Doctrine of the indwelling Christ part 2. Christ in you is motivation. John 14:20; Eph 1:23; Judges 6:16/The doctrine of the indwelling of Jesus Christ: John 14:20 is the first prophecy of the indwelling of Jesus Christ. \
In the OT Christ appeared as a man. He appeared in the pillar of cloud and fire and in the burning bush. He also indwelt sacred buildings.
/1. But during the Church-age Jesus Christ is invisible and for the first time in history He indwells the body of every born again believer. \
/2. The indwelling of Jesus Christ is a part of the mystery doctrine of the Church and He is to give you the confidence that you will attain to the riches of God’s glory, Col 1:25-29. \
Col 1:25 Of this church I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit, that I might fully carry out the preaching of the word of God,
Col 1:26 that is, the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations; but has now been manifested [revealed] to His saints,
Col 1:27to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
/What is God’s will? That the saints know the mystery of the Church, which is Christ in you, the confidence of a life blessed by God.\
That blessing includes both spiritual and material blessing. It is your assets that you have through your union with Christ as a fellow heir.
/ “hope of glory” – confident expectation of secondary assets in the future. While Christ is in the believer the potential still exists.\
It is the job of the PT to emphasize this again and again.
Col 1:28And we proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, that we may present every man complete [mature] in Christ.
/ “admonishing” – noutheteo [noutheteo] = admonish, warn, or to exhort. The warning is to communicate what is at stake concerning the indwelling Christ.\
Col 1:29And for this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me.
The riches which God has given to you have a source. The source is God’s glory. You have both the riches and the Source of the riches indwelling you.
Christ indwells us for the purpose of motivation.
/Knowing He indwells us gives us a very strong and powerful motivation to keep advancing through the Christian way of life on to adulthood and through all categories of undeserved suffering. \
/“Christ in you, the hope of glory” further speaks of capacity. As believers, we must have capacity before blessings, even logistical blessings; otherwise we can’t handle the blessings.\
If you understand the doctrine of the indwelling of Christ, you will have the capacity to enjoy your logistical grace blessings without being destroyed from lack of capacity.
/This doctrine of the indwelling of Christ is vital to you for security, a guarantee, motivation, and capacity.\
Eph 1:22 And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church,
Eph 1:23 which is His body, the fulness of Him who fills all in all.
There is something very special about the body of Christ. It is to represent Him in this world. In a cynical world full of doubt, fear, ignorance, pride and evil God has given to the body of Christ the very indwelling Christ so that each member may know that Christ is waiting to shine through you to the world so that the world may behold Him.
Sadly the Church is often bickering so much within itself and is full of division that the clarity and purity of the Gospel, the good news, is muzzled.
/John 17:23 I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, that the world may know that Thou didst send Me, and didst love them, even as Thou didst love Me. \
/3. Jesus Christ as the Shekinah Glory.\
/a. “Shekinah” is derived from the Hebrew noun SHAKAN, meaning to dwell. It refers to the fact that Jesus Christ indwelt certain sacred buildings in Israel.\
Shekinah was coined by the rabbis who wrote the Babylonian Targum during the Babylonian captivity. They developed the technical word to speak of God as dwelling among His people.
It was used to express the invisible presence of God with Israel.
There are three categories of manifestations of Jesus Christ during the dispensation of Israel. We have theophanies that appeared to Old Testament believers. During the First Advent, Jesus Christ became flesh and “tabernacled among us,” according to Jn 1:14, for thirty-three years. Christophanies were the manifestations of Jesus Christ in resurrection body before His ascension.
However our subject, the Shekinah Glory, relates only to theophanies.
/b. There are two categories of theophanies as appearances of Jesus Christ in the Old Testament.\
/Animate: (a) As the angel of the Lord (Jehovah). (b) As a man in human form, He visited Abraham and wrestled with Jacob.\
/Inanimate. (a) The cloud and glory of the Lord, Ex 40:34-38. (b) A pillar of cloud at the entrance to the Tabernacle (a different kind of cloud), Ex 33:9. (c) A pillar of fire. (d) The burning bush.\
Every manifestation of Christ in the OT brought comfort and security. Abraham despaired not having an heir, Jacob despaired his brother, Moses despaired his congregation, Israel despaired the desert and their enemies, Moses despaired freeing Israel from under the yoke of Pharaoh.
I could also mention Gideon and Hagar. In every case Jesus Christ came to strengthen, encourage, exalt, comfort, and give orders as commander and chief.
Judg 6:11 Then the angel of the Lord came and sat under the oak that was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite as his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the wine press in order to save it from the Midianites.
Judg 6:12 And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, "The Lord is with you, O valiant warrior."
“Hello captain, hello hero!”
Judg 6:13Then Gideon said to him, "O my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, 'Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?' But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian."
Judg 6:14And the Lord looked at him and said, "Go in this your strength and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian. Have I not sent you?"
Judg 6:15And he said to Him, "O Lord, how shall I deliver Israel? Behold, my family is the least in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father's house."
/Lack of confidence in victory in life comes directly from not knowing who Christ is and that He is always in you and with you.\
Judg 6:16But the Lord said to him, "Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat Midian as one man."
The army of Midian numbered almost 200,000.
/1 John 4:4 You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. \
Judg 6:17So Gideon said to Him, "If now I have found favor in Thy sight, then show me a sign that it is Thou who speakest with me.
Now he has an idea that this person might be more than a person and so he asks for evidence. Gideon should not be put down for this. When you were saved through faith in Christ, in that moment did you know that Jesus Christ indwelt your body? And when you found out, did you fully understand why He was in you and what benefit you derived from this?
We also ask for evidence. We ask for evidence every time we listen to doctrine. The believer with PVTD thirsts for all answers from the word of God.
Judg 6:18Please do not depart from here, until I come back to Thee, and bring out my offering and lay it before Thee." And He said, "I will remain until you return."
Judg 6:19Then Gideon went in and prepared a kid and unleavened bread from an ephah of flour; he put the meat in a basket and the broth in a pot, and brought them out to him under the oak, and presented them.
Judg 6:20And the angel of God said to him, "Take the meat and the unleavened bread and lay them on this rock, and pour out the broth." And he did so.
Judg 6:21Then the angel of the Lord put out the end of the staff that was in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened bread; and fire sprang up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened bread. Then the angel of the Lord vanished from his sight.
The supernatural event proves that this is the Lord, but the significance of the act is more important.
/He is the Rock, and His cross is the source of all victory. \
Judg 6:22When Gideon saw that he was the angel of the Lord, he said, "Alas, O Lord God! For now I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face."
Even after communicating to Gideon that He is the Lord, that the cross is a future certainty, and that He will be with Gideon always, Gideon doubts his future.
However, he is not rebuked.
Judg 6:23And the Lord said to him, "Peace to you, do not fear; you shall not die."
/Jesus Christ in you is always a source of comfort; encouragement, motivation, and confidence in future glory. He will never leave you.\
Judg 6:24Then Gideon built an altar there to the Lord and named it The Lord is Peace. To this day it is still in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.
It is interesting in our study of the indwelling Shekinah Glory to see how Gideon and an army of 300 defeated 185,000.
/Rom 15:4 or whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope [confidence in the future]. \
Judg 7:16 And he divided the 300 men into three companies, and he put trumpets and empty pitchers into the hands of all of them, with torches inside the pitchers.
Judg 7:17And he said to them, "Look at me, and do likewise. And behold, when I come to the outskirts of the camp, do as I do.
Judg 7:18When I and all who are with me blow the trumpet, then you also blow the trumpets all around the camp, and say, 'For the Lord and for Gideon.'"
Judg 7:19So Gideon and the hundred men who were with him came to the outskirts of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, when they had just posted the watch; and they blew the trumpets and smashed the pitchers that were in their hands.
Judg 7:20 When the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers, they held the torches in their left hands and the trumpets in their right hands for blowing, and cried, "A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!"
Judg 7:21And each stood in his place around the camp; and all the army ran, crying out as they fled.
/The victory was not in the sword, but in the trumpet blast and the flood of light that spilled into the camp. Trumpet – word; Light – Shekinah Glory; pitcher – body of man.\ |