Seeing the Heavens Opened: The Meaning of Being Born Again in Christ (DCLC 1984)

He has now started out on an old dusty road out of Nazareth, and He’s on His way out to the hot, steamy desert. His heart and soul filled, His spirit pulsating. The moment, the grand moment has finally arrived. I said many things to you a moment ago, but essentially, what I’ve just told you is that He’s filled with the Holy Spirit. He is filled with all of God. But interestingly enough, He has always been filled with the Holy Spirit. Let us see the Son in the Godhead. And let us ask this simple question. When He is in the Godhead, when He is in this great limitless sea of God, is God in Him? Yes or no? Of course. And does God own Him?

Well, when He leaves Nazareth that day, He is not fully in that same state. His entire internal being is saturated, covered, filled, and running over with that God. But He is not immersed in that God. Today, He will be what He was in eternity past, in the bosom of God with God in Him, through Him, and on Him. Did you get all that? At this moment, there is once more great excitement in heavenly places. In fact, that day the door swings very, very open, and a very proud Father watches His Son reach maturity and begin the greatest of all adventures. And they are fellowshipping in the glory of the fact that He is full and full to maturity as much as He ever was in eternity and that He is about to be saturated without as well as within.

So, He moves toward a great multitude of people out in a hot desert, and this incredible man, called Jesus the Nazarene, looks over the crowd, and He sees more than I have time tonight to tell you about. But in that vast crowd He sees all those chosen, all those marked off, all those called, all those predestined before the foundation of the ages. He can look inside those which are His.

Well, let me ask you a question. How many of them do you think there are? There are 10,000 of them out there in that desert, and they’re all listening to a hot-eyed, blazing evangelist. How many of them do you think have been predestined? 453. I’m sorry. How many? One. Anybody else? We’re all speculating. I have a notion an awful lot, because they’re listening to John the Baptist and they are repenting right, and they are repenting left, and they’re being immersed in water. They’re going to go back home all over Galilee and all over Judea, and when John is dead, they’re going to be following Him (Christ).

Well, you say, “Oh, but when He got crucified…” when He got crucified, there were only 120 faithful left. I agree with that, but it’s kind of pitiful, isn’t it? Why do you want to be so negative? Why won’t you stop there? Why do you want to preach that kind of sermon? All the multitudes followed Him. All the more, the hour came, and push came to shove, they all ran off and left Him. So would you have, under the same circumstances, and I’d have led the field running in a situation like that. I want you all to know that somebody put a hot poker to my foot. You’re going to meet the world’s quickest converted atheist right there. If that’s what they want, that’s what they’ll get. I don’t like pain, but if I get well, I hope I’ll come back and renounce my renunciation.

Listen, does it never occur to you that the story doesn’t end there and that what the Lord was doing, He said very clearly what He was doing. He was preparing them for the hour when they would go into Galilee and Judea. And brothers and sisters, when Paul persecuted the church in Jerusalem, and they poured out of there, they evangelized, and they were heard, and had time for His words and considered them. Of course, none of those people followed Him. Do you not know that at this moment, and for the next four years, of all these people we hear about, not one of them is saved? Not one of them is saved.

Peter said, “Lord, save me.” And the Lord saved him. Somebody else said, “Lord, I believe.” And he got saved. No, he didn’t. You’ll fight me. It is true. There’s only one Christian on the earth right now, folks. After the resurrection… but those people living right then and there, the Lord knew they were going to be saved. They were as good as saved, but they were not born from above. There was no spirit free to indwell each one of them until after the resurrection. No wonder they ran. They weren’t Christian.

Be a little more sympathetic with all those lost people, will you? People like John, Peter, and James. And the only person that I know of that was saved during the ministry of the Lord on this earth was the thief. That’s the only one. That’s the first and the subject. Oh, wow. What a trophy. If you ever get down, think about the world’s first Christian. Isn’t that wonderful? That should encourage you. The first person who ever got saved was that thief.

Yeah, I don’t know. The theologian wondered for hundreds of years where to put John. I don’t know. And I’m so far off the subject that I forget tomorrow morning, John 4. We’ll get that tomorrow night. This is important. You’ve got to see Him going toward that crowd and seeing Him see them. And He recognizes those who will be saved, and He speaks to them as converted. He speaks to them as saved. And if you’re not careful, you will not understand your Lord because He speaks to them in the future as well as through the future with the present. He treats them as converted, as saved, and often even as indwelt by His Spirit.

He teaches and speaks to them in that manner. He really has no other choice because He won’t be around physically when they are converted. Therefore, He leaps four years forward and speaks to them often in that way. And I think, to illustrate how dusty we are and how poorly we have grasped this point, why are we still saying the Lord’s Prayer? Father, which is in heaven, shall be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive those who have a debt against us. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. And in the part that somebody added, for thine is the kingdom, power, the glory forever and forever. Amen.

Why are you praying that prayer? That was supposed to be prayed until it got answered. And it got answered on the day the Lord rose from the grave. The prayer has been answered. Why worry yourself out about all those things? It’s been done. It’s been answered. He gave them something to pray until it took place. And it took place, and there’s no need to pray anymore. He is going to speak to them in terms of things having happened that will soon happen. And He also teaches them to prepare for what’s coming. And I want you to know something. That prayer was just for a bunch of would-be apostles. And I’ll tell you something else. The Sermon on the Mount was for some would-be apostles. And I think He delivered it to them to put them under the pile; to teach them a little humility.

How many of the twelve apostles lived up to the Sermon on the Mount? I don’t mean to go off topic, but you need to begin to get and establish a new view of what is taking place. Your Lord is on His way to a wilderness to visit His cousin, and He can see the unseen, and He is in fellowship with the Father. The Father is standing there with heaven’s door thrown wide open, and He is rejoicing in great pleasure at His arrival at this glorious hour. He is about on earth what he was in all eternity and heavenly places.