“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.” Revelation 3:20 NKJV
Anyone
of my generation who went to Sunday School is more than likely familiar with
this image and the verse in Revelation upon which it was based. It is certainly one of my earliest memories
and one which I am sure I will never forget. Yet it was many years later that I
was to discover the context of this passage, and the amazement I felt upon
realizing that Jesus is actually outside the church of Laodicea, knocking to
come in. I was reminded of this picture
this past week when responding to questions about the rapture of the church,
and what might we have to endure before that happens in relation to current
events. I believe the answer to that is
in the words Jesus wrote to the chuch at Philadelphia.
“Because
you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial
which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.
“Behold, I am coming quickly! Hold fast what you have, that no one may take
your crown”. Revelation 3:10-11 NKJV
Many
scholars who teach about the pretribulation rapture of the church point to this
message to the church at Philadelphia as one of our best promises from Jesus
that His Church will be taken away before the tribulation begins. It does not, however, promise that we won’t have
to endure troubles, and the truth is, in several places we are told exactly
that. Is it any surprise then, that
given what we are experiencing at this point in time, many believe we are
swiftly approaching the time of our deliverance? With that in mind, it occurred to me that deliverance
has come to be associated with a certain time of year on God’s calendar and
that time arrives this coming week. I
thought I would share some words with you today I wrote some years ago about
the Passover season, and what I have learned about it.
“And it came to pass, when He drew
near to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mountain called Olivet, that He sent two
of His disciples, saying,
“Go into the village opposite you, where as you enter you will find a colt
tied, on which no one has ever sat. Loose it and bring it here. “And if anyone
asks you, ‘Why are you loosing it?’ thus you shall say to him, ‘Because the
Lord has need of it.’ ”So those who were sent went their way and found it just
as He had said to them. But as they were loosing the colt, the owners of it said to
them, “Why are you loosing the colt?”
And they said, “The Lord has need of
him.” Then
they brought him to Jesus. And they threw their own clothes on the colt, and
they set Jesus on him. And as He went, many spread their clothes on the road. Then, as He was
now drawing near 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 they had seen, saying: “ ‘Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the
LORD!’ Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” Luke
19:29-38 NKJV
Something I noticed rather early on
in my life as a believer was the fact that a good many teachers of the Word
concentrate solely on the New Testament and seem to avoid attempting to teach
from the Old Testament. When I thought
about that, it seemed strange to me considering virtually all of the stories I
learned in Sunday School came from the Old Testament! Adam and Eve, Noah, Joseph and his coat of
many colors, Moses and the Exodus, David and Goliath, and so many others I can
recall were what became what I could call the equivalent of Bible 101 in my
personal growth as a believer.
Something I came to appreciate even
more, however, was the fact that there was much more to discover there than
just the stories themselves. As I began
to look closer, it was amazing to find that there were many examples of the
stories I knew actually being a prophetic picture of events to come. Now the formal name for this is called
typology, and if you are interested there are many resources to help you do
that, and since you are reading this, it follows you have a computer so just
search typology and see what you can find.
As for now, I simply want to share one example which, considering the
proximity to Easter, seems rather appropriate.
When you begin to study the life and
ministry of Jesus Christ, it soon becomes clear that although there were times
when the people attempted to promote Him as King, He avoided it. A good example
is right after the miracle of the loaves and fishes.
Then those men, when they had seen
the sign that Jesus did, said, “This is truly the Prophet who is to come into
the world.” Therefore when Jesus perceived that they were about to come
and take Him by force to make Him king, He departed again to the mountain by
Himself alone. John 6:14-15 NKJV
Yet there did come a day when He did
choose to present Himself as King, and we find it revealed in the passage from
Luke, which occurred on the tenth of Nisan, the first month of the Jewish
religious calendar which was also the beginning of what we now call the Passion
Week. It follows that if Jesus arranged
it, there must have been a reason for it, so if we look a little closer we
discover that indeed there was. Jesus
was in fact following a script laid out in the Old Testament that we find in
the book of Exodus where the first Passover was ordained and observed by the
children of Israel while in bondage in Egypt.
“Now the LORD spoke to Moses and
Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying,
“This month shall be your beginning
of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you. “Speak to all
the congregation of Israel, saying: ‘On the tenth of this month every man shall
take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a
household. ‘And
if the household is too small for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next to
his house take it according to the number of the persons; according to each
man’s need you shall make your count for the lamb. ‘Your lamb
shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You may take it from the
sheep or from the goats.
‘Now you shall keep it until the
fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation
of Israel shall kill it at twilight.
‘And they shall take some of the
blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where
they eat it.” Exodus 12:1-7 NKJV
In hindsight, we see that while
presenting Himself as Israel’s King, He also was presenting Himself as our
Passover Lamb on the tenth of Nisan with the foreknowledge that the Jews would
reject Him, and then crucify Him on the cross.
As I read this passage from Exodus with the Passion Week in mind, it
becomes so very obvious what Jesus was doing for us, the Church, in regards to
fulfilling the Law as He said that He did.
Because we choose to believe in His sacrifice and atonement for our
sins, He becomes our Passover Lamb and it is His blood which saves us from an
eternity separate from Him.
A few days after His presentation,
Jesus celebrated the Passover dinner with His disciples. If you read the account in Matthew, you will
find something Jesus said which seems to be prophetic to the Church as well.
“And as they were eating, Jesus took
bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, “Take, eat;
this is My body.” Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them,
saying, “Drink from it, all of you. “For this is My blood of the new covenant,
which is shed for many for the remission of sins. “But I say to you, I will not
drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new
with you in My Father’s kingdom.”
Matthew 26:26-29 NKJV
According to the Mishnah, a
collection of Jewish oral laws and traditions, Jesus is waiting for the
marriage feast before He drinks from this cup.
(Mishnah, Pesahim 7:13) Since we know that the marriage feast takes
place after the rapture, is it possible that Jesus’ statement is actually His
way of telling us that we will drink this cup with Him on a future Feast of
Passover? Could this be a clue to the
season of the rapture of the Church that we are so eagerly looking forward to?
If you have never made the decision
to accept the sacrifice Jesus made for you by dying on the cross for your sins,
there is no better time than right now to do so. Just as He is knocking on the door of the
church of Laodicea, He is also knocking on the door of your heart. Simply pray
to the Father and ask Him to forgive you for your sins and tell Him you believe
that Jesus died for you. Accept the gift
of salvation He has offered you and you too will drink of this cup of along
with Jesus on that future day when He will invite all of His believers to join
Him. Jesus Christ is the Passover lamb
who died for our sins, delivering us so we can spend eternity with Him.
Keep watching.
