Scripture Reading: Luke 4:18-21; 12:32, 37; 13:29; 14:15; 22:1-22, 29-30
Ⅰ
The New Testament jubilee is of three stages: first, the jubilee in the present age, the age of grace; second, the jubilee in the coming age, the age of the kingdom; and third, the jubilee in eternity, in the new heaven and new earth—Luke 4:18-21; 12:37; 14:15; Rev. 21:1-2:
A
We need to see that today's jubilee is a matter of salvation, that the jubilee in the coming age is a matter of reward, and that the jubilee in eternity in the new heaven and new earth will be the full taste of God's full salvation—Luke 19:9; 12:32; 14:15; Rev. 21:1-2.
B
Everyone who accepts God's invitation and receives the offer of what He has prepared for us has the ground to participate in the New Testament jubilee and enjoy Christ in this age; in order to receive the reward of the jubilee in the coming age, we need to enjoy Christ faithfully in this age—Luke 14:16-24:
１
The kingdom will be a reward in the coming age to the faithful enjoyers of Christ, and that reward will also be a jubilee—12:32, 37.
２
Today in God's salvation we have the right to enjoy Christ, the right to enjoy the jubilee—15:22-23.
３
Properly and faithfully we need to enjoy God's Son, who is the all-inclusive Christ as the life-giving Spirit—Col. 1:13; 2:9; 1 Cor. 15:45b:
ａ
The faithful enjoyment of Christ will qualify us to enter into the kingdom in the coming age and there to enjoy a fuller jubilee as a reward— Matt. 25:21, 23; Luke 12:42-48; 13:29.
ｂ
Receiving the reward of the fuller jubilee in the kingdom requires the fulfillment of a condition, and this condition is that we faithfully and continually enjoy Christ today—Phil. 1:18; 3:1; 4:4.
４
Every day we should exercise faithfully to keep ourselves in the enjoyment of Christ; this enjoyment will then qualify us to enter into the coming kingdom, which will be a fuller jubilee as a reward to the Lord's faithful ones— Luke 13:29; 14:15; 22:29-30; Rev. 2:7, 17; 3:20-21.
Ⅱ
The Lord's table is a sign of the jubilee that sets us free from bondage and that brings us into the enjoyment of the Triune God—Luke 4:18-21; 15:22-23; 22:1-22:
A
The feast signifying the jubilee was first the Feast of the Passover in the Old Testament and then the Lord's table in the New Testament—Exo. 12:1-36; Luke 22:15-20.
B
The Lord's table replaces and continues the Feast of the Passover, but not even this New Testament feast has been completely fulfilled—vv. 15-20:
１
The feast of the Lord's table will be fulfilled completely in the coming kingdom— Matt. 26:29; Luke 14:15; 22:16, 18, 29-30.
２
The New Testament feast of the Lord's table will be replaced and continued by the feast in the coming kingdom—Mark 14:22-25.
C
There are not three feasts but one feast in three stages—the Old Testament stage, the New Testament stage, and the kingdom stage; the feast in the kingdom will be the fulfillment of both the Feast of the Passover and the feast of the Lord's table—Luke 22:29-30.
D
"Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord," the One who will bring in the enjoyment of the jubilee in the millennium, and "blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God"—13:35; 14:15.
Ⅲ
The life of the jubilee is the kind of life that lives in the jubilee—4:18-21; John 6:57; Gal. 2:20; Eph. 3:16-17a; Phil. 1:19-21a:
A
The living of the jubilee is a living in the enjoyment of Christ—4:4.
B
The life that lives in the jubilee is a life that lives God—John 6:57:
１
This is a life in which we take God as the primary inward factor of our being—Psa. 73:25.
２
This is a life in which we take God instead of other things as our enjoyment and enjoy only God Himself in every situation—Phil. 3:1; 4:4, 10-13.
C
As long as we live in the natural life, we are not in the jubilee—Luke 9:24, 57-62; 14:26-35; 22:31-32.
D
If we would live in the jubilee in a practical way, we must allow Christ to live in us, and we must live Him—Gal. 2:20; Eph. 3:16-17a; Phil. 1:19-21a.
E
In Acts 27 and 28 the apostle Paul lived the life of the jubilee:
１
This was a life with the highest standard of human virtues expressing the most excellent divine attributes, a life that resembled the one that the Lord Himself had lived on earth—John 6:57.
２
This was Jesus living again in His divinely enriched humanity—Phil. 1:21a.
３
This was the wonderful, excellent, and mysterious God-man continuing to live in the Acts through one of His many members—Gal. 2:20.
Ⅳ
In the book of Acts we see the enjoyment and propagation of the jubilee— 1:8; 2:46-47; 4:33; 5:41; 7:56, 59-60a; 8:4-5, 8, 39; 13:52; 15:3; 16:25, 31, 34; 17:6b:
A
"You shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth"—1:8.
B
"Day by day…breaking bread from house to house, they partook of their food with exultation and simplicity of heart, praising God…And the Lord added together day by day those who were being saved"—2:46-47.
C
"Those therefore who were scattered went throughout the land announcing the word as the gospel… And there was much joy in that city"—8:4, 8.
D
"These men who have upset the world have come here also"—17:6b.