Revelation 7 | Paul the Poke

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Ethnicity Into Eternity… Mickey Sutliff

Posted in #PaulthePoke, Culture, Mickey Sutliff with tags Acts 17, Ephesians 2, Eternity, ethnos, God, Jesus Christ, Lord, nations, Revelation 21, Revelation 5, Revelation 7 on December 28, 2020 by paulthepoke

Acts 17:26 …and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation…

God is the one who determines or sets the boundaries and times for the nations, which ‘He created from one man’ (Acts 17:26).

Acts 17:27 that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us;

And He is at work in culture, nations and ethnicities ‘that they should seek Him and find Him’ (Acts 17:27).

It was my experience and became a personal value to see the intentionality and unique ways the LORD works in culture & ethnicities (nations) to reveal and draw men to Himself. As I walked life & worshipped with my African American brothers and sisters, I saw our LORD and Savior in ways that were new, broader and more glorious. I saw Him from new facets of perspective and how He meets us in our life circumstance (which flow from our upbringing, culturally, socioeconomically, etc.) that I could not see from my own limited experiences and circumstance or even the way in which my own cultural background ‘fashioned’ Him.

Revelation 21:24-26 The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. In the daytime (for there will be no night there) its gates will never be closed; and they will bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it…

Based, not only on Revelation 5:9 & 7:9 but also Revelation 21:24-26, the ‘nations’ are still identifiable and noteworthy in the ‘new man’ (Ephesians 2:15-22) that will move into Eternity with our LORD.

Ephesians 2:15-22 by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity. AND HE CAME AND PREACHED PEACE TO YOU WHO WERE FAR AWAY, AND PEACE TO THOSE WHO WERE NEAR; for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.

I believe this is significant, even though we are unified into one new identity in our Lord Jesus. We will also still retain our identifiable ‘ethnicity’ to be an eternal glory for the LORD to His redemptive purpose and the unconditional reach of His love. These ‘secondary identities’ of ethnicity become the ‘song of the Redeemed’ to the Lamb of God in Revelation 5:9 “…for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.”

Consider, God raises His redeemed to be imperishable, immortal, spiritual, heavenly, etc. (as described in 1 Corinthians 15:42-57), AND YET chooses to retain the ethnicities of each forever and ever…. If it is important to the Father to maintain these distinctives as a glory to Son in eternity, it should be one that I need to embrace and seek to see in the Church this side of Eternity. Understanding our ‘secondary’ ethnic identities as an eternal value and priority of the LORD with respect to expressing the redemptive work of Christ, should lead us to value AND pursue diversity within the Body, desiring to see our local bodies reflect the eternal glory scripture has revealed to us.

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Feast of Tabernacles/Sukkot: Messianic Psalm

Posted in Fall Feasts, Prophecy, Trend Update with tags 1 Peter 2, Acts 4, Feast, Feast of Tabernacles, Festival, Hallel prayer, Hosanna, jerusalem, Jesus Christ, kingdom, Lord's Prayer, Matthew 21, Matthew 23, Messianic Psalm, palms, Psalm 118, Revelation 7, Sukkot on October 6, 2017 by paulthepoke

Psalm 118:25-26 Save us, we pray, O LORD! O LORD, we pray, give us success! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD! We bless you from the house of the LORD.

Psalm 118 is known as the Messianic Psalm. As part of the Feast of Tabernacles Psalms 113-118 are sung and read. These are called the Hallel prayer (https://www.templeinstitute.org/tabernacles.htm).

About 2,000 years ago when Jesus made His triumphal entry in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, the Sanhedrin freaked out. The Sadducees and Pharisees understood. The people were recognizing Jesus as the Messiah of Israel. All of the pieces were in place. The people were waiving palms. Jesus was claiming to be a direct descendant of King David. He was claiming to be the Son of God. The crowds were calling on Jesus to be their Savior. The term Hosanna is noted twice in the verses below. Hosanna is a cry. Save us now!

Matthew 21:8-9Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”

Jesus knew He would not be accepted as the Messiah at His first advent. Jesus is the rejected stone.

Psalm 118:22 The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.

The apostle Peter makes it crystal clear who the rejected stone is in the book of Acts and in his self-named epistle.

Acts 4:11 This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone.

1 Peter 2:7 So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone…”

Later in the text of Matthew, Christ would lament of His rejection as Messiah over Jerusalem.

Matthew 23:39 For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’”

And we wait for His people Israel to recognize Him as the Messiah…But before He returns to Earth, this scene will be done in Heaven. Recall the words of the Lord’s Prayer, “Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.”

Revelation 7:9-10 After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”