Resurrection From the Dead, Part 16
Reprint June 16, 2023
A couple weeks ago, I quoted a statement that I’ve heard on
numerous occasions during the past weeks.
One of the oft-used phrases I’ve heard from both a dentist and a medical
doctor in the past few weeks is, “Your health begins in your mouth.” I got to thinking about that and realized
that there’s more truth in that statement than meets the eye. No statement could be more applied to the
confession that comes out of our mouths regarding our deliverance from death,
the curse of death, and the power of the Resurrection as it applies to our
daily living.
Have
you ever noticed how Jesus only commanded the keeping of two statutes, customs
or ordinances for us as believers? Both
of them incorporate the end of death and the cancellation of our appointment
with death.
The
first of the two commands comes in the observance of the Table of the
Lord.
I Corinthians 11:23-26 (NASB): For I received from the Lord that which I also
delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed
took bread; and when He had
given thanks, He broke it and said,
“This is My body, which is for you; do
this in remembrance of Me.” In
the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, “This cup is the
new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in
remembrance of Me.” For as
often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death
until He comes.
The
second of the two commandments came after Jesus was crucified and had
risen from the dead. This second of the
two commandments had the force of the Throne of God backing it in terms of its
demonstrative authority and power. Both
Matthew and Mark record this command:
Matthew 28:18-20: And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All
power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Ghost: Teaching them to
observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you
alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
Mark 16:15-16: And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to
every creature. He that
believeth (pisteuo:
exercises faith) and is baptized (baptizo:
covered over, fully whelmed by water or fluid) shall be saved (sozo:
saved, delivered, healed, protected, made to prosper, made whole and complete); but he that believeth not shall be damned (katakrino: judged, condemned and sentenced).
Ever
wonder what baptism is all about? Have
you ever considered why Jesus would make such a command in the first place?
Then
consider what He said when He was preaching to Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews
and a Pharisee.
John 3:5-8: Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born
of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
That which is born of the
flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye
must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and
thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell
whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the
Spirit.
Remember
what happened when the centurion pierced Jesus’ side while He was hanging on
the Cross? Water and blood came forth
from Him. Jesus’ last words before He
died were, “It is finished!”
And
what was finished? Death.
What
was finished? A new birth was taking
place: a bride was being birthed for the Lord Jesus Christ. But this birth was unlike any in
history. In the realm of the flesh, a
birth takes place in the midst of water
and blood. Babies come forth out of the
water or amniotic fluid that keeps them alive while they are still in the womb,
and blood accompanies the birthing process.
Jesus,
however, made it clear that this new birth was NOT of water — not in the normal
sense — nor of blood, even though His blood was shed in the process. A supernatural transformation — a
regeneration — was taking place. This
new birth was taking place in that realm which has authority and power over the
flesh and the soul: the spirit. A
dimensional change was occurring.
Hence,
Jesus said to Nicodemus, “That which is born of the flesh is
flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.“
Because
death only affects our flesh, because death has power over unredeemed flesh, a
new kind of birth had to take place — one that had never before occurred in
history.
Think
back to when Adam was created. He wasn’t
born in the normal sense of the
word. He was formed, molded and created
by the Hand of God, but not until God breathed into him the breath of His
Spirit did Adam become a living, breathing, speaking being. Adam was born, or rather began his existence,
of and by the Spirit of God. Adam’s very
breath was the Spirit of God. He existed
by the Spirit.
The
Blessing operated in and through him by the Spirit. He ruled and had dominion over the earth (and
all that was therein) by the Spirit.
(See Psalm 115:16)
When
Adam missed the mark (hamartia)
— the prize of God’s high calling in him — and ate of the Tree of the Knowledge
of Good and Evil, he ingested HIV: the human immunodeficiency virus, which was
inherent in the fruit of that tree. As
we all know, there is no cure for HIV.
Death is the permanent result.
And that death is genetically passed on to every generation which
follows.
Let’s
get back to the Table of the Lord.
Why
did Jesus command us to eat and drink of Him — and do it often? The apostle Paul was very clear in his
explanation.
For as often as you eat this bread and
drink the cup, you proclaim (kataggelo:
announce and demonstrate, promulgate) the Lord’s death until He comes.
Now
you’re beginning to get the picture.
Jesus’ most earnest desire is that we promulgate, that we announce to the world the fact that He kept
our appointment with death. We no longer
have to suffer death, disease, sickness, infirmity, poverty, etc.
But
there’s more.
It
is important that we not only show the world our deliverance from death: we
must also demonstrate to Satan, to principalities, to rulers of this world’s
darkness, that we’ve been set free from the curse of death, that we’ve been
freed from Satan’s dominion, that we’ve been restored the authority, the power
and the dominion originally given to Adam in the Garden of Eden.
Water
baptism does just that. This ordinance —
this statute —has enormous spiritual significance. This isn’t for the world’s sake, even though
it is part of an outward show, a demonstration of a spiritual regeneration that
has taken place.
This
is a “Hands Off!” declaration to Satan.
This is the posting of a legal decree which clearly states we are no
longer members of that class of human beings subject to the Law of Sin and
Death.
The
old being which was subject to death and had the “knowledge virus” in our genes
has been put to death. The appointment with death has been kept. The person who then comes up out of the water
is raised from the dead by the Spirit of God. This newly-born individual is born again —
both of water AND of the Spirit!
Once
again we have Paul’s description to the Romans: “all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized
into His death.“
Yessir! The appointment with death has been kept.
And
again Paul says, “as Christ was raised from the dead
through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.”
The
“new us” is no longer subject to the Law of Sin and Death.
Romans 8:2: For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from
the law of sin and death.
The
“new us” is free from death, sickness, disease, infirmity, weakness, poverty,
need, etc. Now we’re free to demonstrate
Jesus!
Jesus
established a pattern for all believers when He was baptized in the River
Jordan by John and a remarkable thing took place. We need to look at this event in context.
Matthew 3:13-17: Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John,
to be baptized of him. But
John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to
me? And Jesus answering said
unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all
righteousness. Then he suffered him.
And Jesus, when he was baptized, went
up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and
he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: And lo
a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
Up
to this time, Jesus had been an ordinary man.
Yes, He was the Son of God, and Yes, He was destined to bring
deliverance from the curse, but He had not yet been empowered to do so by the
Father.
As
far as the world was concerned, Jesus was just another man — a gifted man, One
whose knowledge of the Scripture at age 12 had astounded the most learned among
the priests, the Levites, the Pharisees, the Sadducees and scholars — but still
seen as an ordinary man.
Nothing
exhibited in His life thus far could be quantified as “divine” or
“supernatural.” For His ministry to
begin, something extraordinary had to take place. There had to be a transition from “ordinary”
to “naturally supernatural and supernaturally natural.
Notice
what happened when Jesus was baptized.
1. He
transferred His citizenship to the Kingdom of Heaven.
2. The Holy
Spirit appeared on the scene, settling as a dove on Jesus before all who
witnessed this event
3. All Heaven
was put on notice that Jesus was now THE
SON OF GOD.
4. The Father
spoke out of Heaven and stated emphatically and unequivocally, “This is My
Beloved Son!”
5. As the SON OF
GOD, He was now vested with the authority and power of The Father.
6. The “man”
Jesus had become the Messiah, the Christ, The “Anointed One.”
7. Baptism demonstrated
before principalities and powers, before the rulers of the darkness of this
world, before Satan himself that the “old Jesus” was dead.
8. A “New Man”
had come forth out of the grave, resurrected by the power of God, transformed
into a trans-dimensional Being with the ability to function both in this
natural realm and in the realm of the Spirit.
Are
you seeing it? God the Father vested
Himself in and made clear to all that Jesus WAS His Son, His appointed
and commissioned family member to bring redemption from the curse of death, and
from the curse of the Law of Sin and Death.
The
fact that Satan saw this event take place or was notified of it shook him and
his kingdom to the core.
What’s
the first thing that Satan did when Jesus — after fasting for 40 days — was at
his weakest, physically and emotionally? Right.
He questioned Jesus repeatedly as to His status as THE Son of God,
attempting to trick Him into yielding to the desires of His flesh.
Were
Jesus to have yielded to even one of these temptations, He would have forfeited
His Sonship status and condemned the human race to perpetuity in slavery and
bondage to Satan and the curse.
Let’s wrap this up
next week.
In case you are
missing out on real fellowship in an environment of Ekklesia, our Sunday
worship gatherings are available by conference call – usually at about 10:45AM
Pacific. That conference number is (712) 770-4160, and the access code is 308640#. We are now making these
gatherings available by Skype. If you
wish to participate by video on Skype, my Skype ID is regner.capener. If you miss the live voice call, you can dial
(712) 770-4169, enter the same access code and listen in
later. The video call, of course, is not
recorded – not yet, anyway.
Blessings
on you!
Regner A. Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES
RIVER WORSHIP CENTER
Temple, Texas 76504
Email Contact: CapenerMinistries@protonmail.com
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