Extravagant Act

Jesus was the one and only New Creation (God and man sharing the one being) on earth. Jesus came to give God to humanity as God and man, and took humanity on his life journey to give us to God as God and man. Jesus came as God, to do everything for mankind, to be born as us and for us, live and die as us and for us. Everything he did he made us part of it. He is in Heaven now, as us and for us, and now prays continually for us.

JESUS BAPTISM

We were also on that life journey with Jesus when he was baptised, for us and as us in water and in the Spirit. Matthew 3:14 And John tried to prevent Him, saying, “I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?” But Jesus answered and said to him, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.”(You have to let me be baptized because it is what God requires to be carried out for us) Then he allowed Him. (Jesus had to align humanity with God and become the ‘Yes’ of man to God – the One Baptism of water and the Spirit – a commitment to living the Kingdom of God) When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming upon Him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

His baptism with the Spirit was for the empowering of his life as a living witness on earth that he was one with God in Heaven. He then took us on his journey into the wilderness and became our victory over the devil. Jesus went to the cross and took humanity on that journey with him into death (2Corinthians 5:14, Colossians 3:3). Then he rose from the dead and took humanity on that journey too. He went to the Throne room and presented himself on our behalf to the Father. From there his purpose was to give all of mankind the Holy Spirit, and complete humanity’s ‘journey with Jesus’ which would bring humanity as the New Creation into being on the earth.

This corporate New Creation came into being at Pentecost – as momentous an Act as the First Creation – God and man as One – God with us.

It is not us getting our act together, but us getting his Act – together.

HUMANITY HAS BECOME A NEW CREATION IN CHRIST

Colossians 1:16 All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is prior all things, and in Him all things have their existence and are held together. 22 He has done this through the death on the cross of his own human body, and now as a result Christ has brought you into the very presence of God… (Christ in you, the hope of glory)

PENTECOST - BAPTIZED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT – The power of living the New Creation Life.

Acts 1:4 Wait for the Promise of the Father, “which,” He said, “you have heard from Me; for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” 8 And you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me (a testimony that I AM) in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

The disciples were waiting and prepared on the day of Pentecost for the Promise of the Father, to be baptized with the Holy Spirit, not that they perhaps understood what that meant until it happened. These were the first, since Jesus, to experience being a New Creation.

Acts 2:16 But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel ‘And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh. All were given God’s New Creation life within them but all did not KNOW IT (Ephesians 4:17). Not ALL were baptised with the Holy Spirit and power to be a living testimony that God lived within them.

1Timothy 4:10 … because we trust in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of those who believe. These things command and teach.

Acts 19:2 he said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” So they said to him, “We have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit.” And he said to them, “Into what then were you baptised?” So they said, “Into John's baptism.” Then Paul said, “John indeed baptized with a baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on Him who would come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus.” When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied.

We too have heard the truth and are able to personalise it and fall in love with it as the New Creation. We continue to be ‘being filled’. (Ephesians 5:18)