Why Jesus Comes Twice

The disciples were confused. There's a story in Acts where Jesus goes to the... He's resurrected. He goes to the top of the Mount of Olives, and He's talking to them. And they ask Him, Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? Is this it? Is this where You're going to set up God's kingdom on earth? Is this when the angels show up and we start wiping out the Romans? Okay, what is it? Is this it? And He said, no. Do what I told you to do. And then He ascended and disappeared. It said, they just stood there and stared. Now, when you and I think about that, that seems sort of strange. I mean, don't they know about the millennium?

Well, they know about the Messiah ruling on earth. There's nothing in the Old Testament would have told them how long it was. The term millennium would have meant nothing to them at this point. Until you get to the book of Revelation, you don't know it's a thousand years. You just know He's going to rule on earth. There's other things they would not have known. Now they had the Holy Days. See, well, couldn't they have put all the Holy Days together to understand certain things? Well, there's a lot of understanding we have about the Holy Days that actually comes from the New Testament that expands out the meaning of the days. Why does Jesus come twice?

I mean, that's obviously part of the problem they're having. The Messiah has come. The kingdom has got to be set apart. He died. He was, you know, just like, oh, now we can see in Isaiah where he was going to die, the suffering sermon and be beaten, and he was resurrected. It's all been fulfilled. Aren't you going to set up your kingdom now?

Here we are 2,000 years later, and Jesus hasn't set up His kingdom yet.

Why does Jesus come twice? What I'm going to do today, and this is something I did, oh, probably seven or eight years ago, and I was going to make a new slide presentation that'd be a little fancier, and I thought, no, I'm just going to use this one, because this was prepared to do at a feast of tabernacles, and I gave it here, like I said, it was seven or eight years ago, as I was working on this.

You know, you were the guinea pigs, as I was working for this feast sermon, but I'm going to go through it again. I mean, there's certain things that have to be gone through on a regular basis to understand. You and I observe the Holy Days because we're looking at the two great salvation events. There's a third one, and it's pictured in the Holy Days. We'll talk about that. But the two great salvation events that we look at and see clearly is Christ has to come twice, but why does He come twice?

You and I understand something that in Acts they didn't understand. Now, they understood it later because you see it being taught. You see it being understood. You see the whole concepts being expanded about the return of Jesus Christ becomes a regular teaching in the New Testament. And it's revealed, and these inspired writers write it down. But in Acts 1, they didn't know it yet. You and I have an information about understanding about the prophetic meaning of the Holy Days that is incredibly profound.

And I fear we take way too commonly. We know it, but do we? Do we understand what has been given to us in the Holy Days? I'm going to go through today and look at some reasons why Christ said to come twice. And in doing so, I'm going to be going through some scriptures, and it's just a few. I mean, we could be up here for hours.

I'm going to go through a few scriptures that we always hear at the spring of Holy Days or at Pentecost. And scriptures you will hear on trumpets and on atonement and on the last grade day. Just show us and help us understand the continuity of the Holy Days and then understand something very important. The Holy Days are to remind us of the wrath of God.

You know, we're going to talk about that at the Feast of Trumpets. It's to remind us about the prophetic timeline. But the most important underlying foundation of the Holy Days, the thing we must learn the most isn't what we think sometimes. The thing we must learn the most is that the Holy Days tell us God's plan of salvation carried out through Jesus Christ. All of them from Passover to the eighth day. The underlying message in all those days in which everything else is built on is what God is doing in salvation history and He's doing it through Jesus Christ.

So that's what we're going to talk about. When we compare the two comings of Jesus Christ, we're going to find that there are initiation steps. There are steps He does to initiate a certain aspect of the plan. He comes the second time to complete those steps. They're connected together. He comes the first time to do something. What He does the first time is predicted clear back starting in Genesis 3 15, which we've talked about before, and goes through the entire Old Testament.

But the entire Old Testament also has prophecies about other things. And those prophecies all center around what God's doing through Christ in the first set of steps and in the second set of steps. Discovering the biblical continuity, and that's what's important here. You know, one of the classes I teach at the Leadership Workshop is that we must look at the Bible in its continuity. The more we fragment the Bible, the more least we can understand it. Now, there are different things in the Bible that don't connect directly. You know, they were something God did at the moment. You know, He talked through a bush. He only did that once.

But the plan of God and what God is doing, there is a continuity through the entire Scripture. And the Holy Days actually helped teach us that. And so understanding the continuity of the Holy Days helps us understand the continuity of the entire Bible. So we have God's plan of salvation. It helps us understand that and what it means for those of us who live between the two great events. And here's the thing I want to talk about today, then. It helps us understand our present relationship with Jesus Christ. Now, when I say that, I can remember as a child in the radio church of God, hearing from the pulpit that we don't really have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

We only have a personal relationship with God the Father. Now, I haven't heard that in 40 years, but 50 years. But I can remember hearing that. And of course, the question is, well, how do I have a relationship with God the Father and a relationship with Jesus Christ? Christ points us towards the Father. That is where He wants us to look. He even says, if you pray in my name, you don't have to talk to me first. As soon as you pray in my name, the Father listens. But there's an important point there. The way that the one who opens the door for us to be able to go before God is Jesus Christ.

We pray in His name. If we don't pray in His name, we don't get the right to go there. So it's very important to understand how God the Father works through the Word, the one who was with Him forever, who was God and is God, you know, who was with God and is God.

To understand this relationship means we also have to have some relationship with Jesus Christ. In fact, He said when He was on earth, if you don't love Me more than your mother, your father, your sister, your brother, your own life also, you cannot be My disciple. So there is a relationship. We must love Him or we're not a disciple of Jesus Christ. Now He said that. So how do we understand that relationship with Jesus Christ? What's amazing is it's all outlined in the Holy Days. How we relate to Jesus Christ is outlined in the Holy Days. Okay, so let's start going through some of these reasons.

Jesus Christ came the first time as a substitute sacrifice. Ah, we're back at Passover, correct? Okay, everything we go through is going to connect somehow to the Holy Days. We're back at the Passover. And that's when we realize that because of our corrupted human nature, the only way we can receive salvation is either die forever for our sins or have a substitute.

It's interesting that this concept is being destroyed with world Christianity. It's being destroyed with world Christianity because this would make God an abuser of His child to have Him killed. And it comes back to just be kind. That's why it was nice to have, you know, some discussion of what kindness actually means. So today, a Christian in world Christianity is that you are kind means you accept as long as you love. So we should never condemn LGBTQ because it's unkind, therefore it's not Christ-like. That's the argument.

Well, none of us are unkind. We're not going to go punch you in the nose. We're going to talk to our neighbors. I mean, we're going to be nice, but we're not going to condone their actions. We're not going to condone what they do, and we're going to make a stand on that. Oh, you're not kind. By acting like it's okay, we are being unkind. Now, once again, there's a time and place to say something, and there's a time and place not to, right? If I'm at Starbucks and the person handing me my coffee is obvious a certain way, I don't say, repent, you sitter. No. I say, thank you for my coffee.

That's all, you know, thank you. And he's, have a nice day. You too. I mean, it's not the place and time to do that. If he asks me my opinion, we have a whole other problem. But even that depends on how I approach it, right? I don't say, you know, you scumbag. Okay, that's not how you do this.

But the point I'm making is we're going back to the very foundation here, is that there has to be a substitute. Woke Christianity destroys the concept of a substitute sacrifice for Jesus, of Jesus for us. We all need it. None of us, nobody, Abraham, David, marry the the mother of Jesus. None of them had enough goodness to earn their salvation. None of them. And if they don't, we surely don't, right? None of them did. It all takes God's forgiveness and it takes the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. So during the Days of Unleavened Bread, or before the Passover, you always hear this. Let's go to Romans 5. Romans chapter 5. And let's go to verse six. This is the center discussion that we have every year at Passover. From when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die. Yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more than having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. That's the center of all discussions. Of course, during the Passover season, we're going to go to 15 different passages, right, to make this point. But that's it. That's where this starts. So we understand He had to come the first time to pay the price, to be the sacrifice for salvation. Now, He comes the second time to do something else. I mean, right now the majority of the world does not know they need Jesus Christ as a sacrifice. You know, the Hindus don't know, the Buddhists don't know, Islam doesn't know, right? They don't know. And yet He died for all human beings. And that's, He mentions that too. Now that doesn't mean everybody receives salvation. It means that salvation will be open to everyone. Now coming up at the Feast of Tabernacles, so I'm jumping from Passover to Tabernacles, these verses will be read. Let's go to Isaiah 11. Every feast you hear these read.

And we know, once again, I'm sort of information dump here, because I expect everybody to know where we're coming from, right? These are not like difficult scriptures. You've heard these over and over again every year, many of you, 40 years. You've heard these scriptures read at different times of the year. Verse 1 of Isaiah 11, there shall come forth a rod from the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. And you can prove you go to the New Testament. This is Jesus Christ. The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. His delight is in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by the sight of His eyes, nor decide by the hearing of His ears. But with righteousness He will judge the poor, decide with equity for the meek of the earth, and shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth. And with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt of His loins, and the faithfulness is the belt of His waist. Now, we will talk about some of this, even if we don't go to the Scripture, on the Feast of Trumpets. The Feast of Trumpets is when Christ comes back, and it's the day of the Lord. He comes back to establish God's kingdom on this earth, but people under Satan's direction revolt and try to stop Him. And there's a terrible war. So there's this wrath part. But then He goes into how the wolf shall dwell at the lamb. So the rest of this passage goes through six through nine, is about how wonderful it'll be when this happens. When He comes and He rules on earth, and they'll beat their swords and the plow shears. Right? All this is going to change. Then verse 10, and at day there shall be a root of Jesse, once again a descendant of Jesse, the father of David, who shall stand as a banner to the people, for the Gentile shall seek Him, and his resting place shall be glorious.

He came the first time to die to open the door for salvation.

But we still live in Satan's world, don't we? And we have to talk about that. Why do we get to that? Why is it we still live in Satan's world? He came, you know, to die for humanity's sins. But it's not open to everybody yet. Remember, Gentiles just means non-Israelite. He comes for the nations.

Christ is coming back for the nations. He's coming back for everyone to allow that sacrifice to apply to whoever repents. And so when He comes back to set up God's kingdom on this earth, it isn't just to punish everybody. I mean, you don't have to punish a lot of people or revolting against Him. But He will come to say, I have brought salvation from my Father to you. I have come to let you know that you can be part of God's family, that you can be part of what we designed you to be. He's coming for everyone. And that's what the message of Trumpets and the Feast of Tabernacles also contains. So He comes the first time to be a sacrifice. He comes the second time to apply that on a grand scale. See, you and I tend to think because, well, being self-conscious, we all think we're the center of the universe. That's just normal. The truth is, in God's plan, we're just this little thing. There's this big plan, and in this plan, there's us. Now, even the fact that we're in it should give us, should make us filled with all. God would let us be part of this. But we're just this. That's all we are. And it's a great plan. And you and I get to know it. We get to know where we are in this grand plan of God. And it's revealed through the Holy Days. And what happens in this first point is that because of this sacrifice and the receiving of God's forgiveness because of this sacrifice, we relate to Jesus Christ as Savior. We sing about it. We talk about it. But do we really get it? Do you understand without this sacrifice, we have nothing worth saving? That's God's viewpoint. Now, He makes us worth it. He gives us something we don't have. He leads us. He forgives us. He changes us through the power of the Holy Spirit. That's the whole point. God says, I can do this, but it starts with one thing. That first coming without that. And the whole Old Testament tells that. The whole Old Testament is about the Messiah coming. You know, if Jesus Christ didn't come, if He was at the Messiah, He didn't come and die and was resurrected, then throw out everything in your Bible because the Old Testament isn't true. All the prophecies failed and the New Testament isn't true because it says it happened. This is the starting point. Okay, the second point. Jesus came to die. Okay, we've seen that as a sacrifice. But He came to be resurrected and become the first born elder brother in God's kingdom. This is what I find so fascinating, or one of the things about the mind of God. He didn't have to do it this way. I can't imagine, I don't know what the conversation is in heaven, but okay, we're going to create them and we know it says from the foundation of the earth, He was slain. In other words, the moment Adam and Eve sinned, this whole plan was put in motion. Boom! This is what's going to happen.

And the one who is, we call the word Christ, it was decided for Him to become one of us so that we could call Him brother, so we could understand that God was creating a family and the part we played in it. I want you to think about that. I can't imagine saying, yes, that's what I'll do. And that's what He said, oh, this is what I'm going to do. Write all the prophecies about it, and this is what's going to happen. He knew, He knew what's written in Isaiah, but He'll be beaten to the point that no one could even recognize Him. He knew that He helped inspire, write it. And yet, He decided to come.

Because this is the way we're going to show you, God the Father and Christ, are going to show us what love is and what justice is and what truth is, is this one will become like us.

That's what the Passover days of love and bread teach us. Right? That's His reason for His first coming. Look at 1 Corinthians 15. 1 Corinthians 15.

Okay, we know this. We talk about this every year.

1 Corinthians 15 verse 20.

But now Christ has risen from the dead, and He's become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. In other words, this is the first action. See, we're in between the two great salvation points. There's actually, like I said, there's a third one. We get to it. But we live between these two things. He came to be resurrected. He's going to show us how it's done.

I find it fascinating. Okay, we'll just let Him die and resurrect Him. That wasn't what was decided. What was decided is that the Word was going to become flesh and die and be resurrected to say, this is how it's done. I will die to show you how you can live forever. I will go through that experience to show you. He now becomes a first fruit. For since man came death, by man came death. By man also came the resurrection of the dead. So He goes on and He talks about how Jesus is this first fruit and what it means in terms of the resurrection. Remember, 1 Corinthians 15 is the resurrection chapter. It's about human beings being resurrected. And at the heart of that is, He shows us. He shows us. Now, we know when we get to the Feast of Trumpets, we're going to be talking about one of the first events that happened when Jesus Christ returns. What is it? Anybody? What happens when He comes back? Before He destroys the armies that come up against Him? The resurrection. So He came to show us how it works. And the second time He comes, He resurrects all those prepared to serve Him on God's kingdom on the earth. Think about that. He comes the first time to show us. He comes the second time to take the next step. That's why these are tied together. There is no resurrection without His first resurrection. They have to be two different events. They have to be two different events. That's why Jesus told them and they didn't understand it. On the pass overnight, He said, I go to prepare a place for you and I'll come back. And you read through there. They didn't know what He meant. They didn't know He meant, I'm going to go die and then go, I'll come back and talk to you and then I'm going to go back to heaven and then I'll come back again. How long would that take? A couple thousand years. Okay, they didn't know any of that. They know none of that. All they know is I'm going someplace and then I'll come back.

And you come back to do what? Now you read through the rest of the New Testament. The resurrection became central to their belief system. He was resurrected. Therefore, we can be resurrected and therefore it happens at a second coming. He has to come back to make this happen.

And so we can see that with these two points, we find out that not only is Christ the Savior, but He's our elder brother, to show us how to become part of the family of God, which is an impossible concept. He became like us and said, now follow me into the family of God. And He's coming back the second time to really ramp up that process by actually having people resurrected.

And you and I have been called to that to be part of that resurrection.

Okay, the third thing I want to talk about is Christ came to defeat Satan as the ruler of the earth. Now this is the problem. If He came to defeat Satan as the ruler of the earth, why is Satan still ruling? Right? Why is Satan still the ruler of the earth? Let's go to Hebrews 2. As we go through these, you'll see that some of these points now all start to sort of weave together into a similar concept. Hebrews 2 verse 14. Inasmuch then as the children, the human beings created by God, have partaken of the flesh and blood, He Himself, Jesus Christ, likewise shared in the same that through death He might destroy Him who had the power of death, that is the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. He said because of Satan, we die because of his influence, and we can't free ourselves from that. We can't free ourselves from the limited physical lives we have. So in order to defeat Satan, he became like us and defeated him. You know, the word could have defeated Satan just with a declaration. You know, when God takes Satan and throws him in the like of fire, he doesn't need any help to do that. In fact, actually, Christ is going to do it. He doesn't He doesn't need any help to do that. He just does it. But for us, He came and defeated Satan as one of us. Savior, brother, you see how this all starts to fit together. This relationship we have with Jesus Christ. He's all these things. When we go through the feats of trumpets, David Tomit, we will be looking at Christ's returning. And during the David Tomit, we will talk about the binding of Satan. Satan's bound. The first time he came, he beat him. He comes the second time and says, okay, you're out of here. But it's not for an extended period of time. It's only until the end of the millennium, and then he's released for a little bit. You know, there's no way I can see how they could have known that, except through direct revelation in the Old Testament, and they didn't write it down. Because the great white throne judgment is not mentioned specifically. It's hinted at in Malachi, in a few places, but it's not mentioned directly until what? The end of the book of Revelation. So what we have is, he came the first time to just defeat Satan. We live between, remember, the two great events. And so we live in the time period where he's defeated, but he's not thrown out yet. And when Christ comes back, he removes Satan. I don't know if we can imagine. I'm sure none of us know what it's like not to live without Satan's constant influence, right? When that's gone, I can't even imagine what it's like to be a human being. Now you still have your own human nature, but with Satan gone, there's a lot of influence. It's just gone. When Satan and demons are gone. Okay. The first time to defeat him, he comes the second time to say, time's up.

So when we do this, we understand this, we see that Jesus Christ is our champion. He defeated our adversary. We live in fear all the time. And he keeps saying, I've already beaten him. I've already beaten him. I defeated him for you. He didn't defeat him for God. God could defeat Satan whenever he wanted to. He defeated Satan as one of us for us. He did it for us.

Now we're still here to fight, don't we? We're here in this war, but we got to remember, we stay with our champion. He wins.

No, it's not that necessarily, yeah, we win, but it's not because we defeat Satan. It's because our champion defeats him and we follow him. So there's a first and second coming for that to happen. Okay. Christ came to initiate the new covenant. We understand that the old covenant, there's still elements of the old covenant that still are, you know, to be lived by. I mean, we still can't kill. We still can't steal or commit adultery. The Sabbath still exist. We can't worship idols. I mean, there's all kinds of moral law that was part of that old covenant that is greater than the old covenant. But there are parts of the old covenant that had to be replaced, and this isn't new. I mean, this was clear back in Deuteronomy. It was said this would happen. Jeremiah and other prophets talk about it to a great extent. That there was going to be this new covenant that was going to be made. And in this new covenant, the Holy Spirit of God was going to be poured out, and people would have God directly working in them instead of having an external force of the law. The law didn't go away. It's just it's now being impressed upon us by God instead of trying to keep it outside of ourselves. But there are aspects of the old covenant we don't do anymore. You and I don't go to a temple where there's a high priest in Jerusalem. We don't bring lambs. We don't sacrifice them. Or goats or bullocks or turtledoves, right? There are certain things. There is no Levitical priesthood today serving God. Okay, so he brought a new covenant. He told them on the, you know, he sat down and said on the night of the Passover, starts at the Passover, take this bread, take this wine, this is my blood, this is my body, of the new covenant. You and I are in the new covenant. What does that mean? Well, let's go to Hebrews chapter 4. Under the old covenant, one of the major factors was that it was made with the direct descendants of Abraham, which it was. And there's still a lot of promises today that are made to the direct descendants of Abraham. There's promises that are going to happen where Christ comes back. But the new covenant did something that was remarkable. It was 4 verse 14. Seeing then that we have a high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Jesus Christ came to initiate a new covenant so that he could become the high priest for all.

And so we don't have a logistical priesthood today. He had to come and do that. He is now the high priest. He ascended. You know, that's the wave sheaf offering in the days of 11 bread. Do not hang on to me, Jesus said. I haven't ascended yet. He had to go do the wave sheaf offering. And it talks about in Psalms 110 and other places, he would be resurrected and sit down on the right hand of God the Father. He had to go do that. That was his first coming. His first coming was to prepare to go take over being high priest of the new covenant. And he does that now. He is the high priest of the new covenant. The new covenant that expands out. Let's look at Isaiah 42. This is a passage that is read almost every Feast of Tabernacles.

Sometimes we look at these things and we see them in a, we don't see them in the grandeur. The enormity of the concept of what's going on. Isaiah 42, verse 1, Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my elect one and whom my soul delights. Okay, once again, we all look at this. We know it's mentioned in the New Testament. It is Jesus Christ. He fulfills this.

I put my spirit upon him. He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles. He will not cry out and raise his voice and cause his voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed he will not break and smoking flax. He will not quench. He will bring forth justice for truth and for he, he will not fail nor be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth and the coastlands shall wait for his law. When he comes back, he serves to bring the new covenant to everyone. He becomes the one whose blood covers sin. David Toment. What is David Toment about? The blood that covers sin, right, ties it back into Passover. It is interesting that this is quoted in Matthew, but it's a little different. Verse 4 here says, he will not fail nor be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth and the coastlands shall wait for his law. When it's quoted in Matthew, it says, well, let's just go there so I get it totally right. Isaiah, or I'll be like Paul, I'll quote things that are half-quoted, although I don't have the inspiration Paul had. So I'm going to try to keep from doing that. Notice how this is a little different. Let's start in chapter 12, verse 20. He's quoting from this passage, okay, and this is Jesus saying this. Verse 19 says, he will not quarrel nor cry out, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break, smoking flax he will not quench, till he sends forth justice to victory, and in his name Gentiles will trust. Now that's not exactly what the Hebrew text says. Well, the reason why is Jesus is quoting the Septuagint. If you translate it in English, that's exactly what the Greek the Greek scripture, the Greek translation of Isaiah says that they would have had at the time.

The coastlands meant Hebrews is a language. It has its pictures in it. It meant outside of Israel, okay, beyond the coasts. This is going to go beyond the coast. And so when they translated it back, that before Jesus was even born into Greek, they translated as all the nations. That's not a bad translation. It's not exact Hebrew, but it captures the meaning of it.

You will find this throughout the New Testament, or sometimes they're quoting the Septuagint, and sometimes they're quoting the Hebrew text. And if you're like Paul, sometimes you're just sort of paraphrasing it. Paul's quotes aren't exact all the time. He doesn't have the scrolls in front of him. He's just quoting the Bible from memory. But you always find they all fit. That's why this isn't a problem, because it's the same thing. When he comes, everything he does is going to go out to everywhere. No one's going to be excluded from this. And he's going to become the high priest of everyone. And so when we understand that he came to begin the new covenant, he's going to come back to expand that covenant, that he is the high priest. We should see him as the high priest, because every time you go before God the Father, you and I only have permission to go there, because Jesus Christ says, this one is accepted. This one is accepted. Apply my blood to this person.

Okay. Jesus came to establish the church. Now we know about that. Jesus told the disciples, you know, I'm going to create an assembly. I'm not sure they understood at the time how profound that was. They went to assemblies every Sabbath in the synagogue. And what happened after Christ ascended, they all went back to the synagogues. That was the assembly. And then they all got kicked out. And they began to realize the majority of Jews, and remember, they were all, the first disciples were Jews, overwhelmingly for the first main part. These Jews are saying, uh-oh, the Jews aren't accepting the Messiah. And if Paul comes along and says, yep, we've got to go tell everybody. They didn't particularly like that. What do you mean? Everybody could be as, we're the people of God. We were given the Ten Commandments. God talks to us. Abraham is our Father. We have the scrolls. And this is going to be equal. And Paul says, yep, it's that time.

This is when it begins to go out to everyone. And you and I live between those two events.

I'm introducing this new covenant, and then it's going out to the world. And we live in between. And that's why it is not only so important that we live this, because you are a participant in the new covenant. When you were baptized, there was a covenant made with God and you that you're part of His covenant. And part of that covenant is, whenever there's an opportunity that's proper, you share the Word with somebody else. You share this gospel with other people. That we've been prepared. Be prepared to do that. Because we're part of the new covenant. Now that doesn't mean you go around preaching to everybody. I don't go around preaching to everybody. But you look for the opportunities. And so when we see, when Christ comes back the second time, He resurrects all these people to do what? To teach the world. To teach the world. What we see here is Jesus then as the head of the church. He directs the church under God. Yes, He and God work together under God's supervision, so to speak. I don't think it's supervision. It's under God's love. And God's, whatever this relationship they have that is completely unlike what we know because they've never had an argument. I don't understand that. Right? They've never had a disagreement. I don't understand that. There's this remarkable I don't know. It's who they are. He says, hey, you want to come participate in this? That's what He's asking us to do. Come participate in our relationship, okay? And we struggle against it. So He is the head of the church. Whatever happens in the church with the Father's direction or whatever words you want to use, Christ carries it out.

Christ carries it out.

Okay, next point. Christ came to leave His followers an example of how to live.

Peter talks about this. 1 Peter 2. Once again, we're talking about things that we talk about all the time. No, I only have seven points, so this isn't going to go on forever, okay? 1 Peter.

And, you know, there were lots of scriptures I could have gone to that talks about responding in the New Testament. We must respond to Christ as the head of the church. He's mentioned over and over and over again. He is the head of the church. He is the one who directs it. He's the one we must obey. So, 1 Peter 2. Verse 21. For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that you should follow His steps, who committed no sin, their deceit was found in His mouth. Verse 22 is a quote from an Old Testament messianic prophecy. They're tying Him in. All the, everything keeps going back and tying that into Him. He came as an example. He came as an example. It was prophesied. He did it. And so we need to understand that we are to imitate His life in every way imaginable. If we want to know how to do it, look at His life and His teachings and the teachings of the disciples that lived after Him, and that's it. And of course you always find it's based on the moral law. There's no detachment between what you see in the Old Testament. What we have in the New Covenant is God's Spirit available to us, and then the fact that this covenant's open to everybody. Anybody can come and participate. It's the same story all the way through. Same God all the way through. Same basic rules of how He wants us to live all the way through. Just different administration of it.

Why does He come the second time? He came to leave us an example, right? So that we can learn. Well, let's go to a scripture and Micah that you will probably hear during the Feast of Tabernacles.

Micah chapter 4 verse 1.

Shall come now shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established to the top of the mountains and shall be exalted above the hills and all people shall flow to it. And many nations will come and say, you see what this is? We all know this is a messianic prophecy about what? What Christ is going to do during the millennium. Many nations shall come and say, come and let us go to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. And He will teach us His ways and we shall walk in His paths for out of Zion or Jerusalem, the law shall go forth and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And it goes on and talks about how He's going to do that. He came here now to model for us what we're supposed to do. And then He comes back the second time to teach the world on how to live this way.

And He's always going to have a group of people that go clear back to Abel and Noah and his, you know, and Abraham and Sarah. All these people throughout all these years, all through the church era who have followed Him and been trained by Him, they're going to be resurrected. And guess what? Their job is to model this, to teach this. He modeled it for us. It'll be our job to teach and model it to humanity. That's a little frightening.

But it's what we've been called to become. And when we do this, what we begin to really understand is Jesus as mentor.

We're disciples. Our job today is to help each other be disciples and to help new people who come into the church to be disciples. And our job in the millennium will be to teach disciples. And that goes over into the last great day.

Our last point is Christ came to reveal the Father.

Let's go to what He told His disciples, what Jesus told Him at the Passover. We just keep going back and forth through Holy Days here. That's all we've been doing. John 17.

John 17, verse 25.

This is part of the prayer He gave on that day before they came to get Him to go out so He would be tortured and killed. He says, He said, And that's Christ's purpose today is to lead us to understand God the Father. It's to get us to understand who God really is. And of course, who He really is, is the Word. And what's very fascinating is this is all wrapped up on the eighth day of the feast.

This is when it all comes together. Let's go back to 1 Corinthians 15. 1 Corinthians 15. I know it's a bit of an information dump, but you should know these scriptures. These are things we should all know.

1 Corinthians 15. Back to the resurrection chapter here. And we already read, let's see, we read some verses here.

Let's go to verse 23 because it's talking about Christ being risen from the dead as the firstfruits. We read that in 20. Let's read in verse 23. Each one in his own order, Christ the firstfruits, after those who are Christ that is coming. Now, we do know there's a second resurrection in there, and that is at the end of the millennium, right? So we know that from Revelation. And he says, then comes the end. So there is the first resurrection, but we know the end doesn't happen right away. That there's a thousand years. And we know there's a point where Satan's released. And we know that there's this point of second resurrection and the great white throne judgment and the lake of fire. So this all gets put down into this compact statement. But you and I know, okay, how broad this is. And this summarizes what's going to happen on that eighth day.

Then comes the end when he, speaking of Christ, delivers the kingdom of God, the kingdom to God the Father, when he puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign to his put, has put all enemies under his feet. And the last enemy that will be destroyed is death. We understand Satan is gone. He's removed. No human being created in the image of God will ever die again. But when does that last death take place? When there's the lake of fire, destruction of the earth with a lake of fire. So the point he's making is there comes a time when it's all done. There comes a time when the millennium's over and Satan is removed and there's a second resurrection. We know that. He's not explaining it here. And then there's a final judgment and then there's a lake of fire. And then what happens? What happens after all that? He says, then Christ gives the kingdom to the Father.

We go clear back to Genesis 3 15 and we have, I've done it. It's finished. Here they are. Here's all your children. And God says, good, we're going to remake everything for them. The earth, the universe, we're going to recreate everything just for them. And New Jerusalem comes to earth. That's Revelation 21 and 22. And Revelation 21 and 22 is the last part of the Holy Days. And we can spend all the time you want trying to figure out what happens after that. And the truth is we have no idea. All we're told is it's beyond what you can imagine. What happens after that is beyond what you can imagine. And we have this. That's the third great salvation event. I said, we live between the two. The third great salvation event is what? It's the kingdom is created. There's a whole new family, whole new heaven and earth. That's what God's working on. We see this as a very myopic way, a very small way, because we're small. I mean, God doesn't punish us for that. It's because we're small. But if we can just get a glimpse in the Holy Days, that's sometimes what we think is really important here. I mean, I, the Feast of Trumpets, I like to get into beast power and, you know, the coming tribulation. And I really like getting into that. And I probably will, at least a little bit. But you know, that's secondary to the purpose. What we're really supposed to be thinking about, first of all, in the list, is Christ coming back as part of the next step and that we can be there.

And see how it's all tied together? The Holy Days, people can believe the Sabbath and worship God. And this is good. And this is what God wants. The Holy Days teach us something. When you put them all together in all those hundreds of verses that fit together, all about the Holy Days, you realize that we have the entire plan of God, of salvation, outlined in the work of Jesus Christ. And in this last one, we're taught maybe the most important thing about Christ and what we, how we should see Him, our relationship with Him. Those who are followers of Christ, see Him as the way. He's the way to experience a personal relationship with the Father. He brings us to the Father, and He is the way. So I want to, as we approach this, these fall Holy Days, I want you to think about how in this entire process, God is showing us, look what I'm doing to carry out my plan, and look who I'm doing it through.