Life of Christ Part 3

He was put on the cross at 9am, died spiritually at noon, and died physically at 3pm. There was darkness over the land. It was not an eclipse, because they do not last for 3 hours.

He made 7 statements from the cross.

The first statement He made was “Father forgive them for they know not what they do”.

The 2nd statement He made to one of the thieves hung on the cross beside Him when He said “Today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43.)

The 3d statement was when He was dying and turned the care of His mother over to John when He said “Woman, behold your son. Behold your mother”. (John19:25-27).

The 4th statement was “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”(Deity cannot contact with sin) Matt.27:46, Mark15:34. Just before He died physically, the darkness departed.

The 5th statement was “I thirst”.

The 6th statement was “It is finished”(John19:30)

The 7thstatement made from the cross was “Father, into thy hands I dismiss my spirit”.

In the 4th statement, He called His Father (God) because at this point He is judged as sin. To call Him God is the cry of a sinner. He was considered not His Father then as He spoke as a sinner.

In the 7th statement on the cross He again addresses Him as Father. In the beginning, He calls Him Father and then later My God. God cannot fellowship with sin. In the last statement from the cross He again calls Him Father, the darkness goes away and the light comes back.

Let’s look at how it was during the time of the Crucifixion. OT saints went to Abraham’s bosom – Paradise, when they died. Unbelievers went to hell, place of torment. Did you ever wonder when people died why those in hell could see those in Paradise? They could see each other. Why? There was a gulf (chasm) between them. How did the rich man in hell see Lazarus in Paradise?

Isn’t Abraham’s Paradise the same as heaven? No. In the OT people were saved, but they weren’t born again.

What separates their dispensation from ours? The answer is the HS. We are all saved by faith and not by animal sacrifices. Abraham was saved by faith and so was David. People could not go to heaven yet. They were sent to a holding place and preserved. No one had ever been born again yet and no one had been resurrected yet. Jesus was the first.

The Bible says in Ephesians 4:8 that “Jesus led captivity captive and gave gifts unto man.” When He led captivity He took them from Abraham’s bosom or Paradise and took them to heaven with Him.

Remember, we are in the dispensation of the HS. He comes to live in me. In the OT the HS had not come yet to live in people yet.

To further explain, do you remember the Ark of the Covenant? There was a certain way to transport the Ark. It had rings on the sides and there were long poles that fit into the rings. This is the way the Ark was supposed to be transported.

In the OT, we have the occasion where the Ark was being moved on a cart pulled by oxen. Now God specified that it be moved with the staves, rings, and poles, but for some reason it was not.

As the Ark was being transported, the Ark started to turn over on the cart. A man named Uzzah tried to steady it and when he touched it, he was killed instantly. Why did he get killed? He was only trying to protect the Ark.

You could not approach God’s presence in the OT. To do so would be to die unless you were the High Priest. The High Priest could only go in once a year. Even then precautions had to be taken or the High Priest wouldn’t live. Uzzah touched the presence of God Himself .The Ark was where the Shekinah glory of the Lord dwelt. People couldn’t come near, and that is why Uzzah died. People have to understand that God is so Holy, that you cannot come into His presence and live to tell it. The bible tells us about falling down as if dead in the presence of God.

We have the HS living in us now and as such we have God’s Spirit inside of us. We do not have to worry about touching His presence and dying because we have Jesus’ blood upon us and we are born again of God’s Spirit. Because of that, we are part of God. Uzzah didn’t have that. They were servants, but we are called sons.

Back then they died waiting for the Promise, but we have the fulfillment of the Promise. When we die, we go into heaven and into His presence. During OT times, the Spirit would come upon people and then leave. He would come and go.

The time was coming when God said, “I will be in them, walk in them, and talk in them.” So believers died and went to Paradise while unbelievers went to hell.

There was another place that existed and still does called Tartarus where fallen angels are bound. They were placed there at the time of the Flood. (2 Peter 2:4,5) tells us what happened to them.

“For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved to judgment; And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;”

When Christ died, He went to all three places. He went to hell to suffer for you and I, to Tartarus and preached to the spirits (fallen angels) there, and He went to Paradise and brought the believers with Him. We know that the spirits he preached to were the fallen angels because when it talks about men in the bible, it always says “spirits of men”.

Let’s read a couple of verses now. I want to show you something.

Matthew 5:25,26 “Agree with thine adversary quickly while you are in the way with him, lest at any time the adversary deliver you to the judge and the judge deliver you to the officer and you be cast into prison.”

Who is the adversary? Satan. The judge? God the Father. Who is the officer? Demon host. They are the ones who took Him off the cross and cast Him into prison.

Verse 26 says, “Thou will not come out of prison until you have paid the uttermost farthing.” Christ went to hell, to prison and paid the uttermost farthing and came out of prison. JC picked up the tab at the cross and paid the tip in hell. It is God’s grace to us. We can’t even pay the tip. It’s free to you and me.

As we said, the reason believers could not go to the Father yet was because they were not indwelled by the HS. The HS has always been here, but only on a limited basis before Jesus came. He had to come and go away to send the HS back to live in me.

There was another time when someone else received the HS before Pentecost. It was when Jesus breathed upon and said, “Receive ye the Holy Spirit” to certain ones.

Before all of this happened the HS would come at times and then leave. Many times in the Word it says the hand of the Lord came upon this one or that one. That means that the Holy Spirit came upon them. After that, he would then leave. David said, “take not your HS from me,” because it could actually happen.

Jesus led “captivity captive”, those who were in Paradise whom He took to heaven. There were a few who didn’t go to heaven right away. By the time they got to ground level, they picked up their old bodies and went into Jerusalem. The Bible says they were seen many days.

When He went to hell, hell was called several things: hades, sheol, hell. Is this the lake of fire? No, this is only the waiting place for the lake of fire. The lake of fire is opened up after the Millennium occurs. They are only waiting in hell now and the lake of fire will be worse.

In 2 Peter 2:4 it says, “God cast the angels that sinned into hell (Tartarus is the word used here- a different word) to be reserved in chains until judgment.”

1 Peter 3:19 is another reference to the rebellious angels who sinned. It says, “by which He also went and preached unto the spirits in prison, which sometimes were disobedient.” We know it is them because it does not say spirits of men. Whenever the Bible is talking about men it says, “spirits of men, spirits of just men, or spirits of unjust men.”

When it says in verse 19, “He preached” unto them. What does that mean? What kind of message would He preach? The word for “preach” here is “proclaim or proclamation”. He proclaimed something. Back in time somewhere when satan rebelled he took one-third of the angels with him. We don’t know what Jesus said to them, but maybe one day we will know.

The question always comes up, “If the angels fell who rebelled against God and are in chains in Tartarus who are the demons? Where did they come from? Let’s go to Genesis 1:1. “In the beginning God created the heavens & the earth.

1:2- “and the earth was without form & void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters”. Christians usually lump these 2 verses together, meaning that He created the earth and immediately put Adam & Eve on it.

That would mean that the earth is only 6000 years old and Adam & Eve were the only people to have lived here. The bible never substantiates that. It is possible that millions or even billions of years occurred between verse 1 & verse 2 making the earth much older than 6000 years.

God did not create anything without form, much less the earth. God never creates anything that way or void. Lucifer was not created ugly. He became that way. In some translations the word says it (the earth) became darkness & void. That would mean that it somehow became that way between verse 1 & 2. It was at some time in the past inhabited.

When God created Adam, He said to go out and be fruitful (multiply) and replenish the earth (replenish = do it again).

Similar to the word redeem which means “to buy back”. There was something here before. Apparently something was here before.

There had been bones of all sorts of animals found all over the earth. Somewhere back in time something cataclysmic happened. The poles of the earth shifted. Beneath the ice in the Antarctic are the remains of what used to be a tropical area. It used to be lush with grass and all kinds of things, long before Adam & Eve were ever put here.

Far beyond 6,000 years ago, there was a race of people here. Did they look like us? No one knows. Many people spend their lives on this one subject, nitpicking it to death. Apparently there was a race of people of some sort.

When Lucifer tried to ascend the throne of heaven and was cast out, we find the following words in Isaiah 14:12, “how art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning. How art thou cut down to the ground which did weaken the nations.”

When Adam & Eve were here, Lucifer had already become satan. He was cast out of heaven long before Adam & Eve were here. When he was cast out of heaven he did “weaken the nations”.

According to the Word, there were nations here on the earth. Demons, possibly disembodied spirits of a race of people that were here long before Adam. They’ve been here millions of years roaming the earth seeking to have a body. Why? They used to have one.

Angels would never seek a body. They’ve never had one. Demons continue to seek out bodies to dwell in once again. Without a body to dwell in, they can’t influence the world as much as they would like to.

They are referred to in Jude 6 as those angels bound in Tartarus. There are other names given for the entire region of the lower compartments. Ezekiel 31:14,16,18 calls it “the nether parts”.

In Psalm 63:9, Isaiah 44:23, Ephesians 4:9, it is called “the lower parts”.

Matthew 12:40 calls it “heart of the earth”.

The Cross Psalm 22:1-5 “They cried unto you and you answered. They trusted you and you delivered them.”

In verse 6, more prophecy is fulfilled by the meaning of the word, “worm”. “But I am a worm, and no man, a reproach of man and despised of the people.” The word “worm” here is interesting. There are 7 Hebrew words for worm. There are 7 types in the Word. The HS chose the rarest type and called Himself a worm. This worm is called “towla”. It is rare and under protection by the king.

These worms would be crushed and their blood was used to dye the garments of royalty so rich was the scarlet color of their blood. When someone would see the red garments, it was known that they were the garments of royalty. Because our sins crushed Him, out came His blood and dyed our garments. We now wear the robes of royalty.

Isaiah 61:10 says, “He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness.”

Psalm 22:18 was fulfilled in Matthew 27:45 “they part My garments and cast lots upon My vesture.”

Jesus hung on the cross, naked. They saw He had a robe w/o seams and did not want to split it, so they gambled for it fulfilling prophecy. Psalm 22 deals mainly with His sin bearing.

Isaiah 53:4,5 deals with sickness. The KJV does a poor translation of verse 4. The KJV says, “surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows.” The Hebrew actually says the following: “surely He hath borne (carried) our (sicknesses) and carried our (pains).” Many fundamentalists think it only means spiritual sickness or pains.

In Matthew 8:16,17 the HS tells us here what He means. You know that the HS knew people would say that, so look at what He says. Don’t take some professor’s word for it. Look at what the HS says.

Verse 16 says, “He healed all that were sick.”

Verse 17 says, “that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet saying, ‘Himself took our infirmities and bear our sicknesses’”.

Isaiah 53 says, “By His stripes we are healed” (before the cross).

1 Peter 2:24 says, “we were healed” (after the cross). It all happened at the cross.

If this is true, and I believe it is, then why don’t we all get healed and cleaned up with no physical sickness at all when we accept Jesus at that moment?

The only ritual we have today with two elements is Communion. Baptism takes only water.

Anointing with oil has only oil.

Communion has two elements, which are bread and wine. We partake of one and then the other. The wine is for the blood. The bread is the body. The blood is a type of salvation, while bread is a type of healing. Jesus said partake of the bread and then He said partake of the wine.

Just as you accept Him as your Savior, you need to have a separate act of faith when you accept Him as your Healer.

You put your faith in the atoning work of His blood.

You need to put your faith in the atoning work of His body.

You put your faith in what the blood did when you got saved. Now, go back and put your faith in what His body did for you (soundness of flesh).

His blood atoned for my sin. His body atoned for my body. If I can reject sin, I can reject sickness.

1 Corinthians 11:30 says, “for this cause, many are sick and weak among you and many sleep” (die) early. This is caused by not discerning the Lord’s body. Partaking of the bread and not discerning the significance of it causes many to be sick and die. That bread is a point of contact. It is important to remember both aspects of Communion.

Communion is the only ritual that commemorates the cross and the only one with two elements. It is salvation and it is physical healing.

Jesus prophesied His betrayal, His time in hell and Resurrection, the coming of the HS, the Tribulation, and the Millennium. OT dispensation ended at Pentecost and the Church Age began. We are now at the tail end of the Church Age. When the Church Age ends, Tribulation begins, then the Millennium, and finally, the Judgment.

When Jesus told His disciples He was coming back, He was not talking about a rapture. They wouldn’t know what He was talking about. When He left the disciples were watching Him ascend into the sky and angels who were standing by walked up and said to them, “He is coming back the same way (standing on the Mt. of Olives). Pentecost was the transition from OT dispensation to the new dispensation.

People always say when He comes back in like manner that it is the Rapture of the Church. It is not. When He comes back, the Church will already be gone.

When Jesus sat down on the Father’s right hand, everyone who is a believer is subject to be under attack. If we never had an attack, the weapons of our warfare would rust.

Paul wrote about the dispensation of the mystery. It was a mystery to all those in the OT. The word “mystery” is the Gk word mysterion. It is the Gk word for the philosophy and teaching of ancient Gk fraternities.

This teaching was known only to the members of it. For example, the wisemen were a fraternity. They were astronomers who saw stories in the stars.

Aquarius is a type of the HS. Virgo is a type of the Virgin. The Bible says, “Does not nature itself teach you?” In the stars there are pictures. Aquarius in the sky has a bow and arrow. The arrow is pointed directly toward the heart of Scorpio.

The “magi” were wise men astounding in mathematics. No one knew what they taught except the members as they were a fraternity. Daniel was a member of that group. He knew mysteries that no one knew. Even today there are groups who teach things you can’t know unless you are a member.

We are born in the Church Age. We are in that fraternity. “Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven.” Matthew 13:11.

Ephesians 3:2-6
2 If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward:
3 How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words,
4 Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ)
5 Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit;
6 That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel:

This was Paul’s responsibility (verse 2) Paul knew what the mystery was (verse 3). By reading it you will understand (verse 4). In other times, it was not made known (verse 5). The gentiles would be in that body and know (verse 6).

Romans 16:25,26 “the revelation of the mystery kept secret since the world began now is made known to all nations for the obedience of faith” (there is no mystery to the Word of God for us). In the OT there are types and shadows, but they didn’t know about the Church Age.

The mystery doctrine includes: 1) individual priesthood of each believer

2) indwelling of the HS

3)infilling of the HS.

Tongues and interpretation are two gifts added during the Church Age. Out of the nine gifts, 7 operated in the OT.

1 Corinthians 13:8-10 says, “charity never faileth, but whether there be prophesies they shall fail. Whether there be tongues, they shall cease. But whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.”
9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.

10 But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.

If you read that verse very carefully you will see that there are two Greek words in these verses to watch closely. The word for tongues is an instantaneous stop, but the word for prophecy and knowledge vanish away. It is like a mist that just dissipates away; a vapor that disappears. It gets thinner until it disappears.

Many have gotten of on this, but what the Greek literally says is this. When the perfect has come, tongues will already have ceased. Prophecy and knowledge will have vanished away. In other words they say that something perfect has come and tongues have ceased.

That is partially true, but what it is referring to is the 2nd advent of Christ, 7 years after the rapture of the church.

This is what that scripture is saying. When that which is perfect has come, tongues will already have ceased. When do the tongues cease? During the rapture of the church.

Prophecy and knowledge vanish away. They were here before the church age, during the church age, and will be here until Jesus comes.

Tongues and interpretation are part of the mystery. When the church leaves they will end abruptly. The prophecy and knowledge will continue to vanish away (like a mist).

We have been studying the prophets ministry using psalm 22. Now let’s look at the high priests ministry. Psalm 23 is the ministry of reconciliation, a new dispensation. Never in the OT was there an individual priesthood. The individual priesthood is for the time period we are in.

Let’s look at restoration in Luke 10:30-35. Jesus told a story of a man who went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. It gives us a picture of a coming dispensation.

This man fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, wounded him, and left him half dead. And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him. And he went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil & wine, and set him on his beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said to him, take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again I will repay thee.

Now the meaning is this. The man who fell among thorns is us (in Adam).

The thieves represent Satan and his demons. The thieves wounded him and departed leaving the man half dead.

God told Adam in the Garden of Eden in the day you eat of it, you will surely die.

He did not totally die that day. He died spiritually that day.

He died physically later on. That day he in essence died half way. He was only half dead at that time.

So who come along next in the account? The man was half dead lying there and a priest came along. When the priest saw him, he passed by on the other side. Likewise a Levite does the same thing.

The priest and the Levite are both types of the Law. A priest and a Levite came by the wounded man. They are a type of the Law.

Can the Law help fallen mankind? No, they had to pass by on the other side. The Law can only condemn us. When we look at the Law, it only magnifies our sin. It can only let us know of our sin.

Galatians tells us that we are not to turn back to the Law. It tries to do the job from the outside.

What Jesus gave us works from the inside out. The Law came by and couldn’t help. Whenever you look at the Law, all you see is what a lousy sinner you are.

But, along came the Samaritan (Jesus), who picked the man up, put him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn. Notice what else he did.

He poured oil and wine into his wounds. Both are types of the HS. Oil is a type of the new birth and wine is a type of the baptism of the HS.

Jesus, in parable form spoke of 2 acts of the HS. Which came first? Oil comes first because salvation comes before the infilling of the HS. He poured in oil then the wine.

Jesus even prophesied that you must not put new wine in old wine skins. That wine is a type of the baptism of the HS.

Remember the ten virgins. Five of them could not get in because they did not have oil, the oil being a type of the new birth. They weren’t born again. All you need to get into heaven is to receive Jesus as Savior. He wants us to have the oil (new birth), but He wants to give us the wine, too (the HS).

You do not put the new wine into old wine skins. The skins will burst and you’ll lose the new wine. What’s He saying? You don’t pour wine into an unbeliever. You don’t give the baptism of the HS to an unbeliever. He put new wine into new wine skins.

In the Gk there are 2 words for the word “new”. One is brand new and the other one is renew. Both words are used here.

It says put brand new wine into renewed wine skins. But, how did they renew wine skins? They renew them by rubbing them with oil to soften them up.

This is what He did for me. I was an old bag. He applied the oil to me, softened me up, made me pliable in His hands and just poured in the new wine.

Many times the disciples would ask people, “Have you been filled with the HS since you believed?” In other words, you have the oil, did you receive the wine yet? They would say no, we didn’t know there was such a thing. So they would receive the new wine and start prophesying. The good Samaritan story does not end here though.

The good Samaritan put the man on his own beast and brought him to an inn, took care of him, and left him with the innkeeper. Who is the innkeeper and where is the inn?

Well, we are in the world and that is the inn. The innkeeper is satan as satan is the god of this world. Note that the good Samaritan paid off the innkeeper.

Jesus paid the price for us. When He left he paid the innkeeper 2 pence and said take care of him and whatever you spend I’ll come back and repay.

It is interesting to note that in the OT the cost of a soul or the cost of a slave is 2 pennies. Here, Jesus paid that price and said that ought to hold you until I come back.

Luke 10:35 “when I come again I will repay thee.” How long will He be gone? I think He told us in this parable. Follow me on this.

He gave him 2 pence (like 2 pennies). In other places in the Word, we are told that a penny is one day’s wage. So, He gave him 2 day’s wages.

In the Word of God we are told that one day is as 1,000 years and 1,000 years is as one day. I think He said I will be gone for 2,000 years and when I come back I’ll pay the tab he has run up.

“He shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”