GOD'S PLAN
The Church Age
After Jesus’ resurrection, He appeared to the people and His disciples for a period of 40 days, preparing the people for what was about to happen. This time is discussed in Acts chapter 1. There are some very important versus in this chapter that deserve a closer look.
1. The Holy Spirit Promised
In Acts 1:4 (KJV), it says, “And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me.” Jesus’ disciples were instructed to stay in Jerusalem to wait for the promise of the Father. It wasn’t the promise of Jesus, but the Father. Make note of that detail and we will come back to it a little later.
In Acts 1:5 (KJV), it reads, “For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.” Here, we see that water baptism, like that done by John the Baptist, was a precursor to the real thing, preparing people for what was about to happen. The real baptism was that of the Holy Spirit and it was only a few days away at the time of Jesus’ ascension. Today’s water baptism is symbolic of the one that counts, the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Water baptism is not required in order to be saved.
Acts 1:6 (KJV) says, “When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?” The False Doctrine of Replacement Theology says that God’s promises to Israel have been forfeited by their rejecting and killing their Messiah and have been transferred to the Church. This doctrine is not Biblical and this verse is a clue make to that point. The disciples did not assume Israel’s kingdom that was promised in the Old Testament was now the Church’s. They assumed it was still Israel’s and their question was when would they be restored?
In Acts 1:7 (KJV) Jesus answers and says, “And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.” Jesus did not say Israel would not be restored, but that it wasn’t for them to know when.
Finally, in Acts 1:8 (KJV), Jesus promises the Holy Spirit. “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” Jesus tells them they will receive the Holy Spirit and “power”. This is the Greek word “dynamis”, which means “strength, power, ability, power for performing miracles, moral power and excellence of soul.” This is miraculous spiritual power that only comes from God.
Jesus had previously said in John 16:7 (KJV) “Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.” And in John 14:16 (KJV), “And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;” and then in John 14:26 (KJV), “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.”
At this point Jesus is telling everyone they are about to enter a new eon, era, or age. In theological terms, this is referred to as a dispensation. See the lesson on Understanding Dispensations for more information. Jesus is telling us the role of the Holy Spirit, which is the spirit of Christ, or more simply put, God, dwelling within us, guiding us. All we have to do to have this is accept that Jesus Christ died for our sins and is our savior.
2. Pentecost, Arrival of the Holy Spirit
Jesus ascended 40 days after His resurrection. The Holy Spirit descended from Heaven on the day of the feast of Shavuot, also known as the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost. This is the 4th feast of the year, and it takes place the Sunday following the 7th Sabbath after Passover. That means it is always 50 days after Passover, which is where the Greek name Pentecost comes from. In Old Testament times, this was a feast to commemorate the harvest and to give thanks for the Lord’s blessing. See the lesson on the Jewish Feasts for more information regarding the meaning behind the feast days.
Acts chapter 2 describes the arrival of the Holy Spirit and what happened as a result of that. For the purposes of this lesson, the Church was born. The Spirit of God now dwelled in the believers for the first time. In the times of the Old Testament, God was with the people and then spoke through Prophets to the people. Then in the time of Christ, God was present as one of us in physical form. Now, God is residing inside those of us who choose, or want God in us.
The presence of the Holy Spirit gives us tremendous power, not of our own, but of the Lord’s. At the time, the disciples that were present spoke in the tongues of others so that they could all understand in the native tongue (Acts 2:6-12). Then Peter, who had denied Christ 3 times before the cock crowed (Matthew 26:69-75), became filled with the Holy Spirit and gave an extremely bold sermon, calling those Jews who had Christ crucified (Acts 2:14-36).
The disciples went on to heal the sick, cast out demons and raise the dead (Acts chapters 3-28). They had seen their Lord crucified and buried, then resurrected and now ascended. They were filled with the Holy Spirit and were doing what Jesus told them to do. They were the start of the Church.
3. The Church is the Body of Christ
After Pentecost, the Holy Spirit is now indwelling in the believers. Why is it that Jesus had to depart in order that we might receive the Holy Spirit (John 16:7)? As was discussed in the section above, God is changing the way in which He is interacting with the people. He is going from being present in the physical form of one individual (Jesus Christ) to being present in all believers.
God is putting the Jews in a sort of “time out” for their bad behavior and changing His focus to the gentiles who choose to believe, now known as the Church. Let us investigate this concept further.
In Hosea 5:15 (KJV) God says, “I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me early.” In this chapter of Hosea, God is rebuking Israel for their offense. He says he will go away until they acknowledge their offense. There is an UNTIL in that statement. God will return to Israel at a later time.
The next few verses in Hosea 6:1-2 (KJV) give us Israel’s response to this. “Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up. After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight.” God will return His focus to Israel after two days? This makes more sense when you understand the code that is revealed in bothe Psalm 90:4 and 2 Peter 3:8 (KJV), which says “But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” After two days means after 2000 years!
To emphasize the point, read Romans 11:25 (KJV), in which Paul tells us, “For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.” Paul lets us know that the Jews are blind to what they have done and will not have any focus from God until the fullness of the Gentiles comes in. This means until the Church has reached the number of members desired by God. God is now focused on the Church and the Jews have to wait until the Church membership is complete.
The Spirit of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit is now dwelling in us, the believers. That means Christ now acts in the physical world, through our bodies. Hence, we are the “body of Christ”. In 1 Corinthians 12:27 we see, “Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.” We are each member of Christ’s body. Colossians 1:24 (KJV) says, “Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church:” Here we are told again that the Church is Christ’s body.
This is such an important point to fully grasp. When we get to the day of judgement and God looks at us, He will see Christ in us. He will see the sacrifice of Christ and see that we are covered by the blood of Christ and all of our sins are not remembered. This is how Christ’s death is our salvation!
There is one more point to make regarding being the body of Christ. In Ephesians 5:23 (KJV) we read, “For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.” This reinforces what was just described, but it also leads us to the next point about the Church.
4. The Church is the Gentile Bride
Throughout the New Testament, the topic of marriage or the wedding ceremony comes up again and again. It culminates with the Marriage Supper of the Lamb in Revelation 19:7-9 (KJV). It reads, “Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.”
We, as the Church, are to become the bride of Christ. In Ephesians 5:25-27 we read, “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.”
We are to be joined to Christ as His Bride. This means we choose to join God’s family. There are a number of Old Testament stories of gentile brides that prepare the people to understand this concept. The story of Ruth is one of the most prominent examples of the gentile bride. It is an excellent, small, 4-chater story of how this concept works to join the gentiles to a Jewish family. This is God’s way of letting us know that even though we may not be born into the nation of Israel, we can become part of His family by choosing him. See the Jewish Wedding for more information on the symbolism used throughout the New Testament.
There are other stories in the bible of gentile brides. In fact, Eve was one. Isaac married Rebekah who was chosen by Abraham’s (the father) servant Eliezer (which means helper). Joseph married Asenath while in Egypt. Moses married Zipporah while on the run from the Egyptians. Rahab married Salmon after being rescued in Jericho, then Ruth married Boaz. All of these were in the line of Jesus. Notice the number of gentile brides. That is a list of 6 and the 7th is Jesus to the Church! It is always 7, how interesting.
5. Grafted Into the Olive Tree
The olive tree is used in scripture as a metaphor for the family of God. An example of this is Psalms 128:3 (KJV), “Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house: thy children like olive plants round about thy table.” In Romans 11, Paul is describing how Israel is not cast away, but how the Church has a separate role, yet joins the family of God. In Romans 11:11 (KJV), Paul says “I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy.” We are the jealousy of the Jews.
Not only are we the bride of Christ, but God uses the Church to drive the Jews to jealousy. Paul goes on in this chapter to describe how the Jews are the natural olive tree and the gentiles are the wild olive tree. In Romans 11:17 (KJV), he says, “And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert graffed in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree.” The natural olive tree has had its branches “cut off” by their turning away from God and rejecting Jesus. The gentile wild branches are grafted into the olive tree, making us part of the blessing of the family of God, Israel. They too, can be grafted back in when they repent and accept Christ as savior.
Let us now tie together the two concepts of gentile bride and grafting into the olive tree. When we as gentiles choose God, we become the body of Christ and his Bride to be. We are also grafted into the family, just like a bride joins the family when married.
6. The Rapture
For the purposes of this lesson, the Church will be raptured or “caught up” to join Christ in the sky prior to the revealing of the antichrist, as described in 1 Thessalonians 4:17 (KJV), “Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” This is followed by 2 Thessalonians 2:7 (KJV) “For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he (the Holy Spirit) who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.” In addition, Paul points out in 1 Thessalonians 5:9 (KJV), “For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ.” This tells us we will not have to go through the great tribulation, but will be raptured before it.
In our lesson on The Rapture, we go into detail on how the rapture of the Church takes place before the revealing of the antichrist and the start of the Time of Jacob’s Trouble. See that lesson for more information on this interesting topic that greatly affects us today.
The essence of it is that we, the Church, are taken by Christ at a time unknown to us. He expects us to be ready at anytime. Once He takes us to be with him, God returns His focus to the Jews and that starts the next period, the Time of Jacob’s Trouble.
7. Summary
Christ left us with the promise of the Holy Spirit and on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit became available to any who believe. He dwells in us, making us the body of Christ, which covers our sins with the blood of Christ. Jesus sees the Church as His bride to be; His betrothed. After The Rapture, we the Church will be wed to Jesus as His bride. This grafts us into the olive tree, enabling us to be adopted into the family of God. Jesus has promised to come back and gather His bride prior to the great tribulation, or the Time of Jacob’s Trouble.
The Church serves a specific purpose of being the body of Christ prior to His return. Afterwards, we become the Bride of Christ, joined together with Him as one.
Table of Contents
Related Resources
False Doctrine of Replacement Theology
Jewish Feasts
Jewish Wedding
The Rapture
