Jesus Last words, Behold, I am coming quickly...

Day 10   We must go on.       Jesus Last Days, A Model For Our Days

We’ve come to the end of this brief reflection and study of Jesus last days. I believe that the model of Jesus last days provides us with everything we need to fulfill our call to love God and man and fulfill the commission Jesus gave to us to go to the world. 

As we begin each day we should, like the multitude outside Jerusalem, be filled with excitement and anticipation of what is coming. We should joyfully praise God. Remember, one day every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. All of creation praises God and responds in obedience to His will. Only we can choose our response to God. So each day we should begin on the road to Jerusalem, greeting our Lord and King. We should look forward, expecting Him to come and free the world from the effects of sin and the fall. If we fail to live each day in that joy and excitement we risk becoming like the church at Ephesus in Revelation 2:4-5. Never the less I have this against you, that you have left your first love(our first love is our love for God, heart, soul and mind)  Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come quickly and remove your lampstand from it’s  place unless you repent.   We must begin by loving and praising God.

We cannot remain there however, on that road just praising God and waiting for His return.  Staying there at the roadside we risk becoming like the seed that fell by the roadside in stony soil (Matthew 13:18-21)  We either do not fully understand the Word or it is easily taken from us because we have no root. If we live in only that exciting, emotional level we will not prosper and fulfill God’s will and call. We must visit the road to Jerusalem, praising and glorifying God, but He calls us to go on.

We need each day to allow Jesus to examine our temples. We must allow Him complete access into every area of our lives. We cannot resist if the Lord needs to overturn some tables or drive the greed of the moneychangers from our hearts. Rather, each day we must submit ourselves to the cleansing that Jesus provides through His word and by the Holy Spirit. If we fail to allow the daily cleansing or if we replace the overturned tables, we risk being like the scribes and Pharisees in Matthew 23:23-33. Woe is not what I want unto me. So we must each day allow the Lord to examine and cleanse us.    

We cannot remain there however or we risk being like the one from whom the unclean spirit was sent out in Matthew 12:43-45. It says when the house is left empty the spirit returns with others. The final condition is worse than the first.  Having opened ourselves to the purifying and cleansing of the Lord, being empty of self and evil, we must allow ourselves to be filled with something. Jesus instituted the breaking of bread and the cup of blessing as a seal of the New Covenant, which He brought forth. We remember the bread and the cup, the body and the blood of Jesus ,in the sacrament of communion. Communion is defined in Webster’s dictionary as : an act or instance of sharing- intimate fellowship or rapport. We need that communion, that fellowship with Jesus daily. In Matthew 5:6 Jesus says: “Blessed are they which hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled.” John 1:1,14  says: In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. It says the Word was God. That means the Word is God. Verse 14 says the Word became flesh. Jesus taught in John 6:53-58 that we must eat His flesh. He said this was the bread that came down from heaven, which is a reference to the manna which God provided to the Israelites to sustain them in the wilderness. We like the Israelites need to seek that fresh manna, God's spiritual provision daily. Each day we can be filled and fed by ingesting the Word in study and devotions. We can spiritually partake of Jesus by reading the Word. It is our choice we can be fed and filled by the Word or by the world.

Even there though, we can’t remain. We must be more than good students of the best teacher. In order to truly know and understand Jesus, to follow His will, we must go on. We need to recognize that we could be numbered with Peter the denier, Thomas the doubter or even Judas the betrayer. We must take time to observe as Jesus is accused and beaten, realizing that not only are we helpless to ease the pain and the shame, but that we are actually responsible. Each day we each must visit the road to Calvary, watching as with broken body Jesus struggles to bear the cross on which He will bear our sin. What a contrast, joy, excitement and adoration along the road to His arrival. Agony, shame and disdain as He makes His journey willingly to Calvary.  We must visit there each day too. At Calvary I must spend time at the foot of the cross. It is only there that I can clearly see His battered body. There I can gaze at the spotless lamb who offered Himself for me. Only there at the foot of the cross can I hear Him struggle to breathe. Only there in the midst of His pain and despair can I hear the words, “Father forgive them, they know not what they do.” There, at the cross, by the precious blood of Jesus, I am absolved, as I gaze at Him, I know He would have paid that price even if it were only for me.   

Still, I cannot stop at the cross. I must go on to the empty tomb. For it is only there that my faith is assured of the victory Christ has won. There undoubtedly would be Christians had the story of Jesus ended at the cross. History would remember Jesus as a good man and teacher. At the empty tomb there is victory. 1 Corinthians 15:57 says: But thanks be to God which giveth us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Even there in all the mystery and power displayed at the empty tomb, we cannot remain. We must go on. The price He paid was far too great. We must go on. Jesus said we should tarry until we are endued with power. So each day we should wait on Him dwelling in His presence that we might be empowered. Jesus teaches in Matthew 7:7, “Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you.” Each day as we tarry and wait in His presence the Lord will be faithful to clothe us with power. Then we can go on in response to His commission from Matthew 28:19-20.  Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” and from Mark 16:15-18.      “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. ¹⁶ He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned. ¹⁷ These signs will accompany those who have believed: in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues; ¹⁸ they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”  We are to preach, teach and make disciples. We are also to walk in the fullness of the power of the resurrection.

Jesus last words are recorded in Revelation 22:12-13. “And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to everyone according to his work. I Am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the First and the Last. Verses 20-21 says, “He who testifies to these things says, Surly I am coming quickly Amen. Even so come Lord Jesus! The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.