The Kingdom Perspective

Christ Redeemer Church
  • 4.8 (19)
  • CHRISTIANITY

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. APR 29

    Ezekiel: Weeping Over the Injustice of Our City

    Transcript:Hello! This is Pastor Don of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective!In the ninth chapter of Ezekiel, the prophet details God’s judgment against the remnant of Jerusalem. In preparation for the judgment God sends a man dressed in linen to mark those that will be spared from the pending judgment. God commands him: “Pass through the city, through Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed in it.” (Ezekiel 9:4). Now, did you catch that? God divides the people between those that “sigh and groan over all the abominations” of the city and those that do not. Then, the judgement of God sweeps through the city slaughtering those who do not mourn over the sin of the city. We learn something here of the fundamental difference between the righteous and the unrighteous. The righteous weep over injustice. The unrighteous do not. The righteous mourn over their sin and the sin of others. The unrighteous do not.The righteous have a tender conscience towards sin and evil, while the unrighteous are hardened cynics. The heart of the righteous breaks over the sins of the city, both individual and societal.But the unrighteous only care for themselves and their own immediate gratification.Now, there is no shortage of sin and evil in our hearts and in our world. And so, to have the posture described here of the righteous (i.e. sighing and groaning over sin) sounds like a rather miserable life. However, remember it was Jesus who taught us: “Blessed [i.e. happy; fulfilled] are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” (Matthew 5:4) Do you mourn over the sin of your city, your nation and your world? Do you mourn over the sins of your own heart?“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective. “Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him.And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.’”~ Matthew 5:1-4 (ESV)

    2 min

  2. APR 22

    God's Goodness and Justice

    Transcript:Hello, this is Pastor Don of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective.The Bible tells us repeatedly that God is good.For example, Psalm 106 commands:“Praise the Lord!Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,for his steadfast love endures forever!” (Psalm 106:1)And again in Psalm 145:9…The Lord is good to all,And His mercies are over all His works.And Psalm 34:8…Oh taste and see that the LORD is good! Now, some may be thinking: “But I thought God was a judge. What about the angry-at-sin part? I thought God was not only good, but also just?”Well, think with me.God’s essential heart towards His creation is not one of punishment—that is corrective/retributive justice. God is not a grumpy god sitting up in heaven thinking: “What fault can I find today? Who can I get irritated with and punish?Certainly, God IS just and He will by NO MEANS allow the guilty to go unpunished (Ex. 34:7), And so, if you are evil-doer, this should make you terrified.But more to the heart of His character, God is “…abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands” (Ex. 34:6-7). From all eternity and to all eternity, God is overflowing with goodness and generosity.Corrective or retributive justice is not at the heart of who God is, but rather is what happens when God’s goodness (His infinite moral excellence) encounters evil (the warping of or rebellion against His goodness). For God to express His goodness in the face of such evil requires Him to punish it—to correct it. Justice is the necessary by-product of His essential goodness. It is God’s goodness that drives him to judge evil. We expect nothing less among our human rulers. How much more the ultimate ruler of heaven and earth!Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective.The Lord said to Moses, “Cut for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. Be ready by the morning, and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai, and present yourself there to me on the top of the mountain. No one shall come up with you, and let no one be seen throughout all the mountain. Let no flocks or herds graze opposite that mountain.” So Moses cut two tablets of stone like the first. And he rose early in the morning and went up on Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him, and took in his hand two tablets of stone. The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation.” And Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped. And he said, “If now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, please let the Lord go in the midst of us, for it is a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance.”~ Exodus 34:1-9 (ESV)

    2 min

  3. APR 15

    A Slave of Desire

    Transcript:Hello, this is Pastor Don of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective.The Bible tells us that true freedom is the ability to love God and obey His law. This only makes sense. If we were made by God and for God, then we are free only to the degree that we are in union with God and His will for us.This is the reason why, even when we are controlled by our desires, if they are not godly desires, we experience bondage. Think for a moment. When you are driven by your own fearful desires, are you free? No, you are a prisoner of fear.When you are driven by your own lustful desires, are you free? No, you are a prisoner of lust.When we are driven by your own envy and greed, are you free? No, you are a prisoner of envy and greed.When you are driven by your own vengeful desires, are you free? No, you are a prisoner of your own angry bitterness.Jesus put it this way: “Whoever sins is a slave of sin.” Sin (i.e. disobedience to God’s law) is the very opposite of what we were designed for. When the desires of our heart are contrary to God’s law, we are enslaved. To the degree sinful desires drive our hearts, to that degree we are not free. This is the irony of addiction. An addicted person is doing what they want. But anyone who has ever been addicted, or seen a loved one struggling with addiction, knows that addiction is anything but freedom. It’s the epitome of bondage. And sin is our ultimate addiction.Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective.“So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?”Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.”~ John 8:31-34 (ESV)

    2 min

  4. APR 8

    God's Goodness from Creation to New Creation

    Transcript:Hello, this is Pastor Don of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective.The Bible tells us that essential to God’s character is His goodness. God is good and, as Psalm 145 reminds us, “The Lord is good to all, and His mercies are over all His works.”In the broad narrative of the Bible, this goodness is seen both in the original creation and in the in the new creation—the new heavens and the new earth.In the Genesis account of creation, God repeatedly pronounces his divine benediction upon all He has made. At the end of each day, He declares it “good”, and then on that final day of creation “very good”! Interestingly, the word “good” is repeated a total of seven times, the number of fullness and completeness. The point? The earth is filled to overflowing with God’s goodness. The Hebrew word for good (tov, as in the Jewish toast “mazel tov”, “good luck”) means pleasant, fitting, and beautiful. It is everything as it should be. God’s dynamic fullness and harmony can be seen everywhere in creation.Likewise, we see this abounding goodness at the end of the Bible in the renewed creation. In Revelation 21 and 22, after the banishment of sin, we find a new heaven and a new earth (Revelation 21:1) with God crying out from His throne “Behold I am making all thing new” (Revelation 21:5). And from that throne of God comes the “river of the water of life” that feeds the “tree of life” that will be for the “healing of the nations” (Revelation 22:1-2).Do you get the picture? In the original creation and in the final re-creation, God is a God overflowing with goodness to His creation.The first and final image of God presented is not a court room of justice, but a throne room of generosity.God was good long before He had to execute justice on evil.And God will be good long after He is done executing justice on evil.Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective.“Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’ So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.And God blessed them. And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’ And God said, ‘Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.’ And it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.~Genesis 1:26-31 (ESV)

    2 min

  5. APR 1

    The Biblical Landscape of Justice

    Transcript:Hello, this is Pastor Don of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective.There is a lot of talk these days about justice, and when we come to the subject of justice and righteousness, we are definitely in the center of biblical territory.This means that it is critical we not assume what justice is, but think long and hard about what the Bible says about it. We must walk through the entirety of the Scripture, repeatedly, until we are deeply familiar with all the contours of God’s justice and what it requires of us.Obviously, I cannot do that it two minutes. Nonetheless, here's a rough map of the territory in four points:First, God is just and righteous.Psalm 11:7 says, “For the LORD is righteous, he loves justice; the upright will see his face.”Revelation 15:3-4...Just and true are your ways,O King of the nations! Who will not fear, O Lord,and glorify your name? For you alone are holy.Second, God requires that we live just and righteous lives. As the prophet Micah says: 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)Now, sadly, because of sin, none of us live up to this. Thus, we are liable to God’s just judgment.Third, no one can escape God’s justice by his own strength.Exodus 34 tells us that God “will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation” (Exodus 34:7).So, finally, what must we do? Look to the cross of Jesus Christ!Why the cross? The only place where God’s justice has been fully satisfied (or ever will be) is at the cross of Jesus Christ. St. Paul tells us that at the cross God satisfied His demands of justice by placing all our unrighteousness on Him. Jesus took the judgment we deserved, so that God’s justice might work for us, not against us. As Paul puts it, in the cross God is both “just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Romans 3:26).The more deeply we live into this story, the more deeply God’s mercy flows through us and into a world desperate for God’s justice to work for them, not against them.And that’s something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective.“Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus..”~ Romans 3:19-26 (ESV)

    2 min

  6. MAR 25

    Be Careful What You Ask For

    Transcript: Hello this is Pastor Don of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective.   You know the expression: Be careful what you ask for? Well, this is certainly true spiritually speaking. Sometimes what you want is the very opposite of what you need. Indeed, what you want can often destroy you.   One of the clearest Bible passages on God’s judgment is found in Romans 1.   The section begins with the statement: “The wrath of God (i.e. the righteous judgment of God) is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth” (Romans 1:18).   Now, we learn from this that God is judging the world right now and that He’s directing that judgment at us, especially when we hide from and twist the truth to fit our own desires—what we want.   Later in the argument Paul explains how exactly God executes this judgment. Does God do it by keeping us from what we want? No, quite the opposite. He does it by giving us what we want. Three times Paul uses some version of the expression, “Therefore God gave them over to the desires of their heart” (1:24, 26, 28). God’s judgment is most furiously just when He gives us what we are asking for.   Now, certainly, this tells us that sin is its own judgment. Every time we take a step toward sin, we are moving toward our own demise. The end goal of sin is our death, eternally and otherwise (Romans 6:23; James 1:14-15). So, if God wants to condemn us, all He need do is let us sink deeper into ourselves and our own foolish desires.   So, my friends, be careful what you ask for.   Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective.   “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.   Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.   For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.   And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.  Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them." ~Romans 1:18-32 (ESV)

    2 min

  7. MAR 18

    God Desires to be Known

    Transcript: Hello. This is Pastor Don Willeman of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective.   Does God want us to know Him? Is God deeply desirous that we would be in a personal relationship with Him? Well, the Apostle Paul told the philosophers in Athens that God created all people on the earth “so that men would seek Him and perhaps reach out for him and find him….” In other words, God created all the nations of the earth, so that they would come to know Him. God created the world and cares for the world, in such a way, that all the different people would seek to know Him and find Him.   The same idea of knowing God is seen in God’s interaction with the Israelites of long ago. They were commanded again and again to KNOW the LORD. Likewise, all throughout the Old Testament every time God did a great and miraculous sign, such as the deliverance of the Hebrews from Egypt, God’s purpose was that His people might KNOW Him. In the words of Exodus 10:2 “…that you may know that I am the LORD.” God wants His people to know Him. He wants us to seek Him and find Him.   In John 4, Jesus gets into a very interesting—and quite personal—conversation with a Samaritan woman. Jesus tells her that God’s purpose in the world is to seek worshippers who will worship Him in Spirit and in truth.   The same is true for us today. God is seeking worshippers who will know Him and love Him. Jesus’s words and the rest of the Bible make this crystal clear.   The only question is are we returning the favor. Are you seeking to know, worship, and love Him?   Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective.   “So Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, ‘Men of Athens, I see that you are very religious in all respects. For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ Therefore, what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything that is in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made by hands; nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might feel around for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us.” ~ Acts 17:22-27 (NASB)

    2 min

  8. MAR 11

    Pornography, Then and Now

    Transcript: Hello, this is Pastor Don Willeman of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective.   With all the changes in Western culture’s view on sex, we often miss the fact that there is nothing new under the sun. Many of the changes we see all about us are really not so “new”, but something quite old. Much of the contemporary sexual ethic is simply a return to pagan Rome.   This is clearly seen in the increasing acceptability and ubiquity of pornography. Pornography is not new. In ancient Rome, pornography was everywhere. It was mainstream. Pornographic art was prominently displayed, maybe especially in respectable upper-class households.   Over the past 70 years or so, as the prevalence of pornography has risen, many saw it as progress. It was believed that, for the first time in history, we were finally ridding ourselves of the regressive ethic of tradition and religion. What we failed to see is that this was not progress but regress. It was a return to Rome. We were not “back to the future”, but back to the past.   This push toward sensuality, just like in ancient Rome, drives us to see one another as mere objects to fulfill our sordid fantasies, instead of bearers of God’s holy image, to be cherished and honored. Sexual desire without limits trains our hearts to see one another as mere commodities to be used for selfish ends. This is not the biblical view of sex, and I don’t think it’s the sort of world we should want to live in.   Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective.   “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” ~Galatians 5:16-24 (ESV) Additional Resources: https://www.ccef.org/resources?topic=sexual-purity&utm_source=CCEF&utm_campaign=7b95d926de-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2024_02_22_24&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-85c92eaebb-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D&mc_cid=7b95d926de

    2 min
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4.8
out of 5
19 Ratings

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.

Information

  • Creator
    Christ Redeemer Church
  • Years Active
    2020 - 2026
  • Episodes
    391
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Christ Redeemer Church

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