The Gospel message is clear: no one enters the Kingdom of God except by Jesus Christ. This rock of offense has caused many to stumble—Jew and Gentile alike—because it sounds “exclusive.” Jesus, Himself, said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).
            Why is Jesus the only way? As the Son of God, He lived a life without sin, in total obedience to the Father. As the Son of Man, He faced the same temptations and emotions we do, yet prevailed. But unlike human leaders who tend to lord their position over the rest of us, this Servant-Leader invited us to share in His position by virtue of being joined to Him.
            We always have a choice between light and life versus darkness and death. “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil” (John 3:18-19).
            This unique union with Christ forms our true identity. “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Gal. 3:27). All other distinctions pale in comparison: Jew or Gentile, male or female, boss or employee, young or old. We are now first and foremost citizens of Heaven (Phil. 3:20) and ambassadors for Christ (2 Cor. 5:20). All because we are all in Christ Jesus; He is the basis of our new life in the Kingdom of the Son of the Father’s love (Col. 1:13).
            The Chronos Lesson: This is why John 4:3-4 says that Jesus “left Judea and departed again to Galilee. But He needed to go through Samaria.” He needed to go? What was so urgent? Plus, good Jews didn’t take this more direct route from Galilee in the north to Jerusalem in the south. There was bad blood between the Jews and the Samaritans.
          The Jews looked down on the Samaritans because they had intermingled in marriage during the captivity. The Samaritans continued to worship as the Jews did but considered only the first five books of the Old Testament as authoritative. To make matters worse, they had built their own temple on Mount Gerizim because they believed it was the site of the altar where Abraham prepared to offer Isaac as a sacrifice. That temple had already been destroyed by Jesus’ time.
            This “needful” trip had to shock Jesus’ disciples. Shocker #1. Yet they journeyed with Him. When they came to Jacob’s well, Jesus rested and the disciples went into town to get some food. It was noon and the sun was high up in the sky, which meant the women wouldn’t be coming to the well to get water. With one exception, however.
            You probably know the story of the woman at the well. Jesus asks the woman to give Him some water. Shocker #2. Thus began a stunning conversation that would change the course of history. “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water” (John 4:10). The Samaritans would hear the Gospel and believe.
            Jesus stayed in the “heathen” land for two days. He needed to go there because it signaled a new time when a new covenant would be cut to bring salvation to any and all. It foreshadowed the two-Day timeout for Israel as the Gospel was extended to the Gentiles across the known world.
            Division, hatred, and bloodshed can only be overcome by the shed blood of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ. The world wants us to react with vengeance, which seems good at the time. But as Christians we are called not to react but to respond in the light of God’s grace and love. The world doesn’t need more darkness. It needs the Light of the World. God has appointed a time for His vengeance against evil. It is the Day of Christ.
            By the way, every religion is exclusive in the sense that each has its own beliefs that must be followed. And since those beliefs differ from other religions, they cannot lead to the same place. Nor can they lead to perfection because only God the Creator can recreate a new heart and a new spirit in us. Perhaps this is one reason why the Antichrist will oppose all forms of religion—except worshiping his image, that is!   

            Peter’s historic sermon on the Day of Pentecost summed up the turning point in the covenants, distinguishing the early Days from the latter Days.
            “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know—Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death; whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it” (Acts 2:22-24).
            Earlier in His ministry, Jesus chastised the people for seeking signs and wonders in order to believe. Believe what? Believe in Him? In a way, but that is only part of the story. The signs and wonders confirmed that He was the Messiah—God’s Anointed One. The anointing spoke of the third Person of the Godhead—the Holy Spirit.
            It wasn’t enough that they believed Jesus was sent by God as the prophets were. Jesus was a prophet, but so much more. He was God in the flesh, Heaven on earth. He came to redeem the inhabitants of earth as the Perfect Man, something no one else could achieve. He fulfilled the Law but brought so much more—the power of God within redeemed mankind.
            The Chronos Lesson: The Anointed One and His anointing would be the antidote to the evils of the false mountain—the counterfeit trinity of the mystery of lawlessness. This is why Jesus warned His followers that one of the signs of the tribulation would be false christs and false prophets rising up with signs and wonders to deceive many. Whereas the signs and wonders Jesus performed revealed the loving and merciful nature of God the Father, these false signs and wonders would reveal the nature of the Deceiver, Satan, the father of lies.
            As believers, when we understand God’s times and seasons, we need not be so readily deceived. We are  to remain steadfast and watchful, for “in Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise” (Eph. 1:13). This is one reason why we are to test all prophesies and teachings according to the truth of God's Word. It is why Jesus prayed, “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth” (John 17:17).
            The implication behind this is that it is possible for the elect—the Body of Christ—to be deceived. How is this possible? Well, for one thing, by not really knowing what is in the Word for ourselves. Too often we simply parrot what we hear ministers and prophets say, whether or not it lines up with the whole counsel of God’s Word. But how can leaders of the Church get it wrong? By not testing what they teach against the whole counsel of God’s Word and trusting in their own understanding.
            Much of the confusion in the Church about the end-times, as well as the so-called prophecies concerning our times that have not come to pass, is because these people have ignored one-third of the scriptures that deal with the end-times and the reality of the rapture. They have rejected the one thing Scripture tells us to remember about these time: God’s great prophetic Week of thousand-year Days.
            The result is that some of the elect is not prepared for what they are experiencing in these times. They don’t understand the chronos times and therefore don’t know what to do. They’re confused, disheartened, and losing hope. They are easily led by whomever seems to have the largest following.
            As a result, they don’t know how to stand in this hour of trial that Jesus warned us about, even though His Word is filled with an end-time message of comfort, hope, and victory. The counterfeit trinity shall be fully revealed shortly, at the Day of the Lord—the Antichrist, the False Prophet, and the Dragon (Satan). It’s time to know what shall take place and your part in it.

            The Apostle John opens his Gospel by describing the eternal Word of God. That Word—Jesus--“was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” The account is very time specific. John the Baptizer, who prepared the way for the Lord, is with two of his disciples when He sees Jesus coming toward them. He declares, “Behold the Lamb of God!” Stirred by this truth, Andrew seeks out his brother, Simon Peter, and drags him to the Messiah who promptly changes the fisherman’s name to Cephas, meaning a stone. The two shall be living stones and two of Jesus’ disciples. 
            The account carefully points out that on the next day, Jesus goes to Galilee and finds Philip, the other disciple of John, and calls him to follow Him instead. Philip does so promptly, and then seeks out his friend, Nathanael, to likewise follow Jesus. It takes a miraculous sign from Jesus—a word of knowledge—to convince Philip’s young friend to believe that this man from Nazareth (of all places) is indeed the Messiah.
            The saga continues in chapter 2. Unfortunately, the chapter numbers that the translators added after the fact often do not make sense as to where they place the breaks. In this case, we know the time-specific story continues because chapter 2 begins with, “On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.”
            You may recognize this story as the record of Jesus’ first miracle of turning water into wine. “This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory; and His disciples believed in Him.” Let’s think about this for a moment. Of all the miracles that could announce the Lamb of God’s ministry, God chose a non-life-threatening moment to reveal His Son. Running out of wine definitely would have been a personal embarrassment to the host family in that culture. But in terms of showing off His healing power, it doesn’t make sense. That is, until you recognize the Day Code shadow.
            It’s a third day wedding. The bride and her bridegroom shall be united as one. It’s personal. For it casts a long shadow into our time—to our Third Day union when our beloved Bridegroom comes to take His Bride back to Father’s House in Heaven. It is our Third Day perfection when we are resurrected at the rapture and instantly changed into immortal, glorified beings. In other words, ordinary men and women, who have come to know Christ, shall be turned into extraordinary, glorified men and women. No wonder we are drawn to superheroes. It’s in our future!
            The Chronos Lesson: The apostle Peter wrote about the timing and purpose of Jesus’ first coming. “He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God” (1 Pet. 1:20-21).
            Notice the connection in this relationship—being raised from the dead and being glorified. This is resurrection. It is different from being raised from the dead and brought back to this physical life as Lazarus was. Resurrection is overcoming death and living forevermore, never to die again.
            Romans 8:29 says that this is one of the ways we are conformed to the image of Christ. “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.” He is the firstborn in the sense that He was the first human to be resurrected on the third day after He was crucified. He is the firstborn among many brethren who shall be raised from the dead on the Third Day. This is the Day the Lord has made, and we will rejoice and be glad in it!

            Luke 4 records what happened after Jesus’ anointing for ministry at His baptism, “Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being tempted for forty days by the Devil. And in those days He ate nothing, and afterward, when they had ended, He was hungry.” 
            Satan seizes the opportunity and tries to undermine Jesus’ identity through His flesh. “If You are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” Jesus answers with the Word of God. “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God’ ” (Deut. 8:3). Strike one, Satan.
            So Satan tries to undermine Jesus’ calling. He takes Jesus up a high mountain and instantly shows Him all the kingdoms of the world. Needless to say, it must have been a mountain in the spiritual realm for all that to be seen at once. What is interesting is what Satan says next. “All this authority I will give You, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. Therefore, if You will worship before me, all will be Yours.”
            When was the authority of the nations of the world delivered to Satan? At the fall of mankind, when our human ancestors forfeited their position as God’s representatives on the earth, and Satan became the god of this age. Jesus boldly answers, “Get behind Me, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’ ” Strike two, Satan.
       Satan’s third and final temptation has to do with Jesus’ supernatural power and the power of God’s written Word. Satan takes Jesus to the pinnacle of the Temple—God’s meeting place—and dares Jesus to throw himself down to test God’s Word that the angels would protect Him. Once again, Jesus responds with Scripture. “You shall not tempt the Lord your God” (Deut. 6:16). Strike three, Satan.
       The temptation is over, that is, until another “opportune time.” Satan’s sinister plan backfired big time. Verses 14-15 records, “Then Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and news of Him went out through all the surrounding regions. And He taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all.”
            The Chronos Lesson: 2 Cor. 4:4 confirms that Satan is the god of this age and has blinded many to the truth of the good news of the gospel. The phrase “this age” is the age we are living in, the Church Age. While we are still in this age, we resist the devil as Jesus did, by answering his lies and temptations with the Word of God. It is a living and powerful weapon, “sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Heb. 4:12).
            Our time on this earth is like boot camp. It’s how we learn to use the weapons of our warfare in the midst of the enemy’s territory. It’s how we learn to trust and stand on God’s truths. It’s how we learn to speak the Word to defeat the enemy. This is a vital skill because, as the immortal court seated in Heaven, we’re going to be called upon to use this two-edged sword to speak into being the Antichrist’s defeat. It’s how we will declare the downfall of Satan and his evil hierarchy from the heavenlies to earth.
            It is also how we will join Christ in fulfilling a key aspect of His work. “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8). Satan’s sinister ways are one of the reasons that the earth is groaning. “For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God” (Rom. 8:19). When are we revealed? In one sense during our boot camp training as we preach the Gospel with signs and wonders following as Jesus commissioned us. Yet we will be fully manifested at Christ’s second coming when we are raptured, seated as the heavenly court, and declaring God’s judgments against evil.