BE ON THE ALERT
FOR YOU DO NOT KNOW…
IS THIS TRUE IN OUR TIME?
BE ON THE ALERT, FOR YOU
DO NOT KNOW WHICH DAY…
IS THIS TRUE IN OUR TIME?
JAN LILLEBY
Matthew 24:42 colliding with Colossians 3:3. Pardon my long headline here.
Indeed so, but the explanation is very easily delivered: Jesus told His believers, the Messianic Jews and eventual proselytes, how it was with the salvation concerning the coming Kingdom of God on earth, namely, the millennial kingdom for Israel!
Jesus did not tell these words in Matthew 24 to the Church, the ‘One new Man’ found in Eph. 2:14-15. The latter is God’s word to the Church as it was revealed to Paul 34-35 years LATER than when Jesus spoke these words in Mat. 24:42.
These two passages – Mat. 24:42 and Col. 3:3 has a big divide: The first was told in the previous dispensation (Greek, oikonomia), also meaning administration, household, stewardship. Jesus dealt with His own people, Israel and the Jews, as He offered them the Kingdom of God on earth. Mat. 15:24 says, I am sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Consequently, the Church as we now have since Paul established the NEW administration/ stewardship/ household, did not exist in the days reported in the four gospels and in Acts!
Eph. 3:1-3 tells us that Paul was the apostle given to establish that new oikonomia – the household of the Grace of God ‘for you Gentiles’!
Matthew 24:42 – on that the believers should keep themselves on the alert and ready, to receive Messiah in His the Second Advent – had only to do with Jesus coming back from heaven to establish the millennial reign in Israel. Gentiles are not into this equation at all. The Gospel preached by Jesus first, and then followed by the twelve apostles, was to Israel only. When Peter spoke to the invited friends of Cornelius, he referred this Gospel message, as follows, Acts 10:36-42, NASB,
“36 "The word which He sent to the sons of Israel, preaching peace through Jesus Christ (He is Lord of all) -
37 you yourselves know the thing which took place throughout all Judea, starting from Galilee, after the baptism which John proclaimed.
38 "You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.
39 "We are witnesses of all the things He did both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They also put Him to death by hanging Him on a cross.
40 "God raised Him up on the third day and granted that He become visible,
41 not to all the people, but to witnesses who were chosen beforehand by God, that is, to us who ate and drank with Him after He arose from the dead.
42 "And He ordered us to preach to the people, and solemnly to testify that this is the One who has been appointed by God as Judge of the living and the dead.”
My red marking: Israel and the Jews (‘the people’) were the original and exclusive recipients of that Kingdom-Gospel preached by Peter and the eleven! No Gentiles were into this…with exception of the situation at hand, the Roman Captain Cornelius and his friends at Caesarea. Early on in his speech (v. 28), Peter explained to the captain that it was actually forbidden for a Jew (like Peter) to even visit a Gentile! Peter was surprised that he, a Jew, was told to start fellowship with an unclean Gentile. This can only mean that the so-called Great Commission in Mat. 28 never meant that the twelve should go abroad, into ‘all the world’. In John 21, we find that Jesus told him to go to the ‘lost sheep of the house of Israel’: verses 15-17, ‘Tend My lambs, Shepherd My sheep, Tend My sheep’. This can only mean the nation of Israel and the Jews. The ones Jesus told the people that He was sent to. See Mat. 15:24 and the incident with the Canaanite woman! Peter and the eleven were to carry on with that ministry, in the absence of Jesus. And they did so, says Mark 16:20.
Reading on in Acts 11, we find that they kept on with preaching ONLY to Jews. Peter did not change his ministry at all. The incident with Cornelius and his friends was a ‘One Off’. They became proselytes. The Kingdom Gospel was for Israel only, and not the whole world. But God has always welcomed proselytes to lean on Israel’s blessings, provided they also kept the Law and ordinances. Only Paul, much later on, was sent to the Gentiles. Peter and the eleven were never ministering abroad.
The Second Advent HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE CHURCH – for we are not going to be members of that future millennial kingdom in Israel. We are bound for heaven.
Colossians 3:1-4, NASB,
«1 Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
2 Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.
3 For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
4 When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.”
I emphasized verse 3, since it is a key-word in this matter.
It tells us that WE ARE ALREADY THERE! It is too late to try to ‘be on the alert’ – since we are already hidden with Christ in God, in the Super-Heavens. This is the order-of-the-day in this present dispensation.
Eph. 1:3,13, NASB,
“3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,
13 In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation -having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise,”
Eph. 2:5, 6, NASB,
“5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved ),
6 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus”,
We are even already SEALED with the Holy Spirit of promise.
Eph. 4:30 tells also of that seal with the Holy Spirit, as in Eph. 1:13,
“Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.”
The promised day of redemption, arrives as we are taken into the Super-Heavens being revealed with Christ in glory.
But Paul, using his known metaphors, was assuring us that we are already positioned in heaven with Christ, in faith.
But one day ahead, we are going to be supernaturally transferred into heaven, meeting Christ in glory.
Our salvation is by faith alone, no works, it is a gift given by God, Eph. 2:8, 9, NASB,
“8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;
9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
In other words, to point to what is a Biblical truth in our time, - it is obvious nonsense when certain preachers from certain denominations keep telling us from the pulpit ‘Oh, you must be on the alert and be ready, for Jesus comes in the very hour which you expect not!! Repent!!’
This sort of message is not true in our time. It was true in the times when Jesus and the twelve preached the Kingdom-Gospel to Israel. Which was happening in the previous dispensation, - the administration for God’s concern for His old people under the Law.
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