The Road to New Jerusalem: Part III

Peter

Jesus said, if you believe and are baptized you shall be saved. He did not say if you read the Old Testament you shall be saved, or understand Revelations, or go to church, or study Israel’s ancient history or any of the numerous possibilities the Bible offers. He simply said believe and be baptized. But He left something out. Naturally, regular study of the Testaments and Letters will enhance one’s understanding, yet when all is said and done, Salvation is in Christ.

In Matthew 28, when Jesus gave instruction to the eleven, He again left something out. Therefore, go and teach all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things, whatever I have commanded you. The reason He didn’t mention these two important things was due to an observation by the Apostle Simon Peter. This is what it was, where and how it happened.

And coming into the parts of Caesarea Philippi, Jesus asked His disciples, who do men say me to be, the son of man? And they said, some say John the Baptist; some Elijah, and others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets. He said to them, but who do you say I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, you are the Christ, the Son of the Living God. (Matthew 16:13-16)

Peter declared by faith, Jesus was of God and our Salvation. Jesus then told Peter he was blessed; that this truth was given, not by any man, but the Everlasting Father. Now watch carefully what else Jesus said and gave to Peter.

And I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven to you.

And whatever you bind on earth shall occur, having been bound in heaven, and whatever you may loose on earth shall occur, having been loosed in heaven. (Matthew 16:19)

So, what were the two things Jesus kept for Peter? The first was the manner and order of baptism; the second was the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit we are baptised into. As Jesus had given him the authority to bind and loose, it was now for Peter to put the last touches on the commission from Jesus and to set the baptism order. He did this at Pentecost at the end of his great dissertation.

Therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God made this same Jesus whom you crucified both LORD and Christ. And on hearing they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the other Apostles; men, brothers, what shall we do? Then Peter said to them, repent and be baptised, every one of you, in the Name of Jesus Christ to the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. (Acts 2:36-38)

Repentance, Baptism, remission, and the Gift of the Holy Spirit are the Keys to the Kingdom of Heaven given to Peter.

Paul

As the foundation of New Jerusalem is built on twelve Apostles, and Judas the betrayer was now dead by his own hand, Jesus called Paul to minister the Gospel with the eleven, unbeknown to them. We see in his writing the LORD’s purpose in Paul, as it was Paul who declared the truth of the Gospel and ministered to Nations, Kings and the Children of Israel. It was Paul who set the Law of Faith above the flesh, the Law of Liberty, and wrote of justification and sanctification in Christ Jesus.

And it was Paul who mentions the Israel of God.

And where Isaiah declares Jesus is the Everlasting Father and the Mighty God (Isaiah 9:6) Paul declares Jesus Christ the same yesterday and today and forever. (Hebrew 12:8) They were two very different men of God, inspired by the same Spirit.

For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophesy. (Revelation 19:10) For prophesy was not borne at anytime by the will of man, but holy men of God being borne along by the Holy Spirit. (2Peter 1:21)

Paul was chosen to take the Gospel to the nations and during his extraordinary ministry wrote many remarkable things. One of them: For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel. (Romans 9:6) Paul’s mention of the Israel of God in Galatians; (6:16) perhaps a reflection, throws up a question or two as does his remark that not all Israel has an Israelite origin.

There is also the distinction between the ‘house’ and ‘children’ of Israel. In Matthew for example, Jesus instructed the Apostles to go to the ‘house of Israel.’ (Matthew 10:6) The ‘house’ was the ten northern tribes taken out of Judea by the Assyrians c.700BC. They were the dispersed tribes James wrote to: ‘the 12 tribes scattered abroad’ (James 1:1) which included Judah and Benjamin taken at siege of Jerusalem. James was writing to Ephraim scattered in the nations. The remnant of the broken house of Judah was taken to Babylon for 70 years, only a handful returned to Jerusalem.

But when Paul was anointed, he was told to go to the ‘children of Israel’ and it is Paul who speaks of God’s Israel and states that not all Israel are of Israel. So we have a clear division in the ministries of the Apostles and Paul. But they all had their part being the Foundation of the Bride.

When Paul said the flesh could not inherit the Kingdom of God, he not only drew the division of flesh and spirit, he annulled any perceived right of lineage. In doing so, he set the LORD’s Israel in its proper place. When we are in Jesus, and He in us, we become a new creation ‘a peculiar people’ as Peter said, walking in perfection as Abraham did.

Now, during His ministry Jesus said to the Pharisees: the kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a people bringing forth the fruits thereof. (Matthew 21:43) But when we take a hard look at the world today, there is no nation or people bringing forth good fruits.

So, what was Jesus really saying and what are these fruits Jesus mentioned? Perhaps the ones Peter outlined that we might be partakers of the Divine Nature: virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, kindness and charity; neither be barren or unfruitful in the knowledge of Christ Jesus. (2Peter 1:3-8) They are certainly attributes we should emulate. But are they the fruits Jesus spoke of?

The Bride

As with some parts of Scripture, there is much confusion about ‘the bride’ of Revelations. Therefore, we must take a hard look at the account of the bride to discover what is being described. By doing this, you will hopefully put some myths where they truly deserve to be.

Now, a quick reminder of who ‘the bride’ isn’t. Most denominations believe the Bride is the Church, but as the Spirit and the Bride speak as one it cannot be the case. There is no Scripture to support this view. In Revelation 21:2, we see New Jerusalem prepared as a bride adorned for her Husband, which can only lead to one conclusion.

At the time of John’s writing, a bride was a female who remained a virgin until marriage. It was a deep-seated custom in Israelite and other cultures; one need only look at what happened to Dinah to see the consequences of this tenet being broken. Thus a virgin was deemed clean and pure. So it is with the ‘virgin born’ of God’s Word, those born of the water and the Spirit.

Jesus said, now you are clean through the word, which I have spoken… (John 15:3) Paul wrote of ‘the pure virgin in Christ’ (2Cor 11:2) and in Peter’s first letter (1Peter 1:23) of being born again … through the living Word of God.

As the Prophet Isaiah observed, as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so will your God rejoice over you. (Isaiah 62:5) Let’s now look at the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus.

Jesus answered and said to him, truly, truly, I say to you, unless a man is born again, he cannot ‘see’ the kingdom of God. Nicodemus said to Him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb and be born? Jesus answered, truly, truly, I say to you, unless a man is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot ‘enter’ into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. (John 3:3-6)

In His response to Nicodemus, Jesus said ‘unless’ a man is born again he ‘cannot see’ the Kingdom of God. He went on to say ‘unless’ a man is born of the “water and the Spirit” he ‘cannot enter.’ The first points to awareness, the second to what we must do.

When, as Paul said we move on to perfection, the bride is marked in the ‘virgin born’ untouched by the creeds of men. The bride keeps the Commandments of God and the Faith of Jesus. (Rev 14:12) The Israel of God; sealed in the knowledge Jesus is both LORD and Christ declared by Peter and Isaiah. The bride’s faith is in her Husband, not doctrine, dogma, or views of the Church. And like Jerusalem above she is free, resting in her salvation knowing there is nothing they can add.

Behold the days come, says the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of Egypt, which they broke, ‘even though I was a husband unto them.’

After repeated warnings over their continual backsliding, the LORD sent Israel into captivity. Like a husband putting away his estranged wife, He divorced them due to their disloyalty. The tribes of Ephraim (Israelite tribes of the earth) were now forever banished from the lands of their ancestors. But all was not lost, as He had promised to make a new covenant with His Israel to come.

But this shall be the covenant I will make with the House of Israel. After those days, says the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying know the LORD: for they shall all know me from the least to the greatest: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. (Jeremiah 31:31-34)

So, as not all Israel is of Israel we now see the bride emerge, the virgin born of the Water and the Spirit now resting in the grace of the bridegroom, the LORD Jesus Christ. From all over the world they come: And they shall come from the East, and the West, and from the North and from the South and they shall sit down in the Kingdom of God. (Lk 13:29)

Yet they are not of the earth but of Spiritual lineage. They are not of tribe or line or ancestry, but of Spiritual foundation. The seed of promise, the Covenant renewed. Cleansed by the Word of God they honour, keep and sanctify. The Bridegroom and the Bride; the Divine nature expressed and revealed. Abiding in New Jerusalem, the true Word of Salvation restored in us again.