22.1 The Pattern Son
© 2017 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
In Lesson 19.1 Fulfilling Tabernacles, I stated that Jesus through His ministry bore all. And then Jesus again bears all through us – and we also. This carrying is not something we could ever do, only Jesus alone. Yet Jesus cannot carry all again except through us His Body, and that means our full agreement, faith, and absolute commitment.
The proposal is for us to share heart with God, a proposal to which God Himself is absolutely committed. Thus our fulfillment of the pattern Son is not our walking in Jesus’ steps, but Jesus walking in ours. All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18).
The Pattern of Jesus
Let’s define what we mean by “the Pattern Son.”
Jesus’ life followed a very specific pattern. (1) He was born in weakness. (2) He lived quietly for the first thirty years of His life in the context of his family and their work in Nazareth. We see Him in His childhood only at the age of twelve, the age of confirmation. There God shows us that His knowledge was within the Boy, a Boy who continues under the care of his family.
At age 30, Jesus stepped forth into His ministry. That ministry began with (3) being baptized in the Jordan by John the Baptist, where God spoke, “This is My Son.” And then (4) forty days in the wilderness, refusing the temptations of the evil one.
The Pattern of Jesus (cont.)
For 3½ years, (5) Jesus walked in the first level of a manifest Son ministry. During this time, His focus was on two very specific things. The largest and primary passion filling the Heart of Jesus was to prepare a people, His Jerusalem, for the Day of Pentecost. Secondly, Jesus prepared Himself for the Day of Passover and the Walk of the Atonement.
When the time was come, (6) Jesus submitted to those who hated Him and, placing one foot in front of the other entirely inside the Love of His Father, was pushed to (7) the cross. Yet it was Jesus Himself who chose the moment of His passing, after which He walked in hades, but on the third day, (8) He rose from the dead in a resurrected physical body, the source of the Body of Christ.
In Like Manner
By His resurrection, declared to be the Son of God with power, Jesus entered the second level of a manifest Son ministry. After which (9) He spent forty days showing Himself to many. Then ten days before the Day of His Heart, when He would come again, but this time in and as His Church, His beloved people, now His very own, that (10) Jesus ascended into the sky in the sight of the disciples.
“This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11). Most read this line as Jesus’ reversing course; we read it as the opposite, that the revelation of Jesus Christ will follow the same pattern that had been witnessed by the disciples.
Inside this Same Jesus
In other words, Jesus’ “coming” (this is the word, echomai, which does mean “come,” not parousia, which means “present now”), is by the same pattern by which the disciples saw Him walk from the Jordan to the ascension. Now, we are inside of this same Jesus, then and now, and He is inside of us. And we recognize that the burning passion of His heart, then and now, is not the Walk of the Atonement, as necessary as that was, but rather, the people prepared for Pentecost, that is, His Beloved, His Jerusalem.
Here is the Biblical text for “the Pattern Son.” By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us, and we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren (1 John 3:16).
And We Also
“And we also” is a really big deal inside of God’s intentions, so much so that He has not set this fulfillment as a random, maybe-maybe, but rather as His determination now in the end of the age of human folly, to demonstrate Christ faithful and true a second time through us.
For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps (1 Peter 2:21). Again, we now know that our “following His steps” means three things. First, it does mean the general example of Christ, that we walk in peace through difficulty. But second, it means following His steps as the Pattern Son, God through us, and third, we know it now to be Jesus Himself walking our steps.
Significant Differences
Yet there are significant differences between Jesus then and Jesus now, huge differences. For one, Jesus then was a solitary Man; Jesus now fills His entire Body across the earth. For another, Jesus then had not yet put the old creation to death upon the cross, nor won redemption, nor been given all authority over heaven/earth by the Father; Jesus now, living in us, possesses that authority, and has already brought all that is old to its end and birthed all that is new inside Himself in us.
Those are BIG differences, but not the biggest. The biggest difference is that then, Jesus had set His heart on the Day of Pentecost, the day He would be planted into 2000 years, two days of darkness in the earth, into His unbelieving Church.
Eyes on One Thing
But now, the Jesus in us is looking with all the ferocity of His passion, at the dawning of the third day, and the fulfillment of all the JOY of His Heart. Jesus still has His eyes and focus, drive and purpose SET without shadow of wavering upon ONE thing – His Bride, His Jerusalem, now walking this earth in her hour of greatest need.
And here is a fourth difference between then and now. For 3½ years, Jesus focused His ministry then on the fulfillment of the first two feasts, Passover and Pentecost. Yet through every step of His ministry, those two feasts were ahead of Him. Today, Jesus in us, begins the first level of our manifest son ministry INSIDE the present fulfillment of the Feast of Tabernacles.
The Main Focus
The entirety of the first level of our ministry, for 3½ years (I suppose, if not literally, then symbolically) will be inside the fulfillment of Tabernacles. Yet Jesus’ baptism by John, for the fulfillment of all righteousness, does signify for us the fulfillment of the first Day of Tabernacles in the life of the Church.
Now, let’s have the picture clear. That clarity is SO important, because every teaching I ever heard on “the Pattern Son,” missed entirely the main point. The action of Jesus in taking the entirety of the old creation into death upon the cross and in birthing the new creation inside Himself in the resurrection came AFTER the main focus of His ministry was complete. “I have finished the work (John 17).”
There Is a Woman
In the exact same way, Jesus in us will, in the final Day of Tabernacles, demonstrate that the old has already been replaced by the new – in outward visible demonstration to all by the resurrection of our physical bodies. But that is NOT where the focus and drive of Jesus’ Heart is now pressed. What is, is, and that fulfillment will BE.
But there is a Woman, clothed with the sun, pregnant with child, and fleeing from the face of the dragon. This Woman is Jesus’ Heart, a passion far beyond all the fires of all the stars in all the galaxies. And it is His ministry to her through us that is the very biggest deal to Jesus, not zapping demons or eliminating death.
My Own Calling
I know what my calling is, regardless of all my inability. Then the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that THEY should nourish her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days (Revelation 12:6). I am one of “they,” and my ministry, the pounding Heart of Jesus granted to me, is to provide the word of Christ revealed to His woman, His New Jerusalem. That provision is INSIDE of Tabernacles being fulfilled, the dwelling together in Christ.
Now, in the next lesson, we will look at the commitment of our lives to this sending of Christ through us, and in the following lesson, the split in the Church happening by “Elijah now come.” Here, we want to continue with authority.
All Authority
All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. This authority of Jesus in and through us goes in two directions, sometimes in the same determination, and sometimes through differing determinations. The primary direction is towards the release of all that “Christ in you” means to the Woman of God. And the second direction is towards all the pretending and all the cries of those who, whether men or angels, imagine themselves to be still devoted to an old creation that does not actually exist. Actually, the authority and the exercise of that authority will look very much the same, but in one direction, it is to draw in and in the other direction, it is to cast off.
I and the Children
Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice iniquity’ (Matthew 7:22-23).
“I never knew you.” These are not words I throw around, nor words that I direct towards anyone except my own fear of God. But Christ knows only Himself, and He inside of me. “I and the children whom You have given Me.”
But more on that later. Here, we are not looking at the recipients of these awful words, but at the One who speaks them, the Christ of God, now revealed through us.
Go Out Quickly
And although there must be a casting off in the seasons of God, and for a season, yet the focus of Jesus is on the gathering IN.
‘Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in here the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind.’ – ‘Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled’ (Luke 14:21-23). Jesus is not speaking of Passover or Pentecost, but of Tabernacles.
That in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ… (Ephesians 1:10). And thus we are speaking of the authority of Christ, this Christ who is our only life, to reveal Himself to His own ones.
Rule in the Midst
You are My Son, Today I have begotten You. Ask of Me, and I will give You the peoples for Your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for Your possession (Psalm 2:7-8). – The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool.” The Lord shall send the rod of Your strength out of Zion. Rule in the midst of Your enemies! Your people shall be willing in the day of Your power… (Psalm 110:1-3).
Psalm 110 is the most quoted passage from the Old Testament by the writers of the New. In these words, and the remainder of the Psalm, are the foundations of all the authority of Christ released now through us. We walk in this authority, absolutely and without question.
Your People Willing
We no longer think in terms of “God help me,” in any shape or shadow, for “Your people willing,” MEANS that we have accepted and embraced, with all finality, God’s answer to us – “I AM!” And never does it enter our mind that God is not walking as One with us or that our foot could ever step anywhere except entirely inside the love of Father.
And thus we see ourselves in all that we are, in everything we go through, in every circumstance of our lives, as the passion of Jesus Himself poured out through us for the sake of His body, which IS the Church (Colossians 1:24). And we walk in this authority with all conviction.
Authority
For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself, and has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man (John 5:26-27). – As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I set forth My soul for the sheep. And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd. Therefore My Father loves Me, because I set forth My soul that I may take it again. No one takes it from Me, but I set it forth of Myself. I have authority to set forth My soul, and I have authority to take it again. This command I have received from My Father (John 10:15-18 - modified).
Our Authority
These words in John 5 and 10 are explicitly the same authority of this same Jesus now in us.
You and I have the authority, Jesus as us, to lay down our lives, to set forth our souls, for the sake of all who belong to Jesus, and thus, who belong to us. I have the authority of the Son of Man, to send forth this word to you, and by this word, to connect you utterly together with Jesus and Jesus utterly together with you.
And we together have the authority of God, not just to fling open the doors of His Feast, and not just to bring the crippled and the blind rushing through those doors, but to BE the nourishment of LIFE towards all who enter Tabernacles with us. We do not “stand” in Jesus’ place; Jesus stands in us.
Greater Works
I am authorized to give you life, to give you to eat of the Tree of Life. And in that authority, I say to you, “Live.”
Just before Jesus said, “Know that I am in the Father and you in Me and I in you,” just before Jesus spoke of He and the Father coming to us and making their dwelling place in us, Jesus said this. Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it (John 14:12-14). Consider carefully everything Jesus says inside these verses.
Into Appearance
You see, I am most struck, after writing this lesson, by the ENORMOUS differences between Jesus in His former ministry and Jesus in His ministry now through us. Then He healed those who got sick again and raised from the dead those who would die again. Then He did not change the appearance of creation, but only its source.
Through all of His ministry, Jesus had not yet brought the old creation to an end nor had He spoken the new into existence.
Greater works than these is referring directly to our authority now to bring the substance of the new INTO APPEARANCE. And that APPEARANCE is not the zap and the dazzle; that appearance is a fully successful Christian Church walking this earth, the revelation of Jesus Christ.