The Last Words of Jesus
As Recorded by Matthew
18 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen. (Matt 28)
These are the final words of Jesus as recorded by Matthew. Jesus definitely said things that were directed to Israel specifically. But here He seems to commands His disciples to teach all the nations (Gentiles) all of the words in red. In other words, everything that the Holy Spirit moved upon Matthew to record. His companion, John (John 21:25), says that all the books in the world could not contain everything that Jesus did (and no doubt said). So, Matthew's account holds a small amount of Jesus' words. It is all of these that we are to teach to all the Gentiles. It not an entire biography that we are to have new Christians memorize, just the relatively small book of Matthew. This does not mean that we are not to teach the whole Bible but the words of Jesus in the book of Matthew are especially singled out.
However, very strangely, we are told by many teachers that major portions of this book are not for us today, they do not apply to the Church, or they are “only for the Jews”. This might be reasonable were it not for the direct command of the King to teach all these things. Are we going to listen to Jesus or to the seminaries? It may seem unwise to contradict or ignore men who are more intelligent than we are. But remember, we are all going to stand before Jesus Himself and give an account. It will not be a college professor sitting upon the throne of the universe.
If this is true, we see a couple of things that are of great importance. Matthew is the only New Testament writer that talks about the Kingdom of Heaven. This is a huge subject. If put very simplistically, it deals with the natural descendants of Abraham entering into the future Millennial Kingdom. This will be a literal one thousand year reign of Jesus and/or David. There is no such kingdom today. Christians, both Jew and Gentile, are in the Kingdom of God now. Again, this is a very large teaching. Christians are in the invisible Kingdom of God now. Israel will have a chance to be in the political Kingdom of Heaven in the near future. Even though the Church is predominantly Gentile today, Jesus wants us to be sure that we have the understanding that He will deal with Israel in a special way in the future. He does not want us to lose sight of that. Apparently, it is very personally important to Him. If we do not understand it completely, we still say, “Yes, Sir!”.
The other thing we see is end times teaching in remarkable detail. In Matthew 24 Jesus' disciples ask Him about the signs of the end of the Age. The most common modern teaching concerning this chapter is that this is for the very end of the Age when none of us Christians are here. We will have been raptured off the earth 7 years earlier. Therefore none of this is for us. Jesus said, Teach all of it. Experts say, Ignore most of it. What am I going to do?
I will have to tell Jesus, “Professor Jones said You didn't know what you were talking about. You got carried away and spilled some info about the last things you didn't mean to tell us. I understand You were stressed that week.”
I do not have any choice. I have to go with Jesus' words as best as I understand them.
Jesus tells the disciples, and hence us, about the Coming of Jesus on the clouds, not the “Second Coming”. He describes it as being accompanied by a great trumpet sound, angels as reapers, and a gathering of the elect. Clouds, angels, trumpet sound, and a gathering together. No white horse, no sword, and no rivers of blood this first time. Jesus told us about the part that may concern us or end-time disciples. He tells us about the resurrection/rapture event. He does not tell us about the latter coming event. Later, in the book of Revelation, John tells us about more final events from the viewpoint of heaven.
Pastors, Bible colleges, and study Bibles are greatly offended. Sorry. We have to side with the Lord Jesus, not with men on this one.
Then...
Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. (Matt 25:1)
Then the Kingdom of Heaven (which is not heaven in any sense) will be opened or refused to natural Israel and those alive at the end of the wrath of God. Jesus wants all disciples to know about His dealings with national Israel so that the (mostly) Gentile Last Days Church would not become conceited against Israel.
If you are looking for the work of the Devil (or careless teachers), look for teaching that diminishes Israel and that pushes the Olivet Discourse (Matt 24, 25) to the very end of all things. You do not win any friends this way but you will win the approval of the Teacher Jesus.
Aug 10, 2024