Questions Jesus Asked

Now, it's not that much talent. Not to do that. To do the other things is hard, but that's not much talent. But can you imagine a sound like that that is so loud? It's heard from Tennessee to Australia. It's heard all around the earth. And people actually see Christ returning. The armies form, they must think, as some kind of invasion from outer space as they try to fight and destroy the Prince of Peace. It's one of the greatest oddities of all history. And Christ comes back and He stands on the Mount of Olives, and it splits in two. And with Him are the saints, because the resurrection takes place at this point. And so all the Old Testament saints, all the New Testament saints of the first century, all those of the last 2,000 years that have been part of the church are resurrected. All those who lived and survived during the tribulation, because we know there are Christians who actually live and survive even during the tribulation, they are changed. Paul talks about those that are there that are changed at that point, because they're alive and they rise up in the air. The world sees this. Everybody sees this. And they meet Jesus Christ in the air, and He comes down and He stands on the Mount of Olives, and it splits in two. And He sets up God's kingdom on this earth. And in Revelation, chapter 20, it says about those who were resurrected at this time, that they will reign with Jesus Christ for a thousand years. They will reign with Jesus Christ for a thousand years. You know, when Christ comes back for that thousand years, for that millennium, He establishes on this earth what human life was supposed to be. Basically, He recreates Eden, not in one place, but the whole earth becomes Eden. Let's go to Isaiah 11. I'm sure you will hear this during the Feast of Tabernacles read. Isaiah 11, one of the descriptions of what it will be like when the Messiah reigns on this earth. We know here who it is because he says it's the offspring of Jesse, who is the father of David. So it's a descendant of David, which we know that on Mary's side, he came from the house of David. On his father's side, of course, he came from God the Father. First one says, And there shall come forth a rod from the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots, and the Spirit of the Lord will rest upon him the Spirit of wisdom and understanding. The Spirit of counsel on Mike, the Spirit of knowledge, and of the fear of the Lord. His delight is in the fear of the Lord. This is interesting because we're going to talk a little bit today about Jesus Christ first coming and tie it into this. And of course, what do we see him as as a human being? This day pictures not when he's a human being, but when he comes back in power and glory as the Son of God. But we have to understand who he is as a human being for that to make sense.

He shall not judge by the sight of his eyes, nor decide by the hearing of his ears, but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth. And he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked, and righteousness shall be the belt of his loins, and faithfulness the belt of his waist. In other words, the government he establishes is a world government. You know, we hear a lot of people talk about today a one coming, one world government. Well, there is going to be a one world government, but it's going to be Jesus Christ. And he's going to raid from Jerusalem, and he's going to have human beings that help him. That's a whole other subject. But he is going to have with him all the saints, all the saints, all those who were part of the church, or part of those he worked with, you know, that had his spirit in the Old Testament, they are going to be resurrected to reign with him. I'm really going to zero in on that. What does that mean, to reign with him? And this is what he's going to do. Perfect love, perfect justice. He brings love to humanity, and he brings justice to humanity. He will establish a society where there's no longer any crime, to establish a society where there's no longer any war, to establish a society where all the governments, wherever they are, across the globe, are governed by him and those who reign with him. And there's going to be one educational system. Everything's going to be fair. Every family will own land. That changes everything. There'll be an economic system that doesn't, like so many economic systems that are just through humanity, what happens is the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, right? That won't happen. It's going to be a totally different world, like nothing that has ever existed. There is nothing in the history of humanity that will be like this. There's been no government, no educational system, no economic system. There's been nothing like this is going to be. And he's going to establish this. He talks about through here how nature is going to be healed and even the nature of animals are going to change. And then we skip down to verse 10. Well, let's go to verse 9. And they shall not hurt nor destroy in my holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, and the waters cover the sea. There won't be any other religion on the face of the earth, just one. And you know, some of it will be different than what we believe, too, because we see through a glass darkly. We're going to see the truth entirely then. And we're going to see what God wants human beings to be. And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse who shall stand as a banner to the people. And this last part of this verse really, to me, is encouraging. It says, For the Gentiles shall seek him, and his resting place will be glorious. Everybody, every human being, every place that has survived, is a tempt by Satan to destroy humanity. It doesn't matter whether you are in some south seas island or outer Mongolia or Alaska or the tip of Argentina, any place on this globe, central Africa, it doesn't matter. Those people, all people, will be coming to Jesus Christ to be taught about God. And there will be those who reign with Him.

Okay. We know we're called for salvation. We know that God calls us to forgive us for our sins. We know that there's a Christian life we're supposed to live now. But how do we ever figure out how to reign with Christ? I remember a sermon I heard, oh, I was a child many, many years ago. And the sermon was about what it will mean to reign with Christ, and how we will all have rods of iron, and we will force people, and we will dominate people, and we will have, you know, many cities, and each of us, you know, how good you are today will determine how many cities you get, and what you get your rod of iron, you get to dominate people. You know, that's not true. That's not true. That's not what it means to reign with Jesus Christ. So what does it mean? Because let me tell you something. If you are going, I am going to be there to reign with Jesus Christ, we have to learn that now. Now, Christ comes back and says, okay, the world is going to stay a mess for the next 30 years, because it's going to take me 30 years to train all these people how to serve me. We reign with Him. It's all about serving Jesus Christ in serving humanity. It's about serving Jesus Christ and serving humanity, because who do we reign with? Who's the boss? Who's the example? Jesus Christ. So we're going to talk today on this day, which represents the time when there will be a change in people who will now become eternal children of God with a spirit body. It says in 1 Corinthians eternal and will reign with Jesus Christ for a thousand years. We're going to talk a little bit about how do we learn to reign with Jesus Christ? Since this day represents that, how can we be prepared for that? What exactly does that mean? What I'm going to do, and this is just the beginning, this is just sort of a glimpse of a subject here. In the Young Adult Bible Studies for the next year, we're going to be discussing this subject. I plan on writing a whole series of articles for the Passers Update as we go through this subject. There'll probably be some sermons here in the next year, but we'll touch on this subject. But this starts because Jesus Christ asked His disciples, we're going to go through three questions, He asked His disciples because He asked those same three questions of us. And if you and I are going to reign with Him, we have got to answer these questions. You're going to be able to answer this question. So this is the test. The test for reigning with Jesus Christ is, can you answer these three questions?

So let's start with the first one. What's the first question? Before I go to the first question, let me tie in the subject here. The subject we're going to talk about is what does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus Christ? And that's what we're going through in the Young Adult Bible Studies. So what we did here last week was our first one on this subject. What does it mean to be a disciple? Because a disciple is not a student. They learn. They have a teacher. But they say in Greek, it means to be an imitator of the teacher. You can be a student and get a passing grade. You can be a student and cram and make a good grade on the test. And everybody thinks, okay, well, I'm a good student. They made an A. And that really isn't what a disciple is. A different word for student. A disciple imitates the teacher. The disciple tries to become a copy of the teacher. If we are to reign with Jesus Christ, we don't need to be worried about how many cities or how powerful our rod of iron is. Because that's his job. To reign the earth over the earth. Ours is to serve him and reign with him. In other words, carry out his will as his servants. So how do we answer these questions if we're going to be disciples? Because you cannot reign with him until you become a disciple. We will not reign with him until we become a disciple. And I believe the idea, the concept of discipleship, is one of the greatest challenges facing the church today. We have so much knowledge, but are we disciples? And what does that really mean? So let's go to the first question. Let's go to Matthew 16. Matthew 16.

These are all questions. Two, he directly asked the disciples. The third one we're going to talk about. It was in a parable, but it's a question he asks us. Matthew 16 and verse 13. And then Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, and he asked his disciples, saying, Who do man say that I, the Son of Man, am? So they said, well, some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, others Jeremiah, one of the prophets. Those people knew because of his teaching and the power of his teaching, and they knew because of the miracles he did that he was not just some normal rabbi. Jesus, they believed, many believed, was some resurrection of one of the great prophets. Oh, that's Jeremiah. He's been resurrected.

Now here's the question he asked, and he said to them, But who do you say, who do you say I am? That's the question that Christ is asking you if you want to reign with him. I don't care what anybody else says who I am. Who do you say I am? Who do you say he is?

Have you ever thought of it? I mean, have you ever thought about that question before? Of course, the interesting answer from Peter here is, verse 16, Simon Peter answered and said, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. You are the Messiah. Now understand what that means. He took all those Old Testament prophecies and put them together and said, This is a divine person. This is a human being. It's not the resurrected of another human being. This is a divine person who came from heaven from God. That's who he is. He's the Son of God. And Jesus answered and said to him, Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood is not revealed to you but my Father who is in heaven. In other words, to truly understand who Jesus Christ is. God has to reveal that to us. God has to reveal to us who his Son is. Now Jesus came and said, I've come to reveal the Father. Well, you can also say, we cannot know the Son unless the Father reveals it to us. You know what a caricature is? A caricature is when you have a, it's either a description or a picture in which a person's features are exaggerated. I mean, you've seen these artists that take famous people and you know, whatever their prominent features are, they exaggerate them. So if they have big ears, the caricature is the person with ears that are, you know, the size of their face or a nose that's huge. In fact, you know, if you go to a carnival or a flea market, many times you'll find somebody there, you know, these artists and you pay money and if you go to a carnival, you'll find somebody there who's a big artist and you pay money and they very quickly do these little usually chalk sketches of caricatures. And you're hilarious because, well, you know, your head looks so big and your hair's funny because, well, he's exaggerating, he or she is exaggerating who you are. But everybody can say, oh, that's you! Right? But everybody knows, yep, yep, you really do have big lips like that. Yep. I found a caricature once I read once of a person that was a description. Here's what the person wrote. Her eyes were like lasers boring a hole through me. Her ears were smoking. Her hair was on fire. Boy, mom was really mad. Now, we don't think any of that literally, do we? It's a caricature. But here's the question. Who am I? If someone came up to you and you said, who am I? And I said, oh, you're the person with the big ears. You would say, no, that's my caricature. Who am I? Who am I as a person? When Jesus asked, who am I? He wasn't asking for a caricature. And unfortunately, we can make him into a caricature. We don't understand what he really taught. We don't understand what he really said. We either see him, oh, well, he's the baby born of the Virgin Mary, or he's this super god, he's the son of God, coming back to reign on earth. But he becomes a caricature. Who is he?

If you're going to reign with him, and he's the boss, we better know who he is. This all has to do with discipleship. I must be an imitator. I must not know about Jesus Christ. I must imitate Jesus Christ. That means I've got to know who he is, intimately know who he is, if I'm going to do that.

If you're going to do that, one of the things you're going to have to do is study what he said about himself. I mean, we really need to study Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. And the Old Testament prophecies to talk about the Messiah, the Christ. Because when you take those and you put that together, then you go to Paul, and when he expands it out and says, you know, he's even the one the Father used to create the universe. He really expands that out. Because he has the Old Testament, and of course Jesus had lived on the earth and he knew what he had taught. He had taught him personally, and he expands that out. Let's look at something Jesus said about himself. John 5. John 5. We're going to be staying here just in the gospels. John 5.

I mean, we could talk about this, who do you say I am. We could talk about that for now.

What I'm saying is, you have to go answer this question because he's asked it of you. Christ has asked this question of you. Who did you say I am? Verse 16 of John chapter 5.

He says, for this reason, the Jews, and what happened here was Jesus had healed someone on the Sabbath. He told them, go and sin no more, as if he had the power to forgive sins. And he said, wait a minute, you're healing on the Sabbath and you're forgiving sins. Only God can do that. You can't do that. And so the Jews persecuted Jesus and sought to kill him because he had done these things on the Sabbath. Wait a minute, you healed on the Sabbath, but you forgive sins? Only God can forgive sins. They understood what he was saying. He was saying, I am equal with God. But Jesus answered them and said, my father has been working until now, and I had been working. Wait a minute, the father's been working since, you know, he created things and I've been working with him since we created things. Oh boy. That's blasphemy. Therefore, the Jews sought all the more to kill him because not only he had broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was his father, making himself equal with God. You've been working with God? We know when you were born. And you know what? When your mom got pregnant, she wasn't married. So you've been working with God. We need to kill this man. Then Jesus answered and said, now he's going to say something about himself. This is the beginning of the answer to the question that you have to answer. When Christ asked you, I want you to be my disciple. You have to imitate me. I'm going to teach you what you have to be. So then in the resurrection, you will serve me in reigning the earth to prepare the kingdom for the father. When we keep the last great day, we will talk about how Christ gives the kingdom to the father. He's got a job to do and he's doing it. And we're supposed to be there to assist him in doing that. That's where saints are supposed to go. And of course, anyone who has God's Spirit is a saint. So that's where they're supposed to be. They're supposed to be there. Abraham's going to be there. Paul's going to be there. Sarah's going to be there. Mary's going to be there.

Who do you say I am? He says, most assuredly I say to you, the son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the father do. For whatever he does, the son also does it like manner. For the father loves the son and shows him all things that he himself does. And he will show him greater works than these that you may marvel. He said, well, let me explain to you my relationship with the father. Here I am as a human being. We are in such close communication. They're in a unified relationship that we have not experienced yet. We get a little piece of it when we get the Holy Spirit, but you have to be changed. And what he says is, well, I just followed the father. I imitate the father. This is very interesting. He's showing how to be a disciple. I imitate father. He shows me I do it. We're in that kind of relationship. Who do you say I am also means you have to have a relationship. We have to explain what that even means. So he says, let me tell you, you don't understand it. You don't have this kind of relationship with the father. I do. I imitate him. You see me doing what he once done on the earth. Then he says, for as the father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the son gives life to whom he will be. And he says, let me tell you something else. You think I'm God? You think I'm blaspheming? I can raise people from the dead. Yeah, only God can do that. For the father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the son. And I want to stop there because that's really important. Somehow there's this idea that because Jesus loves us so much, he would not ever judge anybody harshly. Those who are thrown into the lake of fire are thrown into the lake of fire by the judgment of Jesus Christ. He judges humanity. You know why? He says, well, I do what the father wants. I carry out his judgment. But guess who pronounces it? Jesus Christ. And you know why? Because he's the one who died for us. And someone rejects that. He's the one that puts him there. Do we have a caricature of Jesus Christ? But Jesus Christ puts people in the lake of fire. He's the one who passes the sentence. Do we really know Him? Who do you say I am? He goes on, verse 23, that all should honor the son just as they honor the father. He who does not honor the son does not honor the father who sent him. That is either true or he's insane. I mean, people go to a mental institution who publicly got up and said that, wouldn't they? Yes, you asked to honor me exactly the same as you honor the father. Who do you say I am? This is the question. I can't even answer it in an hour. I can't answer it in a day. It takes a lifetime to answer that question. That's what discipleship is all about. Imitate me. Who do you say I am?

So we have a lesson we learn here from this question. Who do you say I am? To be a disciple of Jesus Christ, you must understand His eternal existence, His eternal relationship with God the Father, His role in salvation, and the requirement to honor Him. It is a requirement. He just said it. Second question, Luke 14. Luke 14.

It's another question you have to spend a lifetime a lifetime learning, a lifetime thinking about. Luke 14. 25.

Now great moltitudes went with Him, and He turned and said to them, If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, brother and sisters, yes, his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. There's a question there. I mean, it's not directly said, but it is. It's a question he actually asked Peter at one point. Do you love me? Peter did not answer that. When he asked Peter that question, Peter struggled on how to answer that question. Do you love me? Because he understood the enormity of the question. And he asked every one of us, first of all, do you love God, our father? Do you love me?

This isn't just a classroom where some teacher comes in, this teacher, and he gives us some information. We read about it and say, Oh, I'm glad he wrote that down. Thank you. It's a nice textbook. Thank you for the textbook. The writer of the textbook, the one who inspired the textbook, says, Do you love me? Because if you do not, you cannot be my disciple.

He says it. I mean, it's right there. If you don't, you know, do you love me more than your mother, brother, your sister, your best friends, your husband, your wife? Do you love me more than your own life? Because if you don't, you can't be my disciple. You see, we can do this. We can learn the truth. God can lead us to the truth. God can lead us to the Ten Commandments. God can lead us to the Sabbath day. Those are wonderful things. It's all part of this discipleship. But we never truly become disciples until we answer the question, Do I love him more than everything?

Do I love him more than everything? Oh, my! That's a silly question. To reign with Jesus Christ, you will be there serving him because you answered this question.

Because you answered this question. Now, the word hate there, we've talked about that many times. It doesn't mean hate in the word, in the English word. It means it's a comparison thing. You know, I really, really love ice cream. I like vanilla ice cream, but I love chocolate ice cream. And every time there's a choice, I pick chocolate. Every time there's a choice, we pick Jesus Christ. That is what he says. That's what he says.

And then he says, and who does not bear his cross and come after me? He cannot be my disciple.

I don't know. I've never seen anybody carry a cross. And of course, they used all different kinds of methods to kill people then. I mean, there was sort of the traditional cross. There was a T cross. There was a stake. There was scaffolding. The Romans were very good at this. They could kill 15 people at a time. I just saw something on the Smithsonian channel this week, in which now many archaeologists believe most of the crucifixions were done on an X. Where the two points come down and they're stuck in the ground, because you can spread the person out. And because it spreads the weight out, it takes them a lot longer to die, which is of course the purpose of crucifixion. It takes them a lot longer to die. You put them on a traditional cross, they tend to suffocate quickly, where literally the skin and the bones and the flesh rips from the nails. But on this X cross, you could be there for days and days and days and days. You're a strong person. So, however, it doesn't matter. He's got this pole he's dragging through the street. People had seen that many times. Jesus would do that eventually. And what he says to them is, when you follow me, and you look every time he comes to the people he called his disciples, what did he tell them? Follow me. He didn't say just believe in me. He said, you follow me. And it says they dropped their businesses, they left their homes, and they followed him. It's easy to keep the Sabbath. It's easy not to steal. It's easy to not worship idols. And he says, good. Do you love me? That's the question. Do you love me? He's asking you that question. He's actually asking you that question. He says, if you do, you will pick up that pole and you will drag it your whole life.

Christianity is to pick up his pole and drag it your whole life. Now, he says he'll help you. In fact, it's interesting, during his crucifixions, God sent somebody to help him carry his. Okay? We see the example, but you still have to carry. He says, my burden's light. He says, it seems heavy to carry something like that, but he says, I'll make it easier for you. I'll help you carry it, but you're going to have to carry it. That's what's required of us. In fact, if you skip down to verse 33, so likewise, whoever of you who does not forsake all that he has cannot be my disciple.

We say, well, wow, how do I do that? We have a teacher that shows us. He did it. We have a teacher that lived his life the way we're supposed to live. Now, many of you grew up in the church, and you can say, well, okay, I mean, but I've been doing this all my life. I've been doing this all my life. So I'm not sure how this works with me. Okay, let's go to Mark 10. If you're, I don't care whether you're 50 years old or because I'm 63 and I grew up in the church since I was seven. So I don't care whether you're 63. I don't care whether you're 40 or 30 or 20 or 10. I want you to listen and read what we're going to read in Mark chapter 10. Mark 10.

And let's start in verse 17. Now, as he was going out on the road, one came running and knelt down before him and asked him, good teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? A person kneels down in front of him from the other stories in the other gospels. He seems to have been a person probably of wealth, of some status in society. But he kneels down before him and he says, good teacher, good rabbi, what must I do so that I can be in God's kingdom?

So that I can be in God's kingdom. And Jesus said to him, why do you call me good? No one is good but one that is God. You know the commandments. Do not commit adultery. Do not murder. Do not steal. Do not bear false witness. Do not defraud. Honor your father and your mother. He said, obey God. That's where you start. He wasn't surprised with the next answer. And he answered and said to him, teacher, all these things I have kept from my youth.

And Jesus doesn't dispute that. You can say, well, you know, I grew up in the church. I never took drugs. I didn't sleep around. You know, I never worshiped an idol. I've always kept the Sabbath. I always even paid tithes. And there's people who can say that. And it's true. What this man said was true. I've always done those things. So if you've grown up in the church and there are times you think, I've always done this.

So I'm waiting for some other experience. What you're waiting for is discipleship. But not worshiping an idol is easy compared to what he tells this man. Then Jesus looking at him, loved him. Jesus didn't say, look at this man and say, well, you hypocrite, you haven't done those things. Well, you know what? You're a... let me tell you your sins. You think you don't have any sins? Let me tell you all your sins. He didn't do that. It says he loved him.

He offers him discipleship. Remember, he's a practicing Jew. He's part of the people of God. He's part of the people of God. Jesus itself would say, I have come first to Israel. This is my job is to come first to you people as the people of God. So he came to them as the people of God. And he loves this man. Because this man sincerely wants to obey God. And he says to him, one thing you lack. He says, there's one thing that you're missing if you want to be my disciple.

Go your way, sell whatever you have, give it to the poor, and you will have treasures in heaven and come take up the cross. Come pick up your pole and follow me. Now, if you're in the church and you're 25 years old, and you say, well, I've done this all my life, this is what Jesus Christ is saying to you. I'm not saying go sell everything you have right now. I'm saying you have to be willing to give up everything.

Everything. What are you holding back? A comfortable life, popularity, friends? It's just too much work. What is it you're holding back that says, I've done this all my life. What do you mean? Give up everything. What's not in everything? Well, you mean I may have to... One day I may have to give up my husband or wife because they refuse to follow God. And you know what his answer is? Do you love me more? That has bothered me at times. I thought, wow, my children I love dearly. My wife is the center of my universe.

What do I do if I make them too important? Could I lose them? Not that he would do that on purpose, but the question is, who really is the center of your universe? Who am I and do you love me? It's sad here because verse 22 says, but he was sad this man at the word and went away sorrowful for he had great possession. We forget how young these people were. Many of the people that Jesus interacted with were in their 20s and teenagers. I mean, Mary was a teenager when she gave birth to Jesus. Jesus is in his early 30s. He does some 60-year-old guy walking around, you know, so being a most rabbis, of course, would have been older and had younger people come.

He's a young guy himself. As far as we know, all the disciples were younger than him, so that means they're all in their 20s. These are young people, and this is what he's telling them. Oh, wait a minute. I haven't had my career yet. And Christ says, who am I and do you love me? But I haven't done this yet. Who am I and do you love me? You keep the Ten Commandments.

This is good. He loved this man. He did keep the Ten Commandments. But he never became a disciple, as far as I know. He never became a disciple. The price was too high.

Too high to reign with Jesus Christ. Now, price is too high. You have to think about that price. So we learned a lesson from this. To be a true Christian, we must dedicate our lives to being a disciple. You can't be a Christian and not a disciple. You're a half Christian. God isn't interested in half Christianity. A disciple will be living... if we follow Jesus Christ, if He's the example, if He's the one that shows us how this works, then you and I must have a totally different set of loyalties than everybody else around us. A different set of loyalties.

We have to be very careful about getting too involved in politics. Our loyalties are to the Kingdom of God because that was His loyalties.

That was His loyalty. We have a different set of values. We have a different set of motivations. We have a different set of purposes. We live by a different set of laws. Because that's what Jesus Christ did. Every aspect of life now is a sacrifice to answering these questions.

Who am I? And do you love me? And do you love me? Now let's go to the last question. This is in the Olivet prophecy, Matthew 24. Matthew 24.

What's interesting about the Olivet prophecy is many times, especially on this day, we read the first part of it. Wars and rumors of wars and false religion and diseases and, you know, just all that stuff that's like some, you know, we can visualize it. I was like watching some apocalyptic movie and all these things. And they're going to happen. I mean, it's going to be horrible when it does, but we zero in on those things. Blow the trumpet. Because there's war. Blow the trumpet because of the devastation. But Matthew 24 and 25, all of it, all of it, is the Olivet prophecy. And when you look at Matthew 24 and 25 as an entirety, much, in fact, the majority of the Olivet prophecy is about the church.

We study, you know, we read the first 12 verses or 15 verses, whatever it is, over and over and over again. And yet the rest of the prophecy, which is the great majority of it, is about the church. And it's part of the prophecy. And there's a parable in here. There's a series of parables, but look at this one. Matthew 24 verse 45. Here's the question. Who then is a faithful and wise servant whom is master made ruler over his household to give them food and deuces? So who is it that rules with Jesus Christ?

And then he even gives us the time period. Because remember, this is a prophecy about his second coming. All of Matthew 24 or 25 is a prophecy about his second coming. He says, blessed is that servant who is master. When he comes, we'll find doing so. So this is the servant he's looking for.

So that when he comes back, he finds him doing this. And what will he do with that servant? He says, assuredly I say to you that he will make him ruler over all his goods. Oh, he'll reign with Jesus Christ. So now this prophecy deals specifically, we can tie it in to Revelation chapter 20, that the saints will rule with Christ for a thousand years. Who will rule with Christ for a thousand years? Well, that's the question.

Who is this faithful and wise servant? There are faithful and wise servants who rule with Jesus Christ. So who am I? Do you love me? And who is it that ends up assisting me, serving me? And there are servants here. This is important. Serving me. And we're so concerned sometimes about what power or position we have in the kingdom of God. And that is a dangerous place to be. Because the question is, are we servants of the king?

That's the question. Am I a servant of the king? Not, how much power do I get? So who is it? He asked the question. And then, of course, he answers the question. He says, but if that evil servant says in his heart, wait a minute, there's evil servants of God? It says, there's people who give up on God. There's people who give up and do not hold on to Jesus Christ as a disciple holds on to his master, his teacher.

They don't imitate Him. In fact, He explains exactly what they do. But that evil servant says in his heart, my master is delaying His coming. I know Christ is coming back, but I'm just so tired of waiting for it to happen. I'm so tired of trying to do what I'm supposed to do. I'm so tired of sacrificing my life. I'm so tired of not getting the good job sometimes because I have to be honest. I'm so tired of working on my marriage. I'm so tired of doing this.

I'm so tired of doing that. I'm so tired of going to a congregation. I mean, they're all butch hypocrites anyways. I'm so tired of them. And Christ isn't coming back. And, you know, that's not my focus anymore.

And here's what happens in the life of that servant, and begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with the drunk. When we lose sight of Christ's return, we lose sight of his first coming. And now we're in real danger because we're losing sight of our only means of salvation. We lose sight of that. We're in real trouble. There is only one way of salvation. That's through Christ's first coming and his second coming. When we lose sight of that, we begin to beat our fellow servants.

We simply look down on people. We abuse people. We mistreat people. We think we're better than everybody else. We abuse the servants. This is what he said will happen. And secondly, we live just like the rest of the world. We drink too much. We play too much. We work too much.

Our priorities are all the physical things we can get. That's our whole focus of life. He says this is what happens. Who is the servant that will be that he will put in charge of his house? Who is the servant that will serve him and reign with him? It's not the servant who does this. In fact, the next statement in this parable is frightening because he says, the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him, and in an hour that he's not aware of.

It will cut him in two and appoint him with a portion with the hypocrites, and there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Those are all terms used for the lake of fire. You know, in the character of Jesus Christ, he wouldn't put any of his servants in the lake of fire, and he does here. Now that's not what he wants to do, but who is the servant that reigns with him? It is the servant who picks up that pole and carries it his whole life or her whole life with him helping them. It's the person who gives up everything for him.

And for those who have been raised in the church, many times we have not reached that point yet. We're still like the young man who came to Jesus and said, but I've done it all, and he loved him.

You're loved! And he said, you've got something else. You're still holding back everything. You're still holding back maybe a little piece of something, something, but you're not living life. Following me as I imitate my father, he shows me I do it. I show you you do it.

The severity of this warning should give us a little pause, but that's not really the point here. The point is you're called to be a disciple, and he promises, unless we do this, he promises to get you there.

He just says you have to answer these questions. The three questions that you and I have to ask ourselves all the time. And with this question, who is the faithful servant and why servant? Who's the master made ruler over his household to give them food and do season? This means the disciples must be obedient to God, and we must treat each other with love. We cannot have, in a congregation, people who won't talk to each other, people who won't serve with each other, it can't be that way because we're not being disciples, and we will not be blessed. We can have generation gaps in the church. We will not be blessed because that's what discipleship is. It's looking at the other person saying, huh, we're disciples. Disciples are all messed. Discipleship's a messy thing. Just read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. It was messy for those people. Oh, you're one of the disciples of Jesus. No, I'm not. Get out of my face. That's Peter. I am not one of his disciples. It's messy because eventually you're asked, who do you say I am and do you love me? And do you want to reign with me? Do you want to serve me there? When God calls us, oh, by the way, we haven't even gotten to how we're supposed to treat our enemies. That's even harder than this as a disciple. When God calls someone to salvation, he also calls us to reign with Jesus Christ.

And another question he asked, we won't go there because there's a whole other question. How much are you willing to pay for this? Actually, I didn't read all of it there in Luke, but after he says, you know, you have to love me more, he does say in there, and you have to count the cost. You have to realize what's the cost, everything. But surely you don't mean, and he says, yes, everything. That's part of the question there when he asked that about, you know, do you love me? You have to count cost because you can't get halfway through this and say, I'm not going to be a Christian anymore. I'm going to throw down my steak and I'm going to go get a beer and hang out with the guys. That's not how this works. We pick it up and we carry it. He says, understand, you carry it until you're nailed to it. It's discipleship. He was doing that because he saw the Father telling him to do it. And then he looked at us and said, come on, follow me. Well, the feats of trumpets actually happens. The Old Testament saints, those in that first century church, and all those who have followed God, who have received God's Spirit, who have been disciples of Jesus Christ ever since, people we don't even know about. How many people throughout the last 2,000 years, we don't know. But they will all be resurrected at that point. And those on earth who are still alive, who have survived the tribulation, they will be resurrected. And they will eat Christ in the air at the sound of that trumpet, and they will come down and reign with Him. They will serve the King. We will serve the King. Because we'll know who He is. Because we'll know He loved us, and we'll know He loved us. And we'll know He loved us, and we'll know He loved us, and we'll know He loved us, and we'll know He loved us, and we'll know He came from the Father because He's the Son of God.

Do you want to reign with Jesus Christ for a thousand years? That's the amazing thing. You just haven't been called for salvation. You've been called for a job. You're not just called for salvation. You've been called for a job. Now, it only lasts a thousand years. I'm not sure what we do after that.

But you've got a thousand-year job. That's pretty good job security, right? No, we get six months. We think it's pretty good job security. You've got a thousand-year job awaiting you. You're being prepared for that. Those who will be His servants then are those who are being His disciples now. Celebrate this Feast of Trumpets. Celebrate the Day of Atonement. And celebrate the Feast of Tabernacle. From what they really represent, these future events that are going to happen. And celebrate and understand that you now are a disciple of Jesus Christ, being prepared to reign with Him when He comes and sets up God's kingdom on this earth.