Good Monday to you my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
Would you agree that an important part of parenting is teaching our children the vital life lessons we their parents have learned in our lives? The same is true in the workplace as trainees or apprentices learn from veterans, right? In the past two days we’ve been looking at one of the most powerful statements Jesus made to His disciples: “I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven…” (Matt. 16:19)
We’ve seen Jesus was NOT giving the disciples the divine authority to stand at the gates of heaven and determine who is admitted and who is rejected. Nor was Jesus giving the disciples the authority to declare a person justified in God’s eyes, only God can do that. But the disciples were being given the privilege of sharing the vital truths required to understand and the actions a person needs to take to gain heaven!
Today let’s look at two more vital keys about Jesus that the world would only understand if the disciples did a good job explaining it.
First is the ASCENSION of Jesus. Jesus told the disciples when gathered in the upper room for Passover together, only a few hours before He was crucified: “I came from the Father and entered the world, now I am leaving the world and returning to the Father.” (John 16:28)
Of course, Jesus was speaking of heaven where God the Father is. 44 days later, after Jesus death, burial, resurrection and 40 days of showing Himself alive to many people including these disciples, Jesus was gathered with them on the Mount of Olives and while He was speaking to them Jesus elevated up into the clouds!!
Two angels suddenly appeared explaining to those watching this unprecedented event: “Men of Galilee, why do you stand here looking up into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.“ (Acts 1:9-11) God left no doubt! Jesus had come from heaven in His incarnation birth, in Bethlehem, and on that Ascension Day, Jesus returned to heaven in His resurrection body.
The ascension of Jesus back to heaven is a vital key to gaining entrance into the kingdom of heaven because Jesus is now in heaven everyday welcoming to heaven those who have trusted in Jesus here on earth before their earthly journey ends in death. My friends, do you understand the ascension of Jesus Christ and why it’s so important that He is in heaven ready to receive our souls/spirits when we die?
May I give you, yet another KEY TRUTH Jesus was going to entrust to the disciples? These KEY answers the question WHAT is ascended Jesus doing NOW in heaven, making it possible for any of us to gain heaven today?
Both Romans 8:33,34 & Hebrews 1:3 tell us that Jesus is at the right hand of God the Father interceding for us! 1 Timothy 2:5 tells us Jesus is our Advocate with the Father. And Hebrews 7:24,25 says: “Because Jesus lives forever, He has a permanent priesthood. Therefore, He is able to save completely those who come to God through Him, because He always lives to intercede for them.”
And one more thing, Jesus told His disciples: “I am going there [heaven] to prepare a place for you. I will come back and take you to be with Me, that you also may be where I am.”(John 14:3) Yes, Jesus is making sure heaven is ready to receive those who have trusted in Him!
Finally, Jesus was entrusting to the disciples one more major, magnificent TRUTH Key. Our gaining heaven is NOT by any effort of ours, nor any payment of money, nor attaining religious perfection. Our gaining heaven is entirely a work of God’s grace, given to a person in response to any person who does these things:
* Believe the truth about WHO Jesus Christ is and WHAT His death and resurrection accomplished for us. (Acts 16:31; John 5:24) That was Key #1,2,3
* Confess [admit to God] the truth that each of us is a sinful person and our sin separates us from God and will keep us out of heaven! (Romans 3:21-24; 1 John 1:9)
* Repent of sin which means turning away from our sin and turning to Jesus as our ONLY Savior from our sin. (Acts 2:38; Romans 6:11-14,22,23)
* Trust fully in God’s truthful promise that HE will accept Jesus’ atonement death as payment in full for our sin and God will apply that payment to our sin debt and declare us forgiven, justified and saved from our sin condemnation. (Ephesians 2:8,9; Romans 4:23-5:2; 8:1,2; 1 Peter 1:18-20)
Now my friends, that day at Caesarea Philippi when Jesus said, “I WILL give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven…” (Matt. 16:19) the disciples did NOT understand the wonderful KEYS of God’s Salvation Truth we’ve discussed these past three days. That’s why Jesus said He was GOING TO GIVE them these truths.
In fact, it wasn’t until AFTER Jesus’ resurrection that most of these disciples fully believed the key truths about WHO Jesus was who walked with them and WHAT the significance was of His death and resurrection. And it wasn’t until AFTER the Holy Spirit came upon them 10 days after Jesus’ ascension, on the day of the Pentecost festival that God opened their minds to understand and their mouths to speak these great truths with boldness.
But as we’ll see tomorrow, it was primarily through the Pharisee turned apostle Paul that most of the deeper doctrines of the kingdom of God were explained in the 13 books of the New Testament which Paul authored as led by the Holy Spirit.
For today, I urge you to take time with the “lessons learned” summary notes below for deeper understanding of these Key. And then I found a worship song, recorded in Jerusalem, sung in English, Hebrew and Arabic, by people from the Middle east who are looking very much forward to the kingdom of heaven with Jesus! And then join me again tomorrow for more truths from Jesus.
Today’s Scripture: Acts 1:9-11 & Hebrews 7:24,25.
Choose below to read or listen.
Acts 1:9-11
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Hebrews 7:24, 25
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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