Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen. "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End," says the Lord, "who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty" (Revelation 1:7-8 NKJV).

      One of the greatest hopes of Christianity is that our King, Jesus, is coming back to rule over the earth and restore it to the paradise it was originally created to be. He paid the ultimate price to redeem the earth—His own life. We value things by what someone is willing to pay for them. The Father paid the highest price in all of creation, the heavens or the earth. He paid the life of His only begotten Son. In just the physical creation, the earth hardly registers as a speck of dust, but it is valued as the most valuable place in the universe because of what the Father paid for it.

      To pay this price, Jesus endured continual persecution in His ministry. Then, He was tortured and executed in the most grievous way ever devised by human depravity. This proved for all of eternity the value that God put on mankind and the world—His only begotten Son. 

      If we ever doubt His love for us, just remember that He did this even for those who “pierced Him.” He desires for all to be saved, and so will those who are of one heart with Him. Those who “pierced Him” were His torturers. They, too, will see who it was that they tortured and will mourn for Him. So will all who schemed to have Him, the Prince of Life, killed. Technically, this was done by Roman soldiers, but those who were truly guilty of it were those who instigated it—the religious conservatives and the religious liberals of the time, the Pharisees and Sadducees.

      The Pharisees were the most conservative of the time, believing the written, canonized Scriptures to be absolute truth. The Sadducees were the liberals or progressives of that time, often exalting their own opinions above the Scriptures. Today, the spirit of both of these lives on in the extremes of the right and left. Just as in Jesus’ time, there are some of His followers in both of these groups, but they are few and, at present, relatively powerless in those groups.

      In Jesus’ day, His disciples did not join either the Pharisees or Sadducees. The power given to them was not for the institutions of men. Like Jesus who suffered outside the camp, they went to Him outside the camp:

      For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the Holy Place by the high priest as an offering for sin are burned outside the camp. Therefore Jesus also suffered outside the gate, that He might sanctify the people through His own blood. So then, let us go out to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach. For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come (Hebrews 13:11-14 NASB).

      Jesus did not join either camp because He was above them. He would not come back as either a Pharisee or a Sadducee but as the King of kings, the One who is above all of heaven and earth. When the people tried to make Jesus king, He fled to the mountains. People could not make Him king; He was born the King of kings! After the cross, He would never again submit to men, but all men would submit to Him.

      Institutions—even Christian institutions—are built by men and led by men. It is the grace of the Lord that He will bless what we build for Him as much as He can, but He will not inhabit our institutions. He is going to build His own house that He inhabits. When the first two disciples followed Jesus, He turned and challenged them, asking what they were seeking. They answered Him with perhaps the most important question we can ask Him. They asked Him where He dwelled—not just where He blessed, or where He visited, but where He dwelled (see John 1:35-39).

      In the time He walked the earth, Jesus had many followers but not many disciples. The same is true today. He has many followers but not many disciples. His followers can be found in many institutions that seek to serve Him and have the blessings of the Lord on them. But a disciple is after more than the blessings of the Lord; they are after the Lord Himself. They are seeking the place where He dwells, not just the place He blesses.

      The distinction between these—and the reason He is not found in any camp—will become increasingly clear as we continue in our study. Our highest commission is to help followers become disciples.