20.1 To the Ends of the Earth
© 2017 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
In this lesson we want to position this transition of God Himself going forth as His Church into all creation, seeking and saving what is lost, inside of our study of the Covenant. Typically, it is entirely proper to begin any presentation of Covenant with the sacrifice of Jesus as the Altar of Burnt Offering, and that sacrifice is the basis of what I present in my teaching on “The Two Covenants,” found in Appendix B.
Because you and I live now only in the Holiest, turned around upon the Mercy Seat, our knowledge of the Covenant sees the same elements appearing differently to us. These elements of the Covenant from beginning to end are in no way different in their substance from one way of seeing to the other, yet in appearance they seem to be quite different.
The Entrances. Each one of the entrances into the Tabernacle defines our signature upon God at three different levels of commitment. Then, as we turn around upon the Mercy Seat, we sign our name for a fourth and final time; from now on Father and us are one Pperson together in all of our thinking.
But as we go forth with Father out from the Holiest, we pass through each of the three entrances that once appeared to us as barriers, yet now we know them as the very face of God to creation. In a sense, we could say that, as we walk with Father into His creation, each of these three, Veil, Door, and Gate become the moment when God reveals to all that His signature has already been written upon us.
Seven Passages. Thus we see that there are, in fact, seven such experiences in God from being born again through the Gate to the resurrection of our physical bodies, now back as the Gate itself. Each one of these is a revelation of signature by which the Covenant becomes what it is, that is, comes into full force.
Before placing this sixth passage, the Door, now as the face of God through His Church, God demonstrating that these millions of people are My appearance in creation, let’s look again at the material that illustrates each one of these seven “signings.” All three, Gate, Door, and Veil, along with the first covering of the entire Tabernacle itself, are the same cloth, colored with the same colors and designs.
Jesus as Word. That linen cloth, embroidered with scarlet and gold and, on Veil and ceiling only, the outline of cherubim, is Jesus as every Word God speaks, Jesus as the living Covenant. The Gate is Jesus as every Word that depicts Savior. The Door is Jesus as every Word that depicts a Life-giving Spirit – the words that I speak to you are Spirit and they are life. The Veil is Jesus as our very flesh; in fact, the Veil is the circumcision of Christ when we allow all thought of our “performance” of the Word God speaks to be cut away from us. God is now fully responsible for all that we are.
Turning Around. Jesus as the ceiling, the first covering in plain view, that is, Jesus as every Word God speaks now our only identity, begins as we step through the Door into the life of the Spirit. But it is only as we turn around upon the Mercy Seat that we now understand what that covering Word, a Word that generates all that we ARE, really is. For that reason, we can say that the ceiling of the Tabernacle, Jesus, the living Word, made visible now as us, is our fourth and final signature upon God.
From here on out it is God revealing His signature already upon us. Indeed it is first our knowledge of that reality of the Word made Flesh now placed entirely upon us, that allows us to step out now, utterly together as one Person with our Father, into the Holy Place, the very knowledge of God towards our brethren.
Taking Father upon Ourselves. But – what, then, does this fifth “signature” mean, our stepping with Father out through the Veil? It means that we, together with Jesus, take the flesh of all our Spirit-filled brethren upon ourselves. It means laying down our lives, setting forth our souls, for our brethren. This is the only way the Church can ever be what it is.
At first I thought that our passage, then, out through the Door, together with all who have embraced Christ, every Word God speaks, as their only life, to be the resurrection of our bodies. Then I realized that final experience, God’s final declaration upon us that we are, indeed, sons of God, His appearance inside creation forever, must be the Gate.
Positioning the Door. Let’s place the verse upon which the proof of God turns.
That they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me (John 17:21-23).
The proof of Christ is that the world BELIEVES and KNOWS that God sent Jesus as the Word made flesh.
Before the Resurrection. And God requires of Jesus, the Word He is always speaking, to prove Himself faithful and true ENTIRELY through faith, that is, before any transformation of outward appearance. This believing and knowing taking place in the world must happen before any transformation of our bodies, otherwise Jesus has failed in being the Word God speaks. In other words, we step forth with our Father through the Door as God’s Face to His creation in the confidence of utter CERTAINTY before our eyes see anything except by faith.
The Witness of Christ. From this view, we now see Jesus’ words in Acts 1 as speaking, not of any entrance into Christ, but rather of the witness of Christ beginning in the Holiest of All, inside of full union with Christ and proceeding out as the revelation of Father.
But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8).
Passing out through the Veil as one, now, with our Father, we are the witness of Christ, of the fulfillment of every word God speaks, to the Jerusalem of God, millions of Spirit-filled believers in heaven as much as upon the earth.
All Victory Now. “To the ends of the earth” is you and me as the witness of Christ as every Word God speaks in the resurrection of our bodies, swallowed up by life. He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son (Revelation 21:7). This is the Gate, God having already written our full inheritance upon us.
The Door, then, is the Church together, walking as if she already possesses all victory now. This witness of Christ is called by Jesus “to Judea and Samaria.” The final proof of the resurrection is the final end, of course, but this witness is the real proof of Jesus, a Church taking Him utterly at His Word, honoring Him as He IS without needing any outward sight nor giving heed to any human judgment.
Honoring Jesus. This victory that is the Door is the true honor of the Lord Jesus Christ, for we together as the Church have put Him entirely upon ourselves together through faith alone.
The world cannot know that Father sent Jesus until they see His Church as she is meant to be. And the Church of Jesus cannot be as she is meant to be until you and I see one another as Christ alone.
It is for this reason that one more of the “pro” words of the New Testament must fit into this portion of Covenant – pro-phecy, the calling forth of Christ in fulness through His Church now walking upon this earth.