Why We Never See Jesus Laugh In The Bible (Part 1)

I love to laugh. Most of us do. In the midst of this life we live, in which many times sorrow and hardship are our bedfellows, laughter is like medicine to our souls. Most of us are familiar with the oft-quoted maxim that says, “Laughter is the best medicine.” Even science and psychologists have come to accept this as a true saying. But did you know that the Bible never records a single moment in which Jesus laughed.

Yes, it’s true, there is not one single reference to any time that Jesus laughed. Now, I am not saying that I don’t believe He never did. Having taken on humanity in His incarnation, Jesus possessed all the same emotions we do, though He never sinned in His expression of them, as we do. But the Bible does not record a single instance in which Jesus laughed. Why not?

The answer to that question is very important in our understanding of who God is. God has revealed Himself to us in scripture and it is the only trustworthy source by which we can come to know and understand Him. We do find that God laughs in the Old Testament. But when God laughs, it appears it is in a derisive way and directed at those foolish enough to plot against Him.

Psalm 2:1-4
Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?  The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying, “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.”  He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision.

Psalm 37:12-13
The wicked plots against the righteous and gnashes his teeth at him, but the Lord laughs at the wicked, for he sees that his day is coming.

Do a word search on laughter in the Bible sometime. It is interesting to see what the Bible has to say about laughter.

Returning now to the thought of Jesus and why we don’t have stories of Him laughing, I think it is important to us to get a good grip on the purpose for Jesus coming to us as a man. Though the answer to this question is a study within itself, I think 1 Timothy 1:15 gives us a simple and concise answer. There we read that “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” And the truth of that mission reveals to us the extreme serious nature of sin as it relates to our most holy God. The holiness of God demands that He not tolerate sin in His Kingdom. (The idea that God cannot be in the presence of sin is the wrong way to describe it since Jesus was fully God and yet was constantly surrounded by sinners sinning.) But the truth is that God’s holiness and His just nature results in righteous indignation that will result in His wrath being poured out in the final judgment against sin. Again, much more to the story than this, but simply put, we are sinners in need of a savior to be restored in fellowship with God. This is why Jesus came.

So, who is this man Jesus, who the Bible never speaks of as having laughed. The Prophet Isaiah gives us a picture of Jesus in Isaiah 53:2-3 saying that “he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.  He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.”

If you have more than one child, you know that people are born with certain dispositions. You might have one born with a natural inclination towards being happy all the time and maybe your next baby just seems to be more serious. As they grow, distinct personality traits come forth and they become who they are. Jesus is described by the Prophet Isaiah as a man of sorrows. Isaiah goes on to say that He was acquainted with grief and even tells us that He was no beauty that we should desire Him. This does not sound like the picture of Jesus our grandmother had up in her living room. Quite honestly, it doesn’t sound like the Jesus we hear about in church. But to the Christian, it is an imperative that we understand why the Holy Spirit inspired the writers of scripture to describe Him in this way.

Though Jesus came doing miracles and healings to many, the main purpose He came for was to go to the cross. He came to suffer and die. He came to become sin for us, so that we could be redeemed from our own slavery to sin. He came to face the wrath of God so that you and I wouldn’t have to. What He came to do was going to be the most horrible experience anyone might ever imagine. What He came purposed to do is no laughing matter.

This morning I was studying the passage in Mark 14:32-41. I believe that in this short story of the night of His arrest, we can find many truths that will help us understand better, who Jesus is and why He came. Part two of this writing will look into this night that occurs in the Garden of Gethsemane.

I leave you with a thought to ponder about this great passage of scripture. Gethsemane means “olive press.” Olive presses are the tools that extract the oil from the olives by crushing them. That’s how we get Olive Oil. Take time today to read the Gospel accounts of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane and meditate on He would be pressed and crushed in the coming hours after praying in the garden.

Until next time, God bless you.

Do You Love God or Do You Hate Him?

There is a lot of hatred for God today. Some of it is disguised by tolerance and acceptance of what He calls sin. Many people think that it is just unloving to speak of sin and call the, now culturally acceptable behaviors, violations of God's commands. People think that Jesus came and loved us and died for us, so we could go to heaven and live forever in some blissful self-existence. Many think it doesn’t matter if we curse, or we live in sexual sin of any kind, or even if we simply violate civil laws that we don’t like.

That type of attitude is a deception of the devil and will result in an eternal destination that the Bible is very candid about. God has spoken clearly in His Word about how we are to behave.

Deuteronomy 7:9-11
Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations,  and repays to their face those who hate him, by destroying them. He will not be slack with one who hates him. He will repay him to his face.  You shall therefore be careful to do the commandment and the statutes and the rules that I command you today.

Old Testament, you cry out. Once again, Satan has duped you, if that’s what you think. Here is what Jesus had to say about the Law.

Matthew 5:17-20
 “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.  For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.  Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.  For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

We must understand the truth of the scriptures and take hold of the facts. No one is saved by the law, that is scriptural truth. But that does not have anything to do with the truth that loving God means we love His law and we seek to be Holy, just as He is.

Listen to this story from Mark 12:28-34
And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?”  Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.  And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’  The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”  And the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher. You have truly said that he is one, and there is no other besides him.  And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.”  And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And after that no one dared to ask him any more questions.

I don’t care what man-made methods of interpretation you have been taught, the main principle of Bible interpretation is that scripture interprets scripture. This means to understand God’s Word you must read it in the context of the entire Bible, not three verses above and three below.

If you want to love God listen to how Jesus said this must be done.

John 14:15
"If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.”

We need to wake up. Our hearts need to be turned towards God and that means what He says, goes. Jesus said we must deny ourselves. Yet, we are a nation of self-indulgence. Read your Bible from cover to cover. It’s the only way to escape the deception Satan is reaping upon God’s people. Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to live in us and that empowers us to not only understand God’s Word, but also to employ it in our lives.

Loving God’s means loving His commandments. The opposite of love is hate. Here is what love for God is.

1 John 5:2
By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His commandments.

Pride and Humility - Which One Defines Us?

This morning my Bible lesson is a story that always amazes us. Mark 9:33-37 is the story in which Jesus catches the disciples in a pride filled moment. Take a look.

Mark 9:33-35
And they came to Capernaum. And when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you discussing on the way?”  But they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest.  And he sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.”

I love this story. I find it humorous that when Jesus asks them what they have been discussing they just ignore Him and refuse to answer. It’s funny because the man asking the question already knows the answer, He’s God and they know it. The parallel verse from Luke 9:47 explains that “Jesus, knowing the reasoning of their hearts, took a child and put him by his side.” The response of Jesus is classic. He just sits down and gets to the point of revealing their prideful hearts.

We read these stories and wonder how the disciples could be so dense. Jesus is the epitome of humility and they have been under His teaching for a good while and yet they are arguing over which one of them is the greatest.

But who are we to criticize? Many of us have been following Christ a very long time. I have. Yet pride continues to plague us as well. Jesus doesn’t need to know the reasoning of our hearts, He could simply open our Facebook pages where we fill the internet with stories about us. We post this dreadful thing called the selfie and what could possibly defy the concept of humility more? I do it. Just yesterday I put up a post that seemed to be humorous but at its core was my deep-seated desire for approval of others. The world of psychology has convinced us that our problems are rooted in a lack of self-esteem but that is simply not true. We are filled with self-esteem and a desire for more, just as the disciples were. And its destroying this culture. We are the me, me, me culture.

The Bible is replete with instruction against pride. Humility is the hallmark of the true Christian life, yet it is a rare trait amongst even Christians today. This morning we need to go back to the Bible and be reminded of what it says about pride.

Pride defiles us. Look at the other things pride is lumped together with. Be careful judging the sins of others; we aren’t really any better.

Mark 7:20-23
And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him.  For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.  All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

Pride disgraces us.

Proverbs 11:2
When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with the humble is wisdom.

 

Pride stirs up strife.

Proverbs 28:25
He who is of a proud heart stirs up strife, But he who trusts in the LORD will be prospered.

 Pride will bring judgment.

Proverbs 16:5
Everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD; Assuredly, he will not be unpunished.

Pride is an abomination to the Lord. That ought to scare the pride right out of us and it ought to break our hearts.

God does not want us to be prideful in any way of any thing we do. In truth, we didn’t even do it; He did.

Isaiah 66:2
"For My hand made all these things, Thus all these things came into being," declares the LORD. "But to this one I will look, To him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word.

God has made clear what He expects of us.

Micah 6:8
He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God?

Jesus warned us.

Luke 14:11
"For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."

Paul exhorted us.

Philippians 2:3
Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves.

James instructed us.

James 4:10
Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

Jesus set the example as Paul explained.

Philippians 2:5-8
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,  but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.  And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death. There is that word again; obedient. Humility is not an option for the Christian and if we made it real in our lives we would change the world.

I am guilty. How about you?

The writer of Hebrews speaks to our hearts and I close with that reading. We all need to regroup and refocus. This is a good place to start for none of us are where we ought to be.

Hebrews 12:1-4
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,  looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.  Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.  In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.

The Transfiguration of the Christian

Everyone loves the fact that upon confessing faith in Christ we are instantly justified in the eyes of God. One of the theological terms used is imputation, meaning that the righteousness of Christ is given to us in terms of our position with God. The blood of Christ covers our sin and we are immediately restored to relationship with God, the Father. We can now enter into His presence through prayer offered in the name of Jesus and should we die we can go directly to heaven. This is good news. This is the Gospel.

But the Gospel does not stop there. The good news of the Gospel also means we are being changed. In terms of theology this is called sanctification. It is the process of us literally becoming like Jesus. The Bible tells us that Jesus walked this earth without sin. Since sanctification is a process, we know that it takes time. It takes a lifetime and the work will not be complete until we are taken up to be with Christ. But for the true follower of Christ, it is a guarantee as found in Philippians 1:6 in which Paul says that he is “sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”

Unfortunately, we too often hear preached that the Gospel is that Jesus loves you, He died for you so that you can go to heaven. All true statements but if we stop there we miss the complete truth of the Gospel. Jesus offers many warnings in the Bible about false conversions and that ought to lead us to be sure we are preaching the complete Gospel, for we must not allow someone to live in the hope of heaven only to hear the fearful words of Jesus Himself. Listen to Jesus from Matthew 7:21-23 as He says, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.  On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’  And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.”

The truth is that our salvation experience, if true, will result in a change. Yes, that change is a lifelong process and we will struggle with sin our whole lives. But the Bible teaches us that we won’t just be the same old person we were. We will be radically different, so different that the world will see Christ in us.

While there are many readings in scripture that teach us about the Gospel experience, there is one I call attention to today that I had never really noticed before. In the Gospels we read the story of the transfiguration of Jesus. This was the point when Peter, James, and John were led up a mountain by Jesus and were given the vision to see Jesus in His full glory. The story is found in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

God speaks out of the clouds and confirms that Jesus is His Son and instructs us to listen to Jesus. In the Gospels Jesus tells us to obey Him. Listen to what Jesus says in John 14:15
 "If you love me, you will obey what I command.” Proof of our love for Jesus comes through obedience to what He says. Then in John 14:21 He says, “Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him." And again, in John 14:23-24 Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.  He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.”

Obedience to the commands of Christ is not an option. The mark of repentance is the change in us in which we turn from our worldly attitudes and behaviors to become in agreement with God’s moral law. This is not how we are saved, that is by faith alone, but obedience is the evidence we have been changed.

When the Holy Spirit inspired the writers of scripture to speak of the transfiguration in the Gospels, He chose the Greek word, metamorphoō, of which we derive the word metamorphose. Most of us know that word means to be changes into something g completely different. The scientific definition of the word we know says that Metamorphosis is a biological process by which an animal physically develops after birth or hatching, involving a conspicuous and relatively abrupt change in the animal's form or structure through cell growth and differentiation. It also says that is usually involves a change of habitat and behavior. That, my friends, is a pretty accurate description of what being ‘born again” as a new Christian is.

If we look up the word metamorphoō in our study materials, we find that it is used three times in our Bibles. The first in the Gospels which describe the transfiguration of Jesus. The other tow times it is used it speaks of the changes in the person who have experienced the act of salvation. Remember, though we sometimes see different words used in the Bible, we should be looking at the original Greek to get a better understanding of the meaning, so even though the word appears different, the actual word used was metamorphoō.

Romans 12:2
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

2 Corinthians 3:18
 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

The verses above ought to be enough to convince us that our salvation experience is more than just a free ticket to heaven in the next life, that it also involves a radical change in our current life. Adding the fact that the Holy Spirit uses the same word to describe how Jesus suddenly was changed to reflect the Glory of God in the story of the Transfiguration, so our salvation experience must convince us that our life after conversion also should reflect the Glory of God. Like the caterpillar, which is metamorphized into the beautiful butterfly, so ought the Christian fly into the world reflecting the great Glory of God.

Paul gave this command in 2 Corinthians 13:5,
Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!

Our eternal destination rides upon this test. Let us not go another day without crying out to Jesus that we, indeed, will reflect His glory. He has sent the Holy spirit to empower us to be light and salt. May it be real in each of us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Who Do You Say Jesus Is?

Three of the four Gospels record a story of Jesus asking the disciples this question, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter, ever the one not afraid to step up boldly, responds saying, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

How do you answer that question? Who do you say that Jesus is? When Peter responded that Jesus was the Christ, he was stating that certainly Jesus was the Messiah, the expected one whom the Old Testament prophesized of. Throughout His earthly life Jesus declared Himself to be the Son of God, a title that also claimed deity. Isaiah 53 is a clear prophesy of the Christ to come. Take time today to read this beautiful passage that describes our dear Lord Jesus. I call attention to two of the verses that tell our story and what He means to us.

Isaiah 53:5-6
But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.  All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Reading this, how do YOU answer the question from Jesus, “Who do you say I am?”

If like Peter, you answer that Jesus is the Messiah, then the Gospels have a warning for you. Just moments after having declared that Jesus was the anointed one from God, Peter has the audacity to rebuke Jesus. Take a look.

Mark 8:31-32
And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again.  And he said this plainly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.

Peter didn’t like the plan. He was unwilling to accept the divine and sovereign way that God was going to save men from their sins, so Peter rebuked Jesus. We read this story amazed that Peter could be so foolish. You see Peter wanted things his way.

What if we pause now and look deeply into our own hearts? Are we really all that much different than Peter? Do we read our Bibles and find some way to alter the things Jesus said so that we don’t have to obey Him? Do we look upon our own sins and gloss them over? Maybe we admit them but mitigate them in some way. No, we don’t boldly rebuke Jesus for telling us to love our enemies; we just say Jesus wasn’t talking to me. Or maybe we simply declare the commands of scripture as outdated and not fitting the modern culture. There are a million and one ways we find a way around living the Holy life Jesus calls us to. In essence, anything but total surrender to the commands of Jesus is a silent rebuke of who He is.

Here is Jesus’ response to Peter’s rebuke.

Mark 8:33
But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

Then Jesus called others to hear what He had to say.

Mark 8:34-36
And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.  For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.  For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?

It’s time we looked hard at the question from Jesus, “Who do you say I am?” If we say Jesus, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God, then we need to obey Him. I will say it again, because I need to hear it, anything but total surrender to the commands of Jesus is a silent rebuke of who He is.

Will we fail at times? Of course. But we must stop rebuking Jesus and take up our cross and follow Him. He is our shepherd and where does our shepherd lead us?

Psalm 23:3

He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name's sake.

Who do you say He is? If He is our shepherd, then we must follow Him.

 

 

 

Studies In Matthew - Praying In Agony

As the struggling Christian I am, prayer is the one endeavor of the faith I seem able to stay focused on. The command of 1 Thessalonians 5:17 to “pray without ceasing,” is the one command I tend to lean on most. I simply cannot carry on through this life without asking God for help. I have a saying about myself. I’m either praying or sinning. I believe there is a great lesson here. Pray more; sin less.

This morning in chapter 26 of the Gospel of Matthew, I come to one of my favorite narratives of Jesus. Jesus is near the end of His earthly ministry and knows that soon, he will face the ultimate reason He came to the earth. He is about to go through the ordeal of arrest, trial, and then death, yes, even death on a cross. But His death will be unlike any other death in history. Embedded within His death will be the payment for all sin. He will face something He has never known. He will be separated from His Father for the first time in all of eternity, for the deepest level of eternal punishment is separation from God. He will pay the cost of my sin. And in the Garden of Gethsemane, we see the agony of His suffering made manifest in His humanity. What does He do with this distress? He goes to the Father in prayer.

Matthew 26:36-44
Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go over there and pray.”  And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled.  Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.”  And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”  And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, “So, could you not watch with me one hour?  Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”  Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.”  And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy.  So, leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words again.

As one who loves prayer as I do, there is a great lesson in this for me. There is a principle of prayer here that we all can gain from. As Christians, we know we are to be a people who deny themselves. We know we are supposed to surrender our lives to God as we follow Jesus. But the fact is, we are still living in our fleshly desires. In this story, we see that God knows we are yet dust, that we are a work in progress. He does not mind when we ask Him for the things we desire, even when that are not His desire for us.

First of we see that Jesus, like us, in His humanity wanted the comfort of His friends to share in His distress. Yet, they, like all of us, failed Him in their flesh. They were worn out and could not even watch with Him one hour. Jesus rebukes them but doesn’t let that deter His prayer. Sometimes those around us will fail us in our need for emotional support. In our most difficult of nights, we cam still go to our Father. He never sleeps. He is already there for us when we pray.

The main lesson here I find this morning though is one that we need to take hold of. God is not a magical genie who is bound to answer our prayers just as we ask. Jesus, in His humanity, asked that if an angel from heaven, strengthening him.”

The lesson here is that we can go to God with any request and He hears us. Jesus prayed and asked for something three times and that prayer was for a different way for this to go down. Three times Jesus in His humanity asked for this cup to pass Him by, while in His deity Jesus knew that He had to face the cross. So even though Jesus asked for one thing, He put the answer in the hands of God as He prayed “Your will be done.”

Whatever we face each day, we have a God who hears us and even when our Father knows that the answer will be no to our prayer, He comforts us, and He strengthens us as we pray. This should change our lives. We should pray without ceasing, making our requests known to God, but then resting comfortably in faith, that it is His will that must be done.

Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. Let us become a people of prayer. Let us become a people of faith. Let us become a people of God.

possible this cup, this method of paying the price of all sin, be taken away. Three times Jesus makes this plea as He prays in great sorrow and agony. Luke in his Gospel adds more detail to the distress Jesus was in saying that “being in an agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” This is some serious prayer.

Luke also added another informative word in Luke 22:43 which says, “And there appeared to him

 

 

Studies in Matthew - Waiting On the Return of Christ

I cannot count the times I have been asked the question, “So, what is your eschatological theology?” Christians seem fascinated with the prophecies on the return of Christ, the timing of the rapture, and all the other events scripture has presented to us for the future of the Kingdom of God. I have read many of the great books on the topic and heard many good sermons. And yes, yes, I have my opinion on the topic and if pressed on the matter, could take upon myself one of the labels we Christians have come up with that separate us on the end times. But as I continue to study the scriptures, I have grown into a place in which I believe is of greater importance than taking on a specific label.

The last two mornings I have been studying in Matthew, chapters 24 and 25. This section of scripture finds Jesus addressing the future of the coming Kingdom. He responds to this question of the disciples, as found in Matthew 24:3 that says, As He was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, "Tell us, when will these things happen, and what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?"

Jesus responds to the question by explaining many things that will happen. He gives it to them as a warning not to be duped by the many false teachers that will come as seen in Matthew 24:4, And Jesus answered and said to them, "See to it that no one misleads you.” Implied in this warning is the idea that we certainly ought to study the scriptures so we will not be misled.

Wars, famines, and earthquakes are signs of the nearing of the end, but Jesus compares them to the pains of an impending birth of a baby. Jesus warns us that there will be persecution. There will be hatred and betrayals. Lawlessness in increase. Love will grow cold. All things that seem to be happening right now in our land.

Jesus makes a statement that many misinterpret as meaning we can lose our salvation. He says in Matthew 24:13 that "The one who endures to the end, he will be saved.” That isn’t a suggestion that the saved might fall away, it is a statement that the true believers WILL come through the troubles of life and shall persevere.

As I study through Matthew 24 and 25, I realized I have become more concerned with what I will do as I wait upon His return, than I am about when He is coming.

Matthew 24:36
"But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.”

No one knows the day and hour of His return, yet we continue to see so-called prophets making predictions. The message of Jesus in this section of scripture is not to satisfy our curiosity of prophecy, but it is to tell us what to until He comes. Listen to what Jesus says.

Matthew 24:42
"Therefore be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming.”

 

Matthew 24:44
"For this reason you also must be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think He will.”

Jesus proceeds in the end of chapter 24 and in 25 to explain what we need to be doing as we await His return.

Through several parables Jesus gives us our orders. The Parable of the Ten Virgins reminds us to be ready to meet our Bridegroom, Jesus, when the day of the wedding banquet comes. The Parable of the Talents teaches us to be faithful with what God has given us, whether we have a lot or a little, we must not squirrel it away. We are to live as investors of our lives, our money, talents, and time.

Jesus finishes up by making a stark comparison of two types of people. There are those who provide for the sick, the hungry, the naked, and the prisoners. There are those who do not. Listen to what He says to each of these two types of people.

Matthew 25:40
"The King will answer and say to them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.”

Matthew 25:45
"Then He will answer them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.”

The way we treat people is the way we treat Jesus. Salvation is by faith alone, but true salvation will evidence itself in a new person, a person who seeks to meet the needs of others. This is what James means when he speaks of his works is how he shows his faith.

Jesus finishes up with a fearful warning that ought to wake us up to a life of service.

Matthew 25:41-43
"Then He will also say to those on His left, 'Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels;  for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink;  I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.”

Matthew 25:46
"These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."

Wow. Those are the words of Jesus. They ought to change the priorities of our lives. I love theology. There is nothing wrong with studying scripture, but if all we study it for is to defend our eschatology and our other doctrinal positions, then we’ve missed the message.

We do not know when Jesus will return. Rather than worry about that, we should simply be busy doing what He said to do. We must be prepared for His coming. He tells us here how to do that. Read these two chapters of Matthew and ask the Holy Spirit to teach you and guide you. He’s coming back. What will He catch us doing when He comes?