BY AL BUCHANAN
I’d like to begin the sermon today by asking you to turn to John chapter 1. I want to read just a couple of verses here that you probably don’t even need to turn to. You probably can quote these words without even turning there. But I want to read them this morning to begin the sermon.
The apostle John, I think most of us realize—we’ve mentioned this before—that John writes his gospel account from a different perspective than the others, the other three accounts. The other three accounts are written from the perspective of being there, being present as the events took place. John writes from the perspective of looking back on the events.
And John is writing, I believe and several believe this, from the 90’s AD, some sixty years following the beginning of the Church in 31 AD. John had witnessed a great deal that had transpired in the Church over those years. He had witnessed an apostasy that had set into the Church. And at the time that John wrote, if he in fact wrote in the 90’s, the Church was in a state not that different from what the Church is today. Not exactly the same no doubt, but it was at a time when the apostasy in the Church had exacted its toll. There were in many cases small groups of individuals meeting together as small congregations, meeting in people’s homes and that sort of thing. Again, not a lot different from what we see today.
In John’s writings, he spends a lot of time and a lot of effort re-establishing these Brethren and even for us today re-establishing these folks in the truth, in the faith. He is re-establishing some very basic information. And here in the first couple of verses, he does that. Notice! In John 1 and verses 1 and 2, it states,
John 1:1. In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2) He was in the beginning with God.
And so, he is clearly here, the apostle John is inspired to clearly establish that there are two great God Beings at the time that he describes as “In the beginning.” They were together in the beginning.
Now we know from what God has revealed to us that at this time in the beginning or in a beginning these two great God Beings formulated an incredible plan. A plan that would necessitate an awesome work! A work that They would engage in. These two great God Beings would set Their hand to do a work. A work that would result in Them increasing Their Family! They would go from two that are revealed to us to many.
Now here in verse 3, we read that
John 1:3. All things were
made through Him [That is the Word.], and without Him nothing was made that was
made.
Then we see over in verse 14 that this “Word became flesh.” He was made flesh. He “became flesh and [He] dwelt among us,” as a flesh and blood human being, as Jesus His name but filling the function and the role of the Christ, the Christos, the Anointed One, the Messiah.
Now I want to—hold your place there for right now—and go to Luke chapter 1 now. I want to read how this happened. Now it’s very difficult for us to comprehend. We have this great God Being, who was with this other great God Being on the God plane, with God powers and the One became flesh. Actually became, you might say, “a fertilized ovum” initially. He became what would be in the very beginning stage of a human life and developed within the body of a woman, Mary, to later be born as a human being. This great God went through this process. Now how? Through what means did this happen?
Let’s go back and try to understand to the level that we can. In Luke 1 verse 26,
Luke 1:26. Now in the sixth
month [we read] the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of
And this is the same word that is rendered “grace” so many other places. “You have found favor [you have found grace] with God.”
Luke 1:31. And behold, you
will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son and shall call His name Jesus.
32) “He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and
the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. 33) “And He will reign over the house of
Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.” 34) Then Mary said to the angel, “How can
this be, since I do not know a man?”
“I’ve never had sexual relations with a man. How can this be?” Notice what the angel says. Notice what Gabriel says!
Luke 1:35. And the angel
answered and said to her, “The Holy
Spirit will come upon you, and [Notice!] the power of the Highest will
overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called
the Son of God.
So the power of God, the power of the Holy Spirit would work this. Now we can’t understand it, but at least we can understand to that level that it was through this power of God’s Holy Spirit that made possible a God Being to be made flesh. And now this Being who was God and who had in His possession eternal life, a Being who would never have died, through the power of God’s Holy Spirit was made flesh. He was about to become, again, that tiny speck of life within a human being and would be born and would walk on this earth in the flesh and interact with other human beings who were also in the flesh.
So in the beginning, this Word was God. It was this Being, this very Being whom now
Mary has been told is going to become a child within her. This very Being was revealed to physical
Now here in this verse 3 of John chapter 1, it says
John 1:3. All things were
made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.
Now both God Beings were involved in this creation. I think we understand that. And Both could legitimately be called Creator. But it was the Word, the One whom John refers to as the Word, who did the work. Now I’m going to qualify that that He did the work. We’re going to see why I’m qualifying it right now. But He is the One who did the actual creation. We read in Colossians 1 verse 16—please don’t turn there—that
Colossians 1:16. For by Him [That
is by Jesus Christ.] all things were created that are in heaven and that
are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or
principalities or powers. All
things were created through Him and for Him.
So it is the work of the Word that we read about in Genesis 1 then. If this is true, what we read about in Genesis 1 involved this Being. Now let’s go there. Let’s go to Genesis chapter 1 for a moment. And I want to take note of something. Genesis chapter 1 and in verse 1, it states,
Genesis 1:1. In the
beginning
It starts out similar to what John’s account starts.
Genesis 1:1. In the
beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
And this word “God” here is Elohim. We know that’s a plural word. It involved both of them. And so “God created the heavens and the earth.” Both were involved. However, it was the Word—we’ve already read—that was the One involved in doing the actual work.
Now let’s notice how it was done. Verse 2,
Genesis 1:2. The earth was
without form, and void;
Now we’re moving forward in time a bit. We’re not going to be talking in verse 2 about the literal creation of the universe but rather a reshaping and refurbishing of the earth. But notice what we read!
Genesis 1:2. The earth was
without form, and void; and darkness was
on the face of the deep. And the Spirit
of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
So we have God’s Spirit now. This same Spirit that through the power of the Spirit worked this miracle of the Word becoming flesh within a human being, that same Spirit now is “hovering over the face of the waters.” And then it says in verse 3,
Genesis 1:3. Then God said,
Then God spoke. Then this Being spoke and said,
Genesis 1:3b. “Let there be
light”, and there was light.
And He went on to, if you want to read the rest of the account here, many other things were done as a result of God speaking and it was done.
Now in Jeremiah 32 verse 17, let’s go there for a moment. Jeremiah 32 and verse 17, we read this where the prophet Jeremiah was inspired to write,
Jeremiah 32:17. ‘Ah, Lord God [Eternal God]! Behold, You have made the heavens and the
earth by Your great power and outstretched arm.
There is nothing too hard
Or as the margin has “too difficult,”
Jeremiah 32:17b. for You.
So it was through this power of this great God that this was done. But we saw it happening as a result of this Being speaking and saying, “‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.” And we have this Spirit of God hovering over the waters. And so it would seem that the actual working of this was this Being spoke and the power of God’s Spirit did the work. That’s why I qualified what I was saying a moment ago.
Now let’s go to Psalm 33, the Thirty-third Psalm. And let’s look at what we read there. Psalm 33 and verse 6, Psalm 33 and verse 6.
Psalm 33:6. By the word of
the [Eternal] the heavens were made,
He spoke the word and they were made.
Psalm 33:6b. and all the
host of them by the breath of His mouth.
He spoke the word and the power of God’s Spirit performed.
Psalm 33:7. He gathers the
waters of the sea together as a heap; He lays up the deep in storehouses. 8) Let all the earth fear the
[Eternal]; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. 9) For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast.
So the Eternal spoke and the power of God’s Spirit did the work.
We read where Jesus Christ Himself said when He was on the earth, “With God all things are possible.” He had just said, “With man—what He was discussing there was impossible—but “With God all things are possible.”
Now I want to go to Leviticus 23 where Mr. Biscan was. Leviticus 23, Leviticus 23 and I want to read one of the verses that Mr. Biscan read that is verse 1. Leviticus 23 verse 1. And notice it says,
Leviticus 23:1. And the
[Eternal] spoke to Moses,
In this case, He is not speaking and something is being
created. But He is speaking here and
communicating very, very important information to Moses who in turn was to
instruct
Over in verse 4, He spoke to Moses and instructed, and told
him to instruct
Leviticus 23:4. ‘These are the feasts of the [Eternal], holy
convocations which you shall proclaim at their appointed times.
So here Moses is instructed by the Eternal to instruct
Now let’s notice. Let’s go ahead and read here.
Leviticus 23:5. ‘On the
fourteenth day of the first month at
twilight is the [Eternal’s] Passover.
The First Festival! Then
Leviticus 23:6. ‘And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread
And we read about that down through verse 8. We’ve been through that just recently. I’m not going to read all of those verses. The Days of Unleavened Bread being the Second Festival of God.
Then in verse 9,
Leviticus 23:9. And the
[Eternal] spoke to Moses, saying, 10)
“Speak to the children of
So on the first Sunday following Passover each year this ceremony was to take place. It was to occur during the Second Festival, tying the First Festival to the Second Festival and the Second Festival would be tied by this to the Third.
We read over in verse 15,
Leviticus 23:15. ‘And you
shall count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath [from the Wave Sheaf
Sunday], from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering: seven Sabbaths shall be completed. 16) ‘Count fifty days to the day after the
seventh Sabbath; then you shall offer a new grain offering to the [Eternal].
So the Wave Sheaf Ceremony marked the beginning of a fifty day count that would bring us from that Sunday to another Sunday, that Sunday being the Festival of Pentecost or the Third Festival picturing this great plan that God was working out.
Now I want to go back to John chapter 1, John chapter 1. I want to continue reading there what the apostle John was inspired to write about another John. John chapter 1 and in verse 6,
John 1:6. There was a man
sent from God, whose name was John.
This was John the Baptist.
Like Moses, whom God used as an instrument to do a work in communicating
certain things to physical
Verse 7,
John 1:7. This man came for
a witness,
He had a job to do. He had a function to perform.
John 1:7b. to bear witness
of the Light,
Now we have just skipped over and didn’t read, but back in verse 4, it says,
John 1:4. In Him [in this
Word] was life, and the life was the light of men.
Here this John, John the Baptist, is to be a witness.
John 1:7b. to bear witness
of that Light, that all through him might believe. 8) He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.
So John the Baptist had this special role to perform.
Verse 14 we already referred to, but let me read it here.
John 1:14. And the Word
became 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 so it was time.
It was time in this work of God that He was in the process of
performing here on this earth. The time
had come for the Word to begin to fulfill a very special role Himself in the work,
a role that He and only He could perform.
There was nobody else that could perform what He was coming to this
earth to do.
This same Being, who spoke and all the universe came into being and this earth after having been devastated was refurbished to the point that we see it today. Not exactly as we see it today. It’s deteriorated I’m sure substantially as a result of man’s effect on it, but nonetheless it was refurbished to the state where it could sustain life. It was actually a gorgeous and beautiful creation in the beginning. But He made that.
And it’s that same Being that now has emptied Himself of those God characteristics. He’s on this earth now walking among human beings in the flesh. And we read in verse 19 then how that this one who was to bear witness of this Being is being questioned as to what his role is.
John 1:19. Now this is the
testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from
I want to make that very clear.
John 1:20b. “I am not the
Christ.” 21) And they asked him, “What
then [are you]? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.” 22) Then they said to him, “Who are you, that
we may give an answer to those who sent us?
What do you say about yourself?”
23) And he said, “I am ‘The
voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Make
straight the way of the [Eternal],”’
Now this is a quote here from the Old Testament, from Isaiah
40 verse 3. There this word “Eternal” is
rendered from the Hebrew YHWH, Yahweh. Here in the Greek in the New Testament it is Kurios, our Owner, our Master, our
Ruler, the Kurios. Same Being, same Being who was referred to so
many times in the Old Testament as Yahweh,
now in the New Testament by Kurios.
In going on to say and he said, “as the prophet Isaiah said.” He’s merely quoting that.
John 1:24. Now those who
were sent were from the Pharisees. 25)
And they asked him, saying, “Why then do you baptize if you are not the Christ,
nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?” 26) John answered
them, saying, “I baptize with water, but there stands One among you [who’s
walking now on the earth among human beings] whom you do not know.
He had a responsibility of introducing this Being. One of his roles was to introduce this Being
to
Verse 27,
John 1:27. “It is He who,
coming after me, is preferred before me,
Or as the margin in my Bible has it, “Ranks higher than me.”
Here is John the Baptist in this role of having to be a
witness of this Light, of this Being, of this Word who is now flesh on this
earth, and introducing Him to
John 1:27. “It is He who,
coming after me, [ranks far above] me, [Notice!] whose sandal strap I am not
worthy to loose.”
It’s interesting how John viewed his relationship to this Being. He saw himself, even though this was a man like himself, a relative actually, he did not see him being worthy—that is John the Baptist—of being worthy to wash the feet of this Being. He didn’t see himself worthy to assume the lowest role of a servant in washing this Being’s feet. That’s a kind of awe that John had for this Being, recognizing who He was merely a man now, as far as he could tell, but He had role and He had been something far greater. He knew that. Somehow John clearly understood that.
Going on it says,
John 1:28. These things were
done in [
Then verse 29, verse 29.
John 1:29. The next day John
saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold!
The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!
So one of John’s responsibilities was to introduce this Word
to
The primary responsibility of the Word in His role of being sent to this earth as the Christ was to present Himself as an offering and a sacrifice, an offering and a sacrifice that in doing so, He would take upon Himself the penalty for the sins of the world.
And John understood that. John somehow understood that this Being was capable of that. This Being’s life was of value to the level that He could do that. He could become this Lamb of God whom God would sacrifice, you might say. If you read through Isaiah 53, I think you’ll have a hard time not seeing that, that this God Being who was with Him in the beginning was now going to sacrifice Him. And the Word was willing to allow it. And He came to this earth and actually surrendered Himself into the custody of those who would perform the sacrifice. He didn’t have to. Remember? He could have called down legions of angels to protect His physical life. He could have done that. He didn’t do it. He surrendered Himself and allowed that to happen.
But here John is introducing this Being. He was about to fulfill what that First Festival was all about. He was about to fulfill what that Passover lamb had pictured all those years up to this point. And also He was about to fulfill, not only what the Passover lamb pictured, but what the offering for sin, the burnt offering and those animal sacrifices that pointed directly to Him, He was here to fulfill what they pictured as well.
He would make possible by taking the penalty of the sins of man that one of the huge penalties was separation from God. The penalty of sin is separation from God. We separate ourselves from God. This would enable a reconciliation. This would enable a reconciliation of human beings to God. John the Baptist introducing Him as the One who would perform this.
Then verse 30.
John 1:30. “This is He of
whom I said, ‘After me comes a Man who is preferred before me [who ranks above
me], for He was before me.’
See he understood that. He understood He existed long before John existed on this earth.
Verse 31,
John 1:31. “I did not know
Him;
Notice how this played out now.
John 1:31. “I did not know
Him; but that He should be revealed to
Notice the involvement of the Spirit again.
John 1:32b. “I saw the
Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and [it] remained upon Him.
Now how is that significant? Verse 33,
John 1:33. “I did not know
Him, but He who sent me
Now remember he was a man sent by God back in verse 6 chapter 1.
John 1:33b. He who sent me
to baptize with water said to me, ‘Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and
remaining on Him, this is He
Notice this now!
John
So this was a sign. John somehow visibly saw the Spirit of God descending and resting on this Being following His baptism. And this same Being who instructed him to look for that also said to him, “This Being is going to baptize human beings with the Holy Spirit.”
Now how is that important to us? How important is that to us? Verse 34,
John 1:34. “And I have seen
and testified that this is the Son of God.”
And so John was convinced. John knew now as a result of this happening and it already had happened because this had been performed before this as the apostle John is recalling it here and giving us the information about it. So it had already happened. He knew at this point and time who this Being was. And he’s reporting this now.
Now verse 35, he had an additional responsibility. Notice what it would be.
John 1:35. Again, the next
day, John stood with two of his disciples.
We know John had disciples. He had a number of disciples, those who followed him, who were taught by him. And John taught certain things to these beings. He was limited in what information he was able to deliver, but what he did deliver was the truth to these beings, these human beings.
Now twelve of them, I believe, were the twelve apostles. I can’t prove that. I can if I wanted to take the time, I could demonstrate that four or five of them definitely were. I don’t remember the exact number. It’s been too long since I went through that exercise. But some of them definitely were among his disciples. And I personally believe that all of them were. I think John had the responsibility of preparing all twelve for Christ.
Now why do I say that? Hold your place there and go to Luke 1 again. Luke chapter 1 and let’s notice what we read here. And something else we’re going to read about this personality John the Baptist. Luke 1 verse 13,
Luke 1:13. But the angel
said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zacharias,
So this is the angel speaking to John the Baptist’s father.
Luke 1:13b. for your prayer
is heard; and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his
name John. 14) “And you will have joy
and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth. 15) For he will be great in the sight of the
Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink. He will also [Notice!] be filled with the
Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb.
Now we know that certain individuals, we know specifically David in his prayer in—What was it?—Psalm 51 prayed that God not remove His Spirit from him. So we know that David had God’s Spirit. We don’t know if it was in the same way that others would later receive the Spirit. We don’t know for sure. But he had God’s Spirit. John the Baptist had God’s Spirit. Isolated incidents of God giving His Spirit is recorded. So we understand that.
John was a special instrument with a very special role to
play. Not only was he to introduce this
Word to
Luke 1:16. “And he will turn
many of the children of
So he had a role to prepare certain individuals for Jesus Christ, to present to Him. So what John did here, he not only presented the Christ to the twelve, he presented the twelve to Christ after having taught them, I believe. Now again this is not—I’m not making that as a dogmatic statement. I believe he taught all twelve and he prepared all twelve to present them to Him. I know he did several of them.
Now Luke 22, Luke 22 and verse 7. We’re going to jump forward in time here some three plus years. Luke 22 verse 7,
Luke 22:7. Then came the Day
of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover must be killed.
This was 31 AD now. The time had arrived. The year had arrived. The season had arrived for God’s plan to have a huge part of that plan fulfilled. It was time for the First Festival to be fulfilled. What was pictured by the Passover needed to be fulfilled. And it was time for that to happen. The Word was about to surrender Himself to be sacrificed.
In chapter 17 of Luke—I’m sorry—of John, let’s go there. John 17. Christ on that Passover as we know kept the Passover with just twelve, those twelve men, whom I have mentioned so many times, I believe represented all the firstfruits. But He kept it with just the twelve. He changed the symbols that evening, instituted the New Testament Passover that would be kept by His disciples from that point forward.
Following the institution of the new symbols that evening Jesus Christ had a number of very important things to say to those twelve. We read in John 17 now a little bit later but prior to His arrest, He knelt down and He prayed to His Father. And I want to take note of what He said. We are given the privilege here and John gives us this privilege of listening in to what He was saying to His Father. It gives us some intimacy into His own thinking, what was going on in His mind, what was in His thinking that evening as this very special day unfolded. In verse 1, John 17 verse 1,
John 17:1. Jesus spoke these
words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and [He] said: “Father, the hour has come.
He realized that He was at the point where He was about to perform this incredibly important function. And He said,
John 17:1b. the hour has
come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son
also may glorify You, 2) “As You have
given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many
as You have given Him. 3) “And this is
eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom
You have sent.
And we spent some time recently talking about the importance of that statement.
Verse 4,
John 17:4. “I have glorified
You on the earth. I have finished the
work which You have given Me to do.
He had an opportunity here to converse with His Father and mention this and discuss this even prior to its being finally completed. He had not yet performed this. He had not yet given Himself. He had not surrendered Himself as yet into the custody of those who would perform this duty you might say. That was yet to happen.
He knew at this point He had no choice. He was going to have to follow through and do this. And He knew He would be able to follow through and do this. How did He know that? How was He able to say before it actually happened that it had already happened? How could He say?
John 17:4. “I have glorified
You on the earth. I have finished the
work which You have given Me to do.
Now He had, as part of His responsibility—He had many responsibilities in coming to this earth. It wasn’t just to be an offering and a sacrifice. He had other things to do. He had to communicate certain things to certain individuals. He too followed up from John and conveyed some very important information to these same individuals completing their knowledge, completing their—I started to say “understanding” even though they didn’t have the understanding at the time. They would have it later. We’ll see how that happens in a moment. But He was able to say at this point, “It’s finished. I’ve finished this work.” How could He do that? How could He say that it was finished?
He said in John 5 verse 30 that
John 5:30. “I can of Myself
do nothing.
Remember He was made flesh. He became flesh. The power of God’s Holy Spirit worked a transformation where He went from being the Word, the Almighty God to human flesh within a woman. One other thing happened there that I didn’t mention before. That the power of God’s Holy Spirit made Him a Son. He had not been a Son before. He became a Son. Through the power of God’s Holy Spirit, He not only was made flesh, He was made the only begotten Son of God. He became God’s Son as a result of the power of God’s Holy Spirit working this miracle.
He said while He was on this earth that of Himself that He could do nothing. John 5 verse 30, I just quoted that. You might want to jot that down and remember it. Please don’t ever forget that!
Yet, while in the flesh on this earth, look at what occurred. He raised people from the dead. He healed many sick. He caused a small amount of food to grow into huge amounts of food. Many miracles were done. How did He do that if of Himself He could do nothing? How was He able to do that?
In John 14 verse 10—please don’t turn there—He said,
John 14:10b. “the Father who
dwells in Me does the works.
“The Father who dwells in Me does the works.” How did the Father dwell in Him? How did the Father dwell in Him? John 3 verse 34—hold your place here, I’m going to go there. John 3 verse 34, very important verse!
John 3:44. “For He whom God
has sent speaks the words of God, for God does not give the Spirit by
measure.
In the New International Version, it’s rendered “to Him.”
“God gives the Spirit without limit.” There was no limit placed upon the power of the Spirit of God that was given to this Being. The Father dwelled in Him through the Holy Spirit and it was through the Holy Spirit that Jesus Christ was able to do the works.
It was through the power of that same Spirit that performed the work of creation when He Himself spoke and the creation was done. He was able to speak. Remember Lazarus? He just spoke and Lazarus walked out of the tomb. It was through the same power of the Spirit of God that this happened. He had the Spirit of God without limit.
Now let’s go back to John 17 and I want to read one additional verse. Then I want to go to a different place in John. John 17 verse 5, He said.
I want to back up and answer the question or attempt to answer the question in verse 4 that I said, “How could He say it was finished?” Because, Brethren, this Being, again, was the One who spoke and the power of the Holy Spirit performed the creation. He is the one that spoke and Lazarus walked out. He is the one that spoke and others were resurrected from the dead and many were healed. He knew. He knew what the source of that power was. He knew that that power was still with Him. And He knew that He could complete this work at this stage of the game.
Verse 5, He goes on to say,
John 17:5. “And now, O
Father,
“While I have an opportunity to request this,
John 17:5b. glorify Me
together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world
was.
“The glory that I had with you as the Word in the beginning (as John said), please grant that again.” And we know and we’ll read a little bit later that that prayer was answered. That request was answered. His Father did, in fact, reinstate Him to that level.
John 19 now, John 19 and verse 28. John 19 verse 28.
John 19:28. After this,
Jesus, knowing
Now He is on the stake now being crucified. It’s near the end of the process.
John 19:28. After this,
Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished,
The things that He had to do and He alone could do was about to be done.
John 19:28b. that the
Scripture might be fulfilled, said, “I thirst!”
29) Now a vessel full of sour wine was sitting there; and they filled a
sponge with sour wine, put it on hyssop,
and put it to His mouth. 30) So when Jesus had received the sour wine,
He said, “It is finished!” And bowing
His head, He gave up His spirit.
We understand as we put the different Scriptures together that He died when a Roman soldier rammed a spear up in His abdominal area and His life’s blood spilled out at the base of the stake on which He was nailed. We understand that. But other verses say He cried out with a cry and He gave up the spirit and died. And He said here, “It is finished!” And so His work was done. His work in the flesh was done. His work was not done, but His work in the flesh was done.
Acts 2 now. Acts chapter 2 and in verse 29. Acts 2 and verse 29. Here the apostle Peter is communicating information on the Day of Pentecost. On that Fiftieth Day, he is communicating information here to those who were present.
Acts
And he’s referring back to the quote here in verses 25 through 28.
Acts
So Jesus Christ following His death was placed in a tomb. He was there for three days and three nights as He said He would be. And then He was resurrected from the dead as the weekly Sabbath following the Passover was completed that year and probably was resurrected at the very last moment. He probably walked out of the tomb at the very last moment of the Sabbath and was now alive again as a result of His Father resurrecting Him back to life.
Now I want to go to John 20, John 20. Pick up the story here a bit on Wave Sheaf Sunday. We’ve read this recently a couple of times. I want to go back here today. John 20 and verse 16.
John 20:16. Then Jesus said
to her [This is Mary here.], “Mary!” She
turned and said to Him,
She’s outside His tomb looking for Him, wondering where He is, where His body went.
John 20:16b. She turned and
said to Him, “Rabboni!” (which is to say, Teacher). 17) And Jesus said to her,
And I would just take note of this that now the resurrected Christ is speaking. This Word of God who has now been resurrected back to life and given life by the Father is now speaking.
John 20:17. And Jesus said
to her, “Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go
to My brethren and say to them, “I am ascending to My Father and your Father,
and to My God and your God.’”
And so, He was about to perform the fulfillment of what the Wave Sheaf Ceremony had pictured for all those years. So this great God Being was about to complete the most important series of events since the creation of man!
Now it would be arguable as to what the most important event—I’m talking about from the perspective of man—that has occurred. You could argue that the creation of man was the most important because without that there would be no story of man. And therefore, nothing else would have any relevance or importance. And so you could argue that the creation of man itself was the most important act that God performed.
But after that, this Being was about to complete the most important series of events since man was created. The death of our Creator, His resurrection by His Father, and His acceptance by His Father on our behalf would complete the most important series of events in God’s work of salvation for man!
He was able, once again, to complete this work through the power of God’s Holy Spirit in Him. He said He could nothing on His own. It was through the power of God’s Holy Spirit that enabled Him to be able to do that.
Now back in verse 17 here of John 20, He told Mary,
John 20:17b. “Do not cling
to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren
And we’ve pointed this out numerous times that this is the first time in the New Testament account where we find Him referring to His disciples as “My brethren.” Because now He had completed—He was about to complete once He ascended to the Father and was accepted on our behalf, He would have completed at that point all that was necessary for others to become His brethren.
He said,
John
These events had to be completed in order for us to become His brethren. All of them had to happen, all three of them. He had to die. He had to present Himself as an offering and a sacrifice. He had to be resurrected back to life by the Father. And He had to be accepted by the Father as a suitable sacrifice, acceptable by Him on our behalf. He had to complete these in order for His Father to become our Father. It had to happen. He was about to complete all that was necessary in order for this next step to begin. It had to happen.
The fulfillment of the Wave Sheaf Ceremony would begin a count of fifty days to Pentecost just as it always had. However, these particular fifty days that were about to begin at this point once He fulfilled what the Wave Sheaf ceremony had pictured, once this occurred, these fifty days then became hugely important. Far more so than the fifty days prior to this! There had never been a Passover and Wave Sheaf like this. They had pointed to what He was going to do. Now He was doing it. There had never been the fifty day count like this one before. This had some real meaning to it.
This time the count would culminate—please take note of this—this time the count would culminate on the day when the second most important event would begin to take place. After His performance and completion of what He was sent here to do in the flesh, the most important event since that was going to occur fifty days later. On that particular Pentecost, the Word would begin to baptize human beings with God’s Holy Spirit. He would begin to. It would only be a beginning, but He would begin to do that.
He was about to make possible for human beings to become His brethren, to be begotten with God’s Holy Spirit as children of God. As the same Holy Spirit was able to perform this transformation of the Word to human flesh, a transformation from this great God to becoming the only begotten Son of God, this same Spirit now was going to make possible human beings to become begotten children of God. An incredibly important step in this awesome plan that They had set Their hands to work out!
Hebrews chapter 2, Hebrews chapter 2 and verse 6,
Hebrews 2:6. But one
testified in a certain place, saying:
This is, of course, David.
Hebrews 2:6b. “What is man
that you are mindful of him,
And let’s kind of get the scene here. If you put it altogether from where David wrote this in Psalm 8, he was looking up into that awesome universe that had been created and comparing himself to the awesomeness of that universe prompted him to say this.
Hebrews 2:6b. “What is man
that you are mindful of him,
When I look at my frailty and I hope that even today we can do that. That we can look at ourselves relative to what God has made in this awesome universe! Our minds can hardly comprehend of its vastness and its awesomeness. Even if we had the capabilities of traveling in this universe and we could survive in that travel, we couldn’t live long enough to even begin to penetrate it. Even if we could travel at the speed of light, we couldn’t live long enough to even begin to explore it. That’s how awesome it is!
And David was able to look at himself in light of that, even though he didn’t have the modern knowledge and all the telescopes that we have to look out into that universe. He could only look through his eyes I guess. I don’t know if he had other means of knowing or not. But he saw his smallness relative to God’s greatness and he said
Hebrews 2:6b. “What is man
that you are mindful of him, or the son of man that You take care of him? 7) You have made him [You made man] a little
lower than the angels; You have crowned him with glory and honor, and set him
over the works of Your hands.
And so human beings have been given a special role to play on this earth above all the animals. Even apart from God’s involvement in our lives, we have a role to play on this earth far above animal and plant life.
Hebrews 2:7b. [You] set him
over the works of Your hands. 8) You
have put all things in subjection under his feet.”
And then Paul comments,
Hebrews 2:8b. For in that He
put all in subjection under him, He left nothing that is not put under him.
But now we do not yet see all things put under him.
And so the plan is not complete yet. The plan is still in process of unfolding.
Verse 9,
Hebrews 2:9. But we see
Jesus,
What we do see is Jesus.
Hebrews 2:9b. who was made a
little lower than the angels,
He was made flesh by the power of God’s Holy Spirit. And He walked on this earth in our midst. And He made this transformation
Hebrews 2:9 cont. for the
suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God,
might taste death for everyone.
So Paul understood that. He understood the magnitude of what this Being had done, of the work He had performed.
And then verse 10,
Hebrews 2:10. For it was
fitting for Him, for whom are all
things and by whom are all things, in
bringing many sons to glory, to make the [author] of their salvation perfect
through sufferings. 11) For both He who
sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason He is not ashamed to call them
brethren,
So He had done what was necessary for that to be accomplished.
Now let’s go to Acts chapter 1, Acts chapter 1. And I want to notice some things here. Acts chapter 1 and in verse 1,
Acts 1:1. The former account
I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and to teach, 2) Until the day in which He was taken up,
after He through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom He
had chosen, 3) To whom He also presented
Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them
during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.
And so, during the first forty of those fifty days, this
Being spent time still here on the earth, still communicating certain
information to certain individuals. And
it focused on things pertaining to the
Now you would be hard pressed, I think, to go through
everything that He said and find anything that pertains to the government of
God, to the rule of God. But He spoke
about things pertaining to the
Now, notice verse 4!
Acts 1:4. And being
assembled together with them,
Now this may well have been the fortieth day right here.
Acts 1:4b. He commanded them
not to depart from
I’m going to read a little bit about that in a moment.
Acts 1:5. “For John
Notice! Verse 5, notice what He is saying now!
Acts 1:5. “For John truly
baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many
days from now.”
So probably about ten days from this point that was going to happen.
Acts 1:6. Therefore, when
they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at this time
restore the kingdom to
Notice what was about to happen. And He wanted to focus their attention on this.
Acts 1:8. “But you shall
receive power
This is dunamis in the Greek. And this is talking about the power that comes to human beings as a result of God’s Holy Spirit. Notice what He says,
Acts 1:8. “But you shall
receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be
witnesses to Me in
Again this word “power” here is dunamis. It means power. It means strength. It means ability. It’s inherent power, power residing in a thing by the virtue of its nature. So there’s power residing in the Holy Spirit. It is power that comes from God. It is God’s power that’s contained within the Holy Spirit. There is inherent power residing there.
Now if you want a title for this message—it’s going to be a Part I by the way—it is The Power Of God’s Holy Spirit-Part I.
The eleven here specifically Christ said were to receive power when the Holy Spirit came upon them. So He’s directly speaking to the eleven right here, because He specifically said they were to be witnesses. They were to be witnesses. The twelfth had not been selected yet, so He’s talking to the eleven.
Now the witnesses had a job to do. A witness is one who remembers, one who has information or knowledge of something, one who can give information, bring to light or confirm something. So they were about to be witnesses. Now Christ said in John 14 verse 26, He said, “The Holy Spirit will bring to your remembrance all things I have said to you.” So when the power of the Holy Spirit did its work, it enabled them to be proper witnesses. It enabled them to remember everything that He had said. It, no doubt, recalled also everything that He had done. And they could be proper witnesses of Him. And so it enabled them to be able to do that.
Now in Luke 24, I want to go there right now. This may well have been a parallel account to what we just read, but here Luke gives a little bit of additional information. And let’s notice this in verse 49. Luke 24 verse 49.
Luke 24:49. “Behold, I send
the Promise of My Father upon you;
Well, let me read verse 48.
Luke 24:48. “And you are
witnesses of these things.
And here again I think this is a parallel account probably where Jesus Christ is speaking these words. But here Luke gives us a little additional information. He says,
Luke 24:49. “Behold, I send
the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you
are endued with power from on high.”
Now this word “endued” is interesting. It means to go in or under, to go in or under, to put on, to put on a garment, to clothe. Vine’s has it, “To enter into, to get into, as into clothes, or to put on.”
Now remember Jesus Christ was going to baptize individuals with the Holy Spirit. When one is baptized, he goes into water and the water surrounds and completely covers the individuals. Now is that how we are to understand that this Spirit then is to cover and is to surround and we’re to wear it, you might say, like clothing? And in many places this same word is rendered “clothe” in other Scriptures. Now I don’t know if it’s many, but in other Scriptures, it is rendered “clothe.”
Now back up here in Acts 1 and verse 4, He says, “I’m going to refer to something here that I have told you about.” Let me read that so I don’t misquote it. Acts 1 and verse 4.
Acts 1:4b. but to wait
[here, He said] for the Promise of the Father, “which,” He said, “you have heard from Me;
I want to very quickly go to some of those statements where He referred to this. In John 14. Now remember this was following the institution of the new symbols. It was prior to His, even the prayer that we read in John 17. This occurred in between and He said some things to them. John 14 and in verse 15, He said,
John 14:15. “If you love Me,
keep My commandments.
Now He had earlier told them that the Ten Commandments were all about love. Love toward God, love toward mankind. He had just given in the previous chapter and just earlier that evening, He had given the new commandment where they were instructed to love one another as He had loved them. He said,
John 14:15. “If you love Me,
keep My commandments. 16) “And I will
pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that [it] may abide with
you forever—
Now we can glean a couple of things from this that kind of jump out to me that it’s the Father who will be giving this “Helper.” The Father is giving the Holy Spirit. It originates with the Father you might say. At least we can say, “It is given by Him.” The other thing that we can glean from this that jumps out to me is that once this occurs this Holy Spirit is to reside with us forever, to abide with us forever. Once it is given it is to continue to abide with us.
It will enable us in different levels. It will enable us to do certain things during this life. Following our resurrection or our change, it’s going to enable us to do much more. The same Holy Spirit which Christ had without measure, that very same Spirit is going to be offered. At this point, was going to be offered. It’s already been offered now to us.
The enabling power of that Spirit, however, is more limited for us than it was for Him. He had certain things He had to do. We saw the power of that Spirit was able to create the universe. So the power of the Spirit is not limited, but we’re limited as to the extent that God will permit it to enable us. There’s certain things it will enable us to do. Certain things we will not be able to do in this life. But it’s the same Spirit.
Even, “The Spirit of truth,” it says here in verse 17.
John 14:17b. [which] the
world cannot receive, because it neither sees [it], nor knows [it]; but you
know [it], for [it] dwells with you and will be in you.
It is the Spirit of truth. In 1 John 5 verse 6, there John says, “the Spirit is truth.” A little distinction there!
But “it dwells with you and it will be in you.” So in one sense the Spirit covers us. In another sense, the Spirit enters into us and becomes part of us in that sense. At least it works from within. God dwells in us (Jesus Christ dwells within us) through the same Spirit that He dwelled within Jesus Christ when He was on this earth. It’s an incredible, incredible opportunity and I’m not going to have time I see to go ahead with this.
But one point there in 1 Corinthians 2, we see clearly—and I’m not going to read it—but I think you know that Scripture there where it is through the Spirit of God that He reveals to us the truth. And so it is the Spirit of God, the power of the Spirit of God that enables us to understand. It enables us to comprehend. It enables us then to sort out and understand what God is doing and how He’s working with us personally on this earth. And so there’s many ways that the Spirit of God enables us.
And we’re going to get into that next time. I don’t have time to complete this today,
even where I wanted to go. But it is
designed to be Part I.
And so we’ll continue next time into the incredible power of God that began to be given to human beings in a way that it had never been given before on the Day of Pentecost in 31 AD. It says there that Jesus Christ began to “pour out” His Spirit that day. And that word “pour” doesn’t mean the method that He used. But the word “pour” means that the magnitude of it going out, the amount of it going out.
Before this time it was given to John the Baptist. It was given to David and others individually. Now on this day it was given to more in one day than it had been given probably throughout the entire Old Testament. So it was poured out. It was given to many people that day.
We’re so privileged, Brethren, to have had this happen to
us! The very power of God has entered
into us through God’s Holy Spirit. It
enables us in many ways. And we’re going
to begin to see next time how many ways that we can utilize this great gift
that God began to give so many years ago on the Day of Pentecost that we’re
looking forward to keeping in just about four weeks, I think, and one day.
Transcribed by kb