Week 10 : Matt. 22:43 - 24:51

For just as the days of Noah were, so will the coming of the Son of Man be. For as they were in those days before the flood, eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage... so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. At that time two men will be in the field; one is taken and one is left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one is taken and one is left. Watch therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord comes.... For this reason, you also be ready, because at an hour when you do not expect it, the Son of Man is coming.
Matt. 24:37-44

So warned Jesus concerning the need for His believers to be watchful and ready, that they would not miss His second coming.

In the days of Noah there were two conditions existing: people were befuddled by eating, drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, and they did not know that judgement was coming, until the flood came and took them away. Similarly, at the time that the Lord returns, people will be befuddled and distracted by the necessities of this life, and will not realise that God's judgement (signified by the flood) is coming upon them.

In the beginning, eating, drinking and marriage were ordained by God for man's existence; however, Satan now utilises these necessities to occupy man and keep him from God's interest. Even a glance at the world situation will confirm that man is fully occupied with material things and has no sense of the coming judgement.

However, a small number of His believers will be watchful and sober. The two men and the two women signify believers, living their normal lives. The two men are working in the field - they're not sitting in a Bible study group; the two women are grinding at the mill - they're not fasting or praying in a prayer meeting. However, one of each group is taken by the Lord at His secret coming, that is, raptured before the great tribulation comes. What is so special about the man and woman who are raptured, and why are the other two not?

This is surely a matter of their condition related to life. Those who are taken have matured in life, while those who are left are, spiritually speaking, immature. This means that in our life, we must firstly be diligent in our work, but at the same time, we must take care of our spiritual condition. We cannot give our all to our work and neglect our growth in life; nor can we be super-spiritual and reject the requirement to work for our daily needs. Instead, we must be balanced and normal.

Week 9 : Matt. 20:17 - 22:42

In Matthew 21:1-11, the Lord made His final visit to Jerusalem. The heavenly King, riding not on a horse, but on a lowly donkey and its colt, came not to minister, preach, teach or perform miracles, but to present Himself as the Lamb of God to be slaughtered, to be crucified.

The story of the Passover is one of the most well-known stories in the Old Testament, together with the many plagues on Egypt, and the flight of the Israelites through the Red Sea. However, these stories are also immensely rich in spiritual significance, and none more so than the Passover lamb. On the night of their flight from Egypt, the children of Israel were to prepare a lamb:

Your lamb shall be without blemish, a year-old male... And you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; then the whole congregation of the assembly 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 in which they eat it.... And the blood shall be a sign for you upon the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and there will be no plague upon you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt"
Exo. 12:5-7, 13

For four days, the lamb would be examined to confirm that it was unblemished, before being killed by the whole congregation. Its blood would then form the basis of their salvation from God's punishment. These verses clearly typify the Lord Jesus, and in Matthew 21-22, we see Him coming to Jerusalem to be examined over a number of days, by the Pharisees, the Herodians, the Sadducees and a lawyer. Each group prepared questions to ensnare and entrap Him, yet in each case, His answer silenced them. For instance, the Herodians, a group of Jews who took sides with Herod's regime and who took part with him in bringing Grecian and Roman manners of life into Jewish culture, asked Him:

Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or not?
Matt. 22:17

If Jesus answered Yes, they would condemn Him before all the Jews, who opposed giving tribute to the occupying Romans; if He answered No, they would condemn Him before the Romans as one promoting rebellion. Yet the Lord's answer defied their expectations:

But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, Why do you tempt Me, hypocrites? Show Me the coin for the tribute. And they brought Him a denarius. And He said to them, Whose is this image and inscription? They said, Caesar's. Then He said to them, Render then the things that are Caesar's to Caesar, and the things that are God's to God.
Matt. 22:18-21

When they handed over a coin from the tribute at His request, they were defeated; the coin from the tribute was a denarius, a Roman coin.

For days, He was examined by the religious, cultural and political leaders, yet they could find no fault in Him. Even Pontius Pilate declared several times that he could find no fault in Him (Luke 23:14, 20, 22). Therefore, He was fully qualified to be the Passover lamb, crucified by all the people, and, through the shedding of His blood, redeeming whosoever believes into Him (John 3:16).

Week 8 : Matt. 17:9 - 20:16

Moreover if your brother sins against you, go, reprove him between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not hear you, take with you one or two more, that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to hear the church also, let him be to you just like the Gentile and the tax collector. Truly I say to you, Whatever you bind on the earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on the earth shall have been loosed in heaven. Again, truly I say to you that if two of you are in harmony on earth concerning any matter for which they ask, it will be done for them from My Father who is in the heavens. For where there are two or gathered into My name, there am I in their midst.
Matt. 18:15-20.

These verses, concerning the way to deal with a troublesome brother in the church, reveal something very precious. In Matt. 16:18, the Lord Jesus revealed the church for the first time, the universal church as the unique Body of Christ. But here, we see something related to the practice of the believers in a certain locality. While the Body of Christ is universal, spanning both time and space (starting from the day of Pentecost and stretching forward to the day when the millennial kingdom ends and the New Jerusalem descends from heaven, and including every believer in every place), it must also be practical, because as finite beings, we can only exist in one place at one time. The church has a universal aspect, and it has a local aspect.

In order to be in the kingdom of the heavens in a practical way, we need to be in a local church. According to the context of verse 17, both the reality and the practicality of the kingdom are in the local church. In a chapter dealing with relationships in the kingdom, the Lord speaks eventually of the church. This proves that the practicality of the kingdom today is in the local church. Without the local church, it is impossible to have the practicality and reality of the kingdom life. Many Christians today talk of the kingdom life, but without the practical local church life, this talk is in vain.

What is a local church? A local church is not a building on the corner with a pointed roof and a bell; instead, 1 Cor. 1:2 shows us that it is simply all the believers in a city; the believers in Corinth were "the church of God which is in Corinth". The situation that Paul addressed in Corinth was full of division, sin, confusion, abusing of gifts and heretical teachings, yet the apostle still called it "the church of God", because the divine and spiritual essence which makes the assembled believers the church of God was actually there. If you look at Christianity today, the believers are divided into a 1001 denominations, taking a person or a practice as a means of denominating, or differentiating themselves. This is absolutely wrong, for God Himself is one, and cannot be divided; yet these believers together, each having the divine and spiritual essence of the Triune God, whether they know it or not, whether they practice it or not, are the church in that locality.

In chapter sixteen, the Lord revealed the universal church. But the universal church requires the practicality of the local church. Without the local church, the universal church cannot be practiced; rather, it will be something suspended in the air. The local church is the reality both of the kingdom and of the universal church.