The 3fold Cord of Apostolic Identity is Oneness by Raymond Woodward

[Music] praise the Lord everybody I don't know about you but I enjoyed that shout to the Lord a moment ago I'd be real comfortable if you just open up your voice and your words to God and just do that all over again [Music] we worship You Jesus wheat give you praise amen it is an honor and a privilege and a great blessing for Beverly and I to be in this camp meeting I have never had the privilege of being in your camp meeting before and we've looked forward to this for a long time and I've been in your district many times at different events and at some of your churches and I count some of your pastors to be among my greatest friends and colleagues in ministry and you people love the Word of God and the move of God's Spirit and so I feel a kinship that's not just Cajun brother Mahoney I feel a kinship that's even beyond that and I'm grateful to be here this morning I'm especially grateful for the impact that the Louisiana district has had on our fellowship and every once in a while the province of New Brunswick is called by people in my hearing the Louisiana of Canada and when they call us that that is an enormous compliment thank you for your impact thank you to your leadership and your pastors and to all of you for your impact around the world so it is my honor to be here this morning and I could spend a half an hour and be very sincere and just kind of name names and and thank people and but if you would permit me to just dive right into the word of the Lord this morning Ecclesiastes chapter 4 and I'm here I guess on a little bit of an assignment I feel from the Lord from the Holy Ghost and over the next three mornings I want to talk to you about a particular subject I have taught I think everything that I'll be teaching this week I've taught it in some form or fashion before because I don't have anything really new to say to you and we always use Solomon's cop-out there's nothing new Under the Sun well permit me that cop-out this morning but in a new context at least for me Ecclesiastes chapter 4 verse 12 and if one prevail against him two shall withstand him and a three-fold cord is not quickly broken over the next three mornings I would like to talk to you about the threefold cord of apostolic identity if you would take your Bible and if you would just lift it for a moment and if you would pray with me that the Lord would make his word real in your life and in my life today Lord Jesus I thank you for your word that is forever settled established anchored in heaven I thank you God that it is real it is quick it is powerful and Lord Jesus I ask that there would be a revelation that would come into this camp meeting we will give you all the glory and all the honor all the praise all the adoration it's all yours and Jesus we ask that you would have your way your kingdom come your will be done right here on earth right here in our camp as it is in heaven in Jesus name Amen you may be seated I would not be so foolish as to think that I could condense the rich heritage of apostolic identity into three sessions or three topics I would not be so naive as to think that what I would say would summarize the vast apostolic movement in the earth today but I would say this that if you look us up Wikipedia go talk to our detractors look on the sites that call us a cult you will almost always find these three elements now we are a movement like other movements and I believe we have great revelation in many areas but other movements talk about prayer other movements talk about worship other movements talk about evangelism other movements talk about church growth and other movements talk about structure even apostolic structure if you will but there are three facets three aspects three core identities if you will that define the Apostolic movement among our enemies among our detractors among our friends and among ourselves and I would like to talk to you in the next three sessions about those three identities those three aspects that three-fold cord and I would like to start this morning and my favorite gospel in the Gospel of John because John is unique among the four Gospels Matthew Mark Luke and John are all written for different purposes and if you're a Bible lover and reader and scholar you you know this matthew shows the Jews that Jesus is their Messiah he's always quoting from the Old Testament Jesus did this or he went here or he came from here or he said this or this happened that it might be fulfilled and Matthew is on a mission to prove to the Jews who are his audience that Jesus is their Messiah mark is a different gospel entirely he has written he is writing to the Romans the Romans seem to have a short attention span for some reason there are only 16 chapters in mark they're kind of a brutal soldierly race but mark writes to the Romans and he writes to them about something they understand well at Jesus time and at the Apostles time one half of the world was enslaved to the other half of the world so mark writes about Jesus who comes as a suffering servant and mark is forever saying straightway Jesus did this and straightway Jesus did he's a man on a mission he will not be detracted from that mission and the Romans understand that Luke writes for again an entirely different purpose Luke writes to the Greeks and he shows them that Jesus is the perfect man Luke is the most complete of the Gospels his is the most chronological of the Gospels and Luke writes to the Greeks who understand all of the humanities and he writes to them profoundly and deeply about Jesus who is the perfect man Matthew starts with a genealogy Mark and Luke begin with the Ministry of John the Baptist but then John who writes some 60 years after the birth of the New Testament church John who writes some 30 years after Matthew Mark and Luke put down their pen and in fact they're no longer even among us John begins his gospel differently because his gospel is not just to an ethnic groups per se his gospel is to a group that spans every ethnicity spans every culture spans every tribe you see John writes to the church at the end of the first century and when he picks up his pen he writes about a particular facet of apostolic identity that if we ever lose it we ceased to be apostolic here's how he begins John chapter 1 verse 1 and in the beginning was the word and the Word was with God and the Word was God now see right there that's apostolic identity our enemies say this about us our detractors say this about us and all of our friends say this about us that we are one God people we are the people of the mighty God in Christ that's part of apostolic identity it's part of that threefold court you can't damage it or you damage yourself John continues verse 14 the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory the glory as of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth and from his opening sentences John is literally on a mission not Matthew or mark or Luke's mission he's on a different mission he's the mission to prove to the church at the end of the first century that the Jesus they have preached that Jesus they have lived for that Jesus many of them have died for that Jesus was not just an historical figure of a world religion Jesus was and is and ever shall be the Almighty God in a body of flesh Jesus Christ is the mighty God in Christ John's on a mission he wants to prove that Jesus is exactly who he said he was this is true and only God in a body of flesh and that's why as you read your Gospels you'll find that 90% of John's Gospel is unique there are no parables in John and John is even very selective about the miracles he records when John records a miracle it will be Jesus multiplying bread and then Jesus will teach something associated with that miracle I am the bread of life or Jesus will open the eyes of a blind man and he'll say I am the light of the world and those that believe in me they will not walk in darkness it's always twinned miracles and teaching in John only in John does Jesus talk at such length about who he is and John is the only gospel writer out of the four that intentionally records what theologians call the I am statements of Jesus I am the bread of life I am the light of the world I am the door I am The Good Shepherd I am the resurrection and the life he that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live I am the way the truth and the life no man cometh to the Father except by me it's all through the Gospel of John now it's invisible in the English versions of the scripture we see a pronoun and a verb I am but in the original languages of the scripture when Jesus says in Greek it's ego Eimi and when he says ego Eimi it's not invisible to them at all when Jesus says I am which to us in English reading it a couple thousand years later it's a pronoun and a verb when Jesus uses it there it's not just a pronoun and a verb Jesus is actually reaching back into ancient Hebrew history to a very critical day when God revealed himself to Moses in a burning bush and Moses said who do I say sent me and God says I am that I am tell him I am sent you every time Jesus talks to people as he's doing miracles as he's teaching as he's walking their streets and their shores and he says ego eimi they know exactly what he's saying it's not just a pronoun and a verb he's reaching back into their core belief and he's saying that one God that you believe guess who I'm that one God I'm the mighty God the Almighty God the everliving never dying God that you serve but I'm in a body of flesh that's Jesus he does it all the time now this is inspirational to you I can tell that but it was not inspirational to them it was irritating to them a carpenter from Nazareth is using the ancient name of God revealed to Moses at the burning bush I am that I am and he uses it every day incessantly all the time as though he owns it as though it's his name like Fred or Robert or Bob he just uses it like it's his name to use because it was his name to use he uses it casually to refer to himself all the time now theologians and many denominations today seem to have missed this and this is part of our core apostolic identity because I am gathered together and privileged to be here with a group of people that haven't missed this theologians may miss it denominations may miss it Bible students may miss it but the Pharisees caught the meaning all too well in John eight there's this running conversation this dialogue between Jesus and the Pharisees and it's not going very well for the Pharisees in fact by the end of the chapter they take up stones to stone Jesus because the conversation goes something like this before Abraham was I am now if he's using grammar Jesus doesn't speak very good grammar I am well before Abraham was that should be before Abraham was I was but he's not using grammar he's reaching back and he's saying before Abraham ever left her of the Cal DS to travel to a land that he'd never seen obeying a God that he'd never seen he was there but I was there too fact I dispatched father Abraham to the promised land because before Abraham was see it's a name I am if you read this chapter if you believe not that I am he'll die in your sins he's not speaking grammar folks he's using a name about himself he even says in this chapter and it's why they eventually orchestrated his crucifixion they they could not bear this constant use of the name of God by this insignificant carpenter who came from a small insignificant town called Nazareth Jesus looks at them and he says when you have lifted up the Son of man then shall you know that I am welcome back to that in a moment Jesus literally tagged it and he said something's going to happen on the day of my crucifixion that's going to prove once and for all that I am he spoke his name all of the time it was his name to speak it was his name to use he spoke his name at a well I that speak unto you I am and that nameless Samaritan woman's life was changed forever and he spoke his name in a storm be not afraid I am and a disciple named Peter by that name was empowered to walk on the water and he spoke his name in a garden at midnight when they asked who he was and he said I am and an entire train battalion of Roman soldiers fell over like dead men like cordwood because when Jesus spoke that name he had a right to speak that name he was using his name I think we've got that that's core apostolic identity we can't even let that strand of the Rope go because we would cease to be the church that God called us to be now that name the original form spoken to Moses by God himself I am that I am it carries in it concepts that you know a God who is eternal a God who is self existent now you may think yourself sufficient but you're not self existent because if we cut off your air supply for a few moments we'll see how self-sufficient and self existent you really are but God is self existent he doesn't need you he doesn't need me he doesn't even need this church or this camp meeting but aren't you glad that he uses us and He loves us and we have fellowship with him that's our privilege that's entirely our privilege you say God is omnipotent or omnipotent all-powerful you say God is omnipresent he's everywhere present in nowhere absent you say he's omniscient he's all-knowing all of those meanings are encompassed in that phrase in that name I am that I am and in Hebrew it was comprised of four characters and I think the ladies at the back are gonna help me show this to you these four Hebrew characters are four Hebrew consonants and the they are from of course Hebrew reads different than us it reads from the right to the left it reads backwards to us and those consonants are named Yad Hey Vava hey Yad hey love hey and those four Hebrew consonants they made up this name of God the tetra granite and the scholars would call it ancient Hebrew because it was written only in consonants those who read it aloud they supplied the vowel sounds and there's no real accurate way to translate that name into English we would simply say it means the eternal or the eternal one and and so over the years basically Yad Havel hey as they put the vowel sounds in between why hvh it became Yahweh or Yahweh and then later as languages changes change as it is apt to do and and the letter i odd it becomes a J and and and we we get a W and a V and they're interchangeable as languages move along the spectrum of history Yahweh or Y Ave becomes jehovah and when you say Jehovah you're saying an English transliteration of a Hebrew pronunciation of the ancient name of God that was revealed to Moses at the burning bush but I've got one better for you when you say the name of Jesus you're calling to bear every Old Testament covenant name of God that is wrapped up in Lord Jesus Christ so when you praise Jesus or when you sing about Jehovah what you're actually doing is you're reaching back to that day where Moses met God at the burning bush so why HW h ry hv h rj h vh 'it's Jehovah or Yahweh or Y Ave and that is the name the holy ineffable name of God now movements religions in particular are there they're apt to destroy themselves sometimes by misinterpreting their own scriptures and the Jews did this over and over there were there was this not obscure but this this remote passage in Leviticus Leviticus 24 verse 16 he that blaspheme a--the the name of the Lord he shall surely be put to death and all the congregation shall certainly stone him as well the stranger he that is born in the land when he blasts FEMA the name of the Lord he shall be put to death now that had always existed in the law but it was never a problem until after the Babylonian captivity and the the psyche of the Jewish people have been so scarred and damaged by being in captivity through their own backsliding and their own fault that they decided that they needed to become real hardliners on the law and so they began to reverence this name Yahweh the Tetragrammaton yad Havel hey they began to reverence that so much that they outlawed the use of the name of God they would not let the Jewish people aloud the name of the God that they professed to serve it happened first for the common people later they extrapolated and they expanded that law and later it wasn't just the common people that couldn't say the name of God finally it became that all the priests of Israel they were not permitted as they served the Lord they were not permitted to say or speak his name aloud and finally only the high priest was allowed to say the name of God and then only on the day of atonement when he was in behind the veil from history we know that when Simon the last high priest we know that was permitted to use the name of God allowed when he died in 270 BC about 300 years before Jesus when he died in 270 BC the Jews put in force a total prohibition on speaking the name of God allowed not the common people not the Levites not the priests and not the high priests they began to use a substitute word that you've probably heard Adonai Adonai is simply a Hebrew word meaning Lord and it became used as a substitute for YHVH it became used as a substitute for Yahweh or Jehovah it became that substitutionary substitutionary word and so when the rabbi or the priest was reading the scriptures they would come to the name of God in their scripture but they were now prohibited from speaking the name of their own God allowed and so they wouldn't say it they would simply say Adonai they would simply say Lord and the whole congregation would respond Hashem the name they knew it was there they knew what the high priest was looking at or what the priest was looking at or what the reader of the scroll was looking at but they wouldn't dare say it so the reader would say I deny the replacement word and the congregation would respond Hashem the name it went on that way for three centuries it was the only way the Jews would refer to the proper of their own God so by the time Jesus Christ walked the earth for 300 years the Jews had not heard the proper name of their own God used anywhere in public and that's why John's Gospel is so striking because suddenly there's carpenter from Nazareth this itinerant teacher who walks the Galilee he's using this name that even the high priest won't sail out and he's using it in reference to himself why because he owned the name he was the name he evidenced the name when you say Jesus you've encompassed that name Jesus was using this name that they hadn't been allowed to say for over 300 years to describe himself because he was God Jewish leaders didn't like this very much because they understood who Jesus was claiming to be even if you or some modern theologian or some pastor in your city doesn't understand what Jesus was claiming they understood what he was claiming a couple of years back a lady came and attended our church for a while and she came as some people do this wouldn't happen in Louisiana but it happens in Canada that people come to churches with an agenda and she had an agenda and I know that doesn't happen in your great state so you just sit there and look shocked but in Canada this happens and she came and she loved our church she told us repeatedly over and over she loved our church in fact she said to me pastor Raymond the Lord's presence is so rich in your church well I know exactly what she means there's a reason the Lord's presence is so rich among people that worship God for who he is they don't just talk about him they talk to him they're in covenant with him it's it's quite different and all went well she really liked the worship services until she noticed something she wrote me an email actually a very lengthy email and she said pastor Raymond I have noticed with great consternation that you folks do not seem to believe in the Trinity and so she started dropping off books for me to read at the office for me to be educated in the way more perfectly and and then she gave me a reading assignment that I did not mind at all I never did read some of the books I have to confess but but I I did read this reading assignment she said you need to read the Book of Isaiah because in the Book of Isaiah there are so many Trinity references so I did I really got stuck though on chapter 44 and 45 I am the first and I am the last and beside me there is no god is there a god beside me yea there is no God I know not any I am the Lord that maketh all things that stretch forth the heavens alone that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself I am the Lord there is none else there is no God beside me I am the Lord there is none else I am God there's none else it kind of goes on from there and when I finished the reading assignment I was not heavily convinced that I should change this strand of the threefold cord of apostolic identity you see when you worship Jesus name you literally do invoke all the power of every covenant name of God in the Old Testament and when Jesus uses I am he's not using a pronoun in a verb he's reaching back into covenant the greatest moment of revelation in Israel's history so so so let me come to it John chapter 8 verse 28 we already referred Jesus said to them when you have lifted up the Son of Man then shall he know that I am and if you've got a King James Bible you'll notice that the word he is in italics because it's not there in the original he's not using verbs and and pronouns he's using a name right there now I need to divert and digress for just a moment to tell you something about the Bible that you love there is a a code almost in the Bible and no I'm not talking about michael drosnin and his three best-selling books or any of the current modern you know speculations about scripture and if you believe that I'll leave that with you and I really I'm not qualified that's above my pay grade comment on that but here's what I do know there is a code in the original language of the Bible and it's not a complicated thing or a complex thing and it's not prophesying you know whether so-and-so will be assassinated or whatever it's got nothing to do with any of that it's just a very basic but very pronounced code and it's obscured in English somewhat to us but it's it's a code that the Jews knew very well if you go back to the Old Testament poetic books it's very pronounced there if you've got a King James Bible and the King James is the the most accurate English translation we've we've got it's four hundred years old this year if you go to the poetic books and especially if you go to the Psalms and especially if you go to psalm 119 if you've got a King James Bible you'll probably notice these little squiggly Hebrew letters above certain sections in fact every eight verses in psalm 119 you'll you'll find this this little squiggly Hebrew letter what that is is that's the letters in sequence the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet and you'll notice that after each one of those letters follows eight verses and the key that helped the Jews memorize massive portions of Scripture sometimes before they were even grade school age was that every verse in psalm 119 under that first letter which happens to be the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet every verse begins with that letter second section second letter of the Hebrew alphabet every one of those eight verses begins with the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet and so on all through and you'll notice there are 22 of those little squiggly Hebrew letters in your King James Bible and you may not know what they are but that's what they are and every one of those eight verses under each of those letters begins with that letter because that's how they memorize these massive portions of scripture and the Jews were trained from a very early age always look at the first look at the first letter look at the first letter of the first word look at that because when you look at that first letter there's often a pattern there in the word of God it's not just in psalm 119 it's in many other places in the Word of God Book of Lamentations five chapters first chapters 22 verses and and each verse begins in sequence with the letters the Hebrew alphabet second chapter of Lamentations same thing third chapter 66 verses if it was English it would be AAA BBB CCC that pattern all through chapter three chapter four and five we revert back in lamentations 2:22 verses each of the Hebrew alphabet letters in sequence you say well that's that's kind of interesting pastor Raymond but what's that about well well it's about this the Jews missed absolutely nothing about the Word of God that they claimed to love not even the finest detail they studied the Word of God forward and backward the Holy Scriptures it'sit's unbelievably astounding to me that they knew so much about the arrangement of scripture and they miss God's atonement it's unreal to me that they knew so much about the name of God and yet when God came in flesh using his own name they crucified him but that's not so surprising when you think about modern Christendom and when you think about so many people that are united on so many fronts but if you push the name of Jesus a little too high when you talk about baptism or when you talk about godhood they get very uneasy sometimes and sometimes downright aggravated with you sometimes they'll even disfellowship you over imagine exalting the name of Jesus a little to I but that's apostolic identity folks we don't do that in an ugly way we don't do that in an angry way we don't do that because we think we're so high and mighty and everybody else is low if you've got that attitude you don't have the Spirit of God anyway but I am not ashamed to lift up lift up lift up lift up lift up the name of Jesus we lift the name of Jesus up every worship service we have we lift the name of Jesus up every time we pray every time we preach we lift the name of Jesus up every time we baptize someone we lift up the name of Jesus because there's something about that name that encompasses so much revelation hmm I worship you Jesus so this is the Hebrew code if you will and again I'm not talking about the modern books that talk about Bible code this is actually a code in the scripture they know it in fact there's little Hebrew children that have memorized the the whole law of Moses before their grade school age because there are so many patterns of memorization that they use in Scripture it's amazing that they would miss so much crucial information while they knew so much about the Word of God it Rockets all through the Gospel of John and Jesus keeps using this name and he won't stop in the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the Sanhedrin they are frantic and they've got to do something about this Jesus problem and so finally as you know they orchestrate his crucifixion and through trumped-up false charges they bring him before the governing religious body of Israel and there are six trials the night that Jesus is arrested all through the night he's carted back and forth across the city of Jerusalem and an exhausting ritual that's really fake because not one of those trials is actually a just trial but at one of them something very interesting happens see there was another little obscure or or kind of remote passage in the law Leviticus 21 verse 10 he that is the high priest among his brethren upon whose head the anointing oil was poured and that is consecrated to put on the garments shall not uncover his head nor rend his clothes that was always there in the law but it's one of those cotta souls in the law that kind of gets overlooked after time and then we come to Mark's account of the arrest and trial of Jesus and Jesus is before the high priests of Israel no less in mark 14 verse 61 Jesus held his peace and answered nothing again the high priest asked him now you've got to put this in context the high priest is not just having a conversation here this is a called trial this is the entire governing religious body of Israel against one man that they dislike against one man that they feel has disrupted their entire nation and their entire religion but more than that this is a contest about the name of God because the high priest who is standing at this trial conducting the interrogation he has not used publicly vocally out loud the name of the god he serves all of his life his father before him never spoke the holy name of God out loud all of his life his father before him back 300 years no high priest and no priest and no Levite and no common Israelite has spoken the name of their own God for 300 years and yet standing in front of the high priest of Israel is this man who uses this name constantly he uses it and blind eyes are open he uses it and lame men walk he uses it and the dead come out of the tomb he uses it and food is multiplied he uses it and all kinds of miracles happen and they're frustrated beyond belief now you're inspired but they're not inspired they're not inspired jesus answered nothing again the high priest asked him and said unto Him art thou the Christ he's bearing in the son of the Blessed and Jesus looks back at the high priest of Israel that for his whole ministry life has never once spoken the name of God out loud and Jesus looks back and he doesn't use a pronoun and a verb he reaches back into the greatest day of revelatory history in all of Israel and he reaches back to the burning bush looks I ball to eyeball with the high priest and says I am and you shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power and coming in the clouds of heaven at that moment Caiaphas gets so angry that he forgets he lifts his hands up he grabs his priestly garment and he rent his clothes and says what need we any further witnesses you've heard the blasphemy what think he and they all condemned him to be guilty of death but they missed one very important fact that happened in the middle of that trial at that moment the high priesthood passed from Caiaphas to Jesus so when Jesus went to the cross he didn't just go as a beaten bloodied sacrifice he was taking him as a sacrifice he was your sacrifice but he's also the high priest that can be touched with the feelings of your infirmity Oh somebody lift up your voice and magnify the God that you know the writer of Hebrews catches it years later verse 14 chapter 4 seeing then that we have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens Jesus the Son of God let us hold fast our profession we have not an High Priest which cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities but he was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin therefore because we know who the high priest is therefore because we know the name of the high priest of heaven let us come therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need the greatest tool you've got in your apostolic tool belt is the name that is above every other name it's the Covenant name hallelujah CC this is what's happening in the high priest may not realize that in the Sanhedrin may not realize it and nobody else may realize it and theologians today may not realize it but heaven realizes it and when you speak the name of Jesus Heaven picks up and pays attention Hebrews 9 verse 11 but Christ being come an high priest see there it is again off good things to come by a greater and more perfect Tabernacle not made with hands that is to say not of this building neither by the blood of goats and calves but by his own blood he entered in just once once into the holy place having obtained eternal redemption for us for if the blood of bulls and of goats and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean if they sanctify to the purifying of the flesh how much more shall the blood of Christ who through the Eternal Spirit himself without spot to God how much more shall that purge your conscience from dead works to serve the Living God see there's power in the one god message there's power in the mighty God in Christ message there's power in the oneness message to give you the strength to serve God because after all if there's only one God there's only one being you owe your allegiance to now you're inspired but they weren't inspired Jesus has enraged the Sanhedrin repeatedly by using the unknowable ineffable Holy Name of God but this time he has done it in a court of law and they think they've got him they rushed their prisoner to Pilate and they demand that he be crucified now Pilate you you can read the story you know the Gospels Pilate seems to be impressed with Jesus but they force him they maneuver and manipulate him to carry out this execution through political pressure because if you don't do what we want you're no friend of Caesar and we'll tell Caesar Pilate seems to be powerless to save the Nazarene even though he wants to and then we come near the end of the Gospel of John to this puzzling little passage that John uniquely records chapter 19 verse 19 and Pilate wrote a title and he put it on the cross and the writing was Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews this title then read many of the Jews for the place where Jesus was crucified was near to the city and it was written three languages in Hebrew Hebrew for the Jews in Greek the international language of the day for the Greeks and Latin for the Romans so over Jesus had these words Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews written in triplicate written in three different languages Hebrew Greek and Latin the Greeks don't have a problem with this the Romans who read and speak Latin they have no problem with this but the Jews they have a real problem with this said the chief priests of the Jews to Pilate right not don't write it that way right not the king of the Jews but that he said I am King of the Jews now what he's after is he wants Pilate he's not even asking don't write about the King of the Jews he's he's saying I want you to change the structure of the sentence if you will or the phrase right that he said I am King of the Jews and Pilate answered and this is very unusual literally in the Greek it means he says what I have written I have written in the Greek it means what I have written I will not change one little bit I don't know if Pilate even has an inkling of what he's talking about or what he's dealing with here but he's definitely doing the will of God God's either got his hand on him and he's turning the heart of the king I don't know what's going on but Pilate says something pretty profound there because this is what's over the cross if we could take a look at that or the cross now remember that Hebrew reads from right to left so over the cross is yeshua ha-nozri the Mallick hiyaa who deemed that's that's the words and remember that he breweries from right to left so Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews yeshua ha-nozri iva Melek hey Yahoo team so that's no problem to us that's no problem to the Greeks that's no problem to the Romans but to the Jews it's a real problem because of this crazy little thing called the code that's in Scripture we're four years since early childhood they've always learned to look at the first letter of every word in the first letter of verses to learn Scripture and when they look at that here's what they see they see that because when you look at the first letter of each one of those words yeshua ha-nozri iva Melek hiya Tim is yad hey Bob hey over the head of Jesus imagine that as he was dying for your sins and mine what's written Yahweh was written jehovah what's written the eternal thee all-sufficient everliving never dying god that's what they saw [Applause] when Jesus died on Calvary it wasn't a carpenter's blood that was being shed to build this church the book of Acts s it was the church purchased with his own blood if somebody just reach up into the heavens and call on the name of Jesus because when you call on his name all the covenant power of his blood of the Covenant power of heaven all the covenant power of Revelation rests in that name [Applause] yes yes weary posture the church you're working with the church you're pastoring you're not just out there on your own trying to do something religious you carry with you the heavenly holy awesome eternal name of our God [Applause] now that's inspirational to you but that wasn't inspirational to them even after their enemy is dead and in the tomb the chief priests are still nervous in Matthew's account they come to Pilate and they demand Roman guards to secure the tomb until after the third day because what the disciples didn't catch ironically they did that this guy said he might rise on the third day so Pilate again III I don't know about Pilate I don't know what he understands or what he knows or what he guesses but he says this puzzling remark go your way make it as short as you can do your best to keep him in the grave I don't know if Pilate knew this or not but if that man said he's going to rise from the dead guess what he's going to rise from the dead and back back to John because John again is this gospel written to the church it's this amazing amazing gospel it's written to us it's written 30 years after John has seen the death of all of his beloved comrades and colleagues in ministry Paul's gone Peter is gone all the other disciples and apostles they're gone and John when he puts pen to scroll he's writing in a much different era of early apostolic church history he's seen the slaughter of thousands of people by the Roman Empire and when John when he writes his revelation he he says I was in the spirit on the Lord's Day that doesn't mean he went to camp meeting on Sunday and and he got carried away no that means that he was propelled by revelation he was propelled by God into the future into the Lord's Day when God writes every wrong and when God comes back and and and sins defeated in the devil his history and we're all in heaven that's the Lord's Day that John saw John was actually on the Isle of Patmos he was not in comfortable surroundings he was not at a beachfront home he was in a Roman slave gang doing hard manual labor for the Roman Empire that kept trying to kill him and seemingly couldn't succeed and so when John writes his gospel around the same era of church history his gospel sounds different and even feels a little different because he's writing at the end of the first century when all kinds of false doctrines have started to rear their ugly head and all kinds of attacks have come on the purity of the revelation that the Apostles built that New Testament church on and so when John begins to write he wants to anchor you and me and them and us and Christians for all time to this central truth that the Jesus we died for that Jesus we lived for the Jesus we preached and that Jesus whose name we baptized in and the Jesus whose name has been heralded throughout all of the Roman Empire at peril to everyone speaking it that Jesus is and was and ever shall be Almighty God pastor you are not wasting your time preaching Jesus name you are not wasting your time baptizing in Jesus name you are doing the work of Revelation you're doing the work of history you're doing the work of the Apostolic Church it's different than everywhere else it's supposed to be different than everywhere else this church is built not on a committee not on some kind of creed this church is built on a revelation here o Israel the Lord our God is one Lord and that one Lord that one God came in flesh in a body and he used that same name it's it's all through John you get to chapter 20 and Jesus body has been laying in a tomb for three days and three nights and you you get to chapter 20 and in verse 11 Mary she stands outside the tomb she's outside the sepulchre and she's weeping and as she weeps John's very specific always in his language as she weeps she Stoops down and she looks into the sepulchre Beverley and I were privileged to be in Israel a few months ago with a tour group and and I know exactly I've been there a few times been privileged to be there and I know exactly where she's standing because you look into the tomb there's a little ante room where the weep weeping people the mourners would stand but then over to the right is this this flat space where a body would lay there's two of them actually in that tomb because it was a family tomb but Jesus used that tomb and but the language of John's very specific she stooped down and looked into the sepulchre and seeth two angels in white sitting the one at the head and the other at the feet where the body of Jesus had lain John's extremely specific here the one at the head the other at the feet where the body of Jesus had lain when Mary stooped down and through her tears looked into that tomb now she didn't get it immediately but she got it eventually when she looked into that tomb on Easter Sunday morning you see there's only one other place in all of Hebrew history where you see a flat slab and two angels one at the head and one at the foot there's only one other place in all of Hebrew theology where you see that when Mary looked into the tomb on Easter Sunday morning she saw the most familiar silhouette in Hebrew revelation because the body that had laid there in that tomb wasn't staying there because it couldn't stay there because that body had housed the Shekinah presence of all-mighty God the Jesus you are worshiping right this second he is the mighty God in a body of flesh the Jesus you just lifted up your hands to and said thank you Jesus you call all of Old Testament covenant to bear on your life right then I wish somebody would shout that name I wish somebody would lift that name I wish somebody would glorify that name that's the only name Jesus in your name I need to finish John's Gospel culminates with this John's on a mission he's not wasting any words here he's on this mission to prove to you and to me and to us and to them that Jesus is and was and always shall be Almighty God and so John's Gospel culminates with this inspired revelation in chapter 20 the end of the chapter of a guy that's got a bad nickname and bad press for 2,000 years doubting Thomas doubting Thomas be careful because Thomas is called doubting Thomas just because he missed the early service and at that moment I'm done meddling let's go back to Scripture Thomas missed that service where Jesus appeared to them and he said he declared it see Thomas was there he knows that the the death of Jesus and that that brutal beating in that horrible crucifixion and that that tomb he knows that that's totally real he knows that's real and so Thomas says what you would probably say and what I would probably say unless I see it it was too real unless I see those wounds unless I can put my finger in the nail prints in his hands and unless I can thrust my hand into the spear print in his side I'm sorry I just can't go there it was too real Jesus is really dead Jesus is really in that tomb and then at the next service because God's merciful and he even shows up at the late service sometimes for those of you that missed the early service when Thomas sees Jesus standing there and he looks at Jesus see this in Jesus hands are open gaping wounds where any normal human being would bleed to death in Jesus side is an even worse gaping hole where a Roman spear thrust up between his rib cage and any normal human being would bleed to death within moments and Thomas looks at Jesus and sees a mortal wound in the body of a living man talking to him mmm his computer fries and immediately Thomas puts two words together here he puts kurios which is a title of respect it means sir or master you called rabbis master you called great teachers master it was a title of respect like we would use Sir kurios and he puts that for the first time that we read about he puts that together Peter got the revelation but Peter just as quickly seemed to almost lose it he turned around and Jesus had to rebuke him almost instantly but this is the first time that that somebody really puts these two words together my kurios my master and my Theo's my supreme divinity my Almighty God my kurios and my Theo's at that moment Thomas gets it John's Gospel is rocketing to a conclusion because John wants you to know something that there's a revelation that the Apostolic Church has to be anchored on there's a revelation that the Apostolic Church cannot survive without there is a revelation that is the point of why we worship this Jesus it is the point of why we baptized in his name it is the point of why we pray in his name it is the point of why we built camp meetings and churches and camp growth it is the point the name that is above every name the name that is to be preached among all the nations for a witness until the end gets here that's the name that's the point and Thomas puts it together you're not just my master you're not just my leader you're not just my teacher you're not just my good example or my philosophical teacher you are my master but you're my God my Lord and my god that's the revelation right there that's the revelation and they never used those two words together history tells us to refer to anybody else after that except for Jesus the early apostolic would never even call anybody else master after that because Thomas had twin those words my master oh my god but here's the point for you today because there is a three-fold cord of apostolic revelation that must not cannot must never be broken and part of that three-fold cord our enemies identify us by this our critics our detractors identify us by this let's not stop identifying ourselves by this there is only one God and his name is Jesus and and and I'm done this morning John chapter 20 verse 28 then Thomas answered and said my Lord and my god and jesus said to him here's where you come in here's where Louisiana 21st century the year 2011 here's where you come in Thomas because you have seen me thou hast believed but Thomas you walked with me and you almost didn't get it you finally came around and you finally got the revelation and you put it all together but you walked with me you heard me you talk with me but Thomas blessed are they that have never seen me and they yet believe that's you my brother that's you my sister that's this district that's this movement that's you pastor they've never seen me they never walked with me they never had an earthly conversation with me they've talked to me only through the avenue of prayer they've talked to me only through the avenue of worship they've heard from me through the avenue of my word and the avenue of apostolic preaching but you know what Thomas they believe this just as much as you believe it they've never seen it but they're still standing on it they've never seen it but they've still got it it's part of the DNA of the 21st century Apostolic Church don't ever shred the core don't ever under a bow the strands there's a three-fold cord of apostolic identity and the oneness of God is the first undone music your final play but if you just lift your hands right now and if you would just go to worshiping that Almighty God that you know you don't have to remember 10 code words you don't have to remember 7 covenant names you just have to remember Jesus that's all you need to remember Jesus because when you say that [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: Called, Chosen and Faithful

Views: 4,831

Rating: 4.939394 out of 5

Keywords: God (Deity), Holy Spirit (Deity), Jesus Christ (Deity), Religion (Literary Genre), New Testament (Religious Text), Old Testament (Religious Text), Christianity (Religion), Pentecostalism (Religion), Apostolic (Religion), christianity (religion), monotheism (belief), religion (tv genre), Oneness Pentecostalism (Religion), the bible (religious text), salvation (belief), believer's baptism (religious practice)

Id: noQ7MGGMxqo

Length: 58min 18sec (3498 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 17 2017