BY AL BUCHANAN
The last four sermons that I have given have focused our attention on the material contained in what has been commonly called The Olivet Prophecy, Matthew 24 and 25, Luke 21, and Mark 13. The first two were titled Watch And Pray Parts I and II. And then the last two were titled The Olivet Lessons Parts I and II. The sermon today will not be a continuation of that material. However, I would like to begin by reminding all of us of a portion of what we covered last time and it’s going to serve as an introduction to what I would like to give today. So if you would, turn to Matthew 24 one more time and in verse 45, which we spent some time in last time, actually the last two sermons. Matthew 24 and in verse 45 states
Matthew 24:45. “Who then is
a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to
give them [those of his household] food in due season?
And we attempted to show in going through that material that God expects all of us to be servants. He has assigned that responsibility to all of us. And we are to provide service to those of His Household. That is Jesus the Christ, His Household. He is the Master that we see in these parables. And He is the one that is instructing us to provide food for those of His Household.
Matthew 25 then in verse 31, we read this
Matthew 25:31. “When the Son
of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit
on the throne of His glory.
And we saw in those parables that we looked at in the last couple of sermons there in Matthew 24, Matthew 25, and then in Mark 13 that all of those parables are about a master who goes away to a far country. He leaves. He’s gone for a time. And he leaves his servants or he entrusts his servants to tend to his goods, his house, or his household, depending on the particular parable that you’re referring to.
Here we see that this Master is returning as Jesus Christ is obviously the Master that is traveling to a far country and entrusting His servants. As we read in Acts 3 and verse 21 where it states
Acts
That is Jesus Christ.
Acts
So He was here on this earth for a time and in the form of a
human being. He went away to a far
country, to heaven for a time. He is
there now. Heaven must receive Him until
the times of restitution come or restoration comes. Then He will return.
And here we see Him returning in Matthew 25 and verse 31.
Matthew 25:31. “When the Son
of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit
on the throne of His glory.
Verse 32.
Matthew 25:32. “All the
nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from
another, as a shepherd divides his
sheep from the goats. 33) “And He will
set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left.
Then verse 34.
Matthew 25:34. “Then the
King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
So here are certain individuals, elsewhere referred to as saints, elect, beloved, etc. Here they’re referred to as “the blessed of My Father.” He’s directing these words to those individuals who are the blessed of His Father.
Notice!
Matthew 25:34. “Then the
King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
So here we have these certain individuals who are told that they are the blessed of His Father. They are about to inherit the Kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the world. They’re about to inherit this.
Now let’s just hold your place there and refer to a couple of very commonly referred to Scriptures. First of all Romans 8 is one that I refer to many, many times and others have as well. To where it speaks of an inheritance, being heirs, and there is something very specific we are going to inherit. Romans 8 verse 16.
Romans 8:16. The Spirit
[itself] bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. 17) And if children, then heirs—heirs of God
and [Notice!] joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified
together.
So there’s an inheritance waiting for those who become fully born children of God. We’re begotten now. And, as when Paul wrote this, he said
Romans 8:16. The Spirit [itself] bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.
We are begotten children now waiting for the full birth at which time we become inheritors.
Hebrews 1. Hebrews 1 and verse 1 states
Hebrews 1:1. God, who at
various times and in different ways spoke in times past to the fathers by the
prophets, 2) Has in these last days
spoken to us by His Son,
And so a great plan was worked out whereby the One who actually did the very creating of human life was to empty Himself of that power that He had as God to become a human being and in that process He became a Son. It was Their plan for One of these two Beings to become a Son of the Other. And so now we have God the Father. We have God the Son.
Hebrews 1:2. Has in these
last days spoken to us by His Son,
Notice!
Hebrews 1:2b. whom He [the
Father] has appointed heir of all things,
Of all things! Now He was, in fact, the Owner of all things, but He emptied Himself of that position to become a Son. And as a Son, He then was an inheritor of those things which He had literally given up in order for others to be able to share in the inheritance.
Hebrews 1:2. Has in these
last days spoken to us by His Son,
whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds;
This very same Being!
Verse 3.
Hebrews 1:3. Who being the
brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all
things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat
down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
So that Master now is gone to a far country to sit at His Father’s right hand, waiting for the time to return when others then can share in His inheritance.
Verse 4.
Hebrews 1:4. Having become
so much better than the angels,
As He sits there now at the Father’s right hand, He is so much better than the angels.
Hebrews 1:4b. as He has by
inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.
And we see over in verse 8 where He is referred to as God.
Hebrews 1:8. But to the Son,
He says: “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever;
This is a quote from Psalm 45 where God there is Elohim. Here it is Theos. He is now God. He has already inherited all things once more now as the Son of God. He, being our Archegos, the One who has gone before so that others can follow, now He has made a way for others to become inheritors along with Him, co-heirs, joint heirs with Him.
Back here in Matthew 25 again, then in verse 35, He goes on to speak to those blessed of His Father and said
Matthew 25:35. ‘For I was
hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger
and you took Me in;
“You became a servant to Me.”
Matthew 25:36. ‘I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick
and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’
And you can apply this strictly, literally, or you can expand this into spiritual meaning as to who it is that we can be servants to.
Verse 37.
Matthew 25:37. “Then the
righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed
You, or thirsty and give You
drink? 38) ‘When did we see You a
stranger and take You in, or naked
and clothe You? 39 ‘Or when did we see You sick, or in
prison, and come to You?’ 40) “And the
King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did
it to one of the least of these My
brethren,
“Those of My Household”
Matthew 25:40b. you did it to Me.’
So He explains why these individuals have been selected as the blessed of His Father. They have been faithful servants tending to the needs of Jesus’ Household, of His Brethren. His Brethren! All of His Brethren make up that Household, all of them. Whoever it is that have been begotten by the Spirit of God are included among those He refers to as “My Brethren.”
Back up in verse 34, let’s read that again.
Matthew 25:34. “Then the
King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
These are words all of us want to hear. Every one of us wants to hear these words. There will be those—we referred to last week—that will hear the words, “I never knew you.” Some who thought that they had been doing what was expected of them, thought that they were “qualifying,” you might say, thought that they were to be inheritors, only to have Christ say, “I don’t know you. I never knew you.”
It’s so important that we have this relationship with Jesus Christ. And we’ve talked about how difficult that is in that we are so far removed from Him in one sense. There He sits at His Father’s right hand as very God now waiting for the time when He will return to this earth. We are so disconnected in one sense from Him.
Yet, in what He’s saying here that as we interact with those who are included among those He calls “His Brethren,” we’re actually interacting with Him. He views it that way. That as we tend to the needs of those within that group of His Brethren, we are tending to His needs. He sees our needs as His needs. He sees our hurts as His hurts. All of our positive experiences He sees as His experiences I’m sure.
But He views us as an extension of Himself. And as we interact with one another, we are in a very real sense interacting with Him. And so we can’t really say that we’re disconnected from Him, can we? When we think of it in these terms we have very close relationships with some in this group. Others the relationships perhaps are not as good as what they ought to be. And perhaps even some, when He talks about “the least of My brethren” maybe we have at times viewed some in this category as being less, being inferior, as being in a situation or whatever which doesn’t deserve our interaction with. Or maybe we have withdrawn from certain ones. It’s a serious thing when you start thinking of it in these terms. That Jesus Christ views anyone individually, no matter who he or she is, no matter where he or she is, if they have the Spirit of God, He views them as Himself as far as our interaction with them. The way we treat that individual is the way we’re treating Jesus Christ. It’s a serious thing. It’s a very serious thing to think about, but that’s what He’s telling us here as I understand it in this chapter.
As we already heard in the announcement, counting from this coming Tuesday, we’re just so close to the Feast of Tabernacles! Just three weeks from this coming Tuesday, we’ll be keeping the Feast of Tabernacles. Just one week, as we heard, till the Feast of Trumpets. We know that the keeping of the Feast of Trumpets marks the beginning of these Fall Festivals, these Fall Festival Season, which pictures the transition of power on this earth, which pictures a total change.
And within that change, it pictures the return of Jesus Christ back to this earth. Our Master is returning. He will ask for us to give an account as to how we have taken care of what He’s entrusted to us. How well have we been faithful servants to Him?
For many of us, the Feast of Tabernacles is the highlight of the year. All of us look forward to the Feast of Tabernacles. Many of us, even at the Feast are talking about the next Feast. It’s been that way. It’s been a tradition down through time. And now as we’re preparing and making ready for the Feast, it’s an exciting time for so many of us.
The Feast pictures a one thousand year rest for the earth and the people on it. A one thousand year rest from the work of Satan the devil! From the work he has been very heavily engaged in now for almost six thousand years. It’ll usher in a time of peace.
We’ll talk a little bit about peace this year at the Feast. The kind of peace—I’ll just give you a little bit of a thought about that—is the peace that will be experienced during the Millennium is a peace that none of us have ever experienced in this world. We have experienced absence of problems at times.
Life is kind of like floating down a river. You go over sometimes very swift areas. They talk about white water in certain places. It gets very rough, very difficult to navigate through certain portions of a river. Then you’ll open up into a wide and quiet area where those waters are running very, very calmly. So everything calms down and it’s very peaceful for a time. And so an absence of the white water just seems to be so much better.
The kind of peace that’s going to be brought to this earth in the Millennium goes far beyond that and we’ll talk about it this year. It goes far beyond just the absence of war and the absence of problems and troubles. It goes far beyond that. It has far deeper meaning than that. Jesus Christ, it is said of Him that He’s going to bring peace to this earth and He is!
The Feast pictures a time when Jesus Christ and His Bride will administer a government of God on this earth. And once again, Mr. Meeker one time made a statement and I had to totally agree with him when he said, “We have never in our lifetime experienced the government of God.” We experienced an attempt by men to apply principles and laws as was understood from the Scriptures to establish a form of administration. We’ve never ever experienced the government of God where God Himself has ruled, where God Himself is establishing and bringing about peace and harmony under that government. We’ve never experienced that. It’s going to be an unprecedented time for any human being that’s ever lived on this earth. They will never have experienced anything like it.
We understand that only a small portion of those even alive at the end of the age are going to live over into that time and experience it because of the end time problems is going to take its toll and there’s not going to be—everyone’s not going to live over. Only a portion will. So those will get to experience it later during the Great White Throne period of time. Every human being that’s every lived and that’s died will stand on his feet to be able to experience that peace and that harmony. And it will be unprecedented. No matter when the individual lived, no matter what form of government he existed under or she existed under, this will be unprecedented. It will be experienced like it never experienced before. It’ll be experienced that none of us have experienced before. It’s going to be an incredible period of time!
A certain, very select specially called individuals will have been born into the Family of God at this time. When this government is established, those blessed of Christ’s Father will inherit the Kingdom. The ones, who we refer to now as the firstfruits, will have that incredible opportunity! They will assume the role of Jesus Christ’s Wife in the Family of God. So there’ll be a Father. There’ll be a Son. The Son will take a Wife. And all that that entails.
As we attempted to show before, we’ve understood for a long time that Christ is going to take a Wife. And we kind of leave it there. We don’t really think deeply beyond that to what the Wife will do. And I’m not here today to even begin to address that. Only to say that she’s going to have a very integral part to play in the Family just as a wife and mother has such an important and integral part to play in any human family. Incredibly important role! And the Bride will have an incredibly important role to play in the Family of God, and in the process of administering this government and bringing about this peace and harmony and all that we will see.
I’d like to turn to Matthew chapter 6. We’ve been talking about The Olivet Prophecy. I want to go to a section now that’s been called The Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 5, 6, and 7 contain the record of Jesus Christ’s words that He said there that is called The Sermon on the Mount. In verse 33, Matthew 6 verse 33, Christ said
Matthew 6:33. “But seek
first the
This entrance into the Family of God that we’ve been talking
about. The Family of God will administer
the government of God. At times the
Kingdom is viewed as the Millennium. And
sometimes even its use, I think, directly refers to the Millennium. Other times it refers to the government or
rulership. Other times it refers to the
Family. And Mr. Armstrong clarified that
by saying that the Family of God would administer the government of God. And so when we seek the
But it says here
Matthew 6:33. “But seek
first the
So Jesus told them that they should be seeking to
participate in the
This word, “seek,” means to aim at, to strive after, to
desire, to endeavor which is another word for work. We should work toward. We should strive for. We should aim at and seek this
This word “first” means first in time, place, order, or
importance. So we’re to seek first, as
our first most highly prioritized goal is to enter into and be part of the
This word “righteousness” here means conformity to all that God commands or appoints. If one is said to be righteous, he will be attempting at least to conform to all that God commands and appoints.
So Jesus Christ is saying that we are to seek first the
Now back to verse 24, let’s notice what He said leading up to this statement. It’s going to connect with what we heard in the sermonette.
Matthew 6:24. “No one can
serve two masters;
We’ve already talked about how that Jesus Christ was that
Master of those parables that has gone away.
So He is our Master. We
understand that He is our Kurios, our
Lord, our Master, our Owner, the One that we are to be subject to.
Matthew 6:24. “No one can
serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else
he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.
Now it’s interesting. We’ve been talking about the need for us to be servants. And God expects of us to be servants. This word “serve” here is a form of doulos which is rendered “servants.” It means to be in the position of a servant, to be subject and serve in subjection.
So no one can serve in this way two masters. Master, his Lord, Master, Owner here, this is Kurios by the way. No one can serve two masters.
This word “mammon” is a designation of material value here. And it can be assigned to many different things. Things that can be enjoyed in this physical existence, many things could be included in this.
There are things that literally, quite literally, Satan can offer to us now. Remember the testing that Christ went through there with Satan. He offered Him many things. He has at his disposal many things he can offer us. From the beginning, Satan sought control over human beings. Through his lying deception, he deceived Eve first and then all humanity literally have become his servants. All of us have become his servants. He took the role of god of this age.
In John
John 8:44. “You are of your father the devil, and the desires
of your father you want to do.
Or it could be rendered, “will to do.”
We all became his servants. Jesus instructed His disciples, “No one can serve two masters.” You can’t serve two. In order for them to be His true disciples, they would have to repent and be converted. They could not serve God and mammon.
Now verse 25.
Matthew 6:25. Therefore I
say to you,
And there’s that word “therefore” that Mr. Biscan referred to in the book of Hebrews.
Matthew 6:25. Therefore I
say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will
drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more
than clothing?
So, all these things are included in mammon. All these things are physical that He’s talking about here in verse 25. Now the Scriptures are very clear regarding our responsibility to provide for ourselves and those of our household. It’s very, very clear that we are to do that. And we have a huge responsibility in doing that. Jesus is showing that there are things of greater importance and there are things of lesser importance. And we’re talking about priorities here as we go through this.
Now notice verse 26.
Matthew 6:26. “Look at the
birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your
heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not
of more value than they?
Verse 27.
Matthew 6:27. “Which of you
by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?
28) “So why do you worry about clothing?
Now, do we worry? Of course, we do. Of course, we have to have clothing. They put you in jail if you don’t wear clothing. You have to have clothing. You have to have these material things.
Matthew 628b. Consider the
lilies of the field, how they grow: they
neither toil nor spin; 29) “And yet I
say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of
these.
We’ve got. We’ve just
recently done some landscaping at the home and we’ve got some new plants and
things around. And we’ve got hummingbird
feeders out next to our screened in porch.
And we sit out often and watch those things. We haven’t had a lot all year. Now there are getting to be several gathering
around this fall as they’re passing back through. I guess they’re beginning to migrate back
down south. Do you realize, do you know
that the hummingbird, some of them, not every one of them, but some of them
actually fly all the way across the
But it’s part of the creation that God has made and He takes care. He provides for them.
Verse 30.
Matthew 6:30. “Now if God so
clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the
oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31) “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What
shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’
We all worry about these things! We all worry about these things. We have to have these things.
Matthew 6:32. “For after all
these things the Gentiles seek. For your
heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.
He said, “He knows.” We need all of these things. He knows we need physical things. He is speaking here of priorities. The Gentiles, who basically represent this society or world, seek after these things. That’s their primary goal is to seek after these things. Their first priority is to seek these things. Christ is saying there’s something that we got to look beyond the physical to that should be first in priority to us. And He says in verse 33
Matthew 6:33. “But seek
first the
God provides us with intellect. He provides us with the capability of providing for ourselves. He at times opens doors for us in job opportunities and different things. No doubt, I’m sure that Steve mentioned last week if we understood or knew in a given day how many times God involved Themselves in our lives, we would probably be astounded. I’m sure He’s very involved. He knows how many hairs we’ve got on our head and that’s a pretty hard task in itself as fast as they’re falling out. But if He knows how many hairs we got on our head, He knows of our needs. And He can tend to those needs.
But He gives us intellect. He gives us the ability. And I’ve heard it said that anybody that can’t do reasonably well in this country, something’s wrong with them. There’s so many opportunities here, so many ways that we can provide for these physical things. And God has given us the capability of doing that. We really don’t have an excuse. We really don’t. We should have all the things that we have need of. We may not have everything we want. When we look at our lives, most anybody in this country that’s even in the poverty level as far as our standards are concerned, in many other parts of the world would be considered rich.
We’re very spoiled here.
Peggy and I have talked about this many times. And I’ve talked about it with others that we
are so spoiled in this country. We are so
absolutely spoiled. We hear everybody
talking about how horrible times are right now.
And things aren’t good. I mean we
got some pretty difficult things going on.
As a nation we’ve got ourselves into a huge financial mess, economic
mess. We have. But the average person right now—try to get
into a restaurant about
Times aren’t that bad. They’re not that good relative to what we would like for them to be, but we’re so spoiled here. That if the economy takes a little bit of a downturn, “Whoa, things are falling apart.” Well, we may be in the beginning stages of very serious problems in this country. I don’t know. I know that the government stepped in this week and bailed out the banking system of all these bad mortgages and everything. I don’t know what that’s going to lead to. I don’t understand all the intricacies and that sort of thing and what that’s going mean down the road. Whether this again is just the beginning stages, whether this is a band-aid on something that’s so very serious it’s going to have its greater impact later, I don’t know.
But what I’m saying is right now we could worry a lot about
the economy. But do we have a roof over
our heads? Do we have food to eat? Do we have the necessities of life? Most all of us do. And so we don’t need to put that as a first
priority right now in other words. This
seeking first the
Back in verse 33.
Matthew 6:33. “But seek
first the
He’s instructing His disciples as to what should be our
first priority. We need to look beyond
the distractions—again Mr. Biscan used that word—the distractions that are all
around us and look beyond that to our first priority. First in importance above all else is for us
to seek the
The Fall Holy Days picture a transition of power, rule, or control, you might say. Satan’s control over humanity is going to be removed. His days are limited. They’re limited to the six days. We’re near sunset on the sixth day. We talked about that before. We have to be. The six thousand years are close to coming to an end. So we’re close to sunset. His days are numbered. He doesn’t have that much time left. Peace is going to be restored on this earth. True peace! Peace that only God can bring. The times of restoration of all things is coming. That time is coming when not only will Satan be removed but also his effects will be destroyed. The effects of his work on this earth are going to be destroyed.
We often wonder why do things have to get so bad at the end of the age and that is the reason. It has to be destroyed. The corrupt system he has inspired will be no more. It’s coming to an end. It’s a problem that we have in this country. It’s just the corruption that runs everywhere. It’s everywhere.
All things will be restored to their former state. In order for something to be restored, there had to be something before that it’s being restored to. And so it had to be in that state before. That state of the earth immediately following Jesus Christ’s work to create life, to create all of the vegetation, and all that He did on the earth that’s described in the first couple chapters of Genesis, especially Genesis 1, where it states there that God looked on what had been made and He said, “It is very good.”
There is no way He would look over this earth today and the governments that are in force, all that is transpiring that human beings are involved in on this earth, there is no way He would say, “This is very good.” He would say, “It’s very bad. And it has to be dealt with.”
All things will be restored by the
We yet have to be called the blessed of His Father. I don’t know if all of us would fall in that category or not. Let me think. If we looked at ourselves personally, if I looked at my life, you looked at yours, considering what Christ said there in those Olivet Lessons as we termed them, would we be included among those blessed of Christ’s Father? That’s something to consider.
But the firstfruits, those who are the blessed of Christ’s Father, will enter the Family as—we’ve already said—the Wife of Jesus the Christ. The Family of God will then administer the government of God during a special one thousand year window of time in particular. However, beyond that the Family does not come to an end. The Family continues to exist on beyond the thousand years. And so we are to seek being part of that Family and what They are doing throughout the remainder of eternity!
And we talked before. We can’t get our minds around that. We can think in terms, ‘Yeah, there’s no end to this thing. It’s going on and on and on.” Try to think back to when there was no beginning. You can kind of think about time that has no end. But how do you think in the past if it had no beginning? Everything, everything we think of, all the physical things have a beginning, has an end. But this doesn’t and it’s so hard to get our minds around that.
But we have an opportunity that’s being offered to us to participate in a Family that’s going to exist throughout all eternity. And it’s going to be working throughout all eternity.
He said there that we are to seek first the
The record of the life of Jesus Christ when He was on this
earth shows what righteousness is. And
we are to seek, not only the
So Jesus is here in this command in Matthew 6:33 instructing all of us that our first priority is to seek to participate in what God will be doing. What He will be doing. If we participate in what They will do, we will participate in Their righteousness. For we will be doing what They will do the way They will do it. In order for us to truly desire to do this, we need to be able to see this as a reality.
Ephesians chapter 1, let’s go there. Ephesians chapter 1. I said before that this first chapter of Ephesians, if you don’t have a whole lot of time for Bible Study and you want to just delve into something that’s not all that long, delve into the first chapter of Ephesians. It is packed full of information. Ephesians 1 verse 15.
Ephesians 1:15. Therefore I
also, after I heard of your faith
So Paul is writing to these folks here in
Ephesians 1:15. Therefore I
also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus
Notice!
Ephesians 1:15b. and your love
for all the saints,
I thought it was interesting the way he put that, especially connecting it back with what Christ said about how we treat His Brethren.
Ephesians 1:15. Therefore I
also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love
for all the saints,
Verse 16.
Ephesians 1:16. Do not cease
to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers:
And, so, Paul recognized them as members of the select group
called the firstfruits. He recognized them
as being among those who should be seeking the
Verse 17.
Ephesians 1:17. That the God
of our Lord Jesus Christ,
This is Paul praying for them and certainly it’s applicable to us. His prayer would be applicable for you, for me, if we’re in this group.
Ephesians 1:17. That the God
of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of
wisdom
Now remember last time we talked about there in Matthew 24 verse 45 where it talks about that we’re to be a faithful and wise servant. That that word “wisdom” there, that word “wise” there was not the word that we find in James 1 where it says
James 1:5. If any of you
lacks wisdom, let him ask of God,
That it was, that word there, “wise,” and faithful servant was being prudent, just having common sense. Being able to look at a situation and doing what is obvious that you should do. This is not that word.
This is that word we find in James 1, which is sophia in the Greek, which means godly wisdom. This is wisdom that goes beyond the physical.
Now a lot of these things that we talked about there in Matthew 6 about the physical things, common sense is a good thing to have when He’s talking about physical things. And you’re interacting with people on a physical plane and dealing with physical things, common sense, just prudence is so important.
This goes beyond that.
This goes into the spiritual. And
here Paul is praying
Ephesians 1:17. That the God
of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of
wisdom [to have godly wisdom] and revelation
The uncovering or the unveiling of things that the physical mind cannot comprehend or understand where the physical wisdom has no part to play, but needs the spiritual wisdom.
Ephesians 1:17b. the spirit
of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him,
So we are to come to have this knowledge of God. We’re to come to understand and comprehend Him, to understand Jesus Christ. What it’s like. What His righteousness is like. We need to know these Beings. We need to know what They are like, what Their righteousness is all about.
Verse 18.
Ephesians 1:18. The eyes of
your understanding being enlightened;
So again, he’s praying for this. That the eyes of our understanding, yours and mine, be enlightened
Ephesians 1:18b. that you
may know what is the hope of His calling,
That we can come to understand what it is we’re
seeking. In very specific terms, what is
it that we’re seeking to be part of the
Now, in the past most of us, I think, when we thought about the Feast of Tabernacles and the Millennium and the coming rule of God, I think most of us thought in terms of the physical benefits that were going to come as a result of that with all the prosperity, with the peace, the beauty, all of those things that were going to come that we saw ourselves benefiting from. I think most of us were looking at it from that perspective and, Brethren, those are the physical. It’s physical. That’s thinking in terms of the physical benefits.
Ephesians 1:18b. that you
may know what is the hope of His calling,
That you may know what it is we’re seeking. Remember. Remember these Beings are servants. They’re asking us to be servants. Remember Jesus Christ came and He said, “I came to serve.” They’re servants. They are going to be providing these things. If They’re providing these things, and we’re seeking to be part of what They are doing, we will be providing. We will not be the direct recipients but rather providing these things. Is that what we’re seeking for? Are we seeking to be among those who are providing? Or are we seeking to be among those who are the recipients? There’s a huge difference. There’s a huge difference in our point of view and our perspective on what it is we’re seeking.
Backing up first to verse 18.
Ephesians 1:18. The eyes of
your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His
calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,
What the inheritance involves.
I don’t care how hard we try to look into this. We’re going to miss it. I mean we’re not going to fully comprehend and understand what it is that’s being offered to us. I think it goes beyond our capability of fully comprehending. I said this before. I don’t think we can fully get to that point, but we ought to strive to. Paul was praying that we would be able to come to at least a level of comprehension of what it is we’re seeking.
And here in verse 19
Ephesians 1:19. And what is the exceeding greatness of His power
toward us who believe,
To be able to fully recognize God’s power, can we do that now? That’s hard. It’s hard to fully comprehend and understand the power of this great God. We’re in the physical. We think in physical terms. We deal with physical things. We deal with things that have a beginning and an end. We just do. And that’s who we are. We have a beginning and we have an end. We witnessed some of our very close friends coming to their end. It was traumatic and it shakes us right down to our toenails sometimes because we think in physical things. We think in the now.
1 Corinthians 13. 1 Corinthians 13 verse 9.
1 Corinthians 13:9. For we
know in part and we prophesy in part.
10) But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is
in part will be done away. 11) When I
was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child;
but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 12)
For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know
just as I also am known.
We’re looking through—another way of putting this I think—we’re looking through all kinds of distractions. We’re distracted by all these physical things. And we’re trying to look through and around those things to get some kind of perspective about what it is we are to be seeking out there. And it’s not easy. It’s hard to truly see God as God, to see Them as They are. I know that. I know that. It’s very hard.
1 John 4, let’s go there and look at just a portion of this. 1 John 4 verses 7 and 8.
1 John 4:7. Beloved, let us
love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is [begotten] of
God and knows God. 8) He who does not
love does not know God, for God is love.
God addresses us here or this John under inspiration addresses all of us here as “Beloved.” This is very interesting.
Hold your place here. Let’s go back to Ephesians, Ephesians 1 verse 3.
Ephesians 1:3. Blessed be
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every
spiritual blessing in the heavenly places
in Christ, 4) Just as He chose us in Him
before the foundation of the world,
Remember where Christ was addressing those who are the blessed of His Father and He said, “Inherit the kingdom that’s been prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”
Ephesians 1:4. Just as He
chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and
without blame before Him in love, 5)
Having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according
to the good pleasure of His will, 6) To
the praise of the glory of His grace by which He [has] made us accepted in the
Beloved.
So being part of the “Beloved,” I’m sure we’ll be directly connected to those who will be called the blessed of His Father.
1 John 4:7. Beloved, let us
love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves, is [begotten] of
God
In Romans 5 verse 5—don’t turn there—it says
Romans 5:5b. the love of God
has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit [that] was given to us.
So this very important characteristic of God comes into us through the giving of God’s Holy Spirit.
It says here in verse 8 that “God is love.” So then God’s love and God’s righteousness
would be closely tied together. If God
is love and God is righteous and His life is defining what righteousness is,
then love and righteousness will be closely related. We are to seek first the
Now what does this involve?
I know that some think of love as a syrupy subject and one that
Protestants talk about. It is anything
but that! It is anything but syrupy! I heard that one individual made the
statement that you don’t need love to enter the
1 John 3 verse 16.
1 John 3:16. By this we know
love, because He laid down His life for us.
And we also ought to lay down our
lives for the brethren.
“By this we know love.” Remember “God is love.” By this we know God. So let’s attempt to understand this. It says, “because He laid down His life for us.” That’s how we know His love.
1 John 3:16. By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us.
Now as I’ve said before, I think many times when we see those words “laid down His life for us” that we immediately think of His crucifixion. We immediately think of the ultimate sacrifice that He gave when He allowed His life to be taken from Him, His physical life. But is that what this is referring to? Is it? Well, it goes on to say here
1 John 3:16b. And we also
ought to lay down our lives for the
brethren.
If Christ’s laying down of His life only involved His crucifixion, then this would mean that we would have to be crucified for our Brethren. We know that’s not what it’s talking about.
1 John 3:16. By this we know
love, because He laid down His life for us.
And we also ought to lay down our
lives for the brethren.
John 13. It said that all that God commands and appoints is righteousness. Here’s a command, Jesus Christ’s. This is the one that we’ve been referring to recently.
John 13:34. “A new
commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that
you also love one another.
So He’s speaking in the past tense. To them at that time He was saying, “You are to love one another as I have loved you.” So by the definition we saw in 1 John 3 16, then the laying down of His life for us defined love and He had already been loving them up to this point before He was crucified. We know that He had already been laying down His life for them and it would continue even after His crucifixion and after His resurrection. He would continue to lay down His life for the Brethren.
Philippians 2 verse 1. Philippians 2 and verse 1.
Philippians 2:1. Therefore
if there is any consolation in
Christ,
If there’s any encouragement, if we can look at Christ’s life and if we can see anything about Him that we can take from it.
Philippians 2:1. Therefore
if there is any consolation in
Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any
affection and mercy, 2) Fulfill my joy
by being like-minded, having the same love, being
of one accord, of one mind. 3) Let nothing be done through selfish ambition
“Selfish ambition” would be seeking mammon. In our priorities we need to get beyond the physical.
Philippians 2:3. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of
mind let each esteem others better than himself. 4) Let each of you look out not only for his
own interests,
And, as I said before, the Scriptures are very clear that we are to provide for ourselves and for those of our household. We are to do that.
Philippians 2:4. Let each of
you look out not only for his own interests,
We have to look out for our own interests.
Philippians 2:4b. but also
for the interests of others.
Verse 5.
Philippians 2:5. Let this
mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,
6) Who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be
equal with God, 7) But made Himself of
no reputation, taking the form of a [servant] [doulos], and coming in
the likeness of men. 8) And being found
in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of
the cross.
The laying down of His life began when He emptied Himself and became a servant. In a very literal way, He began to lay His life down at that point. We can actually go back farther than that. Remember the plan of God Christ talked about there in Matthew 25 what we’re to be seeking, the Kingdom that’s been prepared for us from the foundation of the world. So They’ve been laying down Their lives for us. In other words, spending Their time in planning for us for who knows how long!
Philippians 2:9. Therefore
God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every
name, 10) That at the name of Jesus
every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those
under the earth, 11) And that every tongue should confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of
God the Father.
Now was this exaltation that it clearly speaks of here that Christ received, was this exaltation something Jesus Christ sought after? Was He seeking this exaltation? Was this something He needed for Himself so that He could wield His power, you might say?
Remember He emptied Himself of His power as God to become a servant. He already had ultimate power. As a result for His love for us, He emptied Himself of that power.
Now in the story of the Wave Sheaf Offering back in Leviticus 23—I’m not going to go there—but remember He is very clear that that offering represents Jesus Christ and it was to be accepted on our behalf. Remember? It was to be beneficial to us.
His exaltation is on our behalf. It is for our behalf. It is to benefit us.
Let’s notice one of the roles He now fills. Hebrews chapter 4. Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 14. He is now as He sits at the Father’s right hand; He is filling this role now after receiving that exaltation.
Hebrews 4:14. Seeing then
that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the
Son of God, let us hold fast our
confession. 15) For we do not have a
High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.
So as High Priest, He must be able to fully understand our needs. He experienced the full effect of Satan’s influence when He was here on the earth. He knows up close and personal what we’re experiencing. In order to fulfill this role perfectly He needed to experience humanity.
We could go to John 10. I’m not going to go there. Going on here in verse 16, it says
Hebrews 4:16. Let us
therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy
and find grace to help in time of need.
We can come with confidence before God’s throne of grace. Notice that it is a throne of grace! This authority, this power that They have is a throne of grace. “Grace” meaning a favor done on a benefit of someone else, a favor or benefit given where both of these Beings are giving us of Their services. They continue to lay down Their lives for us.
Hebrews 5 verse 5, let’s go there quickly. No, I’m sorry. Let’s go to Hebrews 12. Hebrews 12 verse 1.
Hebrews 12:1. Therefore we
also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay
aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before
us, 2) Looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith, who for the
joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat
down at the right hand of the throne of God.
The joy that was set before Him was the ability to exercise
greater service as He rejoined His Father in the
Back to Matthew 25 where we started, near where we started. Matthew 25 verse 34.
Matthew 25:34. “Then the
King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
It is obvious that both God the Father and Jesus the Christ
deeply desire for us to receive this
Last Scripture, Luke 12. Luke 12, this is a parallel to Matthew 6 that we looked at. Luke 12 verse 31, it says
Luke 12:31. “But seek the
They desire for us now to be able to see clearly what it is we’re to seek, clearly what it is we’re to desire.
As we prepare to keep the Fall Holy Days, Brethren, let’s
remember Jesus’ words that we are to seek first the
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