The discourse presented in this episode meticulously unpacks the concept of the 'last days' as articulated in the New Testament, particularly within the context of the early Christian letters. I elucidate how the language employed by the apostles conveys a profound sense of expectation regarding the imminent return of Christ. Each scriptural reference serves as a reminder of the urgency and significance of remaining faithful as the early disciples faced trials and tribulations. The Holy Spirit's role is paramount; as the divine presence, He not only reassured the disciples of Christ's forthcoming return but also facilitated their endurance through the challenges of their time. We explore various passages, including those from James, Philippians, and Revelation, which collectively affirm the belief that the return of the Lord was on the horizon for the first-century believers. By examining these texts, we aim to foster a deeper understanding of the eschatological expectations that shaped the focus and mission of first-century disciples, and how these themes resonate within the broader narrative of today's Christianity.

Takeaways:

• The podcast elucidates the numerous references in first-century letters regarding the imminent return of the Lord, emphasizing the urgency of vigilance and endurance among believers.
• Throughout the episode, I present the idea that the Holy Spirit's presence among the disciples signified not only comfort but also the imminent fulfillment of God's promises regarding Christ's return.
• We explore how the early Christians were assured that some among them would witness the return of Christ, a concept that underscores the immediate relevance of their faith and actions during that time.
• The discussion highlights that the language used in the New Testament consistently points to a sense of urgency, indicating that the culmination of the age was perceived as imminent by the first-century audience.
• I assert that the expectation of Christ's return was not merely a distant hope but a pressing reality for the early believers, shaping their communal and spiritual lives significantly.
• The episode concludes by relating the destruction of the Jerusalem temple to the ushering in of a new spiritual age, marking the fulfillment of Christ's promises to His followers.

Good morning and again, welcome to our study on the Holy Spirit.

That's our overall overreaching study.

However, there are a lot of branches off from that study that we need to take to emphasize the context of the New Testament era.

When he came, he would be a sign of, as we noted already, a sign of the judgment, the sign of imminent judgment, a sign of our.

Well, actually that's not the sign of the coming kingdom and the sign of impending judgment.

It would be also a sign that the end of the age was coming, was near.

And so we've talked about those things in relationship to that, then I don't think it would be fair to just drop that.

Since the Holy Spirit signified His presence and signified these things, let's talk about the things that his presence signified.

First of all, the coming of Christ, the context and the setting of the whole New Testament and the leadership of these men.

From Ephesians 4, many people call this the fourfold or fivefold Gospel, but it's the work of the apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers.

One of the fulfillments of the promise of God that supports a first century application and the commencement of the reign of Christ is the Second coming.

So I want to talk a little bit about the Second coming and I know that this might really throw a wrench in the way you've thought about this in the past.

I trust that you at least give it some thought and some consideration before just dismissing it.

And I would certainly welcome any study or any thoughts that you have for my consideration as well.

The relevance of the second coming on the first century and their worldview is that the gifts that we're talking about there in Ephesians 4, apostles, evangelists, pastors, teachers, that was given to the people at the time, at that time, and that that was necessary to prepare the saints for his coming.

So if I can show you, if it can be shown that they served a purpose until he came and that he has already come just like he promised he would, then that leadership that's referenced in Scripture is not intended to be duplicated today.

And so in this case, his coming marked the end of an old covenant Israel and the beginning of the New Jerusalem world order.

Gifted saints guided by the Holy Spirit provided the direction and the encouragement to hold out and to endure tribulation and persecution.

Why it would soon be over and they would need to not abandon their assembling together as the manner of some was why?

Because the day's approaching.

What day was that it's going to come down to the end here soon it's going to.

All things are going to be fulfilled and we have to pull together and encourage each other and build each other up and prepare each other and hold each other accountable.

You see, that's the point.

And so they were given signs to support that claim and further evidence of its imminence.

And so I want to suggest some with you.

We're going to look at some of those evidences.

First of all, let's appeal to the scriptures that establish the timing of those events.

Look at the end of all the letters that reference Jesus coming soon.

Most of them are short statements.

They allude to an anticipated event that really doesn't need any elaboration.

But I just want to share them with you.

Look at James chapter five and you'll find that there's usually some small statement that has been overlooked by most teachers in just about every epistle and book that has a reference to it.

James 5 at the end of James letter, listen to him in verse seven.

Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord.

Now, first of all, again, they're not needing to be in to endure until the coming of the Lord.

If the Lord is not going to come for another 2,000 years.

But I'm not through yet.

Hang on if you don't believe me there.

If that doesn't make sense, just follow the verse.

He says, see how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it until it receives the early and the latter rains.

You also be patient, establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.

Philippians chapter 4, verse 5.

Again, toward the end of the book, Paul writes, the Lord is near.

Now, the parousia, the coming of the Lord is actually his presence.

It means that it's his presence.

And so in connection with his presence, Paul would say in Philippians 4, he's near.

In 1 Thessalonians 5, 23, May your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, that's Paul's prayer for them.

That's his expectation.

That's what he gives them to give them some hope.

He says, may your spirit, your soul and body be preserved complete at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Friends, he hadn't come that.

That certainly hasn't been fulfilled, has it?

They've been dead and buried many, many years.

You know, preservation of spirit and soul and body kind of reflects the idea and the belief that there will be some of those who were then alive on the earth, still living when Jesus comes.

And that's exactly what Jesus said or Paul says in 1st Corinthians 15.

He says in verse 51 that you're not all going to sleep, but you'll all be changed.

And in 1 Thessalonians 4, he explains that there's a difference between those that are asleep and those that are alive and remain at his coming.

So there are people living then that will be alive and remain when Jesus comes, and he's giving those people consolation in 1st Thessalonians 4, that those that have died are not going to be left, that they're not going to be left in hopelessness, but they're going to be raised first and, and we'll be caught up to meet them in the air second.

So.

But the point is that there's somebody, some saints alive on earth when he comes again.

Those passages support the thought of imminence in connection with his coming.

First Peter 4, verse 7.

We read this earlier or mentioned it.

The end of all things is at hand.

Therefore you be of sound judgment and sober spirit for the purpose of prayer.

Revelation 22:3 times in one chapter as he ends this majestic, wonderful book, I am coming quickly.

Revelation 13 Once again, toward the end of this of a book, Paul writes, it is ready.

It is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep.

For now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed.

The night is almost gone, and the day is at hand.

Now, does that sound like something that's in the distant future?

These and many texts like them demonstrate the imminent nature of the last days events, and that gives us a real sense of urgency.

Instead of admitting that we could die at any moment and therefore should be ready now because of the uncertainty of it, Paul writes, the day is at hand.

The day and hour may be unknown, but the time of his coming was still imminent.

He speaks with certainty.

Think about the language, and there's several of them that confirms the time frame terms I'm talking about that describe the age of fulfillment.

We've already looked at some of them.

One of those terms that is not in particular context of the second coming of Christ, but it certainly includes it is the last days, because it's in the last days that he'll come.

He'll return.

Hebrews 1:2.

We find the incarnation and the entrance of Christ into the world that they were in the last days.

And we can confirm that in these last days has God spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the world.

Peter uses last times to describe the same era.

First Peter, chapter 1, verse 20.

He says, for he was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you.

Now, what days are these?

The last.

It clearly does not mean that the sun would come at the end of time to speak to us.

Instead, he says, those first century Christians, when they were living, they were living in these last days, these last days.

He.

He does not call it the last day, but the last days.

And again we have a time statement and an event associated with it.

The event is the speaking of Jesus the Son.

You know, in Galatians 4, 4 describes the time of his coming as the fullness of time when he was born of a woman and under the law.

The law of Moses is the law under which he was born and under which he lived.

There can be no doubt that the incarnation of the Son and being born into a Jewish family, placed him in the first century while the law of Moses was still in force.

The fullness of time refers to the culminating work of redemption that was about to take place in these Last days.

It shall come about in the last days that I will bring you against my land, so that the nations may know me when I am sanctified through you before their eyes.

Now, I know that there's in many sense a double fulfillment in some of these passages, and I believe this is one of them.

There is typology, there is clearly double fulfillment.

In fact, there are passages that you know that clearly has a relevance to the time in which it was written.

And yet the New Testament writers use it as a fulfillment of their era.

So again, it was spoken as a sort of double fulfillment.

In you will clearly understand it.

You know, Malachi and Isaiah both speak of the house of the Lord being established in the last days, both in chapter two of those books.

And if Jesus is coming in the last days refers to his incarnation in the first century, how is it, friends, that we can conclude that the establishment of the Lord's house in the last days means 2,000 plus years from the first century?

I mean, consistency requires the last days to refer to the same period the sun speaks, the same period in which the mockers mock, the same time the storing up is completed, the same time the mountain of the Lord's house is established.

And if we must not pick and choose such passages that we like and blindly spew our patented responses to those other passages that show our inconsistencies, then how can we be.

How can we be fair and true to God's word?

The list of events had one thing in common.

They were all fulfilled in the last days, and it was the fullness of time.

All right, another phrase I think that we could say speak about or addresses this time, the end of that age.

And Daniel uses it a few, several times.

And that's the time of the end.

It's important that we make some distinctions here.

This statement, the time of the end is found in Daniel 12.

In verse 9 it says, and he said, go thy way, Daniel, for the words are shut up and sealed till the time of the end.

Daniel 12:4 says, but thou, O Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book even to the time of the end.

Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.

Now, friends, this doesn't say until the end of time.

He's defining the time as the time of the end.

It's the time of the fulfillment, the time of the goal being accomplished and fulfilled.

It's the same time that Paul references over in Galatians 4 that we referenced, that in the fullness of time, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law.

That was the same time, and it was the time of the end.

We're not, please don't read that.

The end of time.

Now many will fly by that text.

And I think I used to, years and years ago.

I've just heard it said by my preachers and people and friends and family.

And we just assume that Isaiah, the prophet speaks of the end of time and that when Daniel speaks, he's talking about the end of time.

That's not what he says.

In Isaiah's description, he does describe it as the end of time.

But no, I'm sorry, he doesn't describe it as the end of time.

But again in Isaiah 59, beginning in verse 19, he defines it as the time of the end.

Nowhere does the Bible speak of the end of time.

That phrase is not found.

You won't find it now.

Second Peter 3 describes the judgment mentioned by Peter over in first Peter 4, 7, beginning he had written about the end of all things is at hand in verse seven.

It's the time of the end, right?

He spoke of the fiery trial upon you which comes upon you to prove you.

He refers to the revelation of Jesus.

Not the revelation of truth that Jesus spoke, but the revealing of him in person, the revelation of his glory.

Jesus had already told his apostles, including Peter, that he would be coming in glory and for judgment while some of them were still alive.

That cannot be.

That cannot be ignored.

That he would come while some of them were still alive.

Look at it.

Look at Matthew 16.

Let me read it to you.

Look at verse.

Listen to verse 27, beginning, but for the Son of man.

But for the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and he shall render unto every man according to his deeds.

Verily I say unto you, there are some of them that stand here who shall in no wise taste of death till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom.

Another phrase is the phrase this age that's contrasted with the age to come.

Now, Jesus and his apostles believed in two ages, and they repeatedly refer to it as this age and the age to come.

It's not just a random or just a couple passages that's found several different times.

Let me just read one to you.

Let's look at Matthew, chapter 12.

That's one of them that I gave you in the list.

Let's read verse 32 together.

And whoever shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him.

But whoever shall speak against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world.

Now that's the new American Standard Version in the King James.

Neither in this world, nor in that which is to come.

The translation is ion its age neither in this age or in that which is to come, that is the age to come.

Look at Luke 20.

I like this one.

It's a good example.

Look at verse 34.

Jesus said to them, the sons of this age marry and are given in marriage.

But those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage.

For they cannot even die anymore, because they are like angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.

Wow, that offers up some discussion that we'll not entirely get into here, but I'll introduce it.

It's here he talks about being sons of the resurrection and the sons of this age.

Notice the distinction now are contrasted to those worthy of attaining that age.

You see, the ending of an age does not necessarily imply the end of physical elements.

The destruction of Jerusalem didn't cause the cessation of the Jewish population or many of their traditions.

The flood did not cause the earth to cease to exist either.

So both destructions affected the physical forms in which they lived.

And yet neither ended the existence of that, you know, I guess neither ended the.

The world in which they lived or immediately the.

The law, if we're talking about the.

The old law.

And yet both of them brought a new order, a new system, a new way of God's dealings with humankind.

The New Covenant ideology, we might look at it that way.

And it included a new birth, it included a new creature, a new covenant, new brothers and sisters.

It was spiritual in nature.

Jesus said to Pilate, when he asked him about his kingdom, he said, my kingdom is not of this world.

If my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight that I should not be delivered to the Jews.

He was asking questions that related to him being king of a physical kingdom, a physical nation.

That was what Pilate understood it to be.

And so he merely separates the physical, material realm that ruled the Old Covenant from the spiritual realm, where New Jerusalem and a new covenant is associated with Christ's rule.

That was the new age.

That was the age to come.

And so in Christ, my wife is my sister.

I have no wife in Christ.

In that world, in that realm, or in that age, in that realm, marriage does not exist.

Now.

We live in both worlds right now, don't we?

Because we are in the flesh.

We have spiritual and physical characteristics.

But that day will come when the material will be done away with and that we'll least left with the spiritual realm.

This fact of marriage, defined in the context of the physical realm, doesn't negate the value of a physical relationship.

The presence of any spiritual connection that we share with our spouse is eternal.

And it's a glorious thing, as the physical lineage and the traditions of the Jews are not the measures of sonship anymore, neither are the physical ties.

None of that is an accurate measurement of our relationship in Christ.

So not only is this true in marriage, but it's true in slaves and their masters.

We noticed an example of Philemon and Onesimus, and they experienced new beginnings in their relationship as Paul encouraged the master to accept Onesimus or Philemon, Onesimus of Philemon, as a brother in Christ.

No longer just a slave, they became fellow heirs.

And so in that relationship, there was a spiritual measuring stick of their relationship in Christ.

Onesimus was more than a slave.

He was a brother.

Paul explains that concept in Galatians 3:28 when he writes, there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave or free, male or female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

These are classifications of the physical realm, right?

Male, female, Jew, Greek, slave, free.

Those are all physical things in the realm of the physical world, but they don't exist in the spiritual world.

Do you see that?

In the same vein of thought is the statement of Jesus.

In Luke 20, Jesus said, neither can they die anymore.

Paul writes that with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory.

2nd Corinthians 3:18.

And so such transformation is accomplished by renewing the mind.

Another example of imminent language is the phrase this age and the age to come.

It says, but.

But that he will receive a hundred times as much now in this or in the present age, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms, along with persecutions.

And in the age to come, eternal life.

Once again, this age grants such blessings as physical houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms.

There's no denying that God's hand can give such benefits.

But persecution is also experienced in this present age.

Sickness and disease and death, all of that, but the age to come, and I don't think he's talking about heaven, friends.

It's a spiritual new world order that grants eternal life.

In Hebrews 9, verse 11 and 12, the writer explains that Christ entered the greater and more perfect tabernacle.

Not made with hands.

That is the most holy place.

Not being made with hands is another way of just saying it's not physical.

Many people will say that that's heaven.

Now, if they already have access to it, it's not heaven.

Under the old system, only the priest could enter the holiest, and only once a year.

And so the author is clear about that.

When the saints could enter the holiest of all, he's clear.

He says the Holy Spirit is signifying this, that the way into the holy place has not yet been disclosed, while the outer tabernacle is still standing, which is a symbol for the present time.

You see, now the adverse is equally true.

That is when the physical temple in Jerusalem, which is a symbol for that time during the last days when that was destroyed, that present age also ended.

But this time or the present time in the New Testament Scriptures equates with this age or the present age.

Peter explains that this present time on earth was the heavens and earth that now are 2 Peter 3, but the aids, it's the age that they're living in at the time when Peter wrote the epistle.

But the age that's to come, the new age, is distinct from the age in which he's now speaking.

Notice the dick's distinction.

There's the old heavens and earth, there's the heavens that now are, and there's the new heavens and new earth.

So the implication of the passage that's so powerful, that age was signified by the presence of the temple.

The age that follows it was the new heaven and new earth wherein dwells righteousness.

The symbol of the temple demonstrates that when the outer temple was no longer standing, having been destroyed by Rome in 70 A.D.

the new age of Christ's reign would commence.

Now, that doesn't mean that he wasn't king before, it doesn't mean he wasn't ruling before.

It just means his kingdom was not fulfilled, it was not culminated, it had not reached its climactic.

It was.

There was still something in the way that had to be removed.

And if the temple symbolized that present age, the age that now is, as Peter puts it, then its absence in Jerusalem was a sign of a new era.

I think Jesus supports this very idea.

Before you dismiss me altogether, consider how Jesus connects the fall of Jerusalem to his coming and the end of the age.

It's in Matthew 24, 3, 27.

Well, wouldn't you know it?

Our time is about over and I thank you for listening.

I trust you have a pleasant day.

A good week ahead.

Bye now.