The Mistake of Israel/Israelites versus The Mistake of The
Church/Christians
Text: Luke 19: 28-44
28 And when he had thus spoken, he
went before, ascending up to Jerusalem.
29 And it came to pass,
when he was come nigh to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount called the
mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples,
30 Saying, Go ye
into the village over against you; in the which at your entering ye
shall find a colt tied, whereon yet never man sat: loose him, and bring him
hither.
31 And if any
man ask you, Why do ye loose him? thus shall ye say unto him,
Because the Lord hath need of him.
32 And they that were sent
went their way, and found even as he had said unto them.
33 And as they were
loosing the colt, the owners thereof said unto them, Why loose ye the colt?
34 And they said, The Lord
hath need of him.
35 And they brought him to
Jesus: and they cast their garments upon the colt, and they set Jesus
thereon.
36 And as he went, they
spread their clothes in the way.
37 And when he was come
nigh, even now at the descent of the mount of Olives, the whole multitude of
the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice
for all the mighty works that they had seen;
38 Saying, Blessed be the
King that cometh in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the
highest.
39 And some of the
Pharisees from among the multitude said unto him, Master, rebuke thy disciples.
40 And he answered and
said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would
immediately cry out.
41 And when he was come near, he
beheld the city, and wept over it,
42 Saying, If thou
hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which
belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes.
43 For the
days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee,
and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side,
44 And shall
lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not
leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of
thy visitation.
Introduction
It
has often been said, in one of the dialects of Nigeria, that any daughter that
follows the footsteps of her mother will end up getting the results that her
mother got. If the result of her mother was failure, she is likely to fail. If
her mother’s result was success, she is likely to succeed as well.
The
relationship between the Israel/Israelites on one hand and the
church/Christians on the other hand can be likened to that between a mother and
her daughter. If we assumed that Israel/Israelite is the mother, then we can
assume that the church/Christians is the daughter.
It
is grossly amazing that the steps that Israel/Israelites once took that led to
their spiritual blindness and missing of their divine visitation are the same
steps that the Church/Christians are also taking. What is more grossly amazing
is that the Church/Christians are now hoping to get a different result.
The
Israel/Israelites failed to watch for, and perhaps disregarded altogether, the
signs that God gave them to recognize the birth, personality and ministry of
the Messiah. Consequently they were judged for not knowing the time of their
visitation.
Consequently
the Church/Christians are failing to watch for, and perhaps disregarding
altogether the signs that God gives us to recognize the coming of the Lord,
Jesus Christ, at rapture and of the end of the world. And like her ‘senior
sister’, the Church/Christians may get the same result of missing her divine
visitation, which is the coming of the Lord, Jesus Christ, the rapture of the
saints.
We
believe that the Church of Christ and the Christians will read this teaching and
share among one another and prevent the impending spiritual disaster of missing
divine visitation or, at the least, reduce it to the barest minimum.
The Significance of
Signs
John 4:48
48 Then said Jesus unto him, Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not
believe.
The principal reason why God gives
signs is to make people believe His Word, or agenda.
The real reason why Gospel has been able to spread across the earth is
because signs and wonders follow it wherever it is been preached and that makes
people, to whom the gospel is preached, to believe.
In the same way, if God gave signs for any purpose, He intends to make
His people believe that purpose through the signs.
The
Mistakes of the Israel/Israelites
From
Egypt, through the wilderness, unto the Promised Land and till the birth and
death of Jesus Christ, the Israel/Israelites made many spiritual mistakes.
However, their most fatal mistake was to fail to recognize that the Messiah
that had visited their land.
The process of
their major mistake can be summarized with the following points
-1. God gave Israelites
signs concerning the first coming of Messiah.
There
are hundreds of prophecies, or otherwise signs, all through the bible that God
gave the Israelites to recognize the Messiah when He would be born and to
believe Him.
Among the numerous
signs that God gave the Israelites to recognize and believe the Messiah, I will
mention two of them.
-a. A virgin shall give birth to Messiah.
Isaiah 7:11-14
11 Ask thee a sign of the LORD thy God; ask it either in the depth, or in
the height above.
12 But Ahaz said, I will
not ask, neither will I tempt the LORD.
13 And he said, Hear ye
now, O house of David; Is it a small thing for you to weary
men, but will ye weary my God also?
14 Therefore
the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a
virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
God expected that
by this sign, Israelites should be able to recognize and believe that he that
was born of a virgin is the Messiah and believe in Him.
-b. the messiah will
ride on a donkey.
Zechariah
9:9
9 Rejoice greatly, O
daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh
unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding
upon an ass, and upon a
colt the foal of an ass.
-2. God Expected Israelites to Recognize and
Believe the Messiah Because He had Given Them Signs Concerning Him.
In
this regards, God expected Israelites;
-a. to recognize that it was messiah
that was conceived when Mary, a virgin conceived. (Isaiah 11:14)
He
expected them to know that since it would be a strange thing for a virgin to
conceive unless that God had said it that it would happen to signify the birth
of Jesus, then it was the Messiah that Mary, a virgin had conceived.
-b. to
know, when they saw a man riding upon an ass towards Jerusalem, that it should be
the Messiah and they should rejoice greatly because ONLY the Messiah, their
King should ride an ass into Jerusalem. (Zechariah
9:9)
-3. Israelites Acted in Sharp Contrast To God’s
expectations.
In
sharp contrasts to God’s expectation, Israelites did the following;
-a. at birth, they
wanted to kill the Messiah, rather than worship Him.
Mathew 2:3,16
3 When Herod the king had
heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.
16 Then Herod, when he saw
that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in
Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and
under, according to the time which he had diligently enquired of the wise
men.
The
scripture above shows that when the virgin gave birth, which was to be a sign
for them, both Herod, the king and all Jerusalem were troubled. And they
planned to kill Him.
-b. rather than join those who are worshipping the Messiah
that was riding upon an ass into Jerusalem, the Israelites asked them to keep
quiet.
Luke 19:37:40
37 And when he was come nigh, even now
at the descent of the mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples
began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that
they had seen;
38 Saying, Blessed be the
King that cometh in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the
highest.
39 And some of the Pharisees from
among the multitude said unto him, Master, rebuke thy disciples.
40 And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if
these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.
-4. Israelites were
judged for their blindedness
The signs given by God meant to make His
people believe Him for what He had would do. When His people now see His signs
and hen failed to believe Him for the reasons of the signs amount to provoking
Him. God then could be saying,’ what then do you want me to do to make you
believe me’?
Consider the scripture below.
Numbers_14:11
11 the LORD said unto Moses, How long will this
people provoke me? and how long will it be ere they believe me, for all the signs which I have shewed
among them?
Here,
God showed the Israelites, in the wilderness, lot of signs to make them believe
Him but rather believe they continued to disbelieve God and ultimately their
negative attitude of disbelief provoked God and God destroyed them in the
wilderness.
In
the same way, the Lord Jesus Christ saw the highest level of spiritual
blindness of the Israelites that should rejoice because their King had come to
them but rather commanded that He should not be worshipped.
This
attitude made the Lord, Jesus Christ, very sad and He wept.
Luke 19:41
41 And when he was come near, he
beheld the city, and wept over
it,
And consequently, the
Israelites were judged. They were handed over to their enemies. And Messiah
made it known to them that their judgment was as a result of not knowing the
time of their visitation, which means they failed to recognize that He was the
Messiah because they did not pay attention to the signs of the coming of
Messiah.
Luke 19:43-44
43 For the days shall come upon
thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass
thee round, and keep thee in on every side,
44 And shall
lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall
not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time
of thy visitation.
-5. Consequences of their judgment
-a. their temple and land was destroyed and made desolate by Emperor
Nero in 70 A.D, after the crucifixion of their Messiah.
-b. Israelites
were scattered all around the world
-c. God
transferred the salvation meant for them to the gentiles
-d. God transferred the salvation meant for them to the gentiles
The Mistakes of The
Church/Christians.
From careful study of the bible, it may
interest one to conclude that the church is like the spiritual equivalence of
Israel while Christians are like the spiritual equivalence of Israelites. The
church/Christians are just repeating every step that Israel/Israelites took all
through the bible. I will not be able to make a complete analogy between the
church and Israel in this teaching/message. However, for the purpose of this
teaching, I will mention the mistake that the church/Christian are making today
that is exactly of the same pattern that I attributed to Israel/Israelites
above, as follows.
-1. the church
asked for the signs of the coming of the Messiah at rapture.
Mathew 24:3
3 And
as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately,
saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and
of the end of the world?
-2. the church/Christians
were given signs for the coming of the Messiah at rapture the same way Israel
was given the signs for the coming of the Messiah at birth.
Among the
signs given to the church to watch out for the coming of the Messiah at rapture
include the following
-a. false pastors, false
prophets and false christs
-b. wars, rumours of wars and violence
-c. earthquakes in divers places
-d. pestilences
-e. famines. (Click here for full details of the signs of rapture)
-3. God expects the
Church/Christians to know that Messiah is coming to rapture His Bride and that
the world is coming to an end.
Having
seen the signs mentioned above happening intensely and continuously on daily
basis across the world, God expects the Church/Christians to understands that
it is the Lord, Jesus Christ that is coming to rapture His bride because that
is what God gives those signs to signify.
In this
regard, God expects the church/Christians to
-a. to repent
-b. to live a holy life
-c. to prepare
themselves and others for the coming of Jesus Christ
-d. to focus on heavenly things for their redemption
is nigh
-e. to announce the coming of the Messiah across the
whole earth like Noah
-f. to rebuke sins
-4. The Church/Christians are
acting in sharp contrast to God’s expectations
The
church/Christians are acting in sharp contrast to God’s expectation in the face
of the rapture signs that are bombarding us like torrential rains. Rather than
prepare the way of the Messiah in repentance, holiness and righteousness, the
church/Christians
-a. are becoming more engrossed in sins and worldliness
-b. are building their
treasures on the earth rather than heaven.
-c. are not preaching the
Gospel of Christ again but the ‘gospel of money’
-d. even, don’t want Jesus Christ
to come again
This
is an absolute spiritual blindness that is falling upon the church/Christians,
the way it fell on Israel in their own time.
-4. The church/Christians will be judged for their blindedness
For failing
to recognize the signs of the return of The Lord, Jesus Christ, at rapture, the
Church/Christians will be judged the way Israel/Israelites were judged for not
knowing the time of their visitation. To this end,
-a. many Christians
will be left behind at rapture.
-b. many Christians will
be caught in sudden destruction and go straight to hell
-c. left-behind
Christians will be handed over to the antichrist to persecute and behead.
-d. many of the
left-behind Christians will worship the antichrist, his image and also take his
mark.
-e. Christian churches
will be destroyed and plundered.
These are
few of the consequences that the church/Christians will face for repeating the
mistakes of Israel.
Summary
Israel/Israelites
failed to recognize the time of their visitation. They failed to know that
their king that they had long expected was the child that Mary, a virgin, had
conceived and delivered- the same child they wanted to kill at birth.
At the
peak of their spiritual blinded was also failing to recognize that it was the
Messiah that was riding on the colt. And for their blindness, they were judged
greatly- only if they had watched for the signs.
The
Church/Christians are also about to repeat the same mistake. They may just
mistake their divine visitation- the rapture of the saints. Thank God, his can
still be reversed it they pay attention to the signs of His coming and do what God
expects of them.
Conclusion
Surely,
the Messiah is coming, but the church is not ready to receive Him.
Actions
Are you an
elect of Christ? Are you truly saved? Are you on the narrow road? Do you want
to make the rapture/heaven? If your answers are yes, then,
• Make all efforts to heed the warnings of Jesus Christ.
• Be
watchful. Pay attention to what is happening around the World and see whether
they match what the scriptures say.
• Be filled
with the Holy Spirit and be in the Spirit all the time.
• Fast,
consecrate yourself, run away from sin and worldliness.
If
your answers are NO, then you can repent today. Accept Jesus Christ as your
Lord and Saviour. Kindly sincerely and faithfully pray the prayer of repentance
below and make a determination never to commit sin again.
Prayer Of
Repentance
Lord, Jesus Christ, I am sorry for all my sins. I confess them with
my mouth and I ask for mercy. Please forgive me and wash me in your blood. I
accept you as my personal Lord and Saviour. Write my name in the book of life.
Give me power over sins and fill me with your Spirit and Joy of Salvation. When
rapture trumpet sounds, let me make it. Thank you for saving me. In Jesus name,
I pray.
Begin
to read bible. Begin with the book of John. Pray always. Fast regularly (you can
begin with once in a week). Look for a bible believing church where they teach
repentance, holiness, salvation and fellowship with them. Pray before you go.
Always run away from SINS.
Need More
Information?
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Please, Share This
Message And Also Drop A Comment.
We
will like to get as many people as possible ready for rapture. We wish nobody
misses the rapture. What are happening now are child’s play. In view of these,
please, share our messages on different media to help circulate as fast as
possible before Trumpet sounds. Also, you can drop a comment. Thank you. God
bless you.
Shalom.
To Make Rapture:
Confess your sins to JESUS CHRIST and ask Him to save you.
Repent of your sins constantly on daily basis and run away from sins.
Be filled with the Holy Spirit
Live in Holiness and Righteousness
Do all Restitutions
Be filled with the Holy Spirit
Live in Holiness and Righteousness
Do all Restitutions
Cut off all worldliness.
Forgive all people.
Pray and fast.
Consecrate and study the bible.
Watch.
