The Kingdom Perspective

Transcript: Hello! This is Pastor Don of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective!   Perhaps, there is no more famous articulation in recent memory of the limits of human government than that given by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. In his famous “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”.   In it he reasons from the theology of St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Paul and Jesus Himself. A hu...

Transcript: Hello! This is Pastor Don of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective!   As chaos grows in any society, increasingly people look for someone to blame. We cry out: “It’s the government’s fault!” “It’s the public schools that have caused the problems!” “It’s the church’s fault for why my family life is a mess!” “It’s society or the culture’s fault!”   Now, social forces...

Transcript: Hello! This is Pastor Don of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective!   You would be hard pressed to find a better or more succinct statement of the Christian understanding of limited human authority than that given by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. In April of 1963, he was imprisoned for protesting the overreach of laws mandating the segregation of races in the...

Transcript: Hello! This is Pastor Don of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective!   Have you ever considered that the act of public worship is a political act? No! Not a partisan political act in the way our division-prone society sees it, but a political act, nonetheless. In this bold political act we partake in every Sunday, we gather, publicly, and declare that Jesus Christ (...

Transcript: Hello! This is Pastor Don Willeman of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective!   According to the Bible government authority is not a necessary evil. It was established by God to facilitate a safe, functioning, and flourishing society. However, just because government is good and necessary does not make it the most basic and important social institution. There are so...

Transcript: Hello, this is Pastor Don Willeman of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective.   In ancient Rome, Christians suffered persecution precisely because they did not find their hope and ultimate allegiance in the kingdoms of this world. They refused to say that the political realm of Rome was supreme, and that Caesar was “Lord”. To them, they had only one supreme politica...

Transcript: Hello! This is Pastor Don of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective!   The Bible tells us that human government is established by God and therefore is accountable to God and His Word (Romans 13).   This is why government power must be limited. It must not be used for the selfish gain of those in power but for the general freedom and flourishing of all. By God’s desi...

Transcript: Hello! This is Pastor Don of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective!   In our current political climate, we are increasingly tempted to become anxious not only for any given election result but also the potential reaction to it. However, as Christians we need not be anxious nor filled with dread. Rather, we are free to walk in faith and be peacemakers.   Why?   Well...

Transcript: Hello, this is Pastor Don Willeman of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective.   Aside from the foundational influence of the Apostles, in the first thousand years of the Church, St. Augustine’s influence is hard to match. However, St. Augustine was not always “Saint” Augustine. Although exposed to the gospel at an early age, he did not become a Christian until much...

Transcript: Hello, this is Pastor Don of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective.   We must always be careful not to be gullible—accepting everything that comes to us in the name of “spiritual truth”. Rather, the Bible calls us to investigate whether something is truly from God.   And how do we do that? Let me give you a three question test:   First, are you merely being told wh...

Transcript: Hello, this is Pastor Don Willeman of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective.   Life is a marathon and not a sprint. Therefore, we must prepare ourselves mentally and emotionally for the long haul.   Sprints require a short burst of energy; marathons require endurance.   Endurance is something in short supply in modern America. We want quick fixes. We easily give up...

Transcript: Hello, this is Pastor Don of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective.   The central claim of Christianity—namely that Jesus is Lord—does not remove us from the affairs of this world. We are still citizens of the United States (or whatever land we call our own). However, it does affect the way we imagine and engage in the affairs of this world. As Christians, we know...

Transcript: Hello! This is Pastor Don of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective!   Human government must be limited, precisely because it is a delegated authority from a higher power. As the Apostle Paul put it in Romans “there is no authority except from God” (Romans 13:1). Thus, human authority is legitimate only to the degree that it functions according to God’s designated p...

Transcript: Hello, this is Pastor Don of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective.   What is the most political thing you will do this week?   Christian theologian Oliver O’Donovan points out that the act of public worship is a political act. Have you ever thought of it that way?    What is the outrageously bold political act that we do every Sunday? Well, we gather publicly and...

Transcript:   Hello! This is Pastor Don of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective!   In Romans 13, the early church leader the Apostle Paul, issued a radical statement to the Christians in Rome. He said:   Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God.   Sadly, this has b...

Transcript: Hello, this is Pastor Don of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective.   In times of great political division, our thinking tends to become what some sociologists have dubbed “apocalyptic.” We begin to believe that what takes place at this moment—in the next election, during the next session of Congress or the next ruling from the Supreme Court—is going to determine t...

Transcript: Hello, this is Pastor Don Willeman of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to the Kingdom Perspective. What a privilege we have as Christians! There is no greater comfort than the fact that the Almighty Creator of heaven and earth is our Heavenly Father for Jesus’s sake. The Heidelberg Catechism, a doctrinal teaching device developed in 1563 and still used by many churches around the world,...

Transcript: Hello, this is Pastor Don Willeman of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to the Kingdom Perspective. What is the point of life? What is the goal you should be aiming for each and every day? The Bible suggests to us that nothing is more important than knowing God, and nothing is more practical. The great 19th century preacher Charles Spurgeon put it this way: “I know nothing which can so c...

Transcript: Hello, this is Pastor Don Willeman of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to the Kingdom Perspective. The New Testament writer James defines “pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God” as caring for “orphans and widows in their distress.” “Orphans and widows” is a reference the most vulnerable in society; in the ancient world they were the “poster children” for the needy and marg...

Transcript: Hello, this is Pastor Don Willeman of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective. Emotions are unavoidable. What should do with them? We should spend more time in the book of Psalms. The Psalms are the Bible’s song book, and as such, it is not surprising that they deal with the full gamut of our human emotional experience. The great John Calvin put it this way: “I have...

Transcript: Hello, this is Pastor Don of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective. Happiness comes not from stopping the troubles of life, but only from strengthening yourself against them. This strengthening can only come by sinking our roots daily into the rich soil of God’s Word. The Bible commands us to be steadfast. We should not be like a boat that is tossed to and fro by e...

Transcript: Hello, this is Pastor Don Willeman of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective.   It is said that the first casualty of war is truth. Whoever manages to get the upper hand in framing the conflict has a clear advantage over the one who does not. This is as true in our disagreements around the kitchen table, as it is in our cultural debates. It’s as true in the bedroom,...

Transcript: Hello, this is Pastor Don Willeman of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective.   I don’t know about you, but I tend to have interesting conversations on airplanes. A few years ago, I sat next to a researcher who has traveled the world over detailing what people do when something goes wrong in their life. What are the universal patterns of response we all have regardl...

Transcript: Hello this is Pastor Don of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective.   Do you worry about what others think of you? If yes, join the club. I saw an article recently on what one psychologist calls FOPO (fear of people’s opinions). We all suffer from this at least a bit, perhaps some more than others. We are incurably social creatures and so we’re all susceptible to th...

Transcript: Hello this is Pastor Don of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective.   At the heart of Christianity is the notion we call “the Great Exchange”. What is the Great Exchange? It is the sweet and gracious reality that at the cross, Jesus Christ took our sins and gave us His righteousness. The sin was ours alone, but He took it. And the righteousness was His alone, but He...