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LIVING IN TWO AGES __________________________________ ‘Already’ but ‘Not Yet’ ___________ Teacher: Edward Fudge www.Ed

LIVING IN TWO AGES __________________________________ ‘Already’ but ‘Not Yet’ ___________ Teacher: Edward Fudge www.EdwardFudge.com. gracEmail® Edward Fudge THESE LAST DAYS Q: "What does the phrase 'these last days' mean in Hebrews 1:2?".

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LIVING IN TWO AGES __________________________________ ‘Already’ but ‘Not Yet’ ___________ Teacher: Edward Fudge www.Ed

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  1. LIVING IN TWO AGES __________________________________ ‘Already’ but ‘Not Yet’ ___________ Teacher: Edward Fudge www.EdwardFudge.com

  2. gracEmail®Edward Fudge THESE LAST DAYS Q: "What does the phrase 'these last days' mean in Hebrews 1:2?"

  3. The author is not speaking of calendar-time, as if he sees the future approaching and the end is near. He is speaking of salvation-time in the agenda of God. "The last days" refers to the messianic era, the age of fulfillment. The Jews divided time into the Present Age of anticipation, and the Coming Age of the Messiah. They expected the Messiah to come at the end of their Present Age.

  4. Popular First-Century Jewish Expectation (Bible, Book of Enoch, Book of Jubilees) Present Age Age to Come Earth life as we presently experience it. Creation

  5. Popular First-Century Jewish Expectation (Book of Enoch, Book of Jubilees, Tanach) Present Age Age to Come Earth life as we presently experience it. Creation WITH AGE TO COME (BIBLICAL PROPHETS FORETELL) MESSIAH <> RESURRECTION <> FORGIVENESS HOLY SPIRIT <> RENEWED EARTH

  6. To everyone’s surprise, with the coming of Jesus the Christ (Messiah = “anointed one”) the Coming Age also crashed into history and the messianic era of fulfillment became a reality (Heb. 9:26-28).

  7. BUT TO EVERYONE’S SURPRISE Messiah (Jesus) suddenly breaks into Present Age AGE TO COME PRESENT AGE

  8. When Jesus rose from among the dead and ascended into heaven 40 days later, earth-history entered a new and long-awaited era--the fulfillment of messianic prophecy had now fully begun. However, earth-clocks continued to tick and the familiar visible events of world history continued as before. Here is one of the more puzzling elements of the apostolic preaching. We would not need to be surprised if the Present Age and the Coming Age should actually touch at some end-time point, but neither we nor anyone living in the first century could expect the two Ages to overlap. Yet this is exactly what the New Testament declares.

  9. BECAUSE MESSIAH JESUS COMES, BRINGING -- RESURRECTION <> FORGIVENESS <> HOLY SPIRIT the Age to Come has begun to break in. AGE TO COME PRESENT AGE PRESENT AGE

  10. It is clear that the "last days" have begun: * Messiah has appeared; * the resurrection has begun (Jesus was the first, when God halted the process, to continue it after an interim of unknown duration); * the Spirit has been poured out; * God has forgiven sins and is giving his people a new nature to serve him. Yet the consummation remains in the future and the old order continues to exist (2 Pet. 3:3-10). When Jesus appears for the last time, he will complete the End he began at his first appearing.

  11. FIRST COMING OF CHRIST (Age to Come begins to break in ) AGE TO COME PRESENT AGE

  12. FINAL COMING OF CHRIST (ushers in fullness of the Age to Come) AGE TO COME AGE TO COME PRESENT AGE

  13. 1st Coming Final Coming of Jesus Present Age Passes Away AGE TO COME PRESENT AGE

  14. Jesus ‘goesJesusaway’ ‘returns’ WE ARE HERE AGE TO COME PRESENT AGE

  15. Both the prophets David (Ps. 110:1 – note the word “until”) and Daniel (Dan. 7:13-22 – the Son of Man’s investiture followed later by decisive judgment for his people) hinted at the Messiah’s double-phased work with an unknown interim separating the two phases. Peter refers to these two stages divided by an interim in Acts 3:19-21 (repeating the “until” of Ps. 110:1).

  16. GOD’S TWO-PHASE PLAN FOR HIS MESSIAH___________________________________________________ “The LORD says to my Lord: ‘Sit at my right hand, u n t i l I make your enemies your footstool.’ ” (Psalm 110:1)

  17. Jesus seated God makesat God’s footstool ofright handfinal enemy (Death) PRESENT AGE AGE TO COME UNTIL PSALM 110:1

  18. GOD’S TWO-PHASE PLAN FOR HIS MESSIAH___________________________________________________ “But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled. Repent therefore, and turn again . . . so that Godmay send the Christ[Messiah]appointed for you,Jesus,whom heaven must receive u n t i lthe time for restoringall thethingsabout which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago.” (Acts 3:18-21)

  19. Heaven The time forreceived Jesus restoringthe Christ all things PRESENT AGE AGE TO COME UNTIL

  20. Like the sudden merger of two swiftly-descending mountain streams flowing down from opposite points, the overlapping of the Present Age and the Coming Age creates undercurrents pulling in opposing directions. For the believer, the result is existential pressure or tension, for which the Greek New Testament word is thlipsis – often translated “tribulation” or “affliction.”

  21. THE AGE TO COMEALREADYNOT YET We live between the times WE ARE HERE AGE TO COME PRESENT AGE

  22. The result is tension, pressure (thlipsis = “tribulation”). This tension is the source of our suffering, whether internal or external, physical or spiritual. We are pulled in opposite directions. PRESENT AGE AGE TO COME

  23. If the Coming Age did not draw Jesus’ people upward and forward into the Eschaton they would feel no pressure. Nevertheless they would continue to be pulled back and down into the Present Age that is rapidly passing away. We live within this tension of Present and Coming, "to whom has come the very anticipated goal of the ages" (1 Cor. 10:11, literal translation).

  24. New Testament imagery for Creation’s final state ‘regeneration’ (Matt. 19:28) ‘restoration’ (Acts 3:19, 21) ‘liberation’ (Rom. 8:20-21) ‘reconciliation’ (Col. 1:19-20) ‘new heaven and new earth’ (Rev, 21-22)

  25. WE ALREADY HAVE THE FIRSTFRUITS OF THE SPIRIT Romans 8:23-25 Giving the firstfruits to God was a sign of faith in a future, full harvest. God gives us the firstfruits in this Scripture – his Holy Spirit.

  26. CONVERSION MEANS TAKING UP THE WAITING For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything. For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come. (1 Thes. 1:8-10)

  27. THE CHRISTIAN LIFE DESCRIBED IN PART AS WAITING I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus,that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge—even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you—so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ,who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Cor. 1:4-8)

  28. Because we have the first-fruit . . . W E W A I T groaning

  29. “And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.” AND SO WE WAIT -- GROANING Romans 8:23-25

  30. Because we have the first-fruit . . . W E W A I T groaning eagerly

  31. “And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.” AND SO WE WAIT -- EAGERLY Romans 8:23-25

  32. Because we have the first-fruit . . . W E W A I T groaning eagerly patiently

  33. AND SO WE WAIT -- PATIENTLY Romans 8:23-25 “And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.”

  34. THE KEY TO WAITING IS A HEALTHY BALANCE Not so eager that we lose patience . . . Not so patient that we lose eagerness.

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