Series: God’s Ultimate Intention
Sunday am 1 April 2018 – Kobus Swart
(Matt. 21:12); (John 2:19); (Rom. 8:29); (Heb. 2:10); (John 3:13-NKJV); John 4:23, 35-36; John 7:1-14; Acts 3:21; Rev. 1:12-18; (Matt. 16:18); (Eph. 2:6); Ps. 139:7-8; John 1:1-14; (John 14:10-11, 23); Col. 1:17; Heb. 1:3; John 8:58; Isa. 66:1-2; John 16:7, 13-14; Rev. 21:22
What would you answer if your child asks you questions like the following, “If you say God is everywhere, why do you pray to God in heaven; where is God now?” If we are encouraged to ‘come into the presence of God’, where was He before we came together? We grew up with concepts and slogans. There was a time that those who created world maps put Jerusalem in the centre of the world map because they believed Jerusalem was the centre of the world, and especially the temple in Jerusalem. They felt that it was the holiest spot on earth. I want to talk about the temple being the place where heaven and earth meet.
When Jesus was born and came into this earth, the overlapping area called the ‘temple’ was represented by Jesus Himself. Jesus, in fact, was the walking temple. When Jesus walked into the temple He found what was supposed to be a ‘holy place’, the place where God lived, had become a place for the money changers. It had been turned into a type of a ‘banking system’. Jesus overturned the tables and chased them out (Matt. 21:12). Jesus went further, He said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:19). It took 46 years to build the temple! We know what Jesus meant; that building was no longer where God is supposed to live. Jesus became a demonstration, putting God on display to the world. Everything Jesus did was prophetic, pointing to the future. He was the first-born and came to bring many sons to glory (Heb. 2:10). So He was the pattern Son and He is the one to follow. No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven (John 3:13 – NKJV). Jesus was in heaven on earth. The two circles (in the diagram) have become one in Him. This Jesus demonstrated how heaven and earth met in Him. That is an example of what is going to happen in the corporate son.
The true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth because God is spirit! (John 4:23). Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest’? He was most likely referring to the Feast of Tabernacles. He was trying to break a certain mindset of always working by the calendar and postponing to a certain date. Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest (John 4:35). The Feast of Tabernacles has been busy unfolding ever since! It is not a date on the calendar. Yes, there will one day be a final, complete fulfilment, but it is busy unfolding, and we must not wait for a date on the calendar.
Jesus chose the Feast of Tabernacles to demonstrate something very important. The Feast of Tabernacles was a seven-day feast. Jesus was at the feast from the beginning, but in secret (John 7:1-13). But when it was now the midst of the feast Jesus went up into the temple and began to teach (John 7:14). We are in the unfolding of the Feast of Tabernacles. Both the Feasts of Passover and Pentecost were fulfilled on a specific date of the Jewish calendar as if it was divinely planned. Jesus was crucified in the Feast of Passover. The Spirit was poured out in the Feast of Pentecost. But four months later the Feast of Tabernacles was not fulfilled in the same way, because God had an unfolding plan. There is going to be a day in which Jesus is going to make His voice audible in the world but it will not come from a humanly built temple.
John on the Island of Patmos was in the spirit on the Lord’s day and he heard a VOICE, and he turned to see the voice. He wanted to see who and what caused the voice. He saw the seven golden lampstands representing the completion of the Church of Jesus Christ on earth. In the midst of them, he saw someone who resembled a human being, but you know it is the Son of God (Rev. 1:12-18 see Moffat’s translation). This is what I believe is going to happen; it has to do with the completion of the corporate Temple in the earth, a Temple consisting of people, sons of God; those who love God, who are born again, who are part of this corporate Temple. And the voice of God is going to be heard from this corporate Temple, worldwide. The world will turn to see the voice, and they will see the Church which has been despised in the earth. Jesus said, “I will build My Church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it” (Matt. 16:18). His voice, like the sound of many waters, will come out of this corporate Temple.
Where is Jesus now? He is not yet visible, but He is here! Where is heaven? He has seated us with Him in heavenly places (Eph. 2:6), yet you are right here. This Jesus, who became the living, walking Temple of God, was acting prophetically about what was yet to come on the corporate level.
The meaning of the word ‘omnipresence’ – God is spirit and He is everywhere. Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there (Ps. 139:7-8). God is everywhere but there are also special manifestations of His presence. God sometimes manifests Himself specifically. This omnipresent God, who is spirit, who is everywhere; He is in the highest heavens, He is here – that God came and overshadowed Mary, a young girl, and she conceived the Son of God. That is how personal God can become.
Jesus came to this earth in the form of a human being (John 1:1-14). Jesus was God made flesh. Then Jesus would say, I am in the Father and the Father is in Me (John 14:11). It would be wrong to interpret it, that the omnipresent God who is everywhere has come out of the ‘everywhere’ and confined Himself to be in the Son. That is not accurate. In a special manifestation He gave birth to His Son and in fact, His Son had to demonstrate Him to the world. The event of the incarnation should not be interpreted to be that God the Son left the highest heaven and came into the world and confined Himself to the earthly body of Jesus. This would mean that He divested Himself from His omnipresence. Look what Paul says about the Son. He is before all things, and in Him, all things hold together (Col. 1:17). This is the Son he is talking about, but the Son and the Father are one. The Son is continually upholding the universe by His Word of power (Heb. 1:3). Jesus said, “Before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58). The pre-existent Christ who became flesh. God is everywhere all the time, but there are times that He manifests Himself in a very personal way.
Jesus released some insights into God’s ultimate plan. I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me (John 14:10). Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him (John 14:23). God is looking for a house, a temple – not a building! (Isa. 66:1-2) It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you (John 16:7). But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you (John 16:13-14). That is why we need the Spirit of truth!
God has given us the privilege to pray to Him as “Abba” and the moment you can pray from your heart to Father, “Abba”, it is the very essence of sonship that is being demonstrated in you.
What will the final Temple look like? John shares the revelation of a new heaven and a new earth. I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple (Rev. 21:22). The two circles in the diagram – heaven, earth and the overlapping area, the temple, is all leading to the merging of heaven and earth into one circle. There is no temple because the Father and the Lamb became the temple! And we are in them. God has found a dwelling place, and so have we.
He is the Lord of heaven and earth! May God open our hearts to get a taste of what awaits the Church of Jesus, the victorious bride of Christ.
Sun am 11 March 2018 – Kobus Swart
Rev.13:8; (Luke 3:38); Gen.1:26; Heb. 2:6-7; Rom.8:28-29; Isa. 14:13-14; Prov.14:12; Gal. 2:20; Eph. 1:10 – Phillips; (Col.1:15-19); 1 Cor. 15:20-24 & 28
Why did God allow the fall of man in the Garden of Eden? The Sovereign Almighty God could have prevented it, but He allowed it! How easily God’s children can partake of His grace and receive all His gifts only to become wholly distracted from His original purpose. We lose the consciousness, the focus and the reason for the call. God knew from the beginning that Adam would take the downward turn and it would be necessary to incorporate the ministry of grace. How many of you know that God was not surprised at the fall? God did not intend that fallen man should become so enamoured with the calling of grace that he would overlook the call to realize God’s purpose. Yet this has been the inner perversion of all God’s fallen sons. Man is ever prone to interpret God’s work as it benefits and relates to himself without concern for the realization and yearning desire hidden in the Father’s heart. God’s original plan is still His ultimate purpose for man. We must constantly remind ourselves of Father’s original intention with man.
Redemption is not the only theme in God’s economy. It is important but it is not the only theme. Grace was never meant to just clean man up after the fall. It was to reposition him to get back the original purpose of the call of God. The new birth means an end of the first Adam’s identity in us. The moment we are born again, the influence that the first Adam had should come to an end. Then we become part of the last Adam who is the ‘second man’ to usher in a whole new humanity focused on Father’s original purpose. God was not caught off guard by the fall. We know that! His foreknowledge comprehended full well that man was a moral agent and what he would do. God made provision! The Lamb was slain before the foundation of the world (Rev. 13:8).
Here are some questions that some of us may have in our hearts: why did God allow the present reign of sin, sorrow and death? Why did He permit the serpent to tempt our first parents? Why did He put the forbidden tree in the centre of the Garden? Could God not have prevented all possibilities of man’s fall? Could the Almighty God not have intervened in time to prevent the full accomplishment of Satan’s design? What makes us ask these questions? A failure to understand God’s ultimate purpose! He could have prevented the entrance of sin but the fact that He did not, should be sufficient proof to us that its present permission is designed ultimately to work out for some greater good. That is the God we serve, He had something greater in mind! The tree of life which is typical of the life-giving last Adam, the Son, was also in the Garden but Adam has not yet discerned its supreme value. That is why he went for the wrong tree; something in Adam was not fully developed. Even before Adam sinned, he needed a vital birth relationship in order to become a true son according to Father’s plan. Yes, Adam is called a son in the genealogy (Luke 3:38) but in terms of the definition of true sonship (spiritual maturity), he was not there yet. The first Adam was created with natural life; he became a living soul. The Last Adam, which is Christ, was a life-giving spirit. Adam was a living soul who needed a process to bring him to the life-giving spirit of the last Adam.
The mistake we often make is the false assumption that Adam in his innocence and sinless state was everything that God had ever purposed him to be. Adam was created without imperfection, that was the handy work of God, but he was not tried and tested yet. He was not fully developed and tested yet. His spiritual development could only come through moral choices. God gave Adam and Eve the freedom of choice.
Oswald Chambers: “It was according to the plan of God that Adam by a series of moral choices will be required to take part in his own moral development. That is, he was to transform the life of nature into the spiritual life of obeying God”. That is the process Adam had to go through. The question I was asking while studying this: what would have happened if Adam and Eve partook of the tree of life in the garden which represents Christ? If Adam, created neutral, were to voluntarily turn God’s way and choose dependence upon Him, he would thereby be able to receive of the tree of life, representing God’s own life. God would then have life union with man and that is what we define as sonship. It is sad but not surprising that the word ‘sonship’ has been misunderstood in many circles and even rejected by many beautiful Christians. This is something that I trust this family has embraced. Sonship means spiritual maturity, a relationship with Father God. That is what God was after for Adam.
God could have programmed Adam and Eve to do only what He told them to do, but He did not; it was never in His mind. Otherwise, you would have lost the maturity to make healthy choices. Life is a matter of choices. If God had made us like robots, the one main thing we would lack is character. God made all of us different, He loves variety. He wants sons and daughters that have grown up. Sin, sorrow and death are the lessons taught to us by God. God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose (Rom. 8:28-29). That is for all of us! When you go through a crisis, do not rebuke the devil. When you go through something, the first question you should ask is, “God show me Your hand; there is something here that You are working out”. God can use Satan to do that. He used Satan in the life of Paul and in the life of Jesus. All things work together for good so God has an ultimate purpose in mind! It is not just to forgive our sins. Experience is the best teacher. What we experience as history will judge us in the end. Many Christians stumble over the same little sin over and over again. So we do not learn and history repeats itself.
Ultimately, Father God has a plan for humanity! God did not want to create robots. Man was given autonomy to rule (Gen. 1:26). God preferred for them to do that, although He could have done it. We must distance ourselves from the wisdom of the world because there is a wisdom that is coming from the world that tries to sound better than God. What is God’s plan for man? What is man, that You remember him? Or the son of man, that You are concerned about him? “You have made him for a little while lower than the angels; You have crowned him with glory and honour, And have appointed him over the works of Your hands (Heb. 2:6-7). God’s purpose is actually for man to rule and have dominion with God, not independent from God. The wisdom of the world wants you to take a shortcut.
In the fall of man, we see that man chose to rule independently from God and that is why they went for the wrong tree. Take note of the worldly governments, and note this attitude. But you said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God, And I will sit on the mount of assembly. In the recesses of the north. ‘I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High’ (Isa. 14:13-14). What arrogance! “I will, I will”. That is man ruling his own life and destiny without God! There is a way which seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death (Prov. 14:12). God has ordained this to be for an appointed time.
Paul said, I live, yet not I but Christ lives in me (Gal. 2:20). Now we are in Christ, we have to be renewed in our mind. Look in the mirror of the word and say, “Father I want to be what Your word says”. Ultimately it will be man with Christ in God. So we move from being man-centred to God-centred. Father’s original purpose did not stop with the cross; He had an intention with man from day one.
For God had allowed us to know the secret of his plan, and it is this: he purposes in his sovereign will that all human history shall be consummated in Christ, that everything that exists in Heaven or earth shall find its perfection and fulfilment in him (Eph. 1:10 – Phillips). This is God’s plan! How can we constantly stumble, fall, want grace, and want this and that? Let us grow up! Two weeks ago, we talked about being seating with Him in heavenly places. The Father purposed in Himself for everything to be centred in His Son, but the Son wants to reveal, glorify and satisfy the Father (Col. 1:15-19). That is a beautiful picture of the attitude we should have. While universal dominion is the ultimate intention of the Father, in His Son, we read: then comes the end, when He hands over the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power…When all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself also will be subjected to the One who subjected all things to Him, so that God may be all in all (1 Cor. 15:24&28). There is the final picture! God will be all in all! God has chosen to bring humanity to this place where we can become totally consummated in Christ – perfected, brought together, compacted in Christ. That is not the end. He then hands everything to the Father so that God can be all in all!