Our Advent theme this year is one word, Already! When we talk about Advent, it is symbolic of the already but not yet. These are two very significant and definite events that affect every person who has ever lived and will live. The first represents Jesus coming. Luke 2:5 “Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him. 26 It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. 27 Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, 28 Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying: 29 “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace. 30 For my eyes have seen your salvation, 31 which you have prepared in the sight of all nations: 32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel.” Jesus coming was the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies about him. Isaiah 9:6 “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.” We are not waiting for this to be filled.
The “but not yet” represents a specific time that no one knows when, which is still to come. Mark 13:32 “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 33 Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come. 34 It’s like a man going away: He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with their assigned task, and tells the one at the door to keep watch. 35 “Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back—whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn. 36 If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. 37 What I say to you, I say to everyone: ‘Watch!’” Acts 1:9 “After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. 10 They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 11 “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.” That will be the end and we will be judged. There will be no pogo stick.
During this season of Advent we want to focus on the “Already” because many have missed it and are missing it just like the Jews did and still do. Next week we will talk about the King of the Jews and the rejection of their king by the Jews. We must understand as Mary was told in Luke 1:31 “You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.” Think about what Isaiah said “from that time on and forever” Now just as Mary had to believe and say 38 “I am the Lord’s servant, may your word to me be fulfilled.” She also had to keep believing. Later when Jesus ministered his family including Mary thought he was nuts. Mark 3:20 “Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat. 21 When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, “He is out of his mind. 31 Then Jesus’ mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him. 32 A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, “Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you. 33 “Who are my mother and my brothers?” he asked. 34 Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! 35 Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.” But here is some good news. Later at the upper room Acts 1:14 “They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.”
So not only must we believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah and our Saviour, we must continue to believe and wait for His spirit to be poured out. We must also believe that Jesus Christ is the King who has already fulfilled the prophecies kingship of the Old Testament. Luke 2:40 And the child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was on him.” Listen to the gospels description about the fulfillment of the promise to David through Jesus Christ. Matthew starts off with declaring that Jesus is the fulfillment of what the prophet said Matthew 21:5 “Say to Daughter Zion, ‘See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’”
6 The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. 7 They brought the donkey and the colt and placed their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit on. 8 A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9 The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted,
“Hosanna to the Son of David!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Hosanna in the highest heaven!” So right here we have both. Denying this means you are denying the word of God and yes they still will be indignant just like “15 when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple courts, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they were indignant.” But this verifies that Jesus was the son of David along with the genealogy in Matthew 1. Mark 11:9 tells us “Hosanna!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” 10 “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!” “Hosanna in the highest heaven!” 2 The next day the great crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. John 12:13 They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, “Hosanna!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Blessed is the king of Israel!” 14 Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, as it is written: 15 “Do not be afraid, Daughter Zion; see, your king is coming, seated on a donkey’s colt.” Again we have the confirmation of the Old. This is not something that will happen at a future date.
So as you can plainly see we have the already already. The only part of the timeline left is the return of Jesus to take us home. John 14:1 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. 2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going.” Jesus will return to judge both the living and the dead and take us to eternal life not life on earth under his kingship during the so-called millenium. 1 Thessalonians 4:16 “For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.” 51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— 52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. 2 Peter 3:10 “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare. 11 Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives 12 as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. 13 But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.” The day of the Lord is not a return to earth to set up a kingdom he already has.
Scripture is very clear that Jesus Christ is already king. He is already reigning on David’s throne. And just as promised, his governance will have no end. We are not waiting for him to come and begin his reign. Both the Old and the New Testaments tell us this very clearly. Now the gentiles have rejected the already king by teaching he is going to reign on an earthly throne. This is exactly what the Jews are still waiting for. Why because they rejected Jesus their king. If we read a little bit further in 2 Peter 3:14 you will see this warning. “So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him. 15 Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. 16 He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction. 17 Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure position. 18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.”
When you look at the whole counsel of the word of God you see very clearly the already and the not yet, meaning Jesus is King and Jesus is returning to take us home.
For some reason there is a fear to talk about the end times. There is also huge distortion of scripture as Peter just described. In my journey in ministry I have seen much confusion as to what is going to happen at the end and there should not be that confusion. We have all seen false predictions about the end by people reading the same verse I read earlier about not knowing. What I see is that there are many who have believed a false gospel concerning the millennium. When you read about this millennial Kingdom you just have to shake your head in utter disbelief that people could distort scripture so badly. As you read it sounds exactly like the Jews waiting for the Mashiach. They are waiting for the fulfillment of all the things already fulfilled in Jesus as our present king. Paul said Galatians 5:7 “You were running a good race. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth? 8 That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. 9 A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough. 10 I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view. The one who is throwing you into confusion, whoever that may be, will have to pay the penalty.” From there they have formulated and twisted scripture to affirm their man made beliefs. I happened across a minister on TV the other night named Dr. Such and Such who was teaching on the end times according to man’s views. He was saying how God will raise the dead, take the living return them to earth and set up his kingdom on earth bringing them with him, you know for a thousand years peace. We then finally will be powerful. This is pure garbage and deception. The church can no longer say we agree to disagree because we cannot tolerate false gospels being taught in the church. I can say this because scripture has already confirmed his kingship on David’s throne. Teaching people to wait for the throne to be filled is deceiving people thus missing out on the present power that Jesus has given us through His Spirit. No wonder God has turned his face from shining on us. What needs to be taught is repentance and turning from our wicked ways so that we can see the power of the kingdom of God once again. Teaching a later kingdom can only come about with a rejection of the present kingdom of God and his power and authority over the evil one. This is why most of these believe in cessationism and the ones who actually won’t acknowledge their disbelief by calling themselves cessationists say they believe in love all the while denying His power. The good Dr. actually used very little scripture. For someone who seems to be so well esteemed he was miles off track and carried away by the error of the lawless because he built his foundation on the sand not on sound doctrine based on the word of God.
You then have those who do not really know what they believe or they ignore it or they say something like it will work out in the end. I used to say that but that is not wise because you do not want to stand before Jesus and hear I don’t know you because you were lead astray. There are also people who believe that Jesus will return in a blink of an eye but yet they miss the present power of the Holy Spirit that is available because they have not read the scriptures and believed all that is available to them. What we believe about the end affects each generation.
The reason we have so much of this false teaching that is so prevalent especially the dispensationalist view, which has taken the church by storm is basically unbelief in God’s word. Unfortunately most do not even know what they believe is not of God. Remember this is basically new starting to spread in the 1800’s. Deuteronomy 13:6 “If your very own brother, or your son or daughter, or the wife you love, or your closest friend secretly entices you, saying, “Let us go and worship other gods” (gods that neither you nor your ancestors have known, 7 gods of the peoples around you, whether near or far, from one end of the land to the other), 8 do not yield to them or listen to them. Show them no pity. Do not spare them or shield them. 9 You must certainly put them to death.” No we do not kill these people, we shut down the false doctrine. Timothy was charged by Paul to
1 Timothy 1:3 “command certain people not to teach false doctrines any longer.” This should have been put to death a long time ago but now its tentacles have spread through almost all facets of the church. Jesus warned us this would happen but again terrible theology and teaching says this will happen down the road but it is already here just as the kingdom is. Jesus said Matthew 7:15 [True and False Prophets] “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.” Think about this for a moment when you agree to disagree. That’s fine eat as many sheep as you like. Matthew 24:4 Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you.” Unfortunately people are not watching.
Now here are some more warnings. There are many who fall under this category.
1 Timothy 1:7 “They want to be teachers of the law, but they do not know what they are talking about or what they so confidently affirm.” They stand at the front and spout off things that have been passed down from one teacher to the next. They do not realize that they are also leading people astray. This is not just speakers but even people who hold these beliefs trying to sway those around them. The congregation under the leadership of Dr. Such and Such all nodded their heads in approval all the while acknowledge a false gospel. But James tells us James 3:1 Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.” Then we go to Jude who warns about individuals who have snuck in. Jude 3 “Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people. 4 For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord. 11 Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain; they have rushed for profit into Balaam’s error; they have been destroyed in Korah’s rebellion. 12 These people are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm—shepherds who feed only themselves. They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted—twice dead. 13 They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever. 14 Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about them: “See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones 15 to judge everyone, and to convict all of them of all the ungodly acts they have committed in their ungodliness, and of all the defiant words ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” 16 These people are grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage.”
Then if that isn’t strong enough 2 Peter 2:1 says “there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. 2 Many will follow their depraved conduct and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. 3 In their greed these teachers will exploit you with fabricated stories. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping. 17 These people are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them. 18 For they mouth empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the lustful desires of the flesh, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error. 19 They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity—for “people are slaves to whatever has mastered them.” 20 If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and are overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. 21 It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them.”
This is happening all over simply because people refuse to believe in the one who brought the light to a dark world. Remember God brought a delusion on the church because of unbelief. Instead of remaining in the light people have loved darkness more. John 15 makes it abundantly clear that we must remain in Jesus. By not remaining true to the word of God we have ceased to obey his commandments and no longer love him. We then are not a friend of God. John 1:9 “The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.” Instead of standing firm on the word of God, man decided to stand on theology and doctrine that is contrary to sound doctrine. 2 Timothy 4:3 “For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.” We must not be part of false doctrines and just as Titus tells us to Titus 1:9 “hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it.” This is what we are to pass on from generation to generation. This is what Paul commended the Thessalonians for.1 Thessalonians 1:6 You became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you welcomed the message in the midst of severe suffering with the joy given by the Holy Spirit.” 1 Thessalonians 1:13 “And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is indeed at work in you who believe. 14 For you, brothers and sisters, became imitators of God’s churches in Judea, which are in Christ.”
When we become imitators of the gospel, every time you see the sunrise and set and the moon in the sky you are reminded that Jesus is King of Kings and lord of Lords. You will be reminded that Jesus already rules on David’s throne. You will also be reminded of how Israel turned away from the word of the Lord and went their own way and rejected God. We do not want to do the same. We must adhere closely to the word of God. Yes Jesus reigns but God has turned his face from us thus withdrawing his power and authority from us. The only way to get the power and authority back is to turn from our wicked ways. The early church was the Kingdom of God in action with Jesus reigning on the throne. He gave us power and authority to defeat the enemy. Each generation has the opportunity. We have decided to decide. We acknowledge that Jesus reigns and that we must wait to once again be empowered by the Holy Spirit just like at Pentecost as we turn from our wicked ways. It is shocking to find out how much deception there is in the church today.
So as we continue to focus on our King and we continue to humble ourselves before him. God said 1 Chronicles 7:14 “if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. 15 Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place. 16 I have chosen and consecrated this temple so that my Name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there.” When God dwells among us his power flows. This is what it looks like. Matthew 4:17 “From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” 23 Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. 24 News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed; and he healed them.” This is what the kingdom looks like with Jesus on the throne.” Then in Matthew 10:1 “Jesus called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out impure spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.7 As you go, proclaim this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ 8 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons.” This is the kingdom of God. This is supposed to be what the already looks like. This is the Promised land that is available to all who believe. Joshua 21:43 “So the Lord gave Israel all the land he had sworn to give their ancestors, and they took possession of it and settled there. 44 The Lord gave them rest on every side, just as he had sworn to their ancestors. Not one of their enemies withstood them; the Lord gave all their enemies into their hands. 45 Not one of all the Lord’s good promises to Israel failed; every one was fulfilled.
