Tag Archives: the Son of Man

BE ON YOUR GUARD

Christian Life, ,

BE ON YOUR GUARD

“But be on your guard. Don’t let the sharp edge of your expectations be dulled by parties and drinking and shopping. Otherwise, that Day is going to take you by complete surprise, spring on you suddenly like a trap, for its going to come on everyone, everywhere, at once. So, whatever you do, don’t go to sleep at the switch. Pray constantly that you will have the strength and wits to make it through everything that’s coming and end up on your feet before the Son of man.'” Luke 21:34-36 (The Message).

Jesus issued two warnings regarding His return; be on guard, and be ready. Almost two thousand years have come and gone since His appearance on the earth. That’s a long time to wait for something to happen that is as revolutionary as His coming promises to be. According to the Bible, when He comes He will rid the earth of every person and thing that conflicts with God’s origninal plan. He will set up His eternal kingdom of righteousness and peace and destroy every opposing force.

He also gave His followers instructions regarding their commission during the interval before He returns. We are to extend His invitation to everyone we meet to follow and obey Him, and we are to take care of His household, loving and serving believers so that we faithfully reflect Him to the world around us.

The temptation to believers is to become so enmeshed in the world and its allurements that we forget Jesus’ instructions and either go to sleep on the job or join the world in its selfish and worthless pursuits. We can become disillusioned with Jesus because following Him is tough and sometimes perilous. The promise of His coming seems so remote and illusory that we simply join in with everything that goes on around us. Hence Jesus’ warning is relevant and needs to be repeated constantly.

He told a parable about ten virgins who were awaiting the bridegroom’s return. He delayed for so long that they all fell asleep. Five of them were ready but not watching; the other five were neither ready nor watching. When the bridegroom finally arrived, they were awakened by the shout, ‘Here he is!’ Their lamps had gone out. Five were able to relight their lamps with extra oil they carried but the other five had none, so they tried to borrow oil from the others.

Since most of us don’t understand the imagery, our misinterpretation causes us to miss the point. The oil in this story represents, not the Holy Spirit as we tend to think, but the “acts of righteousness” referred to in Revelation 19:7: “‘For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and His bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear.’ (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints.)”

The five “wise” virgins were ready because their “lamps” were full of their “righteous acts”. It was impossible for the “foolish” virgins to borrow righteous acts. They had to go out and do their own, but for them it was too late because the bridegroom came and the doors to the wedding banquet were locked. 

Being ready implies that the life of Jesus in us has so transformed us that we have taken on His nature which is loving and generous towards all people. This is the proof that we are ready to receive Him when He returns and to go in to the marriage supper with Him.

His warning to be on guard is equally sobering. What if, when He returns, He finds that we have forgotten to do what He told us to do and, instead, we have joined the world in its selfish pursuits; drinking, partying and living ungodly lives like the rest? How would He feel about us?

His instruction is clear. To be on guard and ready is to be faithfully carrying out His mandate to share His invitation and to take care of those who have joined His household by feeding and clothing them and by doing our duty to him by sharing our resources with those in need. Daily focussing on these duties will keep us from falling asleep or becoming lazy or irresponsible while we wait.

Living for Jesus, one day at a time, is an effective antidote against the danger of failing to be on guard or ready for our bridegroom when He comes.

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE – DON’T BE SLOVENLY (PART 1)

Bible Study, ,

DON’T BE SLOVENLY – PART 1

“You know that if the house owner had known what night the burglar was coming, he wouldn’t have stayed out late and left the place unlocked. So don’t you be slovenly and careless. Just when you don’t expect Him, the Son of Man will show up.” Luke 12:39, 40.

This ‘thief in the night’ imagery has captured the imagination of Christian authors and fathered many a story about the coming of Jesus. But, if we don’t tie the expression to its religious and cultural background, we will also be fooled into wild and woolly interpretations. This is not about sitting up all night, every night, waiting for the ‘thief’ to come. This is about being aware of the season and being faithful to respond to the preparation God has prescribed in His word for the season.

“Now, brothers, about times and dates, we do not need to write to you, for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, ‘Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, like labour pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. But you are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. You are all sons of light.” 1 Thessalonians 5:1-5a (NIV).

In this letter written to the believers in Thessalonica, Paul indicated that he had thoroughly instructed them about the return of the Lord Jesus while he was with them. False teachers had subsequently confused them by saying that Jesus had returned secretly and that they had missed Him. Paul explained how this was impossible because the coming of Jesus would fulfil ‘Yom Teruah’, the Feast of Trumpets, a noisy and visible affair.

In Leviticus 23, God gave instruction regarding seven feasts which were to be celebrated during the course the year; one, the Sabbath, a weekly celebration, three in the spring and three seven months later in the autumn. These ‘appointed feasts’ are translated in the Hebrew, ‘rehearsal feasts’. For what were they rehearsing? Since the whole Bible is the story of God’s choice and preparation of His bride, and ends with a wedding, obviously the feasts would be rehearsing the process of His courtship of His people and the wedding ceremony.

Let’s examine them and see how this works.

  1. The Sabbath is a picture of the divine rest into which God calls His people. Jesus fulfilled this feast according the Hebrews 3, 4. This not an annual but a weekly feast to show us that faith in Him sets us free from our ‘labour’ to satisfy God’s demand for perfection and allows us to rest perpetually in the perfection of Jesus who earned it for us through His perfect life and atoning sacrifice.
  2. The first of the three spring feasts, Passover and Unleavened Bread, was fulfilled at Calvary. Jesus was sacrificed for us as God’s spotless Passover lamb and He removed the leaven of sin from us. Because of that, we have been delivered from God’s judgment on sin and freed to live in the ‘Promised Land’ of His favour.
  3. Jesus fulfilled the second spring feast, First fruits, when He rose from the dead. He became a ‘terumah’, a ‘first fruits’ offering, when He was lifted up and His spirit placed into the hands of His Father. God raised Him from the dead as the guarantee that all who believe in Him will share in His resurrection. “But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.” 1 Corinthians 15:20 (NIV).
  4. The Feast of Weeks or Pentecost celebrated the completion of the harvest fifty days after the Feast of First fruits. The high priest would pour oil on the leavened bread as a prophetic sign that God would pour out His Spirit on imperfect people. Jesus fulfilled this feast on the day of Pentecost when He sent the Holy Spirit on the  the church which is His bride.