Good afternoon, Father! Even with everything in turmoil in the world around me, You are my ROCK! My trust is in You!
Luke 9:21-22 (<<click to read the passage)
As we are now just past our celebration of Easter – Resurrection Sunday! – and I once more read through the two verses from yesterday’s post and the notes below, and I also have some other things that have been weighing on my mind, I feel that I need to say them.
As I mentioned yesterday, Jesus was not the Messiah that the Jewish nation had anticipated. He explained to his disciples that he would not now be the conquering Messiah because he first had to suffer, die, and rise again. And here is the line that grabbed me. But one day he would return in great glory to set up his eternal Kingdom. *
There are many points of significance in the words God has given us in His Holy Word, the Bible. They are inspirational and give us great, irreplaceable guidance – not a single word of man can do so! But the pinnacle event above them all was the resurrection of Jesus, our Lord and Savior! Everything before His resurrection leads up to that event and everything following that event is in response to it!
With that in mind, we should be diligent on carrying out His command as He left (temporality, mind you!) the disciples with mouths agape when he ascended to the heavens.
Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations [help the people to learn of Me, believe in Me, and obey My words], baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always [remaining with you perpetually—regardless of circumstance, and on every occasion], even to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:19-20 (AMP)
One other thing, Acts 1:6-8 also speaks of Jesus’ departure.
So when they had come together, they asked Him repeatedly, “Lord, are You at this time reestablishing the kingdom and restoring it to Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know the times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority. But you will receive power and ability when the Holy Spirit comes upon you; and you will be My witnesses [to tell people about Me] both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and Samaria, and even to the ends of the earth.” (AMP)
For some time now, I have heard quite a bit of talk amongst believers that all that we have been experiencing in the past several years seem to be pointing to our Lord’s imminent return. Now unarguably, that is going to happen at some point. But did you catch that interaction in the first lines of the above passage?
…they asked Him repeatedly, “Lord, are You at this time reestablishing the kingdom and restoring it to Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know the times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority. (emphasis mine)
Church! Quit fiddling around, putting effort and time into something Jesus, our Lord and Master, specifically addressed by saying “It is not for you to know”! Do the work He has called us to do. He said, “GO!” People’s eternal destinies hang in the balance! Nowhere did He say to waste time trying to figure out how it all ends!
I will tell you right now how it will end.
At just the right time, and only the Father knows when that will be, Jesus will most definitely return. We find in Matthew 24:42 (AMP) that Jesus said, “So be alert [give strict attention, be cautious and active in faith], for you do not know which day [whether near or far] your Lord is coming.”
As my study Bible said, one day Jesus will return in great glory to set up his eternal Kingdom. It is not a matter of if Jesus is returning, it’s a matter of being ready when He does!
*Life Application Study Bible New Living Translation
Apr 13th, 2020, Mon, 1:32 pm
