Matthew Defining The Kingdom Part 5

God’s about to unleash a new dispensation the Age of Grace and the gentiles will very much be the focus.

Paul the Apostle to the Gentiles is being prepared for this way out in the dessert and Peter’s being prepared for it here.

 

We left off last time in Acts 10:28 with Peter entering into this house of these Romans, these Gentiles, and military ones into the bargain. Imagine how this good Jew must have felt when everything he had held as sacred all through his life is now turned upside down? He can’t fight against it of course because it’s all initiated by God Himself. Let’s read verse 28 as a sort of recap,

Then he said to them, “You know how unlawful it is for a Jewish man to keep company with or go to one of another nation. But God has shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean. 

 

So, Peter says that under the circumstances I’m here.

Here we have this massive change, this huge re focusing of God.

He’s now going to operate with and through the Gentile world instead of exclusively through the Jew.

All of the Jewish Apostle would eventually get on board this new and very different direction of God, but one Jewish apostle especially would be directly given the responsibility of The Apostle to the Gentiles and that is Paul, originally Saul of Tarus, the great persecutor of the Jewish believers.

But we’re getting a little ahead of ourselves.

 

Peter comes into the house of Cornelius and, of course, all he can tell them is that this Jesus of Nazareth presented himself as Israel’s Messiah, that Israel had rejected Him and killed Him, and how God raised Him the third day.

Acts 10:34-44,

Then Peter opened his mouth and said: “In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality. 

But in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him. 

The word which God sent to the children of Israel, preaching peace through Jesus Christ—He is Lord of all— that word you know, which was proclaimed throughout all Judea, and began from Galilee after the baptism which John preached: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him. 

And we are witnesses of all things which He did both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, whom they killed by hanging on a tree. 

Him God raised up on the third day, and showed Him openly, not to all the people, but to witnesses chosen before by God, even to us who ate and drank with Him after He arose from the dead. 

And He commanded us to preach to the people, and to testify that it is He who was ordained by God to be Judge of the living and the dead. 

To Him all the prophets witness that, through His name, whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins. 

While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard the word. 

 

In other words, peter hadn’t even got to his point yet when the Holy Spirit fell on all of them who heard the word.

We don’t know how many there were.  A house full?  Ten, twelve, fourteen—your guess is as good as mine.

But they all suddenly became believers by believing that Jesus was the Christ and that He’d been raised from the dead.  All right, so the Holy Spirit fell in response to their believing, but what have they not yet done according to the Jewish plan?

 

Now, I’ve got to take you back to Acts chapter 2 and compare Scripture with Scripture, and you can’t help but see the difference.  Acts chapter 2 verse 36 and it’s Peter on the day of Pentecost talking to Jews.  Not Gentiles.

 

Acts 2:36-37,

Therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly, (There are no Gentiles in the house of Israel.) that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.

Now when they heard this, they were pricked (Convicted) and they said, Men and brethren, what shall we (the Nation of Israel) do?”

 

Now look at the process.  Repent.  Be baptized.  Be forgiven and be filled with the Spirit. Acts 2:38,

Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 

Please, let’s remember this!

Repent, be baptized, be forgiven, and experience the Holy Spirit.  That’s the Jewish process.

 

Now, look what happens up in a house of Gentiles.  It’s a complete reversal, an opposite process.

Instead of repenting and being baptized and being forgiven, it’s the other way around.

The Romans, the Gentiles, suddenly believe, and they’re being forgiven.

They haven’t repented.  They haven’t been baptized.  And Peter is just completely at odds!  But, but, but.. this isn’t the way it’s supposed to work!  It’s all backwards!

Why?  Because we’re dealing with Gentiles.

We’re not dealing with Israel. It is a whole new ballgame, a whole new way of operating.

Here’s the beginning of God’s dealing with Gentiles and there’s a whole different foundation.

It’s not with repentance and water baptism, not with a forgiveness and then that filling of the Holy Spirit.

 

Instead, the moment these Gentile Romans believed, they were forgiven, and the Holy Spirit showed Himself upon them, and Peter’s just beside himself.

 

Okay, now come on down to chapter 11 just to show how unusual this was.  The Jews weren’t used to it at all.  The Jerusalem church had never heard of such a thing.

Gentiles coming into a knowledge of our God?  There’s complete unbelief of that, so you come into chapter 11 verse 1,

Now the apostles and brethren who were in Judea (that’s the Jerusalem church) heard that the Gentiles had also received the word of God. 

Messengers ran faster than Peter to tell them in Jerusalem what’d just happened up in Caesarea.

 

Before Peter gets back to Jerusalem, they already knew what he’d been involved in.

Verse 2 and 3,

And when Peter came up to Jerusalem, those of the circumcision contended with him, saying, “You went into uncircumcised men and ate with them!” 

So, the Jerusalem Church didn’t exactly praise the Lord and hug Peter and shake his hand and say, “Well done”.

What did they do? They argued with him over what?  Because he went to men who were uncircumcised! Gentiles!  Romans!  And as if that wasn’t bad enough he actually ate with them! There world was shattered!

 

Archaeological studies and digs have shown that Pork was a mainstay or at least very common in the diet of the Gentile of that day, So it’s quite likely that if Peter went in and ate with them, he would’ve eaten pork.

These Jews came unstuck and couldn’t believe it!.

Peter then told them all the things that took place and how that God was in it.

To get the flavour of just how seriously the Jews looked on this we’ll go to Acts 11 verse 19,

Now those who were scattered after the persecution that arose over Stephen travelled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the word to no one but the Jews only. 

 

They travelled as far as Phenice, and Cyprus, and Antioch, (which I believe is north of present day Beirut) preaching the word. This is only Old Testament, there’s no New Testament yet, but notice to none but unto the Jews only.”  We mustn’t lose sight of that, or we’ll get confused again.

See, at this time we’re about ten years after Pentecost, and the Jews haven’t made any approach tom the Gentiles at all with the Word of God. To them everything of God is related to them, the Jew, only.

This’s the one time when God forced Peter to share with Cornelius, so that about twelve years later Peter could come to Paul’s defence in Acts 15 and Galatians chapter 2.

 

We should be aware that Acts is a transitional book, coming out of Judaism and the dispensation of Law, and jumping over into the dispensation of Grace and Paul’s epistles.

So, there’s an overlapping of Judaism with Grace. But as we go along, Judaism is going to fall away, and Peter and the eleven lose their authority with the church at Jerusalem, because Israel is still rejecting everything.

 

Then Paul becomes the most prominent apostle until we get to the return of God dealing with Israel in the Tribulation.

That’s where the Rapture is taught and how we, the Body of Christ can’t be here for the Tribulation. We’re just not part of God dealing with Israel.  But we’ll come to that soon.

 

So, in Acts chapter 11 we see the beginning of the move from Jew to Gentile.

 

Acts 11:20

But some of them were men from Cyprus and Cyrene, who, when they had come to Antioch, spoke to the Hellenists, preaching the Lord Jesus. 

 

“Some of them” refers to some of these Jerusalem church members who’ve been preaching the word to none but Jews only in verse 19.

 

Many of the newer Bible translations have this word “Hellenists” or “Grecians” as the King James version has as Greeks while some even use the word Gentiles. Hellenists and Grecians actually refers to non-Palestinian Jews, so it wouldn’t have been noteworthy to say that these fellows preached to Jews since we already know that from previous verses. It looks like that here the newer translations are more correct in that these being preached to were Greeks, Gentiles. In other words, these Jews who initially preached to Jews only start preaching the Lord Jesus to Gentiles.

Now again, why did the Jerusalem church react the way it did?

Many of these Jerusalem church members had moved on. Many would have strongly disagreed with the very idea of bringing Gentiles into the knowledge of the things of God that they regarded as theirs exclusively.

 

Acts 11:21

And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number believed and turned to the Lord. 

These Gentiles are taking an interest now in the things of Israel’s God.

Now verse 22:

Then news of these things (Gentiles getting interested.) came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent out Barnabas to go as far as Antioch. 

 

Again, did they shout–praise the Lord? Definitely not!

They send Barnabas to Antioch. Why? To see what’s happening there. What are these people doing?  They’re not adhering to our Jewish customs and they’re actually bringing in Gentiles!

 

Had anybody but Barnabas gone to Antioch, they’d ruin the whole thing.  But Barnabas was the man.

 

Acts 11:23-24

When he (Barnabas) came (to Antioch) and had seen the grace of God, (Saving Gentiles! ) he was glad, and encouraged them all that with purpose of heart they should continue with the Lord. 

For he (Barnabas) was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great many people were added to the Lord. 

 

See, Barnabas wasn’t as bigoted as most Jews naturally were.  He didn’t just have that mindset.  He saw that God was doing something different, and he’s not about to stand in God’s way..

Now, what did that prompt Barnabas to do?  Go and find Saul.

How come Barnabas understood that Saul was the man that was needed?

Gentiles.  What was the purpose of God sending Saul out into the desert?  To be the Apostle of the Gentiles.  And Barnabas had enough Spirit-driven understanding to realise that with Gentiles coming in, the Apostle of the Gentiles was required.

 

Acts 11:25

Then Barnabas departed for Tarsus to seek Saul. 

He goes out from Antioch to Tarsus, to look for Saul, with the purpose that he had to have God’s man for the Gentiles.

 

Acts 11:26

And when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. So it was that for a whole year they assembled with the church and taught a great many people. And the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch. 

We don’t know how Barnabas looked or for how long, but when he’d found Saul, he brought him unto Antioch.

Now, the word church always means a called out assembly.

But let’s see the incredible difference here. From the tiny seed of Peter preaching to Cornelius, the Gentile, there’s a huge wave started that can never be stopped, a wave that’ll continue until the day of the rapture.

This a called out assembly, this church, is now becoming a congregation predominately of Gentiles, rather than Jews.

It’s now Gentile!  All right, and Paul, now the Apostle of the Gentiles, is the absolute answer to their need.

For a whole year they Paul and Barnabas assembled themselves with the church where they taught many people, disciples, followers. This wasn’t Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and James disciples, these were a whole new breed of disciples and here at Antioch is the first place they’re called Christians.

Now, Why weren’t the Jerusalem church people called Christians?  They were following the same Christ.  The Bible never calls them Christians.  So, who were Christians?

The Gentiles believers, you see?

Here at this Gentile church up in Antioch, not the Jerusalem church, but the Gentile church up in Antioch, those believers were called Christians for the first time.

 

So, now we’ve progressed with the puzzle pieces of our picture to where we’ve got Paul who’s now established dealing with the Gentile church.

Now, to finalise how the Body of Christ, The Church, fits into the future, we’re going to see the necessity of a pre-Tribulation Rapture in the uniqueness of Paul’s ministry to the Gentile world.

 

Let’s go to Ephesians chapter 3, and this is now the dispensation that you and I find ourselves in.

This verse becomes vital for us as the Gentile Church today.

 

Before that, though, let’s be sure we understand that individual Jews who believe are also in this church, this body, with us Gentiles.

Individual Jews can be saved in this dispensation even though most of them will reject God’s salvation.

There’s no difference between Jew and Gentile.

What’s different is the Jewish nation, National Israel, which is still in rebellion against God. That nation will now be dealt with by God after our current age, The Age of grace or the Age of the Church is over.

So, we never exclude the Jewish people.

 

Ephesians 3:1

For this reason (In other words, what he’s written in these first two chapters of Ephesians.)  I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for you Gentiles— 

Where is Paul when he writes this letter to the Ephesians?

He’s in prison in Rome.  What got him in prison?

His preaching the Gospel of Grace to the Gentiles.

All the opposition of the Jews along with the opposition from the Romans, results with him in prison in Rome.

And the Spirit leads him to write as a prisoner of Jesus Christ on behalf of you and me as Gentiles.

 

All right, now Ephesians 3:2,

if indeed you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which was given to me for you, 

Paul doesn’t say here that the dispensation of the grace of God was given “to us”. Not to the other Apostles.  Not to the Prophets, not to Israel, but to ME! To Paul!

And it’s been given for us, Gentiles!

That’s what a dispensation is, remember?  It is explicit directions for the period of time in which we live.

See how perfectly plain and simple it is?  Why is it then that many people can’t see this?

That’s why we need to ask questions of the Word and pull it apart, line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little there a little.

 

So, this dispensation of Grace is the set of directions that are given primarily for the Gentile world to come into a relationship with God.  It’s our hope for eternity, and it’s the only way we can find it.

Now to emphasise this let’s turn ahead a few pages to Colossians chapter 1 and verse 24 and it’s Paul writing,

I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church, 

In other words, all the hardships of his apostleship – hunger, thirst, imprisonment, beatings, stoning — you name it, it was all for you and me.

He’s physically suffered immensely for 28 years, which he’s clarified in his previous epistles, for his body’s sake, which is the church:”

The Body of Christ, which is that composite of Gentile believers, I think from Paul’s own conversion on.   Now, here’s the parallel for Ephesians 3 verse 2.

Colossians 1:25

of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God, which was given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God,

Notice, it isn’t we, it’s I.

It isn’t a group of people; it’s the single man, the Apostle Paul. This stewardship or dispensation of God is given to me for you, the Gentiles and the final purpose is to fulfill, or bring to completion, the word of God;”

Now verse 26 is a unique part of Paul’s revelation of this dispensation.  It’s what he calls the mysteries.

 

Colossians 1:26

the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. 

Now, notice he’s just dealing with one mystery here, the mystery which has been hidden. Who hides it?  God does!

Let’s go all the way back to Deuteronomy 29:29,

The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law. 

This again shows the Sovereignty of our God.  He’s absolutely sovereign.  He can do whatever He wants.

It’s God’s the choice to keeping things secret, but those things which are revealed or that are no longer secret, belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.”  Now that, of course, is Moses under the Law. However, the overall point is that God is secret and He can keep things secret as long as He likes.

 

Now, look at Luke 18 during Jesus’s earthly ministry.

He’s now ready to go up to Jerusalem and the Passover and the Crucifixion.  Now we know that the Gospel, the Gospel of Salvation as we know it is faith in the truth that Christ died for all and was buried and rose from the dead.

People say that’s always been the only Gospel.  So, then how do we explain Luke 18 verses 31 through 34? And remember we’re looking here at how God keeps things secret.

Luke 18:31

Then He took the twelve aside and said to them, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man will be accomplished.

 

We’re at the end of His three years of His earthly ministry. What’s He talking about?  Well, the coming crucifixion.  Everything pertaining to it as prophesied is going to happen.  Now verse 32, He explains what they are.

 

Luke 18:32-33

For He will be delivered to the Gentiles (the Romans) and will be mocked and insulted and spit upon. 

They will scourge Him and kill Him. And the third day He will rise again.

He knew what was coming.  It wasn’t any secret to Him.  Now He shared this openly with the Twelve.  Now look at the next verse, verse 34.

 

But they understood none of these things; this saying was hidden from them, and they did not know the things which were spoken. 

So, they, the Twelve, didn’t have a clue what He was talking about. Notice, it was hidden from them. Who hid it?  God did.

It wasn’t time for them to know. See, God kept it secret even though He told them.

Why did the Lord even tell the Twelve something that He wouldn’t let them understand?

For our benefit.  Now, we know that He was totally God.  He knew exactly what was going to happen moment by moment.  But on the other hand, He’s going to keep it from the Twelve.  He hid it from them.  That’s His choice.

Even though He told them what was going to happen, they didn’t have a clue that He was going to die.  And when they saw Him dying on that Roman Cross, did they just say, hey, so what?  Three days and He’s going to be back alive?  No!  They didn’t know He was going to rise from the dead.  They thought it was all over.

 

All right, now here’s the proof of it in John’s Gospel on resurrection morning.  You all know it.  Mary comes to the tomb and it’s empty. She runs and tells Peter and John.

 

John 20:4-5

So, they both ran together, and the other disciple outran Peter and came to the tomb first. 

And he, stooping down and looking in, saw the linen cloths lying there; yet he did not go in. 

In other words, young John outran Peter, but he was a bit reluctant, you know but then comes old Peter.

 

John 20:6-8

Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb; and he saw the linen cloths lying there, and the handkerchief that had been around His head, not lying with the linen cloths, but folded together in a place by itself. 

Then the other disciple, who came to the tomb first, went in also; and he saw and believed.

 

He saw the evidence and believed.”   Believed what?  That Christ had supernaturally risen from the dead because the grave clothes were undisturbed.  But now look at the next verse.

 

John 20:9

For as yet they did not know the Scripture, that He must rise again from the dead. 

They still didn’t get that He must rise again from the dead.

Now isn’t that plain?  They didn’t know.  They didn’t have a clue that after He was crucified He’d be raised from the dead.  Yet Jesus told them, but He hid it from them.

 

Now let’s return to Colossians chapter 1 and we should remember that in this dispensation of Grace, Paul has a whole group of what he calls mysteries that were totally secret from everybody until God revealed it to this Apostle.  They come out one at a time, but they make a whole picture.  All right, here we go.  This dispensation of the grace of God includes:

Colossians 1:26,

the mystery which has been hidden (by an act of God) from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. (That is to these Grace believing Gentiles who are saved now by Faith and Faith alone in that finished work of the Cross.  To these believers now–)

To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 

 

See, you have to be a believer to understand these things.  The unbeliever can’t get a handle on it whatsoever because it’s way over their head.  And it stays over their head until they become a believer, and then it becomes something that we can just feast on like a sumptuous banquet.

 

Colossians 1:27

To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

See, not among the Jews now, but among Gentiles.  And what is this particular mystery?

Christ in you, the hope of glory:”

Eternal glory!

It’s been now made known to us!

And that’s why when we believe the writings of this Apostle to us Gentiles, we don’t have to say I hope so or I think so.

We know so, and not because of any pride on our part.  It’s because we give all the credit to the One who loved us and gave Himself for us!

 

That’s one of the secrets that’re a part of Paul’s revelation which no other portion of Scripture ever even hints at—that God would come down and, in the form of the Holy Spirit, of course, indwell believing Gentiles and make us a child of God in complete relationship with the Creator, God Himself.  He is in us and us in Him, and we take that by faith.

 

Let’s see another passage that makes that so plain.  I Corinthians chapter 12 verse 13.  This ‘s all unique to Paul’s revelations of this dispensation of Grace.  You won’t find it in the four gospels.  You won’t find it in the book of Revelation or in the Old Testament.  It’s unique to the letters of Paul.

 

I Corinthians 12:13

For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. 

The One Spirit here is, of course, the Holy Spirit. Not just a few.  Not just the elite.  Not just the best, but all, every believer from the bottom to the top are baptised into One Body.

We’re placed into the whole by the work of the Holy Spirit. That’s what we have to believe as we take it by faith. You don’t feel it.  You don’t all of a sudden jump up and say, Wow, what an experience or Oh, what a feeling, but rather we take it by faith because the Book says so.

 

Now go back to Ephesians chapter 3 to pick up again.

We’re we’re going to be moving to the place where we can hopefully see that now we’ve defined the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of heaven and the Church and we’ve seen how we, the Gentiles fit into that picture. Now what about that all important destiny where we as the church, The Body of Christ fit into the next soon coming dispensation, The Millenium, or the Millennial reign of Christ.

We should be able to see beyond a shadow of a doubt that we can rest on the out-calling, the snatching up of the church from this earth, this event that we call the Rapture, and that this event will undoubtedly take place before the terrible times the Bible calls The Tribulation or The day of the Lord.

 

Now, one of the big arguments against the rapture is that the word Rapture isn’t even in the Bible.

Well, neither is the word Trinity.  Neither is the word Sovereign.  But we use them all the time, and same is with the word Rapture.

It’s in the Roman Catholic Vulgate, not that that makes it any more secure, but they translated the caught up in I Thessalonians 4:17 as “rapture” from which, I suppose, the English got the word Rapture.

In most translation the Greek word used, harpazō is rendered as being caught up. It also can mean snatched up.

But anyhow, we’re not showing it just from one or two verses.  We want to show the big picture.

We drop each puzzle piece in its correct place and the result is a clear big picture.

Firstly, how did all these things come about that brings the necessity of an out calling a catching up of the Body of Christ before God picks up His dealings with the Nation of Israel again?

 

As we’ve said we need to recognise the dispensations of Scripture where God’s dealt differently with the human race over different periods of time.  In other words, how has God dealt with humanity?

 

As we’ve pointed out a number of times it all starts in the Garden of Eden where Adam and Eve, were given very simple directions.

Of that one tree you shall not eat.  The rest are yours to enjoy.  But of that one tree you shall not eat.  That was it.  But they couldn’t even follow that!

It wasn’t long until Satan twisted their thinking and deceived them, and they ate of that one tree that they were told not to.

Well, that ended that dispensation with a judgment, which was the expulsion out of the Garden.  And you start up with another dispensational program. It was that way up through human history.  God has dealt at different times, under different circumstances with different sets of directions.

 

Moses and the Children of Israel came to Mount Sinai, and God put them under the Law.  Basically, from the Ten Commandments and everything that was associated with it.

For 1,500 years Israel lived and practiced under the Law.  And again, it was a set of directions.

Well, of course, they rejected everything that God had promised under that dispensation, which was really the coming of their Messiah to be their King.

Instead of recognizing and taking Him and trusting Him as their King, what did they do?  They crucified Him.  They killed Him, and of course that bought on a judgment which ended with the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in A.D 70, and Israel was sent out into a dispersion that took them to every nation under heaven.

Until next time my friends where more of our puzzle pieces will fall into place, may God make His face to shine on you.