DAYS OF REGENERATION

Matthew Chapter Nineteen

Sermon of the Week #200929 – August 9, 2009

Jesus said to the Apostles, “Verily I say unto you, that ye who have followed Me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man shall sit on the throne of His glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”

The statement concerning the days of regeneration was brought on when a rich young ruler came to Him and said, “Master, what good thing shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?” In this encounter, Jesus told him to keep the commandments. The young man said he had done all that, and Jesus assured him he had not done enough, “Go, sell that which thou hast and give to the poor, and come follow me.” The young man left. He wanted to go to Heaven but he did not want to go badly enough.

Peter said, “Lord, we have left all and followed Thee; what then shall we have?” That is a good question for all of us. What does following Jesus mean? Peter himself, has the answer for us in 1st Peter 2:21, “Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in His steps.”

There is a gospel song that says: “How beautiful to walk in the steps of the Savior, stepping in the light, stepping in the light. How beautiful to walk in the steps of the Savior, led in paths of light.”

But then a follow-up question to that would be, “How far should we walk with the Savior?” Revelation 14:4 has the answer, “These are they that follow the Lamb whithersoever He goes.”

Lord, what’s in it for us? However, Jesus honored Peter by giving him something beyond the value of silver and gold. He had already given him the keys of the kingdom, and in Acts 3:6 Peter told a lame man, “Silver and gold have I none; but what I have, that give I thee. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.” The Lord would also give him the honor of being the keynote speaker when the first gospel sermon was preached on the Day of Pentecost, and yet in addition to that in Revelation 21:14, the names of the twelve Apostles were on the twelve foundations of the walls of the holy city coming down out of Heaven.

When Jesus called Matthew and said, “Follow Me,” Luke 5:28 tells us he arose and left all and followed him. What did he get out of that decision? He never dreamed of the honor that he would receive, when he was one of four men who were chosen to write the biography of Jesus, and the first one in the list of the four.

James and John had a prosperous business, they had servants, and Jesus called them and they left the boat and their father, and followed Jesus. We gave up a lot, Lord. What’s in it for us? Jesus said, in Luke 18:29, “Verily I say unto you, there is no man that hath left house, or wife, or brethren, or parents, or children, for the kingdom of God’s sake who shall not receive manifold more in this time, and in the world to come eternal life.”

The Apostle Paul liked to boast of what he gave up for Christ. He said in Philippians 3:7-8, “But the things that were gain to me I counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss, and count them as rubbish that I may gain Christ.”

If we take the Lord at His word it is evident that it pays to serve Jesus. He said so. I heard a man on television who was a former preacher turned entertainer. When asked why he left the ministry he said, “The Lord doesn’t pay too well.” He was wrong. The Lord pays better than anyone; not dollar for dollar, home for home, acre for acre; plus the fact that you cannot beat the retirement. Ask anyone who has spent a life-time serving the Lord if it pays. It not only pays, it pays a hundred-fold, and in the end eternal life. Perhaps some would say in the words of the song: “I wouldn’t take nuthin’ for my journey now.”

Now, the days of regeneration is the period of time that we are living in right now. It began on the Day of Pentecost, and will end on the day when the Lord announces His return with a shout, the voice of the archangel, and the sound of the trumpet. Paul identifies these days for us when he said to Titus in chapter 3:4-5, “But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love toward men appeared, not by works done in righteousness, which we did ourselves, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit which He poured out upon us richly, through Jesus Christ our Savior.”

So the days of regeneration began the day the Church began, and there were three thousand who gladly received the word of the Apostles and were baptized. And the Lord added day by day those that were saved. And this brings us to the THRONE OF HIS GLORY, THEN THE THRONES OF THE APOSTLES, AND THEN TO THE JUDGING OF THE APOSTLES.

THE THRONE OF HIS GLORY

Then the Lord said, “In the regeneration when the Son of Man shall sit on the throne of His glory. . .” and he is sitting on the Throne of His glory at this moment. When Peter preached his first gospel message he stated in Acts 2:30-34, “David, being a prophet and knowing that God had sworn by an oath unto him, that of the fruit of his loins he would set one upon His throne; he foreseeing this spake of the resurrection of the Christ, that neither was He left into Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption, being therefore by the right hand of God, exalted He has poured forth this, which you see and hear. For David ascended not into heaven, but he saith himself, The Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou on My right hand till I make Thine enemies the footstool of Thy feet.” Then Paul tells us in 1st Corinthians 15:26 “The last enemy is death.” He is seated on David’s throne now. During the regeneration He will sit on the throne of His glory, and will sit there until He returns.

Now while Jesus is sitting on His throne the Christian can look upon that throne as the throne of prayer. Hebrews 4:14-16 informs us, “Having then a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession, for we have not a high priest who cannot be touched with our infirmities; but one who was tempted in all points like as we are and yet without sin. Let us therefore draw near with boldness unto the throne of grace that we may find mercy and grace in time of need.” The grace we receive is unmerited favor, and the mercy is grace in action. As a Christian I need to approach the throne every day, since no day passes by but what I need mercy, and plenty of it.

The throne of His glory can also be looked upon as the throne of judgment. The Apostle Matthew in 25:32 tells us about that coming when he says, “But when the Son of Man shall come in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then shall He sit on the throne of His glory: and before Him shall be gathered all the nations: and He shall separate them one from another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.” It appears the Judgment Day will begin when the Lord comes in His glory, and sits on the throne of His glory.

The throne of judgment is also mentioned in Revelation 20:11-15, “And I saw a great white throne, and Him that sat upon it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no room for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne; and they were judged.”

It appears these two judgment scenes are the same since the results are the same. The scene in Matthew ends with, “These shall go away into eternal punishment and the righteous into eternal life,” and the one in Revelation ends with, “And death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death, even the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire.” Then the Lord has something to say about the thrones of the Apostles.

THE THRONES OF THE APOSTLES

The twelve Apostles, Jesus said, will sit upon twelve thrones. They are sitting there now; sitting on the twelve thrones of their authority. Jesus said to the Apostles before He ascended that they would receive power when the Holy Spirit was come upon them and they should be His witnesses. He also said that the Holy Spirit, when He is come, will guide them into all the truth and bring to their remembrance all things that He had said unto them. The Apostles are still sitting on their thrones. They have no successors.

Someone asked why we do not have Apostles in the Church today. We do have Apostles. The original Apostles are still with us in the authority of the Word of God. Actually the only Apostle who needed a successor was Judas Iscariot, and that was Matthias in Acts 1:23. There may be others who claim they are Apostles today, but they are false Apostles. Paul refers to them in 2nd Corinthians eleven, “For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, fashioning themselves into apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for even Satan fashions himself into an angel of light.” It is no great thing therefore if his ministers fashion themselves as ministers of righteousness whose end shall be according to their works.

In Matthew 16:19 Jesus said, “Whatsoever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever ye loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” So, on the Day of Pentecost when the multitude asked, “What shall we do?” Peter told them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

That statement about baptism was bound in Heaven because Jesus had said, “Whatever, you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven,” and when Peter said, “Your sins will be forgiven,” that statement was also bound in Heaven, because Jesus said, “Whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” The keys of the kingdom are nothing more and nothing less than the terms whereby the Lord will allow you to come into His Church.

We do not have instruction from all the Apostles, but what one of them said, they all said. What one of them taught, they all taught. When one Apostle spoke he was speaking for the whole bunch of Apostles. And now the judgment of the Apostles on the twelve tribes of Israel

JUDGING THE TWELVE TRIBES

The twelve tribes of Israel the Apostles are judging, is the Church of Christ. Israel today is composed of Christians. Paul says in Galatians 6:15-16, “For neither is circumcision anything nor un-circumcision, but a new creature. And as many as walk by this rule, peace by upon you and the Israel of God.”  We read again this time in Galatians 3:27-29: “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ did put on Christ. There can be neither Jew nor Greek, there can be neither bond nor free, there can be neither male nor female; for ye are all one man in Christ Jesus and if ye are Christ’s then are ye Abraham’s seed and heirs according to promise.” Since we are spiritual Israel the Apostles judge us now. We take all questions to the Apostles for their decision. Peter spoke for the whole bunch of Apostles when he explained that they had received the baptism of the Holy Spirit as prophesied by Joel, and promised by the Lord. He preached the death, burial, resurrection and ascension of Jesus. They sit upon twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. All the Apostles agree; Thomas, Matthew, James, John, all of them, the whole bunch.

The regeneration is now, the Lord is seated on His throne now, the Apostles are seated on their twelve thrones now, and their judgment for us is now in their decisions as Paul tells us in Titus 3:4-7, “But when the kindness of God our Savior, and His love toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness, which we did ourselves, but according to His mercy, He saved us through the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Spirit, which He poured out upon us richly, through Jesus Christ our Savior; that being justified by His grace, we might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” Luke also refers to this washing when he referred to the baptism of the Apostle Paul, “And now, why tarriest thou, arise and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord.”

CONCLUSION

This prediction of Jesus will find a double meaning as we think of the end of the world. Peter speaks of the destruction of this planet when he says in 2nd Peter the third chapter, “The elements being on fire shall melt with a fervent heat and the earth and all the things that are therein shall be burned up. But we according to promise look for a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness.” This world is going to be renovated. When that time of regeneration comes, the King will sit on the throne of His Glory and before Him will be gathered all the nations.

Jesus will judge the world by the same method that He uses now, by the judgment of the Apostles. Jesus said, “He that rejects, me and receives not My sayings, has one that judges him: even the word that I spake, the same shall judge him in the last day.”

When the great business plants of our city have turned out their last finished work,

And the merchants have made their last order and dismissed every last tired clerk.

When the banks have made their last dollar and given their last dividend

And the Judge of the earth says closed for the night, and we stand up before him--what then?

When the choir has sung its last anthem, and the preacher has prayed his last prayer,

And the people have heard their last sermon, and the songs have died on the air;

When the Bible lies closed on the pulpit, and the pews are all empty of men

And each one stands facing his record, and we stand up before him--what then?