This episode rigorously examines the intricate relationship between Christ's promised return and the role of the Holy Spirit in the interim period following His ascension. The speaker articulates a compelling argument based on biblical texts, particularly Ephesians 4 and John 14-16, asserting that the spiritual gifts mentioned in Ephesians were intended to function until specific conditions were met—conditions that heralded the maturity of the body as the 'one new man' comprising both Jews and Gentiles. The critical moment of 70 A.D., marked by the destruction of Jerusalem, is posited as a pivotal fulfillment of prophecy that signifies the transition from an age characterized by miraculous gifts to one of spiritual maturity and unity. The speaker underscores that the Holy Spirit's presence, while vital during the apostolic age, was never meant to persist in the same capacity indefinitely. The episode emphasizes the importance of understanding the non-physical nature of Christ’s presence as it relates to His promise to remain with His followers through the Holy Spirit, thus reframing the concept of His return not as a future physical event but as a completed reality in the context of redemptive history.

Takeaways:

• The gifted men mentioned in Ephesians 4 were divinely appointed by Christ until specific conditions outlined in Ephesians 4:12-13 were fulfilled.
• The promise of the Holy Spirit, as articulated in John 14, signifies His role in guiding the Apostles during Christ's absence until His return.
• The destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. serves as historical evidence of Christ's parousia, representing His presence rather than a physical return.
• Understanding the non-physical nature of Christ's presence during the destruction of Jerusalem is crucial for interpreting His promise to be with believers until the end of the age.
• The transition from the old covenant to the new is marked by the completion of revelation, which ended the necessity of miraculous gifts of the Spirit.
• Once the Holy Spirit's role in guiding and confirming the truth was accomplished, His peculiar function as "comforter" ended, indicating the completion of one era and the commencement of a new era.

And good day to you.

Thank you so much for joining us.

In our study.

We've been talking about the trying to answer the question about the duration of the spiritual gifts and the gifted men that are mentioned in Ephesians Chapter four.

Last week we ended on the topic or the headline of the creation of the one new man.

That is the coming into maturity that one new man that combined both Jew and Gentile into one body, that was God's creation.

The gospel accomplished that, and the preaching of the gospel accomplished that.

And when that was accomplished according to Ephesians chapter four, where he talks about the various conditions that must be met, that these things were to exist and to be present until such a time that these conditions were met.

And so we discussed the creation of the one new man.

Last week we ended on looking at Romans 9 and also the 11th chapter in talking about the Jews and Gentiles being adopted into that relationship.

It wasn't just the Jews or Gentiles, excuse me, but also the Jews.

There is a passage, another passage that we did not address last time we met, and that is First Corinthians 13.

We promised we'd start here, and so I will try to pick up the thought beginning in verse 8.

Now, this passage has a similar context in that there is a sense of some imperfect period or a transition period from immaturity to maturity to incompletion to completion.

He likens it to a child from instance who comes to adulthood, and that they put away certain things that existed then.

So we could fairly say the need does no longer exist when you move from one stage to another.

Sometimes when I say that about the Holy Spirit, people get offended and they say, what do you mean you don't need the Holy Spirit?

Well, I.

Well, you see there what we're suggesting is that he was granted for the last days until something was accomplished.

The divine plan and blueprint of God for salvation was accomplished through his measure, through his gifts given to men so that they may serve in the kingdom.

Well, I want to look at verse 8, beginning here in 1st Corinthians 13 and express a very similar idea.

He says there, love never ends.

As for prophecies, they will pass away.

As for tongues, they will cease.

As for knowledge, it will pass away.

For we know in part, we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.

When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child.

When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.

For now we see in a Mirror dimly, but then face to face.

Now I know in part, then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known once again.

The last days of the Jewish era immediately precede the kingdom era.

During those last days, the Holy Spirit was poured out upon all flesh, as was promised by the prophet Joel and Isaiah and Daniel.

The prophecies, the tongues, the knowledge, these were miraculous gifts of those days.

And it was proof that the last days had come, it had arrived, and that the old Jewish regime was coming to an end.

And if one age ended, it implied another era would begin.

And I suggest to you, friends, that that was the kingdom age.

It was coming, it was near.

The old was coming to naught.

And so the last days was a reference to that period of time which was during the first century, in which one era ended and the new age opened.

The illustration in the text implies that this miraculous period of gifts that came in parts and pieces from each member of the body.

It was an age of immaturity.

It was an age of incompleteness.

Individuals could only know bits and pieces as it was given to them through gifted men or men with spiritual gifts.

Paul reasons that when he became a man, that is, when he reached maturity, he put away childish things.

It illustrates, you see, that those gifts that came in parts that is not complete, that they were to end when that which is perfect came.

And I suggest to you, that which is perfect cannot represent a person.

If I were to talk about Jesus as that which is perfect, then I would certainly claim that he is he who is perfect or the one who is perfect.

Not that Jesus is not an it.

He, he's not a thing.

But there's something that can be described in the neuter gender that is described as what is perfect comes.

It illustrates that these gifts that came in parts and pieces, that they were not complete and that they were to end when that which is perfect did come.

So both 1st Corinthians 13 and Ephesians 4 go together.

They easily explain by the creation of this one new man of Ephesians 2, that the mature man was the one body that now included both Jews and Gentiles in the kingdom era.

That which was leading up to this new creation was necessary to confirm the truth.

That is, it was proof, a guarantee that what was provided, what was preached, and what was revealed by, was indeed from God.

That was no doubt the powerful display and reason why the Gentiles received the Holy spirit.

In Acts 10, Cornelius and his household, as they spoke in tongues, just like the Jews did in Acts 2, Peter said just like us at the beginning.

Why?

Confirmation.

The word of God needed confirmation.

And here were Jewish witnesses along with Peter.

He takes it out of the hand of these men.

Peter probably no doubt was not as convicted as he needed to be.

I mean, he was on his way.

But God had to take it in his own hands to make the surety of this promise that was given not only to Jews, but also to Gentiles.

And so the Holy Spirit was necessary to confirm the truth of that new revelation, the mystery that is now being revealed in that era.

Once this unity of the faith and this knowledge of the Son of God was accomplished, then those immature elements associated with that immature stage ended.

And what were they?

Well, they were spiritual gifts.

They were the gifted men of Ephesians 4:11 and the miraculous powers of the Holy Spirit.

That's why the Holy Spirit was given, to confirm the truthisticity of the one new man, the bringing into creation of this one new man from both Jews and Gentiles into the body.

You know, when one grows into manhood and knowledge, he leaves behind the child's world.

The things in that child's world were characteristic of that stage, all which were necessary.

It wasn't like there was no value.

They were necessary to advance that individual toward maturity.

But when that maturity was reached, then he abandons those things that were once a part of his world.

And while we might compare the one new man of Ephesians 2:14 to the perfection of each individual, as in Colossians 1:28, the use of this Greek anthropos in 2:15 instead of on air, it does not refer to individual newness.

He's not talking about individual perfection or completion or maturity.

We're talking about Jesus creating one new man by bringing together both Jews and Gentiles into one family or one body.

It does matter whether we interpret Ephesians 4 to the individual or the new man, because the application to individual perfection will present a very different conclusion.

There are many problems associated with it.

And so one obvious problem is the ongoing presence of spiritual babies who come into the family.

As long as there are infants, spiritual infants, there'll be divisions in the faith and imperfection, imperfect knowledge of Christ.

The role of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers would continue.

But at this point, some resign and they simply accept that we'll never reach this goal in this life, and that we are bound to accept these gifted men until we reach the end of the world.

And that's usually associated with our heavenly life, which is believed to be that which is Perfect.

Another view is that that which is perfect is the completion of the written word.

The appeal is then made to James 1:25, which refers to the perfect law of liberty.

Of course, the problem with that is that the perfect law of liberty was already present.

It was already available to.

They looked into it, according to James.

James was the one of the earliest of the New Testament books to be written.

And the principle of freedom in Christ found in the perfect or the complete law, was already a reality at that time.

If that is true, then 1st Corinthians 13 cannot be referring to complete revelation, because the gifts of tongues and prophecy had already ceased when he wrote the letter to Corinth.

See, the perfect had already come.

It would make no sense to write about the use of their gifts when gathered.

If they, you know, if they had already ceased, would have been of no value to talk about something that doesn't exist anymore if it had ceased.

The entire section from chapters 12 through 14 was a useless writing and no longer applicable.

We'd be forced to accept the idea of an apostle of Jesus Christ revealing much more about nothing because it's no longer relevant.

And so James in James 1:25 is not a good passage to attach any meaning to 1 Corinthians 13.

The last days was the literal end of a world in time or an age, because its purpose had been accomplished, it had been completed and thus fulfilled.

In this case, the completion of revelation is equal to the completion of the Spirit's guiding work.

For the early saints of this era, especially the apostles written revelation, we shouldn't think in terms of compiling the revelation into one book.

This was not done for many, many years, but they still had the revelation.

We would expect the individual letters to have been circulated among brethren, like the letters to Laodicea and Colossae were shared still even then, that's not all that had to be completed.

Having completed revelation would not guarantee maturity or manhood to the measure of the stature or the fullness of Christ.

And furthermore, if you replace individual maturity with the maturity of the body as a whole, then you've created one new man from all nations and have attained to the unity of the faith and knowledge of the Son of God.

Otherwise Christ is divided.

The law was divided.

That divided man was still present.

And this fits the conflict of that era that was repeatedly addressed when Jews accepted the Gentiles only as second class citizens, when the addition of the Gentiles into the body as fellow citizens was finally acknowledged and accepted.

And that was done when the temple was completely annihilated.

Destroyed.

Then the new age could begin where saints from all nations could reign and would reign with him in the heavenlies.

This was the issue of that era and it needed to be resolved and completed in order to move into the new age.

But once it was, once it was completed, the things that marked the Jewish era that included the holy city of Jerusalem and its temple, those were done away with in the last days.

God promised the Messiah.

He, he promised the kingdom, he promised the Holy Spirit and his return to reward the faithful and destroy Jerusalem, the city of the Jews.

All of them serve as faith builders, faith builders in him and his word.

Because they have been accomplished.

The Spirit finished his role as the guide to the apostles, and thus the revealed truth was completed as well.

The tragic misinterpretation of the Scriptures is made when we take what was promised to those of the last days and apply them to us as unfulfilled prophecy.

But instead, friends, we need to see these things as being accomplished and that we are the rich recipients of a God who has accomplished what he had promised he would do.

Some, they're still looking for a coming kingdom.

Some are still looking for a literal king arriving in the literal city of Jerusalem.

Others are looking for a second coming in the clouds when he comes in judgment.

Others are looking for the Holy Spirit to guide them into all truth, giving them miraculous healing and empowering them to speak in tongues.

But friends, God has fulfilled these promises and the pledge or the guarantee that was granted to first century Christians has already been returned.

In other words, the Spirit has returned because he accomplished his purpose.

His purpose was a guarantee.

Guarantee of what?

Of the inheritance.

Now the agnostics who laugh at people for believing in a fairy tale that they that has never been yet fulfilled and we're still waiting.

I think they have absolutely no justification for their derision.

If in fact we see a God that does not lie and has fulfilled every promise that he's ever made, our God has accomplished it and will again fulfill the events foretold in Revelation 20:7, after his reign, after Satan has allowed his brief period of deception.

And so what we're looking at is a time of completion and the bringing in of a new era.

That's the first century letters.

They reveal that now there are implications of the presence and the absence of the Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ.

And this I'll be taking from John 14, 15 and 16.

Few people, I think would deny that a relationship does exist between the miracles of the first century and the coming of the Lord.

However, there is also A relationship between the miraculous work of the Holy Spirit and the imminent return of Jesus after his ascension.

The connection exists and we'll notice that connection in a moment.

I think you'll see it.

The connection exists between the Holy Spirit's presence and to Jesus absence from the apostles.

You see, you remember when he says, I have to go away in order for me to send the Holy Spirit.

When Jesus speaks to his apostles with intimate details of his departure, he's leaving them.

He tells them that he's got to go away to prepare a place for them and he would come again to bring them back with him where he is.

There they may be also.

Only the 11 are left with Jesus.

Judas had already left them in chapter 13.

This is chapter 14.

The time is after the Passover meal of John 13 and immediately before his betrayal and his journey to Jerusalem, where he was betrayed by Judas.

Jesus then tells them that he's going away as his time had finally come.

He tells them the Holy Spirit cannot come unless he leaves.

The apostles had been given the promise that they would be endued with power from on high and that they would get that power in the city of Jerusalem where they needed to tarry.

And they were told to wait there.

And so we find Luke recording the Lord's ascension in Acts 1 and the Holy Spirit's outpouring in Acts 2.

It is the exact enactment of Jesus teaching regarding his departure and the Spirit's arrival.

Perfect.

I've got to go.

When I go, I'll send the Holy Spirit this other comforter.

So not only were the apostles endued with power from on high, but Peter promised to all obedient believers that they too would receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

The gifts of the first century were the proof of the Holy spirit's presence in 1 Corinthians 1, verse 4.

Listen to him.

I give thanks to my God always for you, because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and knowledge, even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you.

So that you are not lacking in any gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of the Lord Jesus Christ.

God is faithful by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Now the coming of the Holy Spirit and the work that he would do was in the interim of Christ's earthly ministry and his return to glory.

Three things stand out to me in this text, first of all, the end is the same end that's referenced throughout the New Testament.

It's the end of the age, that is to say, the time of completion and maturity and perfection, the accomplishment and fulfillment of the redemptive plan.

He's not talking about the end of the world.

A second thing that stands out through the Holy Spirit, Jesus was confirming their message until that time.

Once it was fulfilled, though, and the new age would be ushered in, it would replace it.

And at that time Paul wrote this letter.

Jesus had gone to the Father and the Spirit had come.

And so he had gone to the Father like He said he would do.

And that was necessary in order for the Spirit to come.

And when the Spirit came, he would complete his work, which in turn was necessary before the Lord returned again.

So the Lord had not come at the time of this writing.

However, those gifts of the Spirit would confirm them as children of God and that the apostles were in fact apostles of Jesus Christ.

A third thing I think that we must present here is that these brethren from Corinth that lived in the first century, they were eagerly waiting for the revealing of Jesus Christ.

This is not a reference to the revelation of truth, but a revelation of Jesus.

The nature of that revelation is described in the Revelation of Jesus Christ, the book that was given to John the Apostle.

However, in no passage of Jesus Return do we find the promise of Jesus physical presence.

At no time do we have that description.

Now, the charismatics are correct to emphasize the connection between the absence and the presence of Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

However, since they believe in the bodily return of Jesus at the end of time on planet earth, they also believe that the Holy Spirit would continue until then, which is consistent.

This is really the most consistent conclusion if you believe that he has not yet come.

If Christ has not come and his absence is tied to the Holy Spirit's presence, then the Holy Spirit's guidance must still be active today.

If not, why not?

However, if it can be shown that Jesus did return and he accomplished what he promised, then the Holy Spirit's work has also been completed.

Now that's what I want you to think about.

One of the difficulties of accepting the fact that Jesus has come is the expectation of his physical presence.

We can easily show that Jesus physical presence is not involved in his coming or his presence.

There is a sense in which he was still with them.

He could even say to them before his ascension, I am with you alway even to the end of the age.

He could still say that when he says he must go away, the context supports his physical departure.

I have to go away, that is, physically.

But notice he clarifies when he writes, you see me no longer.

So as a result, we have Jesus with them through the work and power of the Holy Spirit, while being absent in the body.

And before ascending into the heavens, he promises them that he would be with them until the end of the age.

This explains how he can be with them while leaving them.

He was with them friends, through this other comforter who would take from him and give it to them, the Holy Spirit.

It is in this same sense that we can imagine Jesus coming in judgment.

His physical presence is not necessary for him to come.

To wait for the fulfillment of that promise, because we're looking for his physical return is a grave mistake.

If he came back for them in the promise of his parousia, then number one, he would no longer be considered absent, and the Holy Spirit would no longer need to be guide them.

Furthermore, after his resurrection, when he showed Himself alive by many infallible proofs, he needed to come in the same form in which he left when he was taken from the cross and laid in the tomb.

Those physical appearances were only designed to provide proof of the resurrection.

That was to give some meat, some justification for the testimony of the apostles.

Who could say we saw him alive also?

He neither took them back with him during those 40 days or the ascension of the Father, Jesus told Mary at the tomb not to hold on to him, as he would not be with them for just a short time, explaining that he had not yet ascended to the Father.

So his coming to them and his coming to take them with him was not a reference to the 40 days after the resurrection.

Many other texts support this conclusion, like the chronology of Matthew 24 and 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 and in Revelation 20, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit was to be a sign that the last days spoken by the prophets had come.

And When Peter quotes Joel 2 in his sermon recorded in Acts 2, he is implying that the last days are here.

So now a relationship exists between a sign and that which it signifies.

A sign would lose its significance to the generation to which it was given if they never lived long enough to see its fulfillment.

If a sign signifies the end is near to a listening audience, then they would expect to witness its completion.

And yet, each generation since the first century has takes the same claim of Jesus is coming soon.

And that message implies that we're still in the last days and the Holy Spirit is still with us, performing the same miracles just as it was in the first century.

But in order for that to be true, we must change the meaning of last days from the end of that present age to the end of our age and interpret the phrase coming soon to apply to each generation.

And in this case, Jesus is just always coming soon, and we're always in the last days also.

I mean, those are the conclusions that we have to reach.

But because of the unending presence of both the Spirit and the last days, and the phenomenon exists today wherein the sign is no sign at all, it becomes all of a sudden, an end in itself.

All it confirms is that the Lord is in his house, as is commonly heard in religious services today.

Some of us have been conditioned to believe that the second coming is an unfulfilled event of the future.

We can't predict when it's going to come, but he knows it's going to one day.

And yet it has nothing to do with the miraculous work of the Holy Spirit.

But if Jesus has not yet returned, then the Holy Spirit's work has not yet been completed.

To get around this, it's argued that the phrase of First Corinthians 13 which says that which is perfect comes is taken to mean that it is a completed revelation.

Well, given that interpretation, once the completed revelation came, the miraculous measure of the Spirit ended.

And while it's true that the completed revelation is included in attaining to the unity of the faith, it's not clear that Paul had only that in mind.

The entire period of the last days forms a transition from one age of imperfection to a completion that marks the beginning of a new and glorious era.

What Christians enjoy today is, is the byproduct of a life that the prophets and angels longed to see and understand.

This age is the substance of the mere image or mirror of the Mosaic Age.

No longer are people looking at a type, though, and a shadow or mirror or reflection.

Instead, the new age in all its glory is the face to face reality to which the old age only pointed.

It is in my opinion that that is that which is perfect or complete.

In other words, nothing remains to be fulfilled before the commencement of his reign in the new age.

Well, two facts emerge from this conclusion.

One, the Holy Spirit would be with them during the absence of Jesus Christ and until the end of the age.

Two, the end of the age was marked by the revelation of Jesus Christ in judgment, that is his patousia, his coming.

And the conclusion of that is that at that time the Holy Spirit's work of revelation and miraculous proofs would have been completed.

Now we have face to face with him, face to face, who confirmed their identity and sustained them guiltless.

Until that day they would be where he is reigning with him in the new age and the new Jerusalem of which there is no end.

The Corinthians are no longer alive and the last days of the Jewish era have been completed by the second coming of Christ as He promised.

This ending of that miraculous age ushered in the thousand year reign of Christ and His kingdom.

Once the Spirit's work was accomplished and had ended at the close of that age and the fulfillment of God's redemptive plan, the Holy Spirit no longer serves in the same capacity that he did while he was on the earth.

The Holy Spirit returns to the Father.

We trust you will think about these things prayerfully and study them out.

Until then, we trust you.

Have a good day and a pleasant week.