MATTHEW 16:13-19.
In this passage Jesus starts out by asking his disciples this question "Who do men say that I am" and they replied by saying that some people said he was John the baptist, some said he was Elijah, some said he was Jeremiah or one of the prophets. The truth is if you ask people today who is Jesus you will get many and varied answers. The world, that is those outside of Christ, don't know who he really is.
Jesus then asks them the defining "Who do you say that I am?" The reason for Jesus asking them this question was to see if their understanding of who he was different from the world. Had they got the revelation of who he was, because as we will see, their understanding of who he was would be critical in the work that they were about to be sent out to do. Peter replied "You are Christ, the son of the living God" Jesus then tells Peter that is understanding did not come from man, but his Father had revealed this truth to him, and that he would build his church on the revelation of who Jesus is.
It is critical that we understand this, because the church that Jesus is talking about is not made of bricks and mortar, you and I are the church, living stones being built into a Holy habitation for the Lord. Jesus then tells his disciples that the gates of hell will not prevail against his church. Gates speak of a place of entrance and a place of authority. Jesus the tells them that he will give them they keys to the Kingdom of Heaven and that whatever the bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatever they loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. We will come back to what Jesus is talking about here a bit later, but it's enough to say at this point that Jesus is preparing them for when he is crucified and his resurrection, and then ultimately when he commissions them to continue the work of building Gods Kingdom.
MATTHEW 28:18-20 MARK 16:15-18.
These two passages of scripture obviously come after Jesus was crucified and his resurrection, and this is where Jesus gives them the commission to go out into the world and build Gods Kingdom. We see in Matthew 28:18 that Jesus says that all authority in Heaven and on earth has been given to him. Through his death and resurrection Jesus has now taken back the authority that Adam had handed over to Satan in the garden when he sinned. Remember God created Adam in his own image and likeness and gave him dominion over creation and the earth. Adams commission was go into all the earth, subdue and fill it, sound familiar? but when he believed Satans lie and sinned he gave his authority to Satan, Satan became the god of this world. Now the word world does not mean the earth, it means the cosmos, or order of things.
So Jesus says to his disciple "Go therefore and make disciples". He is now telling them that they are to operate in his authority, they now have his authority to establish Gods Kingdom in the world. We cannot establish Gods Kingdom in our world unless we understand that we can only do it in his authority. In the passage in Mark 16 he says "And these signs would follow those who believe; in my name they will cast out demons......." the term "In my name" means in my authority, in my place, it is as if Jesus was there in person.
This whole process of going into the world and making disciples is all about establishing Gods Kingdom in the world. We know that there is only two spiritual kingdoms, Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of darkness. Where ever Gods kingdom or authority is not established, then Satans kingdom will rule, remember we were all born dead in our sin, separated from God and in Colossians 1:13 tells us that now through Jesus we have been translated from the power of darkness into the Kingdom of Gods own son.
Remember what Jesus said, that he would build his church and that the gates of hades would not prevail against it, well the church that Jesus is talking about is those believers that are out there actively and deliberately going about their lives and building the Kingdom of God in the process, those believers who are walking in the authority that Jesus has given them. They have the true revelation of who Jesus is, know who they are in Christ and know what their part is in establishing Gods Kingdom in their part of the world.
ACTS 3:3-6, 4:7-10.
This passage is a classic example of Gods Kingdom coming into a mans life, and how Jesus authority works. The man sitting at the temple gate begging for money, Peter and John come on the scene, Peter says to the man,"Look at me", in that Peter is able to get the mans attention, to get his mind off his situation, Peter tells him he does not have any money but he will give him what he does have, and his says "In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazereth rise up and walk". We see after he is healed Peter and John are dragged before the authorities and questioned about what happened and by what power they had healed the man, Peter tells them that it was in the name, or authority or power, of Jesus that he was healed. Gods Kingdom coming to displace the power darkness had set this man free.
JOHN 10:10.
As we have seen there are only two spiritual kingdoms in this world, and Satan in this verse is called the thief and he has only one agenda and that is to destroy our lives so that we will not fulfill the destiny God has planned for us. His strategy his to steal the word out of your life, to kill the fruit of the word and the fruit of the Spirit and then ultimately his desire is to destroy you.
1 PETER 5:8.
In this verse Peter warns us to be on our guard, to be vigilant to be aware of what the enemy is up to because he is roaming about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. The point to look at here is that he is looking for people who he can devour, in other words there are those he finds that he can devour and those who he can't. The ones he can't devour are the ones who are standing strong in their faith, the ones who are vigilant and are not ignorant of the devils devices. Don't be one of the ones he can devour, when he comes knocking on your door don't accept the lunch invitation.
EPHESIANS 6:10-19.
This passage covers the armour of God, again shows us that we are in a spiritual battle, in verse 14 we are told to make sure that we are wearing the breast plate of righteousness. So why is this so important in light of what we are looking at? The Bible says that we are to seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, the Kingdom of God is righteousness, joy and peace in the Holy Ghost, Gods kingdom is a righteous kingdom because God is a Holy and righteous God, sin is the opposite to righteousness and it was sin that caused all the problems in the beginning. The breast plate is there to protect your Spirit, to protect your heart. Remember we are the righteousness of God in Christ and it is imperative that we walk in it. This is what maintains our spiritual integrity, Paul writing to the Christians in Rome said that the wages of sin is death, when we allow sin to reign in our lives it results in death in our lives, this is one of the ways Satan can steal the word out of your heart. He will use sin to undermine the authority of Christ in your life. we can never take sin lightly or underestimate the power it can have over our lives to destroy what God wants to do in and through our lives.
PSALM 84:10-11.
This passage shows us the importance of putting Gods kingdom first in our lives. David says that one day in Gods presence is better than a thousand days anywhere else, he would be a doorkeeper in Gods house than live in the tents of the wicked, why, because God is his sun and shield, God will give him is unearned, unmerited favour and pour his glory out on him and as David walks uprightly before God, God will not with hold any good thing from David. The word uprightly there is spiritual integrity. What does the breastplate guard? our spiritual integrity. God is not holding out on us, I believe we miss out on so much of what God has for us because we compromise our integrity. So where does that start?
PSALM 19:14.
In this verse David prays that the words of his mouth and the meditations of his heart would always be acceptable in Gods sight because God is his strength and his redeemer. What we think about, what we fill our hearts with is so important, out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks, death and life is in the power of the tongue and we will eat the fruit of it. Guard your heart with all diligence for out of it flows the issues of life. We either speak life or death, blessing or curses, this is so crucial in our lives because Satan will establish strongholds in your life if he can through what you think about, and what you confess over your own life, and the lives of others. Remember we are about building and establishing Gods kingdom in our own lives and in the lives of those around us. If Satan can establish a stronghold in your life and can, in some way, control your thinking the he can control you, remember his strategy is about stopping you from being effective for Gods kingdom and ultimately to destroy you.
2 CORINTHIANS 10:4-5.
This passage shows us the enemies strategy in trying to establish strongholds in our minds, but the weapons of our warfare our divinely empowered to tear these strongholds down. We do that by casting down all the arguments and thoughts that try to lift themselves up above what Gods word says. This is how Satan caused Adam to fall in the first place. He introduced the thought to Adam and Eve that Gods word could not be trusted by asking the question "Did God really say that". He brought Gods word into question and suggested that God was holding out on them. His strategy has not changed, how often do we hear people, even Christians questioning the truth of Gods word. The moment we allow thoughts or ideas to take the place of what Gods says and then act in accordance to those things we compromise our spiritual integrity. we see an example of how this works in the Gospels, in Matthew 13:58 it says that Jesus could do very few miracles because of their unbelief. Remember the miracles that Jesus did demonstrated the power and presence of Gods kingdom, but because of the unbelief of the people, Jesus was unable to perform the miracles, it was not a case of God with holding anything from them. This same thing can happen in our lives and the lives of others if we compromise our integrity by doubt and unbelief. It is our responsibility to make sure that our thoughts and then ultimately what we do lines up with Gods word, remember it's the weapons of our warfare, not somebody else's.
JAMES 1:21-25.
This passage shows us how important it is to walk in the word of God and to guard our integrity. Remember sin is the enemy of our integrity, James says that we are lay aside sin and to receive Gods word with meekness or humility because Gods word has the ability to save our souls. The word save actually means to make us whole, spirit soul and body. 3 John 2 says "Beloved I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers." The soul is the centre of your mind, will and emotions. We can see from this how important that it is that our mind, will and emotions line up with the word of God, that our minds are renewed to what Gods word says. the Bible says "Be not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, that you may prove what is the good, acceptable and perfect will of God" (Romans 12:2) . James says that as we receive the word, that word will heal our mind ,our will and our emotions, we then need to apply that word and walk in it, and in so doing become a doer of the word. If we don't apply the word and walk in it we actually deceive ourselves, and believe you me there is nothing worse than being self deceived. A person who will believe their own lies about themselves is very hard to get to. If we do not deal with that sort of deception, it has the potential to destroy us quicker than just about anything else. We deceive ourselves into thinking that everything is okay, and that we are doing what God has called us to. When in actual fact all we are doing is building our own kingdom. The word shows us who we are in Christ and what we are to do to establish his Kingdom in our part of the world. It is only as we see the truth, apply that truth and then walk in that truth, that we can hope to prosper in the things that God has called us to do, it is as we do this that we will establish Gods kingdom in our own lives and in the world around us, in our sphere of influence.
JOSHUA 1:1-9.
This passage of scripture shows us exactly how this can work. Joshua is told by God that it is time to cross over the Jordan and to posses the land he has given them. This is very much a parallel to us, the children of Israel have come out of Egypt, which is a type of the world, they now are going into the land that God has promised them, Gods kingdom. We have been translated out of the kingdom of darkness, Egypt, and translated into Gods kingdom or our promise land. The children of Israel were to establish Gods rule in the land, to posses it, subdue their enemies and to fill it, and to live in accordance with Gods covenant.This is exactly what we are called to do. We see that Joshua is told that they are to meditate on Gods word, that it is not to depart out of their mouths, that they are to do all that is contained in the word and as they do this, and only this, then they will be successful in all they do.
JOHN 8:31-32.
These two verses again hold a major key to our success in our own lives. So often you hear Christians quote verse 32 "And you will know the truth and the truth will set you free" The reality is you have to also include what Jesus said in verse 31. "If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples." One cannot truly call himself or herself a disciple of Jesus unless they are abiding in his word, that means to live, stay, not depart from, to do all in accordance with his word. It is then and only then that one can claim the promise of verse 32.
Let me say this at this point, I have said a lot about the importance of Gods word in our lives and the importance of living by that word, having our minds renewed by that word and being transformed by the word of God. It is important that you understand this, God will only hold you responsible to walk in the revelation that you have, as you read the word and pray, God will show you what he wants you to know at that particular stage in your life, but it is our responsibility to continue to read Gods word, to pray and seek Gods wisdom and direction for our lives through his word.
SO WHY IS ALL THAT I HAVE SAID SO IMPORTANT?
We all know that Jesus is going to return, we don't know when, but when he doe's come back he is coming for a victorious, faith filled church. In Ephesians 5:27 it says that Jesus wants to present to himself a church that is with out spot or wrinkle. We see in scripture a number of warnings to the church about its spiritual condition, we should not take these warnings lightly.
REVELATION 3:1-6
We see hear the warning that goes out the church in Sardis. This particular church is on the brink of dying spiritually, the warning is that they strengthen the things that are still alive in the church because their work has not been perfect, or what God was wanting them to do. Jesus warns them that he will come as thief in the night, and only those ones who have not defiled their garments, other words have continued to walk in righteousness, will walk with him in white. In verse 5 we see that there is the warning that some will have their names blotted out of the book of life. As verse 6 says we all need ears to hear what the Spirit is saying.
REVELATION 3;15-17, 20-21.
This warning is given the the Laodicean church, they have become spiritually apathetic, they are described as being neither hot nor cold, as a result Jesus will spew them out, every drank a luke warm coffee, doesn't taste good at all, well that is what it's like for Jesus if we are luke warm and not serving him with our whole hearts. The church is obviously a wealthy church financially and has become self reliant. As a result of that they don't see their true state, how they are wretched and spiritually poor, Jesus tells them to come back to him and get their wealth, the only true wealth from him. Then we see the famous verses in 21-22 when he says he is knocking on the door of their hearts, they have shut him out. These verses are not for the unsaved but for Christians who have become luke warm, apathetic, and self reliant, Jesus wants back into your lives, and again we see the warning in verse 22 about having ears to hear.
MATTHEW 7:21-23.
"No everyone who says to me Lord, Lord shall enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in Heaven. Men will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord Have we not prophesied in your name, cast out demons in your name, and done many wonders in your name? And I will say to them, I never knew you; depart from me you who practice lawlessness"
The fact that we can prophecy, cast out demons do miracles is no guarantee that we will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven when Jesus comes. The only criteria is that we are doing the will of God. Jesus calls the ones he dismisses as workers of lawlessness, that word can also be translated as workers of iniquity, people living in unrighteousness with no regard to Gods word. Living unrestrained lives, hanging onto sin, not walking in the fruit of the Spirit. Thinking that their religious life style will get them through. These ones are very much like the ones James talked about in James 1:22-25 who read the word and then don't apply it or walk in it, they become self deceived, and sadly at the end will miss out on Gods Kingdom.
So the question we must ask ourselves, and be brutally, when we do, Whose Kingdom are we building?
Our hearts prayer should be the same as David in Psalm 139:23-24. Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my anxieties; and see if there is any wicked ways in me, and lead me in the way of everlasting"
ARE YOU SPIRITUALLY READY FOR WHEN JESUS COMES BACK.
MATTHEW 25:1-13.
This passage deals with the parable of the ten virgins. We see that as they went out to meet the bridegroom, the bridegroom is delayed. Five of the virgins were foolish and took no extra oil for their lamps, the other five took extra oil, just in case they needed it. At midnight, when the call went out that the bridegroom was coming and the virgins went out to meet him the foolish virgins did not have enough oil for their lamps and had to go and try to buy more. When they returned they were not able to enter the wedding. It is interesting that when the foolish virgins returned the called the bridegroom Lord and he answered by saying,"Assuredly I say to you I do not know you"
We know that oil in the Bible always refers to the Holy Spirit, so we can see from this parable that when Jesus comes back he will be looking for people who are spiritually pure, that's what the virgins represent, but those who are also ready and prepared for his coming, even if he is delayed. Christians who are walking in the fullness of the Spirit. We can only walk in the fullness of Gods Spirit when our lives are surrendered to his word, and we are walking in what God wants us to be doing. We all have a part to play in establishing Gods Kingdom in our world. Like when the children of Israel went into the promise land God had them divide the land up into tribes and families, God has given you your area of influence, your family, your work mates, in your neighborhood, as you go out into the shopping centres, in your local church. Where ever you find yourself you have the opportunity to take Gods Kingdom and make a difference in someones life.
I believe at this point in time there is an urgency in the Spirit, God is looking for his church to rise up, to go the next level, for too long churches have just been religious institutions, Christians have seen their salvation as "fire insurance", being saved from going to hell. Your salvation is far, far more than that. God has delivered you into his Kingdom because he has got Kingdom business that you need to be about. My prayer is that when Jesus comes back, and as I have already said we do not Know the exact hour that will be, but we must make it our priority to be about our Fathers business. As I entitled this post,
TEN MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT.
