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

Now the Lord comes, and John sees this, and the Lord is fellowshipping with His Father, and He’s looking out over the crowd to see which ones have been marked off, and He recognizes them because He was there in eternity past with His Father when His Father chose them. He is…we can’t get into this…but He is actually looking over those portions of that which will one day be His bride. And He is going to meet His first cousin who is there to introduce Him to His wife.

And the Lord Jesus is in fellowship with His Father. I’m finally going to meet the bride. I’m not going to be a bachelor forever. And He comes to the back of the scene, and He sees those, and He recognizes them, and He rejoices because He is saturated. And John the Baptist is up there thundering and roaring, and he stops cold because he sees a flicker of light back there that he had not anticipated seeing. He stops, and everybody is astonished that he has stopped in mid-sentence, and John is trying to find that flicker of light. Then the crowd opens a little; he sees it again and stares, and the crowd begins to turn around and look too, and as it does, it naturally opens, and John gets a good, clear sight.

Maybe John is indwelled by the Holy Spirit too, because he has heard his Father. He has heard the Father say, “When you see someone…you will see someone…and you will know that He is the Lamb of God who will take away the sins of the world, and He is the Groom come for His bride.” And John stops, and he sees the crowd open. He has no idea who it will be. And lo and behold, it’s His cousin. And he roared, “Behold the Lamb of God.” And the Lord Jesus Christ cuts right through the crowd, and He goes right up to Him. And He says, “John, baptize Me.” And John looks at this one, and he sees Him. He has been waiting nearly 30 years to see this One—at least 10 years. I am sure he has been waiting to see this One. He knows who He is. He has had a word from the heavenly realm. And praise the Lord, I’m not worthy to reach down and buckle Your sandals, and You would have me…Would You have me baptize You? I need to be baptized by You.

The Lord stops, and He remembers that He has lived in perfect harmony with His Father in all eternity, so that He was totally filled as the Son. He was totally indwelt in the Godhead, within God in His bosom. He was indwelt by God, and He was covered by God, and He was filled through and through with God, and He had been in perfect concert with His Father. Now He’s halfway home. He has been fully and totally saturated internally with the same God. He’s got a little further to go, and He looks at John and says, “John, we’re just this far from fulfilling all righteousness.”  That which has been in heaven, the final brushstroke. John, come and let us fulfill the last element of righteousness.

John plunges the Lord Jesus Christ in the water, and when He comes up, the Father plunges Him into His own being. And that which has been totally and utterly filled with God right out to the skin is now also immersed in God. He has been immersed in the Father, and He has returned to a status totally equal to His past experience. The only difference is He’s a man. He’s a man. He’s a man. He had been God. He had been the Son of God. He had been the very bosom of God. Now the same thing has happened in time and space to a man. And the Father knows He has returned to His original status. It’s happened over, and His Son is as He had been. And through that door, the Father in joy cries out to the angels and to the heavens and to the earth and to John and to His Son. Look, that’s My Son. That’s My Son in whom I am well pleased. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Eat your heart out, Pentecostals. Praise the Lord.

What God the Father did that day beside the Jordan River, God the Son did to His bride on the day of Pentecost. I wish I had the eyes to see fully that the Lord has totally indwelt my spirit, and that I am immersed in Him. Unfortunately, there’s still the veil of the flesh that I’m going to lay off one of these days, and I’m going to see as I’ve been seen, and I’m going to know as I’ve been known.

Well, the Lord Jesus leaves. Now, listen. I think I have laid nothing on you this week so far. Is that right? Have I asked you to do anything or be anything? I’ve been asking you to look at the Son, look at the Father. Look at the Father, look at the Son. I hope we can hold out. Isn’t this more fun than looking at all the responsibilities you’re supposed to fulfill as a Christian? Isn’t it? Isn’t this much more glorious? Do you think that it’s less transforming? Do you think this will change you less than if I were standing up here telling you 10,000 things you ought to do? Do you think that beholding the Son and beholding the Father is not a life-changing experience? I can tell you of nothing that will change you more than that which changed the Son, which is the Son’s greatest activity.

Oh, well, I trip over just a little of this. They begin questioning John about what he’s just said, and he says, “Well, I’m not the Messiah. You are sure dumb. I never thought that I was the Messiah. Just because a lot of people out here think the Messiah has come, we’ll be judged by that which is successful. I’m just a voice.” Well then, John, what are you? A friend? A friend? I have come, and the Lord is leaving now. And he says, I’m here to introduce the bride to the Groom. And the Lord Jesus is leaving there that day so full of His Father, so full of His Father and so saturated by His Father that which is God begins somewhere out here and goes all the way through unbroken and comes out on the other side. That’s God walking away there, rejoicing that He has seen the first evidence of His bride of the victory of the resurrection. He has seen, and He’s rejoicing with His Father, and His Father is well pleased with Him. He’s taken His first glimpse; He can see who will be His.

Well, then there’s this little fracas with the Pharisees with John the Baptist. If you get The Life of Christ in Stereo and read it, with John having a confrontation with religious people, later Jesus has a confrontation with the same people. A committee is sent out of Jerusalem to check out John. A committee is sent out of Jerusalem to check out Jesus.

Now, I will say this again later; as I read this, I get an awesome sense of… you know the term, “I’m a fatalist”? It’s an inadequate word because it sounds negative, but a fatalist is not necessarily a negative person. He’s just someone who’s taken what’s coming when it comes. And there’s an element of the fatalist in and on Jesus when they meet these people. It’s kind of like the Presbyterian. You know how strongly the Presbyterians believe in predestination. The story goes about the Presbyterian who was crossing the street, and he got hit by a truck. He got up and said, “Boy, I’m glad that one is over.” I have that feeling when John meets this committee of religious people; it’s this big interview, and they finally leave, and you have the sense of, “Boy, I’m glad that’s over.” It just has to be. It’s just there. It’s just kind of like a headache that doesn’t ever go away. You live with it. It’s just there. Now, that’s all I have to say about that. They talked to him a lot about who he was, and he told them that he was a friend of the Groom and they were very confused. If you’re not the prophet and you’re not the Messiah, and if you’re not the prophet and you’re not Elijah, who in the world are you? They had to have someplace to put him.

I want to give you a word of advice. It’s going to sound really strange. You could do the kingdom of God a great favor if you would not criticize heretics nor attack them. Would you please remember that we, the Christian faith, started out as a heresy? Do you understand that? Does that make any sense to you? If that confuses you, please raise your hand. You’re confused. Christians were heretics, branded as such by the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Genuine, bona fide heretics, and they suffered because the Christian people of their day, quote-unquote, really felt like the Christian faith of that day needed protecting. My land, let the Lord protect the Christian faith. There is only one step between you and criticizing heretics and you and killing heretics. There is only one reason you don’t kill heretics when you criticize them, and that is because the Constitution of the United States won’t let you. And that’s the only reason. Well, you may not believe that, brother. You don’t know our religious nature. Would you stop? Do you stop looking down on heretics and just let them go and just keep your eyes on the Lord and keep you good and clear and pure when somebody gets in on your case? And it’s bound to come. You’ve got to be fatalistic about it. It’s just going to happen.

Now, let us go to one of the most exciting things in the scripture. We’re going to look at some more fellowship. There’s a couple of guys down there talking to John real fast and looking back that way, and the Lord’s about to disappear, and they’re asking John some questions. They finally get the point that although they are completely committed to John and had anticipated following him to the last day of their lives, they realize that something’s going on over here. They break off their conversation with John, this legendary figure, and start running. They catch up with this person, and I think this was one of the most exciting moments Lord Jesus ever had. He has just been baptized. He does not have a follower on this earth, not one on this earth, and these two men run up to Him and say, “Uh, sir, uh, where do you live?”