Why not 'sell that you have'?

Acts 2:38 says, “Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.”

Jordan says, “Now that verse has stuck in the craw of people for years. What Peter’s doing is what Jesus taught him to do. Jesus said, ‘He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.’ (Mar 16:16)

“I mean a three-year-old can understand what that says. It takes denominational preachers not to understand it because it doesn’t fit their doctrine. Because everybody knows that today you don’t get saved by getting baptized, but in that verse you did.

“People say, ‘Well, it can’t mean that; it means he that believes and is saved should get baptized.’ That isn’t what it says.

“So in order to maintain the doctrine you have to become a Bible corrector and a Bible denier. So you profess to be a Bible-believer, preaching the Bible, while you’re denying it. And then a Campbellite comes along and says, ‘Yeah, but another verse does . . . ‘ and everybody goes, ‘Egh-bloo-bloo-bloo, let’s go hide!’

“Well, it is what the verse said and it’s why Peter said, ‘Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.’

“Somebody says, ‘Well, that ‘for’ means because you got them.’ Well, if it means because you’ve already got them, what’s Acts 3:19 mean when it says, ‘Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord’?

“When does that verse say they’re going to get their sins blotted out? Look at Acts 3:19. It’s clear. They’re going to get their sins blotted out when the times of refreshing comes from the presence of the Lord.

“Now, if you’ll relax, take a deep breath and just go “Whewww,’ and get all the tension out, and recognize the verse means what it says, and it doesn’t have to threaten you because it’s not talking about you--and as soon as you recognize it’s not talking about you then all of a sudden you’re willing to let it say what it says.

“The problem with the verse isn’t what the verse says; it’s that you’re thinking it talks about somebody that it isn’t talking to. There’s not one place in Acts 1-3 and from that point, that gave you any indication that Paul’s talking to anybody but the nation Israel.

“Three times in Acts 2, he says, ‘I’m talking to you men of Israel.’ Well, you’re not Israel! Unless you think you are. And if you don’t have sense enough to know you’re not spiritual Israel, well, then you’ve got more problems than just trying to figure that verse out.

“Imagine somebody going along saying, ‘Well, we’re Israel.’ You’re a member of the Body of Christ. Galatians 3:28 says that in that Body of Christ, ‘There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.’

“How in the world could God put you in the Body of Christ where there is no Jew or Gentile and make you a Jew?! Or a spiritual Jew?! He said that in the Body of Christ there is NO Jew or Gentile.

“God didn’t put you in the Body of Christ to make you spiritual Israel. He put you in the Body of Christ to make you something new that never existed before. That’s why he calls you a new creature.

“Did you ever hear the argument that Adam never had a belly button? Well, you don’t have a spiritual belly button. You weren’t born; you were created.

*****

“If you look at Luke 12:31, it says, ‘But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you.’

“You hear people preach that verse all the time. ‘Seek ye the kingdom of God and all these things we’ll be added.’ All what things? All the things of the kingdom.

“First they had to have God’s righteousness. They had to be from the ‘believing remnant.’ It wasn’t going to be for just any Israeli; it was going to be for redeemed Israel.

“Verse 32 says, ‘Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.’ Now he calls them that because back in the prophets, Jeremiah 23, for example, and Ezekiel 36, he says, ‘I’m going to gather my flock together.’

“The nation Israel was a flock but God’s going to have within that flock a ‘believing remnant.’ It wasn’t enough to be just physically the descendant of Abraham. You had to be spiritually a descendant of Abraham. Abraham’s the ‘father of all them that believe.’

“You know what’s going on in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John? Jesus Christ’s gathering together the future governmental authority for His kingdom. Notice how important this is:

“Verse 33 says, ‘Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth.’

“You see those first four words? Sell that you have. That verse right there is enough to tell me that you never met anybody, any preacher, any deacon, any saint in your life, that said they’re going by the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John that ever did it.

“Because you never met one preacher, one deacon, one Sunday School teacher, one saint who professed to go by the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John that sold their possessions.

“Preacher says, ‘Well, Christ didn’t really mean that.’ Then why did He say it? People preach, ‘Sell out for Jesus!’ Okay, well let’s sell your car, let’s sell your 401K and let’s give it to the poor. Isn’t that what they did in Acts 2? They sold their possessions and laid them at the apostles’ feet and distribution was made to the needy. Why do you think they did that?

“They did that because that’s what Jesus told them to do. Why did He tell them to do it? Because when they get in that kingdom out there, you know what they’re going to get? They’re going to get that and much more too!

“Hey dudes, it’s your father’s good pleasure; he’s going to give you the kingdom! You don’t need all this stuff!’

“You know what happens in the Tribulation? If you don’t take the ‘mark of the beast’ you can’t buy or sell. All of that stuff is going to be weighting you down over here. But you’re going to get back over there.

“By the way, this thing here’s only seven years long. They’re not talking about something taking place 50 years from now. They’re on a time schedule.

“Mark 1:14-15 says, [14] Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God,
[15] And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.”

*****

Jordan says, “What does he mean, ‘The time is fulfilled’? God gave Daniel a time schedule and told him that from the commandment to, ‘Go forth and rebuild the temple until Messiah the prince should come,’ is only going to be so much time and after that, there’s going to be a seven-year period and then the kingdom’s going to be established.

“They had a time schedule, and when that time schedule for the days of Messiah arrived, John the Baptist showed up.

“They went 400 years with God not talking to them. Then there’s a man sent from God named John and he’s the voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Prepare ye the way of the Lord.’ He’s doing exactly what Isaiah 40 and Malachi 3 said would happen. He’s the messenger.

“He said to them, ‘When I came baptizing with water, I did it because He that sent me SAID unto me . . .’ God the Father spoke to John personally, commissioning him and sending him.

“God told them back there in the Prophets, ‘I’m not going to talk to you for 400 years.’ You know what, they knew there was a time schedule! You know why those wise men were looking for that star? Daniel gave that prophesy in the east in Babylon.

“You know why Anna and Simeon were there in expectation, looking for the Messiah? They knew what the schedule was. They could figure out within a three-year period of time when He was going to be born. They weren’t running around just reading the tea leaves; reading the horoscope in the newspaper every morning, wondering what’s happening.

“When He tells these guys about the kingdom, they know, ‘Hey, after He goes away . . .’ That’s why they said, ‘Wilt thou at this time restore the kingdom? They know they’re on a time schedule because in Daniel, 69 weeks after which Messiah the prince is cut off, there’s a period of time between the 69^th and 70^th week when the time clock isn’t going and they say, ‘Okay, how soon before this thing starts up again?’

“They know it’s not going to be a millennium later. They could sell their stuff and not worry about it.

“What’s going on in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John is they’re preparing. The Book of Matthew presents the Lord Jesus Christ as the King of Israel; it documents His kingly authority. The Book of Mark presents Him as the suffering servant of the Lord. The Book of Luke says, ‘Behold, He’s the man touched with our infirmities.’ The Book of John says, ‘He’s Jehovah God in human flesh.’

“He matches all of the four criteria that Israel is told to look for in order to say, ‘He’s the Messiah.’ That’s why there are four gospels and not one or six; it’s because He matches all those ‘branch’ statements back in the Old Testament that told them, ‘When Messiah shows up He’s going to be a carpenter with four identifying markers.’

“By the way, He’s called ‘the carpenter’ because that’s what Zechariah said He would be. I mean, you’d have to be blind in one eye and couldn’t see out the other to miss Him and, of course, they were blind.

“Those books are not written to be your doctrine today. They’re written to present to the nation Israel who He was, gather that believing remnant together and prepare them for this period of time over here because in prophecy, THAT’S the issue.

“They couldn’t know anything about the church the Body of Christ because if that had been revealed back there, Satan would have known about it and he wouldn’t have crucified Christ.

“So when you’re reading Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, you’re reading about the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ to the nation Israel. That’s why He says, ‘Don’t go to the Gentiles.’ That’s why He says, ‘I’m not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.’ That’s why He told the woman at the well, ‘Salvation is of the Jews.’

“It wasn’t because He didn’t love everybody; it’s because God’s purpose and plan in the earth is to go through the nation Israel.

“Don’t get me wrong, I taught the Book of Luke in my church for 6-7 years. I taught the Book of John for five years and I just finished it about a year-and-a-half ago and started teaching the Minor Prophets.

“You study those books for what they really are, and when you leave them where they are, wow, what a blessing! When you try to make that stuff you, and your pattern, you’ll wind up in confusion because it isn’t who you are.

“You wind up trying to teach people to be somebody they’re not. Christendom today is a bastardized form of Judaism and it comes from people going back into those passages that don’t have to do with us and trying to make them theirs.”