Foundation Stones #1 – The Original Pattern

Well, what about prayer? I do not doubt that they did a little praying, but I doubt it was much. And I’m sure it wasn’t the kind of praying that we pray today. Oh, Gene, haven’t you ever heard the apostles prayer? Our Father, which art in heaven hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread….and… it’s repeated all over the world and has been in Christendom for what 1600-1700 years from now. That is the biggest waste of time imaginable. Don’t you believe in the apostles prayer? No, neither do the apostles.

It astonishes me that we would be praying that prayer today. They came up to Him and said, “Lord, we are impressed with Your relationship to the Father. Will You teach us?” And He said, “Sure, you pray this prayer.” What kind of a God do we have? Do you think at the end of 2,000 years He hasn’t answered that prayer yet? Listen to that prayer. Our Father in another realm, hallowed be Your name. Get that kingdom out of that realm and bring it to this realm. Amen. We’re living in common with the Lord Jesus Christ. We’ve left everything. Just give us something to eat. We don’t have anything but the shoes on our feet and the clothes on our body. Just make sure we have something to eat. As Your will is being accomplished in our Lord, accomplished in the same way Your will inside us. God, we’re sinners. Forgive us. If You will forgive us, we will forgive for we have been forgiven.

Your kingdom come. Your kingdom. Get out of that realm into this realm. Your will be done. As it’s being done in our Lord, so it be done in us. For Yours is the kingdom. And the rest isn’t even in the Bible. We invented the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen. Oh, listen brothers. 12 men prayed that, and on the day of the resurrection and on the day of Pentecost, that prayer was fulfilled and answered, it’s a good prayer, but it’s been answered. His kingdom got out of that realm and came into this realm. The Father provided for them their food, and on the day of Pentecost, when they got stuck with 3,000 people who didn’t live in Jerusalem, they knew exactly how to take care of them because they had been cared for the same way in Galilee. And we see the pattern continuing.

I am telling you this that the reason they came to Him and asked Him to teach them to pray was because they were overwhelmed with the uniqueness of His praying as over against the Pharisees, the Sadducees and the Scribes and the Baptists and the Methodists and Christians in general because of what they saw in His life in the way of spiritual fellowship. I’m going to say it again. I’m after everything. I’m here to destroy in order to rebuild. I want to impress you with a new relationship that’s as old as eternity. My Lord did not sit around with His nose in a book. He did not sit around praying the kind of prayers we pray. He did not sit around speaking in tongues.

Well, Gene, He did witness. Yes, I agree. He witnessed. He witnessed the Father. That’s right. He was the witness, the only physical witness to the existence of a Father that we have. Well, Gene, those 12 apostles, they really witnessed, didn’t they? They prayed, didn’t they? They studied the Bible and preached the Bible, didn’t they? Let’s go through that. I’m ahead of myself, but first of all, no, they did not preach the Bible. They preached what all preachers should preach. They preached the Lord Jesus Christ. And somebody wrote it down and it became our gospels. But you and I need to remember that it wasn’t the gospels that we worship. It’s not some deification of the Bible, but it is Jesus Christ who is the center of those four books. Those are the messages of apostles. And the apostles’ message was Christ. Did they witness? You bet your life they witnessed just like the Lord Jesus Christ went around Galilee witnessing, but they only witnessed after Pentecost, not before.

I want you to be overwhelmed with the fact that they spent four years learning Him, and they did not serve. And I want to tell you something else. By all records known, by all traditions established, the apostles spent virtually their entire ministry in Jerusalem and within 40 miles of it. Only in their old age did they begin to leave. Their witness was incredibly established mostly in Judea and Galilee.

I want to come back. That was thrown in as a parentheses. What did the Lord Jesus Christ have that He was about to give 20 people? This is what He had. Please hear me. He had an unbroken habit, an unbroken line of experience, established in eternity, bought into time, He had the fellowship with the Father, and I am really awed, I am awed sisters and brothers as to what  He talked about, this relationship, what He said. I am also awed by the fact that we don’t ever dare talk about this. It is so…that is almost frightening to speak of. But if He talks about it, whatever He says must be the thing utmost in His mind.

We’re looking at chapter five of John. John 5 is the first clear time He ever spoke of, clearly of, His relationship to the Father. It is mindboggling what He says. Do you know what He says? This is what He is about to bring to 20 disciples. He says, “I see the Father.” I see the Father. I’m going to ask you all to just repeat that. I want you to be impressed. This is incredible. I see the Father. And I have to ask myself, did He see Him physically? No. We’re going to take a poll because none of us know. Did He see Him with His physical eyes? I think maybe at times He may have physically seen Him. I don’t know. But I can, I’m absolutely sure and I think all theologians would agree that when He speaks of seeing Him, He speaks of the eyes of His spirit literally beholding that which is invisible.

He had the capacity with His spirit to see the invisible. And He saw His Father and His Father was always before His face. He saw the Father. Now, Gene Edwards, are you standing there pretending to be a rational man? All right. I’m 53 years old. I’m about to make the boldest statement I’ve ever made in my life, and it’s on tape. Are you about to turn around and tell me that Jesus Christ, now 30 years old, all this you’ve been talking about behind Him, is about to say to 20 people, I am passing on to you this that they will see the Father.

Are you about to tell us to read the Bible? And I’m believe in reading the Bible, but I’m trying to make room for something else. Do I really believe that He’s saying to them, “You will see the Father as I see Him each day.” Is He going to pass this on to another generation? All right, I want you to say it real clearly. Everybody who believes it’s the answer is yes, say yes. Those of you who believe no, say no. Boy, I heard out there in video land, thousands of people say no. Well, now wait a minute. That’s a bold statement. Land it. Put it on the ground. Make it practical. Put it in my life, would you? Put it in yours. Can you do it? Can you do that? If you can do that, come tell me how.

How can you and I see the Father? All right, but I want you to know I have never preached a gospel I could not make practical. And if you’re going to agree with me that they can see the Father as He saw the Father, you got to tell me exactly how. And I mean when I say you got to show me, you got to show me practically. You can’t give me this semi practical word. 1,2,3, show me how. I’m not from Missouri, but I’ll move there for the, for the sake of the point. Surely. Okay. I’m not going to ask you to do that. Well, He did.

All right. Secondly, He said He heard the Father.  He saw Him and He heard Him. These sound like the ravings of a madman, do they not? Be, be honest with me. Is this, does this not sound like the ravings of a madman? Well, you wouldn’t say that. Well, that’s the way mad people, religious nuts talk of them. I saw God and He told me to go out and kill that guy. And you know, they go out and do it. That’s schizoids. They lock people like that up. If you ever have take a test, if you ever get in trouble and they give you a little test and they’re trying to figure out about you, you go find some questions down there. Do you hear voices? Do you hear people telling you things who are not visible? You know, this is really, really tough.