THE PROPHETIC BIRTHING OF THE CHURCH

We’ve talked about Accessing the Kingdom through the Church. Now we’re going to look at the Prophetic Birthing of the Church. The Universal Church came up with a prophetic release by our Lord Jesus. Jesus prophesied the birth of the Church, which became His body in accordance with God’s progressive redemption plan for mankind. And when we say the Church, we are not talking about God Father and Family Church, but about the Church of God, meaning the Family of God. The Family of God was born out of a prophetic declaration by the Lord Jesus in accordance with the eternal prophetic redemption plan of God for all of mankind. Today, what became the Church, spiritually, is the body of Christ. And Christ is the head of that body. In the book of Matthew 16:18, the scripture says, “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.” That was a prophetic release. Jesus prophesied that the Church will be born, and that came to pass after the resurrection. It didn’t happen immediately; but it did when the fullness of time came, after the work of atonement had been done, on the day of Pentecost. “And He is the head of the body, the church; He is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything He might have the supremacy.” (See Colossians 1:18). That is, He may have the preeminence in all things. “God has given Him a name that is above every other name, that at the name of Jesus every new knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord.” (See Philippians 2:9-11). He became the firstborn from the dead. He resurrected; He came back from the land of the dead. He is the first to be born again. He came back from spiritual death to spiritual life. He is the head of the Church; we are the body, the church. Acts 26:23, “And that the Christ must suffer and, as the first to rise from the dead, He will proclaim light to His own people and to the Gentiles.” The death we are talking about is spiritual death, not the physical death. When He was in the ministry, He raised the dead three times. He went to the land of the dead and brought people back to life; the only child of the widow, the daughter of the rich man, and Lazarus. He brought them back to life from physical death; from physical death to physical life. But in the case of Jesus, He is the first to rise from the dead. He is the first to be born again. He is the first ever separated and later united with God. Now He proclaims His light to His own people and to the Gentiles. And in Acts 13:47, the Lord commanded us, “I have made you a light to the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.” That is where the increase comes in; ‘Kingdom increase.’ We must preach this kingdom gospel, message so that it will reach the ends of the earth; to all nations, languages, and tribes. The time we are carries the message for all people; the message of salvation. Romans 4:25, “He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.” 5:2, says, “Through Him we have gained access by faith to this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of His glory.” When Jesus died, He was never raised until you have been pronounced innocent, justified and sinless. Sin can no longer bite, trouble, harass, molest, and kill you again. You cannot die for any sin. It is in this grace you now stand. Because you have faith in what He has done, you have been credited with righteousness. “He who knew no sin was made to sin that we be made the righteousness of God.” Reading from the book of Romans 1:4, “Who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by His resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ, our Savior.” He became the Son of God because He rose from the dead. When He was being baptized by John in the Jordan, as He was coming out of the river, the heavens opened, and the Holy Spirit alighted on Him like a dove. And a voice from heaven came: “This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.” That time, Jesus came as the incarnate Son of God (He was a part of the Godhead, a member of the Trinity). And He was without sin. For the Bible says in the book of Hebrews 4:15, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet He did not sin.” But at the time Jesus was on the cross, as they nailed Him to the cross, He took the sin of the whole world. He was made to be sin when He was on the cross. And the Bible says in the book of Matthew 27:46, “And He cried out with a loud voice, My God, My God, ‘why has thou forsaken me?’” At that time, your sin and my sin were already on Him; He had taken them over. He did not die until He had taken over our sins. When He came, He was without sin, but when He climbed Golgotha, and was nailed to the cross, He was made to sin (separated from God), and He cried out, “My God, My God, Why hast thou forsaken me?” Your sin and my sin made Him to be forsaken, separated from God. Therefore, He could now die physically and spiritually. He could now die for your sins and my sins because we could not help ourselves. We needed a righteous man to save us as sinners: the righteous for the unrighteous. If we were capable of saving ourselves, He wouldn’t have died for us. From the passage we read in Romans 4:25, “He was delivered to death for us sins and was raised to life for our justification.” When He finished the work of sin and death, He was raised from the dead. He is now back as the child of God. When He took our sin, He was separated – God turned His back on Him. He died, and our sin was settled, then He was raised back to life. Romans 1:4, where we read, “Who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by His resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ, our Savior.” Hebrews 5:4-6, “And no one takes this honor on Himself, but He receives it when called by God, Just as Aaron was. In the same way, Christ did not take on Himself the glory of becoming a high priest. But God said to Him, ‘You are My Son; today I have become Your Father.’ He said to Him again, ‘I have made You a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.” So after He rose from the dead, He was pronounced the Son of God, and God became His Father. This pronouncement is different from the earlier one – when He was being baptized. One was before His death and the second one was after His death. Jesus became born again. That is why He is the first to rise from the dead. Colossians 1:21-22, “Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now He has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in His sight, without blemish and free from any accusation.” Because of what Christ has done, we have been reconciled. Because of our faith in what Christ has done, we are now children of God – holy saints of God. You are now holy in the sight of God; without blemish, sin, and stain. You can now be free in His presence. You can now worship God with freedom and confidence. Before His death, you could not do it. Now we are born again through faith in what He has done for us; through faith in His blood. For without the shedding of the blood, there shall be no remission of sin. Once we believe in Him, we are saved from sin and death. So Jesus came to save us from our limitations and weaknesses. What He did was invincible and it vested authority in the Church. 

For the Bible says in Ephesians 4:9-10, “(What does “He ascended” mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.)” When Jesus died, He went down, down to the grave. He went underneath; beyond any level that can be reached to save us from sin and death. And when He ascended, He went higher than anyone could reach, to take His blood to the Father for our atonement. John 20:17, Jesus said, “Do not hold on to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to My brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to My Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” He ascended on High and took the blood of our atonement; the blood that set us free and healed us. That is why He said in the Book of Hebrews 9:12, “He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but He entered the Most Holy Place once for all by His own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption.” He obtained eternal redemption for us then He ascended on High. He went to show the Council His blood, the blood that saved us from sin. Hebrews 10:12,”But when this Priest had offered for all time on sacrifice for sins, He sat down at the right hand of God.” At the time He told Mary not to hold on to Him because He was yet to be with the Father, He was yet to go to heaven. After Mary left Him, He went to heaven having made the eternal sacrifice. We are saved forever; we do not need further sacrifice to be saved. He has perfected our redemption eternally. He saved those in the eternity past, eternity present, and the eternity future. The eternity past has to do with those who believed in Him who had died before the blood was shed. After the blood was shed, the blood went back to the past to save those people who believed in the blood. It saved those in the present and those in the future (those who will believe if Jesus tarries in years to come. The Bible says in the book of Ephesians 2:6, “He raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places…” We are now seated with Christ, who is seated at the right hand of the Father. For it says in the book of Colossians 2:12-14, “I have been buried with Him in baptism and raised with Him through faith in the power of God who raised Him from the dead. When we were dead in sin and in the uncircumcision of our sinful nature, God made us alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having cancelled the written code with its regulation that was against us, that stood opposed to us. He took it away, nailing it to the cross.” This is what He did for us. We were buried with Him; we were raised with Him; we were united with Him completely. Because He is the head, we are the body. As He was being buried, we were buried with Him. When He was raised, we were also raised with Him. When Jesus rose from the dead, He was pronounced the Son of God. We too, when we believe in Him, because we’ve been buried with Him and raised with Him, we become children of God. We are born again, not of corruptible seed, but of the incorruptible, through the living and enduring Word of God. (See 1st Peter 1:23) He is the seed. After He rose from the dead, He disarmed principalities and powers, made a public show of them and triumphed over them by the cross. He disarmed all things that were against us, the sin that was against us, death that was against us, sicknesses and diseases that are against us, and He declared, “I am the living one. I was dead, but behold, I am alive forever and ever. And I hold the keys of death and Hades.” (Revelation 1:18). So with this resurrection, He has given to us the key; the key to success, prosperity, wisdom, answer prayer, peace and life. He has given us the key, the authority, the power to reign and to rule with Him. If by one man’s sin, death reigned, how much more those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and the gift of righteousness reign in life through that one man, Jesus. (See Romans 5:17). So now that Christ has risen, we are also risen with Him. Now He’s reigning, seated at the right hand of the Father and we too are seated with Him, and we are reigning with Him in life. Wherever we are, we are to reign and rule. Then the Word comes to pass in the book of Genesis 1:28, “And God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number, fill the earth and subdue it.” Praise be to God. We are celebrating what Christ has done for us in His finished works. Now we are not subject to sin; we are not in spiritual debt; we are no more separated from God. We have become one with God; we can now live in righteousness and enjoy the abundant grace that has been poured out on us. I leave you with the Word.