"The Future History of the Church, Part 1"
A typological and midrashic examination of what will happen in the future of the church by seeing how the past history of the church is recapitulated eschatologically; how past events happen again in the Last Days. What to expect, and what to prepare for.
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Acts 27:32…
"Then the soldiers cut away the ropes of the skiff and let it fall off. And as day was about to dawn, Paul implored them all to take food, saying, 'Today is the fourteenth day you have waited and continued without food, and eaten nothing.'"
For three and a half years Elijah fed the Gentile woman. Now Paul comes in the way Moses, Joseph, Elijah, and John the Baptist came – like the good and faithful servant – to feed God's people during this time of darkness and famine. In the End, it will be the same; the good and faithful servant will feed God's people. Verse 33…
"'Therefore I urge you to take nourishment, for this is for your survival, since not a hair will fall from the head of any of you."
You really have to be some man of God to stand up when things are like this, when everyone thinks they're finished, and have His power and anointing to tell people, "You're not finished; Jesus loves us and He's going to get us out of this." When persecution comes the first ones to betray each other and fall away will be the ones described in Jude's epistle. When hard times come, the prosperity preachers and those who follow them will be the first to lose their faith. They have not been prepared to live a crucified life, one of hardship, so when hardship comes, they won't be able to handle it. Verse 35…
"And when he had said these things, he took bread and gave thanks to God in the presence of them all; and when he had broken it he began to eat. Then they were all encouraged, and also took food themselves. And in all we were two hundred and seventy-six persons on the ship. So when they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship and threw out the wheat into the sea.
“'Cast much bread upon the water, and you will reap in a due season.” (Ecc. 11:1) Somehow the Gospel of the Kingdom will be preached during the Tribulation to the raging sea. The Gospel of the Kingdom is different from the Gospel in some ways; it is still the same Gospel, still good news, but it is different in character. The Gospel of the Kingdom is like Matthew's Gospel: Jesus talked about hell three times as much as He did about heaven in Matthew. John the Baptist also preached this Gospel of the Kingdom, the warning that God is going to pour out His judgment. They feed themselves here in Acts 27, and then they cast the rest of the bread on the water. Verse 39…
"When it was day, they did not recognize the land; but they observed a bay with a beach, onto which they planned to run the ship if possible. And they let go the anchors and left them in the sea, meanwhile loosing the rudder ropes; and they hoisted the mainsail to the wind and made for shore. But striking a place where two seas met, they ran the ship aground; and the prow stuck fast and remained immovable, but the stern was being broken up by the violence of the waves. And the soldiers' plan was to kill the prisoners, lest any of them should swim away and escape. But the centurion, wanting to save Paul, kept them from their purpose, and commanded that those who could swim should jump overboard first and get to land, and the rest, some on boards and some on parts of the ship. And so it was that they all escaped safely to land."
So the ship is destroyed, but the people in it are not. We should learn from this that if we cannot stand together, we couldn't stand-alone when the time comes. Acts 28:1…
"Now when they had escaped, they then found out that the island was called Malta. And the natives showed us unusual kindness; for they kindled a fire and made us all welcome, because of the rain that was falling and because of the cold. But when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and laid them on the fire, a viper came out because of the heat, and fastened on his hand. So when the natives saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said to one another, 'No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he has escaped the sea, yet justice does not allow to live.' But he shook off the creature into the fire and suffered no harm."
In Revelation, it says that they took that old serpent who was the devil and cast him into the fire. (Rev. 19:20) This represents the judgment of Satan.
Jewish midrash reads the Bible differently than the church at large because the church at large has made the mistake that Paul warned them not to make in Romans 11, forgetting the root. We don't see the root because it is underground; however, if it were not there, the tree wouldn't be either. If the root were dead, so would the tree be. God is going to bless the church through the Jews in the Last Days. We will see that as more Jews begin coming to faith in Jesus, God will begin pointing the church back to its roots and teaching it how to interpret the Bible correctly. A little light will take you a long way, but when things get very dark you need a strong light. These things are sealed up until the time of the End; one of the things that indicates that we are in the Last Days is that the Holy Spirit has begun to unseal them.
The ship is destroyed, but those on it are saved; the stones are thrown down, but resurrected. Satan will be judged. That is what will happen. Eventually, the people on the ship in Acts 27 realized that Paul was telling the truth all along though the majority had refused to listen to him. They found out the hard way that he was right. The people of Sodom scorned the words of Lot and the two angels, but they found out the hard way that they were right. Those in Noah's day thought Noah was crazy, but they too found out when it was too late that he was right.
This is Page 15 of 16 of PART 3
Scripture taken from the New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation.