Passover to Tabernacles - Part Twenty Apr 03, 2022 by: John Herbert | Series: Passover to Tabernacles Audio Study Notes PDF https://s3.amazonaws.com/cornerstonejax/sermonfiles/T005_20220403.mp3 Refresh A Recap from the Sermon Acts 2:1 When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. Today we will set in place what happened on this day. The full text of this message can be found by clicking the PDF button. Sunday April 3rd 2022 Passover to Tabernacles Part 20 1). Acts 2:1 When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. 2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. We have seen that there are two things presented to us in these verses. Firstly, the immersion of the one hundred and twenty in the Holy Spirit that brings the one new man in Christ into existence, the entity to whom the Kingdom of the heavens was given following Israel’s rejection of it, and secondly, the filling of the one hundred and twenty with the Holy Spirit as the beginning of the fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy to the Jews. And both these events have the Jewish people as their focus. Power Point – Slides 1-7 a). Because the ‘Church’ is seen to begin on this day of Pentecost, many think of the ‘Church’ in the way this word is generally understood today, then seeing everything that then happens in the Book of Acts being focused on the development of this newly formed ‘Church’. This, however, is an incorrect way to see things. b). What is taking place here is not about the ‘Church’, but about the re-offer of the Kingdom of the heavens to the eternally saved generation of Jews who had previously rejected it. All with a view to a repentant and restored national Israel taking God’s Word and God’s blessing to the Gentile nations in fulfillment of the promise given to Abraham. c). Along with this misunderstanding of the ‘Church’ in Acts there is also a tendency within Christendom generally to want to apply every verse, in every Book of the Bible to our present Christian experience and to see only the ‘Church’ in every Scripture. And this of course, is also incorrect. We can find a good example of this in the much misused verses from - 2 Ch 7:13 When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, 14 if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. These verses are recorded with respect to the dedication of Solomon’s Temple and have to do with a disobedient Jewish people who will one day cry out to the God of their fathers who will then hear from heaven. And the time for this we know to be at the end of the final three and a half years of the Great Tribulation. It is God’s promise to His people, the Jewish people, who are called by His name – Isa 43:6 I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’ And to the south, ‘Do not keep them back!’ Bring My sons from afar, And My daughters from the ends of the earth— 7 Everyone who is called by My name, Whom I have created for My glory; I have formed him, yes, I have made him.” The verses and the promise in 2 Chronicles 7 are entirely Jewish and have nothing to do with the ‘Church’ today. d). Christians try to use these verses in conjunction with seeking the healing of the woes of the Gentile nation in which they live, still seeing that nation as their land and as a Christian country – Heb 11:13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. 14 For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. 15 And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them. Scripturally, there is no healing for the Gentile nations, which is every nation except Israel, until the Millennial Kingdom. And matters in these nations can only deteriorate more and more as we approach the end of this dispensation. e). And we have seen in previous weeks that every Gentile nation will align itself with the man of sin and his attempts to exterminate the Jewish people during the last half of the Tribulation. And because of this, what awaits every Gentile nation during the Tribulation is utter devastation. The types for this are set, the prophets have spoken about it, consequently, the Word of God is clear with respect to it. f). Now, it is without doubt that there are many verses in the OT, the Gospels, and Acts that have an application for us, the Matthew 13 parables would be an obvious example, but where verses explicitly apply to Israel, that primary application must not be sacrificed for the sake of a secondary one that may or may not apply to us. This is all part of rightly dividing the word of truth. 2). Now, to return to the Book of Acts. If we are to properly understand what is taking place in this Book, particularly at the beginning, we must make sure our thinking is right about that recorded in the Gospels first. a). And for our own peace of mind and for those who are at the beginning stages of hearing the Word of the Kingdom, it is profitable that we very briefly set this in place – Mt 15:24 But He answered and said, “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Lk 4:42 Now when it was day, He departed and went into a deserted place. And the crowd sought Him and came to Him, and tried to keep Him from leaving them; 43 but He said to them, “I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, because for this purpose I have been sent.” Jesus’ statements recorded in Matthew and Luke succinctly describe the purpose of His earthly ministry. It was to the lost sheep of the house of Israel to preach ‘the Kingdom of God’, the Kingdom of the heavens being at hand. The Lord came to the Jewish people, and as we know He presented Himself to them as their King and offered them the Kingdom of the heavens, rulership from the heavenly realm of the Kingdom in the place of Satan and his angels. And this offer was contingent upon national repentance - Mt 4:17 From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” And in John we are given both a summation of the Lord’s first Advent and its outcome - Jn 1:11 He came to His own [His own things. The regality of David], and His own [people] did not receive Him. However, because of the work of the leaven placed in the three measures of meal at the beginning of our dispensation, the Kingdom of the heavens preached by Jesus in the Gospels, has become synonymous with eternal salvation, with many thinking that to be eternally saved is to enter the Kingdom, therefore making Christ’s ministry to the Jews as one to do with their eternal destiny – eternal salvation or eternal damnation. b). And seeing the word ‘lost’ in Matthew 15:24 their immediate thought is that the Jews were ‘eternally lost’. The word ‘sheep’ however, holds the key. Sheep belong to the Shepherd, and as such they have the ability to hear His voice, having spiritual life – Jn 10:27 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And looking at the Jewish people who in the main did not hear the Lord’s voice, disobedience on their part is taken to be an indication that they were not eternally saved. c). The word ‘sheep’ would also take us in an indirect way to the Passover lambs that had been slain by the Jewish people from the days of the Exodus onwards. And if God had accepted the death and shed blood of the lambs killed in Egypt, which He Himself had instituted, which He did, then He would have accepted the death and shed blood of every other Passover lamb that was killed up to the time of the Lord’s crucifixion. And the efficacy of these sacrificed lambs with respect to eternal redemption, is found in – Re 13:8b………..the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. All the Jewish people had to do was to accept God’s provision for their sin, the death and shed blood of the Passover lambs, and eternal salvation was theirs. And because this was entirely based on their belief in response to God’s provision, there was nothing this people could do to demonstrate they were eternally saved or that they were not eternally saved. The nation’s disobedience could have no bearing on their eternal destiny. d). And we will remember that the death and shed blood of the Passover lambs in Egypt had been for a specific purpose beyond itself. It was to bring about Israel’s deliverance from Egypt to receive an inheritance in the land of promise within a Theocracy. e). Even though this is what Scripture teaches, many today, and even us, at one point, saw all that took place, recorded in the Gospels, as only having to do with salvation by grace through faith, with everything focused on eternity. f). The Bible, however, is not a Book about eternity, it is a Book about time, seven days of time, seven thousand years of time – Ge 1:31 Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day. 2:1 Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. 2 And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made. 2 Pe 3:8 But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. We will remember that neither the Hebrew language, nor the Greek language, has a word that can be translated as eternal. The words that are translated this way, the word ‘olam’ in Hebrew and ‘aionios’ in Greek both have to do with time. And the length of the time to which the word refers is always going to be dependent upon the context in which it is used. We can look at one example to demonstrate this for us – Lk 18:17 Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it.” 18 Now a certain ruler asked Him, saying, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal [‘aionios’] life?” Notice the subject of v17, the Kingdom of God, synonymous with the Kingdom of the heavens. Then remember the message that Jesus came to the eternally saved Jews with, ‘Repent for the Kingdom of the heavens is at hand’. And within the context of the Kingdom of God from v17 and the Lord’s message to His people, which the rich young ruler had heard, he asked, ‘What must I do to inherit…..’, but inherit what? g). To begin with, inheritance is something that can only be given to someone already in the family, it is always a family matter. And then eternal life is always given as a free gift, it is never inherited – Eph 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. Now as we know, the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of the heavens, will be realized in the Seventh Day, the age to come. So, within this context, what is the rich young ruler asking? It cannot be about inheriting eternal life for the reasons we have seen. But it can be about inheriting life in the age to come when the Kingdom of the heavens will be realized – ‘What must I do to inherit life for the age?’ would be the correct translation. h). And should we need further confirmation of this we can just look at how Jesus responded to his question – Lk 18:20 You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery,’ ‘Do not murder,’ ‘Do not steal,’ ‘Do not bear false witness,’ ‘Honor your father and your mother.’ ” 21 And he said, “All these things I have kept from my youth.” 22 So when Jesus heard these things, He said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” 23 But when he heard this, he became very sorrowful, for he was very rich. To inherit the life which the rich young ruler had asked about, Jesus told him that he had to sell all that he had and distribute it to the poor and follow Him. Having to do something to receive this life introduces works to the process and works can have no part in receiving the free gift of eternal life, but works do have a part in entering the Kingdom of the heavens in a position of rulership. Having life for the age. 2). We will need to settle in our understanding then, that the three synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, present the Lord’s life and ministry to an eternally saved Jewish people in relation to the Kingdom of the heavens that was on offer to them, that was first seen in the promises given to Abraham, not eternal life, and that this offer of the Kingdom of the heavens was for the Jews and the Jews only at this time – Mt 10:5 These twelve Jesus sent out and commanded them, saying: “Do not go into the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter a city of the Samaritans. 6 But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 7 And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ The Gospel of John, although different from the others, still deals with the same people and the same Kingdom, but during the time of the re-offer of that Kingdom to Israel by the one new man in Christ during the period of the Book of Acts. a). The Lord’s focus was on the Jews and remained on the Jews, with respect to the nation coming to repentance and fulfilling their calling to be God’s witness to the Gentile nations, until……….Mt 12:22 Then one was brought to Him who was demon-possessed, blind and mute; and He healed him, so that the blind and mute man both spoke and saw. 23 And all the multitudes were amazed and said, “Could this be the Son of David?” 24 Now when the Pharisees heard it they said, “This fellow does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons.” We are familiar with this terminal point in Matthew’s Gospel, when Israel’s religious leaders accused the Lord of casting out a demon by the power of Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons rather than by the Holy Spirit. This was in effect the moment at which the Kingdom of the heavens being offered by the Christ was taken from the Jews, and it was following this climactic moment that the ‘Church’ was introduced by the Lord in the Matthew 13 parables – Mt 13:1 On the same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the sea. And the cross rather than the crown began to be seen – Mt 16:21 From that time Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day. Now, we know that the Matthew 13 parables provide us with a dispensational history of the ‘Church’ with regards to those who hear the Word of the Kingdom, and we also know that as Jesus ‘went out of the house and sat by the sea’ that His actions taught the setting aside of Israel, by going out of the house, and then taking out of the Gentiles a people for His name, by sitting by the sea. b). Because this has been prophetically set in place though, we should keep in mind that it did not mean it was to be instantaneous. The Lord’s focus remained on the Jewish people, their repentance and the fulfillment of their calling, despite their rejection of the message and the Messenger, right up to and indeed beyond His death, burial and resurrection - Acts 1:1 The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, 2 until the day in which He was taken up, after He through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen, 3 to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. 4 And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, “which,” He said, “you have heard from Me; 5 for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” 6 Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. 8 But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” We will remember that we had studied these verses in some detail a couple of weeks ago. Just to remind us though, the Lord spent forty days before His ascension speaking to those He had chosen as Apostles about things pertaining to the Kingdom of God, the same Kingdom of the heavens He had preached before His crucifixion. c). And what He told them had to do with this Kingdom and their role in the fulfillment of Israel’s calling to be His witness. d). And as we saw as we began today, the one new man in Christ was brought into existence on that day of Pentecost for one purpose. To re-offer the Kingdom of the heavens to those who had previously rejected it, to bring the nation to repentance, to allow the Lord to return, restore the Kingdom, and send the Jews from Jerusalem to all Judea, Samaria, and to the end of the earth with God’s Word and His blessings, as we have seen through the type of Jonah. e). As the one new man in Christ was brought into existence that day it’s purpose, all one hundred and twenty, was to re-offer the previously rejected Kingdom to the same generation of eternally saved Jews. And this began in Jerusalem just as the Lord had said. And as we have seen, the one hundred and twenty were filled with the Spirit according to Joel’s prophecy to make this task possible – Acts 2:7 Then they were all amazed and marveled, saying to one another, “Look, are not all these who speak Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each in our own language in which we were born? There was no thought of Gentiles becoming part of the one new man in Christ at this point. Rather national repentance by those who had rejected the Christ was the singular focus of those re-offering the Kingdom. f). And we can see this by looking at the response of those forming the one new man in Christ, when the first Gentiles were added in Acts Chapter 10 – Acts 11:1 Now the apostles and brethren who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also received the word of God. 2 And when Peter came up to Jerusalem, those of the circumcision contended with him, 3 saying, “You went in to uncircumcised men and ate with them!”……… 5 And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them, as upon us at the beginning. 16 Then I remembered the word of the Lord, how He said, ‘John indeed baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ 17 If therefore God gave them the same gift as He gave us when we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could withstand God?” 18 When they heard these things they became silent; and they glorified God, saying, “Then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life.” All of this then is to emphasize the singular focus of those re-offering the Kingdom, it was on the Jews right up to and even after the time when Cornelius and his household came into the picture. g). And Cornelius and his household and the other Gentiles added during the re-offer had been filled with the Spirit to provoke the Jews to jealousy, to cause the nation to change its mind – Ro 11:11 I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not! But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles. And during Paul’s ministry throughout the thirty odd years covered by the Book of Acts He always took the message of the Kingdom of the heavens to the Jews first, with a view to the Jews coming to repentance – Acts 17:1 Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. 2 Then Paul, as his custom was, went in to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3 explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus whom I preach to you is the Christ.” And so passionate was Paul’s desire to see Israel come to change its mind about the Kingdom being re-offered to it, because he knew the importance of this to the fulfillment of God’s purpose, not only for them but for all the nations, that he recorded this in – Ro 9:1 I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, 2 that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh, 4 who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises; 5 of whom are the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen. So overwhelmingly important was Israel’s repentance to Paul that he was prepared to give up his place in the Kingdom of the heavens, to be ‘accursed from Christ’ for a thousand years, if such a trade could be made. Which of course it couldn’t. h). Once again though, we can see that throughout the Book of Acts, and the period of time which is covered by it, that God’s focus is upon Israel, not the ‘Church’. And it is the ‘Church’ as seen in the opening Chapters of Acts that we need to look at next. But this will have to wait until next time – if we remain and the Lord is willing, and we have prayed. Passover to Tabernacles - Part Twenty Apr 03, 2022 Speaker: John Herbert Series: Passover to Tabernacles Category: Sunday Morning https://s3.amazonaws.com/cornerstonejax/sermonfiles/T005_20220403.mp3 Download Audio x
Refresh A Recap from the Sermon Acts 2:1 When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. Today we will set in place what happened on this day. The full text of this message can be found by clicking the PDF button. Sunday April 3rd 2022 Passover to Tabernacles Part 20 1). Acts 2:1 When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. 2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. We have seen that there are two things presented to us in these verses. Firstly, the immersion of the one hundred and twenty in the Holy Spirit that brings the one new man in Christ into existence, the entity to whom the Kingdom of the heavens was given following Israel’s rejection of it, and secondly, the filling of the one hundred and twenty with the Holy Spirit as the beginning of the fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy to the Jews. And both these events have the Jewish people as their focus. Power Point – Slides 1-7 a). Because the ‘Church’ is seen to begin on this day of Pentecost, many think of the ‘Church’ in the way this word is generally understood today, then seeing everything that then happens in the Book of Acts being focused on the development of this newly formed ‘Church’. This, however, is an incorrect way to see things. b). What is taking place here is not about the ‘Church’, but about the re-offer of the Kingdom of the heavens to the eternally saved generation of Jews who had previously rejected it. All with a view to a repentant and restored national Israel taking God’s Word and God’s blessing to the Gentile nations in fulfillment of the promise given to Abraham. c). Along with this misunderstanding of the ‘Church’ in Acts there is also a tendency within Christendom generally to want to apply every verse, in every Book of the Bible to our present Christian experience and to see only the ‘Church’ in every Scripture. And this of course, is also incorrect. We can find a good example of this in the much misused verses from - 2 Ch 7:13 When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, 14 if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. These verses are recorded with respect to the dedication of Solomon’s Temple and have to do with a disobedient Jewish people who will one day cry out to the God of their fathers who will then hear from heaven. And the time for this we know to be at the end of the final three and a half years of the Great Tribulation. It is God’s promise to His people, the Jewish people, who are called by His name – Isa 43:6 I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’ And to the south, ‘Do not keep them back!’ Bring My sons from afar, And My daughters from the ends of the earth— 7 Everyone who is called by My name, Whom I have created for My glory; I have formed him, yes, I have made him.” The verses and the promise in 2 Chronicles 7 are entirely Jewish and have nothing to do with the ‘Church’ today. d). Christians try to use these verses in conjunction with seeking the healing of the woes of the Gentile nation in which they live, still seeing that nation as their land and as a Christian country – Heb 11:13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. 14 For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. 15 And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them. Scripturally, there is no healing for the Gentile nations, which is every nation except Israel, until the Millennial Kingdom. And matters in these nations can only deteriorate more and more as we approach the end of this dispensation. e). And we have seen in previous weeks that every Gentile nation will align itself with the man of sin and his attempts to exterminate the Jewish people during the last half of the Tribulation. And because of this, what awaits every Gentile nation during the Tribulation is utter devastation. The types for this are set, the prophets have spoken about it, consequently, the Word of God is clear with respect to it. f). Now, it is without doubt that there are many verses in the OT, the Gospels, and Acts that have an application for us, the Matthew 13 parables would be an obvious example, but where verses explicitly apply to Israel, that primary application must not be sacrificed for the sake of a secondary one that may or may not apply to us. This is all part of rightly dividing the word of truth. 2). Now, to return to the Book of Acts. If we are to properly understand what is taking place in this Book, particularly at the beginning, we must make sure our thinking is right about that recorded in the Gospels first. a). And for our own peace of mind and for those who are at the beginning stages of hearing the Word of the Kingdom, it is profitable that we very briefly set this in place – Mt 15:24 But He answered and said, “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Lk 4:42 Now when it was day, He departed and went into a deserted place. And the crowd sought Him and came to Him, and tried to keep Him from leaving them; 43 but He said to them, “I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, because for this purpose I have been sent.” Jesus’ statements recorded in Matthew and Luke succinctly describe the purpose of His earthly ministry. It was to the lost sheep of the house of Israel to preach ‘the Kingdom of God’, the Kingdom of the heavens being at hand. The Lord came to the Jewish people, and as we know He presented Himself to them as their King and offered them the Kingdom of the heavens, rulership from the heavenly realm of the Kingdom in the place of Satan and his angels. And this offer was contingent upon national repentance - Mt 4:17 From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” And in John we are given both a summation of the Lord’s first Advent and its outcome - Jn 1:11 He came to His own [His own things. The regality of David], and His own [people] did not receive Him. However, because of the work of the leaven placed in the three measures of meal at the beginning of our dispensation, the Kingdom of the heavens preached by Jesus in the Gospels, has become synonymous with eternal salvation, with many thinking that to be eternally saved is to enter the Kingdom, therefore making Christ’s ministry to the Jews as one to do with their eternal destiny – eternal salvation or eternal damnation. b). And seeing the word ‘lost’ in Matthew 15:24 their immediate thought is that the Jews were ‘eternally lost’. The word ‘sheep’ however, holds the key. Sheep belong to the Shepherd, and as such they have the ability to hear His voice, having spiritual life – Jn 10:27 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And looking at the Jewish people who in the main did not hear the Lord’s voice, disobedience on their part is taken to be an indication that they were not eternally saved. c). The word ‘sheep’ would also take us in an indirect way to the Passover lambs that had been slain by the Jewish people from the days of the Exodus onwards. And if God had accepted the death and shed blood of the lambs killed in Egypt, which He Himself had instituted, which He did, then He would have accepted the death and shed blood of every other Passover lamb that was killed up to the time of the Lord’s crucifixion. And the efficacy of these sacrificed lambs with respect to eternal redemption, is found in – Re 13:8b………..the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. All the Jewish people had to do was to accept God’s provision for their sin, the death and shed blood of the Passover lambs, and eternal salvation was theirs. And because this was entirely based on their belief in response to God’s provision, there was nothing this people could do to demonstrate they were eternally saved or that they were not eternally saved. The nation’s disobedience could have no bearing on their eternal destiny. d). And we will remember that the death and shed blood of the Passover lambs in Egypt had been for a specific purpose beyond itself. It was to bring about Israel’s deliverance from Egypt to receive an inheritance in the land of promise within a Theocracy. e). Even though this is what Scripture teaches, many today, and even us, at one point, saw all that took place, recorded in the Gospels, as only having to do with salvation by grace through faith, with everything focused on eternity. f). The Bible, however, is not a Book about eternity, it is a Book about time, seven days of time, seven thousand years of time – Ge 1:31 Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day. 2:1 Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. 2 And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made. 2 Pe 3:8 But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. We will remember that neither the Hebrew language, nor the Greek language, has a word that can be translated as eternal. The words that are translated this way, the word ‘olam’ in Hebrew and ‘aionios’ in Greek both have to do with time. And the length of the time to which the word refers is always going to be dependent upon the context in which it is used. We can look at one example to demonstrate this for us – Lk 18:17 Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it.” 18 Now a certain ruler asked Him, saying, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal [‘aionios’] life?” Notice the subject of v17, the Kingdom of God, synonymous with the Kingdom of the heavens. Then remember the message that Jesus came to the eternally saved Jews with, ‘Repent for the Kingdom of the heavens is at hand’. And within the context of the Kingdom of God from v17 and the Lord’s message to His people, which the rich young ruler had heard, he asked, ‘What must I do to inherit…..’, but inherit what? g). To begin with, inheritance is something that can only be given to someone already in the family, it is always a family matter. And then eternal life is always given as a free gift, it is never inherited – Eph 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. Now as we know, the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of the heavens, will be realized in the Seventh Day, the age to come. So, within this context, what is the rich young ruler asking? It cannot be about inheriting eternal life for the reasons we have seen. But it can be about inheriting life in the age to come when the Kingdom of the heavens will be realized – ‘What must I do to inherit life for the age?’ would be the correct translation. h). And should we need further confirmation of this we can just look at how Jesus responded to his question – Lk 18:20 You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery,’ ‘Do not murder,’ ‘Do not steal,’ ‘Do not bear false witness,’ ‘Honor your father and your mother.’ ” 21 And he said, “All these things I have kept from my youth.” 22 So when Jesus heard these things, He said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” 23 But when he heard this, he became very sorrowful, for he was very rich. To inherit the life which the rich young ruler had asked about, Jesus told him that he had to sell all that he had and distribute it to the poor and follow Him. Having to do something to receive this life introduces works to the process and works can have no part in receiving the free gift of eternal life, but works do have a part in entering the Kingdom of the heavens in a position of rulership. Having life for the age. 2). We will need to settle in our understanding then, that the three synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, present the Lord’s life and ministry to an eternally saved Jewish people in relation to the Kingdom of the heavens that was on offer to them, that was first seen in the promises given to Abraham, not eternal life, and that this offer of the Kingdom of the heavens was for the Jews and the Jews only at this time – Mt 10:5 These twelve Jesus sent out and commanded them, saying: “Do not go into the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter a city of the Samaritans. 6 But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 7 And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ The Gospel of John, although different from the others, still deals with the same people and the same Kingdom, but during the time of the re-offer of that Kingdom to Israel by the one new man in Christ during the period of the Book of Acts. a). The Lord’s focus was on the Jews and remained on the Jews, with respect to the nation coming to repentance and fulfilling their calling to be God’s witness to the Gentile nations, until……….Mt 12:22 Then one was brought to Him who was demon-possessed, blind and mute; and He healed him, so that the blind and mute man both spoke and saw. 23 And all the multitudes were amazed and said, “Could this be the Son of David?” 24 Now when the Pharisees heard it they said, “This fellow does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons.” We are familiar with this terminal point in Matthew’s Gospel, when Israel’s religious leaders accused the Lord of casting out a demon by the power of Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons rather than by the Holy Spirit. This was in effect the moment at which the Kingdom of the heavens being offered by the Christ was taken from the Jews, and it was following this climactic moment that the ‘Church’ was introduced by the Lord in the Matthew 13 parables – Mt 13:1 On the same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the sea. And the cross rather than the crown began to be seen – Mt 16:21 From that time Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day. Now, we know that the Matthew 13 parables provide us with a dispensational history of the ‘Church’ with regards to those who hear the Word of the Kingdom, and we also know that as Jesus ‘went out of the house and sat by the sea’ that His actions taught the setting aside of Israel, by going out of the house, and then taking out of the Gentiles a people for His name, by sitting by the sea. b). Because this has been prophetically set in place though, we should keep in mind that it did not mean it was to be instantaneous. The Lord’s focus remained on the Jewish people, their repentance and the fulfillment of their calling, despite their rejection of the message and the Messenger, right up to and indeed beyond His death, burial and resurrection - Acts 1:1 The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, 2 until the day in which He was taken up, after He through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen, 3 to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. 4 And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, “which,” He said, “you have heard from Me; 5 for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” 6 Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. 8 But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” We will remember that we had studied these verses in some detail a couple of weeks ago. Just to remind us though, the Lord spent forty days before His ascension speaking to those He had chosen as Apostles about things pertaining to the Kingdom of God, the same Kingdom of the heavens He had preached before His crucifixion. c). And what He told them had to do with this Kingdom and their role in the fulfillment of Israel’s calling to be His witness. d). And as we saw as we began today, the one new man in Christ was brought into existence on that day of Pentecost for one purpose. To re-offer the Kingdom of the heavens to those who had previously rejected it, to bring the nation to repentance, to allow the Lord to return, restore the Kingdom, and send the Jews from Jerusalem to all Judea, Samaria, and to the end of the earth with God’s Word and His blessings, as we have seen through the type of Jonah. e). As the one new man in Christ was brought into existence that day it’s purpose, all one hundred and twenty, was to re-offer the previously rejected Kingdom to the same generation of eternally saved Jews. And this began in Jerusalem just as the Lord had said. And as we have seen, the one hundred and twenty were filled with the Spirit according to Joel’s prophecy to make this task possible – Acts 2:7 Then they were all amazed and marveled, saying to one another, “Look, are not all these who speak Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each in our own language in which we were born? There was no thought of Gentiles becoming part of the one new man in Christ at this point. Rather national repentance by those who had rejected the Christ was the singular focus of those re-offering the Kingdom. f). And we can see this by looking at the response of those forming the one new man in Christ, when the first Gentiles were added in Acts Chapter 10 – Acts 11:1 Now the apostles and brethren who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also received the word of God. 2 And when Peter came up to Jerusalem, those of the circumcision contended with him, 3 saying, “You went in to uncircumcised men and ate with them!”……… 5 And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them, as upon us at the beginning. 16 Then I remembered the word of the Lord, how He said, ‘John indeed baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ 17 If therefore God gave them the same gift as He gave us when we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could withstand God?” 18 When they heard these things they became silent; and they glorified God, saying, “Then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life.” All of this then is to emphasize the singular focus of those re-offering the Kingdom, it was on the Jews right up to and even after the time when Cornelius and his household came into the picture. g). And Cornelius and his household and the other Gentiles added during the re-offer had been filled with the Spirit to provoke the Jews to jealousy, to cause the nation to change its mind – Ro 11:11 I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not! But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles. And during Paul’s ministry throughout the thirty odd years covered by the Book of Acts He always took the message of the Kingdom of the heavens to the Jews first, with a view to the Jews coming to repentance – Acts 17:1 Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. 2 Then Paul, as his custom was, went in to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3 explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus whom I preach to you is the Christ.” And so passionate was Paul’s desire to see Israel come to change its mind about the Kingdom being re-offered to it, because he knew the importance of this to the fulfillment of God’s purpose, not only for them but for all the nations, that he recorded this in – Ro 9:1 I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, 2 that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh, 4 who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises; 5 of whom are the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen. So overwhelmingly important was Israel’s repentance to Paul that he was prepared to give up his place in the Kingdom of the heavens, to be ‘accursed from Christ’ for a thousand years, if such a trade could be made. Which of course it couldn’t. h). Once again though, we can see that throughout the Book of Acts, and the period of time which is covered by it, that God’s focus is upon Israel, not the ‘Church’. And it is the ‘Church’ as seen in the opening Chapters of Acts that we need to look at next. But this will have to wait until next time – if we remain and the Lord is willing, and we have prayed.