But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God might taste death for everyone. For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying: I will declare Your name to My brethren, in the midst of the assembly I will sing praise to You. And again, I will put My trust in Him. And again, Here AM I and the children whom God has given Me, ( Hebrews 2:9-13).
When do you think that Jesus meant for the disciples to act on what He had said to them in John 20: 21-23, So Jesus said to them again, Peace be to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you. And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.
Did Jesus Christ want us to wait until the next world for us to obey this word He left us in Matthew 18:18-20? Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again, I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in My name, I am there in the midst of them.
I wonder who the thrones were for?
Now there are two sets of people here as we are studying the 20th chapter of the Book of Revelation. One set will experience the “first resurrection” and the others will not experience the first resurrection. Did you notice that rest of the dead will not live again until the fulfillment of time….. Did you notice another party that will be under locked key in the bottomless pit also for a thousand years? Hmmmm……Is there any correlation that there are two sets of creatures in a pit- one is locked by death and the other a prison- a bottomless pit…. until the fulfillment of time? Where will they go when the time has been fulfilled?
This thousand years is not a literal thousand years….. if that was so….. This age would have ended or at least changed at the end of one thousand years of Jesus Christ ascending to heaven….. It has not,…. this thousand years represent a fulfillment of time according to God’s plan.
Let us study these verses 4-6: And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.
But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.
Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.
What does the first resurrection mean and the second death mean? For the followers of Jesus, they experience the first resurrection……The ones that chose not to follow Jesus Christ have lost their chance to experience the first resurrection, they remain dead until the final day of judgment. Then they will rise and be condemned to the lake of fire….. Pretty gruesome….. God is real and so are His judgments!
Where was Jesus Christ crucified? The place was called Golgotha, the place of the skull…..
Why does the epistles mention so much to renew our mind and that we have the mind of Christ..?
Do you know? Paul tells us to be of the same mind…. and as I mentioned in the other blog, that once the Holy Spirit came into the followers of Christ Jesus that they were all of one accord in their goals and agenda to please the Lord….
For thus says the High and Lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him who has a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones, ( Isaiah 57:15).
If we do not die to the world and the ways of thinking that belong to the world, we cannot partake of the first resurrection. Why? Because the mark of the beast still remains on our foreheads. This means we still bow to Satan or the beast nature and reject the leading of the Holy Spirit….. Our natural mind is an enmity with God as scripture states…. in James 4:4-8, Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you thank that the Scripture says in vain. The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealousy? But He gives more grace. Therefore, He says: God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
If we look over the scripture of verse 4 of chapter 21 of the Book of Revelation….. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands…..
These saints renewed their mind as Paul instructs us in Romans 12:1-2; I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
They are with the Lord on the thrones ruling and reigning with Him in the first resurrection. The ones who did not believe in the salvation of God and did not renew their lives unto the Lord remain engulfed in death.
We, first, ascend to the Lord, by the repenting of our mind’s thoughts. We turn to Him and believe we are sinners need of a Savior. Then we follow through in our beliefs by learning of the Lord… The disciples were somewhat lost and confused as they followed the Lord as He walked the earth…. But they had no problem understanding and renewing their mind to the leading of the Holy Spirit when He came to indwell in them.
We first think, then do….. the mark of the beast on the forehead and then on the hands represent that- we first think, then do….. either towards the Lord if we are born anew, or the beast, which is our selfish nature, the beast nature.
After studying the above verse, should we understand this verse fully and conform our lives in accordance with it? Galatians 2:20, I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.
In verse 11-14, Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged, according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
We see that eternal death are for those that did not rise in the first resurrection. May we then conclude that they did not die in the Lord and rise with Him as the Resurrected Savior in the Spirit by their faith in the word. They did not loose themselves to gain Christ…. So they remain dead in their unbelief in the first resurrection and then enter into the second death.
When we turn to the Lord and believe. We are born anew and we know that we are dead in our sins. In Christ is our only righteousness with God. All our works that we have done prior are as filthy rags…. We are dead to God in our sins…. We may be living on this earth, but according to God, we are dead spiritually in our sin and are heading for eternal death.
But when we accept that we die spiritually with the Lord on His cross, and then we carry our cross and die to the world in our soul so that we may make room for the image of the Christ to be seen by Him, we will be found in Him….We have been judged but escape the penalty because we are found in Christ….. We are not judged on our works anymore, we have been saved from ourselves. Thank God for His great plan of grace and mercy that we find in Jesus Christ.
The ones who have not chosen the Lord as their Savior, are judged by their works which are as filthy rags. They are condemned to the second death….. eternally, their home is in the Lake of fire….
And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire, (Revelation 21:15). Thank God, that we are not judged on our works if we are in Christ. The work of our Lord on the cross, His burial and His Resurrection is the work the Godhead respects and honors…. Our works are never included in God’s view. That is why Jesus Christ said to us in John 15 : 5,…… I am the vine, you are the branches, He who abides in Me, and I in Him, bears much fruit; for without Me, you can do nothing.
That is the reason why it is imperative that we are found in Him….. That we are found in Him and rest in Him. That all our righteousness is of Him…. We are being conformed to His image…. that is His work and He gets the glory…..When we come to the end of ourselves, that in us there is no good thing… We die to us and the world…. Then the Lord and His Spirit reigns in us. The Lord is the Owner of His redeemed.
Paul states in Philippians 3:7-14: But what things were gain to me, I have counted as loss for Christ. Yet indeed, I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I might gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God through faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience, ( Hebrews 4:11).
Our Lord Jesus Christ is our Sabbath rest. He is our Sabbath….. He is our everything! Praise Him forever! Praise the Father. Praise the Son. Praise the Spirit. Praise the Godhead, all Three in One!
When we hear the call of our Lord, our hearts leap to Him. Who is as beautiful as our God. Who is as beautifully wonderful and wonderfully beautiful as our God, who loves us with an everlasting love… Who can not hear His call to us for He never quits or lets go….. If we let go, He respects our decision heartbroken. But His love for us never fails. May we learn that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of all understanding to our Awesome Wonderful Great Almighty God and His Precious Son.
O Heavenly Father, may we have ears to hear what You are saying to us and may we have eyes to envision all that You have given us in Your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, by the power of the Holy Spirit…. May we realize we are no longer our own, but we are the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in us….We were brought with a price; therefore may You find our worship in offering of our bodies and our spirits which are Yours. In Your hands, You make all things new. We die to ourselves in Christ and rise in Christ to Your power and glory…. May You find delight in our offerings which are more precious than silver and gold to You…. For it is written, that You delight in a pure heart, a heart that is after You. Lord, I pray that heart be found in us…. In Jesus’ name, we pray.
Selah!
