Title The Last Days /Acts 1:11
Contents Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles Book 1 People of the Early Church Lecture 13
The last days [Acts 1:11]
The question of when the Lord will come again is of interest to all of us believers, and even the world is always interested in it, half-curious and half-playing. When are these last days?
Since the Lord came to this earth. The last days began with the book of Acts, and the last days have continued until two thousand years have passed. Now, the last days are so long that the word “last days” is losing its light. Even then, the Lord said that He would come soon, and now it is said that He will come soon. So, the history of mankind, which has been deceived for two thousand years, no longer feels threatened by the coming of Jesus soon.
However, these words of the last days are not recorded in the Bible in the way we think. Let us consider the meaning of the last days through Genesis 5.
Genesis 5 gives the genealogy and life span of the time when Adam lived in the old days. All live more than nine hundred years. However, Genesis 5 is called “the genealogy of death”. Because it is written that no matter how long he lived, he died at the end. “This is the genealogy of the children of Adam: When God created man, he made him in the image of God” (Genesis 5:1). But Matthew 1:1 records “the world of Jesus Christ, the son of Abraham and David.” . Here, the world's 'Gye' is the '系' character. There is no record of death in the genealogy here, only the birth of a child, so it is called ‘the genealogy of life’ in contrast to the previous one.
The genealogy of Jesus becomes the genealogy of life, and the genealogy of Adam becomes the genealogy of death. However, what people are envious of is that they are interested in seeing the genealogy of death and living for more than nine hundred years. However, the fact is that the purpose of the record is not to live long, but to die, so there is nothing to envy. However, in this genealogy, there is a person who did not die.
“Enoch was sixty-five years old when he begot Methuselah, and after begot Methuselah three hundred years
He walked with them, and begot children, and he was three hundred and sixty-five years old. Enoch was God.
and walked with him, and he was not in the world, because God took him (Gen.
5:21-24)”
How could Enoch be the only one in this genealogy of death to escape death? Because he walked with God. Then how did Enoch come to have faith to walk with God? The Bible doesn't have a prominent expression for it.
However, if you look closely, his life span is 365 years, and he walked with God for 300 years after giving birth to Methuselah, but not before that. Then we get a hint that the birth of a son named Methuselah became an important turning point in Enoch's faith. And it should be noted that the meaning of the name ‘Methuselah’ is ‘when he dies, judgment will come’.
People don't take names in vain. In particular, such a name is not just a name that can be made up. It makes us wonder what kind of revelation Enoch might have received. However, there are passages in the New Testament that prove that Enoch really received such a revelation.
“Enoch, the seventh son of Adam, prophesied also of men, saying, Behold, the Lord
He came with tens of thousands of holy ones, to judge all, and to all ungodliness.
All the ungodly deeds of the hermit, and the Lord of the ungodly sinner
that he might condemn them for all their harsh words against him.
(Jude 1:14-15)”
Enoch received a revelation from God and prophesied of God's judgment. In other words, one day God came to Enoch and said, ‘I will judge this sinful world. I will give you a son, and the day he dies will be the day when I will judge the world. So call your son's name, When he dies, judgment comes.'
You have to think carefully here. From Enoch's point of view, the day the younger son dies is the day the judgment falls. So, how long can you put your mind at ease? He can rest his heart until he dies, but Methuselah does not know when he will die. So can you put your mind at ease while you're alive? Judgment will come when he dies, so preparing for this judgment should be done while he is alive. So as long as you live, you can't let go of your heart. Because no one knows when he will die.
There is no record that Enoch's faith walked with God before the birth of Methuselah. However, after giving birth to Methuselah, they accompany them for 300 years. Because Methuselah could die as soon as he was born, there was a lot of tension from the day he was born. Methuselah lived 969 years, so it is fortunate that he lived a long time. This is what the Bible means in the last days. The last days are not about the length of time, but about the order. Now the final judgment is the coming of Jesus. The last day is the day when Jesus comes to judge.
You can let go of your heart until the first coming. Since the Second Coming is the Day of Judgment, you can rest your mind until the first event. But after he comes and goes, you never know when Jesus will come. That is, there are no other events and sequences that remain until the event that the Lord judges. Only the Second Coming remains, and judgment will be made on that day. it's called the end. I do not know how long these last days will be, but in order, they are the last. Now, any day, when the Lord comes, it will be over.
Let's take a closer look at the case of Methuselah to see how certain that is.
“Methuselah was one hundred and eighty-seven years old when he begat Lamech, and he lived seven hundred and eighty-two years after he begot Lamech.
and begot children, and he died when he was nine hundred and sixty-nine years old. Lamech was one hundred and eight.
When he was twelve years old, he gave birth to a son and named him Noah” (Genesis 5:25-29).
The son of Enoch was Methuselah, the son of Methuselah was Lamech, and the son of Lamech was Noah. God's judgment was actually made through the flood of Noah. But the association is interesting. Methuselah's son was Lamech, and Methuselah's grandson was Noah. Methuselah was 187 years old when she gave birth to a son, and Lamech was 182 years old when she gave birth to a grandson. So, when Noah was born, his grandfather Methuselah was 369 years old.
“In the six hundredth year of Noah, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day the fountains of the great deep burst forth.
And the windows of heaven were opened, and it rained upon the earth forty days and forty nights” (Genesis 7:11-12).
The flood occurred when Noah was 600 years old and his grandfather was 969 years old. Methuselah died when he was 969 years old, and his name means 'when he dies, judgment will come'. What we see here is that God does not express what He has ordained and what He has spoken. Also, the fact that Methuselah is the oldest in the genealogy of Genesis here is quite significant in that sense. By delaying the judgment as much as possible, God gives an opportunity to bring more people to repentance.
However, the order is now unchanged. There is no other order in between. So I don't know when that day will be, but now he comes like a thief.
“Brothers, I have nothing to write to you concerning times and seasons, that the day of the Lord is a thief in the night.
For you yourselves know in detail that they will come together.
Then suddenly destruction came upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman.
You will never escape, brethren, for you are not in darkness on that day.
I will not come upon you like this thief: you are all sons of light and sons of day.
We do not belong to the night or darkness; therefore we are not with others.
Do not sleep together, but be alert and sober (1 Thessalonians 5:1-6).”
He will come as a thief, but he will not come against us as a thief. Here we need to summarize some important facts. Let us summarize the meaning of coming like a thief and the meaning of the last days.
The last days do not mean that there is a short period of time, but in the sense that the order is nothing but that. The only remaining order is the coming and judgment. But why is it like a thief? I didn't say like a thief because I don't know when. Because verse 4 says, “Brothers, you are not in darkness, that that day will come upon you like a thief.”
Then what it means to come here like thieves means that they are suddenly struck by it because they belong to the darkness, and we will not be struck like thieves because we are not of it. In other words, since the people of the world are unprepared for the coming of the Lord, they will be greeted with bewilderment and surprise, and we are not like thieves in the sense that we will be prepared to meet them. Then what kind of lifestyle does it refer to?
“As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be in the days of the Son of Man.
Until that day, people were eating and drinking, marrying and marrying, and then the flood came and took them all away.
and it will be as in the days of Lot, where people will eat and drink and buy and sell and plant and house.
And on the day Lot went out of Sodom, fire and brimstone rained down from heaven,
and destroyed it, so it will be on the day of the appearing of the Son of Man” (Luke 17:26-30).
This means like a thief. I have two analogies now. One is the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the other is the flood of Noah. The Lord gives an example that even when the Lord comes, the people of the world will not be ready for the Lord's coming. And people will not be able to distinguish right from wrong.
What are the things here? “Marrying and getting married, eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and harvesting.” Is this a sin? This in itself is not a sin. That's not to say you shouldn't do this. So why is this a problem? only know this. Why is it wrong to eat, drink, marry, and get married? But the only thing you don't know is that. They are not preparing for an eternal kingdom.
“Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you.
will be added (Matthew 6:33)”
Eating, drinking, and dressing are essential. But it would be a great mistake to take all the nerves away from such things. We need to realize and prepare for the more important and the less important.
Now is the time to test our faith. You never know when the Lord will come. This is not a threat. That's the only order left. And when it comes, it's over. How should we live? As we prepare for the day of the Lord's coming, we must be alert like the five wise virgins. So when you ask what you're doing, you shouldn't say that I'm buying and selling houses. I'm not saying don't do that.
Life is one of the most basic responsibilities that God has given us since we were cast out of the Garden of Eden. We must faithfully carry out our daily life. But you should know that it is not the people who live because that is all and that is the only goal.
When it rains, it's not the house that's prepared, but the boat. Noah was building the ark, and the people of the world plowed the field, sowed seeds, married, married, built, bought, and sold. There is nothing so foolish Lot will be pulled out of Sodom and Gomorrah. It is not a permanent home. It is a place where brimstone fires will be poured down and burned, but there, what will you do in a fight saying that my land is large and your party is large?
If there is a sincere image of man in our world, it should be merely a sign of the attitude of preparing for the eternal, rather than an effort aiming at the world and making it result in the world. So we shouldn't put everything we can into buying and selling with all of our resources.
“The one who testified of these said, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen, Lord.
Come, Jesus (Revelation 22:20)”
Just as we need to study well if we go to a good school, if we believe in Jesus, we need to believe in Jesus well. We must believe in Jesus better than anything else, and believing in Jesus means that we should be glad, glad, and thirsty for the Lord's coming to us.