April 19, 2025 - The Political Cesspool - James Edwards
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You're listening to the Liberty News Radio Network, and this is the Political Cesspool.
The Political Cesspool, known across the South and worldwide as the South's foremost populist conservative radio program.
And here to guide you through the murky waters of the political cesspool is your host, James Edwards.
Oh, victory in Jesus, my Savior forever.
Peace on me and on me with this redeeming world.
Be love me and I knew it.
Ladies and gentlemen, happy Easter weekend, holy weekend.
Resurrection Day is tomorrow.
Set me in a pew and put a southern gospel quartet in front of me.
And that's all you've got to do.
Ladies and gentlemen, we turn our attention this third hour from the current political tumult to the eternal, to something far more important.
And here, once again, Pastor Brett McAtee is not only with us at Christmas and Easter, but he is always with us at Christmas and Easter.
And there is a difference, and it is always our honor to welcome the pastor of Christ the King Reformed Church in Charlotte, Michigan, to present to us those two messages, those last two Saturdays before the birth and death and resurrection of Christ respectfully.
And tonight, once again, this holy weekend, he is going to be documenting the account of the resurrection of Jesus Christ to the credit of all of our listenership.
Pastor Brett, it is great to have you back.
Thank you again for the honor.
Thank you, James, and thanks to all the listeners out there that give this hour to hear about the glory of the resurrected Christ.
As we start, I want to just look at a few verses in the scriptures to set this up.
We're on the road to Emmaus, and this is Jesus talking in Luke 24.
He said to them, this is what I told you while I was still with you.
Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the Psalms.
Then he opened their minds so they could understand the scriptures, and he told them that this is what is written.
The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day.
And repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
And then again in verse Acts, Luke is writing in his second volume to a chap named Theophilus.
And he says, I wrote all about that Jesus began to do and teach until that day he was taken up to heaven after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen.
His suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive.
He appeared to them over a period of 40 days and spoke about the kingdom of God.
As we start, we want to note, first of all, in both this Luke passage and Acts passage, you keep in mind that Dr. Luke is the author of both Luke and Acts, and they should be read together as a unit.
That immediately out of the gate, what's going on is that the gospel is being set forth as objective.
That is, the truth of Christianity is being lodged in historical reality.
So it's simply the case of the nature of Christianity as it's related to the fact that we're rescued from our sin, as it's related to the glad tidings of what God has done in Christ and has taken place in Christ's death and resurrection, that the truth of that does not rest only on the inner hold of that truth that it lays on the heart and the will of man.
But first of all, it lays in the reality of that which has once taken place.
And that's what Jesus emphasizes here when he talks about all the things the Messiah would have to suffer and how he would rise from the dead in the third day.
He talks about how the scriptures prophesied that would happen, and indeed, that's what did happen.
And then when Dr. Luke opens up with Acts, he again talks about the historical reality of the gospel.
And the reason I open with this is to press the fact that it's not so much how much we have hold on to Jesus as much as he has hold on to us.
It's the idea that these events, these things that we believe, that they're all grounded and rooted in historical reality, and they're not dependent upon my inner being or the effect that these truths have on me.
It's not a mystical apprehension that matters the most.
It's the fact that these happen, these things happen, these gospel events happen.
The death, resurrection, and the preaching of the kingdom all happen in space and time history.
And so our faith is grounded on these realities.
And I only bring that up because sometimes we reverse these things and we sometimes think that somehow my apprehension of these things or somehow the inner mystical lodge hold that they have on us is more important than the fact of the historical reality that these things really happen in space-time history and that our faith is grounded in historical reality.
Beyond that, we want to consider the resurrection of our magnificent Lord Christ.
We want to look as we have time at the relationship between the resurrection of Christ and the kingdom of God.
What I want to do here, the time that we have together, is I want to sear in your mind the fact that you cannot think about the resurrection without also speaking about thinking about the kingdom of God.
There it is in that Luke passage, Luke 1.3, after his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave them many convincing proofs that he was alive.
He appeared to them over a period of 40 days and spoke about, what did he speak about for 40 days?
He appeared to them for over 40 days, and what did he speak to them about?
He spoke to them about the kingdom of God.
So here we have the resurrected Christ.
We have him already initially in the book of Acts, and we're seeing that in the time between his resurrection and ascension, what he's focused on when he's appearing to the disciples is he's focusing on the teachings of the kingdom of God.
And so that's what we want to emphasize.
And we see that theme, and we're going to look at that as we have time, all the way through the book of Acts.
The book of Acts, the preaching of the apostles, is the resurrection of Christ and the kingdom of God.
That's the twin themes.
So that if you were to read the book of Acts, and I would encourage you to do this and take some kind of highlighter pencil and highlight every time you see the mention of the resurrection and every time a different colored pencil, the kingdom of God.
And very soon you'll begin to see this.
This becomes a theme of the preaching so that we can see that the idea of resurrection is always married in the minds of the apostles as they preach the gospel of the kingdom.
It's always married to the idea of the kingdom of God.
And when we talk about the resurrection, we'll set forth our terms here.
The resurrection means God's act to raise first Christ and then his people from the dead to a bodily and glorified eternal life in the new creation.
And that resurrection is married in the preaching of the apostles in the book of Acts of the kingdom of God.
And by that, we mean the kingdom of God is the total reign of God in the hearts and the lives of men.
And so what we'll be laboring to demonstrate from the scripture is that there is the tightest and most intimate relationship between the idea of resurrection and the idea of the kingdom of God.
God's people has been for millennium looking for the kingdom of God.
And with the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, the kingdom has arrived and has been inaugurated.
That is, that it has, it is now present.
It is not the case that we're waiting for the kingdom yet to come.
It's not the case that the kingdom is still something that's going to arrive.
We understand that with the resurrection, the kingdom has been brought in.
And that has incredible implications and ramifications for lives of believers in 2025.
So this idea that the resurrection and the kingdom are married, and there's no understanding of the resurrection apart from its foundation for the presence of God's kingdom.
And the idea there's no understanding of the presence of the kingdom of God without the resurrection is something that's vitally important for us to understand.
So we would say that the manner in which we will seek to accomplish this marriage in the time that we have together between resurrection and the kingdom of God is by first noting the tight relationship between these two as we look at the top-down overview of the preaching of the disciples in the book of Acts.
And we'll see as we move through the book of Acts, we're going to be painting with a broom, as the saying goes.
We're going to be moving quickly.
The two main themes of the preaching, as I've already said, was the resurrection and the kingdom of God.
And further, we're going to see how that preaching of the resurrection and the kingdom of God was met with resistance by the kingdom of this present evil age.
So as the preaching of the resurrection of Christ and the kingdom of God goes forward, what we see in the book of Acts is we see that there is resistance to it by kingdoms that don't want to be overthrown but are inevitably going to be overthrown.
So having mapped out what we're doing and how we'll be doing it, we turn to the book of Luke Acts, and we open by looking at chapter 24.
We already read that the Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and repentance for thegiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all the nations.
And so we begin to see the resurrected Jesus describing himself as a Messiah and as a Messiah, of course, that has implied the idea of his kingship.
God tells us in Hebrews 10, 25 that we should gather together to worship him.
This isn't a request.
It is a command.
Going to church isn't an option.
It is your Christian duty.
With the hellish apostasy of mainstream churches, attending church these days can be difficult.
That is why your King James Only, traditional services in the ancient church of St. Mary Magdalene, alive online.
And I invite you to gather with our congregation to study God's Holy Word.
Join us every Sunday at thetemplarchurch.com and especially on the first Sunday of the month for Holy Communion.
This do in remembrance of me is also a command that all Christians must obey.
I'm Reverend Jim Dyson, ordained Puritan minister, nationalist, and a veteran pro-life campaigner.
Tune into my weekly sermons at thetemplarchurch.com.
Based in Ireland, this old-time religion is the faith that built America.
God bless you.
You know where the solution can be found, Mr. President?
In churches, in wedding chapels, in maternity wards across the country and around the world.
More babies will mean forward-looking adults, the sort we need to tackle long-term, large-scale problems.
American babies in particular are likely going to be wealthier, better educated, and more conservation-minded than children raised in still industrializing countries.
As economist Tyler Cowan recently wrote, quote, by having more children, you're making your nation more populous, thus boosting its capacity to solve climate change.
The planet does not need for us to think globally and act locally so much as it needs us to think family and act personally.
The solution to so many of our problems at all times and in all places is to fall in love, get married, and have some kids.
From the great he arose with a mighty triumph over his holy role.
He rose a victor from the dark domain, and he lives forever with his saints to reign.
He arose, he arose.
Well, indeed, that is exactly what most of the Christian world is celebrating this weekend.
I know our Orthodox friends do it a couple of weeks later.
Let me give you a little bit more information about our featured guest this evening, as we always like to do.
Pastor Brett McAtee, as I have read so many times before, but I'm privileged to read it again, is the husband of a wife without peer, father of three children who walk as heroes in the land, a grandfather of nine.
He is the author of Iron Inc.
Now, this is a blog you really need to follow regularly, which is committed to thinking God's thoughts after him.
Pastor Brett has pastored Christ the King Reformed Church in Michigan for over 20 years.
What's new on Iron Inc., his blog, and his online messages?
You don't have to go to the brick and mortar congregation in order to hear Pastor Brett's message every Sunday.
You can do that at charlottereformed.org.
In Michigan, it's Charlotte.
In the south, it's Charlotte.
But charlotte reformed.org is how you spell it.
And I would encourage you to go there, particularly if you have not found a faithful physical congregation in your local area.
Join their congregation.
Hear the message online at charlotte reformed.org.
Pastor Brett, back to you this Resurrection Day Eve.
Thank you.
So we're in Luke.
And again, Jesus is reminding his disciples on the road to Emmaus, the Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day.
This idea, this mention of the Messiah, incorporates the idea of kingship.
Jesus is describing himself as the Messiah and then describing himself as the Messiah.
He's describing himself as the great king.
And this resurrected king intends to bring people into a kingdom through the preaching of the disciples whom Jesus declares are his witnesses.
He says the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations beginning at Jerusalem.
And so we find the kingdom of God once again being emphasized by the resurrected king.
Again, we note from Acts 1.3, as we mentioned earlier, Jesus presents himself alive to them and speaks about them, speaks to them about the kingdom of God.
And these verses together reveal the resurrected Savior centered his post-resurrection appearances and teaching on the kingdom.
And this kingdom we learn here is not merely a provincial affair, but it's global in its outreach.
The kingdom of God, led by his mediatorial king, covers the globe.
On this resurrection Sunday, then, my friends, we have again to realize that the resurrected Christ is intent on the Christian faith being a global affair.
This global reach of the Christian faith is emphasized in Matthew 28 in the Great Commission, where the disciples are commanded to disciple the nations, and they're commissioned that by the resurrected Christ.
And it'll be emphasized again after Jesus is resurrected.
And they've been so taught about the kingdom, they ask in Acts 1.6, is it now time, but will you now bring the kingdom in?
And Jesus says, it's not for you to know the times and seasons.
And so I submit to you that the great king Jesus never intended for the church to be on his heels in a defensive posture.
It's going to Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.
The king of kings and Lord of lords upon being resurrected inaugurated a present kingdom that was intended to be a reality that would cover the globe.
To be sure, as we've seen the book of Acts, resistance would be met.
And the book of Acts, as we said, tells of that resistance.
But the resistance to the ever-present power of the kingdom of God brought in by the resurrected Christ in the end is always overcome.
This is the truth we need to be reminded of.
The resurrection means the kingdom of God has been inaugurated.
It has arrived.
It has come.
We're not waiting for the kingdom of God to yet come in some future time.
In the resurrection of Christ, the kingdom is now present.
Now the present kingdom, it's true, has also a future component so that we await the full bloom of the bud that's already present, but the kingdom has come and is present about us.
And that's so because Christ has been resurrected.
This is what the apostles understood.
They understood that they had been given a commission by the resurrected king to go and extend the crown rights of King Jesus unto all the nations and into every area of life.
And we see the advance of the kingdom in the book of Acts.
The church formed there in the books of Acts, book of Acts, what we might call the armory of the kingdom.
It is in the church that we come to learn of the character of the king and of what the kingdom looks like and what it means to be a disciple and to disciple the nations.
But the church is not the whole kingdom of God, but only its armory, we might say.
In and with the church, we learn to put on the whole armor of God.
In the church, we learn what it means to take thought every cap, what it means to take every thought captive to make them obedient to the great king.
In the church, we take every thought captive to make them obedient to Christ.
In the church, we learn from the scriptures that we've been translated from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of God to your son, whom he loves.
So the church is instrumental to the kingdom, but it's not the whole of the kingdom.
The kingdom ruled by the resurrected Christ extends beyond the walls of the church so that eventually over the course of time, the present kingdom that the resurrected Jesus brought out of the grave with him covers the nations as the waters cover the sea.
The resurrection of Christ is a victorious message of his kingdom covering the seas, covering the globe, covering the planet.
And we walk as God's resurrected people underneath his record, resurrected authority, expanding and extending the crown rights of King Jesus into every area of life.
So the resurrected Jesus brings in the inaugurated kingdom of God.
And the kingdom of God finds its armory in the church.
And from that armory, the kingdom expands into every area of life.
And Jesus is a great king.
He's a great king who brings all domains under his sway and rule.
And that more and more explicitly so as his kingdom advances over time and in the context of the obedience of his kingdom people walking in terms of the king's law word.
We see the effect of that kingdom that the resurrected Jesus brings in affecting more and more areas.
In the family realm in the New Testament, we find that whole households are baptized, coming in as households into the kingdom of God.
In Acts 17, the resurrected Jesus and the kingdom of God is such a threat to Thessalonica.
We read, and note the explicit relationship here between the resurrection and the kingdom.
We read in Thessalonica, Paul explains and demonstrates that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, saying, this Jesus whom I preached to you is the Christ.
And remember, when he says this Jesus I preached you is the Christ, that implies the idea of kingship.
The message is getting traction, that message that Paul is bringing there in Thessalonica, until Jews using evil men stir up resistance and go looking for Paul and Silas.
There we read, when they could not find Paul and Silas, they dragged Jason and some others before the city officials, shouting, these men have turned the world upside down, have now come here, and Jason has welcomed them into his home.
They're all defying Caesar's decrees and saying that there's another king, another king, Jesus.
You see, they're proclaiming the resurrected Christ, and everybody understands that in this resurrection of Christ, they're naming another king, King Jesus.
And so we see again the tight correlation between the resurrection of Christ and the message of the kingdom.
And that message is that Christ is Lord of all, and all are responsible to bow to the resurrected Christ and to own him as their savior and to quit with their rebellion as it exists in kingdoms that are counter to Christ.
Christ has brought in a kingdom with his resurrection.
The kingdom has been confirmed.
The church is the armory of the kingdom.
And the book of Acts teaches that that kingdom goes forward, the kingdom of the resurrected Christ.
So on this resurrection Sunday, on this Easter, we celebrate because our Christ is king and he's brought in a kingdom.
And we understand that as Paul teaches in Corinthians that he shall reign, referring to Christ until all things are placed under his feet.
And so when we think of the resurrection of Christ, we think of the authority of God and the authority of God as placed in his mediatorial king, Jesus Christ, that has the intent of his kingdom covering the globe as the waters cover the earth.
It's an exciting message.
It's a positive message.
It's an optimistic message.
The church does not lose.
We don't get beat up.
We aren't put into a corner and attacked on all sides, whether it is a victorious army that goes forward in the name of the resurrected Jesus.
When we look at the book of Acts in chapter 17, we find Paul as the resurrected king's ambassador speaking to the Athenians about their idols that are governing their social order and culture.
And we see Paul by use of scripture and holy logic carrying down those idols in Athens so that the kingdom of God may advance over the social order of the Athenians.
And so the kingdom is intent on shaking up cultures and social orders.
It's not just synonymous with the church.
It is a kingdom that has a growing expanse and an effect.
Not only in Acts 17, we find the resurrected Christ and his kingdom challenging the social order of the Athenians.
In Acts 19, we find the kingdom of God and his resurrected Christ being a threat to the economic order of the Ephesians.
Because what we find going on there in Acts 19 is that here we have the resurrected Christ.
They are preaching Christ and as resurrected.
And what happens is that the silversmiths understand that their economic foundation is threatened.
Why?
Because the kingdom of God is going forward, the kingdom of the resurrected Christ.
We read there in Acts 19 about this time there arose a great disturbance about the way, referring to Christianity.
There was a chap named Demetrius, who was a silversmith who made silver shrines of Arnemoth, a pagan goddess.
And it brought in a lot of business for the craftsmen there.
And he called them together, that is the craftsman, along with the workers in related trades, that is the cottage industries.
And he said, you know, my friends, that we receive a good income from this business.
It's all about economics.
And you see here how this fellow Paul has convinced and led astray large numbers of people here in Ephesus and in practically the whole province of Asia.
You see, the kingdom of God is having an effect on the economic areas.
And that kingdom of God has the mediatorial king, Jesus, who has been resurrected as the one who is the king of that kingdom.
And so once again, we see the glory of the truth.
A kingdom and resurrection go together like peas and carrots.
Ladies and gentlemen, be sure to check out more.
If you are enjoying this Resurrection Day Eve broadcast, be sure to hear more from Pastor Brett McCatey, and we'll give you that contact information right after this.
Once again, how would you like to help this program reach more people and earn silver at the same time?
Call or text 801-669-2211 for complete details.
News this hour from townhall.com.
I'm Jason Walker.
President Trump says trade negotiations with many nations underway.
Here's White House correspondent Greg Klugston.
As countries scramble in response to across-the-board tariffs, the president says the U.S. is doing very well with negotiations.
Treasury Secretary Scott Besson says many nations want to secure trade deals.
We've got a process in place.
We're working on the big 15 economies first.
Last week, the administration had talks with Japan and calls with the EU.
Next week, negotiations are scheduled with South Korea.
Greg Klugston, Washington.
Meanwhile, U.S. Ambassador to Japan, George Glass, says he's very optimistic.
The U.S. and Tokyo will reach a deal in their talks.
The Secretary of Treasury, the Secretary of Commerce are both people that I know and have spoken with and are brilliant in their fields.
And they're also very creative, out-of-the-box thinkers.
And when I saw that President Trump then decided he was going to get involved and has now named this his top priority, that's why I have a lot of confidence that we'll get something done.
Also at townhall.com, Supreme Court is blocking new deportations under the Alien Enemies Act.
Here's correspondent Donna Warder with that story.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled early Saturday in a temporary order that there are to be no more deportations of Venezuelans being held in northern Texas under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.
The High Court was acting on an emergency appeal from the American Civil Liberties Union.
Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented.
The Supreme Court had said earlier that deportations could proceed only if those about to be removed had a chance to argue their case in court and were given reasonable time to contest their removal.
Donna Warder, Washington.
And more on these stories at townhall.com.
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It is common for politicians, major media outlets, and nonprofits to hype white on black murders aggressively, or even claim that blacks are living in fear of white people.
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Mercy there was great and race was free small to blind to me so familiar and power was great and race was free.
That's exactly what we're talking about this hour.
Exactly what we are commemorating and honoring and celebrating this holy weekend.
What happened at Calvary a little over 2,000 years ago?
And for whatever reason, during that last break, a random memory, long, almost forgotten memory came to mind.
And in 2008, in November of 2008, right after Barack Obama was elected, a writer for the New York Times named Jim Rutenberg flew down to Memphis to interview me and Bill Rowland, who has ascended to the kingdom of heaven since then, about our reaction to that election.
And Jim Rutenberg is still with the New York Times today.
He's written over 2,300 articles for them.
The most recent one is titled, Nixon Dreamed of Breaking the Media.
Trump is doing it.
The president's heavy-handed approach to traditional journalists, see, this is one of the good guys, you know, Jim Rutenberg, has all the hallmarks of an attempted coup 50 years ago.
Well, anyway, I don't mean to sully the message of Christ's resurrection with Pastor Brett this hour.
But Jim Rutenberg asked in that meeting, in that interview, the subject of faith came up, and he asked us, he goes, do you really believe that?
Do people down here really believe that?
Talking about Christ being the Son of God, Christ dying and resurrecting from the grave, the fundamentals of Christianity.
And, you know, at the time, it was such a bizarre question.
I mean, why would we say we believe it if we don't?
Because, I mean, it's not as if fundamentalist Christians are exactly advanced by modern society.
But it was a question that he asked, and we answered it resolutely.
Pastor, do you believe that?
Do I believe that Christ was crucified for our sins and resurrected on the third day?
Amen.
I believe it.
My whole life is pinned on it.
And it's the teaching and the revelation of scripture.
It's the reason that the kingdom expands the way it does because men are saved.
Men are delivered of their sins and being delivered of their sins.
They now put their hands on institutions for the great king and remake those institutions according to the king's law word.
And so the resurrection is everything.
There is no reality.
Life doesn't make any sense.
There is no meaning apart from the work of the cross and of the resurrection of the ascension of Jesus Christ that he's at the right hand of the Father, interceding for his people.
So the resurrection proclaims all of that, James.
Amen.
He is risen.
He is risen indeed.
Please continue on, Pastor.
Continue to look on, and we talk about the tandem relationship between resurrection and kingdom.
I want to say again, though, that the kingdom continues to move forward in the book of Acts because men are being brought in.
They're owning Christ as their savior.
They're being redeemed.
And then being redeemed then end up operating in a different fashion, contrary to the way they operated before.
And that becomes a threat to the established order, to the kingdoms of this present age.
That's what we were looking at as we left off, this whole idea of what's happening there in Acts 19 in Ephesus.
They are making a great living selling silver idols of Artemis, the goddess, the pagan goddess.
And men are being converted.
The message is going forth about the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the forgiveness of sins.
Men are owning Christ.
Their sins are being forgiven.
The kingdom is being established.
And as a consequence of that, this chap Demetrius gets upset because he's losing bucks.
And so we see the kingdom of God has an economic effect as men are saved as they own Christ, as they bow to Christ.
That ends up having not only the fact that they are changed themselves individually and personally, but it changes everything.
That's why I noted there in Athens when Paul shows up in Athens and challenges the pagan gods that they're serving in Athens.
They all understand that this is a threat to their whole way of living.
In other words, this is a threat to their kingdom.
And so they resist with all their might.
And that's what we're living in today.
The reason that people hate Christianity so much, the reason that they hate Christians, is they understand that the resurrected Jesus Christ is a threat.
It's a threat to their established order.
It's a threat to the deep state.
It's a threat to the kingdoms of this present wicked age.
And that Christ has every intent, the scripture teaches over and over again, to reign until all things are put under his feet, as Paul says there in 1 Corinthians 15.
And so this kingdom is not only about persons and individuals getting saved and having their sins forgiven, though it certainly is that.
It's gloriously that.
But it's also about the fact that these changed men now are operating under the authority of a different king and are part of a different kingdom.
And that they're seeking to extend the crown rights of King Jesus into every area of life.
That's the glory of the resurrection.
That's the glory of the kingdom.
It impacts everything that we do.
And when men are saved, their salvation ends up having legs, so to speak.
And part of the problem that we have in the church today is that the church thinks that salvation is about, as Rushduni used to say, it's about fire insurance.
It's about just the idea of getting out of going to hell.
But the kingdom is the resurrection of Christ and the kingdom that he brings in is about changing everything.
It's about changing our thinking so that we own Christ and Him and His kingship and His resurrection as being our resurrection.
And we walk in terms of His authority as that authority is expressed from Genesis to Revelation.
And everything is changed.
And we tear down strongholds and every thought, we take every thought captive.
All of this is because of the resurrection.
And we cannot limit the resurrection of Jesus Christ to some small corner.
It has impact.
And we see that impact all the way through the book of Acts.
And what we see in the book of Acts in terms of resistance to the resurrected Christ, in terms of resistance to the kingdom that the resurrected Christ brings in, is what we're living today.
Do you think Christians are hated today just because they're Christians?
No.
They're hated because they understand that the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Christ.
And the enemy does not relish that idea.
They don't relish the idea of Christians owning a resurrected Savior who gives objective meaning, who gives the idea of being able to speak a true truth as opposed to the postmodern truth.
Jesus Christ gives meaning in his resurrection to everything.
Without a resurrection, then we make our own meaning.
And so we see again the centrality of the resurrection, the centrality of the kingdom.
And we see it throughout the book of Acts.
The resurrection and the kingdom go together.
Why?
Because Christ is the Messiah and the Messiah implies and involves the idea of kingship.
And he's resurrected to what end?
To be the mediatorial king of the sovereign God, to rule over everything.
We don't just restrict Jesus to what happens inside the walls of the church, to the sermons that we hear on Sundays, to the good choirs that we might hear on Sundays.
The kingship of Jesus Christ and his resurrection then extends beyond the church into all of our living, into our family lives, into the way that we spend our money, into the way that we think about every discipline of academia that you might want to name.
All of that is related to the resurrection of Jesus Christ, that we see that there's an organic reality to this idea of biblical Christianity.
It's not limited to just pietistic sentiments.
It gets into everything that we do as a people.
That is the kingdom of God.
And the kingdom of God is the authority of God in the lives of the believer.
And that kingdom would not be existent if it was not for the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
So he brings in the kingdom.
He saves sinners.
And those sinners being saved have a new allegiance.
And that new allegiance is to the resurrected Christ.
And they walk in terms of that authority.
And because of that, you find people resisting you at every turn.
But Jesus said, what did he say?
He said, if they hated me, what?
They're going to hate you also.
So don't be surprised by that.
He said, he said, blessed are you when you were persecuted and reviled among men.
But he said, count of the blessing, for such as they treated the prophets before you.
And great is your reward in the kingdom of heaven.
And so we bring this resurrection message and we understand the glories of being brought into the kingdom of God, but we understand that now we've been commissioned to a particular task and that is to take out, take the authority of King Christ into every area of life.
And the doing of that is the kingdom of God.
And so again, I press upon the listeners out there to realize that the resurrection and the kingdom are implied in one another.
And we cannot just think of the resurrection of Christ and all the glories of that without the reality of the kingdom that he confirms and he brings in and is now present among God's people.
And so it's a very encouraging, my intent has been to be very encouraging this evening, knowing that we've been enlisted in the armies of the resurrected Christ to be those who continue to advance the lordship of Jesus Christ into every area of life, to realize that our Christianity is not this personal private thing or this thing that exists solely in the church, that our Christianity, because of the resurrected Savior, is something that walks in every area of life.
And that idea is involved in the idea of kingdom Christianity.
I don't know how much more directly I can say that, but this is what's taught throughout the book of Acts as we continue to look at in our time together.
Ladies and gentlemen, that time together ends after one more segment, but please do stay tuned for that.
Pastor Brett McEtee speaking from the heart with God's power behind him.
An incredible message tonight, the night before Resurrection Day.
Stay tuned.
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And then one day I across that river, I'll fight like War, with faith, and faith to victory.
All save alive the glory and the Lord, because we live here.
Holy truth and life is worth the living just because he lives
Pastor Brett, just a quick answer on this before I give the contact information one more time and have you close your message.
But could you face tomorrow?
Would there be a future worth fighting for if he did not live?
No.
If Christ didn't live, everything would be old, dark, and chaos.
I don't know that I'd go about suicide, but I'd certainly contemplate it.
Christ is the one who gives meaning to everything.
And the fact that he lives is my reason, is the church's reason.
It should be all Christians' reason for living.
He is the one who puts reality into reality.
There is no objective center without Christ.
So because he lives, we live.
Therefore, I live, is what Paul said, because Christ lives.
I had the opportunity some years ago, about a decade ago now.
They all blur together now, folks.
Believe me, people would laugh at me talking about middle age.
I know a lot of our listeners are much older.
They still see me as a young son, but I'm 25 years older than I was when I started this thing.
And so now in my mid-40s and a father of three, you look back, but the years do blur together.
And about 10 years ago, the incredible web scene, FaithandHeritage.com, asked me to commissioned me rather to write sort of an autobiographical little piece entitled it My Journey.
You can find it, I think, with a simple Google search, James Edwards, My Journey, Faith and Heritage.
But I talk about some of the things we're talking about tonight.
And if you enjoy the message you're getting tonight, if you're receiving it in the spirit with which it is intended, join Pastor Brett and his congregation for worship online at charlottereformed.org every Sunday morning.
Of course, the first time, Pastor Brett, that you appeared on the show, I was looking this up during the last break, was you've appeared 19 times.
This is actually the 20th appearance.
Yes, can you believe it?
20 times now.
And people would say, well, that's, you know, that's a lot for a show that's been on the air 21 years.
A guy that's been on 20 times.
Your first appearance was in the summer of 2019.
It's just six years ago, and now 20 appearances.
In those first couple of appearances, you were articulating the reconciliation of our faith and heritage and reminding us why in these dark days we still have solid reason to hope and why our politics and what we believe in on this earthly realm are not in conflict with what we believe spiritually.
And I was so impressed and so moved by your appearances.
You for beginning in 2020 have been on every Easter and every Christmas, and then, of course, sometimes in between.
But folks, if you like what you're hearing tonight, go to thepoliticalspool.org as well and just go to our broadcast archives and type into the search query, Brett McAtee.
And you can get all of these things if you want to find out how these things are so compatible and so overlapping as we know them to be.
Pastor Brett, thank you again for your time tonight.
We have a few minutes remaining.
Please conclude your message as we celebrate the resurrection of the living Christ this Easter weekend.
I would just say that it's because I believe in the kingdom of God that I'm trying to communicate here that the resurrected Christ rules over.
It's for that reason that these things are compatible.
In other words, as I said just a few minutes ago, there's an organic unity in our thinking.
We understand that Christianity is not something that's over here in this corner or something that just exists in the church.
Christianity has legs, and those legs express the idea of the kingdom of God that the resurrected Christ rules over.
And so it's because of that organic nature of the kingdom of God that the resurrected Christ rules over that I can speak about the authority of God in these different areas of life that James mentioned.
The kingdom of God has a sway and rule over politics.
It has something to say over the area of economics.
It has something to say about the area of judicial rule, sociology, family life.
And that's all incorporated in this idea of the kingdom of God.
And I would contend that it's only Christians who can think like this.
There is no such thing as conservative apart from being resurrected in Christ.
The notion that you can be conservative apart from Christ is really just ridiculous because it's Christ who gives us a foundation for what it means to be conservative.
So as we continue with looking at the book of Acts, and again, I said at the outset I was painting with a broom, and I'm afraid that that's really been the case.
And maybe if you tune in tomorrow for our worship service, some of this will line up more than I've been able to do in the time we've had together.
But when we look at the Acts and the twin themes of resurrection and kingdom that the apostles are preaching as they go forth, we find the healing incidents throughout the book of Acts.
And we understand that that fits well with this theme that we're talking about because these miracles are done in the name of Christ, the resurrected Christ.
And these miracles bespeak the idea of kingdom.
We don't often understand that or know that.
But we find these all the way through these healings all the way through the gospels and in the book of Acts.
And they're all communicating that the kingdom has come, that the kingdom is present.
We find in a case, just one case in Acts 3, you have the long, lame beggar, and he's begging.
And Peter says, silver and gold I do not have, but what I have, I give to you in the name of Jesus Christ, his Nazareth, walk.
And of course, we know how that ends.
They take him by the right hand, they help him up, and his feet and ankles become strong.
And he goes and he praises God.
And this all bespeaks both, again, resurrection and kingdom, because it's in the name of Christ.
Christ means prophet, priest, and king.
And it bespeaks kingdom because this was a sign that the kingdom had come.
The Old Testament speaks in this way over and over and over again.
I'm taking just one passage.
There are all kinds of them.
But it speaks of the way the kingdom will look like once the Messiah comes.
They're in Isaiah, we're quoting from 35 here, verses 5 and 6.
And when the Messiah comes, or when he comes, that is, they're talking about the Messiah, he will open the eyes of the blind and unplug the ears of the deaf.
The lame will leap like a deer, and those who cannot speak will sing for joy.
Springs will gush forth in the wilderness, and streams will water the wasteland.
Now, here, poetic language is being used, but what the prophet is saying is that when the Messiah has come, then these are the things you're going to see.
And when Christ came and then was resurrected, both before his crucifixion and after his resurrection, we see these miracles, and they're all communicating what?
The resurrected Christ has come and the kingdom has arrived.
And keep in mind, the Jews have been looking for the kingdom for 2,000 years.
But now all that's going on here in the first century with Christ and his ministry and now with the disciples, all that is pronouncing that the king has come, the Messiah has come, the Messiah has arrived, the king is here, he's now resurrected.
We learn then through the gospels.
And the resurrection is raised to the right hand of the Father, and it means that the kingdom is present.
And so when we think about resurrection, we need to be thinking about kingdom, and we need to be thinking about the authority of Christ over every area of life.
And so the thing that we want to emphasize is that the resurrected Christ means the presence of the kingdom is now.
And the reason I keep going back to that, saying that the presence of the kingdom is now, is that there are some schools of thought that want to say that we're still looking forward to the kingdom to happen, that is somehow still in the future.
And what we see throughout the record of the Gospels and the book of Acts, and then going forward from there into the epistles, is we see the ongoing presence of the kingdom.
There is a now, not yet aspect of the kingdom.
It's present now, it's present as a bud, and it's going to continue to bloom over the course of time progressively more and more.
And so we find this now, not yet, but too often Christians are looking at a not yet.
Instead, we need to articulate the nowness of the kingdom and live in terms of the nowness of the kingdom and to be bold for Christ in the context of the nowness, the presence of the kingdom.
Yes, the kingdom hasn't come in all of its fullness yet.
Yes, we still wait for that, but it is present.
It is inaugurated.
The king is ruling now.
And it's ours to say, yes, as resurrected in Christ, we go forward with Christ, pronouncing and living out his kingdom.
Ladies and gentlemen, the message of the resurrection of Christ once again this holy weekend delivered to you by Pastor Brett McAtee.
Check out his church.
If you are in the area there in Michigan, Charlotte Reformed.org, it is in Charlotte, Michigan, and near the Lansing, Michigan general area.
Online at charlotte reformed.org.
We know a lot of people in our audience who tune in online because they can't find a faithful brick and mortar church.