At the baptism of Jesus, where He identified Himself with the sinners He’d come to save, the Father made the declaration that Jesus was His beloved Son, with whom He was well-pleased. Why was the Father well-pleased with His Son? Because He was the unblemished Lamb. He was spotless, and in Him could be found no sin. The Father was well-pleased with the perfection of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ also perfectly obeyed His Heavenly Father. This is another reason we can say that the Father was well-pleased with the Son.
At the great commission, Jesus told His disciples to go, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them to observe, or obey, all He commanded - Matthew 28:19, 20.
In Matthew 4:10, Jesus commands us to worship the Lord and serve Him only. In Matthew 5:16, Jesus commands us to let our light shine before men that they may see our good works and glorify our Heavenly Father. In Matthew 5:44, Jesus commands us to love our enemies and to pray for those who persecute us. In Matthew 6:7, Jesus commands us to pray without meaningless repetition. In Matthew 6:20, Jesus commands us to store up treasures in heaven. In Matthew 6:25, Jesus commands us not to be worried about our lives, about food and clothing. Instead, we are commanded to seek first His kingdom (Mt. 6:33). In Matthew 9:38, we are commanded to pray and ask the Lord to send out workers for the harvest. In Matthew 16, we are given the commands of what do to if our brother sins. The first step is to go to him privately.
When we are obedient to the commands of Jesus, we are being transformed into the image of His likeness.
Do you know what Jesus has commanded His followers to do when they see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel? Do you know what unprecedented event is going to occur after we see the abomination of desolation? Do you know what Jesus has commanded us to do when we are told that He is in a room somewhere, or that He is out in the desert somewhere, prior to seeing His glory appear in the sky? Do you know at what signs in the sky we are commanded to look up because our redemption is near?
If we don’t know, then it is time to do more studying. If we are the generation that sees these signs, we want to be able to be obedient, to all He has commanded us, and be well-pleasing, just like Jesus was in His obedience to the Father.
The return of Christ is the blessed hope of the church. When we don’t study it, we minimize its importance. It was important enough for Christ to teach on it. Paul taught on it, as well as Peter. It was important enough for God to give specific prophesies concerning it. It was important enough for God to bring John up into the heavenlies and have him write down everything he saw. If it was important enough for God to record all of this, than it is definitely important enough for us to study.
The teacher in me has to give you one more question – Do you know what Jesus is going to do to that unprecedented event?
This is an open book quiz and I’ll even give you the place to look for the answers to the above questions – Matthew 24, Mark, 13, and Luke 21. (And the answer to the last question is in verse 22 of Matthew 24.)
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