me closer toChrist, which is particularly

(11:15):
the story that we're going toprimarily be in, which is the
ascension of Solomon.
This whole drama that surroundsthis really takes up two
chapters in 1 Kings.
How does this draw me closer toGod?
Right?
How do I become more like Jesusin that kind of story?
That could also be a littlebrutal, you know, like what is

(11:36):
going on, right?
So this is going to be a goodexample of understanding how
even older concepts, orunderstanding concepts over text
will help illuminate thingsthat are discussed later.
So with that, I think, selena,you want to hit our base text in
Acts 1?
.

Selena (11:50):
Yep.
So Acts 1, verses 7 through 9.
He said to them the Father hasset by His own authority, but
you will receive power when theHoly Spirit comes on you, and
you will be my witnesses inJerusalem and in all Judea and

(12:10):
Samaria and to the ends of theearth.
After he said this, he wastaken up before their very eyes
and a cloud hid Him from theirsight.

So this piece of text is what we would call the
ascension of Christ, and it kindof, you know, we're about to
get into, um you know, theseason of, of of the
resurrection right.
Um, I refuse as much aspossible to use the word Easter.
I hate Easter, the term, it's,it's, it is where does the term

(12:44):
come from?
It's a derivative of the goddessAstaroth, which is one of the
goddesses that the Philistinesworship that God actively tries
to destroy.
That you read in the Bible.
Right, it was a thing of Rometrying to unite Christians when
that became politicallyprominent yeah.

(13:07):
But you also had this.
It was like 50-50, right, likehow do I unite an empire who is,
you know, a lot of Christiansand Jews?
Yeah, and then you got you knowthe pagan beliefs and that's
why they meshed and mergedcertain festivals together
Christmas is the same way withwinter solstice and things like
that, but I Easter is, I call itresurrection day or the feast

(13:30):
of first fruits, like I, just soeverybody knows that's my thing
I'm not saying.

Imran (13:34):
you call it Easter, you're going to hell.

I'm just saying for me, I just but my point is, but
the feast of first fruits wasan actual Jewish that was the
actual Jewish holiday right.

Imran (13:42):
He was resurrected on the feast of first fruit, right
that's why Paul calls him thefirst fruits of the resurrected.
And that's why it ends up beinga double Sabbath.
Right when we talked about oneof the earlier episodes, it had
always been that.

Yeah, the reason they went to the tomb when they
did was because that was thefirst day after the Sabbath that
they were able to actually dothe death rites right.
So my point is that we're goinginto the season and we talk a
lot, right A lot about thecrucifixion and resurrection of
Christ rightfully so, of course.

(14:14):
Christmas season we talk a lotabout the birth right, the
incarnation, but you very rarelyever hear anybody talk about
the ascension.
And I feel like I mean, if youthink about what, what did that
just say there in verse nine?
So after he said these words,this was the last thing he said.
It says he was taken up beforetheir very eyes and a cloud hid

(14:35):
him from their sight.
If you were to keep reading inverse 10, it says so.
They were looking intently upinto the sky as he was going
when suddenly two men dressed inwhite stood beside them men of
Galilee.
They said why do you stand herelooking into the sky?
The same Jesus who has beentaken from you into heaven will
come back in the same way youhave seen him go into heaven.
This is an incredible event.

Imran (14:56):
Yeah.

All right, this was an absolutely like, if the
resurrection wasn't enough,right them to see.
This is absolutely incredible.
You actually see, like in, forexample, peter's writings, like
in 1 Peter you see him referencethis multiple times Like the
Ascension had a massive impacton not just the 12, not just

(15:23):
those closest to him, but it hada massive impact on everybody
who saw it.
This was obviously verysignificant and it's called the
ascension, right, the ascensionof Christ.
Well, all that plays, the wholeidea of ascension and idea of
witness is all playing withinthis common model, is, I guess,
what you would call a?

(15:43):
Um, the Royal dynamic.
I guess you can say so we'regoing to talk through that here
in a second.
But what I want to do is kindof to set that up, to kind of
show how interconnected thesethings are and what things can
teach us.
I want to go back to firstKings and first Kings, chapter
one.
Um, you essentially have arebellion of one of David's sons

(16:09):
.
So, one of David's sons isAdonijah, and this is a
different son.
David had already fought arebellion against his son
Absalom.
This is a different son, andI'll read in verse five it says
now Adonijah, whose mother wasHaggith.
That was another essentiallyGreat name.

(16:31):
That one didn't withstand atest of time.

Imran (16:35):
That one.

English ruined that one forever your old Hag mother
there.

Imran (16:39):
I mean, I bet her nickname was Hag, but all right,
but yeah so one of the other, Iguess concubines of David.

So Adonijah, whose mother was Haggith, put himself
forward and said I will be king.
So he got chariots and horsesready, with 50 men to run ahead
of him.
His father had never rebukedhim by asking why do you behave
as you do?
He was also very handsome andwas born next after Absalom.
Adonijah conferred.

Imran (17:06):
They stopped doing that after.
Like in the New Testament.
There's a couple places in theOld Testament where they refer
to people as, like, handsome ornot good looking and stuff like
that.
We'll talk about it in a second, because let me just finish
this little piece up here Ithink David would reference to
be handsome during the story ofDavid and Goliath.

Sorry, We'll talk about it here.
In a second We'll talk aboutthe handsome man.

Imran (17:26):
What an interesting thing .

Adonijah conferred with Joab, son of Zariah, and
with Abiathar, the priest, andthey gave him their support.
So handsome.
A couple things with this isthat one don't you notice?
It says his father had neverrebuked him by asking why do you
behave as you do?
Meaning that the character ofAdonijah was one of nobody
really like this was a surprise.

(17:48):
Nobody would expect this fromhim.

Imran (17:51):
Is David known as someone who would rebuke his sons?

He fought an entire war against one of his sons.

Imran (17:57):
That's fair, that's pretty rebuking.

So nobody had expected this of Adonijah.
Oh gosh, adonijah, there we go.
But then the next thing it saysis that he was also very
handsome.
Now we can talk about handsomemen.

Imran (18:12):
Dude, I was just surprised that I saw it again.

But if you remember it's kind of a continuation
when we had done?

Imran (18:20):
David and Goliath.

Those couple weeks.
If you remember, saul wasselected because he was tall and
handsome.

Imran (18:25):
You look at and they said David was handsome too.

But not his stature .
Yes, they said his olderbrother was tall and handsome
and I looked at David and he'slike, yes, he was handsome, but
he wasn't tall and big instature.
Yeah.
Right.
So he's kind of like a prettyboy, where a lot of the context
for them is handsome, is is is.
Well, they have the stature,they're tall, they're you know

(18:48):
maybe muscular right.

Selena (18:50):
It's kingly in a sense.

Um, it's somebody that you look at naturally and
say, oh, I want to follow thatguy.
Yeah, right, like that.
That is somebody like causethey're good looking and they
have everything put togetherright.
And nobody had ever rebuked himfor his behavior or nothing,
right?
So it's what this is doingright now is trying to set up, I
guess, why Adonijah had, whythis was a real threat to

(19:18):
Solomon, because David hadpromised Solomon's mother that
Solomon would be king.
So it's, the text is trying toset up that this is a real
threat.
Right, he has good character ora good reputation.
He's good looking.
Right, he's handsome, he's likeyou said.
You know he's royalty, he lookskingly.

(19:40):
And then it says that he wasborn next after Absalom.
One of the reasons Absalom wasraging his war was his rights
that he believed that he had to.
The throne was one that hethought he would do better than
his father, but he would havebeen the next heir before, right
?
Did he kill his first son inthat war?

(20:00):
Yeah, that's a whole otherthing.

Imran (20:03):
It's really interesting.
We go to 2 Samuel, but now thesecond son is actually the
rightful heir because of thatwar.
Yeah, that's a whole notherthing.
Um, it's really interesting togo to second Samuel, but now the
second son is actually therightful heir because of the.
You got it Right.

So it's showing now , even in terms of posture, in
terms of expectation, if youwere to go follow the next, you
know, oldest kind of thing,right.
Yeah.
So, um, and then notice out,says now in Adonijah, conferred
with Joab, son of of Zariah, andwith Abiathar the priest.
So remember, israel wassupposed to be ruled by God and

(20:31):
God alone.
And then they had the time ofjudges and they began asking for
a king.
And they were never meant tohave a king, they were meant to
be ruled by God.
So God said, okay, I mean, ifyou want a king, I'll give you a
king.
They're like no, we choose Saul.
So notice that, the same, youknow.
Go back to the study of Davidand Goliath right, tall,

(20:52):
handsome, has the title, has theprestige.
Right, has the reputation, allof that of the.
Remember what it says back in 1Samuel 19, or, I'm sorry, not 1
Samuel 17,.
Men look at the outwardappearance, but God looks at the
heart, right, so?
But it's saying that this is areal threat and it shows there

(21:15):
was supposed to be a king.
And then with the king, you hadthe high priest and they were
supposed to kind of governtogether.
So, abiathar the priest, who wasa well-known priest.
So now it's showing a cabinet.
Not only does Adonijah havelike credentials, but now he has
a posse with him to include hishigh priest right, you notice

(21:36):
that he's built that dynamic duoRight.
This is a political play.
And he says and they gave themtheir support.
And he says and they gave themtheir support.
You also find in verse 19, hesaid he also invited all his
other brothers, the king's sons,all the royal officials of
Judah, but he did not inviteNathan, the prophet, or Benaniah
or special guard, or hisbrother Solomon.

Imran (21:57):
I have a question.
Is it explained earlier whyDavid's like hated by his kids
right now?

Not this one in particular.
That's kind of the point of thestory.
What's shocking about it isthat this came out of nowhere,
but this story is more anchoredaround Solomon than it is David,
so we'll kind of lead to it,right, which is really more
going to point us to Christ,right, which?
is kind of the primary point ofit.
But notice, he also invited allhis other brothers, the king's

(22:28):
sons, all the other royalofficials of Judah.
He did not invite Nathan theprophet, who was the high priest
at that time, benaniah, or thespecial guard, you know, the one
to protect the king, or hisbrother, solomon, right.
So in other words, in the verybeginning, you see that Adonijah
says I'm going to be king,declares himself king, gets

(22:50):
chariots and horses and 50 mento run ahead of him, which is
important.
Later, then he gets the supportof all the royal officials, all
the other brothers of David orsons of David.
He has his high priest right.
And then there's a few that hehad left out Nathan the prophet,

(23:12):
benaniah, the special guard andSolomon.
Okay, but then we were.
So that's all the support forAdonijah.
Okay, they didn't get toSolomon.
It says but Zadok the priestBenaniah, son of Jehoiada,
nathan the prophet Shimei.
It says but Zadok the priestBenaniah, son of Jehoiada,
nathan the prophet, shimei andRay and David's special guard
did not join Adonijah.
So most of those are expected,except for Shimei.

(23:34):
If you guys remember who Shimeiwas, this was like David's
political rival his entire life.

Imran (23:41):
And there's this point to which Shimei, is he blood or
he's just like another dude?

He's another dude, but a dude of reputation.
So when Absalom was rebellingagainst David, there's a lot of
things going wrong for David inthe kingdom.
Shimei is the one who wasfollowing along David's caravan
and was throwing rocks at him,cursing him, and his mighty men
say was throwing rocks at him,oh no, Cursing him.
And his mighty men say let usgo strike him down now for

(24:09):
treating the king this way.
And we talked about this allthe way back, actually, in the
episode we did on Esther.

Imran (24:15):
Okay.

The OG of the OT.
We talk about this storybecause he gives a command.
He says for as long as I live,shimei lives, so that maybe God
will restore back to me favorand blessing and grace.
So he made a covenant that hewould never kill Shimei, no
matter how shameful.
So what's interesting here isthat Shimei did not go against

(24:40):
David.
It's a very interesting.
It's kind of a surprise as well.
We'll talk more about it herein a second.
But where I always did not gowith Adonijah, he did not go
against Solomon, so he backedSolomon at the very least.
Other support, you see, forSolomon verse 28, it says King
David said to call him Bathsheba, who was the mother of Solomon.

(25:02):
So she came into the king'spresence and stood before him.
The king then took an oath.
As surely as the Lord lives,who has delivered me out of
every trouble, I will share andcarry out this very day what I
swore to you by the Lord, theGod of Israel Solomon, your son,
shall be king after me and hewill sit on my throne in my
place.
Okay, so David has now swore toBathsheba Solomon will be king.

(25:26):
I will make Solomon king.
We will figure this out.
He will be king.
I understand what they're doing, but he will be king, so skip
to verse 32.
It also says King David thensaid call on Zadok, the priest

(25:53):
Nathan, the prophet Benaniah,son of Jehoiada.
When they came before the king,he said to them Skip to verse
32.
It also says anoint him kingover Israel, blow the trumpet
and shout long live King Solomon.
Then you are to go up with himand he is to come and sit on my
throne and reign in my place,for I have appointed him ruler
over Israel and Judah.
So, in other words, what Davidsaid was I'm going to make

(26:17):
Solomon king today.
Right, to make sure that thishappens, he's going to be made
king today.
So he essentially, if younotice, if you were to go back
to what Adonijah did, david didthe same thing for Solomon Go
get my mule, go get my people,go ahead, blow the trumpets,
make it known, declare longlives right.

(26:38):
So, he's doing the exact samething.
Just keep in mind what both ofthose are, because those are
going to feed into what we'retalking about.
Okay, so let's talk about theoutcome.
Verse 49 at this, all of it.
So when Adonijah and all hisguests and all the people who
had aligned with him heard aboutwhat David had done for Solomon
, how he had pushed them through, blew the trumpets how he came

(27:01):
in and started sitting on thethrone Right, yeah trumpets how
he came in and started sittingon the throne right Now.
I want you to kind of notice theemotion in this.
At this, all of Adonijah'sguests rose in alarm and
dispersed, but Adonijah, in fearof Solomon, went and took hold
of the horns of the altar.
Oh no, so essentially what youhave is this game of thrones
situation.

(27:21):
Right, Adonijah is trying toseize the throne for himself
outside of Solomon.
David keeps his covenant withBathsheba and makes Solomon king
and makes sure he falls throughby ascending him up to his
throne right At that particularpoint, because David's still
alive and he was on his own muleand his own throne.
Right, he understands that,publicly speaking, it was very

(27:43):
clearly communicated to thepeople who David's choice was
right Before he died.
So now Adonijah, realizing he'sessentially lost the political
battle, right, he gets afraid.
So what's the outcome foreverybody who aligned themselves
with Adonijah?
Let's talk about Adonijah first.

Imran (28:00):
And this is without one arrow being slung, well, not yet
.

Well, we'll get to it in a second.
So chapter 2, verse 24.
So now, as surely as the Lordlives, he who has established me
securely on the throne of myfather, david this is Solomon
speaking has founded a dynastyfor me.
As he promised, adonijah shallbe put to death today.
So King Solomon gave orders toBenaniah, son of Jehoiada

(28:26):
Remember now, notice who thatwas right, that was one of the
ones who remained loyal toSolomon in that time, and he
struck down Adonijah and he died.
Okay, so how did this turn outfor Adonijah, his brother, who
tried to ascend the throne aheadof Solomon?
Right, solomon gets declaredking Solomon, you're done.
Kills him.
That's right.
Solomon gets declared kingSolomon, you're done.
Kills him.

Imran (28:45):
Abiathar the priest so just to make sure I'm not
confused Solomon wasn't thefirst one that rebelled.

Solomon didn't rebel.
Solomon was who David put hisblessing on and anointing on to
replace him as king of Israel.

Imran (29:01):
Adonijah was the one who rebelled first, and then Absalom
rebelled first, absalomrebelled first and Adonijah
rebelled second.

There you go.
So the other ones who alignedthemselves with Adonijah,
abiathar the priest, right,who's going to be the new high
priest?
Yeah, to Abiathar the priest,the king said go back to your
fields in Anathoth.
You deserve to die, but I willnot put you to death now because
you carried the ark of thesovereign Lord before my father,
david, and shared.
So essentially, solomon kind ofgives some grace to Abiathar

(29:31):
the priest, even though he hadaligned himself with Adonijah.
He said look, you carry the ark, you serve my father, you
remain loyal to my fatherthrough hard times.
You deserve to die, but I'mgoing to let you live.
And then you got Joab.
Now, when the news reached Joab,who had conspired with Adonijah
I'm sorry, this is verse 28.
When the reached Joab, who hadconspired with Adonijah I'm
sorry, this is verse 28.
When the news reached Joab, whohad conspired with Adonijah,

(29:53):
though not with Absalom, right?
So he didn't conspire withAbsalom in his rebellion, but he
did with Adonijah he fled tothe tent of the Lord Because,
remember, the temple hadn't beenbuilt yet.
Solomon's temple has not beenbuilt.
Solomon was just made king.
So you still have thetabernacle, right.
So the tent of the Lord, thetabernacle.
So you fled to the tent of theLord and took hold of the horns
of the altar.

(30:14):
King Solomon was told that Joabhad fled to the tent of the Lord
and was beside the altar, andSolomon ordered Benaniah, son of
Jehoiada, go strike him down.
And then in verse 34, there'sthis whole drama in between of
trying to get him out of thetabernacle, essentially, but in
verse 34, he eventually getskilled.
Okay, so the whole point ofgoing through all this, this
entire story, right Kind of howI started.

(30:35):
How does this make me closer toGod?

Selena (30:38):
Yeah, Like this is a lot of drama, Like this is very
dramatic, Would make for a great, you know.

Imran (30:44):
HBO series.
Hbo would take this and runwith how have they not done more
Bible, more Old Testament, hbo,what?

does this do for me In terms of drawing me closer
to Christ and to understand whatis going on here?
And understanding that modelhelps us understand what Christ
tells us later in Acts 1.
So let's kind of talk about thedifferent elements of what we
just read.
Okay, now that we have acontext, a non-Christ context,

(31:16):
right Within this royal dynamicyou had really I mean there was
multiple things, but fourprimary ones.
Okay, the first royal dynamicwas what you called the
ascension, so for somebody toascend their throne, to ascend
the throne, or I guess you wouldmaybe call it the coronation.

Imran (31:35):
Okay, man, that made me think of Frozen Sorry.

The coronation.
The coronation ceremony forFrozen 1.

Imran (31:41):
Yeah Well, whenever you need a, I was like oh, I know
exactly what that is.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, thanks,Disney.
Well, whatever you need to.
I was like oh, I know exactlywhat that is.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah.

So the Ascension or the, the coronation right, like
um who's the King Charles ofEngland?

Imran (31:58):
It's like the formal declaration right this person.

So when you look in Acts, chapter one, about the
ascension of Christ, what isChrist doing in that?
Why is it the ascension?
What's?

Imran (32:12):
he ascending, he's physically ascending to his
throne.

He's ascending to his throne.
Okay, it's a royal idea.
He is ascending to his throne.
Jesus is the crowned king, One.
Just like how David had thrownhis support and validation over
Solomon.
Right, God has thrown hissupport and validation over
Solomon.
Right, God has thrown hissupport and validation over
Christ.
He is going to be king.
Does that make sense?
This man is who my choice is.

(32:35):
Now there's going to be a lotof rebellion in the world.
There's going to be a lot ofpeople who claim and try to be
king, but God says my support isaround Jesus of Nazareth.
He is going to be king, right.
So that's the ascension.
The second element of thisdynamic is what you would call
the announcement.
So when a king had ascended histhrone, what he would do is he

(32:57):
would send out witnesses toannounce and proclaim the king's
ascension.
Okay, so generally, when wetalk about these witnesses, they
were really first given to thehigh officials in cities.
So think about it going out togovernors and senators and the
mayors, right, Like they wouldreceive.

(33:19):
Like, hey, so-and-so is nowking, is now emperor of Rome,
right, and they would take thatand they would have their people
and say, hey, go announce inthe streets that Tiberius has
ascended his throne, so is thiswhat Israel was trying to do
when Jesus rode on the donkey.

(33:43):
That's more of a messianic playout of Zechariah, Because I know
he talks about going on themule right, but that does have
kingly hints in it, though rightFor the same reason.
It was a messianic prophecythat the suffering servant would
enter in on the mule.

(34:04):
But it is kind of, in a senseit's coronation, in a way that
then that's Palm Sunday right'scoronation in a way, um that
then that's Palm Sunday right.
And then he gets killed, right,which is?
We'll talk about all that CauseI think a lot of your, your,
your minds are already startingto see some things right Cause,
um, but, but I want to focus onright here, though, is the
announcement piece that when aKing ascends, he chooses

(34:28):
witnesses to go ahead of him toannounce his ascension.

Imran (34:31):
Yeah, okay, yeah, cause it's.
The episode is not necessarilyabout the ascension of Christ,
it's about now we're gettinginto the witness themselves.

Like okay, so what are?
What is the responsibility?
You are to go be my witnesses.

Imran (34:43):
Yeah, what does that responsibility actually mean?

So now we're there you go Right.
So now you get Christ as he'sascending his throne and he's
now sending his witnesses out.

Imran (34:53):
right and the job of the witness you will be my witness,
and now we go into the job.

And what was the job that the witness was to have
?

Imran (34:59):
And it's very simple Declare Go tell it on the
mountain Right, go, declareChrist as king.

And everywhere.
That was the message that JesusChrist is Lord Right.
That's the message To be awitness.
On its most simple front andwithin this formulation is you
are to go proclaim to Judea,samaria, to the ends of the
earth Christ has ascended Histhrone, christ is King.

Imran (35:27):
Okay Dang that kind of already flies into the face of
what we said.
What it means to be a witnessis because, if the primary
purpose is to be theproclamation, if you're just
trying to live your life acertain way, you're only going
to proclaim if someone asks youoh well, why do you live your

(35:47):
life a certain way?
It's like, well, I'm glad youwere asked and you bring up
Christ that way, which for somepeople that's like what it might
be necessary for where you arein your spiritual journey.

Selena (35:56):
But if you truly believe , like your Lord is Lord, then
you would act that way.

Imran (36:02):
Correct.
But to go out and proclaim is adifferent thing, like if your
job is to go out and proclaim.
Your job isn't to just go outand wear a t-shirt and hope
someone asks about it.
Your job is to go out, you know, open the scroll and declare
the Lord is coming, you know.

Selena (36:17):
That's why you send processionals first.

Imran (36:19):
It's an inversion right.

So it's an inversion of how we described it
, how me and Selena described it.
So what we do to say, live alife that people ask questions
about, so then you can haveconversations.
What this is saying is actuallythe opposite.
It's not that you wait forpeople to ask you you're
supposed to go proclaim it.
Even if you haven't gotten yourlife together yet.

(36:41):
And then when they ask you um,let's talk about this, because
it kind of goes into the pointthree, so we may hit this again.
Um, but since we're focusedhere within the story this is
why we went over this story youhave Adonijah declaring himself
king and you have Solomon, whowas like I thought I was
supposed to be king, and Davidthrowing his support right.
So you got David right and youhave Adonijah.

(37:05):
So you have two options.
You have a king right To be aking, for you to go be the and
notice what it says withAdonijah right.

Imran (37:16):
Sorry, did you mean Solomon and Adonijah?
Two options to be king?
Yes, what did I say?
He said David.
Oh, I'm sorry, david's the onethat's currently king.
Solomon and Adonijah.

But remember what it says, though, here about
Adonijah, verse five again inchapter one Adonijah, whose
mother was Haggith, put himselfforward and said I will be king.
So he got chariots and horsesready, with 50 men to run ahead
of him.
Why are these 50 men running?

Imran (37:42):
ahead of him.
What are they proclaiming?
They're the witnesses.

They're running ahead of him proclaiming
Adonijah is king right.
So the point is is that there'salways going to?
There was always, there wasalways any time a king, a new
king came up.
It was very rarely, actuallyever, a peaceful transition.

Imran (37:58):
Yeah.

There was always people trying to make claim to a
throne, trying to usurp rightso that's an existence, right?
So the idea that you go out andyou say, no, christ is king,
well, they're going to be like,because they have people they
put their support behind.
Why is Christ king?
And then that gets into theelement of what you guys are
talking about.
Why is Christ king?

(38:19):
Why are you?

Imran (38:20):
because you had to make a choice.

You had to align yourself.
Who do you support?
Adonijah or Solomon?
Who do you support Christ orthe kings of the world?
Right, and the idea is, whenyou declare, proclaim Christ as
king, as a witness, then they'relike well, why are you putting
your support behind Christ asking?
Well, let me tell you what hedid for me, and that's when the
testimony comes in.
Right, but I think, a freeingthing about this.

(38:45):
The job was not to argue orconvince people.
It was to proclaim it was justto go say it, go proclaim the
reality Christ has taken histhrone.

Imran (38:58):
Christ is king.

You just proclaim the reality.
I don't need to have a PhD inapologetics to try to convince
you of why that is.
I should be prepared to giveyou a reason and an answer, as
it says in first Peter three,16,.
Always be prepared to give ananswer for the hope that you
hold right.
Like so, you should always beprepared to give an answer of
why you put your allegiancebehind Christ.

(39:21):
But when it comes at the end ofthe day, we put more burden on
ourselves than we need to.
We think I have the job solelylike I'm going to mess this up
If I start talking to thisperson and they're just kind of
like dude, you're crazy, you'reone of those weird Jesus freaks,
like get away from me.
And you're like I'm really badat this witness thing.

(39:45):
I can't, I shouldn't be doingthis Right, I just messed up
eternity forever for this guy.
Cause I couldn't do right andit's like no, that is not on us.
Yeah, that is not on us.
We are to be the ones who justproclaim the reality, and this
is, I think, was, also veryinteresting.

Imran (40:02):
I wanted to highlight the um, the.
The phrase uh, don't shoot thewitness.
I.
The phrase uh don't shoot thewitness I think is funny, Cause
we often hit that phrase butit's like it's not saying don't
shoot the person who sawsomething happen.
Right that was for is don'tshoot the person going out and
proclaiming Right, cause wewould use messengers to go
between kingdoms and and likepass knowledge or make

(40:22):
declarations, stuff like that.
And so when they say don'tshoot the wish with the witness.
It's like if the king sendsforth someone to I don't know
one of their lords and says, hey, make sure you do this thing,
increase your taxes or whatever,you shouldn't kill that person
because they're not the onemaking that decision.
The enforcement mechanism andthe decision maker is that king,
what?

happened to all the witnesses who aligned
themselves with Adonijah when itfailed?
That's why I went through theoutcomes.
What happened to Adonijah?
What happened to Joab?
What happened to all the peoplewho had aligned themselves with
Adonijah?
What did Solomon do?
Well, he killed them.

Imran (40:55):
He killed them so and this gets to like but it's
because it wasn't just a jobthey made the choice to throw
their weight behind that person.

The first thing you need to understand about this
model and dynamic that is actsone is communicating,
particularly with his ascensionis, first and primarily, a
decision.
You have to make a decision ofwho you support as king.
Right, you have to make adecision, just as they had to
make a decision between adinajaand solomon.
You, we, every one of us, has adecision to make.

(41:25):
Who do we declare king to be?
And, just like then, dependingon how you make that decision
has life or death consequences.
Right, you align yourself withthe wrong king.
Right, or the wrong usurper,you're done for right.
That's the context of what ishappening anytime those

(41:48):
ascensions happen.
So you have to make sure,whoever you align yourself, you
better make sure that theyprevail.
Right, which goes into thiswhole purpose.
Right, that we're not toconvince or argue.
You've already made yourdecision.
Now I'm just proclaiming my owndecision.
So it's not even just a realityof hey, christ is King, but
it's also a proclamation ofwhere I stand.

(42:10):
It's a proclamation of myloyalty.
So this, when we start what youwere talking about earlier,
selena, well, how you live yourlife, how you speak, right, all
those elements it is aproclamation, with your life as
a witness of one, that Christ isKing.
Well, why is Christ King?
Well, I'll give you a reason.
But you also see where myloyalty is and my decision and

(42:33):
how I live my life and what myKing tells me, because the world
may have a lot of problems withChristians and some of them
even have a hard time with Jesus, um, but mostly everybody, at
this point at least in theWestern world, have an
understanding and expectation ofwhat it means for Christ to be
king over someone's life, andthey're very quick to very

(42:55):
quickly understand and realizewhen you're not acting according
to the commands of your king.
Right, like, what do you mean?
Christ is king and why are youover here in a strip club?
All right, they know they'revery well astute of that, right.
So when it talks about bearingwitness in your life, it's still
a valid thing, because you arestill proclaiming yeah, right.

(43:18):
The only way that's not thecase is that, if you then don't
be what he told you to be, whichis a witness, you say, well,
I'm not going to proclaim it atall.
So now my wife may not behaving a negative impact on on
the gospel, because I'm also nownot doing what God told me to

(43:38):
do, which is proclaim thereality that he's King.
So, either way, you're beingdisobedient, you're not doing
what he told you to be as awitness or, in you know, living
poorly, or you are, by livingpoorly, providing negative
witness to that fact.
Right so, right.
So you have the witnesses thatwould go out ahead and make
their proclamation, but there'sthese three kind of other

(44:00):
elements here that are at play.
The next element of this royaldynamic is, I guess, what you
would call the establishment.
This is the establishment ofthe throne.
This is once somebody had kindof clearly been understood nope,
they're king, right.
In this particular case, it wasSolomon.
David threw his support behind,did all he needed to to make

(44:21):
sure he propped up Solomon.
So there was no doubt in theminds of the people.
Well, the very next thingSolomon does is he has to
establish his throne.
So he ascended it, he sat onthe throne, but now he has to
establish his throne, and theestablishing it could tend to be
a little bloody right.
That meant that you had to ridthe kingdom of all potential
rivals and destroy anyone whohad pledged loyalty to a

(44:44):
different usurper.
You're cleaning house, right,adonijah?
You stood against me.
You knew what the promise was.
You knew it was supposed to bemine.
You try to usurp it, you, you.
You lost, but now you'reobviously a threat.

Imran (44:58):
You're done.

Yeah, right.
So you could almost put it interms of biblical terms the
establishment of the throne.
Um, it's, in a sense, it'salmost like what Christ is doing
now up until judgment day.
It is defeating the world ofrivals to establish his throne

(45:20):
properly.
And then there's a decisivepoint in time, just as there
came for every one of the men inthis story that they found
death right.
He was patient, though, don'tyou notice, in Solomon's in
particular?
In terms of his establishment,he had shown mercy while also
showing justice, right.

(45:40):
So, as judgment day will be, wewill fully understand God's
justice and God's grace andmercy on that same day.
If you aligned your loyalty toChrist, you're going to be
glorified with him.
If you stood against him andyou never made that decision to
declare him king, you're goingto have that same fate, right?

(46:02):
It's kind of the model thatit's showing.
So you have the establishment.
Now, those three things are kindof.
What's operating over the topof that is this other concept
called the parousia, okay, whichis a royal term, and what that
meant was the coming or thepresence of the king Parousia,

(46:24):
once your throne, once youascended your throne or you had
your coronation, that's called.
That would be a parousia.
That is the king, the newlyking, who's ascending his throne
, entering you know, and to goup to the throne, there's the
coming and the presence of thatnew king right in that
coronation.
So the coronation itself is aparousia, right?

(46:46):
So you have, that's its ownthing.
But over the top, is this ideaof a parousia the coming or
presence of a king.
If you've ever seen the movieGladiator, yes.
You know when he returns from.
So he kills his father, marcusAurelius, right, and he's coming
back to Rome and you have allthe people out there with their

(47:07):
throwing flowers and he's in hischariot waving, and that's a
parousia.
Okay, so that that is an ideaof the parousia of the king.
Um, now in the parousia oncethe throne was finally
established, okay, those samewitnesses who had went out and
proclaimed the ascension of theking would then also proclaim

(47:27):
the coming of that king.
In particular, a new king wouldusually tour his kingdom, of
course, right.
As any good leader should Right,he would go around, inspect
what you expect.
Right, and let them know I'mhere, I love you all, right?
Yeah, so he would tour hiskingdom and all the other cities
, and when that would happen inthe parousia of that's, its own

(47:53):
parousia, because, yeah, you hadthe coronation in Rome, but
when you go visit, Athens whathappens there?
Well, it's another parousia,it's the coming and the presence
of the King, right?
So what would happen at aparousia is the most loyal
subjects in that city wouldleave the city, line the roads
for the king as he's enteringinto that city, and they would

(48:13):
kind of fallen behind and marchbehind him as he entered the
city.
So the idea is that you go meetyour king outside the city so
you can enter the city with them.
They would follow himessentially behind him in his
glory.
So, um, and and once thathappened to, by the way, they'd

(48:35):
get into the city.
You would generally have, likethis, really long feast for the
King.
Um, the King would reward hisloyal servants with gifts, and,
um, it was kind of like thischallenge coins, you know yeah
this big party, right, butduring that establishment phase
there'd be like multipleparishes of peoples who would
claim that throne, right?

(48:55):
So which is what you see withAdonijah, and it's what you saw
ultimately with Solomon at theend.
So what Christ is talking abouthere and back to Acts 1, we're
talking about the ascension ofChrist, who's ascending his
throne.
He's sending out his witnessesto the ends of the earth to
proclaim Christ has ascended histhrone.

(49:16):
Within that time, there comesthe establishment with the
message that you need to beprepared for the parousia of
Christ.
The parousia of Christ, inchurch terms, is what we call
his second coming.

Imran (49:32):
I have a few examples here, because he did the
ascension and we are doing theproclamation, and so this
parousia would be the secondcoming in that process.

Right, and that and this and this kind of model,
that that is painted for us inActs, right?
Okay, a couple of examples ofwhen the term parousia is used
in Scripture.
You'll notice they're allpretty much.
There's 24 total in the NewTestament.
It's obvious I'm not going togo through all of them.

Imran (49:56):
So the second coming of Christ is Christ coming to tour
his kingdom.

Essentially.

Imran (50:02):
As in heaven on earth as it is in heaven, and then being
disappointed, destroying it andbuilding a new one, and then
being disappointed destroying itand building a new one, not
being disappointed.

He's not going to be disappointed at anything he's
establishing.

Selena (50:12):
So that's after the announcement, and we're
currently establishing.

He's establishing his throne.

Imran (50:19):
I thought he was coming back taking us.

And he's like do away with this and building the
new earth.
There's different views of whatthat means.
One thing I think is very, veryclear is that we were intended
for earth.
Right, god didn't make amistake by putting us here, for
us to sin and just for them tosave us and just bring them up
there and destroy you.
Right, the whole idea is thatwe had a job here.
So that's why revelation endswith Christ returning to earth

(50:46):
and establishing the new heavenand the new earth right where we
are going to live with him.
So I don't want to go down thatrabbit hole okay, but the big
concept here, with all thoseelements right, you got the
ascension, you got theannouncement, you have the
establishment and then you havethe parousia, right.
So listen to 2 Thessalonians 2,verses 1 through 9.

(51:08):
It says now, concerning theparousia of our Lord Jesus
Christ and our being gathered tohim.
We ask you see how we beinggathered to him.
We ask you, brothers andsisters, not to become easily
unsettled or alarmed by theteaching allegedly from us,

(51:35):
whether by prophecy or by wordof mouth or by letter, asserting
that.
You notice how that's?
Following almost the exact samestory everything that is called
God or his worship, so that hesets himself up in God's temple
proclaiming himself to be God.
You notice how that's?
Following the almost the exactsame story of what you read back

(51:55):
in first Kings, chapter one andtwo.
Right, do not think that theparousia of Christ has already
happened.
He says that they're going tobe other parousias.
Don't let anyone deceive you inany way, for that day will not
come until the rebellion occurs.
Just as a Dineshah rebelled,there'll be a rebellion of the
man of lawlessness.
Until he has revealed the mandoomed for destruction, he will

(52:18):
oppose and exalt himself overeverything that is called God or
his worship, so that he setshimself above up in God's temple
for claiming himself to be God.
Right, what you're talkingabout is dueling.
We have a usurper trying totake Christ's throne.

Selena (52:34):
Yeah, so would that be like the Antichrist that we've
talked about?

I would say it's probably more Satan than
anything working across tryingto declare himself God over God.
He says don't think that theparousia has happened yet.
Christ has not come back againin his parousia.
It won't happen until thisrebellion happens, until Christ
establishes his throne.
Right Is essentially what it'ssaying.
If you were to keep reading, itactually says verse five of 2

(52:59):
Thessalonians 2,.
Don't you remember that when Iwas with you, I used to tell you

(53:23):
these things?
This is Paul speaking anddestroy by the splendor of his
parousia.
The parousia of the lawless onewill be in accordance with how
Satan works.
He will use all sorts ofdisplays of power through signs
and wonders that serve this lie.
So all you're talking about isdueling parousias, just as you
saw here in 1 Kings 1.
But it's putting that same inthe context of the coming of

(53:46):
Christ.
So you have the ascension.
You had him doing, hisestablishment of it, with the
expected parousia of Christ,with we being the witnesses in
between who are just meant to goout and proclaim the reality of
our allegiance.
Christ is my king, right.
Another good example.
This one's not as long, butthis is to the same church in

(54:08):
Thessalonians, but it's 1Thessalonians 4, 15.
Good example this one's not aslong, but this is to the same
church and Thessalonians, butit's first Thessalonians four,
15 through 17.
It says now, according to theLord's word, we tell you that we
who are still alive, who areleft until the first
Thessalonians, what firstThessalonians four.
Four versus 15 through 17, 15through 17.

Imran (54:22):
Yes, yes.

According to the Lord's word, we tell you that we
who are still alive, who areleft until the parousia of the
Lord, will certainly not proceed, those who have fallen asleep,
for the Lord himself will comedown from heaven with a loud
command and with the voice ofthe archangel and with the
trumpet call of God, and thedead in Christ will rise first.
After that, we who are stillalive in our left will be caught
up together with him in theclouds to meet the Lord in the

(54:51):
air in his parousia.
So if you notice in that oneright there, the same model,
right, notice the loud command,voice of the archangel, the
trumpet call of God, right, justwhat happened when Solomon had
his parousia?
What happened when Solomon hadhis parousia?
David told him go ahead, blowthe trumpet, get all the people

(55:14):
proclaim go, ascend my throne,right, and your parousia, right.
He's describing that parousia.
But then if you also rememberthat's absolutely wild when they
would come into the city, right, what would happen?
What all the loyal subjects do?
They went out to meet.
They went out to meet him andwould follow him behind in his
glory.
For that parousia, right.
What does he describe righthere for us?

Imran (55:33):
There's going to be an announcement, the loud shout,
the dead will rise.

And then it says after that we who are still
alive or in you know for theanalogy essentially in the city,
will be caught up together withhim in the clouds.
So the city is the earth.
So to meet him in the air as hecomes into Right to go meet him

(55:57):
up there to return with him inhis glory, for his parousia, for
his coming right.
So that's kind of like thelarger concept, right?
So you see this play across in1 and 2 Kings, or 1 Kings, 1 and
2, and how this kind of appliesto this identity that Christ
has given us.
So let's just kind of peel thatback right.
We already had talked about oneof the things that identity

(56:17):
gives us is a decision, right?
So when you got multipleparousias, multiple claims to
the throne, who do you alignwith to the throne?
Who do you align with?
And a lot of people, I thinkthey don't put it in these terms
, obviously, because we don'ttalk in these terms anymore, but
what you see, practicallypeople do, they align themselves

(56:39):
to politicians.
You see, people align themselvesto cultural issues to money, to
.

Selena (56:47):
Ourselves.

And that was the other one that pride ourselves.
Well, no.
I'm not with any of those.
It's like well, if you have notdeclared crisis King and you
haven't declared anybody else asKing, that's probably because
you are declaring yourself King.

Imran (57:00):
Yeah, it's like atheism.
Atheism isn't real, causethere's something's your God in
your life, right.
Something's your God in yourlife.
It's either you're your God inyour life money, a politician,
like you said, or something else, but something is a God in your
life, right.
And so by saying you're anatheist, you're just saying
you're following something else.

But right, an atheist would say you're an
atheist too right?
You just you reject all other720 gods that are in the
encyclopedia.
You just follow one.
Right, like the point is is inthis construct is you have to
choose.
You have to choose who yourking is, and that decision is a

(57:38):
life or death decision.

Imran (57:41):
So there's no choice.

There's no choice.
Right, you have to alignyourself, you have to have
allegiance to somebody andsomething, and you do.
There's somebody or somethingyou serve.

Imran (57:50):
Yeah.

Right and um.

Imran (57:53):
you know, we were just even talking and if it's you,
then you know that sucks, causeyou're probably like we're not
that great.
No, yeah, you probablyshouldn't just be serving
yourself.

That's kind of.
That's also why most peoplearen't following you Like you
know what I?
Mean Like it's like you'renobody else's King.
Um, cause you ain't that great,right, you're just great to you
.
Um, but the, the mirror says Ilook great.
We were talking.
I'm a handsome um you know, youguys were talking on the podcast

(58:22):
about Nicodemus and, um, whatit means to be born again, which
was really good, Right, I wastelling you guys before how
blessed I was by having themcome in and do that, but one of
the interesting things that Iwas telling you about is a story
from the Talmud aboutNicodemus' daughter and that
Rabbi Yohanan, who was kind of acontemporary and also a rival

(58:44):
of Jesus in his day.
Like the Gospel of Matthew waswritten probably largely as an
antithesis to a lot of theteachings of rabbi Yohanan.
So in the Babylonian Talmud ittells a story of rabbi Yohanan
who's leaving a city and, um, Iknow you guys already heard this
, but it was just.
This is a good example, right.

Imran (59:03):
I didn't.

But uh, the rabbi Yohanan's leaving a city and he
sees the daughter of Nicodemusgoing behind and picking out
straw from the dung of horsesand cows so she can eat.
And this catches him bysurprise because he said wasn't
rabbi Nicodemus very generousand benevolent?
Like why are you here beggingand pulling straw out of poop to

(59:28):
eat?
And they ask him where's yourfather's wealth?
And she's like, well, you herebegging and pulling straw out of
poop to eat.
And they ask him where's yourfather's wealth?
And she's like, well, you justplease help me.
And he says well, hold onSeriously where's your father's
wealth?

Imran (59:36):
What?

happened to your father's wealth, because
somewhere else in the Talmud italso describes Nicodemus as
being one of the three richestmen in all of Israel in that
time.
Right, so what happened to yourfather's wealth?
And her response, I think, isreally cool.
She says his new master came inand destroyed his last master.
Yeah, essentially, what doesthat mean?

(59:57):
Right, and if it's the sameNicodemus we're thinking of, I
think it indicates thatNicodemus, his new master,
christ, came in and destroyedhis last master, which was money
.
You have to make a choice.
Right, you have to alignyourself to somebody, because
Christ will establish his throne.
Right, he's already reigning onhis throne, he's already

(01:00:20):
ascended his throne, he'salready up there, but the
establishment is still there.
You still have rebellion.
You still have multipleparousas going on of glory of no
, I'm king, no, I'm king, I'mking, and one day he's going to
put it all to death.

Imran (01:00:35):
He's going to say all right.

Pastor Ryan (01:00:36):
Yeah, I'm sorry.

Imran (01:00:38):
Islam, muhammad Nope that's not it, buddha, nope,
that's not it.

He's going to put to death any rivals and it's
going to be very clear he'sgoing to establish his throne on
that day.
And where you align yourselfmatters right.

Imran (01:00:50):
Yeah, I think that that's a perfect antithesis story to
when Jesus is asked by the richyoung ruler what he must do to
get into the kingdom or to winfavor with God, and Jesus says
you know, sell all you have andfollow me.
And in the opposite ofNicodemus, that rich young ruler

(01:01:11):
doesn't do it.
He can't separate from thattrue God in his life which is
his money, and he walks away.
So it's awesome to see that theopposite is there for Nicodemus
, where he does allow his firstGod to be destroyed so he can
follow Christ.
He does allow his first God tobe destroyed so he can follow
Christ.

You know, we had, we were up at youth camp.
We had I took, I took them upto this.
They call it an inspirationpoint.
It was after, I think, ourmorning chapel on Saturday.
I bring them out there.
I wanted them to go do about ahalf hour personal reflection
time.
So I'm like, go find a nicespot on the mountain, you're
just going to reflect.
You have a journal, reflect onyou, right, really, what's wrong

(01:01:52):
with you?
No, but just like last year, abig storm hit week after leaving
.
Uh so we barely missed it, butno, so it was actually pretty
nice.
But so they're out there, andbut leading into that, I brought
them all kind of in.
I said one of the things Jesustalks about is that before you

(01:02:12):
make the decision to follow him,you need to count the cost.
He said you will look veryfoolish, Like he's, like you
don't build a house, right, andnot count the cost of building
the house first, so that youjust kind of like I'm going to
build a house and start buildinga house and you're like.
You're just kind of like I'mgoing to build a house and start
building a house and you'relike you're half finished.
Now you look really foolish,right, he says don't follow me
and not be able to finish right,Count the cost of what this

(01:02:35):
means.
On the inverse of that, though,and what I kind of posed to them
, I said but nobody ever countsthe cost of sin either.
So there's times where we likemake decisions that I don't want
to submit or be obedient tothat thing, yeah and you, but we

(01:02:55):
never measure the cost of that,right, Like it does.
Is that one night out with theboys or is that?
Um, you know that it ispornography right, Like whatever
it is does?
Is that worth costing you yourmarriage right?
Not being able to see your kidsevery day, putting your kids

(01:03:16):
through a divorce?
Mom, live them somewhere.
Dad, live another one.
You're paying alimony, You'resplitting.
You know weekends and you knowwhat I mean Is.
Have you measured that cost ofjust to have this one fun night?
Do you ever count that cost ofsin as well?
And I think for us, the decisionis I need to count the cost of

(01:03:37):
who I put my allegiance into asking, and Christ offers us far
more than any king on this earthcan offer to include money, far
more than any king on thisearth can offer to include money
.
Because ultimately, one day,all those billionaires that you
look up and you envy and you'relike, oh, I wish I had that jet
and I had that yacht and I hadthe freedom, the financial

(01:03:57):
freedom, just to go you knowwhat I mean.
All those people will die.
They will all die someday and Idon't know where they're going
to land on things, but I do knowthat wherever they land is
going to be the same point thatI land when I die.
Right, we're going to go standbefore the same Lord, and that's
really what matters.
And what he offers me in myallegiance and decision towards

(01:04:20):
him offers me far more than justthis life, but what extends
beyond it, Right?
So we have to make a decision.
So the idea of you are to go bemy witnesses assumes you've
already made a decision ofloyalty.
The second thing it also offered, though, is understanding the
purpose of the proclamationright, which is that we are to
go proclaim it.
Well, Christ is King.

(01:04:42):
Your biggest problem in yourlife is you, and the solution
you need is Christ, and we needto proclaim the kingship of
Christ.
Proclaim Christ as king.
You don't need to argue withanybody, you don't need to
convince anybody, you don't needto go I guess I'd get a PhD in
apologetics at some Christianuniversity Just go, proclaim the

(01:05:04):
reality, have a reason of whyyou've put your allegiance there
.
But you know, in John 15, thiswill be even more freeing if it
hasn't been communicated enoughyet the burden of bearing
witness to the glory of Christisn't even ours.
He tells us that we're to bethe witnesses to proclaim the

(01:05:25):
message that he is king, but theactual bearing witness of
christ's glory in this world isnot even ours.
You know who.
He assigns it to the holyspirit.
It's the holy spirit's job,right?
So just as christ wouldn'tentrust us to our own salvation
right, because if I could savemyself I'd probably lose it.

(01:05:46):
Right?
And if I can't save myself, andI certainly couldn't keep it?
Right.
And the gospel of John inparticular, it all surrounds the
glory of, or the hour ofglorification, the glory of
Christ being the cross.
He didn't entrust that to us.
So then why would he entrustthe witness of his glory to us?
He says no, no, no, no.
All that's anchored on me.

(01:06:07):
I will make sure I bear witnessof my own glory.
So in John 15, he tells us thatresponsibility has been given
to the Holy Spirit.
So if you look back at the verybeginning in Acts 1, right
Verse 7, he said to them it'snot for you to know the times or
dates the Father has set by hisown authority.

(01:06:27):
He's talking about his parousia.
But you will receive power whenthe Holy Spirit comes on you,
and then you will go be mywitnesses to Jerusalem.
You notice that, yeah.
So the responsibilities withthe Spirit, we're only able to
even do the job of being thewitnesses to proclaim His
kingship through the power ofthe Spirit.

(01:06:48):
Right so, you can't fail, rightyou really can't.

Selena (01:06:53):
There's nothing.

Imran (01:06:54):
It's not on you.

Yeah, it's not on you, it's not your
responsibility.
God accounted for yourstupidity before he saved you
and before he called you right.
He knew what your strengthswere.
He knew what your weaknessesare.
He knows what makes youuncomfortable and makes you
comfortable.
He knows your story, he knowseverything about that and he
accounted for all that.
You can't mess this up, yeah,but but I feel rejected.

(01:07:17):
People reject me when I bringit up sometimes.
Yeah, probably you don'tunderstand that their initial
response to you is not the samething as what they actually
received, and maybe theirresponse to you is so aggressive
because you actually penetrateddeeply.

Imran (01:07:30):
Yeah, now you got them convicted.
You know what I'm saying.

Like you don't know any of that, but it's not your
job to know any of that, becauseit's not also not your
responsibility.
But the spirit knows what'sgoing on.
Yeah, Some will plant the seed,some will water the seed.

Imran (01:07:43):
Some will plant the seed, some will water the seed, some
will harvest.

Some will harvest, but that is not our
responsibility.

Imran (01:07:46):
Yeah.

So you can't fail at this mission.
I think that's one of thecoolest things about this
identity and this mission thathe gives.
He says just be faithful to doit.

Imran (01:07:56):
Yeah.

But you can't fail at it Like you can't.
You're not going to offset thecourse of eternity because you
said the wrong thing or in thewrong time.
Right, he's accounted for itall.
That's not your burden to carry.
He loves you, but we are notgood enough to bear the

(01:08:18):
responsibility of bearingwitness to Christ's glory.
We're to be vessels of theSpirit.
That's why the Holy spirit willcome upon you.
You will receive power and thenyou will go be my witnesses.
Yeah right, um, because thespirit is the one who actually
has the um is the one who'scharged with the glorification.
I just also want to just kindof say like um to this whole

(01:08:44):
point about like the ascensionitself.
By the way, um Peter says thisin second Peter one 16,.
He says we do not believe infancy fables, but we are
eyewitnesses to his majesty.

Imran (01:08:57):
Yeah.

Right, like he see, they saw a resurrected Jesus.
They see the resurrected Jesusascend.
They were there at Pentecost.
They saw the resurrected Jesusascend.
They were there at Pentecost.
They saw the miracles.
We are eyewitnesses to themajesty of Christ.
This isn't some weird fable.
We're not talking about Greekmythology with this.
This is something that weourselves saw with our own eyes,

(01:09:20):
and he's writing this to acommunity of people who are like
, yeah, I saw it with my owneyes too.

Imran (01:09:24):
It's like my mom saw that my mom was the one healed you
know, it's like all of thatstuff happened.

But that's why the point of scripture is to reveal
Christ's glory to the church,and the point of the church is
to reveal Christ's glory to theworld.

Selena (01:09:38):
Yeah.

Right, but that both of that is done through the
powering of the spirit.
I think that's another thing.
Just kind of just make a littlepoint with that.
Sure, when you read your Bible,understand the point of reading
your Bible is for the spirit toreveal God's glory to you.
Yeah, like we, we, we, I thinksometimes we, we start reading

(01:09:59):
and we're like you know, um, Ihad a really bad day at work or
I'm having, you know, troublewith my love, life and
relationships and we startreading it for a very specific.
The point of scripture is toreveal God's glory to you so you
can go reveal his glory to theworld, to be eyewitness, to be

(01:10:19):
witnesses to the fact that he isking.
But I think, on just this lastpoint with it, okay, I think the
other thing that this identitygives us in knowing all that,
when you kind of bring it incollectively, is that we are
highly honored in that selection.
We kind of miss it, right, butthe witnesses that were selected

(01:10:39):
by the king, do you rememberwho they were?
The high court officials.
These were people of like greatauthority, great value, right,
like they weren't just giving itto anybody.
So the idea that he comes to usand says you are to be my
witnesses to my glory, you're tobe the witnesses to my

(01:11:00):
ascension to the throne, is abig deal.
It would have been a really bigdeal to them, like none of
these people, that he says thatto the fishermen, right, like
the tax collectors.
You know the the former umprostitutes.
None of them would have everconceivably been selected to be
the witness to a King'sascension within the worldly

(01:11:20):
domain.

Selena (01:11:21):
Yeah.

There's no way you would go to like hey, choose all
the prostitutes and the taxcollectors to go.
Proclaim my ascension.

Imran (01:11:27):
Yeah, that's not how that works.
And also, even if that was thecase, um, it's a Holy spirit
thing to even make thatsuccessful, because people knew
their backstories, like aren'tyou the fishermen, aren't you
that woman of the night?
Aren't you the tax, the taxcollector?
Right, it's like they wouldhave dismissed them at a hand if
it wasn't the spirit workingthrough them.
You know, so it's-.

Well, right, and you see that theme right, like
when we went through the onewith the calling of Peter and
Andrew and James and John, right, yeah, that they see a rabbi
who says come and follow me, theaffirmative rabbinical
statement that you are enough tocome be my disciple that all
those men hadn't heard.

(01:12:10):
Right, they were told theyweren't good enough.
He says no, you're good enoughto come be my disciple.

Imran (01:12:14):
Right, here's another massive affirmation right, and
it's just like You're goodenough to be my witness, right.

It's just this weird paradox.
I love it because we've been.
There's another thing I had.
We had gone through in camp,but it's like the Christ came to
show us we are not as great aswe think we are, and yet we are
much better than we think we are.

Imran (01:12:36):
Yeah.

Right, like he's like you have no idea who you
are.
He's like you are so muchbetter than you think yourself
to be, but you're not what youthink yourself to be.
No, no, no, no.
You ain't God, you ain't Lord,you ain't King of your life, you
ain't good, you ain't that good, right, but you're so much
better than you also believeyourself to be, and you're the
sense of self, uh, deficiency,and you know what I mean.

Imran (01:12:58):
Like I think it's like, um, the the way I'm kind of
hearing you describe it it'slike God's like saying you are
so much less than you think youare on your own, but through me
you are so much more than youcould have ever imagined
yourself to be.
Exactly you know, it's like Iwill carry you so much further
than anyone, even yourself,could have possibly have thought
, but on your own, you you'renot even close.

Peter right, who was one of the ones who you know
was fishing in the Sea ofGalilee, who Jesus had come and
recruited, is now writing in 2Peter 1.16 after the death,
resurrection, ascension andafter Pentecost right, we're
talking like a decade, you know,over decades later.
We do not believe in fancyfables, but our eyewitnesses to

(01:13:40):
his majesty right.

Imran (01:13:40):
Even Saul, who was like he was pretty good on his own
before, god, knocked him downand then and blinded him and
then turned him towards, towardshim, and now became the most
prolific writer in the newTestament and was so much more
than he, probably, than he wouldhave thought he would have been
, instead of just being um apopular rabbis um next in line

(01:14:03):
he then became the most prolificwriter, paul is.

Yeah, I think Paul is actually a really good
example of the fact that inPaul's day Paul is not what Paul
is today in Christianity, rightLike we kind of I would say
almost sometimes improperlyplace Paul higher, like elevate

(01:14:28):
Paul.
Right Like in Paul's day hewasn't prolific.
Peter James, john, like thosewere the pillars.

Imran (01:14:39):
He was very combative with him when we were talking
about the Galatia series, right,and they always had people
coming in behind him undermininghim.

Paul was not that prolific in his day, so all that
time he's suffering, all thetime he's in prison, all the
time that he's frustrating andworking through these churches,
like well, you guys just likestop it.
Right, like the angst he feels,like do I need to come back to
you and correct this?
Right, like all of that isbeing done not from the

(01:15:06):
encouragement of the fact that,like hey, I'm, I'm a rockstar
Christian celebrity and firstcentury Judea or Asia minor or
Greece, right, um, he was justbearing witness.
Right, he's proclaiming thekingship of Christ.
He has no idea the impacts thatthose letters had across

(01:15:27):
humanity, across thousands ofyears since.
Right, he has no idea theimpact that he had just in his
proclamation.

Imran (01:15:35):
Well, maybe in heaven he sees it, Maybe I don't know, but
it wasn't his responsibility.

He's probably not worried about it, right?
The spirit knew what theimpacts Paul would have.

Imran (01:15:45):
Paul didn't know and Paul never really saw it in his life
right the spirit knew what theimpacts Paul would have.

Paul didn't know and Paul never really saw it in
his life, right?

Imran (01:15:50):
Um.
So I see another amazing thing.
It's like, even from a evenfrom a generational perspective,
we do not know how much moreChrist has for us.
It's like we may not even beable to see it in our lifetime,
but our kids, our kids, kids, um, we'll see that.
It's like we may not even beable to see it in our lifetime,
but our kids, our kids' kidswill see that, wow, god really

(01:16:12):
used this person, right.

More than they ever thought they would have used
them, they would have been ableto accomplish on their own.
Yeah, and you never.
We have a hard time ever seeingjust beyond our situation.

Imran (01:16:20):
Yeah.

Right Beyond the breakup.
Which is very human Beyond the.
You know the struggle, thebreakup, which is very human
Beyond the.
You know, um the struggle, andbut, like, if you look back in
time, like I, even like, look atmyself when I was in my early
twenties, it's like I would havenever thought my life is what
it is today.
Um, for the good, though right,Like I would have never if you

(01:16:41):
would have told me when I was Iwas just telling the story we
went to dinner with, you know,Daryl Lackey and Pastor David
last night, Because you know,Daryl preached this morning at
Palms and went to dinner withhim last night.
I was telling him about thefirst time that I'd shown up to
Palms back in 2006.
There's a drunk, hungoverMarine in the far back row,

(01:17:04):
Didn't?
even want to be there because itwas a Baptist church and you
know all those things that.

Selena (01:17:09):
Did Trisha drag you to church?

No, no, no, no.
It was actually a mutual friendof ours who were like hey, we
found this church out in town.
We're going to start going.
I'm like, oh, if it's a Baptistchurch, I don't know.
And they're like you shouldcome.
All right, I'll come with youone week.
And, um, when and like itbecame a big spiritual step in
my life to say all right, mygoal is not to show up hung over

(01:17:31):
a drunk at church tomorrow.
Right yeah.
And he wants to be conscious forthe service, and who would have
thought that you know?
Gosh 20 years later yeah, thatI was being ordained as a pastor
at that same church and I wouldhave never guessed that.
Yeah, you know, god saw it then, right.
So even at the time I'm beatingmyself up, feeling all this
conviction, like I can't believeI'm drunk at church, right,

(01:17:52):
like um, and just getting beatup and beat up, and beat up, and
he's like yeah.

Imran (01:17:57):
And those and those for you that are drunk at church
right now.
God's watching and God's got aAll right.
You know not the plans, and Iknow what that conviction feels
like and just getting beat upand beat up and beat up.
You may be the next pastor.

God also looks at him and says, yeah, like he.
I know he was looking at me.
He's like Ryan, you just wait,yeah, wait, 10 years, you'll see
what I did with you, right andum, and I think that that could
apply to so.
So that's what I'm saying islike get used to the idea One
you do not bear responsibilityfor bearing witness to Christ's

(01:18:30):
glory.
You bear a responsibility tobeing obedient to what the
spirit tells you to do.
That's why, in the wholeGalatians study, it was all
about walking in the spirit.
Right Walk in the spirit.
The spirit will tell you what todo, because the spirit is
someone that has control andauthority over bearing witness

(01:18:50):
to God's glory, right?
So we kind of got off point,though.
On number three, though, is thefact, though, that we are also
highly honored, right, and Ithink what's cool about it is
that the reward of it, so thosewitnesses would go out and
proclaim.
But remember, when the parousiacame right, when the king and

(01:19:12):
his parousia would enter thecity, the loyal subjects and
witnesses would go outside thecity and join the king in his
glory with his triumphal entry,right, and then that whole week
there's like this festivitythere's food, and then that king
gives his loyal subjects gifts,right.
When you read the end ofRevelation, right, what you see

(01:19:35):
is Christ coming back, and oneof the first things that's
described is there's this bigbanquet, there's this big party,
and it also describes himgiving us crowns.
It starts off with all thesepromises I will give you the
victor's crown, I will give youaccess to the tree of life, I'll
give you all these things.
He will reward his loyalsubjects.

(01:19:57):
You get to return and be withhim in his glory and his
magnificence.
Just be faithful and obedientto what he tells you to be, just
go proclaim it.
Let's go proclaim the reality,be prepared to give a reason of
why you've made the decisionyou've made.
Um, that's why your testimonymatters, um, and make sure you

(01:20:18):
live your life according um tothat reality that you proclaim
that Christ is King.

Imran (01:20:24):
So, I think that that's awesome and I definitely want to
tie everything that we saidhere, because there was an
amazing testimony that was givenjust recently on the church's
Facebook page and I think itreally ties in together all the
stuff we talked about here, umabout that life of witness right

(01:20:48):
, the proclamation to live alife that's in accordance to how
the King wants your life to belived, um to go out and meet him
as you come into the, as hecomes into the city, to receive
the reward, all of those thingspromised.
I think we're reallyhighlighted in this, this post
that we received.
I'm not going to highlight himspecifically, but I do want to
read his words because I thinkthat it's just such an amazing

(01:21:11):
testimony to that witness.
And so he says I was asked ifmy conversation was a miracle or
my conversion was a miracle.

(01:21:41):
My response was was once a hopeto die dopified and one who
stuck needles in my arm.
Today I've been married foralmost 23 years and have sorry,
20 years and have threegrandkids three kids and two
grandkids.
I'm trying to read, and I oncewas alone, without hope.
Today, I am pursuing mymaster's degree in process of

(01:22:02):
setting up and in the process ofsetting up a nonprofit with,
eventually, my own life changecenter.
God is definitely a God ofmiracles.
Be ready to glorify God andwatch what he does.
Thank you, jesus Right, and soI hope you carry those words
with you as you go into the week.
That it's the responsibility isnot on us.

(01:22:24):
It's going to be done throughthe Holy Spirit, and God's plan
is much broader than anythingthat you can see.
All he asks us to do is toproclaim and live our life in
accordance with what he hascalled us to do, and with his
kingship All right.
And with that we will see younext week on the next episode of
Real Bible Stories.

Selena (01:22:45):
Thank you for tuning in to Real Bible Stories.
If you enjoyed this podcast, besure to leave a review, share
and subscribe to be notifiedeach week when we upload new
episodes.
Real Bible Stories is producedin partnership with Palms Church
in 29 Palms, california.
If you would like moreinformation or want to check out
archived sermons and Biblestudies, please check out the

(01:23:08):
church website atpalmsbaptistchurchcom or check
them out on Facebook, instagramor YouTube.
Real Bible stories can be foundwherever podcasts are found.
Thank you again and we will seeyou next week.

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