This week we see how interwoven the vision of Christ is with the vision of the church. The Vision of Christ – “I am Jesus”, The Vision of the church – “persecuting me”.
Weekly Video – The Vision of The Church
Praise For His Incarnation
Psalms 113:6 Who humbles Himself to behold / The heavens and the earth
Philippians 2:5-6 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 Who, existing in the form of God, did not consider being equal with God a treasure to be grasped,
About the Believers – Regenerated
1 Peter 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has regenerated us unto a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
1 Peter 1:23 Having been regenerated not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible, through the living and abiding word of God.
1 John 5:1a Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been begotten of God
Fellowship to help us know Christ and pursue Him
From these verses, we can see that regeneration is to receive Christ, who is the life-giving Spirit, into us as our life. To receive this life, we need to repent to God and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
To say that Christ is our life now is not a figurative statement. Christ being our life does not merely mean that we are now completely focused on Him. Rather, this means that we have literally another life, a new life, which we didn’t have before. Humans have the human life, dogs have the dog life, cats have the cat life, and believers have God’s life! The following short quotation emphasizes that by regeneration, we obtain God’s life.
Regeneration is having God enter into us as life—having the life of God in addition to our human life. This is the second life, the second birth; hence, it is called regeneration. In man’s first birth he is born of his parents, thereby receiving Adam’s life. In his second birth he is born of the Spirit and of God, thereby obtaining God’s life. Regeneration is to be born of God. (Lessons for New Believers, Lesson 1, published by Living Stream Ministry)
With this in mind, enjoy reading afresh the following passage from the gospel of John.
John 3:1-8 But there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2 This one came to Him by night and said to Him, Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher, for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him. 3 Jesus answered and said to him, Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless one is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God. 4 Nicodemus said to Him, How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?
5 Jesus answered, Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, You must be born anew. 8 The wind blows where it wills, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from and where it goes; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.
With the human life, if you take away the life from the person, you take away that person. In other words, you cannot separate the life from the person. We also then realize, that just as one cannot be unborn of their human life, a believer cannot be unborn of their new life from God. We cannot be un-regenerated. This is good news! You believed in the Lord Jesus Christ; you have a new life, the life of God, and this life can never be taken away from you. This is what John 3:16 means when it says, “have eternal life”.
Again, when we believe in Jesus Christ, we receive Him who is the very life of God into us, to be our new life. We are regenerated! The realization of such a fact led the author of hymn 1174 to praise unceasingly.
How mysterious! Yet how real!
Such a man now lives in me.
Into all my heart He’s spreading—
He, my human life, to be.
Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
I will praise unceasingly.
(see the whole hymn here: https://www.hymnal.net/en/hymn/nt/1174)
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Today Jesus is the real Jubilee
A story from the Fall 2018 College conference held in Wanship, Utah
The last message of the conference was about the Jubilee. God had delivered the Israelites, His people, from Egypt and from oppression.. At the end of Leviticus God gave them the instruction to observe the year of Jubilee – that was supposed to be every 50th year. The children of Israel each had received a portion of the good land from God. Over time, if some mismanaged their possessions, they might have sold everything they had, even their portion of the land, and possibly even themselves (into slavery). However, on the year of Jubilee, they got to go back to their possessions!
Today Jesus is the real Jubilee–and we are those who have been set free from all slavery that is in the world! When we got saved, Jesus restored us to Himself as our allotted portion and to our family–all the brothers and sisters in the church! We used to live oppressed but now have Jesus and our new family! – Debbie
The Tree of Life – For the Father’s House
Wednesday, October 18, 2017, 6pm.
Do not let your heart be troubled; believe into God, believe also into Me. In My Father’s house are many abodes; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I am coming again and will receive you to Myself, so that where I am you also may be. And where I am going you know the way. Thomas said to Him, Lord, we do not know where You are going; how can we know the way? Jesus said to him, I am the way and the reality and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me. – (John 14:1-6)
Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak from Myself, but the Father who abides in Me does His works. – (John 14:10)
And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter, that He may be with you forever, Even the Spirit of reality, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him; but you know Him, because He abides with you and shall be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I am coming to you. Yet a little while and the world beholds Me no longer, but you behold Me; because I live, you also shall live. In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. – (John 14:16-20)
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 an abode with him. – (John 14:23)
In John 1, God takes a major step to become flesh.
- In John 14, Jesus tells His disciples that He is going. What does He say He is going to do?
- In His next major step, Christ becomes the life-giving Spirit. How does He do it?
- Now the tree of life, Christ as the life-giving Spirit is in you; but where are you?
- Briefly describe “the Father’s house”.
Further reading: The Tree of Life, chapter 7, published by Living Stream Ministry