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3-29-2020 Weekly Message

Meditation of the week: Psalms 91: 1-16

Main text: 2 Timothy 4: 1-8

Word Title: Let us keep the faith in purity with fear and trembling looking forward the Judgment Seat of Christ!

          Now we hear the final word of Apostle Paul who had kept his faith preaching to the Gentiles looking forward the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ and his kingdom.  He charged Timothy, his disciple as well as spiritual son, and also a pastor in the Lord. He encouraged him to preach the word of judgment like himself looking forward the day of Christ. He testified that the Lord will give the crown of righteousness unto all of them that love his appearing. The crown of righteousness is the tremendous blessing giving the right of ruling with Christ in His Millennium Kingdom.

           The Lord Jesus Christ Himself spoke of the day of his appearing as well as his kingdom as testified by Apostle Paul.  Apostle John testified of what Jesus had said about his appearing:

” Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live..” (John 5:25)

          When he spoke of one that hears his voice, he said that they are the sheep who believe in him and followes him. He also figuratively described the scene where his sheep hear his voice and rise through the heavenly door when he opens the door to heaven:

” Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.

2But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.

3To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out.

4And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice.“(John 10: 1-4)

         In addition, the Lord spoke to Martha before he raised  Lazarus from the dead as to who are the one that believes in him:

” I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:

26And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?

27She saith unto him, Yea, Lord: I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world..'(John 11:25-27)

         The Holy Spirit explained through Apostle Paul what Jesus meant by saying, ”  he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live,” and ” whosoever liveth and believethe in me shall never die”  When he testifies to the Saints of Thessalonica of the day of Christ, it appears what it means:

” For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:

17Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.“1 Thess. 4: 16-17).

         That’s right!  Corona Virus 19 has become pestilence affecting all the world around terrifying all nations of people giving tremendous fear of death, but if we believe in the word of the Lord, we are free from such kind of fear because of the day of resurrection. Even now, Jesus our Lord is asking us through the Holy Spirit saying “Do you believe this?”  Therefore, we are free whether we live within the body or without.

          When the Lord was the Son of Man in the world, he showed in a vision unto some of his disciples the kingdom that shall come to pass on the earth in the future:

”   Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom.
And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart,

2And was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light. 3And, behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with him. “(Matthew 16: 28-17: 3)

         Apostle John saw the scene when two Witnesses appeared and prophesied for forty-two months before the Lord returned to the earth and were killed by the beast, Antichrist  ascended out of the bottomless pit.  But they rose again and ascended up to heaven in a cloud. There are many interpretations of these two witnesses, but it is clear that these two are Moses and Elijah, as the Lord had previously shown to the disciples in a vision about the two men that  he would raise in his kingdom:

 ” And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.

4These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth.

5And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed. 6These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will. “(Rev. 11: 3-6)

       The mother of John and James told Jesus asking  his two sons, one on his right hand, and the other on his left hand in his kingdom. Then Jesus said,

 ” . Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? They say unto him, We are able. 23And he saith unto them, Ye shall drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with: but to sit on my right hand, and on my left, is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father. “(Matthew 20: 22-23)

Through his word and the miracles made by the two witnesses seen by the apostle John, we can realize that Moses and Elijah shall be honored to sit on the right and the left  hand of the Lord in Christ’s Millennial Kingdom.

         We are living in the last days when the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ and His Kingdom are near to come. The word   the end time” not only means the end of the world, but also means that the rule of the devil is almost over, and the time when the reign of our Lord Jesus Christ begins to come to heaven and earth. Apostle Paul testified to the Saints of Ephesus about what would happen in these last days:

” Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: 10That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him: “(Ephesians 1: 9-10).

          There are two kinds of the most important things we should always meditate in our hearts as we watch the day of Christ and race our faith. The first one is that all of us have to stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ to be judged according to what we have done, good or evil. Apostle Paul testified of this:

” But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.…. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. ” (Rom 14:10, 2 Cor. 5:10)

         Secondly, as Apostle John testified, looking forward that day expecting to be like Christ , we have to be purified as Christ is pure so that we may to be blameless, all our spirit and the soul and the body(1thes. 5:23):

” Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. 3And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. “(1 John 3: 2-3)

Amen! Hallelujah!