I was asked a good question by a friend. I like questions. They send me searching into the Bible and I spend happy moments or hours delving into the mysteries of God in the Bible to unearth a Spirit-filled answer. The question was, did Jesus offer animal sacrifices at the Temple, even though HE was going to be the sacrifice? And was sinless?
After some thought and biblical research, this was my answer. As for Jesus offering animal sacrifices, I am not personally aware of any scene in the Bible that depicts this, but I am pretty sure that He did. How can I be pretty sure?
First, Jesus lived the Law perfectly–
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” (Mt 5:17)
Though the Bible does not offer extensive information about the early or childhood life of Jesus, there are a few glimpses of Jesus and His keeping of the Law. We know his parents Joseph and Mary kept the Law, and they taught Jesus to do the same. The pair came to the temple on the 8th day after Jesus birth to fulfill the Law of Moses (Luke 2:21-22).
Skip forward to a few years, we know the family went up to Jerusalem to fulfill the Law concerning the festivals. (Luke 2:41-42). And Jesus was submissive to his parents in all things [according to the Commandment honor thy parents]. (Luke 2:51)
Jesus was baptized, certainly He did not need to go through a ritual that represented repentance and cleansing from sin! But He did.
“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Cor 5:21).
This means that God treated Jesus AS a sinner, even though He was not.
So therefore we can extrapolate that He likely also performed sacrifices when He came to the proper age. If He didn’t do sacrifices, He would not have fulfilled the Law as Matthew recorded Jesus statement. Animal sacrifices foreshadowed Christ’s sacrifice on our behalf and Jesus performing the sacrifices was still a picture of that, until the cross and the torn veil in the Temple.
“Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29b).
The above photo was on Twitter and I liked it. There has been a brouhaha these last few weeks over the sensitivity of college aged youth and their tolerance levels. I’ve watched this thing unfold, with different articles coming out, different opinions on social media…and I’ve been thinking.
It seems like every week there’s a new horror story of political correctness run amok at some college campus. A warning not to wear culturally insensitive Halloween costumes sparked an imbroglio at Yale, which went viral over the weekend. A lecturer asked in an e-mail, “Is there no room anymore for a child to be a little bit obnoxious . . . a little bit inappropriate or provocative or, yes, offensive?” Students went ballistic. When an administrator (who is the lecturer’s spouse) defended free speech, some students wanted his head. One student wrote in a Yale Herald op-ed (now taken down): “He doesn’t get it. And I don’t want to debate. I want to talk about my pain.”
Their pain. Their pain is king. ‘All I want to do is talk about meeeee.’ There is a new movement afoot on colleges to allow students to ‘opt-out’ of an assignment if it is too sensitive for them to handle and causes too much pain.
Some colleges are now instituting a ‘trigger warning’ that some material may be sensitive for students who have experienced trauma. In the article below, notice some of the listed content that may trigger a warning: “colonialism”. Depictions of colonialism are deemed sensitive material, enough so that students are warned about it prior, so they can opt out? In my day material covering colonialism was called “history.” [Ed. Note: in the following article the professor quoted is this author’s sister].
That doesn’t sound too threatening, but a September article in the The Atlantic magazine argues the use of these content advisories, taken to the extreme on college campuses, effectively “coddles” students by shielding them from ideas and words they may find unpleasant. Oberlin College in Ohio, for example, had recommended that professors include an advisory when assigning Chinua Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart” because students may be triggered by its depictions of “racism, colonialism, religious persecution, violence [and] suicide.”
Todd Friel has some information about the coddling of America in this 7 minute video.
I was amused by a viral video of a mom of a school-aged student ranting about the elementary school car rider line. Some parents who choose to drive their children to school rather than put them on the bus are also choosing to be a traffic hazard and endanger others so that they can drop off their children at the closest door rather than have their child walk an extra 50 feet. Then I was reminded of the documentary called On the Way To School, where children in four different countries are chronicled getting to school and overcoming hazards way worse than walking an extra 50 after being personally driven by mommy- like avoiding being eaten by lions, or pushing your brother in a wheelchair over dirt and miry clay 10 miles, or walking up and down whole MOUNTAIN RANGES. The documentary shows kids from South America, India, Africa and Morocco walking to school in extreme conditions- just for the privilege of being educated.
And the American children who are driven to school and dropped off in the car rider line grow up to be the wimps who opt out of a college level assignment because they are allegedly traumatized by colonialism.
The sensitive college students problem has also infiltrated Christian universities. These same sentiments are appearing in Christian schools and becoming a problem for Christians outside universities, as noted by Friel in the video above and in Dr. Piper’s message below. Those who are offended by colonialism, or, words, will certainly be offended by the Gospel! Yet there has been some push-back regarding the hot house flower sensitivity of these American college students at a Christian University, by President of Oklahoma Wesleyan University wrote,
This past week, I actually had a student come forward after a university chapel service and complain because he felt “victimized” by a sermon on the topic of 1 Corinthians 13. It appears that this young scholar felt offended because a homily on love made him feel bad for not showing love. In his mind, the speaker was wrong for making him, and his peers, feel uncomfortable.
I’m not making this up. Our culture has actually taught our kids to be this self-absorbed and narcissistic. Any time their feelings are hurt, they are the victims. Anyone who dares challenge them and, thus, makes them “feel bad” about themselves, is a “hater,” a “bigot,” an “oppressor,” and a “victimizer.”
I have a message for this young man and all others who care to listen. That feeling of discomfort you have after listening to a sermon is called a conscience. An altar call is supposed to make you feel bad. It is supposed to make you feel guilty. The goal of many a good sermon is to get you to confess your sins—not coddle you in your selfishness. The primary objective of the Church and the Christian faith is your confession, not your self-actualization.
So here’s my advice:
Read the rest of his message for his advice. So what does this mean for Christians? The most basic and literal meaning is that when we proclaim the Gospel, the FULL Gospel, which includes discussion of sin and judgment, it will not be tolerated. At all. The article above says caving in to trigger warnings and opting out ‘effectively “coddles” students by shielding them from ideas and words they may find unpleasant.’ And the Gospel is the most unpleasant news there can be until the Good News is added to it. If they find mere college content unpleasant, how will it be when a Christian tells them they are sinners, angering God every day and headed for judgment and hell? It won’t be tolerated, at all, and not just from cultural pressure or outcry. By law.
Secondly and more symbolically, since leak-over occurs from the world to the faith all the time and our Christian youth will be affected, it means we have wimpy soldiers of the faith to look forward to. I think of the youth in the Bible and wonder where our stalwart soldiers of the faith are going to come from. The Lord our God is always raising up youth for His name, but it seems to me they are becoming scarcer, these brave and strong men and women of the faith.
David was a young man, a boy really, and he was a shepherd. What that means is he was in the rugged outdoors all day and all night. He watched over the sheep and protected them from bears and wolves and lions at the risk of his own life, with only a rod and a slingshot for a weapon. He walked miles and miles leading them to different pastures because grass was scarce. He was alone, out in the open, and had a great responsibility. It is estimated David was between 13 and 15 years old when he was anointed. (1Sam 16:12-13). And then, David slew Goliath. And some youth today are upset because words hurt their feelings.
Timothy was young. Paul admonished Timothy not to let anyone despise him because of his youth. Timothy was pastor and leader of a church with all that entailed, especially the honor of preaching the everlasting Gospel. Timothy was urged despite his relative youth to be so Godly that his life would be a pattern for others to imitate.
Mary was young, maybe 14 or 15, when the angel Gabriel told her she was going to be pregnant. This is normally an event that destroys lives. Yet she humbly said ‘Let it be done to me as God wills’, then at 9 month gestation, got on a donkey and rode to Bethlehem, then fled to Egypt.
Daniel was young, very young when he was taken in Babylonian captivity. Those taken were being groomed for service, these young moldable youths. Except Daniel was not moldable. He refused the wine and foods because ingesting them would have defiled him. hHe brought his complaint respectfully to the authority, politely asking to be excused from eating and drinking it, but still, in the face of enormous pressure to cave in, Daniel rejected the training and stood for God. (Daniel 1:8). And some youths these days are upset at a sermon on love because it pricked their conscience. Some young men say all they want to do is talk about their pain. Their thoughts go no higher than their own navel gazing.
In reading widely about this trigger warning and trauma pain the sensitive snowflakes are going on about, I notice that when professors tend to use trigger warnings it is due to graphic sexual content. They assign novels that contain sexual violence or graphic sexual scenes among lesbians or homosexuals. In my opinion, the problem is not that trigger warnings are necessary, it is that the trauma-triggering material is even being presented in the first place. For those who are traumatized by violence, then learning about the Civil War, or the Cambodian Killing Fields should be a problem. Yet most professors do not use trigger warnings for that content. But assigning novels to impressionable youth containing multiple rape scenes is OK? I don’t think so.
The prophecy says,
For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, (2 Timothy 3:2)
Below is where we are headed. This is a very true and chilling preview of what American higher education is coming to. And for all that, we who have the holy and pure Spirit inside of us, rest assured He will strengthen us and make us stand, just as He did with David and Mary and Timothy and David. Our home is not on earth but in heaven. We have an opportunity to be like Timothy, live a life that others would want to pattern after us, a noble, upright, strong life- In Christ. While the rest of the world sinks into a victim mentality, let us be overcomers displaying a victor mentality. Through God, we truly can do anything.
The video below is 7 minutes and I recommend seeing it.
Modern Educayshun Neel Kolhatkar’s “Modern Educayshan” gives us a glimpse into the future of American education if things keep going on their present course. If you watch the first 1:20, you’ll see why this video is striking a chord among citizens who fear what our schools and universities are becoming.
But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men. 30The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. 31God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. 32And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.” (Acts 5:29-32). tot he During this long Thanksgiving Break, I’ve listened to many sermons. i Heard a good sermon on the aspect of Jesus as Prince. On Expositor.fm my usual morning line-up to which I dedicate some time in the AM includes wonderful sermons from Barnhouse, Boice, MacArthur, or Lloyd-Jones. A sermon from Acts 5:29-32 delivered by Martyn Lloyd-Jones struck me. Two Lines of History, looked at Jesus as Prince over governments.
The following represents my personal interpretation & spiritual absorption of the Acts verses and the exposition of them.
We must obey God rather than men is not a license to run amok and freely break the law and become rebellious, of course. God instituted Governments. He is sovereign over them. What is meant here is that where a choice comes to obey God OR man, we obey God. That was the choice given to Peter and he chose wisely.
The concept is, Jesus is savior but also Prince- Governor of nations! He is the Prince of the Universe, thee only one who can govern, the only one who has a right to govern, the only one who is going to govern. But the world rejects this. It needs to be convinced of this, convicted of it.
Of man’s history, man’s government, what are the characteristics of this? It is quite clear in history and in the bible is that government has been appropriated by man who rejects the voice Divine. Despite all of man’s efforts to produce order, the jungle is always encroaching. Man sweats, labors, cuts back the jungle of immorality and yet strife, lawlessness, dictatorships, wars always encroach.
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon is a monumental work. He listed five reasons why civilizations decline and fall.
1. The undermining of the dignity and sanctity of the home, which is the basis of human society.
2. Higher and higher taxes and the spending of public money for free bread and circuses for the populace.
3. The mad craze for pleasure; sports are becoming more and more exciting and brutal every year.
4. The building of gigantic armaments when the real enemy was within the decadence of the people.
5. The decay of religion–faith fading into mere form, losing touch with life, and becoming impotent to warn and guide the people.
(Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, 1787).
Geographically, Paul was a resident of Jerusalem but a citizen of Rome. Spiritually we are residents of Georgia (or Kentucky or Washington) but our citizenry is in heaven. We owe respect and allegiance to those whom God has set over us in government, but our highest loyalty is toward the Prince of Governments.
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this. (Isaiah 9:6-7)
Let us sort out out our loyalties and allegiances. Let us look inward in order to prepare for a moment which may come to us as it did to Peter, and make our decisions regarding God and man.Will we obey man, or will we obey the Prince of Government?
A polling station, with watchful Jesus over the government…EPrata photo
A man is building a clock in the West Texas Mountains that will keep time for 10,000 years. It is a 10,000 year clock, and the foundation supporting this enterprise is called The Long Now.
Designed by Danny Hillis, the Clock is designed to run for ten millennia with minimal maintenance and interruption. The Clock is powered by mechanical energy harvested from sunlight as well as the people that visit it. The primary materials used in the Clock are marine grade 316 stainless steel, titanium and dry running ceramic ball bearings. The entire mechanism will be installed in an underground facility in west Texas.
Why is this man building a clock that will keep time for 10,000 years? Well, why does any man do anything? Why did they climb Everest? Why do they go down to the sea in ships? Why do they tramp the Arctic?
But this man, why is he building a long now clock?
I wanted a symbol of the future, in the same way that the pyramids are a symbol of the past. I wanted to build something that gave us that sense of connection.
I’m Danny Hillis and I’m building a clock that will last for 10,000 years. ..One of the ways we keep the clock accurate is that we synchronize it to the sun… Exactly at solar noon the chimes begin to play. … They worked out a way of ringing ten bells in a different sequence each day, for ten thousand years. … We’re invested in generational thinking, and answering the question, ‘were we good ancestors?’
There’s a problem of people not believing in the future, a long-term clock challenges those short-term civilizational stories. I’m very optimistic about the future. I’m not optimistic because I think our problems are small. I’m optimistic because I think our capacities are great.
To see the Clock you need to start at dawn, like any pilgrimage. Once you arrive at its hidden entrance in an opening in the rock face, you will find a jade door rimmed in stainless steel, and then a second steel door beyond it. These act as a kind of crude airlock, keeping out dust and wild animals. You rotate its round handles to let yourself in, and then seal the doors behind you. It is totally black. You head into the darkness of a tunnel a few hundred feet long. At the end there’s the mildest hint of light on the floor. You look up. There is a tiny dot of light far away, at the top of top of a 500 foot long vertical tunnel about 12 feet in diameter. There is stuff hanging in the shaft.
And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. 4Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” (Genesis 9:3-4)
The first part of the Clock you encounter on the ascent up the spiral staircase is the counterweights of the Clock’s drive system. This is a huge stack of stone disks, about the size of a small car, and weighing 10,000 pounds. Depending on when the clock was last wound, you may have to climb 75 feet before you reach the weights.
You keep climbing. For the next 70-80 feet of ascent you pass 20 huge horizontal gears (called Geneva wheels), 8 feet in diameter, each weighing 1,000 pounds. This is the mechanical computer that calculates the over 3.5 million different melodies that the chimes will ring inside the mountain over the centuries.
And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. 6And the LORD said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. 7Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.” (Genesis 9:5-7)
This is what happens when man worships created things instead of the Creator. Man has an inherent notion of time. Man knows he is in a great slip-stream current of time, connected to those who have passed before us and linked to those yet to come. That is because God has put eternity into man’s heart. (Ecclesiastes 3:11). Man seeks the great questions, desires to know the end of things, wants to achieve greatness under the sun- or on the plains of Shinar.
The 10,000 year clock’s design and these beginning moments of its construction are truly remarkable. That men could design such a thing does seem to indicate a nearly bottomless well of capacity for accomplishment. Yet man’s capacity is only as deep or as long as the Holy God allows it, as we know the end of the story of the Tower of Babel. What the 10,000 year clock really is, is a monument to man. What a shame to use all that money, time, skill, and labor for something that is really an ode to man.
What blessings he has given us to enter His courts and see the angelic beings with wheels within wheels, TRUE machinery that lasts ten thousand upon tens of thousands of years, eternities. What greatness He has bestowed on us to hear the trumpet and harps and worship songs that are the chimes of heaven.
In Jesus we have the eternal questions answered. We know that we know we are in His slip-stream of time and in the current that is endless and infinite. We know we are good ancestors because He is our father, the root ancestor, having in us His greatness. Apart from Him we can do nothing, but in Him we can do whatever His will allows and sustains in us to do. From man’s perspective, the clock in the mountain in West Texas is a remarkable thing. It really is. Personally, I’m in awe of it and wonderstruck at the men who are creating it. From God’s perspective it is a mote on a gnat on a flea. My true awe is of the God who invented time. What a blessing He gave His children the eternal answers. We do not have the restlessness of clockmakers, but possess an eternal peace. In Him, in heaven, there is no time, and no need for clocks.
I attended High School between 1974 and 1978. It was an excellent high school, offering high-end academics, a thriving sports program, a beautiful campus, and star teachers. To us, though, it was just high school, and the best thing about it was none of those things.
It was Senior Privileges.
Seniors were allowed entry to spaces in the school that no other students were allowed to enter. These spaces were severely restricted, and anyone who was not senior was barred.
For example, the Health Room was once a senior-only room, and was furnished with couches, a television, and refrigerator, if you can believe it. Even more unbelievable in this generation’s health-conscious era, of the area of the school’s inner courtyard where three brick walls connect was once reserved as a smoking area for students. Smoking is now banned on the entire campus.
I never took advantage of those privileges but there were two others that I enjoyed.
Seniors during the 1970’s and 1980’s could sign themselves in and out of school. If we had a study hall first period of the day, we were able to come in late. We were able to sign out of school in the case of a last period study hall. I used to sign out and go to McDonald’s and get breakfast, which was a new offering back then. McDonald’s introduced the Egg McMuffin in 1972 and a full breakfast in 1977. That was the year I became a senior and the novelty of the McMuffin and hash browns was too luscious to resist. I signed myself out of study hall and drove to get breakfast a la McD’s style, also bringing back orders for friends who didn’t have a car.
But the greatest privilege to me was that seniors-only could use the courtyard. The courtyard was not an arborist’s dream. It was a scrubby place, not really a greenspace, just well-worn paths amid gasping grass, concrete benches, the aforementioned smoking area, and some trees. But the school was large and being able to cut down travel time between classes to beat the bell was extremely compelling. Plus only seniors could go there.
All the Freshmen knew about senior privileges. We’d look upon the seniors emerging from the courtyard with awe, and excitedly talk about the day we, too, would be allowed entry into this most prized restricted area. I don’t have enough words to relate to you the thirst, angst, and yearning for senior privileges. WE were blocked out, but THEY could go hang out! They could go in and come out! They could remain in a private area just for them! We wanted that!
Courtyard at Hotel Inca Real, Cuenca, Ecuador. EPrata photo
The parallel to God’s courts is the point I want to make here. Do we possess the same fervency to be in God’s courts? Do we yearn for the privilege of being in His courts?
The Psalmist said,
For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. (Psalm 84:10)
The righteous man will flourish like the palm tree, He will grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Planted in the house of the LORD, They will flourish in the courts of our God. (Psalm 92:12-13)
Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name! (Psalm 100:4)
I know when the time comes to enter His fabulously luxuriant and holy courts, it will be with thanksgiving and praise. But until then, do we yearn for His home, which is our home? Do we look with joy and anticipation when it will finally be our turn to enter the restricted area, the private area reserved for only those chosen? Do we crave to be there, enjoying the privilege of being in His court?
I can’t imagine what it will look like or what it will be like to enter His courts. The Bible tells us that we can’t conceive of it. My juvenile mind could not conceive of any privilege or any courtyard sweeter than the High School Courtyard reserved for those of a certain age. Just as now, my juvenile Christian mind cannot conceive of a courtyard sweeter or more tranquil that, say, the one at the Hotel Inca Real in Cuenca Ecuador, adorned with plants, tiled floors, resting benches, beauty and peace.
But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”– (1 Corinthians 2:9)
But I can and do joyfully anticipate His courts even without being able to visualize them. It is quite humbling to think of Jesus preparing this place for us.
We know Jesus is the Man-God. His divinity was on display when He healed, did miracles, or taught with such authority that the hearers were astounded.
His human nature was on display when He was weary (John 4:6), hungry (Mark 11:12), or thirsty (John 19:28).
When Jesus appeared before the magistrate, Pilate said to the crowd, Behold the man. Here is the verse:
So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Behold the man!” (John 19:5)
Most of us are familiar with that phrase, and that momentous event in the life of Jesus. But did you know that Zechariah said it first? In one of the many visions God gave the prophet Zechariah, the phrase appears. Thus Pilate’s utterance was a fulfillment of an Old Testament picture pointing to a New Testament truth.
And say to him, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, “Behold, the man whose name is the Branch: for he shall branch out from his place, and he shall build the temple of the LORD. (Zechariah 6:12)
Though the vision actually shows Joshua being crowned, it is in reality a picture of the crowning of Jesus. The Jamieson Fausset Commentary explains further:
Behold, the man—namely, shall arise. Pilate unconsciously spake God’s will concerning Him, “Behold the man” (Jn 19:5). The sense here is, “Behold in Joshua a remarkable shadowing forth of Messiah.” It is not for his own sake that the crown is placed on him, but as type of Messiah about to be at once king and priest. Joshua could not personally be crowned king, not being of the royal line of David, but only in his representative character.
[Source: Jamieson, R., Fausset, A. R., & Brown, D. (1997). Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (Vol. 1, p. 723). Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.]
Roy Gingrich’s outlines on the prophetic books are helpful here explaining Zechariah’s vision of Joshua’s crowning, and the Heavenly utterance “Behold the Man whose name is the branch!”
THE SYMBOLISM OF THE CROWNING OF JOSHUA
The crowning of Joshua, a priest, with a regal crown symbolizes the future crowning of Christ, a priest (after the order of Melchisedec), with a regal crown (as Israel’s and the world’s, King) at His Second Advent.
During Christ’s earthly ministry, He was crowned with a crown of thorns, Matt. 27:29; during His present sitting at His Father’s right hand, He is crowned with a crown of glory and honor, Heb. 2:9; at His Second Advent, He will be crowned with many crowns, Rev. 19:12 (as the King of Israel, Matt. 27:37, and as the King of all the earth’s Kings, Rev. 19:16).
THE PROPHECIES CONCERNING THE MESSIAH (Zechariah 6:12, 13, 15)
(Here we have one of the Old Testament’s most complete, yet concise, prophecies concerning the person, the office, and the work of the coming Messiah.)
1. The Messiah will be the antitype of Joshua (6:12).
To “behold the man,” Joshua, was to “behold the man,” the Messiah, for the one is typical of the other. The Jews, at Christ’s first advent, “beheld the man,” the Messiah, crowned with thorns, John 19:5. The Jews, at Christ’s second advent, will “behold the man,” the Messiah, crowned with many crowns, crowns of glory, Rev. 19:12. See the four “beholds,” Zech. 6:12; Isa. 42:1; Zech. 9:9; Isa. 40:9.
[Source: Gingrich, R. E. (1999). The Books of Haggai and Zechariah (p. 34). Memphis, TN: Riverside Printing.]
Here are the four Beholds Mr Gingrich mentioned.
Behold the Man!
And say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, “Behold, the man whose name is the Branch: for he shall branch out from his place, and he shall build the temple of the Lord. (Zechariah 6:12)
Behold the Servant!
Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations. (Isaiah 42:1)
Behold the King!
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. (Zechariah 9:9)
Behold your God!
Go on up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good news; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good news; lift it up, fear not; say to the cities of Judah, “Behold your God!”(Isaiah 40:9)
We’re entering the Thanksgiving season, and gratitude and thankfulness are much on our minds. I am thankful for the fact that I shall behold Him! All knees will bow and all tongues will confess, meaning all peoples will behold Him, their God. But I’m grateful I shall behold Him as one who is forgiven by His grace, not ashamed or crushed by fear – but worshiping Him rightly- in Spirit and in truth. My gratitude for Him having delivered the means by which to dwell in righteousness now and forever and to behold His face in love knows no bounds. Brethren, WE SHALL BEHOLD HIM, OUR MAN-GOD, Savior, Lord and King!
The LORD is obviously preparing the world for His Son’s return. Though this preparation has been ongoing since the Fall, since before the foundation of the world even, it seems to me to be accelerating of late.
I love bluegrass Gospel music. Posted below is the Paul Williams Trio with their song Lord I’ve Never Been This Homesick Before. Remember, we have a job to do on earth, but it is not our home and it is not our final job. We are aliens and strangers here.
The lyrics:
First Verse There’s a light in the window And the table’s set in splendor Someone’s standing by the open door I can see a crystal river Oh I must be near forever And I’ve never been this homesick before
Chorus See the bright light shine It’s just about home time I can see my Father standing at the door This world has been a wilderness I’m ready for deliverance Lord, I’ve never been this homesick before Second Verse
I can see the family gather Sweet faces, there all familiar But no one’s old or feeble anymore Oh this lonesome heart is cryin’ Think I’ll spread my wings for flyin’ Lord, I’ve never been this homesick before
I wrote this in October 2009. It bears repeating. 🙂
“For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.” (Romans 11:25)(NAS) (Above, poster source)
Paul writing to the Romans here assuring them of the fact of it happening but reminding them that it will not happen until a certain “number” has come in. And after that, Israel’s spiritual blindness will be lifted. The NIV translation states, “full number.” The full number refers to a nautical term, that a ship cannot sail until the required number of sailors had been signed on. And ‘come in’, well, who has not heard of the old saying, “My ship has come in”?
In 1806 the British Parliament passed an act releasing ships from having to stay in port until the ‘full number’ has been reached, and allowing them to sail to certain ports with less than their ship’s required complement. In Dixon Kemp’s “Manual of Yacht and Boat Sailing and Architecture” (11th and final edition, 1913) the “full number is defined as “Complement.– The full number; the whole ship’s crew.” These two examples really have nothing directly related to the scripture in Romans, except to present original documents that show the term is indeed nautical and number-driven.
In Mark 13:32, Jesus told the Apostles, “But of that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.” Many Christians take this to mean that since we cannot know the day nor the hour, we should not study end time prophecies. Others say that they are simply unknowable. But these notions are incorrect. Kelley again explains, using scripture, that the ‘day nor hour’ refers to the very end, the Second Coming of Jesus after the tribulation. As for the Rapture, we are actually commanded to watch, to look, and to encourage each other as we wait. The Crown of Righteousness is reserved for those Christians who have actively longed for His appearing.
In reality, there are several things Christians can do to hasten His coming, in reaching that pre-determined number. One is to witness, and the other is to pray. If we have shared the Gospel with an unbeliever, we should pray for that person to receive it on a prepared heart and through the drawing of the Holy Spirit. The fullness of the Gentiles will come in when that last person claims the gift of grace, so witnessing and prayer are key in that process. If we never share the Good News then obviously it will take longer to reach the “fullness.” (Though God already knows when that will be.)
Since there is not a date on which God has said the Rapture will take place, praying for it to occur will not violate His precepts and it even confirms them. When we pray we are being obedient to Him who wants to hear from us. In Luke 18:1-7, Jesus told a parable about how important it is to persevere in prayer. (The Widow and the Judge). So pray for hearts to receive His Gospel and for Him to gather his sheep from the coming storm!
We are commanded to witness, (Matthew 28:19), and we are commanded to ask, to seek, and to knock, (Mt 7:7-8). Ask the Lord for His soon return, and then go out into this fine day and share the Good News. Who knows, the person you lead to Christ might just be the one destined to complete the number, and then the ship will sail!
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) – Workers have started to remove a granite monument of the Ten Commandments from the Oklahoma Capitol grounds. A contractor the state hired began removing the monument around 10:30 p.m. Monday. Its removal comes after the Oklahoma Supreme Court determined the display violates a constitutional prohibition on the use of public property to support a “system of religion.”
As my friend Pastor James Bell wrote of this,
MULTITUDES IN THE LAND, in and out of churches, are openly displaying utter hatred of the true and living God. They take counsel together against Almighty God. GOD SHALL LAUGH. GOD SHALL SPEAK IN HIS WRATH… BLESSED ARE THOSE WHO PUT THEIR TRUST IN JESUS! (Psalm 2)
And yet the pagan monuments to Molech of abortuaries, football stadiums, shrines to Buddha/Shiva/Allah grow and flourish all over the globe.
This is the world we live in.
In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. (2 Corinthians 4:4)
Satan is god of this world, but not forever. Not for long. What a blessed day when all believers from the first moment in time are finally gathered and we dwell with the Most Holy in perfection, and no thing and no person curses or blasphemes Jesus ever again. He will cleanse the world and make it new. Until then, we pray Jesus will remove the scales from many eyes and that multitudes will come to faith.
The next event on God’s scheduled plan will be the rapture. After that the wrath will be released in the Tribulation, Armageddon will occur at the end of it upon Jesus’ return, the Millennial Kingdom will be established, satan will be bound during that time, then after 1000 years satan will be let out and there will be one more rebellion and then the eternal state will begin with New Jerusalem descending to a new hearth through a new heaven. But next up, the rapture.
It is a glorious event in which all saints should be anticipating eagerly. It doesn’t matter that the fact of the rapture was revealed by Paul via Jesus and the Spirit in his letter to the Thessalonians and not by Jesus in His incarnation. It doesn’t matter that the rapture has been imminent for almost 2000 years and has not occurred yet. All that matters is that it is promised to every believer that at one point we will be called home, sail through the air, glorified bodily and be with Jesus forever.
Here are some verses for you about the coming glorification of the saints via the rapture. I pray they encourage you.
For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. (1 Thessalonians 4:16).
by way of exposition, intimating what is to be the nature of that arousing shout — that the archangel will discharge the office of a herald to summon the living and the dead to the tribunal of Christ. ~John Calvin
Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. (1 Corinthians 15:51-53).
The New Testament is consistent in its anticipation that the return of Christ might occur at any moment. That pervading perspective of imminence prompts three questions. The first question pertains to whether the Tribulation will precede Christ’s coming for the church. The answer to that question is that it will not because the church is never asked to look forward to the tribulation, but they are asked to look forward to Christ’s coming. The second question revolves around how the return of Christ could have been imminent in the early church. The answer here is that no one but the Father knows when the coming will occur, so that Christians including the early church must always be ready. The third question asks why Christ’s imminent return is so important. This answer relates to the motivation it supplies for believers to purify their lives and thereby progress toward the goal of sanctification and Christlikeness. The threefold call of the imminence doctrine is to wake up and obey right now, to throw off the works of darkness, and to put on the garments of holy living. ~John MacArthur
But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. (Philippians 3:20-21)
Why is it necessary that we should have a body? Well, in our last meeting, I made reference to one of the texts that Paul uses in Romans chapter 8, which at least gives us an understanding of why, in biblical doctrine, it’s important that we have the resurrection of the body. And we’ve made the point over and over again that when we talk about resurrection, we’re not talking about living again spiritually. We’re talking about the resurrection of the body. Many theologians have said this, but it bears saying again. If we do not speak of the resurrection of the body, we should not speak of the resurrection at all. It is the resurrection of the body — now, not the present body in the sense that it will be characterized by corruptibility and all of the weaknesses of our aging body. We’re talking about the resurrection body, the spiritual body. A true continuity with this body but, nevertheless, different. The resurrection of the body that is a spiritual body connected with this body is the teaching of the word of God.
So one of the great hopes of the Christian is not simply that he’s to enter heaven, but he’s to enter heaven with a redeemed body, his body resurrected, a beautiful, glorious body, Scriptures tell us, “Like our Lord’s own glorious body.” So that’s our hope. That’s why there is such a thing as the resurrection of the body, and that’s why it’s important for us to understand that. ~S. Lewis Johnson
Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.(1 Thessalonians 4:17)
I shall view our text, in order to our comfort at this time, in three lights. I look upon it, first, as a continuance—we are with the Lord even now and we always shall be. Secondly, as an advancement we shall, before long, be more fully with the Lord than we are now. And thirdly, as a coherence—for we both are and shall be with Him in a close and remarkable manner. ~Charles Spurgeon
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. (John 14:3)
Here are three words, upon any of which stress may be laid. Upon the word troubled. Be not cast down and disquieted. The word heart. Let your heart be kept with full trust in God. The word your. However others are overwhelmed with the sorrows of this present time, be not you so. Christ’s disciples, more than others, should keep their minds quiet, when everything else is unquiet. Here is the remedy against this trouble of mind, Believe. By believing in Christ as the Mediator between God and man, we gain comfort. The happiness of heaven is spoken of as in a father’s house. There are many mansions, for there are many sons to be brought to glory. Mansions are lasting dwellings. Christ will be the Finisher of that of which he is the Author or Beginner; if he have prepared the place for us, he will prepare us for it. ~Matthew Henry
waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. (Titus 2:13)
Meanwhile, we live between those two advents—the two “appearings.” At the end of verse 12 Paul refers to that time-span between the two appearings as “the present age.” So he points us to the past, when “the grace of God . . . appeared.” He wants us to live “in the present age”—exemplifying the virtues of grace in the hectic here and now. And he wants us to keep an eye expectantly on the future, as we “[wait] for our blessed hope,” the return of God, our Savior in His full resplendence—which will be the final culmination of both grace and glory.
In other words, there are past, present, and future dimensions to grace, and the present dimension is the main focus of our text. While we live between these two advents, grace takes us to school. This whole “present age” is the school of grace. ~Phil Johnson
Friends, take joy in the coming of our Lord. Though we may quicken and shudder to think of on facing Him with all our weaknesses and sins, His word has assured us that we may call Him Father, Friend, and Brother. And so we shall always be with Him.
