The Rapture of the Church and the End Times

The Rapture of the Church and the End Times.

Daniel 9:21-27; 2^nd Thessalonians 2:1-17; 1^st Thessalonians 4:13-5:11; 1^st Corinthians 15:50-58; 2^nd Corinthians 5:1-9; Mathew 24, 25:31, ff; Revelation 20:11-15, etc.

Introduction:

Several times, recently, a question has arisen regarding the Rapture of the Church, the physical Resurrection of the bodies of believers, and the End Times, as a whole. For this reason, I chose to spend some time on that subject, today.

There are hundreds of verses in a wide range of places in scripture, giving us information regarding these things, so we are only going to touch on the key passages, in this study, but it still involves a good deal of scripture reading, before we begin to discuss particulars. It is important that we hear the evidence before drawing conclusions. We will begin in the book of Daniel, reading the only timeline given in the Old Testament, then proceed to the New Testament explanations:

Daniel 9:21-27

²¹Yea, whiles I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation. ²²And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding. ²³At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth, and I am come to shew thee; for thou art greatly beloved: therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision.

²⁴Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy. ²⁵Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. ²⁶And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. ²⁷And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

2^nd Thessalonians 2:1-17

¹Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, ²That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. ³Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; ⁴Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. ⁵Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? ⁶And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. ⁷For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. ⁸And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: ⁹Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, ¹⁰And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. ¹¹And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: ¹²That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. ¹³But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth: ¹⁴Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. ¹⁵Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle. ¹⁶Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, ¹⁷Comfort your hearts, and stablish you in every good word and work.

1^st Thessalonians 4:13-5:11

(4)¹³But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. ¹⁴For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. ¹⁵For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. ¹⁶For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: ¹⁷Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. ¹⁸Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

(5)¹But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. ²For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. ³For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. ⁴But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. ⁵Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. ⁶Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. ⁷For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. ⁸But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. ⁹For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, ¹⁰Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. ¹¹Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do.

1^st Corinthians 15:50-58

⁵⁰Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. ⁵¹Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, ⁵²In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. ⁵³For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. ⁵⁴So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. ⁵⁵O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? ⁵⁶The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. ⁵⁷But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁵⁸Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.

Old Testament Prophecies

The Old Testament is full of prophecies concerning the Messiah, the end times, and especially the coming Kingdom, and a peculiar thing called “The Day of the LORD.”

In Isaiah 11 and other passages, we see the blessed state of those living in the Kingdom age, and that it is all predicated upon and a part of, the Day of the Lord. In Amos 5:18-20, we see the warning that the Day of the Lord is a time of darkness and death, of destruction and punishment, and terrible tribulation. In fact, the passage in Amos is specifically a warning directed to those who missed the point of the “Day of the Lord,” and thought it would all be blessing.

In Daniel 9, we see a timeline which begins with the command to rebuild Jerusalem (not the temple) and runs through the end of the tribulation, as we see by reading the companion book, the Revelation. The oddest thing about this timeline, though, is the fact that it completely leaves out the Church Age!

Daniel gives a timeline of 70 weeks of years (it literally says “seventy sevens”) starting at the command (given in Nehemiah 2:6) to rebuild Jerusalem, and running into the death of the Messiah, at the end of the 69^th week (seven plus sixty-two; I have no idea why it was divided in this way.) That passage describes the death of the Messiah, in Daniel 9:26, and transitions directly to the tribulation period, describing the Antichrist, who makes a seven-year treaty with Israel, and breaks it after three and one half years. We read about that in the New Testament, in Revelation 11-13. Then it describes the fact that the Antichrist will stop the temple sacrifices, and defile the temple, making it desolate. Jesus described this as a future event, in Matthew 24:15, so we know this passage does not refer to the historical event (in 167 B.C.) when the Greek king, Antiochus Epiphanes, sacrificed a sow on the altar in the temple. 200 years after that event, Jesus said that the prophecy in Daniel was yet to come!

The importance of the passage should not be overlooked: It not only tells us what is to come, but makes it clear that none of that prophecy involves the Church age at all! The Messiah was to be killed at the end of the 69^th week of Daniel. The church age began after the death of the Messiah, at the day of Pentecost, and will end before the seventieth week begins. How do we know?

New Testament Explanations

In 1st Thessalonians, we see a similar timeline, but this one has no clear starting date, just an event which we call the Rapture of the Church (though that word is not used in Scripture, any more than the word “trinity” is used there) and a description of what immediately follows:

1^st Thessalonians 4:13-18 describes the Rapture of the Church, and the transformation of our physical bodies, whether we are alive or dead. Notice that it says those who have already “fallen asleep in Jesus will be returning with Him, while those still physically alive will be caught up to meet Him. (1^st Corinthians 15:51, 52 underscores this idea, explaining that it will be an instantaneous change.)

But, bearing in mind that the original manuscripts had no chapter and verse divisions, see what immediately follows, in 1^st Thessalonians 5:1-11—what had just occurred was the catching away of the Church. What Paul describes next is the beginning of the Tribulation, and he says that this is the beginning of the Day of the Lord! So, what portion of the Day of the Lord could be described as occurring like a “Thief in the Night?” Only the Rapture of the Church! All the rest of it is completely spelled out and multiple warnings are given. But as a householder waking up and discovering that he has been burglarized during the night, the World will see the Church evacuated in an instant, and it will be too late to escape the coming Judgment.

Incidentally, we saw, in 2^nd Thessalonians 2:11, 12, that those left behind who have already rejected the Gospel will not get a “second chance to believe,” as suggested by the popular “Left Behind” series. God says that they will universally believe something false about what has happened (we are not told what that falsehood is), specifically “so that they ALL may be damned who believed not the truth” (future judgment because of past unbelief.) There will be millions who do believe during the tribulation, but not a single one who rejected the Gospel before the Rapture will believe it afterward. That is very sad, but absolutely true.

So, giving further thought to the passage in 1^st Thessalonians 4, we may have questions about “So…where have the dead in Christ been, up until His return?” To begin with, notice that in 1^st Thessalonians 4:14, it says that they will be coming “with Him,” when He comes for the Church. They have not been “waiting in the graves.” Their bodies may be in a grave (or not), but the spirit departed and was immediately with Christ. How do we know?

What about the Dead in Christ?

Turn to 2^nd Corinthians 5:1-19, please.

¹For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. ²For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: ³If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. ⁴For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. ⁵Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. ⁶Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord:

⁷(For we walk by faith, not by sight:) ⁸We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. ⁹Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him.

Notice that we are assured that when this body is gone in physical death, we immediately will be clothed upon with immortality…some sort of “resurrection body”… in which we will live until our old bodies are also resurrected and permanently glorified at the Rapture of the Church. While we are looking at this passage, please notice that, in 2^nd Corinthians 5:1, we are told “…if our earthly house of this tabernacle (speaking of our physical bodies) were dissolved….” It does not say, “…provided your body receives a proper Christian burial,” or any such thing. People whose bodies were burned up in a fire, or eaten by wild animals, drowned, and ultimately consumed by scavengers on the ocean floor…or simply rotted away completely in a grave, during the countless years when there was no modern embalming…are all treated equally.

God has no problem reconstructing our old bodies in perfect condition, recognizable by all who knew us, thus fulfilling the promises of Scripture. (Also the warnings of Scripture: on the day of the Judgment of the Unbelieving Dead, God will have no trouble bringing them out, to face the Great White Throne Judgment. But the people who are fearful that a missing limb (or a cremated body, or something) will somehow leave them a cripple in heaven are worrying without a cause: this specifies that if our earthly body ceases to exist, we have a resurrection body supplied immediately. And the passage in 1^st Thessalonians 4 assures us that all believers’ bodies will be reconstructed or transformed, instantaneously, at the Rapture of the Church.

**What happens after that?**

There is sometimes also a little confusion, as to what occurs after the Rapture. So, let’s have a look: In 1^st Thessalonians 5:1-11, we saw that the Tribulation period will begin with the catching away of the Church, “as a thief in the night.” This is in full agreement with the warning Jesus gave in Matthew 24, where He also said that “these things are the beginnings of sorrows…as of a woman in childbirth…” and that it was to come “…as a thief in the night.”

Notice, too, that in 1^st Thessalonians 5:3, it says that “…when they shall say ‘peace and safety’, then shall sudden destruction come upon them and they shall not escape.”

“When…then” is a time clause: so, what is the key in everyone’s minds, worldwide, to achieving world peace? Resolving the Middle East conflict! The conflict around the Nation of Israel, specifically. World leaders for 60 years have tried to “broker” peace in the Middle East. But in Daniel 9:27, we see that the Antichrist will actually make that peace treaty: a seven-year peace treaty. And he will break it after 3-1/2 years! So…when will the world heave a collective sigh of relief and say ‘At last! Peace and safety’? When that treaty is signed…and we will be gone!

A seven year tribulation (Revelation 6-19) will occur, here on earth, in our absence, culminating in the Lord’s Return, the judgment of the Living Nations (Matthew 25:31, ff.) The Kingdom Age will begin after His return, which will last for 1,000 years, but it will end in the destruction of the unbelievers who will rebel at the end of that time, after which will immediately follow the destruction of the old earth, and the Great White Throne Judgment of the unbelieving Dead (all in Revelation 20.) A New Heaven and new Earth will be created (Revelation 21, 22) and the eternal state will begin, about which we know very little detail, except that sin and suffering will forever be a thing of the long-forgotten past.

So…Now What?

I would encourage each of you to look these things up in your Bible, and understand them more thoroughly: don’t just take my word for any of it. God wants you to know these things for yourselves, and to use them to comfort one another: He says so, over and over!

Lord Jesus, help us to absorb the truth of Your Word, so as to be able to find comfort in these troubling times, and not be overwhelmed by fear, anger or depression. Allow us to comfort one another and offer the same comfort to those around us, in the person of Christ.

August 12, 2017August 12, 2017

A Better Redeemer

Hebrews 9:11-28

Introduction:

Last time, we saw that Jesus is our Mercy Seat…our atonement…and that the Throne of Grace is His throne: that the Mercy Seat covers all of our sins, and, in fact, all of the sins of the human race from beginning to end.

Finally, we saw that, today, we are invited to approach His throne with confidence, knowing that our standing with Him was made perfect at the Cross. We have entered into this relationship by faith, and we are to continue to walk by faith.

Now the writer is making even more powerful statements concerning the Person of Christ

Jesus is Better than the Old Testament Sacrifices.

¹¹But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building;
¹²Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.

This is an astounding statement: Jesus, in contrast to every priest of the Temple who ever lived, has accomplished what those priests could only dream of:

In the first place, the Temple into which He entered was not the Old Testament structure, nor did He enter into its priesthood at all.
Secondly, the sacrifice He brought was not the blood of animals which were in no way connected to our guilt. Those animals served as a temporary substitute for the sinner, down through all the ages. God ordained the Law of the Substitute, in Genesis chapter 3. The animals in the garden, whose blood covered the sins of Adam and Eve, were substituted for the fallen pair. All the sacrificial animals, under the Law, served as substitutes; but only until the chosen Lamb of God appeared. There was a substitute involved in every sacrifice for sins, because the Law of Sin and Death demanded the death of the sinner. Jesus took the place of (substituted himself for) every human who ever lived, when he went to the Cross. He is our substitute… and there is no substitute for him.
He has provided a permanent, eternal redemption for us. In this particular passage, the Greek word for “redemption” is “lutruosin”. It carries the idea of being “set free.”

There are three words used in Greek, to complete the concept that we call “Redemption:”

Agorazo: to be “bought in the market (the agora)”
Exagorazo: to be “bought out of the market…taken off the market, not be re-sold”, and
Lutroō: to be set free.

So, the whole meaning of the concept of Biblical Redemption begins with the “bad news”: the fact that we have been sold into sin: so that is where God had to go to rescue us—to the slave-market of sin. That is where Jesus went as our redeemer. We have been bought out of that market-place, never to be sold again. And, finally: we have been set free. He bought us for the purpose of setting us free.

Now: with that in mind, consider the importance of verse twelve: it says that Jesus, at the cost of his own life-blood, being tortured to death by the barbaric people for whom He died, has bought eternal redemption for us. It says we have been eternally bought out of the marketplace of sin, to be eternally set free. It simply cannot be stated in stronger terms! Your position in Christ cannot be more secure than it already is. You have been eternally set free. Read verses 13 and 14:

¹³For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh:
¹⁴How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

Whatever effect the Old Testament sacrifices had upon the believer, the effect of the sacrifice of Christ is far superior: His death and burial and resurrection brings eternal redemption. Notice, too, that it says that he did all this “through the Eternal Spirit:” He lived a sinless life by the Holy Spirit, and he sacrificed Himself by the Holy Spirit. His whole life was lived out in the power of the Holy Spirit, and the result is that we are permanently bought out from our former slavery to sin, and have been permanently set free to serve God.

The Mediator of the New Testament…the New Covenant

¹⁵And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.

Notice the tenses, here: he sacrificed himself (past tense), and because of that, He is (present tense) our High Priest—the Mediator between God and Man. Bear in mind that a mediator is always a “go-between” of some sort. God says in 1^st Timothy 2:5 that “…there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” In this specific case (the mediator between God and Man), the mediator is the priest; the one who represents God before men and Man before God. So Jesus is identified clearly as the High Priest of the New Covenant.

This serves as a reminder that, in the truest sense, the New Testament did not begin with Matthew chapter one. Jesus himself said, “…this is the New Covenant in my Blood….” So, the real beginning point of Jesus’s ministry as the Mediator of the New Covenant, (in spite of what we refer to as his “high Priestly prayer”, in John 17—and that is what it was) was the sacrifice he brought as the High Priest: his death at the Cross. He appeared in the real tabernacle with that sacrifice, once for all, and consummated his eternal position at the right hand of God the Father.

So, when our Bibles start the New Testament with the four Gospels, it is only because the Gospels introduce the New Testament. It actually began with the crucifixion, and really got rolling at the day of Pentecost, 50 days later. The Church-age is the beginning of the New Testament. The full New Covenant as promised in Jeremiah 31:31-34, will be ushered in after the Lord’s return.

¹⁶For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator.
¹⁷For a testament is of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth.
¹⁸Whereupon neither the first testament was dedicated without blood.
¹⁹For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all the people,
²⁰Saying, This is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you.
²¹Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry.
²²And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.

These are perplexing things to read, unless you remember that every blood-sacrifice in the Old Testament was, in one form or another, a picture (or pre-figuring) of Christ and His one sacrifice that was to come. Some are more clearly stated than others. But the closing comment on that passage is this key statement: …without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin.

This is a clear explanation of what was wrong with Cain’s offering, in Genesis chapter four by the way. I have heard several preachers make the statement that “there was nothing wrong with Cain’s sacrifice—it was his heart attitude that was wrong.” They were pretty adamant about it, too, saying that to claim otherwise was to insert doctrine that just wasn’t there.

Well—sorry, but this passage says that the non-blood character of the sacrifice was what was wrong…that, apart from the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins. No forgiveness! And, if we skip ahead to Hebrews 11:4, the same writer clearly states that “by faith, Abel brought a more excellent sacrifice…” It does not say, “God liked Abel’s attitude better”: it says the sacrifice was better.

Abel obeyed by faith, and brought the blood sacrifice about which he had apparently learned through Adam’s testimony. (Remember, God attempted to reason with Cain, and effectively reminded him that he, Cain, also knew what the problem was, and that if he obeyed, he too would be accepted. But Cain chose to rebel…and we know the result.)

A Better Sacrifice

²³It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.

The logic, here, is that while it was necessary for “all things to be purged with blood”, here on earth, it was even more necessary in the heavenly tabernacle. But, as the heavenly tabernacle is infinitely superior to the Earthly one, so the sacrifice also had to be infinitely superior. And it was! The Sacrifice which Jesus brought was eternally ordained by God (see Revelation 13:8…Jesus is “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the Earth.”) Jesus is “Plan A”, and there is no “Plan B!”

²⁴For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us:

I have a hard time picturing this, because, honestly, I realize that I have no idea what the presence of God is like beyond the very limited descriptions in God’s Word. Perhaps someone might say I lack imagination; but, in this particular case that is a good thing. God says (1^st Corinthians 2:9) “But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.” In another passage we are told that we are to cast down “…imagination and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God.” It seems to me that if God is silent on a subject, then we ought to be silent, too; but there are many books available today giving glowing, detailed description of heaven, and the throne room, the angelic hosts, etc. It leaves me to wonder about the real source of such things.

²⁵Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others;

²⁶For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

²⁷And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:

²⁸So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.

Jesus made a once-for-all sacrifice, to take away the sins of the World (John 1:29), and we look for his second coming; not hoping that we may be good enough, or that our works will be sufficient, but knowing that He was “good enough”: knowing that His one sacrifice is eternally sufficient.

Some churches teach that, through the Eucharist, Jesus is continually suffering for the sins of the World. This passage flatly states that to be the worst form of falsehood. That teaching denies the truth of God’s Word, and relegates Jesus to a continual “victim of God’s Wrath”, rather than the valiant and victorious Lord of Hosts, Lion of Judah, and conquering Lamb of God that he truly is. He voluntarily stepped forward to be our savior, and his Sacrificial work was completed once for all, at the Cross.

This is how we know that Jesus is not physically (or mystically) in the Eucharist…that the bread and the cup are only representative of His body and blood, and are emblems of how we have been born again.

They are not the means of salvation, nor are they in any way effective to put us in a right standing before God. They are strictly a reminder of how we entered into a right standing with a Holy God, and of who we are as a result. Living in a world that is antagonistic toward the Creator, it is easy to forget who we are in Him, and struggle along in our flesh, instead of trusting Him day by day, allowing Him to live through us.

This has been a fairly persistent false teaching, and many otherwise sound apologists have been snared by it, because it is an attractive idea. I enjoy the writings of C.S. Lewis, but in his early book “Mere Christianity”, he states that one becomes a Christian by taking communion. That is absolutely false. I hope that C. S. Lewis later realized his error, but I still have that book, and there have been millions of copies sold over the years.

One becomes a Christian by coming as a guilty sinner, and placing one’s personal trust in Jesus’s blood as full payment for one’s own personal sin. His literal blood at the Cross is what paid for sin, not the commemorative ritual. We enter in by placing our faith in his real shed blood: his real death, his real burial, and His real resurrection. We commemorate that reality in the Lord’s Supper.

By the way, this is also an important passage in refuting all teachings of “reincarnation:” do you see it? (Hebrews 9:27) It says we are appointed to die once…and after that the judgment. That rules out “coming back for seconds”, so to speak. You get one life, here on earth: no “do-overs”.

Jesus also had one life—and it was given to him specifically for the purpose of going to the cross in the place of the whole human race, to provide the way for us to have eternal life.

Conclusion:

So how do we respond? What do we do with all this information? Is it just “fun stuff to know and tell?” Or is there a practical response involved? What kind of response is Jesus looking for?

Let’s go back to verse 14:

¹⁴How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
There is your “Purpose clause” for all that we just read. Jesus did everything for the Glory of God, and in so doing, He freed us from Sin– so that we could do the same.

He finished His work in order that we might be eternally set free from sin and so that we can join Him in glorifying the Father through service. In John 14:21, we see that the mark of one who loves Jesus Christ is that they obey Him, through faith…and the result is that God, in the person of Christ, engages in a continuing love-relationship with the believer, and deliberately makes Himself known to the believer, in an ongoing, living experience, as that person continues to serve the living God.

We frequently quote Ephesians 2:8, 9, in regards to how we are saved. But we seldom quote Ephesians 2:10, which suggests why we are saved:

We are his workmanship
Created in Christ Jesus
Unto good works, which God has before ordained
That we should walk in them.

If you have trusted in Jesus as your savior, then you have been born again; and your new nature is created in the righteousness and holiness of God. (Ephesians 4:24) Because of that, you are free to serve Him. God has things for you to do! Don’t miss out on the opportunity! We only get one life, and it is our one opportunity to serve the King.

Lord Jesus, stir our hearts to serve you. Change the way we see life. Help us see it as our one chance to walk with you and to work with you. Strengthen and encourage our hearts to follow you. Draw us along as your flock, and teach us your way.