No, I don’t mean Markus, I mean our kingdom hero for last week – Enoch.
One day more that 5000 years ago he disappeared and somehow people knew that God had taken him. The Bible does not explain how they knew. Plenty of other people certainly went missing in those days, so why is Enoch’s case special?
The Bible tells us that the other descendents of Adam “lived” a certain number of years and then “died”. Of Enoch we read in direct parallel to the words “lived” and “died” – “walked with God” and “God took him”.
There was no doubt in the minds of people who knew Enoch that he had a special relationship with God. There was thus no doubt that when he disappeared he went to be with God. Whether or not anyone saw him go we are not told.
In the book of Enoch (listen to my sermon for details about that) we are told:
“And it came to pass after this that his name during his lifetime was raised aloft to that Son of Man and to the Lord of Spirits from amongst those who dwell on the earth. And he was raised aloft on the chariots of the spirit and his name vanished among them.” Enoch 70v1,2.
So by 100 BC the Jewish tradition was that Enoch was taken in a similar way to Elijah, 2 Kings chapter 2. Whether it happened that way or not we cannot be sure because the Book of Enoch is not in the Bible.
What will people say about us at our funerals? Wouldn’t it be wonderful if they said “He or she walked with God, right till their last breath”.
Some Christians are so focused on the “rapture” (1 Thess. 4 and 1 Cor. 15), and yes, it will be wonderful if we go to be with Jesus without dying, though remember that even if we die first we still share in the rapture (that was Paul’s point in 1 Thess. 4v13-18). But the rapture is not so important as the question “Did we walk with God before we died (or were raptured)?”
To walk with God now means to have faith in him, because without faith no one can please God, (Heb.11v6) and to walk by the Spirit, which means to focus on the things that please the Spirit (Rom.8v4-9,14), depend on his power for living (Rom.8v10-13) and let him produce his fruit in our lives (Gal.5v22-25).
Based on 43 years as a disciple of Jesus I can assure you that the only way to live the Christian life is through the Spirit. It is not through just coming to meetings, or copying Christian friends or even trying to follow the Bible (good though all of these things are). Once we have had our relationship with God restored through faith in Jesus our Savior, it is only through the Spirit that we can then walk with God. Are you walking by the Spirit each day and all day? Why not start now?
God wants us all to be kingdom heroes who will walk with him in these confusing and, at times, frightening days. He wants his kingdom to come on earth and our task is to prepare the way. Let’s do it!
Graham Turner
