On The Eagle's Wings

Several passages come to mind in connection with these words.  Jesus message was "Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."  What did He mean "the kingdom of heaven is at hand".  He meant just what he said that the reign of heaven on earth was near, approaching, at hand.  When would this take place?  I have written about this already earlier The Coming of the Kingdom of God .  So I will only repeat these words of Jesus in answer to the question of the Pharisees asked concerning the kingdom.

Luke 17:

20 Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, "The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, 21nor will people say, 'Here it is,' or 'There it is,' because the kingdom of God is within you."

Jesus just answered the question WHERE would the kingdom come.

22Then he said to his disciples, "The time is coming when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it. 23Men will tell you, 'There he is!' or 'Here he is!' Do not go running off after them. 23For the Son of Man in his day will be like the lightning, which flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other. 

Then he answers the question when would the kingdom come?

25But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation

26"Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. 27People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all.

28"It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. 29But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all.

What would it be like?  The days of the son of man will be like the days of Noah and like Sodom and Gomorrah.

Who were destroyed?  The unbeleiving, and that is exactly what happened in AD 70; those who rejected the Son of Man were destroyed and those who didn't escaped.

30"It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed. 31On that day no one who is on the roof of his house, with his goods inside, should go down to get them. Likewise, no one in the field should go back for anything. 32Remember Lot's wife! 33Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it. 34I tell you, on that night two people will be in one bed; one will be taken and the other left. 35Two women will be grinding grain together; one will be taken and the other left."

 37"Where, Lord?" they asked.
      He replied, "Where there is a dead body, there the vultures will gather."

See the parallel scripture Matt. 24 and read the book Matthew 24 Fulfilled by John L. Bray for a detailed explanation of the fulfillment of this passage.

Can you see a pattern unfolding in the way God works?  He came not with an outward law written on stone tablets, Jesus said "I am the fulfillment of the law" in other words 'I am the law in the flesh and as the fulfillment of it I embody it'.  

Matthew 22 (NIV): 

34 Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35 One of them an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36 "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" 37 Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

The stark contrast between the Scribes, Pharisees, and teacher of the law and Jesus was that the one group were like the stone tablets, dead and lifeless because they sought to be outwardly obedient without repentance or a change of mind (heart).  They represented the law of obligation, condemnation, and were the walking dead as Jesus Himself said, "like whitewashed tombs".  Jesus on the other hand was the embodiment of the law of life, for His heart was pure and He manifested it in the way He was.  The one represented the "letter" of the law the other the "spirit".  The one, a law unto death and condemnation, the other unto life and liberty.  See what Paul has to say about this in 2 Cor 3.

Jesus said:

“Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. (Matt. 5:17)

The word fulfill means "to make complete", "to fill up".  Jesus did not come to destroy the law but he came as the completion of it.  Paul says in Romans 8:

 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.  3 For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. 6 For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

The new covenant is about a law written on the hearts of men, in other words it is about living according to the Spirit and has a great deal to do with what goes on in the mind.  The Spirit is the Father and the Son living in us. (John 14)  Jesus first came in the form of a "Son of God" in order that mankind would see the embodiment of the New Covenant law, a living testament to the world so they would know by seeing His example what was to become their reality. He went to the cross and in defeating the last enemy, death, He made a way and prepared a place in the hearts of men for Himself so that they too could embody the LIFE of the Spirit and become the sons of God.  Those who are lead of the Spirit are sons of God!  All creation was and is longing for this to be REVEALED.  Paul and his followers often spoke of being "witnesses of Christ", "living epistles" (2 Cor 3:3), "living testimonies".  In other words they were Christ in and to the world. 

Paul exhorted his followers to "examine themselves to see if they were in the faith" and asked them the profound and revealing question, "don't you know Jesus Christ is in you?"  Jesus apostles preached in such a way that people hearing knew, that "they had been with Jesus", not that they, the apostles, had in the past been with Jesus but that they right then and right there had been hearing Jesus speak in these men, and that He was present with them.  The kingdom of God in them and among them!

Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!  In other words have a change of mind, a change from the carnal mind to the Mind of Christ.  Paul says the carnal mind is enmity toward God, the carnal man sets his mind on the things of the flesh but to walk by the Spirit is to have the Mind of Christ.  Be transformed by the 'renovation' of your mind!  Repent--have a change of mind--for the kingdom of heaven (heavenly realm) is at hand!  Christ has been raised up and is seated at the right hand of the Father, all things have been given into his hand, He is reigning and He will reign until all things are put under His feet.

1 Corinthians 15 (NKJV):

22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. 23 But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming (parousia--presence). 24 Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. 25 For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet.

Jesus ministry was in such contrast to the ministry of death.  It was not a law that condemned, He was life to those He met and from Him came healing, everywhere He went He preached the good news of the kingdom--that the heavenly realm was at hand-- and He healed and delivered people of illness and demons.  These two things go hand in hand--the message of the present reign of heaven on earth and  healing! 

Jesus baptized with the Holy Spirit and with fire.  There are always two sides of love.  Those who were hard hearted were immersed in fire, just as were the hard-hearted old covenant law abiders who were still observing outward rituals right up to their destruction at AD 70, lost in the law of death.  Those who were soft-hearted He immersed in Pure or Holy Spirit.  His judgements are righteous and for the healing of the nations.  Nothing has changed, He still comes in fire and in the Holy Spirit upon those whom He has beloved.  His judgements still come upon the wicked so that they would be refined and washed even as with the fuller's soap and upon the pure of heart as Pure Spirit to enable and quicken. 

On a personal level we can be like a heathen nation or like a Pharisee bound up in an outward law that looks good.  Then Christ comes to us and immerses us in the Refiner's Fire.  Or we can be like little children willing to be lead, meek, humble, and hungering and thirsting for righteousness and He will immerse us in His Spirit.  Everything that happens globally, happens individually as well, as Christ rules and reigns over the earth with one purpose and one goal: that all things be put under His feet!  He will have ever knee willingly bow and every tongue willingly confess that Jesus is Lord!  It is His will, His resolved determination, that all men come to repentance, to a change of mind, and that none be lost or destroyed fully. (Peter 3:9)

Hallelujah! What a Savior!