THE MOST IMPORTANT BUSINESS ON EARTH TODAY
THE MOST IMPORTANT BUSINESS ON EARTH TODAY
The most important business on earth today is not eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, planting and building, or buying and selling that characterize ‘churchianity’ the opposite of Christianity. (Lk 17:26-28; Mt 24:38; Rev 18:11-13) The most important business on planet earth in this end-time period is the mandate of Jesus Christ.
The background to the mandate of Jesus is the desire of God Almighty to expand His kingdom by creating a visible world for His children. The visible world was designed as a nursery for God’s children in Hypostatic form. Omniscient God knew before the beginning of creation that Lucifer with a third of the angelic host and the First Adam would fail Him. He therefore made plans to become a Man to bring the plan of God to pass on earth.
The promise of the Seed of the woman was made by God in the Garden of Eden as a gracious redemptive provision to the posterity of fallen Adam and Eve. (Gen 3:15). Jesus is the Seed of the woman.
When He came into the world as prophesied Jesus set out the manifesto of the first phase of His assignment. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord” (Lk 4:18-19).
Jesus’ earthly ministry is split in two parts: first coming as the ‘lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world’ and second coming as judge of the living and the dead. The mandate of Jesus has two comings and a hidden interlude between them.
During His ministry on earth Jesus revealed the mystery of the Church, a period of about two thousand years when Jews and Gentiles would be called out into a new class of citizenship. At the conclusion of the first leg of His mandate, Jesus said: “All power has been given to Me.” As My Father sent Me, so send I you.
The power Jesus has given to His followers is firstly to preach the gospel of grace of God wherever sinners are found in the whole world. Secondly to teach those who believe the goodnews the doctrines of Christ to enable them grow in grace to perfection and thirdly to stand firm on conquered ground and wait for His return to carry out the remaining aspects of His mandate.
In other words, the mandate God gave to Jesus was made up of three distinct assignments, two comings to earth spanning three dispensations with three finishing points.
In the first coming assignment during the dispensation of Law, the Eternal Son of God was to assume a human body and go into the world to seek and save what God lost through angelic rebellion and the transgression of Adam and Eve. Thus, the first of His three assignments in His first coming was to preach the gospel of the kingdom, which would lead to His arrest, trial and crucifixion on a Roman cross for the redemption of mankind and the restoration of broken link between heaven and earth.
The mystery between His first and second comings was a period dedicated to the building of His Body through the preaching of the gospel of grace of God by men and women equipped for that purpose and superintended by the Holy Spirit. This period corresponds to the dispensation of grace, the era of the Church.
The second assignment in His Second Coming is to sit on three thrones of glory to judge creation. With the opening of seven Seal, seven Trumpet and seven vial judgments during the last seven years of the dispensation of grace, Jesus will judge the three groups of mankind on earth, namely the Church, Jews and Gentiles in that order. He will also judge the earth and heavenly bodies.
The third and final part of His assignment in His Second Coming will be to re-establish God’s literal kingdom on earth, rule it for 1,000 years with a rod of iron in order to restore all things to conform to the decree of the Godhead before the foundation of the world.
Thereafter, He will render account to the Father by handing over the kingdom to Him to resume His position as all in all. “Now when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all. (1 Cor 15:28)
Anything done outside of the Lord’s mandate notwithstanding that it is beneficial to humanity is irrelevant in the sight of God. In His first advent, Jesus came to “destroy the works of the devil.” [1 Jn 3:8]. The militant church has the duty of destroying the works of darkness in the interval between His first coming and His return. It is a ministry of conflict, which dovetails spiritual warfare, deliverance and the fight of faith.
As the return of the Lord draws near, it is important to keep in mind the two assignments He gave to the militant church. “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. (Mk 16:15-16). “Teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Mt 28:20)
#REINVENTING THE APOSTLES’ DOCTRINE AND FELLOWSHIP
