Kingdom Come

^“And as he

• sat 
• upon the mount of Olives,

Press pause. The action and location are deeply significant. Let’s not brush right over them.

“The day of the LORD cometh!…For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle…Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations…And his feet shall

• stand in that day
• upon the mount of Olives,

which is before Jerusalem on the east…

And the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one Lord, and his name one!” (Zechariah 14)

But not today.

“the disciples came unto him privately, saying…what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?”

Hello! They know Zechariah’s prophecy!! They are expecting this any day now! They were showing him the buildings of the temple in anticipation of their new offices.

I can imagine Peter thinking “Please not the treasury, I’m no good at math.” and another fisherman thinking “I’m functionally illiterate, please don’t make me a scribe.” John of course had grown up being highly educated with priestly his relatives and was confident of his place in the hierarchy.

“And Jesus answered and said unto them, in essence, “All that matters is faithfulness.“

1. “many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ / the Anointed Heir to the Kingdom; and shall deceive many.” Take Game of Thrones, for example. When Prince Joffrey took the throne the vast majority of people didn’t realize his father wasn’t King Robert. 
2. “nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.” George R.R. Martin nailed it in his vividly gruesome depiction of multiple claimants fighting battles on multiple fronts during a time of complete upheaval of daily life.
3. “they shall deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you:” Ned Stark was summarily imprisoned and executed because he testified of the true king.
4. “and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake.” The name of Stark carried by the family, household members and bannermen was hunted down to be wiped out
5. “many shall be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.” Starkly depicted in The Red Wedding.”
6. “many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many”. The prime example is the Red Woman who, like Jezebel, leads a fiery inquisition in worship of the red god, R’hllor, the Lord of Light, but there are many, many others
7. “iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold”. Pietr Baelish, Master of Coin and brothels, manipulated kingdom affairs (pun) through sexual depravity with perverse pleasure in the chaos, destruction, suffering and widespread death that resulted. And yes, there’s lots of nudity in GOT. Innocent of wrong is not the same thing as innocent of wrong-doing. You can best believe that plenty of women-for-hire flaunted their wares to Jesus and his disciples as he passed by, and were sent by rulers like Pietr Baelish to destroy his reputation. I’ll never forget the look in the eyes of a pole dancer in a strip bar I was dragged into by my own heartless master, but his plan backfired. Instead of being drawn into licentiousness, I so pitied her bondage that I spent my life making a way out of depravity for people trapped in sin. Was Jesus with me in that bar?
   1. “But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.” Keep this statement in context. It follows and contrasts with “the love of many shall wax cold.” We choose to love – join identity to – either the Christ – or his opposite. “Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven. Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.” (Matthew 10:32-34)
      
8. When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place…then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be…when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors…
9. But of that day and hour – i.e. the precise date –  knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only….[for] if the goodman of the house / the god of this world had known in what watch the thief / his adversary the true Christ would come, he would…not have suffered his house to be broken up. Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh. Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat / sustenance in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods. Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.” (Matthew 26:1-2)

There’s your answer, apostles and all the rest of us. The ministry we will end up in is the ministry where we proved ourselves faithful.

“Judas, one of the twelve, came, and with him a great multitude with swords and staves, from the chief priests and elders of the people…and laid hands on Jesus and took him…Then all the disciples forsook him, and fled…And Peter remembered the word of Jesus, which said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. And he went out, and wept bitterly.” (Matthew 27)

These two disciples Judas and Peter demonstrate the difference between “love waxing cold”, which like wax prevents adherence, and “enduring to the end”. To the end. What happens in the middle can be overcome by what follows (Matthew 27)

• Judas: “when he saw that he was condemned” – clearly he just wanted Jesus’ megalomania cut down to ordinary human status – “repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, Saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, What is that to us? see thou to that. And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself.” Obviously he did not believe Jesus’ claims to be the Promised Savior from sin and death – to be proven through his own resurrection in three days.
• Peter: Interestingly Peter is referenced more in John’s gospel than in the other three, despite being, or possibly because of being, a clear rival to John’s closest relationship with Jesus. What we find is that Peter’s response to his own betrayal of the Christ is the opposite of Judas’ despair, and it is through his relationship with his rival John that he is restored to fellowship with the Christ.
  • “Mary Magdalene…cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved…” Get it! John didn’t repudiate Peter for his betrayal, and Peter didn’t run away from the fellowship of apostles like Judas did!
  • “They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him.” Peter therefore went forth and that other disciple, and came to the sepulchre.” They are going forth to face down Rome’s soldiers!! “the chief priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate…Command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day, lest his disciples come by night, and steal him away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead: so the last error shall be worse than the first. Pilate said unto them, Ye have a watch: go your way, make it as sure as ye can.
  • There were together Simon Peter, and…the sons of Zebedee, and [four]other of his disciples. Simon Peter saith unto them [exercising his usual leadership], I go a fishing. They say unto him, We also go with thee…But when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore… that disciple whom Jesus loved saith unto Peter, It is the Lord. Now when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he…did [impetuously as usual] cast himself into the sea. And the other disciples came in a little ship…Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? More than John who you simultaneously compete with for dominance and bond with for elevated status as his closest friend, who you depend on for emotional and spiritual support?
    • “He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee.” Didn’t I prove it when I reversed my denial of you by risking my life to go to the tomb?
    • “He saith unto him, Feed my lambs.” In essence, stop focusing your attention on status with the big shots! Focus on the needs of the little people!
    • “He saith unto him again the second time, Lovest / identify with thou me? Feed my sheep”, which Peter should have related to (probably on reflection later on) “made his own people to go forth like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock. And he led them on safely, so that they feared not:” (Psalm 72:52-530
    • “He saith unto him the third time…Feed my sheep.” The best way I know how to understand this third apparent but not really repetition is to “understand by books.” Zechariah specifically. “Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts: smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered: and I will turn mine hand upon the little ones / lambs. And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the LORD, two parts therein shall be cut off and die…And I will bring the third part through the fire…they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God.”
    • “Verily, verily, I say unto thee…when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands…and carry thee whither thou wouldest not…signifying by what death he should glorify God.” The very crucifixion he feared so greatly that he denied Christ just a few days before. “And when he had spoken this, he saith unto him, Follow me.”  Get it? To the cross! “Then Peter, turning about, seeth the disciple whom Jesus loved following…saith to Jesus, Lord, and what shall this man do? Jesus saith unto him…[What did I just tell you? Forget about the big people!] what is that to thee? follow thou me.”

Fortunately for Peter – and all the rest of us – one, or even many failures – does not doom us to an eternity separated from God. God gives opportunity after opportunity to get things right with him.

And that is true not only on a personal level but on the national.

“all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.” (Matthew 24:6)

it is essential that we determine the significance of the phrase “come to pass,”

“Comes to pass” describes a circular wheel passing over and over again, an unending cycle until someone puts a stop to it.

God’s plans are irrevocable.

• “And God said…and it was so.” (Genesis 1)
• “my word…that goeth forth out of my mouth…shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:11)

The things which must come to pass then are known to us already. They are God’s intentions previously declared by his prophets,

“Come near, ye nations, to hear; and hearken, ye people: let the earth hear, and all that is therein; the world, and all things that come forth of it. 

1. For the indignation of the LORD is upon all nations, and his fury upon all their armies: he hath utterly destroyed them, he hath delivered them to the slaughter.
2. AND all the [false gods’] host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig tree. For my sword shall be bathed in heaven:

For it is the day of the LORD‘s vengeance, and the year of recompences for the controversy of Zion…Seek ye out of the book of the LORD, and read: no one of these shall fail, none shall want her mate: for my mouth it hath commanded, and his [YHVH’s Savior’s] spirit it hath gathered them.” (Isaiah 34)

“Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.” (Matthew 24:35, Mark 13:31, Luke 21:33, II Peter 3:9-10)

However, dominion over the earth was granted to humans, so achieving it requires the cooperation of human leadership and can’t be fulfilled until leadership muscles up. So opportunities to do so cycle around endlessly until someone finally steps up to the plate and hits a home run.

Modern sensibilities have difficulty understanding this because our modern lives are almost ridiculously structured by linear time separating past, present and future. The Bible, however, and all ancient societies, acknowledged the concurrent influence of history and future in cyclical time and which still constitutes all of our time measurements in minutes, hours, days, months.

Most significantly, we cycle events like birthdays, wedding anniversaries, and holidays commemorating the past’s effect on our present, and, especially at New Year’s, determine to change our past actions, act now to shape our a future.

The book of Judges documents cycles of apostacy – punishment – repentance – restoration happening over and over, and the major and minor prophets document the same happening since the Jewish Exile ~600 B.C. throughout the roughly 3,000 years of the four world empires.

So when Jesus called down judgment on “this generation” of rebellious rulers in his day, that was just one cycle.

And nothing has changed yet. We are still on the hamster wheel.