Foundation Stones #1 – The Original Pattern

Recently, a very well-known Christian minister was being interviewed by a nationwide television program. Well, it was an hour before the meeting and the MC, the master ceremonies came in and sat down with him and he said, “Now, Reverend, we want to give you an opportunity to talk about what you want to talk about. So, tell me the questions to ask you.” He said, “Okay, well, ask me this question and ask me this question and ask me this. What is God telling you these days?” Well, the minister, the MC went and everybody around, what? They thought they had someone nutty. What is God telling you these days? Well, to a Christian, you know, that means something totally different from the world. But I want you to know I have the very definite feeling that it, it meant even more to your Lord, to my Lord.

He said He saw Him and He said He heard Him. And an old,old man said, “That which we have seen and heard, declare we unto you, that you may have fellowship with us, and our fellowship is with the Father, whom none of us has seen, and with His Son Jesus Christ, who rose from the grave and ascended into the heavens, 60 years ago. Oh, when He wrote that, that was true. 60 years the Lord had not been seen on the earth. And yet, here was this old man saying, “I’m declaring what I’ve seen and I’m declaring what I heard that you might have fellowship with Me and my fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. ” Hallelujah.” Praise the Lord.

Where the Lord makes a statement that generally is referred to as the resurrection. I don’t believe that this is chapter five of John. This is not chapter 20 of John. He is talking to the Pharisees and He says, “But you cannot hear His voice. But the hour comes, and now is, when there will be those who will hear and you cannot hear because you do not. Now, how’s the rest of that verse go? You do not memorize verses of the Bible. You do not because you haven’t memorized scripture. You don’t know the word well enough. You do not because you do not have, no, no, not here. I mean, that’s a, that’s a verse that’s true, but, but here he said, I read it to you. You do not have the word abiding in you. Don’t tell me that that’s Bible verses. Those guys could quote more Bible than any of us in this room could.

You do not have the word abiding in you. He was speaking of the speaking going on inside of Him that abided in Him, abode, had a hold in Him. The hour comes, and now is, when there will be those who are dead who will hear. That is not the resurrection. I mean that’s not the resurrection from the dead when the Lord raises all the dead people in the world.

That is His resurrection, when He will put His life in you, just as the Father’s life was put in Him in Mary’s womb. You are dead inside. But the hour comes, and now is, when you will hear the voice of the Son of God. Do you realize what He’s saying? He’s saying it’s going to keep on happening, that which was in eternity in the Godhead, that which was in eternity in the Godhead, and that which came into Bethlehem and into Nazareth in Me, the Father speaking in Me, the word abiding in Me, I, the Son of God, now shall speaking will come to a new generation and you will hear. You will hear and you will see.

All right. Three things. The seeing that I see, watch it. The hearing that I hear, watch it and hear it. Come live with Me for three and a half years. And watch Me hear, and watch Me see. Just watch and I will speak. The hour comes and now is when I will speak and raise you from the dead and My word will abide in you as my Father’s word abides in Me. Praise the Lord. Is it better that you go to the seminary and have the Jerusalem experience or is it better that you have the Nazareth experience? Really, you shouldn’t have the Jerusalem experience, and the Nazareth experience is not for you, but I would really recommend the Galilean experience. I’m gonna get a little ahead of myself, but I want y’all to know what this God who lived in eternity and a pattern established in Him and this God who lived in time and the pattern established in Him. I want you to watch what He done did. I want you to watch what He did. He gathered 20 people around Him and said, “Live with me.” I am dumbfounded. Here are two things that dumbfound me.

One is that the Lord did not start passing out tracts when He was 21 years old. That just shocks me. He didn’t mind wasting His youth. I want to tell you again, the best years for you to serve the Lord are between the ages of 21 and 30. Cuz you got spit,…, vim, and vigor. You’re great for passing out tracts on the street and buttonholing people and talking to them about the Lord. That’s the Baptist experience. That’s the evangelism experience. But your Lord didn’t do this. He went to Nazareth and grew in the fellowship of His Father.

This was the church. If you wanted to find the church on the earth, you had to go to Nazareth and to Nazareth alone and watch the Son fellowship with the Father and the Spirit within His being. That’s all the church there was on this earth. If you wanted to watch the Christian life, then you had to go to a carpenter shop and watch a man 20, 25, 28, 29, stand there and work and behold His Father and live in His Father’s presence and hear His Father’s voice and respond to His Father’s voice and feel His Father’s love and love His Father back and obey Him in perfect concert with everything He saw and everything He heard. That was the only Christian life. And the only worker there was a worker in preparation who was doing nothing. He was not serving. He was a young Man knowing. He was a young Man experiencing. He was a young Man getting to know His God. And He was a worker in preparation in His 20s. He was not a worker. And he was letting a world go to hell that He might learn His Father and fellowship with His Father and see His Father and hear His Father and feel His Father and love His Father, and be loved by His Father. And that’s how He spent His 20s. And there was Christian life. There was the church. And there was the worker in preparation. Praise the Lord. That is wonderful. And that is revolutionary. Say amen. Just say amen. This is exciting.

Well, now then see Him. He’s going to get us some men around Him and He’s going to say to them, “Forget all that. I got to lay that aside. We’re going to get under a grove and I’m going to teach you the Bible. You guys, you got to get out here and you got to save people and heal people and you got to work hard and you got to serve and so forth and so forth and so forth. You check the Gospel records, and you will discover, that in the three and a half years that those 20 people lived with Him, and specifically the 12 who went out in pairs and actually you know there was probably more than 20. It was around 70 by toward the end. Those 12 spent two weeks serving God during three and a half years. That’s all.

One week the 12 went out, came back. They went out in six pairs. The demons are they were just so excited. And the Lord was excited that they were excited. Then later He sent out 70. That’s 35 groups, 35 pairs. 12 of those had already been out before. He sends them out and they go out to the villages, and they come back. The demons obey us. They’re just mind boggled.

Two weeks out of three and a half years. What do they do the rest of the time, Gene? They watched the Father fellowship with the Son. That’s what they did. And they watched the Son fellowship with the Father. They lived with God. They lived in the presence of God for three- and one-half years. And they followed Him and they heard Him and they watched Him. That’s what they did.

Now, if you wanted to see the church of Jesus Christ and the Christian life and a worker in preparation during the Lord’s age between 21 and 30, you had to go to Nazareth. If you could get in a time machine and go back to the first century and if you wanted to see the church, if you wanted to see the Christian life and if you wanted to see a worker during the time the Lord was 30 through 33 and a half, are you following me? Am I being clear? If you went back and you wanted to see the Christian life, you wanted to see the church and you wanted to see the worker between the time the Lord was 30 and 33 and a half years old or 34, then you had to go not to Nazareth. He left there, but you had to go to Galilee. And what would you see? 20 men, 70 men memorizing verses of scripture, people speaking in tongues, going to Bible school.