Triumphal Entry
Bible Study Time 3-25-07
Church links:
Bible Study Time 3-25-07
Luke, the evangelist, tells us that as Jesus left Jericho heading for His crucifixion in Jerusalem, He sensed that the people thought the kingdom was going to come very soon. They were so excited because, as far as they could see, that which the children of Israel had longed for all through the centuries was about to come to pass.
Luke says that when the Lord sensed what the people were thinking, He told the parable of the ten minas. He said:
Luke 19:12 (NKJ)
12 . . . "A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return.
This nobleman was the Lord Jesus. He was a man of noble birth. God the Father spoke from heaven on several occasions, saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
The people thought that they could make Jesus the King of Israel. And why not? When David returned to Israel after living with the Philistines, the Bible says that “the men of Judah came to Hebron and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah.” In this same way, the Jews of Jesus day thought that they could simply anoint Jesus as their king.
However, the kingdom of the Lord Jesus was not to be just an ordinary kingdom. It was to be the Kingdom of Heaven. Therefore, the Lord Jesus had to go before the throne of God in heaven so that God, the Father, could anoint Him as the King over all the earth.
The devil pretended that he had the power to give the kingdoms of this earth to Jesus. He showed Jesus all the kingdoms of the world and said:
Matthew 4:9 (NKJ)
9 . . . "All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me."
But the devil could not give the kingdom to Jesus and neither could the children of Israel. Only God the Father could give the kingdom to His Son. So, in the parable of the ten minas, Jesus indicated that He would be going away in order to receive the kingdom from His Father.
Then Jesus said that the nobleman who was going away:
Luke 19:13-14 (NKJ)
13 " . . . called ten of his servants, delivered to them ten minas, and said to them, 'Do business till I come.'
14 "But his citizens hated him, and sent a delegation after him, saying, 'We will not have this man to reign over us.'
The leaders of the nation of Israel steadfastly refused to accept Jesus as their king. By plotting His death, they were sending a message to the Father that was loud and clear. It was a message that said, we will not have this man to reign over us.
The Lord Jesus came unto His own, and His own received Him not, but as many as received Him, to them gave He the power to become the sons of God. Therefore, in the parable of the minas, the Lord said that the nobleman gave gifts to His servants before He went away. He gave ten minas each to ten servants and said, do business until I return.
Luke 19:15-27 (NKJ)
15 "And so it was that when he returned, having received the kingdom, he then commanded these servants, to whom he had given the money, to be called to him, that he might know how much every man had gained by trading.
16 "Then came the first, saying, 'Master, your mina has earned ten minas.'
17 "And he said to him, 'Well done, good servant; because you were faithful in a very little, have authority over ten cities.'
18 "And the second came, saying, 'Master, your mina has earned five minas.'
19 "Likewise he said to him, 'You also be over five cities.'
20 "Then another came, saying, 'Master, here is your mina, which I have kept put away in a handkerchief.
21 'For I feared you, because you are an austere man. You collect what you did not deposit, and reap what you did not sow.'
22 "And he said to him, 'Out of your own mouth I will judge you, you wicked servant. You knew that I was an austere man, collecting what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not sow.
23 'Why then did you not put my money in the bank, that at my coming I might have collected it with interest?'
24 "And he said to those who stood by, 'Take the mina from him, and give it to him who has ten minas.'
25 ("But they said to him, 'Master, he has ten minas.')
26 'For I say to you, that to everyone who has will be given; and from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.
The Lord Jesus was preparing His disciples for the fact that when He went away, they would be given gifts and that they would be held accountable for the way they used those gifts. On the day of Pentecost, the disciples received their gifts when the Holy Spirit came upon them. All of a sudden they started praising God and speaking in tongues. Peter stood up and said that this was the fulfillment of Joel’s prophesy, which said:
Joel 2:28-29 (NKJ)
28 "And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions.
29 And also on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days.
On that Day of Pentecost, Peter explained to this Jewish crowd that Jesus was the Lord of glory, but they had crucified Him. But then, Peter declared that God had raised Jesus from the dead and that if they would repent and be baptized, God would forgive them of their sins. On that day 3000 people got saved.
Peter is a great example of the servant who took the gift that Jesus gave him and used that gift to bring honor and glory to the name of Jesus. When Jesus returns, Peter will stand before the Lord, and the Lord will reward Peter by giving him great responsibilities in the kingdom.
However, there will be loss of reward for those who refuse to use their gifts for God’s glory. I say that these people refuse to use their gifts because only God can bless and utilize those gifts. All we have to do is submit to God and yield ourselves as His instruments of righteousness.
In other words, it wasn’t Peter who spoke on the day of Pentecost. It was the Holy Spirit speaking through Peter. That’s why 3000 people got saved. It’s God who blesses us with gifts, and it’s God and God alone who can use those gifts to accomplish His plan and purpose.
Then, according to the parable, the nobleman said:
Luke 19:27 (NKJ)
27 . . . bring here those enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, and slay them before me.'"
Those who refuse to believe in Jesus Christ will also be brought before the Lord on the day of judgment, but they will be sentenced to death. Therefore, we see that the saved and the unsaved will all be called before the Lord to give an account of their lives. As Solomon said in Ecclesiastes:
Ecclesiastes 3:17 (NKJ)
17 . . . "God shall judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time there for every purpose and for every work."
As we would expect, however, the Lord Jesus did not reveal any significant time lapse between the judgment of the saved and the judgment of the unsaved. Jesus simply indicated that when He returns to the earth after having received His kingdom, He will reward the saints and then put to death the unsaved.
However, as we read the book of the Revelation, we see that there is actually a thousand year gap between the two events. Revelation 20 says that when the Lord returns, He will bind the devil in the bottomless pit, and then He will reward the saints. John said:
Revelation 20:4 (NKJ)
4 And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.
So the saints will be rewarded on the basis of how effectively they used their gifts, but then John says that:
Revelation 20:5-6 (NKJ)
5 . . . the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished . . .
So the first resurrection involves the resurrection of the saints before the thousand year reign of Christ, while the second resurrection will be the resurrection of the unsaved which will occur at the end of the thousand year reign of Christ. John said:
Revelation 20:6
6 Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.
These saints will be resurrected with new glorified bodies so that they can reign with Christ for a thousand years, but the Lord Jesus hinted at the fact that those believers who are alive at the time of this first resurrection will be raptured and given immortal bodies as well. Just before the Lord raised Lazarus from the dead, He told Martha:
John 11:25-26 (KJV)
25 . . . I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:
This, of course, is the first resurrection. It says, “though he were dead, yet shall he live.” But then the Lord said:
John 11:26 (KJV)
26 And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die . . .
In this statement the Lord clearly indicated that there will be some believers who will receive their immortal bodies even though their mortal bodies have never died. This mystery was explained by the Apostle Paul. In I Corinthians 15, Paul said:
1 Corinthians 15:51-53 (NKJ)
51 Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed--
52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
Of course, this was not the first time that Paul wrote about the rapture of living saints. Early in his ministry, he wrote to the believers in Thessalonica saying:
1Thessalonians 4:15-17 (NKJ)
15 . . . this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep.
16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.
17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.
So there will be a rapture and a resurrection of believers before the thousand year reign of Christ, and then there will be a resurrection of unbelievers at the end of the thousand year reign of Christ.
In the parable of the ten minas, the Lord was challenging the disciples to keep the faith in spite of the fact that He, Himself, was going to be going away in order to be crowned by the Father as King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.
Then Luke said that as soon as the Lord finished telling this parable, He went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. . . . He knew exactly what God had called Him to do. He knew exactly what it was going to take to bring salvation to mankind. He knew exactly what it was going to take to bring redemption to mankind and all of creation. All of this would depend upon His willingness to offer His shed blood as the atonement for sin. Philippians, Chapter 2, says that Jesus Christ:
Philippians 2:8-11 (NKJ)
8 . . . humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.
9 Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth,
11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
The Father loved the Son, but the Father was willing to send His only begotten Son into the world to die for our sins. In this we see how much the Father loves us. The Apostle John said:
I John 4:9 (NKJ)
9 In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.
The Son was willing to do the will of the Father, and it was the will of the Father that all men should be saved. Therefore, Jesus humbled Himself and became obedient unto the death of the cross. But now, God has highly exalted Him and has given Him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
Now from Paul’s prison epistles, we know that the Church of our present age will have a separate rapture and a separate resurrection which will take place before the tribulation period. It’s obvious that the Apostle John did not see our rapture or our resurrection because he saw the resurrection which will take place at the end of the tribulation period as the first resurrection. But it may be that we will not be called before the Lord to receive our rewards until the time of that resurrection which will occur at the end of the tribulation period, at the event that John called the first resurrection. This would mean that all believers will be rewarded at that time, but our part in that so called first resurrection is still unclear.
But we do know that all those who bow before the Lord Jesus and believe on Him during their lifetime will come before Him to receive their rewards. On the other hand, those who refuse to accept the Lord Jesus during their lifetime will bow before Him at the time of the second resurrection and they will be sentenced to the second death which is the lake of fire. As John said, “Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection.”
Well, I see our time is gone for this morning. Thank you for listening to Bible Study Time. It’s been a pleasure studying with you, and I’ll look forward to being with you again next week at this same time.
Write me at: jimjoan77@juno.com
Luke says that when the Lord sensed what the people were thinking, He told the parable of the ten minas. He said:
Luke 19:12 (NKJ)
12 . . . "A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return.
This nobleman was the Lord Jesus. He was a man of noble birth. God the Father spoke from heaven on several occasions, saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
The people thought that they could make Jesus the King of Israel. And why not? When David returned to Israel after living with the Philistines, the Bible says that “the men of Judah came to Hebron and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah.” In this same way, the Jews of Jesus day thought that they could simply anoint Jesus as their king.
However, the kingdom of the Lord Jesus was not to be just an ordinary kingdom. It was to be the Kingdom of Heaven. Therefore, the Lord Jesus had to go before the throne of God in heaven so that God, the Father, could anoint Him as the King over all the earth.
The devil pretended that he had the power to give the kingdoms of this earth to Jesus. He showed Jesus all the kingdoms of the world and said:
Matthew 4:9 (NKJ)
9 . . . "All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me."
But the devil could not give the kingdom to Jesus and neither could the children of Israel. Only God the Father could give the kingdom to His Son. So, in the parable of the ten minas, Jesus indicated that He would be going away in order to receive the kingdom from His Father.
Then Jesus said that the nobleman who was going away:
Luke 19:13-14 (NKJ)
13 " . . . called ten of his servants, delivered to them ten minas, and said to them, 'Do business till I come.'
14 "But his citizens hated him, and sent a delegation after him, saying, 'We will not have this man to reign over us.'
The leaders of the nation of Israel steadfastly refused to accept Jesus as their king. By plotting His death, they were sending a message to the Father that was loud and clear. It was a message that said, we will not have this man to reign over us.
The Lord Jesus came unto His own, and His own received Him not, but as many as received Him, to them gave He the power to become the sons of God. Therefore, in the parable of the minas, the Lord said that the nobleman gave gifts to His servants before He went away. He gave ten minas each to ten servants and said, do business until I return.
Luke 19:15-27 (NKJ)
15 "And so it was that when he returned, having received the kingdom, he then commanded these servants, to whom he had given the money, to be called to him, that he might know how much every man had gained by trading.
16 "Then came the first, saying, 'Master, your mina has earned ten minas.'
17 "And he said to him, 'Well done, good servant; because you were faithful in a very little, have authority over ten cities.'
18 "And the second came, saying, 'Master, your mina has earned five minas.'
19 "Likewise he said to him, 'You also be over five cities.'
20 "Then another came, saying, 'Master, here is your mina, which I have kept put away in a handkerchief.
21 'For I feared you, because you are an austere man. You collect what you did not deposit, and reap what you did not sow.'
22 "And he said to him, 'Out of your own mouth I will judge you, you wicked servant. You knew that I was an austere man, collecting what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not sow.
23 'Why then did you not put my money in the bank, that at my coming I might have collected it with interest?'
24 "And he said to those who stood by, 'Take the mina from him, and give it to him who has ten minas.'
25 ("But they said to him, 'Master, he has ten minas.')
26 'For I say to you, that to everyone who has will be given; and from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.
The Lord Jesus was preparing His disciples for the fact that when He went away, they would be given gifts and that they would be held accountable for the way they used those gifts. On the day of Pentecost, the disciples received their gifts when the Holy Spirit came upon them. All of a sudden they started praising God and speaking in tongues. Peter stood up and said that this was the fulfillment of Joel’s prophesy, which said:
Joel 2:28-29 (NKJ)
28 "And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions.
29 And also on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days.
On that Day of Pentecost, Peter explained to this Jewish crowd that Jesus was the Lord of glory, but they had crucified Him. But then, Peter declared that God had raised Jesus from the dead and that if they would repent and be baptized, God would forgive them of their sins. On that day 3000 people got saved.
Peter is a great example of the servant who took the gift that Jesus gave him and used that gift to bring honor and glory to the name of Jesus. When Jesus returns, Peter will stand before the Lord, and the Lord will reward Peter by giving him great responsibilities in the kingdom.
However, there will be loss of reward for those who refuse to use their gifts for God’s glory. I say that these people refuse to use their gifts because only God can bless and utilize those gifts. All we have to do is submit to God and yield ourselves as His instruments of righteousness.
In other words, it wasn’t Peter who spoke on the day of Pentecost. It was the Holy Spirit speaking through Peter. That’s why 3000 people got saved. It’s God who blesses us with gifts, and it’s God and God alone who can use those gifts to accomplish His plan and purpose.
Then, according to the parable, the nobleman said:
Luke 19:27 (NKJ)
27 . . . bring here those enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, and slay them before me.'"
Those who refuse to believe in Jesus Christ will also be brought before the Lord on the day of judgment, but they will be sentenced to death. Therefore, we see that the saved and the unsaved will all be called before the Lord to give an account of their lives. As Solomon said in Ecclesiastes:
Ecclesiastes 3:17 (NKJ)
17 . . . "God shall judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time there for every purpose and for every work."
As we would expect, however, the Lord Jesus did not reveal any significant time lapse between the judgment of the saved and the judgment of the unsaved. Jesus simply indicated that when He returns to the earth after having received His kingdom, He will reward the saints and then put to death the unsaved.
However, as we read the book of the Revelation, we see that there is actually a thousand year gap between the two events. Revelation 20 says that when the Lord returns, He will bind the devil in the bottomless pit, and then He will reward the saints. John said:
Revelation 20:4 (NKJ)
4 And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.
So the saints will be rewarded on the basis of how effectively they used their gifts, but then John says that:
Revelation 20:5-6 (NKJ)
5 . . . the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished . . .
So the first resurrection involves the resurrection of the saints before the thousand year reign of Christ, while the second resurrection will be the resurrection of the unsaved which will occur at the end of the thousand year reign of Christ. John said:
Revelation 20:6
6 Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.
These saints will be resurrected with new glorified bodies so that they can reign with Christ for a thousand years, but the Lord Jesus hinted at the fact that those believers who are alive at the time of this first resurrection will be raptured and given immortal bodies as well. Just before the Lord raised Lazarus from the dead, He told Martha:
John 11:25-26 (KJV)
25 . . . I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:
This, of course, is the first resurrection. It says, “though he were dead, yet shall he live.” But then the Lord said:
John 11:26 (KJV)
26 And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die . . .
In this statement the Lord clearly indicated that there will be some believers who will receive their immortal bodies even though their mortal bodies have never died. This mystery was explained by the Apostle Paul. In I Corinthians 15, Paul said:
1 Corinthians 15:51-53 (NKJ)
51 Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed--
52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
Of course, this was not the first time that Paul wrote about the rapture of living saints. Early in his ministry, he wrote to the believers in Thessalonica saying:
1Thessalonians 4:15-17 (NKJ)
15 . . . this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep.
16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.
17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.
So there will be a rapture and a resurrection of believers before the thousand year reign of Christ, and then there will be a resurrection of unbelievers at the end of the thousand year reign of Christ.
In the parable of the ten minas, the Lord was challenging the disciples to keep the faith in spite of the fact that He, Himself, was going to be going away in order to be crowned by the Father as King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.
Then Luke said that as soon as the Lord finished telling this parable, He went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. . . . He knew exactly what God had called Him to do. He knew exactly what it was going to take to bring salvation to mankind. He knew exactly what it was going to take to bring redemption to mankind and all of creation. All of this would depend upon His willingness to offer His shed blood as the atonement for sin. Philippians, Chapter 2, says that Jesus Christ:
Philippians 2:8-11 (NKJ)
8 . . . humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.
9 Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth,
11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
The Father loved the Son, but the Father was willing to send His only begotten Son into the world to die for our sins. In this we see how much the Father loves us. The Apostle John said:
I John 4:9 (NKJ)
9 In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.
The Son was willing to do the will of the Father, and it was the will of the Father that all men should be saved. Therefore, Jesus humbled Himself and became obedient unto the death of the cross. But now, God has highly exalted Him and has given Him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
Now from Paul’s prison epistles, we know that the Church of our present age will have a separate rapture and a separate resurrection which will take place before the tribulation period. It’s obvious that the Apostle John did not see our rapture or our resurrection because he saw the resurrection which will take place at the end of the tribulation period as the first resurrection. But it may be that we will not be called before the Lord to receive our rewards until the time of that resurrection which will occur at the end of the tribulation period, at the event that John called the first resurrection. This would mean that all believers will be rewarded at that time, but our part in that so called first resurrection is still unclear.
But we do know that all those who bow before the Lord Jesus and believe on Him during their lifetime will come before Him to receive their rewards. On the other hand, those who refuse to accept the Lord Jesus during their lifetime will bow before Him at the time of the second resurrection and they will be sentenced to the second death which is the lake of fire. As John said, “Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection.”
Well, I see our time is gone for this morning. Thank you for listening to Bible Study Time. It’s been a pleasure studying with you, and I’ll look forward to being with you again next week at this same time.
Write me at: jimjoan77@juno.com
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