Our Vision of the Future

What I was to present this morning was clear to me after prayer. God wants to prepare us for the future. The Apostle Paul exhorted us to set our hearts and minds on heavenly things where Christ is seated at the right hand of God, not on earthly things. We know we should do this, but the tremendous material emphasis of the American culture keeps us occupied with eating, sleeping, playing, working, and reproducing. Little or no time is left to us to occupy ourselves with the things and life of Heaven.

(5/21/2006) If we are to survive spiritually and physically in the future, and help our family and ourselves, we are going to have to devote ourselves today to being built up in Christ. We absolutely must learn to be citizens of two worlds, the physical and the heavenly, so no matter what dangers or chaos we encounter in the future, we can walk with Christ confidently in the heavenly Zion.

One factor which tends to keep us immature is our vision of the future.

There are, as I understand it, three main areas of understanding found in the New Testament. The first has to do with the mysteries concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. The second is composed of the numerous exhortations to righteous behavior. The third is the vision of the future events of the Kingdom of God.

The mysteries concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, the born-again experience, the coming of God to dwell in us, are not too well known to us. The forgiveness of sins through the blood atonement has been preached well throughout the world. The born-again experience has become confused with "getting saved." As for the coming of the Father and the Son to dwell in us, we know little about this.

The second area, that of righteous behavior, is found from Matthew through Revelation. This is the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. We are confused about this area, supposing it means we are righteous by identification with Christ. This is not what the expression means. The Kingdom of God is the righteousness that is formed in us as Christ is born in us and comes to maturity in our personality. Here is true righteousness—a righteousness demonstrated in our thinking, our speech, and our actions.

The third area, that of our vision of the future, has been corrupted. This may be because Satan understands that our vision of the future determines the fervency of our discipleship.

The true vision of the future is found in the Book of Revelation. This morning we reviewed Revelation 20:4. Here we learn about the first resurrection. I do not believe I ever have heard one sermon preached concerning the first resurrection. Have you? Yet this concept is so utterly important!

There shall be two resurrections, a first resurrection from among the dead, and then the general resurrection of the dead. As the Apostle Paul pointed out to us, the first resurrection, the "out-resurrection," which will occur when Jesus returns to earth, must be attained to. The general resurrection of the dead, which will take place at the end of the thousand-year Kingdom Age, will include everyone who did not receive his body in the first resurrection—the resurrection which is out from among the dead of mankind.

Only those who attain to the inner aspect of the first resurrection will receive the outer aspect of the first resurrection when Christ next appears. Given the fact that so few believers actually live the victorious life in Christ, denying themselves, carrying their cross and following Jesus, it seems reasonable that only a small fraction of the Christian believers will attain to the resurrection Paul was seeking.

The remainder of believers, as well as the rest of mankind, will be raised in the general resurrection at the end of the thousand-year Kingdom Age. At that time they shall be judged according to their works, being brought forward into life on the new earth, or else thrown into the Lake of Fire.

We are saying that only a minority of Christian people will be raised from the dead when Christ appears, only those who have fallen asleep (died) in Jesus. If it is to be true of us that when we die we fall asleep in Jesus, we must have been abiding in Christ when we died. It does not appear that most Christians are abiding in Christ, at least not according to the standard set forth by the Apostle Paul in his letters to the churches.

As for the teaching of the pre-tribulation rapture of the believers, this vision of the future is so unscriptural as to be not worthy of discussion. The immaturity of the believers may be traced, at least in part, to this frivolous doctrine.

One can see readily that our vision of the future is to be that of the Apostle Paul. If we believe the first resurrection must be attained to with the fervor and diligence Paul was applying, laying aside all else as garbage, then we are not going to adopt the customary stance of the American believer—that of living a careless life in the world, trusting that any moment we will be carried up to eternal bliss in Heaven.

The Book of Revelation informs us of the army of the righteous who will follow the Lord Jesus on the white war stallions. Our common sense tells us that to make the transition from the adamic life of flesh and blood we now are living, to an immortal soldier of Christ, descending from Heaven with Him so we may assist in driving Antichrist from the earth and establishing the Kingdom of God, will require our complete cooperation with the Holy Spirit as He transforms us from a living soul to a life-giving spirit.

Great glory lies ahead of us, but it will not be a a fun-filled, carefree existence. During the worst of the troubles that are ahead of us in America, we can be dancing with the Lord and rejoicing with Him on the heights of Zion, preparing to govern the world with the iron rod of the Spirit of God.

The burden today has to do with alerting us to the program of change set before us. We can make the transition from flesh-and-blood life successfully, but we American believers will have to lay aside much of what we think is part of our normal life that we may grasp what is being offered to us.

Mighty episodes are ahead of us. Some will rise to the challenge and stand before the Lord in glorious victory. You can too if this is what you desire with all your heart, and give yourself wholly to following Christ.

At night we taught from one of the most important chapters of the Bible–the sixth chapter of the Gospel of John.

The sixth chapter of John has to do with the first resurrection from the dead. The Lord shows Himself to be the Bread of Life. We are to do more than just study what Christ did and said. We have to eat Christ. We have to drink His blood.

Christ Himself is the Resurrection from among the dead, and eternal Life. If we would attain to the first resurrection, the resurrection from the dead, we must feed constantly on the flesh and blood of Christ.

Every time we choose to go God’s way, when faced with a decision, we are fed in the spirit realm with the flesh and blood of Christ. In this manner Christ is formed in us. In this manner the Resurrection and eternal Life are formed in us.

When the Lord appears, in the regeneration, our mortal body will become immortal–but only if first our inner nature is regenerated by being filled with the body and blood of Christ.

Notice in the following two verses the inner regeneration, and then the outer regeneration:

He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, (Titus 3:5)

And Jesus said to them, "Truly I say to you, that you who have followed Me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man will sit on His glorious throne, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. (Matthew 19:28)

We are to attain to the first resurrection in our inner nature during our discipleship on the earth. Then, when Christ appears, He will make our mortal body immortal, whether we are asleep in Jesus at that time or are alive and living on the earth.

We understand, then, that our vision of the future determines the fervency with which we apply ourselves to our Christian walk. If we believe that at any moment every individual who has made a profession of faith in Christ will be carried up to Heaven in order to escape Antichrist and the Great Tribulation, then we are going to occupy ourselves primarily with the things of the American culture, while giving a small amount of our time and thought to obeying Christ.

But if we truly believe that our being made immortal when the Lord appears from Heaven, and our being caught up to meet Him in the air, depends on our imitating the Apostle Paul by laying all else aside that we may gain Christ, then we will resist with all our strength the enticements of the American culture that we may follow Christ with our whole heart, presenting our body a living sacrifice in order to prove the perfect will of God for our life.