Power from on High
Bible Study Time 5-21-06
Church links:
Bible Study Time 5-21-06
The Apostle Paul wrote to the Galatians, saying:
Galatians 4:4-6 (NKJ)
4 . . . when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law,
5 to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.
6 And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, "Abba, Father!"
From this we see that Jesus Christ was born of a woman so that we might be born of the Spirit. Jesus told Nicodemus:
John 3:6-7 (NKJ)
6 "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
7 "Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.'
In the first chapter of Matthew, Matthew gives the genealogy of the Lord Jesus, saying that Jesus Christ was the Son of David, the Son of Abraham. Then he goes through the lineage of Christ, saying that Abraham begot Isaac, Isaac begot Jacob, and Jacob begot Judah, and so forth and so on until we get to the birth of Jesus. At that point, Matthew says:
Matthew 1:18
18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit.
All of the men listed in the genealogy of Jesus were born according to the flesh, but Jesus Christ was born on this wise: Mary was found with child of the Holy Spirit.
God gave a hint concerning the virgin birth of Christ in Genesis, Chapter 3, when Adam and Eve first sinned. The Lord pronounced a curse upon Satan, saying:
Genesis 3:15 (NKJ)
15 . . . I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel."
God said that it would be the seed of the woman who would bruise the head of Satan, not the seed of the man or the seed of the man and the woman. From the time of that first sin, God patiently waited as mankind grew more and more sinful and farther and farther from God, but as we saw in Galatians 4, “When the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman to redeem those who were under the law.”
In I Corinthians 15, the Apostle Paul spoke of Christ and referred to Him as the last Adam. He said, “The first man, Adam, became a living being, but the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.”
When Adam came into being, he was born of the Spirit. He did not have an earthly father. The Bible says that God formed Adam out of the dust of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and then Adam became a living being.
Adam lived for 930 years, and can’t you just imagine Adam telling his children and grandchildren and many generations of great-grandchildren all about the creation story? What a wonderful story that must have been to listen to.
But, as we know, the story had some sad news too. Adam and Eve sinned and lost the life that had been given to them by the Spirit of God. They could not pass on to their children the life of the Spirit of God. All men who came after Adam were born according to the flesh, and Romans 8 says that the fleshly mind is enmity against God. It is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can it be.
When Christ came, however, He was not born according to the flesh. He was born according to the Spirit. Now this does not mean that Christ was just a spirit being any more than Adam was just a spirit being. They both had bodies of flesh, but their bodies were given life by the Spirit of God, and in that sense, they were not born of the flesh, but they were born of the Spirit. Where the first Adam had failed to live according to the Spirit, Jesus Christ, the last Adam, would dedicate Himself completely to the Spirit of God, and He would make it possible for all believers to be born again by the working of the Holy Spirit.
Notice that Paul did not say that Christ was the second Adam. That would imply that a third or a forth Adam might come after the Lord Jesus, but Paul was emphatic when he said that Jesus Christ was the last Adam.
Jesus Christ came to live a perfect live, in perfect obedience to the Father and in total submission to the Holy Spirit. He came to destroy the curse of sin and the power of Satan. There would be no need for another Adam. There would be no need for another virgin birth.
As Christ took His last breath while hanging upon the cross, He exclaimed, “It is finished!” He had fulfilled all of the righteous requirements of the Law. He had fulfilled all that the prophets had written. He had done all that was necessary to break the curse of sin and the power of Satan.
The Seed of the woman had bruised the head of the serpent. This wound, as of yet, is just a bruise. Satan is still functioning in our world today, but he has been wounded. Someday, God is going to take the Church of our present age out of this world. Then He will turn this world over to Satan and the antichrist. At the end of the seven-year tribulation period, Jesus Christ will catch up the tribulation saints, and then return to the earth with all of the kingdom saints from Abraham to that time.
He will cast the antichrist and the false prophet into the lake of fire. He will bind the devil and cast him into the bottomless pit. After a thousand years of peace on the earth, Satan will be loosed to stir up one final rebellion against Jesus Christ. At that time, Satan’s rebellion will be destroyed with fire from heaven, and Satan, Himself, will be cast into the lake of fire.
The entire spectrum of this future scenario has been made sure by the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, for by His death He paid the penalty for sin, and by His resurrection He disarmed the principalities and powers and made a public spectacle of them.
Therefore, Jesus Christ is the last Adam, and He is a life-giving spirit. He was born of the Spirit, and lived by the Spirit. He was raised from the dead by the Spirit, and He gives the life of the Spirit to all who believe in His name.
When Nicodemus came to the Lord by night, he said, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.”
In His reply, Jesus did not beat around the bush with Nicodemus. Immediately, He said, “Most assuredly, I say unto you, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said unto you, 'You must be born again.'”
After His resurrection, the Lord spent 40 days with His disciples, teaching them about the kingdom. Luke says that Christ commanded His disciples not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father. He told them that John truly baptized with water, but they would be baptized with the Holy Spirit in just a short time.
Because of Christ’s death burial and resurrection, those men were ready to be born of the Spirit, and shortly thereafter, on the day of Pentecost, the Spirit of God was poured out upon them. Acts 2 says:
Acts 2:1-4 (NKJ)
1 Now when the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.
2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.
3 Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them.
4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
Luke goes on to tell how the people who gathered outside the house thought the disciples were drunk, but Peter stood up and explained that this was the fulfillment of the prophet Joel who said:
Acts 2:17-21 (NKJ)
17 'And it shall come to pass in the last days . . . that I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams.
18 And on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days; and they shall prophesy.
19 I will show wonders in heaven above and signs in the earth beneath: blood and fire and vapor of smoke.
20 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord.
21 And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.'
Clearly, Peter was expecting the kingdom to come at any moment. He was expecting the events, which we now know, will happen at the end of the tribulation period. As far as Peter knew, he was in the last days just before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord.
Peter went on to tell the crowd that they had crucified the promised Messiah. He reminded them that Jesus did miracles while He lived among them, and now they, the apostles, were doing miracles to prove that Jesus was alive and that He was the Messiah.
Those who heard Peter’s message were convicted of their sin, and when they ask what they should do, Peter said:
Acts 2:38-39 (NKJ)
38 . . . "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
39 "For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call."
Notice that Peter never said a word about Jesus dying for their sins. Peter simply told them that they had killed the Messiah and that they should repent and get right with God.
Today we preach a different message. We preach that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures and that He was buried and that He rose again the third day according to the scriptures. And this is the gospel message which was given to the Apostle Paul.
In Paul’s earlier ministry during the Acts period, He proclaimed this message as he went preaching the gospel of the kingdom. During that time, there was a different program for the Jews and the Gentiles as was acknowledged at the Jerusalem Council in Acts, Chapter 15. However, throughout the Acts period, Israel steadfastly refused to accept Christ as her Messiah, and as a result, God set Israel’s kingdom program aside.
At that point, God called out the Apostle Paul to reveal the Church which is the Body of Christ. In Ephesians, Chapter 2, Paul revealed that on the cross, Christ broke down the middle wall of separation between the Jew and the Gentile, and He brought the two together in Himself in one new man. He revealed that now Christ has reconciled both Jew and Gentile in one body through the cross.
Today, we are baptized by the Holy Spirit but without the miracles which were so evident during the time of Israel’s kingdom program. Those signs were given for the Jews to leave them without excuse when they stand before the Lord on the Day of Judgment.
Today, we are baptized by the Holy Spirit into the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. Paul says in Colossians 2:
Colossians 2:11-13 (NKJ)
11 In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ,
12 buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.
13 And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses,
This is the means by which we are born of the Spirit today. We are raised with Christ through faith in the working of God who raised Christ from the dead. In Ephesians 5, Paul says:
Ephesians 5:8,14-17 (NKJ)
8 . . . you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light
14 . . . "Awake, you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light."
15 See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise,
16 redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
17 Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is.
When the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, who was born of a woman but conceived by the Holy Spirit of God. God sent forth His Son so that we might receive the Spirit of God and be born again.
If you don’t know the Lord Jesus today as your personal Savior, you are still walking in darkness with no ability to understand what the will of the Lord is. The Lord Jesus said:
John 11:9-10 (NKJ)
9 . . . “If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world.
10 "But if one walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him."
God wants to illuminate your path so that you can walk uprightly without any fear of stumbling. Jesus Christ is the light of the world. In Him is life and the life is the light of men. There is no light apart from Jesus Christ. Put your faith in Him today and your will experience what it means to be born of the Spirit.
Thank you for listening to Bible Study Time. It’s been a pleasure studying with you this morning, and I’ll look forward to being with you again next week at this same time.
Write me at: jimjoan77@juno.com
Galatians 4:4-6 (NKJ)
4 . . . when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law,
5 to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.
6 And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, "Abba, Father!"
From this we see that Jesus Christ was born of a woman so that we might be born of the Spirit. Jesus told Nicodemus:
John 3:6-7 (NKJ)
6 "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
7 "Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.'
In the first chapter of Matthew, Matthew gives the genealogy of the Lord Jesus, saying that Jesus Christ was the Son of David, the Son of Abraham. Then he goes through the lineage of Christ, saying that Abraham begot Isaac, Isaac begot Jacob, and Jacob begot Judah, and so forth and so on until we get to the birth of Jesus. At that point, Matthew says:
Matthew 1:18
18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit.
All of the men listed in the genealogy of Jesus were born according to the flesh, but Jesus Christ was born on this wise: Mary was found with child of the Holy Spirit.
God gave a hint concerning the virgin birth of Christ in Genesis, Chapter 3, when Adam and Eve first sinned. The Lord pronounced a curse upon Satan, saying:
Genesis 3:15 (NKJ)
15 . . . I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel."
God said that it would be the seed of the woman who would bruise the head of Satan, not the seed of the man or the seed of the man and the woman. From the time of that first sin, God patiently waited as mankind grew more and more sinful and farther and farther from God, but as we saw in Galatians 4, “When the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman to redeem those who were under the law.”
In I Corinthians 15, the Apostle Paul spoke of Christ and referred to Him as the last Adam. He said, “The first man, Adam, became a living being, but the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.”
When Adam came into being, he was born of the Spirit. He did not have an earthly father. The Bible says that God formed Adam out of the dust of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and then Adam became a living being.
Adam lived for 930 years, and can’t you just imagine Adam telling his children and grandchildren and many generations of great-grandchildren all about the creation story? What a wonderful story that must have been to listen to.
But, as we know, the story had some sad news too. Adam and Eve sinned and lost the life that had been given to them by the Spirit of God. They could not pass on to their children the life of the Spirit of God. All men who came after Adam were born according to the flesh, and Romans 8 says that the fleshly mind is enmity against God. It is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can it be.
When Christ came, however, He was not born according to the flesh. He was born according to the Spirit. Now this does not mean that Christ was just a spirit being any more than Adam was just a spirit being. They both had bodies of flesh, but their bodies were given life by the Spirit of God, and in that sense, they were not born of the flesh, but they were born of the Spirit. Where the first Adam had failed to live according to the Spirit, Jesus Christ, the last Adam, would dedicate Himself completely to the Spirit of God, and He would make it possible for all believers to be born again by the working of the Holy Spirit.
Notice that Paul did not say that Christ was the second Adam. That would imply that a third or a forth Adam might come after the Lord Jesus, but Paul was emphatic when he said that Jesus Christ was the last Adam.
Jesus Christ came to live a perfect live, in perfect obedience to the Father and in total submission to the Holy Spirit. He came to destroy the curse of sin and the power of Satan. There would be no need for another Adam. There would be no need for another virgin birth.
As Christ took His last breath while hanging upon the cross, He exclaimed, “It is finished!” He had fulfilled all of the righteous requirements of the Law. He had fulfilled all that the prophets had written. He had done all that was necessary to break the curse of sin and the power of Satan.
The Seed of the woman had bruised the head of the serpent. This wound, as of yet, is just a bruise. Satan is still functioning in our world today, but he has been wounded. Someday, God is going to take the Church of our present age out of this world. Then He will turn this world over to Satan and the antichrist. At the end of the seven-year tribulation period, Jesus Christ will catch up the tribulation saints, and then return to the earth with all of the kingdom saints from Abraham to that time.
He will cast the antichrist and the false prophet into the lake of fire. He will bind the devil and cast him into the bottomless pit. After a thousand years of peace on the earth, Satan will be loosed to stir up one final rebellion against Jesus Christ. At that time, Satan’s rebellion will be destroyed with fire from heaven, and Satan, Himself, will be cast into the lake of fire.
The entire spectrum of this future scenario has been made sure by the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, for by His death He paid the penalty for sin, and by His resurrection He disarmed the principalities and powers and made a public spectacle of them.
Therefore, Jesus Christ is the last Adam, and He is a life-giving spirit. He was born of the Spirit, and lived by the Spirit. He was raised from the dead by the Spirit, and He gives the life of the Spirit to all who believe in His name.
When Nicodemus came to the Lord by night, he said, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.”
In His reply, Jesus did not beat around the bush with Nicodemus. Immediately, He said, “Most assuredly, I say unto you, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said unto you, 'You must be born again.'”
After His resurrection, the Lord spent 40 days with His disciples, teaching them about the kingdom. Luke says that Christ commanded His disciples not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father. He told them that John truly baptized with water, but they would be baptized with the Holy Spirit in just a short time.
Because of Christ’s death burial and resurrection, those men were ready to be born of the Spirit, and shortly thereafter, on the day of Pentecost, the Spirit of God was poured out upon them. Acts 2 says:
Acts 2:1-4 (NKJ)
1 Now when the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.
2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.
3 Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them.
4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
Luke goes on to tell how the people who gathered outside the house thought the disciples were drunk, but Peter stood up and explained that this was the fulfillment of the prophet Joel who said:
Acts 2:17-21 (NKJ)
17 'And it shall come to pass in the last days . . . that I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams.
18 And on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days; and they shall prophesy.
19 I will show wonders in heaven above and signs in the earth beneath: blood and fire and vapor of smoke.
20 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord.
21 And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.'
Clearly, Peter was expecting the kingdom to come at any moment. He was expecting the events, which we now know, will happen at the end of the tribulation period. As far as Peter knew, he was in the last days just before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord.
Peter went on to tell the crowd that they had crucified the promised Messiah. He reminded them that Jesus did miracles while He lived among them, and now they, the apostles, were doing miracles to prove that Jesus was alive and that He was the Messiah.
Those who heard Peter’s message were convicted of their sin, and when they ask what they should do, Peter said:
Acts 2:38-39 (NKJ)
38 . . . "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
39 "For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call."
Notice that Peter never said a word about Jesus dying for their sins. Peter simply told them that they had killed the Messiah and that they should repent and get right with God.
Today we preach a different message. We preach that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures and that He was buried and that He rose again the third day according to the scriptures. And this is the gospel message which was given to the Apostle Paul.
In Paul’s earlier ministry during the Acts period, He proclaimed this message as he went preaching the gospel of the kingdom. During that time, there was a different program for the Jews and the Gentiles as was acknowledged at the Jerusalem Council in Acts, Chapter 15. However, throughout the Acts period, Israel steadfastly refused to accept Christ as her Messiah, and as a result, God set Israel’s kingdom program aside.
At that point, God called out the Apostle Paul to reveal the Church which is the Body of Christ. In Ephesians, Chapter 2, Paul revealed that on the cross, Christ broke down the middle wall of separation between the Jew and the Gentile, and He brought the two together in Himself in one new man. He revealed that now Christ has reconciled both Jew and Gentile in one body through the cross.
Today, we are baptized by the Holy Spirit but without the miracles which were so evident during the time of Israel’s kingdom program. Those signs were given for the Jews to leave them without excuse when they stand before the Lord on the Day of Judgment.
Today, we are baptized by the Holy Spirit into the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. Paul says in Colossians 2:
Colossians 2:11-13 (NKJ)
11 In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ,
12 buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.
13 And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses,
This is the means by which we are born of the Spirit today. We are raised with Christ through faith in the working of God who raised Christ from the dead. In Ephesians 5, Paul says:
Ephesians 5:8,14-17 (NKJ)
8 . . . you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light
14 . . . "Awake, you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light."
15 See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise,
16 redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
17 Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is.
When the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, who was born of a woman but conceived by the Holy Spirit of God. God sent forth His Son so that we might receive the Spirit of God and be born again.
If you don’t know the Lord Jesus today as your personal Savior, you are still walking in darkness with no ability to understand what the will of the Lord is. The Lord Jesus said:
John 11:9-10 (NKJ)
9 . . . “If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world.
10 "But if one walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him."
God wants to illuminate your path so that you can walk uprightly without any fear of stumbling. Jesus Christ is the light of the world. In Him is life and the life is the light of men. There is no light apart from Jesus Christ. Put your faith in Him today and your will experience what it means to be born of the Spirit.
Thank you for listening to Bible Study Time. It’s been a pleasure studying with you this morning, and I’ll look forward to being with you again next week at this same time.
Write me at: jimjoan77@juno.com
Church links:
No comments:
Post a Comment