End Time Insights

Jesus has come in these last days to provide salvation for men, women, and children of all nations, and everlasting life in the age to come . After his resurrection, Jesus declared, “ All authority in heaven and on earth is given to me! Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations .” Christ sent his disciples to announce the salvation accomplished by his death “ to the ends of the Earth .” The promise of the Abrahamic Covenant to bless all nations is now being fulfilled by Jesus Christ.

The promise of the Spirit is vital to the redemption of humanity and the Covenant of God with His people, the Church of Jesus Christ . The New Testament links the “ Promise of the Spirit ” to the “ Blessings of Abraham ,” the promise that God will bless the nations through the Great Patriarch. The Spirit is the gift believers receive “ through the hearing of faith .” It is part of the Covenant promised to Abraham, and the Apostle Peter connects this gift to “ the blessings ” for the nations, the Gentiles, in his sermon preached on the Day of Pentecost.

Jesus is the Word made flesh through whom the glory of God is revealed, the same Word by which God created all things . The  Gospel of John  identifies Jesus as the ‘ Logos ’, the “ Word ” through which God made the Universe. This theme is prominent in  John , and it builds on ideas from the Hebrew Bible about how God created the world, and especially life, through His spoken Word. Jesus of Nazareth is the complete living expression of that creative word.

The End will not come until the Gospel of the Kingdom of God has been proclaimed to all nations – Matthew 24:14. When the subject of the Second Coming is raised, the question of what “sign” or “signs” will precede it is asked. Invariably, wars, earthquakes, tsunamis, famines, and similar catastrophes are proposed as the harbingers of that day. Yet Jesus himself gave us the  definitive answer  to the question, namely, the   completion of the mission of the Church  to proclaim his Salvation and Lordship to all nations.

The gift of the Spirit is one of the blessings of Abraham that God promised to bestow on His people through His Messiah . Paul refers to the “ promise of the Spirit ” in his letter to the Galatians. He equates this gift with the blessing of Abraham. Jesus came under the curse of the Law to redeem us, so that now, “ the blessing of Abraham might come on the nations through Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith ” – (Galatians 3:13-14).

The outpouring of the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost signaled the start of the Last Days and the time of fulfillment . The application of Joel’s prophecy to the events of the Day of Pentecost links the outpouring of the Spirit to the last days. The death, resurrection, and exaltation of Jesus inaugurated History’s final stage before the Day of the Lord, and now, he reigns and bestows the gift of the Spirit on his Church.

The New Testament applies temple language from the Hebrew Bible to the Body of Christ, the habitation of the Living God . Except for contacts between Jesus and the early church with the priestly authorities, the New Testament shows little interest in the Jerusalem Temple. Instead, we find that terminology and imagery from the Temple are applied to the New Covenant community of Jesus. What the Temple and earlier Tabernacle foreshowed has come to fruition in Christ and his Church.

Redemption includes our resurrection and the new creation, and the Spirit is the guarantee of the future inheritance . Paul presents Abraham as the model of faith. God justified him apart from the works of the Mosaic Law because of his faith in the promises of God. Likewise, we are acquitted by God “ through the faith of Jesus Christ ,” his faithful obedience unto death, and through him, we become heirs of the covenant promises– (Romans 3:21-24, 4:10-13, Galatians 2:15-21, 3:5-9).

The covenant with Abraham is fulfilled in Jesus, including the gift of the Spirit, our Resurrection, and new creation  – Romans 8:1-30. Paul presents Abraham as the great exemplar of faith. God accounted the Patriarch’s faith as righteousness when he was still uncircumcised. This means that he was declared righteous without the deeds and rituals required by the Torah .

Jesus is the anointed Son of God whose life and ministry are filled with the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit . The activity of the Spirit dominates the life, words, and deeds of Christ. He is “ Jesus, the one called Christ ,” the long-awaited Messiah of Israel. The angel informed Joseph that Mary carried a child “ conceived of the Holy Spirit ,” indicating that something more than just a miraculous birth was about to unfold.

Jesus is the herald who announces the Good News and inaugurates the Kingdom, the process that will culminate in the final harvest . Jesus proclaimed the imminence of God’s Kingdom and called men and women to repent and turn away from unrighteousness in response to this new reality. He is the Messiah who inaugurates the redemptive act of God, and this will conclude with the great harvest of souls when Christ returns “ on the clouds of heaven .”

The gift of the Spirit is foundational to the New Covenant. It is the beginning of the New Creation and the gathering of the nations . The history of Israel includes descriptions of the sins that caused the expulsion of the nation from the Land of Canaan. God foresaw the failures of Israel, and therefore, He determined to make a new covenant, one that is energized and characterized by the Holy Spirit.

Jesus grants the Life-Giving Spirit to men and women. His words are spirit, and they are life . “ The Spirit gives life. The flesh profits nothing. The declarations I have spoken to you, they are spirit, and they are life. ” Christ’s statement echoes the biblical principle that life and the Spirit of God are inextricably linked – (John 6:63).

With the outpouring of the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, the blessings for all nations promised to Abraham commenced . The Apostle Paul calls the Gift of the Spirit the “ Promise of the Father ” which he links to the Abrahamic covenant. The promises to Abraham and “ his Seed ” find their fulfillment in the New Covenant inaugurated by the Death and Resurrection of Jesus. No longer are Gentile believers “ alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of the promise .” By his shed blood, Christ has dismantled the “ middle wall of partition ” that once separated Jews and Gentiles.

Messianic promises from the Psalms are applied to the present reign of Jesus, and he now possesses all authority in Heaven and on Earth . Jesus has reigned as Sovereign over the Cosmos since his death and resurrection. He is seated on the messianic throne, and because of Christ's obedience even unto death, he has become the Sovereign of the kings of the Earth. God has bestowed on him  all authority in Heaven and on Earth. His sovereignty is  without limits . It is a  present reality .

Christians become heirs of Abraham through Christ, and the gift of the Spirit is our assurance of participating in the full salvation to come . The possession of Canaan by Israel was an early stage in God’s redemptive plan, which always envisioned something larger than Israel and the small territory of Palestine. With the arrival of Jesus, “ the seed of Abraham ,” and the outpouring of the Spirit, the fulfillment of the covenant promises began.

The outpouring of the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost signaled the start of the Last Days, the era of the Spirit and time of fulfillment . The application of Joel’s prophecy to the events of the Day of Pentecost links the outpouring of the Spirit to the start of the “ Last Days .” The activity of the Spirit beginning that very day is essential for understanding the rapid spread of the Gospel from Jerusalem to the center of the Roman Empire. That same process must continue until the “ arrival ” or ‘ Parousia ’ of Jesus at the end of the present age (παρουσια).

On the day of Pentecost, the time of fulfillment arrived when Jesus bestowed the gift of the Spirit on his church  – Acts 2:1-4.  The second chapter of  Acts  lays stress on the theme of  fulfillment . The things foreshadowed in the Hebrew scriptures were actualized when the disciples were “ filled with the Spirit and spoke in other tongues ” on the Day of Pentecost. This was the seminal event that marked the inauguration of the Church and the age of the Spirit.

Between the ascension and the outpouring of the Spirit, the apostles pray and appoint Matthias to complete their number  - Acts 1:12-26. After the ascension, the apostles return to Jerusalem to wait for the “ promise of the Father .” In the meantime, they appoint Matthias to the apostolic office held previously by Judas Iscariot. As the leaders of the new covenant community, they need twelve representatives to demonstrate continuity with the people of Yahweh.

The  Book of Acts  begins  IN JERUSALEM  with the ascension of Jesus and the outpouring of the Spirit. It concludes with Paul preaching the Gospel in the heart of the  World Empire , the city of Rome. Following his resurrection, Jesus ascended to reign “ at the right hand of God .” He then bestowed the Gift of the Spirit on his Assembly to empower them to proclaim his Gospel to all nations.