The Stamp That Jesus Licked
Pastor Dave
The Stamp that Jesus Licked,
by James Robert Kessler
As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples
came to him privately and said;
"Tell us, when will this happen, and what will be the sign
of your coming and of the end of the age?" - Matt 24:3
Jesus answered and said;
"I tell you the truth, *this* *generation* will certainly
not pass away until all these things have happened."
- Matt 24:34
What is it that makes Paul�s letter�s so very relevant and
timely to the churches he sent them to? The very words
of the Son of God found in Matthew�s Gospel in the 24th
chapter provides us with the insight and evidence we need
to stamp and date those letters to the churches.
The disciples asked for the "sign" of His return and Jesus
provides them much detail in explaining His answer.
Then when He comes to the 34th verse of Matthew 24,
He licks the stamp addressed to each believing church
founded in the first century. "I tell you the truth, this
generation will certainly not pass away until all these
things have happened.". "This generation" has been
the most controversial two words found in Scripture
for the last 2000 years!
Yet who was Jesus addressing at that moment, those
of us alive today or the disciples? Of course it was
the disciples because they were the one�s who not only
asked the question that day on the Mount of Olives, but
they were the one�s that would personally take the message
of the Gospel to the world and to their own death for most
of them. Are those churches of the first century still in
existence today? How about the seven churches found
in Revelation? Of course they are not, but for some
reason, we still live our lives in modern Christendom as
if we have just taken their place in time. Did Christ not
fulfill His promises to the churches He addressed at Patmos?
Did Paul in his letters fail in the authority given him
to write to the churches, because of our misconceptions
today of thinking his letters are our letters?
Or do we today in our misreading of the context and audience
relevance, commit Christian mail fraud every time we try
to take letters that were not written to us and put our own
stamp on them to send out to the world today who never
will know the Galatians plight or the Ephesians dilemma,
or certainly not the Thessalonian believers terrible
persecution at the hands of the Jewish rulers?
It�s time we start putting the Scripture in their right
perspective and context. Read the addresses on those Apostolic
letters and ask yourself questions such as
the following one.
Q) Today, am I under the same oppression and heartache
concerning the Jewish religious system of their day as
compared to the political environment and modern day
Israel today?
A) Of course we're not, because God has made grace
the standard in this age as compared to the Law
and sacrifice of the age in which those things
mattered. Modern day evangelicals, in their zeal
and misunderstanding of the Scripture texts
concerning eschatology have created a very unstable
world environment! Their support for Israel based
upon the future rebuilding of a third temple in
Jerusalem totally rejects the sacrifice of Jesus
as being sufficient for their salvation! Revelation
clearly points out that in the city of New Jerusalem
there is no physical temple!
"I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God
Almighty and the Lamb are its temple." - Rev 21:22
Make no mistake, modern day Israel�s right to a peaceful
existence is a legitimate concern but it shouldn�t be based
upon Biblical Scripture that has been fulfilled in all it�s
promises concerning the "Israel" that existed under the
Old Covenant of Law and sacrifice. Many innocent lives
have been lost because of wrong eschatology and bully
pulpits that refuse to separate religion from politics,
because of the macho belief that our God is bigger
than their god.
Our God is their God! The problem is that the church today
has never recognized His victory as yet being completed!
Religion and politic�s must be separated to truly understand
servanthood in its Kingdom application! Concerning
politic�s, Jesus said it best.
Then Jesus said to them; "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's
and to God what is God's." (Mk 12:17).
It would seem that Jesus was teaching us that Caesar and
God were two separate issues. We must keep them separate
today or the peaceable Kingdom of grace is something the
church will never experience through Christ�s completed
victory in the fulfillment of the promise of His return.
The Thessalonian�s situation was so much more intense,
because there were spiritual forces active that we no longer
deal with, within the passing away of the old covenant and
the destruction of the evil one in the consummation of the
coming of Christ and His Kingdom. Even the "anti-christ"
the modern day church is waiting for to come upon the
scene, is 2000 year old news.
"For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work;
but the one who now holds it back will continue to do
so till he is taken out of the way." - 2 Th 2:7
"The secret power of lawlessness". Paul was informing
the Thessalonian�s through his letter the things Jesus spoke
about were beginning to come to pass. That last preposition
might be the hardest one to understand if you think
2000 year old letters are your�s today in battling spiritual
warfare when the very reason the Son of God was manifested
was to destroy the work of the devil!
"He who does what is sinful is of the Devil, because the
Devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason
the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work."
- 1 John 3:8
They were one part of the foundation and establishment of
God�s perfected church through the preaching of the Gospel
and accomplished in the embodiment of His own Son and
His atoning sacrifice. The Kingdom of God would come in
all it�s universal or complete authority when the physical
temple in Jerusalem would be destroyed to make way for
the spiritual Kingdom and temple in the age in which we
now live today. Let�s look at the period between the cross
and the destruction of the temple 40 years later to help us
further understand the lives of our first century brothers
and sisters, each time we read their mail.
Attn: Dead or Alive; I�m Coming for You:
"Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep,
but we will all be changed." - 1 Cor 15:51
"Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about
those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men,
who have no hope." - 1 Thes 4:13
Paul loved to reveal the mysteries of God through the
revelation he received! He was assuring the believer�s
in Thessalonica that even the ones (believer�s) who
had passed and those still alive at the writing of these
letters, would partake of the generational promise Jesus
made to his disciples in Matthew's Gospel! Using the
example of the two letters Paul wrote to the believer�s
at Thessalonica, I want to try to establish why the word
"fraud", isn�t so far fetched in it�s meaning concerning
the moderns church's application of their context.
The 40 year period between the cross and the destruction
of the temple in Jerusalem, was one of transition.
The Old Covenant and promises given to Old Covenant
Israel were all being finalized to make way for the age
we call grace and the New Jerusalem, which represent
the New Covenant. This transition period was a time of
supernatural outpourings of the Holy Spirit never equaled
before or since that time in history! The New Testament
letters explain these gifts and what their purposes
entailed in the Gospel being established in power.
Certainly it is not wrong to learn from these letters, for
I do believe they are the inspired Words of God Himself
through the pen of the men He had chosen to do this work!
It is however wrong to take these letters and suppress
the freedom found in God�s grace and say God�s promises
through His New Testament letter writers failed in their
goal of preparing them for Christ�s soon return! As we
see in the letters to the Thessalonians, God�s Word was
established with each stroke that flowed from the writer�s
pen! No greater letters were ever so inspired or written1
All because of the power of hope and it�s perfect timing!
--
Pastor Dave
The following is part of my auto-rotating
sig file and not part of the message body.
"Don't worry about the world coming to an end today.
It's already tomorrow in Australia." - Charles Schulz.
Ike E 11/16/09
Your doctrines "prove" so.
Ike
Bible Studies with Satan
>
> The Stamp that Jesus Licked,
> by James Robert Kessler
>
> As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples
> came to him privately and said;
>
> "Tell us, when will this happen, and what will be the sign
> of your coming and of the end of the age?" - Matt 24:3
Very good. He is attributed to have referred to the end of the age, not the end
of the world.
--
God did not need to work miracles to convince atheists but to convert heathens.
-- Sir Francis Bacon
Ike E 11/23/9
"Bible Studies with Satan" <chu...@state.org> wrote in message
news:WeYOm.148256$la3.125449@attbi_s22...
> Pastor Dave wrote:
>
>>
>> The Stamp that Jesus Licked,
>> by James Robert Kessler
>>
>> As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples
>> came to him privately and said;
>>
>> "Tell us, when will this happen, and what will be the sign
>> of your coming and of the end of the age?" - Matt 24:3
>
> Very good. He is attributed to have referred to the end of the age, not
> the end
> of the world.
Mostly yes, but Jesus spoke of the end of the world, too.
He just didn't spend much time on it.
Why would He?
He'll be back before then, so He can explain the rest later when the time is
right.
In the meantime, its the End of the Age that the believers have to watch
for.
[snip]
Ike