Christ Covenant Church

By: Christ Covenant Church of Colorado
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  • Summary

  • This publication contains the weekly teaching from Christ Covenant Church in Lakewood, Colorado. For more information about Christ Covenant Church please visit our website (https://www.christcovenantcolorado.com).
    © 2024 Christ Covenant Church
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Ministry & Evangelism Spirituality
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Episodes
  • Questions Regarding The Return Of The King

    Questions Regarding The Return Of The King
    Nov 3 2024
    1. Why should we be planning for Jesus’ return in 2033 or 2034?1.1. According to Jewish tradition and the belief of the early church, the shelf-life of God’s first Creation – before the final return of Christ and the beginning of His second and eternal Creation, would be 6,000 years, a corollary to the six literal creation days of Genesis one. “Six thousand years the world will exist and for one thousand, [the seventh], it shall be desolate [no longer exist], as it is written, ‘And the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day” (Sanhedrin 97a) “Six eons for going in and coming out, for war and peace. The seventh eon is entirely Shabbat and rest for life everlasting.” - Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus (2nd century A.D.) “For the day of the Lord is as a thousand years (2Pe 3:8); and in six days created things were completed; it is evident, therefore, that they will come to an end at the sixth thousandth year.” - Irenaeus[1] (130-202 A.D.) “Give heed, children, what this means; ‘He ended in six days’ (Gen 1:2): He means this, that in six thousand years the Lord shall bring all things to an end; for the day with Him signifies a thousand years; and this He himself bears me witness, saying; “Behold, the day of the Lord shall be as a thousand years” (2Pe 3:8). Therefore, children, in six days, that is in six thousand years, everything shall come to an end.” - The epistle of Barnabas[2] (75 A.D.) “And 6,000 years must needs be accomplished, in order that the Sabbath may come, the rest, the holy day on which God rested from all His works. For the Sabbath is the type and emblem of the future kingdom of the saints, when they shall reign with Christ, when He comes from heaven, for ‘a day with the Lord is as a thousand years’ (2Pe 3:8). Since, then, in six days God made all things, it follows that 6,000 years must be fulfilled.” - Hippolytus[3] (170-235 AD) 1.2. Peter confirms this as God’s view (2Pe 3:1-13) = God’s first Creation was never meant to last forever. From the beginning there has been a date “reserved” when all of it will be destroyed by fire. This will be followed by a judgment of humanity to determine who is worthy to enter His new (and eternal) Creation. This day will also fulfill the “promise” of Jesus’ return and can be calculated by viewing each day of His Creation as representing 1,000 years (v8). Just as there were 6 days for man to work, there will be six thousand years allotted to humanity to do the work of God and determine who among them is worthy to enter the “new heavens and earth where righteousness dwells” (v13). Or as the writer of Hebrews refers to it, God’s eternal Sabbath (or seventh day) rest (Heb 4:9). 1.3. Peter’s preaching on Pentecost revealed only 2,000 years left after the ascension of Christ. (Act 2:17-20) = Peter’s divinely inspired interpretation of Joel 2:28 as “And it shall be in the last days” indicates that the IPO of the indwelling Spirit marks the beginning of the final two millennia before the Sabbath millennium/time of Christ’s return. Why? 1) Peter indicates there will be plural days [or millennia] before the end – or Christ’s return (17, “last days”). 2) At the time of Jesus’ earthly ministry, we were already somewhere in the range of 4,000 years – which means Peter’s reference cannot be three or more. This puts Jesus’ return somewhere around 2033/34 (or two thousand years after Christian Pentecost which took place in 33/34 A.D.). 2. Why should we be confident that it is exactly two thousand years (versus two thousand and fifty years, etc.,)? 2.1. We serve a God Who – in human terms, is OCD and likes to do history in neat, complete and repeated packages. Which means nothing is arbitrary or imprecise. Everything has meaning and is connected. God’s past acts and intentions always establish patterns and principles that will be followed in the future. God therefore making the number of millennia for Creation’s shelf-life match exactly the number of days He took to create it should come as no surprise. It is what we should expect. Examples of other things where we see such meaningful redundancy: 1) The first verse of the Bible which introduces us to God’s week of Creation (Gen 1:1 “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”) is seven words (in Hebrew), followed by seven paragraphs which unpack the six days whose end goal is the Sabbath – or the seventh day. 2) There exists no overlap or spill-over with respect to the things assigned to the days of Creation (e.g., all creatures of the water and air on the fifth day only, all creatures of the earth on the sixth day only). 3) God saw to it that Jesus’ genealogy was communicated as three complete sets of 14, the numerical value of the Hebrew letters “dwd” (David) to emphasize (hence the reason for three), His identity as the Messianic son of David (Mat 1:17).2.2. Paul communicates that ...
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    1 hr and 26 mins
  • Coherent Christianity

    Coherent Christianity
    Sep 15 2024
    Coherent (def.): clear, consistent, logical and reasonable (equitable/just). Coherent things are intelligible, they make sense. Christ Covenant Church seeks to a place that possesses coherent Christianity. The reason for this endeavor is the following: 1. Coherency is essential to the confirmation of something as truth especially as it relates to what you believe. 1.1. In Philosophy this is known as the Coherence Theory of Truth: an individual proposition (or belief) is only true if it is coherent with existing propositions or a system of propositions (or beliefs) already determined to be true (e.g.,) I [Scott Jarrett] am 54 going on 55. For that belief to be true, then it must cohere with other beliefs or truths such as: 1. My birth date is 11/1/69, 2. I am still alive. My statement/proposition (54 going on 55) sb considered true b/c it is logically coherent. 1.2. That coherency is essential to truth (or what we believe to be true) can be seen by considering Satan’s first attack against humanity. It was an attack on the coherency of God’s words (Gen 3:1-5) = Satan’s contribution to humanity’s first act of rebellion was his ability to get our original parents to believe that what He had said was incoherent. This then is the power of incoherency (and once more, why coherency is so essential): incoherency leads to distrust and ultimately open rebellion against God.1.3. As humans, we have been hard-wired to trust only those things that are coherent: that make sense because they are clear, consistent, logical and reasonable (Pro 29:18 “vision” [Heb., hazon = Prophetic vision that makes clear or coherent what God’s people are to do]) = Without such coherency, God’s people will be “unrestrained” in their moral behavior. IOW: they will become distrustful and disobedient to God’s Law. This is confirmed also by the author’s response to the first couplet (“But happy is he who keeps the law [Heb., torah = God’s special revelation or message – most especially His Law). When God’s Word -or what we believe about it is coherent (clear, consistent, logical and reasonable), it is much easier to trust it and obey His laws. 2. If the Bible is truth, then what it teaches (and Christianity believes) must be coherent[1]. 2.1. Jesus testifies to the Bible (or God’s Word) as truth (Joh 17:17).2.2. Jesus also testifies to the Bible’s coherency (Deu 30:11-14; Joh 1:1 “Word” [Grk., logos = Logic, the coherent word; in re: to the mind it refers to the function of reason/logic and calculation]) = Jesus’ identity as the divine Logos (“Word”) communicates to us not only the nature of God (as logical or coherent) but also the nature of Scripture (God’s divine written words – OT, NT): they are likewise logical (or coherent) giving us (humans made in the image of our logical/coherent God) the ability to know Him w/certainty (v18 “explained” [Grk., exegeomai = Exegesis; coherent explanation). [2] 2.3. Jesus uses logic – or the Law of Noncontradiction [A ≠ non-A][3] to prove the existence of life after death/resurrection and His deity – Mat 22:31-32 [Jesus also confirms plenary inspiration]; Mat 22:41-46)[4].2.4. Paul likewise uses a logical syllogism to prove the necessity of the resurrection to salvation/Christianity (1Co 15:12-20). 2.5. Other passages related to the Bible’s teaching as coherent (Psa 19:7b-9, 119:105; 2Ti 3:15-16 = None of these texts are truthful unless what the Bible teaches is indeed coherent; 1Pe 3:15 “defense” [Grk., apologia = Out of logic]).2.6. To say that the Bible’s teaching is coherent is not the same as saying that it is not (at times) difficult to understand (e.g., 2Pe 3:15-17) = According to Peter, the reason Paul could be difficult was not due to incoherency (i.e., what he wrote was unclear, inconsistent, illogical or unreasonable) but rather the moral instability (“unstable”) and intellectual deficiency (“untaught”) of others (“unprincipled men”).2.7. Oftentimes the incoherent (and therefore false) doctrines believed by many Christians today are labeled as incomprehensible. Incomprehensibility however is not the same as incoherency. The difference between the two from the standpoint of cognitive understanding is experience versus intellect. Though what is incomprehensible can be intelligible (it can be understood intellectually), it is beyond that person’s ability to understand experientially (e.g., hell). By contrast, what is incoherent fails to be something that can be understood both by experience and intellect (e.g., 2 + 2 = 3).[5] 2.8. Finally, coherency is necessary not only to our knowledge of God, but to distinguishing between the divine and the demonic. “If a transcendent God really does have a logic all His own, no criteria can exist in the realm of the transcendent to distinguish between Yahweh and Satan.” – Nash (ibid) “If the law of non-contradiction is irrelevant in the sphere of ...
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    1 hr and 17 mins
  • Coherence - Part 2

    Coherence - Part 2
    Sep 8 2024
    Coherent (def.): to be clear and consistent, logical and reasonable.The accusations of our critics:[See PREVIOUS SERMON (Coherence Part 1) for accusations 1-3] 4. Your requirement of faithful obedience to be a Christian is too difficult. We are totally broken and unable to live faithfully obedient lives to God. It is for this reason the message of salvation is faith in Christ not faithfulness to Christ. It is also the reason Jesus came to earth – to obey so we wouldn’t have to! The standard of obedience preached at your church is just making people into self-righteous Pharisees. God doesn’t expect nor require this level of commitment to get heaven. Our biblically obedient and coherent response: 4.1. Though we are born depraved – or with a strong desire for sin (or to serve self over God and His commands), we still possess the ability to choose and do good – or obey His commands. If this were not true, then God would be unjust for condemning people to hell based on their deeds (ability establishes culpability) (Job 34:11; Psa 62:12; Jer 17:10, 21:14; 2Co 5:10; Rev 20:11-15).4.2. God’s requirement of faithful obedience (not perfection) has never been too difficult – including for those under the OC (those w/o the indwelling Spirit, regeneration or propitiation) (Deu 28:1 w/30:11-14). 4.3. The message of salvation has always been both faith and faithfulness (to Christ). Faith itself is a pledge or personal promise to faithfulness to God over self or anything else (i.e., to live for or love God above anyone and anything else) (Gen 15:6 [w/Joh 8:56] w/Gen 17:1-8 [God confirming His promise and pledge to Abraham and the condition of that promise - Abraham’s former faith pledge to Him]; Exo 24:7-8 w/1Pe 1:1-2, 3:21). That our faith pledge mb followed by faithfulness for salvation to be secure is confirmed by James (Jam 2:14-26).4.4. If Jesus did indeed come to earth to obey on our behalf (with the assumption that we could not do it ourselves), then this too incriminates/indicts God given His expectations of obedience and severe judgments against disobedience in the OT (e.g., most of the first generation died and went to hell because of their unfaithfulness – Heb 3:12-19 [v19, apistis = unfaithfulness, See Num 14:33 w/4:6-11]).4.5. The Pharisees were self-righteous - or viewed themselves as righteous, but not for valid reasons. They claimed to keep (or be faithful) to God’s laws but were - in reality, hypocrites - not willing to exert the smallest amount of effort to obey God’s commands (Mat 23:1-4 w/ 28). Like Evangelicals, the Pharisees believed they were saved simply because of their faith and being a part of Abraham’s family. What they failed to accept is that God will remove from Abraham’s family all those who are unfaithful (Mat 3:1-10 w/Luk 7:30 [they did not believe they could be removed for unrepentance/unfaithfulness]; Joh 8:31-39; Rom 11:21-23). 4.6. If God doesn’t require this level of commitment to get to heaven, then why do those who fail to possess faithfulness end up apostate and in hell – i.e., under God’s eternal and unforgiving wrath (Mat 7:21-27; Gal 5:19-21; Eph 5:5-6; Heb 10:26-30)? 5. Your church places loyalty to Christ and His church above loyalty to biological family including one’s spouse, children, and parents. As a result, you divide families and even approve of divorce. God made the marriage and the family to be the most important institutions on the planet. God also commands that children respect their parents. Our biblically obedient and coherent response: 5.1. Our choice to place loyalty to Christ and His church above loyalty to biological family – including one’s spouse, children, and parents has always been a condition of God’s (or Jesus’) covenant/salvation/eternal promises (Gen 12:1 w/2-3; Gen 22:1-2,3-18 w/Jam 2:21-22; Deu 6:4-5; Mar 12:29-30; Luk 14:25-35). 5.2. That loyalty to the church is how we express loyalty to Christ is confirmed by the facts: 1) the church is identified as the Body and Bride of Christ. Can a person sin against a man’s body or wife and not sin against the man himself? (Pro 6:27-35). 2) the church is the fullness of Christ on earth (Eph 1:22-23). In these two ways, Christ essentially made loyalty to Him synonymous with loving our covenant brothers and sisters. Hence why (Joh 13:34-35). 5.3. Hence the reason this was a major focus of John the Baptist and Jesus’ earthly ministry: to turn God’s people back to Him and His family over their human families as the first loyalty (Mal 4:6 w/Luk 1:17).5.4. Hence the reason also Jesus predicted that many families would be divided over His message (Mat 10:34-39).5.5. The only divorce we approve of are those sanctioned by Jesus: divorce for sexual immorality (Mat 5:31-32). To not allow what God allows is no different than allowing what God does not allow - which also brings God’s wrath against the covenant community (Isa 5:20, 23-25).5.6. The most important...
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    1 hr and 18 mins

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