Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: Welcome to NUMA Church Podcast. Wherever you are in the world. We are so glad you've joined us. Our prayer is that this message will reveal more of who our heavenly Father is as we all grow deeper in intimacy with Jesus. Enjoy the message.
Ephesians 2, we're going to start. Verses 19 through 22 says this. 19 through 22, Ephesians chapter 2. Consequently, you are no longer foreigners, strangers, but your fellow citizens with God's people and also members of his household. Now he's talking to the Gentiles, right, those non Jewish people at that time, and he's saying, hey, yeah, God had covenant with Israel. Now here in the new covenant, Jesus has broken down that middle wall of partition, made the two one, and you're no longer foreigners, strangers, fellow citizens with God's people, members of his household. Built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself the chief cornerstone. In him, the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord and in Him. You two are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit. Now there's a lot there, just quickly more high level. Let's just talk about the fact that the church firstly is built on Jesus as the cornerstone, right? So the cornerstone is laid first. Everything is measured from the cornerstone. Everything is measured. The foundation, everything has to be plummet, has to be in alignment with the cornerstone. So it's Jesus in 1 Corinthians 3 is actually called the foundation. Now here we see apostles and prophets are the foundation. But in 1 Corinthians 3, Jesus is the foundation. It's not contradictory. It's just different ways of saying that the church ultimately is built on the steadfastness, the unaltering nature of who Christ is, what he did, and the fact that he's immutable, he never changes, and everything that he has done is perfect. He said, it's finished, it's finished. Nothing else needs to be done. It's finished. He's made a way. And then out of that, of course we know this 5 world ministry, Ephesians 4, 11. But we see apostles and prophets. Now some would say, well, that refers to the Old Testament prophets, those who wrote the Old Testament and the New Testament apostles, which that's certainly part of it. But if you continue to read in Ephesians 3, he talks about prophets and apostles at that time as well. So there's a sense in which obviously any prophetic word, anything someone teaches or preaches, never supersedes the Scriptures. The scriptures are the Foundation, Right? Jesus is the Word. The Word is Jesus. But we recognize that there is a sense in which God still speaks today. He builds his church through those who've been graced. To build, to share vision, build according to the pattern, the blueprint, and of course, to speak what God's word actually says, both the logos and which is. Which is ultimate. It's more than the written word. There's another word in Greek, graphe, which speaks specifically about the written word. Logos is the message, and rhema is more of the specific revelation that God gives out of the Logos. Okay, so we have to have both, right? We read the Bible, but we have to listen to Holy Spirit. We don't reject or despise prophecy, but we test it. Test it with what? The Scripture. Test it with what? Obviously God is saying his nature, who he is, not just His Word. How many know there's some things that aren't very clear in the Bible regarding our life. Like we never. When Lynn and I moved from Canada to here, which back was originally in 2015, there was no Bible verse specifically. Well, that said leave and go to Australia.
Like, but interestingly, and this is crazy, okay, this is absolutely ridiculous.
We were at a conference in Canada, preaching, and I woke up early one morning, was praying, grabbed my Bible and opened it, and it falls open to Ezekiel, chapter 20. And I look down at somewhere in the verse 40s, and it says, son of man, prophesy to the land of the south. And the English Standard version says, prophesy to the Southland. And at the time I was like, what does that mean? Where in Canada is that the United States? Is that Mexico? Is that Brazil? I don't know, but there's a lot of places south of Canada. How many? There's really not too much north of Canada, right. So the. The fact is we were like, what does that mean? And so you go on the journey, but what do you do? You. You listen to God, You. You receive confirmation. There were prophetic words. There were things Holy Spirit spoke to us directly in our prayer times. And then ultimately there were things. I remember being in Toronto, Canada, very large church, preaching. And this church as actually has you sit on the platform. You know, it's one of those churches where you don't sit down here. There's a platform, and they've got so many of the pastors sit on the platform. So I'm preaching there at a conference for the weekend, and I go up, I sit on the platform, and God's spirit is moving, the fire of God is falling. And I'm looking around and I'm going, this is awesome. And at the time we were living in Florida in the United States, and I'm thinking, we should probably move back to Toronto. That's where we're from. We should probably move back. There's like a harvest here. And I open my Bible and I think it's Ezekiel 16. It's interesting. The Lord speaks a lot through Ezekiel to us. And it says, son of man, pack your bags and move from here to another place.
And actually, you know, we were still living in Canada, weren't we? And we were thinking, maybe we need to plant, do something in Canada. And the Lord's like, no, pack your bags and move from here. And then another time when I was praying and fasting, he spoke to me and he said, I'm sending you far away.
And he gave me a scripture in Acts 22, far away. How many know there's not too many places. Like we moved to Perth. Do you know, in 20, 15, 14, when we moved to Perth at that time? If you measure Perth to the east coast of North America, it's pretty much like the furthest distance anywhere in terms of major cities. It's like ridiculously long. I mean, you got to fly, right? Either go that way, go through Asia or Middle East, Africa, whatever. And then over, I mean, just from Qatar, for example, is another 16 or 17 hour flight just from there. So if you go that way, it's long. If you go. One of the interesting ways is you can actually fly out of Perth or here to Hong Kong, seven or eight hours, and then do a 17 hour flight over the North Pole, China, Russia, over and down to Toronto. 17 hours?
That's ridiculous. Or you fly here to LA. They even have flights to Dallas now, and it's shorter, but it's still over 24 hours. So it's super far, super removed from one another. But we knew God had spoken to us and we went on that journey and discerned his will. So as Pastor Kevin said to Abraham, go, leave your father's house, go to another place. What did he do? He started the journey. He didn't know exactly where he's going, but he started the journey. Yes, he. He was delayed for a while and stayed around for a while, but ultimately he began moving forward. And sometimes that's the key, isn't it? It's obedience. What does this have to do with my sermon? I have no idea, but somebody needed to hear that. All right, but let's talk about the next thing here, which is simply this he says that God is building a house of his habitation.
In the beginning, literally from Genesis all the way to the last chapter of Revelation, it's all about the God dwelling among his people, God being with his people, right? Adam and Eve, they're in the garden. There's God. He rocks up. He walks with them. They hear his voice. He's speaking to them. It's an amazing thing. Right from the beginning. Then what happens is, fast forward after the fall, and God makes his intention clear to Moses. In Exodus 25, verse 8 and 9, he actually says, moses, tell the people to build me a sanctuary, a place of habitation. It comes from the Hebrew word Kadesh. It means a holy place. He's called Yahweh Kadesh, right in Ezekiel 20, verse 12 and Jehovah Kadesh. So what happens is he says, build me a holy, sacred place, a sanctuary. That word in Hebrew was never used for just a building that would be employed for mundane, ordinary purposes. It was used as a sacred place where God himself inhabited.
That's what it's about. And he says this, that I may dwell among them, that I may be with my people. And make sure you build it according to the pattern. Make sure that you build it just so. So don't deviate, don't. Don't build it the way you want it to. I gave you a pattern. I gave you blueprints. Moses, when we think of Exodus, and Moses ghosts to the top of the mountain. And yes, he received the Ten Commandments from the Lord. But what we don't understand or what we often gloss over is the fact that in chapter 20, yes, he receives the Ten Commandments, but the duration of the book of Exodus is actually devoted in detail to how to build this sanctuary, this tabernacle, this meeting place. I mean, we're talking chapter after chapter after chapter. There's amazing colors. There's animal skins, there's gold, there's metals. There's all of this detail. And it's all about creating a place for God to dwell. And we get caught up on, oh, the Ten Commandments, you know, the people stuffed up, Moses got angry, he smashed the tablet, etc. But what he. He was saying is, yes, you need these commandments to know who I am and how to interact with one another. The first five are about a relationship with God. The second five are about a relationship with one another. But then he says this. He said, but this is all about me coming and dwelling and living in the midst of my people.
It's not about rocking up on A Sunday morning into some building somewhere, filling it up with people, receiving money and, you know, attractional model of ministry. People coming in and being encouraged and motivated and having a time in, in the presence of God, hopefully. No, this is about a relationship that happens 247 where I live with my people.
That's what it's all about. And then as we fast forward into the New Testament, Paul has this revelation about the church being the temple of the Holy Spirit. Jesus talked about it in John 14 as well. He said that the Father will come and he'll dwell among you. He'll make his abode with you. The Greek word meno is the word abide. It's used in John 15 about abiding in the vine. But the same root word, the same derivative is actually found in John 14, which means a place of permanent residency. I know what it's like to live in other countries. We've lived in three nations and I can tell you the greatest relief we ever received was when we got a permanent residence here in Australia.
I mean, wow. Oh, you can't kick us out now. I don't have to watch my behavior. No, I'm kidding, but I'm just saying we're permanent, right? Obviously we now are. We're not visitors, we're not here on a visa. Short term, we can stay here. This is home. Next year I'll get the Aussie passport, God willing. And yeah, so for whatever reason, you know that that is something that God uses to say, hey, you're not foreigners, you're not visitors, you're now residents, you're citizens. And he says that of our relationship with him. We're part of the family of God.
Yeah, we all. You know what it says in the word in Isaiah 43, verse 7, he actually says this. He says, those whom I've called by my name, appointed for my glory.
Notice that I've called you by my name firstly and I've appointed you or called you to share in my glory.
Wow, your name changes, right?
Just a little bit of information. Do you remember when God spoke to Abraham, when his name was Abraham and her name was Sarai.
And then he said, you're going to change your name to what? Abraham.
Sarai. Ok, so all God did in Hebrew was add the fifth letter of the Hebrew Alphabet to their name, which is the letter hey.
All he did was add one letter. Do you know that the letter hey, the fifth letter of the Hebrew Alphabet literally speaks of the breath of God.
So what he actually did was he said, you're no Longer Abram.
You're Abraham.
He breathed.
And you're no longer Sarai. You're Sarah.
He breathed.
Breathed. What did Jesus do after his resurrection when he appeared to his disciples?
Received the Holy Spirit.
Receive the Holy Spirit, the hay of God.
Now, we could unpack that. There's so much more I could say about that.
Just did an online teaching on that. But the point is, it's all about God's life, God's ruach, his pneuma, being imparted to us. His life, his spirit. Right? Pneuma in Greek, ruach in Hebrew, Old New Testaments means spirit, breath and wind.
Same word for those three terms.
Same word in both languages. And God says, this is what I've given you. This is who you are. Your identity. And my identity. Our identity is actually defined by his presence.
It's defined by his presence.
So we're called to be a people that literally embody and imbibe his presence. And there's so many passages that we can look at. I'm going to.
Let's look at Ephesians 2 for a moment. We know this verse. It's part of what it says. You're being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his spirit. Ephesians 2:22. You're being built together. Let me say something about that. Built together.
He doesn't just say, hey, individually, you guys are the temples of God. Even though that's true, there's only one time in the entire New Testament where he says that as an individual, our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. There's only one time. Every other time, it's referring to us collectively.
The one time for those who are curious is in First Corinthians 6:19, when he's saying, basically, when you have. Back then, when they would go to the temples and they would be involved in idol worship, they would have sexual relationships with the temple prostitute. And that's when he addresses it. But the rest of the time, he uses a different Greek. So we lived in Texas before we moved here. How many know in Texas? Yes. People say you, but they say, y'all, right. There's also another Lord. Okay, there's all y'all.
All y'all. Now, y'all is kind of like this. The context for y'all is like this. So let's say we. You're. You're in a cafe with your friends, and I walk in and I know you, and, you know, I look and I say, hell, y'all. And I talk to you, and maybe your Spouse. And I go, hey, how y'all doing? And you're all, yeah, yeah, we're good. And you've got some friends with you. And I go, what about all y'all?
See, so all y'all now is like, everybody, okay? There's you guys, but then there's everybody, okay? So the idea in Greek, honestly, I don't know if Texans learn this from the ancient Greeks. I don't know. But the fact is, in Greek, there's the same thing. There's two different words for you.
One is singular and one is plural.
So he's saying plural is this. We are called together as a community to be the habitation of God, not a bunch of individual silos, but as a community. He says, look at this again. You're being built together.
Now, there's a difference between a gathering and an assembly.
The Bible says, forsake not the assembling together of yourself.
It's a very interesting word. A gathering is this. We all show up, we're in a room. That's a gathering. An assembly means this. And this is the idea of the original. We're being joined together. We're being connected. Think of Lego, right? You can take kids, take, you know, a box or a bucket of Lego, and just throw it on the. On the floor, right? Scattered everywhere, Lego pieces, right?
That's a gathering, a gathering of Lego pieces. But when you start to join them and connect them, then you're building.
And that's the meaning of the word. In the New Testament, we're being joined together to be habitat of God by the Spirit, so that he dwells in us. So everywhere we go. Yes, individually, but we carry his presence. We host his presence. We are the temple of His Spirit. Now let's go over to Ephesians, chapter one. We're going to look at this in the Amplified Bible as well as another verse in Ephesians 3, Ephesians 1:23. This is the Amplified Bible Classic Edition. There are two, by the way, translations amplified. Listen to this. Okay? Now, the Amplified, as the name implies, expands, okay? It. It unpacks the meaning of certain words in a deeper way. So it actually says this. The church is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. Then in parentheses, it says, for in that body lives the full measure of him who makes everything complete, and who fills everything everywhere with Himself.
Wow.
In the body lives the full measure of him who makes everything complete. In his body lives the full measure of Him. Wow. That's. That's amazing. All right, Ephesians 3, verse 19.
Paul is praying again. The amplified. And he prays that we would know the love of Christ, which far surpasses mere knowledge. We'd be filled through all our being. Listen to this. He prays for this, for the church, for us collectively. That you would be filled unto all the fullness of God, and you may have the richest measure of the divine presence, become a body, a body holy, filled and flooded with God himself.
That you would become a body wholly filled and flooded with God himself. Wow.
So when Jesus was on the earth, people came to him and said, show us the Father. And what did he say?
Have you seen me? You've seen the Father, right? Okay. I and the Father are one. He said that. So the idea here is that Jesus is the head of the church in the New Testament, we are his what?
Right? Not just individual body parts. You've heard me say this, some of you before, many today are body parts, but they're not part of the body.
They know what their function is, their calling is, their gifts, but they're not connected. And I get it. There's. Sometimes it's hard to find a place where you fit in, where you can really be built together that's healthy, not toxic. I get it.
And look, we talk about three different kinds of churches. There's a fantasy church, there's a factory church, and then there's a family church.
And fantasy churches. Everything looks great. There's an appearance of facade factory churches. It's just all about production. It's all about efficiency. It's all about outcomes. Family is what? No pressure, no stress. We're just part of a family.
We live out who he is. And he's the Father. Right. I love Ephesians 3. It actually says that the Father, and literally the whole family bows our knee before him in Ephesians 3. Yeah. The whole family bows their knee before the Father. Amazing. When we step into that understanding, that revelation, who he is, it's so powerful and life changing. So. So here he's saying that we become this body, which, literally a family.
We use other metaphors as well, in which the richest measure of the divine presence. And we're a body wholly filled and flooded with God Himself. Wholly filled and flooded with God himself. So in other words, what is Paul saying? He's saying when you see the church, you see Jesus.
When the church is operating and living out our destiny and our purpose, in our identity, people should look at us and say, there's something different about me.
There's something different about that person. That couple that family, those people, the people of God.
Really, what it is, is they're seeing Jesus.
They're understanding. And we are literally representing Jesus.
We're representing him. So, Jesus, when you see me, you see the Father, the Church. When you look at us, you see Jesus.
Can we always say that?
Right? Can't say amen, say ouch.
So we have to get to that place now. Takes love, it takes unity, takes forgiveness, but it takes intentionality of becoming one.
And we don't become one just horizontally.
It happens through a process. Of what? We walk in the light as he is in the light. We have fellowship one with another.
Right. When we're walking in the light, if we're walking in darkness, someone's walking in darkness. No, we can't have fellowship. Blood of Jesus cleanses us. We're not perfect, but that's the way it is. Okay, let me share a story with you throughout the Scripture. Before I share the story, let me just say this. Throughout the Scripture, there are these crazy examples of. Of people, persons who learn to walk in the fullness of the presence and the glory of God. I want you to think in Acts, chapter five, there's this guy named Peter, and people are saying, if we can just get close to Peter and his shadow falls on us, we'll be healed. Yeah, that's what people are saying. Do you know that what happened is. Which is. We know it's true.
It literally says this. I want to. I want to read it to you, please.
In Acts, chapter five, regarding Peter's shadow.
Let me see where it is. Sixteen, I think, says. So they kept carrying out the. Verse 15, Acts 5, verse 15 and 16. So they kept carrying out the sick into the streets and placing them on couches and sleeping pads in the hope that as Peter passed by, at least his shadow might fall on some of them. Verse 16. And the people gathered also from towns and hamlets around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those troubled or oppressed with foul spirits. Listen to this. And they were all cured. They were all healed. They were all cured. Do you know that there were multitudes? One translation says there were multitudes. This wasn't a few individuals. And it says from the surrounding countryside as well as the city, potentially thousands of people.
Yeah.
When I was a child, there were three times when I was a young boy where I attended Kathryn Kuhlmann meetings. The first one I went to, I was healed. She never prayed for me. She really didn't pray for anyone in particular.
But what happened is she would speak out words of knowledge. She'd Do a general prayer of faith, and boom, boom, boom, boom, people were being healed. It was crazy. What ends up happening is the anointing that she carried and the glory that she walked in was so strong. There's a particular occasion, and I sat down with Robert Slardin, who wrote God's Generals. And I also sat down with Oral Roberts son, Richard Roberts, and we had a conversation about Katharine.
And one of the things I was told is that back in the day, I believe it was in New York City, she conducted a healing crusade. When she finished the healing crusade, there were so many people there. And she was. It was in a hotel or convention center. They said to her, the security said, hey, we're going to sneak you through the kitchen so we avoid the crowds.
So they literally said to Catherine, come. And they escorted her through the kitchen. And there are people working there. You know, they don't know who she is. They're just working, preparing food, etc. And as she walked through the kitchen, literally, people that were working in there began to fall out under the power of the Holy Spirit.
Google it.
It's online.
Yeah, Richard told me, Apostle Richard Roberts, he told me a story. He said when she came to Oral Roberts University, I think it was 1972 or 73, said there were certain individuals, like custodians, janitors, you know, they worked at the school. And they would make fun of her. It's the way she talked, her mannerism. She's a bit quirky. Was a bit quirky. And she's probably not quirky in heaven now, so.
But anyway, what happens is they were mocking her, and she walks out of her room, literally, to go into the auditorium. And as she walked by them, both of these men fell out and were out under the power of the Holy Spirit. She just walked by.
Now, I have seen this happen. I'm not just pointing to things back in history. I've seen it happen.
It's happened. Amazingly, we've seen it in. In our ministry where this has happened, where people just can't stand up under the anointing. The word glory kabod means await, right? And there's some people say, oh, yeah, but look, what about the New Testament does not happen in the New Testament? Well, I don't know, but shadows, Peter's shadow, they took handkerchiefs and aprons From Paul, Acts 19, touched it, had been on his body and placed it on sick people, and they were healed and delivered people that were demonized.
So did Jesus have that type of power?
Yeah, people say, well, what about people Falling backwards. I don't see that in the Bible. They only fall forward in the Bible and they'll quote, for example, Revelation. John fell on his face. Daniel fell on his face. Now, people. Oh, remember there was a time when Jesus was in the garden and they sent the temple guard out to arrest him.
Do you know there would have been at least 200 police officers?
And he said, hey, who are you looking for? They said, hey, Jesus of Nazareth. And in Greek he said this.
He said, ego ami. Do you know what that is in Greek? I am.
Yeah, look it up. He actually said this. I am. He didn't say I am. He. He said, I am. Which goes back to what? Exodus 3:14.
God's name. I am who I am. Yahweh. John 8:58. Jesus claims divinity, deity. He says, I am ego ami. So as he says, I am ego ami, guess what happens? The whole temple guard falls backwards under the power. Yeah, falls backwards under the power.
He just spoke a word. Yeah. Matthew 8:16.
It actually says that Jesus healed them with the word.
It's not rhema, which most people think it would be, it's logos.
And he heals them with the word. The message. Not just a specific word of knowledge, but. But the message, everything he was preaching, what he was saying. John 6:63. The words I speak are spirit and life, right? Pneuma and Zoe, the spirit and life. So what he's saying is that Jesus was just releasing a word. He was speaking. He was declaring things and miracles were happening.
The one who created all things. He created all things.
He spoke and it happened. Listen, Jesus was amazing when he was on the earth.
The Bible says, Acts 10:38. God anointed him with the holy Spirit and power, and he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil. For God was with him. The anointing.
John 1:32. Then John gave this testimony speaking of Jesus at his baptism. I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. It means make an abode. It's equivalent to not depart, not to leave, and to continue to be present.
So the secret of revival is learning how to host the presence. It's learning how to live in the glory.
And revival will occur in an individual, a church, even a nation if we get enough people that have learned to welcome and host the very person and presence of God himself.
So we're called to create a sustainable environment.
Not that kind of environment.
I mean, that's nice, right? I'm not talking about being a tree hugger. This morning, what I'm saying is, yeah, take care of things, but the environment is the atmosphere of the presence of God.
So Here in Ephesians 2:22, dwelling place means to house permanently. Speaks of habitation, not visitation.
Most churches and ministries focus on filling buildings with people.
But Jesus on the true gospel is all about filling people with God, resulting in the earth being filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord.
Let me close with this.
There's this interesting verse we know, Hebrews 1:9, says that Jesus was anointed with the oil of gladness above his brethren.
And it basically means that no one was anointed like Jesus was anointed. Would you agree with that? Yeah, it's definitely scriptural.
And yet, listen to this. Hebrews 5, verse 7 tells us why Jesus was so powerful.
Now, remember Jesus, Lazarus is dead. He stands outside his tomb. Before he calls him forth, Lazarus, come forth. He lifts his eyes to heaven and he prays, and he says this, Father, I thank you that you've heard me. And I thank you that you always hear me. That's what he's saying. Then he said, hey. He said, yeah, it's only because of these people here that I'm even saying this, like, just so they'll believe. So what happens is Jesus says, you always hear me. You've already heard me. You always hear me. You always answer me. You always respond. Why? Because he was a person. Literally. Yeah, we know he's God, but he as a man, he literally was heard in the days of his flesh. Hebrews 5. 7 says he offered up prayer and supplication with vehement cries and tears to him who's able to save him from death. Listen to this. The last clause says this. He was heard because of his godly fear.
The new American says he was heard because of his piety.
Now, I want to just share with you that this is a very unique word. The word that's typically translated fear into English is the word phobeo phobos.
In Greek, this is a completely different word. It's used, I think, two times only in the New Testament. And the word that is translated godly fear has a much deeper and significant meaning.
For that, I refer us to Hebrews 5. 7 in the Amplified Bible Classic Edition. Listen to this.
It says that Jesus was heard because of his reverence toward God, his godly fear, his piety. Now listen to this. In that he shrank from the horrors of separation, from the bright presence of the Father.
In that he shrank from the horrors of separation from the bright presence of the Father. The word that is translated piety or fear means to be cautious, to be careful, to be concerned, and to live circumspectly. The idea is kind of like this. And maybe you've heard Bill Johnson give this illustration.
The dove lands on you, and the dove rests on you.
How do you walk if you have a dove on your shoulder?
No, you're going to walk very carefully. You're going to be very circumspect.
You're going to do everything you can to not scare off the dove.
And the scripture says that's what Jesus did all the days of his life. He. He was heard because he shrank from the horrors of separation, from the bright presence of the Father. In other words, he did not want to do anything that would grieve the Holy Spirit.
He lived in a way that he never offended the Holy Spirit. You know, the Bible is very clear that we can grieve the Holy Spirit, we can quench the Holy Spirit. We'll. We'll look at this more in a next. In the next session. But we're called to live in a way that we don't drive away. We don't offend Holy Spirit. See Jesus. Think about him in the garden. He's praying, and he. He says, my solar. My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Remember that. Stay here, he says to his disciples, and keep watch with me. Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground, and he prayed, my Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me yet not as I will, but as you will.
Now, some have taught Jesus was actually struggling with the reality of him dying and giving his life. But that's not at all what this verse is referring to, because literally, the last week of his life on. Can you imagine on Palm Sunday, which is today, on Palm Sunday, Jesus said this in John 12, 27 and 28. My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? It's in the last week of his life. I'm not sure if it was Palm Sunday.
Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour.
Speaking of the cross, no. But for this purpose I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name.
Glorify your name.
In other words, he was not in any way averse to the reality of dying. So what is it that he was praying for when he said, take this cup from me if it's possible? Well, I believe what he was referring to at that time was looking forward to the Fact that he knew once the sins of the world were placed upon him, that he would be separated from the bright presence of the Father and he would take these sins on him. Remember what he said on the cross? My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? At that point, the sins of the world were placed upon him.
And Jesus did not die of crucifixion. We know that when they came to him, because it was a high Sabbath day, they actually said, you know, they would speed up the crucifixion process by breaking the legs of the criminals. Because once they broke your legs, you couldn't push yourself up to take a breath and you would die more quickly. And do you know that sometimes people would literally be out there hanging on that cross from four to seven days they came to Jesus, unlike the others, and he was already dead.
So one soldier took a spear and thrust it into a side.
And the writer comments in John that blood and water flowed out from him, saying, this is an anomaly. This is unusual. This just doesn't happen. Remember going back to the garden when he's praying, take this cup from me. But what's happening to him? He's perspiring. He's sweating, as it were, great drops of blood. Correct.
Some would say, oh, that means it was like the size of drops of blood. No, I take it literally. I take it literally. Now, what that means is if he was.
If he was sweating great drops of blood, there's one medical explanation which basically is under extreme stress and pressure, that what is known as the pericardium sac, which contains your body fluids around your heart, bursts and ruptures, and your body fluids mix with your blood. When that happens, you die.
But notice in one of the gospels, it says that while Jesus was in there in the garden and this was happening, God sent an angel to minister to him, or angels to minister to him. Could it be that at that time, because of the stress, because of the weight of what Jesus was carrying and what he knew was going to happen, that literally as a human, he couldn't carry it, his body couldn't contain it, his heart ruptured and the blood and the water mixed together? But God said, the Father says, no, you're not going to die here.
You're not going to die here. You're not going to die in this place, this garden. You're going to go to the cross.
And then at the cross, separated from the bright presence of the Father, he shrank from the horrors of separation from the bright presence of the Father. Wow.
What he did for us.
But how he lived in his presence, in the glory.
He didn't know what it was like to not have the presence of his Father so real and tangible in his life. He didn't know that.
And when it happened. You know, the Bible says that.
Do you know what eternal death is?
Separation from the presence?
You can read it in Second Thessalonians, chapter one.
It says that when people are eternally judged, he said, they'll be separated from the presence of God for all eternity. That's what it says.
And we can focus on the bad part of that.
You can say hell and all of that. And I'm not, of course, Jesus taught that. But what I'm saying is in that place, in that abyss, in that terrible place in the afterlife for those who don't know him, the thing that makes it so terrible is there's no presence.
No presence.
It's a terrible thing.
But we don't want to end there this morning.
We want to recognize that our norm, what we're called to as God's people is to live in that state.
Do we grieve the Spirit at times? Absolutely. Do we at times fail to stir up the gift of God and not walk in the fullness? Yeah, of course.
But we're called to live in that place perpetually. We're called to be a place of habitation, not visitation.
Not like, oh, yeah, Sunday morning. I feel the presence of God the rest of the week. It's not real. It's not tangible. No, no, no. That's not what it is. We have to have constant communion, constant intimacy and relationship with him before him every day. Even what we do, how we live now. I'm not going to do that. That grieves the Spirit. I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to do this. I'm not going to do that grieves the Spirit. I'm going to do this right. I'm going to rejoice. I'm going to give thanks. I'm going to dwell on whatever is pure. I'm going to pray without ceasing.
I'm going to confess the word of God. I'm going to put it in my mouth. I'm going to live a life where I offer up myself as a sacrifice and I lay it all down, holy and acceptable, pleasing to him. Pleasing to him in that place. God, we want your presence.
And we can quench and grieve the Spirit by being offended by others. Read Ephesians 4, gossiping, being angry, being bitter, lying, living a life that's not honoring to God, all of that grieves the Spirit. But now how can I do that when what all that he did for me? Lord, help me to respond and recover quickly for those times when I think in a way that's not honoring you. When I revert to the flesh and live from my soul and not my spirit, when I allow my emotions, my pain, my rejection.
What has happened to me caused me to live not as a son or a daughter, but as an orphan, as a victim.
God wants to change that.
Every one of us is called by his name. Isn't that awesome? Every one of us is called to share in his glory.
[00:50:25] Speaker B: Thank you for joining us. We hope that you enjoyed today's podcast and we realize that not everyone has had the opportunity to respond to the good news of the Gospel. And for this reason, in all of our services and platforms, we want to extend to you the opportunity opportunity to follow Jesus. The Bible teaches us that we have been created for a relationship with God. However, sin which is essentially disobedience, independence and disbelief, or are simply missing the Mark entered the world and separated us from God. Romans 6:23 says that the wages of sin is death and a debt was owed. And the Bible tells us that He Jesus demonstrated His love for us, that while we were still sinners, he died for us. Jesus paid the penalty for our sin. John 3:16 says, For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. God so loved the world that he gave us Jesus, that whoever believes in him will be saved. All that is required of anyone is that they believe in Jesus, the Son of God who came, lived, died and rose again so that we could be forgiven, made right and given the right to become children of God and to have life forevermore with Him.
Today you can begin a relationship with Jesus. To believe in him is to simply to respond with faith in our hearts and confess with our mouths that he is Lord. And we do that through a simple prayer.
Follow along with me Dear Jesus, I believe that you are the Son of God. I thank you that you love me and came to forgive me of my sin. I repent from my old way of life and I turn to follow you. I receive the free gift of eternal life and I ask that you fill me with the Holy Spirit so that I can live a life of following after you. I thank you that I am born again as a child of God. And that I am a new creation in Christ Jesus. Amen. If you prayed this prayer for the first time, we would love to connect with you and connect you to your next step and the local church in your area. You can contact us on our website at Numa Church. Thanks for listening.
