The How To
Build A New Testament Church Seminar
7:00 PM – 7:45 PM Session # 1 Tuesday
What is a Believer?
The Purpose of the Cross
1Co 1:23 But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock,
and unto the Greeks foolishness;
Greek; We proclaim
Christ from moment to moment as having been crucified (perfect tense)
·
The cross is used to
kill, still and silence our natural life so that the person of Jesus Christ can
be discerned, heard, and obeyed.
·
It sets us free from our
sins and hurts through death so that we can hear the Spirit of God, submit to
God and follow Him.
·
The cross frees us from
bondage and sin for us to move in God’s power.
·
The cross is activated
every time that we obey the Lord. The “law
of the cross.”
The Person of
Christ Living Within.
·
The believers’
responsibility is simple and hard; They
must become so dead to themselves, as to allow some one else within them to
live a totally separate life from theirs, mainly that of the Lord.
·
The other person living within lives a separate from ours.
Christianity is a substitution of and a
transference of lives.
·
The lives are diametrically opposed. One is natural and one is
spiritual
·
Two lives cannot compete.
One must die and the other one live.
·
If we are full of ourselves,
our plans, and agendas, hurts, sin, and bondages, we will not only snuff out
Christ’s life within us; we will be unable to discern it! Christ speaks to us in a still small voice.
Three Aspects
of the Believer’s Walk.
John 14:20 At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me,
and I in you.
·
The “YE
IN ME” is our obedience/ abiding in the Lord.
·
Our
obedience causes us to abide or remain in Him.
John 15:10 If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide
in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his
love.
·
If we obey
Him, He will manifest Himself to us,
·
Jesus is
able and wants to live the same life that He lives in the Father, within us.
John 14:21 He that hath my commandments, and keepeth
them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my
Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.
Colossians 2:3 In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom
and knowledge.
Ephesians
3:8 Unto me, who am less than the least
of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the
unsearchable riches of Christ;
·
Christ’s
manifestation in you will also manifest along with Him, all of God treasures,
which reside in Him;
·
This is
now the “I IN YOU”; Christ, and all that He has and is, becomes automatically
assimilated in us by revelation. In
other words His reality becomes our reality.
The revelation of the Son of God in us becomes assimilation, and
assimilation becomes reality, and with Him comes our assimilation of all of
God’s inheritance that resides within Him..
This is the Christian walk!
Phil 2:12 ¶ Wherefore,
my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more
in my absence, work out (Katergazomai) your own salvation with fear and trembling.
13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his
good pleasure.
q
The Lord “works in” you by His grace. To put forth His energy, therefore to be effective
at His work. Only the effectual
working of the Lord allows us to katergazomai
q Every time we obey His rhema word we
have “worked out.” This is the word katergazomai –
accomplish and complete. Working
according to grace.
q When we work out without receiving the rhema word we fall away from grace. This is the law. God’s faith and power are not
present. We cannot katergazomai.
q Dead works are done apart from the rhema
word of God. Hebrews 6:1
q Good works are done by the rhema word.
Mat 5:16
Luke
1:37 For with God nothing shall be
impossible.
Rom
10:6 But the righteousness which is of
faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into
heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:)
7 Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that
is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.)
8 But what saith it? The word is nigh thee,
even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we
preach;
q Every time the Lord works in,
it carries His measure of faith and power which. This is grace.
John 17:8 For I have given unto them the( Rhema)
words which thou gavest me(Perfect tense); and they
have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they
have believed that thou didst send me.
John 10:25 Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye
believed not: the works that I do in my Father’s name, they bear witness of me.
q
Every work of God is translated into a rhema
word. This allows us to be able to
identify what the Lord desires from us.
The works of God also reveal the Person of Christ. John 17:8 & John 10:25
Col 2:6 As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye
in him:
q In the same manner & content that you
have received Christ, conduct your life in that revelation.
7Rooted and built up in him, and
stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with
thanksgiving.
q
Rooted –
perfect participle
q
Built
Up- Present middle: Continuous building
up of one thing on top of another. The
result of being rooted.
q
Established
- Present middle: Continuous act of making yourself strong in the Lord so that
there is not chance to be deceived or to backslide.
q
The
actions are all are own. Middle
tense.
q
Glory
Eph 3:21 Unto him be glory in the church by Christ
Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.
q
The church’s most important
job is to bring forth the glory of the Lord into all of the earth, and through
out all eternity.
q
Glory is the invisible God
becoming visible.
q The glory of
God is of supreme importance. Through
it, men are ushered into eternal salvation, physical healings take place,
people are set free from demonic oppression, spiritual gifts are displayed, and
revival of cities and nations that ultimately change civilization are started
and carried out.
q
Civilization’s most
essential requirement, and its most desperate need, is to be capable of
beholding an invisible God, who desires to make Himself plainly evident,
through Jesus Christ in His glory.
q
The key to all of
humanity’s needs, past, present, and future, lie locked in the Person of
Christ. To the proportion that the
invisible Christ becomes visible to mankind by His glory, is to the exact
proportion that all of mankind’s needs will be met and answered forever.
q . The church of Jesus Christ is GOD’S ONLY UNIVERSAL
INSTRUMENT, which can make Him visible by the fullness of His glory.
Eph1:12 That we (the church) should be to the praise of his glory, who
first trusted in Christ.
q Aside from His
glory as seen in creation, God has made for Himself no other avenue that will
allow Him to become visible in a real, personal and intimate way to people.
The Praise of His
Glory
Eph1:12 That we (the church) should be to the praise of his glory, who
first trusted in Christ. {
John
12:32 And I, if I be lifted up from the
earth, will draw all men unto me.
q
God’s
glory manifested through the church becomes the object of the world’s praise to
God. The more glory, the more
praise. The more glory, the more that
Jesus Christ will be lifted up, and draw all men unto Him.
Abounding Into
Us
Ephesians
1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us (Accusative voice)with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ:
q The manifestations of these
blessings occur in the heavenly places or where the glory or presence of God
dwells. This is why effective worship
in our churches is so vital. This is
why spending time in God’s presence is so vital.
Eph 1:7 In whom we have redemption through his
blood, the forgiveness of sins,( according to the riches of his grace;
8 Wherein he hath abounded toward us ( INTO US) in all wisdom and
prudence;)
· The church is viewed as a receptacle into which all of
the blessings, the presence of God, and God’s inheritance, through Christ is
funneled into, and manifested by.
What does it mean to abound?:
· He has excelled towards us; He has been affluent, rich,
or dealt in excellence towards us. He has made to abound to or He has conferred
to us this thing superabundantly.
q
This is God’s mode of
dealing with His saints at all times.
The
abundance of blessings comes within the limitations of wisdom & prudence.
q
Wisdom
then, is performing all things in accordance to the will, dispositions,
arrangements, and timing of God.
q The superabundance that comes into our
life is limited in proportion to doing all things in conformity to God’s will,
and carrying them out step by step in His direction and His timing. This is
what it means “toward
us in all wisdom and prudence;”)
Eph 1:9 Having made known unto us the
mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath
purposed in himself:
q The revelation of Christ is manifested
in the riches of His grace & the revelation of Christ manifests the riches
of God.
q As we walk in wisdom and prudence we cause the abundance of these
riches to come forth, which reside within the proportion of Christ.
q Revelation; riches; obedience unlocks the door to the riches which
furthermore manifest the Person of Christ.
q Herein lies the whole activity of the
church.
v
Obedience,
riches, revelation participation, building up, the work of the ministry, more
revelation more riches and so forth. This is the unending cycle of the building
up of the church.
Gathering
Together In One
· Secondly, the revelation of Christ is defined as The Christ that would fill all and in all. The revelation of