The Kingdom Perspective

Christ Redeemer Church
  • 4.8 (18)
  • CHRISTIANITY
  • UPDATED BIWEEKLY

The Kingdom Perspective is the official podcast of Christ Redeemer Church of Hanover, NH. The podcast exists to disseminate the thought-provoking teaching of CRC to the wider public. If you like what you hear, please pass these on to your friends. Find out more about our church at our website: christredeemerchurch.org.

  1. 5D AGO

    Graduating from the Gospel?

    Transcript:Hello, this is Pastor Don of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective.Over the past hundred years or so, Christians in the West have tended to view the Christian life as steps in a process. Like a manufacturing process, Christians are “developed” step-by-step.Now, there are some aspects of this paradigm that can be helpful, as it recognizes the fact that living the Christian life is indeed a process. It is a “walk” that involves living our lives day-by-day before the face of God. However, it fails in at least one critical point. It usually places believing the gospel as merely the first step in that process. So, for example, it goes something like this… The first step is to believe the gospel.The second step is to understand the basics of the Christian life.The third step is to follow Jesus as a disciple.The fourth step is to… etc., etc.Now, here’s the problem. This way of thinking puts believing Jesus as merely the first step. However, that’s not how the Bible speaks of it. Believing the gospel is an ongoing aspect of living the Christian life. Believing in Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection informs and transforms every moment of my life. The gospel is not just the first step, but the interpretive grid and power for every step.As Zambian pastor Conrad Mbewe puts it: “Christians never graduate from the gospel.” ~Conrad Mbewe, pastor in Lusaka, ZambiaThe moment we get beyond the gospel is the moment we get beyond Jesus. And a Christianity without Christ’s saving and sanctifying work is no Christianity at all.Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective.“And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”~ 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 (ESV)

    2 min

  2. 12/24/2025

    All the Riches of His Love

    Transcript:Hello, this is Pastor Don Willeman of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective.The problem with the gospel of Jesus Christ is that it brings us both the worst news we could ever receive and the best. First the bad news. The apostle Paul sums it up this way: We are dead in our sin (Ephesians 2:1). By “dead” he does not mean that we are inactive. No. Rather, in the context he means that we are born into a human race that is cut off from the life of God. Therefore, our manner of life is an offense to God. We follow the path of the devil, pleasing ourselves and not God (Ephesians 2:2-3). We are “by nature deserving of [God’s] wrath” (Ephesians 2:3). Now, what could possibly be worse than to be told you are on the wrong side of ultimate and eternal justice? This is the unbelievably bad news. But, the gospel doesn’t stop there.Secondly, the gospel then tells us unbelievably good news. Allow me to quote from Ephesians 2. No one has ever said it better:But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved (Ephesians 2:4-5 NIV)This is an amazing truth! But the gospel doesn’t stop there. It is not enough for God to spare us from eternal judgment. He then pours out upon us His own eternal riches. Listen: And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, [Why? In order to remind us forever of our failure? No!] in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.My friend, the problem with the gospel of Jesus is not that it is too negative. The problem is that it is too good to be true. But it is true!Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective.“And you were dead in your offenses and sins, in which you previously walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all previously lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our wrongdoings, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the boundless riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” ~ Ephesians 2:1-9 (NASB)

    2 min

  3. 12/17/2025

    The Athanasian Creed

    Transcript: Hello this is Pastor Don of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective.   One of my favorite ancient creeds, the Athanasian Creed (c. 6th century), though not written by its namesake is nonetheless appropriately attributed to him. Athanasius (A.D. c. 296-373) was the great 4th century church leader who defended the Trinity against false views of God. These false views followed a general pattern of denying or twisting one biblical truth to make it more “rationally compatible” with another. So, for example, if the Bible says there is only one true God, then there cannot likewise be three divine persons. How is it “rational” for God to be both one and three at the same time? The problem of course is that this is precisely what the Bible does claim.    And so, with precision and eloquence the Athanasian Creed* summarizes the divine mystery of the Triune God:   … we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity; Neither confounding the persons nor dividing the divine essence. For there is one person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Spirit.  But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit is all one, the glory equal, the majesty coeternal….   The Father uncreated, the Son uncreated, and the Holy Spirit uncreated.  The Father incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible, and the Holy Spirit incomprehensible.  The Father eternal, the Son eternal, and the Holy Spirit eternal.    And yet they are not three eternal beings but one eternal being As also there are not three uncreated beings nor three incomprehensible beings, but one uncreated and one incomprehensible being.   Well put! Beautiful and true!   Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective.   “And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’” ~ Matthew 28:18-20 (ESV)   *Athanasian Creed 1. Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the catholic faith;  2. Which faith except every one do keep whole and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly.  3. And the catholic faith is this: That we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity; 4. Neither confounding the persons nor dividing the substance. 5. For there is one person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Spirit.  6. But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit is all one, the glory equal, the majesty coeternal.  7. Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Spirit.  8. The Father uncreated, the Son uncreated, and the Holy Spirit uncreated.  9. The Father incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible, and the Holy Spirit incomprehensible.  10. The Father eternal, the Son eternal, and the Holy Spirit eternal.  11. And yet they are not three eternals but one eternal.  12. As also there are not three uncreated nor three incomprehensible, but one uncreated and one incomprehensible.  13. So likewise the Father is almighty, the Son almighty, and the Holy Spirit almighty.  14. And yet they are not three almighties, but one almighty.  15. So the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God;  16. And yet they are not three Gods, but one God.  17. So likewise the Father is Lord, the Son Lord, and the Holy Spirit Lord;  18. And yet they are not three Lords but one Lord.  19. For like as we are compelled by the Christian verity to acknowledge every Person by himself to be God and Lord;  20. So are we forbidden by the catholic religion to say; There are three Gods or three Lords.  21. The Father is made of none, neither created nor begotten.  22. The Son is of the Father alone; not made nor created, but begotten.  23. The Holy Spirit is of the Father and of the Son; neither made, nor created, nor begotten, but proceeding.  24. So there is one Father, not three Fathers; one Son, not three Sons; one Holy Spirit, not three Holy Spirits.  25. And in this Trinity none is afore or after another; none is greater or less than another.  26. But the whole three persons are coeternal, and coequal.  27. So that in all things, as aforesaid, the Unity in Trinity and the Trinity in Unity is to be worshipped.  28. He therefore that will be saved must thus think of the Trinity.  29. Furthermore it is necessary to everlasting salvation that he also believe rightly the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ.  30. For the right faith is that we believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and man.  31. God of the substance of the Father, begotten before the worlds; and man of substance of His mother, born in the world.  32. Perfect God and perfect man, of a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting.  33. Equal to the Father as touching His Godhead, and inferior to the Father as touching His manhood.  34. Who, although He is God and man, yet He is not two, but one Christ.  35. One, not by conversion of the Godhead into flesh, but by taking of that manhood into God.  36. One altogether, not by confusion of substance, but by unity of person.  37. For as the reasonable soul and flesh is one man, so God and man is one Christ; 38. Who suffered for our salvation, descended into hell, rose again the third day from the dead;  39. He ascended into heaven, He sits on the right hand of the Father, God, Almighty;  40. From thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead.  41. At whose coming all men shall rise again with their bodies;  42. and shall give account of their own works.  43. And they that have done good shall go into life everlasting and they that have done evil into everlasting fire. 44. This is the catholic faith, which except a man believe faithfully he cannot be saved.

    2 min

  4. 12/10/2025

    The Trinity

    Transcript: Hello this is Pastor Don of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective.   The Bible tells us two truths that may seem contradictory: 1) there is only one God, and 2) this God exists eternally in a relationship of three persons.   Our Jewish friends, rightly emphasize the “Shema” of Deuteronomy 6:4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one” (“Shema” is the Hebrew word for “Hear” or “Listen”). The God of the Bible was unique among the ancient deities, precisely because He claimed to be the only true God, and therefore demanded sole allegiance. Thus, the Shema continues: “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” There is only one God, He rightful deserves our all!   Yet, the Bible clearly teaches there are three persons who lay claim to this deity. Jesus does: “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30; see also, John 1:1-3). The Holy Spirit does: “Now the Lord is the Spirit…” (2 Corinthians 3:17; see also, Acts 5:3-4). And, of course, the Father does.   But how are we to understand this seeming contradiction? Well, as the church pondered the biblical data, it refused to truncate or twist either truth; both must be taken at full value. There is only one God (one divine essence or being), but that God exists as three persons. So, the Church held firmly to the existence of only one divine essence or being, while likewise holding that this one divine essence is shared equally and fully by three distinct persons. One God in three persons, and three Persons in one God. In other words, as Christians we take God’s self-revelation, at face value, by faith; the true Church believes God’s Word.   And that’s something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective.   “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” ~ Deuteronomy 6:4-9 (ESV)

    2 min

  5. 12/03/2025

    Humility and Truth

    Transcript: Hello! This is Pastor Don of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective!   What is humility? Increasingly in our historical moment, we confuse humility with a relativistic view of truth. We falsely think anyone who believes that there is objective truth or is too confident in what they believe about the truth, by definition, cannot be humble. We assume that the truly humble person would speak like this: “For me, 2 x 2 = 4. But that’s just my personal truth. Far be from me, to impose my viewpoint on others. I’m a humble person.” My friends, this is not humility; it’s the essence of irrationality.   Humility is not taking truth less seriously, but taking ourselves less seriously. Humility is not relativizing the truth. No, humility is recognizing and submitting to it.   Listen to the witty G.K. Chesterton: “What we suffer from today is humility in the wrong place. Modesty has moved from…ambition [and] settled upon…conviction; where it was never meant to be. A man was meant to be doubtful about himself, but undoubting about the truth; this has been exactly reversed….   “We are on the road to producing…[people] too mentally modest to believe in the multiplication table.” ~G.K. Chesterton in the third chapter of Orthodoxy (1908)   Well put!   This false humility is increasingly everywhere. If we are not aware how this enemy has invaded the spirit of our cultural moment, we will unwittingly be sucked in by it.   And that’s something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective.   “But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers. And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven. Neither be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Christ. The greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” ~ Mathew 23:8-12 (ESV)   “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” ~ Micah 6:8 (ESV)

    2 min

  6. 11/25/2025

    Weeping over our Worldliness

    Transcript:Hello, this is Pastor Don of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective.Many indications suggest to us that the church in America is not in good shape. What should we do? We should weep over our worldliness and put our trust in God alone.This sense of brokenness—of knowing our neediness as sinners before a gracious but holy God—should characterize the whole of our lives; but all the more so when we see the kingdoms of our world crumbling all around. This crumbling should remind us that God never intended us to trust in ourselves. He never intended us to put our hope in riches or status. Everything is a gift from God, and it given for the service of God and others. That’s why the New Testament writer James presses us: Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days. (James 5:1-3)What’s the remedy? James tells us: Repentance—turning our trust away from ourselves to God. Listen to what he says:Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you. (James 4:8-10)Note that well: “Humble yourself and God will exalt you.” You see, repentance never ends with sorrow but always moves through sorrow to exaltation. In the Kingdom of God, the way up is always down. Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective.“Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit’— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.’ As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days. Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the righteous person. He does not resist you.”~ James 4:13-5:6 (ESV)

    2 min

  7. 11/20/2025

    Two Concepts of Liberty

    Transcript:Hello, this is Pastor Don of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to “The Kingdom Perspective”.Philosophers speak of two different kinds of freedom. The famed thinker Isaiah Berlin (1909-1997) called these: 1) Negative Liberty/Freedom FROM and 2) Positive Liberty/Freedom TO.“Negative Liberty” or “Freedom From” is perhaps best seen in the political freedom we enjoy in the U.S. We have the Constitutional freedom from governmental or societal coercion in certain areas of our lives. For example, I have the freedom of religion, speech, etc. without the fear of governmental or societal repercussions. In “negative freedom”, I am free to the degree that I do not experience interference from forces outside of my personal will or desire. This “negative freedom” is the bedrock of our civil rights and individual liberties in our modern Western democracies.The second kind of freedom is “Positive Liberty” or the “Freedom To”. Such freedom is the ability to do what I am supposed to do, or to be who I am supposed to be. This kind of freedom implies design. It assumes that I am free only to the degree that I am operating according to my designed purpose. So, for the sake of illustration, a train is free to the degree that it stays on its track, for it was designed to run on tracks. The moment a train goes off the track its ceases to function according to its design and therefore is no longer free.Now, although, “Negative Liberty” is a helpful political concept and arguably necessary to our ability of exercise our “Positive Liberty”, nonetheless, “Positive Liberty”—the freedom to be who I was designed to be—is the true and highest freedom, biblically speaking.You were designed by God for “Positive” freedom. Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective.“He has told you, O man, what is good;And what does the Lord require of youBut to do justice, to love kindness,And to walk humbly with your God?”~ Micah 6:8 (NASB)

    2 min

  8. 11/18/2025

    The Blaise of Jesus’s Love

    Transcript: Hello, this is Pastor Don of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective. Have you ever noticed the tendency of your soul to swing from prideful delight to hopeless despair and then back to pride and then back to despair, and so forth. I don’t think I am alone in this. Whenever we feel like we are measuring up to some standard of moral or social performance, we swell with pride. Then often in the very next moment, we are hit with a glimpse of our failure, and “boom”, we swing to the opposite pole of despair. How are we ever to have stability when we are so easily swayed by our own prideful insecurity and problematic self-assessment? The great 17th century French thinker and mathematician Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) directs us to the person of Jesus Christ. In Jesus we can look at ourselves honestly, because Jesus accepts us as sinners. He welcomes us not in our virtue but in our misery. Listen to how Pascal puts it: “The man who knows God but does not know his own misery, becomes proud. The man who knows his own misery but does not know God, ends in despair.... Knowing Jesus Christ strikes the balance because in him we find both God and our own misery. Jesus Christ is therefore a God whom we approach without pride, and before whom we humble ourselves without despair.” Blaise Pascal reminds us that Jesus is unlike any other god. Jesus knows us through and through, and he loved us in spite of it. He loved us while we were at our worst, while we were yet sinners. Therefore, living before His eyes frees us to look at ourselves honestly, neither cocky nor crushed. Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective. Romans 3 (NIV) 19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. 20 Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin. 21 But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25 God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— 26 he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.

    2 min
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About

The Kingdom Perspective is the official podcast of Christ Redeemer Church of Hanover, NH. The podcast exists to disseminate the thought-provoking teaching of CRC to the wider public. If you like what you hear, please pass these on to your friends. Find out more about our church at our website: christredeemerchurch.org.

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  • Creator
    Christ Redeemer Church
  • Years Active
    2020 - 2025
  • Episodes
    390
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Christ Redeemer Church