Hi there, welcome to NECF. We're excited to share today's message with you. Don't go
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Okay, afternoon. Good afternoon everyone. So we're going to continue. I really want to thank
the pastorate, thank the lead pastor and the pastorate for the opportunity that I have to
continue in this. And the topic I didn't mention last time is trusting in God,
trusting in God to manifest His kingdom. I think a couple of us that followed would have
seen it already, trusting in God to manifest His kingdom. And we started off
last Sunday. I'll just continue and then I'll do a bit of recap just to, for those of us that
are just joining us today and those that were here last week, just a refresher or reminder. So the key
text is John 14, 1-6. John 14, 1-6. I'll just read it to our hearing. It says,
Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. In my father's house
are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you.
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself, that where
I am there you may be also. And where I go, you know. And the way you know. Thomas said to him,
Lord, we do not know where you are going. And how can we know the way? Jesus said to him,
I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. No one comes to
the Father except through me. The last verse establishes something very key that Christ is
the only way. Christ is the way and the only way. That's why it's the way. That's why it's the truth
and that's why it's the life. And we'll start off from one. I think we've started this course and
it says, we see Christ speaking to the disciples. It says, Let not your heart be troubled. Believe
in God, believe also in me. And we explained, I talked about what the word believe was. I said,
the word believe in Greek is Pistio, Pistuo, which is P-I-S-T-E-U-O. And we say that word means to be
persuaded of, means to think of to be true and to place confidence in, place confidence in, place
confidence in, persuaded of, think of to be true and place confidence in. The word is P-I-S-T-E-U-O.
And we are wanting to see this word and understand what it means and why it means a lot. And it
starts the verse and we know that the Bible's with is, the book of John is a whole book. And
for you to understand what is being communicated, you want to be able to understand who the author
is. You want to know what the communications are through the text of scripture. And this is Jesus
speaking to his disciples and he's telling them, let not your heart be troubled. He's speaking to
them. This is his admonition to the disciples, given the things that were happening around
that time. And he says, you believe in God. We see what was stated first is let not your heart
be troubled. And I'm saying this to say that we are in a world where a lot of things will trouble
us. We're in a world where a lot of things will, you have a lot of things that you will face that
will get your heart to be troubled. But the encouragement is that we believe in God and we
stay believing in God. We trust God in the midst of a situation and we stay trusting Him. We're
persuaded that God is faithful. We're persuaded that God is able to keep to his word. We're
persuaded that regardless of the situation, we have a confidence in a God who is not man.
In a God who is faithful. In a God who has proven himself true. He has proven himself true and he's
not changing his character for anything. Praise God. And we say the topic, the team for the church
in this season is manifesting the kingdom. That's the team and we have started to look at,
understand what the kingdom of God is. We have looked at that and we have seen
how we are able to come into this reality is in our union. I think Pastor Emmanuel taught us
about our union with him and that is basically what initiates us or brings us into that place
where we're able to manifest. And the interesting thing is when you look at the word or when you
hear the word manifest, I think I was sharing at the cell level and I was talking about it.
We're in a world where people want to manifest things. If you put the word manifest in the
Bible, you'll see manifest money. Manifest your wife, manifest your dream house, manifest your
dream job, manifest your dream car, manifest people who want to manifest. And if you,
all of those things are very material, right? They're very material and it's almost very
relatable when somebody says manifest your, you know, people want to manifest things.
Even in this year, 2025, people are looking for ways to do better, ways to people have graduated
are looking for ways to get a job or what to do next, how to get maybe a master's degree or a PhD
or any of those things. You want to, people want to see things happen, praise God. And we can get
things mixed up or modeled up because you might think that that is what this is. But we don't
want to get ourselves confused as to what exactly it is we're manifesting. We are manifesting the
kingdom of God. And we say that word kingdom is Basilia. I'm just repeating it for the sake of
those that are just joining us for the first time. And when you say that that is not a physical
location, it's not a physical location, but it's the word itself means dominion, right? Dominion,
authority, rule, royal power. And that in itself doesn't communicate location. And we had looked
at John, we looked at Luke 17, 20 to 21. The lead pastor has started this year with it. And then I
think Pastor Victor also went, that was where we established and explained what the kingdom
of God was. And we had walked through that. And note that it's not a physical location. We've
established that already. So, and we had discussed that when you're reading your Bible or reading a
text, you want to not just take, just read it like a newspaper and assume you understood what you
read. Because your understanding of what is being read or what is being said is anchored on a lot of
things. What is the person communicating? When is this person communicating? How, what is, why is it
making us, why is this saying the words that's been said? You want to think through all of these
things before you reach a conclusion or before you come to that place of understanding what's been
said. And we said the word believe is used so many, in so many places in scripture. And the person who
wrote this book, John, uses it more than he has, in fact, he accounts for most of the use. If you
read the book of John, you will see a lot of believe, believe, believes, believed. You see that used
a lot in the book of John. And we say, we come into a relationship with God by the same act of
the word of God is being taught to you or presented to you. The gospel has been preached to you.
And then you come, you believe the gospel and then you now come into a relationship. Note that that
is the agency by which we come into the kingdom. You don't just appear in the kingdom. You don't
just stroll into the kingdom. You are not bullied into the kingdom. Praise God, even though some
people, it feels like, it feels like that for some. Some people were like, they were threatened into
the kingdom. They were threatened into the kingdom. But note that you want to know what exactly it is
you're coming into. You want to have understood the gospel has to have been presented to you.
And then you receive what has been given to you. Praise God. And that is the process. That is what
leads to the point where you now receive. We know we say, we say, I give my life. We use that word
very, in fact, most of us, that's the language. I gave my life to him. But note that the life we have
apart from Christ is there's no, there's no weight to it. Praise God. There's no weight to that life
because that life ends in this physical realm that we're in. But we received the life. We received
Christ. You know, John repeats this word. I know it's not by accident and the word is used a lot
of times. And we'll see, I want us to look at how in John 20, 31, I've read this before and I want
us to compare it looking at the point in time where it's used and the point in time where it later
is used to be able to contrast. John 20, 31, it says, but this are written that you may believe
that Jesus is Christ. It says, these are written that you may believe that Jesus is Christ.
Establishing the fact that you read the word, you have to, the word was written and the word
there is written, meaning that it's been communicated to you that you may believe that Jesus is the
Christ. And we say this when we see the word, when we see Jesus Christ, we don't, it's not a surname.
It's not a surname. Jesus is the Christ. That is Greek. He is the Messiah. Means that in the Old
Testament, it has been spoken that this person is going to come and then he shows up and then we say
this is the one. He is the Christ. The son of God for the clarifying that it's not just a random
person. He's the son of God and that believing you may have life in his name. We have life,
the life that we have now is in the, in what Christ has done and what Christ has accomplished
for us. That is how we come into that reality. But now the same John writes in first John 5, 13.
And I want you to understand that that communication in John 20, 31 was done at the
point in time where Christ had not been crucified, which is where we're going to this. Christ had not
been crucified, but the one in first John 5, 13 is after he had resurrected. Right? He had been
crucified. He had died and he had resurrected. And then now the communication goes to us. Say this,
these things I have written to you who believe now. He's not saying it's not like you might believe
now because if you read the earlier verses, it's communicating to believers that are scattered,
that's embroidery that scattered abroad. So it says you who believe now, now it's not, it's now
past. It's like you have believed, praise God. You have believed in the name of the son of God
that you may know. Now you have believed the reason why the communication is coming is that
you may know that you have eternal life and that you may continue to believe in the name of the
son of God. There's the knowing now, because you know, when you have a relationship with someone
and the person is coming to reintroduce their self to you as, you know, except if you have
where you come and then you're like, you look at the person and you're greeting the person like
you're just meeting them for the first time, you know, it's confusing. You know, some of us
really don't remember faces or don't even remember names. It's this. That's not the case in this case.
Praise God. Where you have come into a relationship with someone. Now let's go back to that,
not the exorcist. I'm the right thing there is that you may know. And I pointed to us that
that and that you may continue to believe in the name. That part is, it's not there in the original
and to confirm that you'll see that if you use the NLT and we have explained all of that in this
church that it's not like it's a it's not there in the original, meaning that it's like the text
there's the mid to mid. I don't want to go into the explanation, but yeah, just comparing the two.
Thank you. You can put the two together and you will see the in the NLT says,
I have written this to you. It just the last part, the last bit is what is not there.
And I want us to just establish that in the gospels or when John was writing this that you believe,
but it's when you're speaking to someone that meaning that the teaching of God's word,
there's the teaching of God's word that goes to the unbeliever and gets them saved. Praise God.
And then there's a teaching of God's word that brings that believer into an understanding of
the kingdom or what the family they are into. You know, you don't you believed you who you believed
in is Christ, but there's a system that you come into. There's an understanding of how that system
works that you now need to learn off. And that's why we take our time to teach God's words. We take
our time to understand our identity because now you have an identity and the identity is different
from what you once had because there's a relationship that you have with Christ and that is basically
what teaching of God's word does to a believer. It solidifies the identity of the believer in Christ
and that is how growth happens. You can't grow without the teaching of God's word.
You can't grow without the teaching of God's word. This is very important that the teaching of God's
word has to be priority for you to see reasonable growth because a person can be in the kingdom of
God and just stay at that level at which they had entered in. You can stay, you can be stuck in a
particular position and that will mean that you're not making the most of your identities like someone
who has an identity that grants them privileges that they are unaware of. Praise God. And we
don't want to be that kind of a believer that is in the kingdom of God but they are not
making the most of the relationship that they have and that's why teaching is important. That's why
training is important and training we say is not a one-off thing. I use the example of schooling.
You don't show up in school first year and you graduate. If you come into any institution and
after your first year you graduated, you never went to school. It was a... yeah, it depends on
what program it is because you can have programs that are short. And it's amazing how, and we said
this the last time, I'll repeat myself again, for a believer that has been in church for the longest
of time, there's a level of growth that you should have attained as a result of you coming again and
again to the teaching of God's Word, to interacting with God's Word. God's Word is being taught to you
again and again. So there's a continuous teaching of God's Word that will lead to effective growth
in the life of a believer. Praise God. And we say the Church of God is where this happens.
You can't grow in thin air. You have to be planted somewhere where the Word of God is taught
to grow. You don't freelance this. It's not something that you can just give to someone
to help you. It's something that you have to because nobody is in university and having
someone run the university, like go to classes for them, take exams for them. People do that.
Yeah, people do that. It's amazing. And they have the diploma and the post online, graduated,
backed or backed. How do you say it? But the problem is that that individual will be very
incompetent, very incompetent in whatever endeavor. In fact, I say this, you will not even hire
yourself because you know that you're not qualified. You're scared. You're just hoping that
somebody doesn't find you out. Praise God. A believer is confident because they have been
they have been through or they are taught properly taught taught. And that happens. It's a process.
Praise God. It's a process. We tend to hate process because most times it's challenging,
it's tough, it's difficult. And reading is hard. And some of us found out when you showed up and
then there's the canonical, it's reading a book. I was challenging us in the cell. I said some
people have never read a book before. They start up in the beginning of the book and they finish
and then go back to some people say, Oh, teacher, I read books. I take academics seriously. A person
that's incompetent, a person that's incompetent in school will transfer the same incompetence
to academics, even though sometimes it can be. It just shows what you prioritize. Praise God.
If you prioritize teaching of God's word and God's word, it will show the things you how you talk,
the way you live your life, it will be manifest. Praise God. But once you prioritize something else
other than that, I want to bring attention to the fact that this is important. That's why we
prioritize this. In 1 Timothy 3 verse 15, 1 Timothy 3 was acting to be good to start from 14.
Yeah. Notice, I think we've seen the use of the, we've used these things I write to you.
These things I write to you. Note that writing is a way to preserve, like we can read this because
it was written, right? The reason why we can read all of these things is because it was written.
Someone took their time to pen it down. Though I hope to come to you shortly, meaning that it's
used in place of, okay, I can't show up personally, but you have something of mine that you can read
and it almost as though I was there with you. It can't replace it, but it can make up for it.
It says, but if I am delayed, I write so that you may know, the word again comes in again,
that you may know how you ought to conduct yourselves in the house of God, which is the
church of the living God, the pillar and ground of truth, pillar, foundation of truth. Let's look at 16.
It says, and without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. The God has manifested,
and God was manifested, was manifested, was manifested. The word they manifested is
fernero, manifested in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen by angels, preached among the
Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up in glory. Very quickly, I want us to go back to
John 14. Let's go back to 13, John 13, John 13, 36, so that we'll build up on what led to
the conversation in 14. So 36 says, Sion Peter said to him, Lord, where are you going? Where are
you going? Jesus answered him, where I am going, you cannot follow me now, but you shall follow me
afterwards. Not, just go back a bit so that the conversation is about him going somewhere, right?
The conversation is about him going somewhere, and note that, you know, if I tell you I'm going
somewhere, will you be thinking of, you'll be thinking of me going to a place, right? You'll
be thinking of me going to a place. So it says, and then he says something. Jesus' response is that
where I'm going, you cannot, no, go back to 36. He said, where I'm going to, you cannot follow me
now. So it means that there's a bit of restriction as to where, like, the, there's a bit, there's a
restriction, you can't, right? You can't follow me now. Then 37, now it says, 37, so Peter said to
him, Lord, why? Why can I not follow you now? Because I want to follow you now, right? Why can't
I follow you now? I said, I will, then he now goes further to say, I will lay down my life for your
sake. Now, it's almost like, it's just following someone to somewhere. Why, why does it sound like
you have to now die, right? Now, the conversation now almost shifts as though where he was going to
was now not a place again. It's not, not like a physical, physical location. It's like, like, I
want to follow you to Orange Hall. I say, no, you can't follow me. Why can't I follow you now? And
then the other person now says, starts talking about laying down his life. It doesn't, it doesn't
make any sense. Then we see in 38, then Jesus answered him, will you lay down your life, is a
question, will you lay down your life for my sake? That's the question now. Would you lay down your
life for my sake? Then he says, most assuredly, I say to you, the rose star shall not grow until you
have denied me three times. And then now, it now, we now see Jesus Christ asking him a question and
then telling him something. And we're very, I think those of us that have been to church at times
will understand that now he now puts it to him that look, you are saying that you're going to lay
down your life, but I am telling you that this will happen, that you will deny me, I will not
lie to you, that you will deny me. And very, you know, you remember to use the word, I think you
said, you deny me, the amplified, the amplified words it as you will completely disown, you know,
completely, you know, when somebody, you know, you know, you know, when they say disown, you know,
when, when your parents said, I disown you, you know, there's still, I had a child, well, well, I
didn't have any child anymore. Well, when somebody says completely, it's almost like then they're
going to even erase the memory, they're going to erase even the memory of, of you, you know,
amplifies, amplifies what exactly the magnitude of what exactly, yeah, says completely disown me.
And then, and we see how Christ is, is like, Jesus Christ tells him that, okay, this is what
we want to do. And we know that most times, sometimes in our work, we can be very, we can be
overzealous, we can be too forward. Not that there's, there's a tendency that we have to want to,
to be extra. And Peter does that here. And you will not know the extent to which what he had done,
what the conversation is. When we look at other accounts, we'll see something very interesting.
Now, just in our notes, other accounts of this event, we can see it in Mark 14, 27 to 31. I
want us to read the Matthew's account, Mark 14, 27 to, 27 to 31 and Matthew 26, Matthew 26, 31 to 35.
So I just, Mark 14, 27 to 31 and then Matthew 26, 31 to 35. And I want, I want to just,
just take it a bit further and just get us to see that we know that,
let's just look at 26 now in Matthew, in Matthew. Okay, Mark, let me, Mark 14, 27 to 31 and then
Matthew 26, 31, which is what we're looking at to 35. It says, then Jesus said to them, all of you
will be, will be made to stumble because of me this night. For it is written, I will strike
the shepherd and the sheep of the flock will be scattered. And that's the quote from Zechariah 13,
the seven. And why do you go to Mark one? So it's 32. Yeah, good. It says, but after I have been
raised, I will go before you to Galilee. And Peter answered and said to him, even if all are made to
stumble because of you, I will never be made to stumble. And the stumble there is to fall out.
And then Jesus said to him, assuredly I say to you that this night before the Rostro Crows,
you will deny me three times. And I said, the word is completely disowned three times. And
just go back to the 31, you know that it makes it clear what was going to happen. Right? What Jesus
Christ was saying is that, look, this is going to happen. I'm going to, something's going to happen.
And I'm going to be like, as the Zechariah, as he, as a quote, Matthew quotes Zechariah, that the
shepherd will be struck and the sheep will scatter. And then 32 now continues. And then it says,
but after I have been raised, so mean that the shepherd will be struck, but he's not going to
stay down. Right? There's going to be a resurrection of, well, all of that is communicated,
but the, what we're looking at is the action of Peter, because we can sometimes be like that,
where we are too forward, we're too, and we say, you know, in a meeting like this, you can,
you can make resolutions. You can say, okay, this is what I'm going to do. And then when it comes to
act on what you have said, you just almost like no backing. Like, it's almost like you lose, you're
like, it's like what you said and what you're doing cannot, doesn't, but we see Christ saying
into him. And in John 18, I want us to see how this happens in John 18, John 18, 25 to 27, John
18, 25 to 27. In John 18, this is Peter now denying him. So now Simon Peter stood and warned
himself. Therefore they said to him, you are not also, you are not also one of the disciples, are
you? He denied it and said, I am not. Okay. That's one. I said, and then one of the servants of the
high priest, a relative of, of him, whose ear Peter cut off, said, did I not see you in the garden
with him? Okay. Then Peter, Peter then denied him again and immediately a rooster crowed. And that
was the alarm. That's when the alarm bells came in. But like, okay. And we had that conversation.
We have seen why I think Peter is the one, and John is the one that actually states who that relative,
what the name of the person that's here got caught in the earlier verses. And then John still comes
down and then Peter is the one that we now find out because other gospels don't, Luke tells us
that somebody's ear was cut. Jesus Christ healed the person, but John, John actually tells us in
more details why it's Peter that, that, that actually was the one that did that. And then
Peter goes again and then we see that this person was like, you look familiar because I think I saw
you with a knife. You know, it's, it makes the whole thing memorable. Like I saw you actually
slice somebody's ear. I'm not even concerned about the fact that a person's ear was healed,
but I think I noticed that you are the one that actually did the whole removing of the ear of
this person. And then he goes denying. In fact, if, in fact, I think it looks, I think it's Mark's
account of it that says he vehemently, like under the strong word, he like, he's like, he's like,
under the strong word. He like, he says, in fact, it's almost like it was raining courses on
himself. If I'm the one, I swear, I'm not like you just go just outrightly denying to the end,
to the teeth that you're the one. And it's almost like you, you, you know, when you're trying,
when you're trying so hard to, because you knew you were there, you know what the event was. And
then you were saying, and it just shows us how you can, if you rely on your own strength, rely on
your own, you will be able, you will not be able to stand. And even when it's brought to you that,
look, you're going to, this is what you're going to do, or this is the same thing happens to us.
The word of God tells us this is our identity. And then we choose to deny what our reality is.
Same way, okay, it was brought to him that this is what you're going to do. You know, if I was the
one, I'll be like, Hey, what the hell, how would I go? Like, I'll have my guards on for, okay,
let Lord strengthen me. I don't want to deny you this with him. But there's this, I'm not going to
deny if everybody, and if you notice, other disciples followed, I think we did not read it to seven.
Note that in, when he makes the statement, other disciples, like, let's not be left out on this
thing. Like if Peter say he's not going to deny, we too, they all followed. Let's just go back to
35. I think that's five was well, is it 35, 36 now, Matthew 26, 35, because you can, you can be very,
you can just say stuff, Matthew 36, 26, sorry, Matthew 26, 35. Yeah, it says, and Peter said,
even if I will not, and so said all the disciples. So the disciples too, yeah, say we too,
we too, we are not going to deny, even if everybody, you know, Peter said, even if everybody denies you,
I'm not. And then all the disciples say, we too, even if everybody denies you, we're not.
And note that when it comes to it, what ensures that you stay faithful is the knowledge that,
and even when you're forewarned, even when you're forewarned, you're forewarned that this is going
to happen. You want to trust the person that is telling you that this is going to happen, right?
Because he tells you that this is going to happen. And then you now say, oh, yeah. And then when it
comes, because you are not even, you don't even believe that what is said was going to happen.
So you don't even prepare for it. And for most of us, we bring it down to our own days. God's word
tells you this is it, but you feel like the, what is happening to you is more real than the truth
that is in God's word. The foundation of our belief is in the word of God. And how we make
progress is by believing in what it is that we have received in his word. And anytime we move to
the right or to the left, we'll find ourselves in situations where we are there because doubts,
you have things that will bring doubt, but note that there's, there's the, there's the, there's
you believe in and you believe and you have a relationship with this person, but there's also
the other things that are tied to this person that you will struggle to come into an understanding of.
Let's see an example, very practical in John 11. An example in John 11, a conversation that Jesus
Christ was having with Martha. And just the background, your brother Lazarus was sick and
later died. I want, I want you to start from 21, that's 1121. I'm going to read down to 27,
just to look at the conversation for starters. So now Martha said to Jesus, Lord, if you had been
here, my brother would not have died. Note that there's the confidence in the fact that, okay, if
you, like she's aware that, okay, whatever sickness had him, that was going to be resolved if he was
here. Then he says, but even now I know that whatever your acts of God, note that she's,
she's very sure that whatever it is you ask of God, God will give you. 23, Jesus said to her,
your brother will rise again. 24, Martha said to him, I know that he will rise again.
I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day. Notice, notice, do you, do you,
do you notice the conversation? He says, I know that he will rise again. I'm not sure of now,
but some time ahead. And then Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life.
I am the resurrection and the life. Does this sound familiar? Like I am the way, the truth and
the life. He says, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me, believes in me,
though he may die, he shall live. I don't know, I don't know if you understand what they're saying,
what Jesus Christ is communicating to her. He said, though he may die, he shall live. That can confuse you.
But 26 now says, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Then he asks a question,
do you believe this? And then she now answered him. Please look at the answer. Say, yes Lord,
I believe you. You, I believe that, that you are the Christ, the son of God, who is to come
into the world. Who is to come into the world? Note that he says, do you believe this? And then
the conversation now moves to his person, who he is, right? He is the Christ. It's almost like,
yeah, every other thing you said, yeah, you're the Christ, but I'm not sure about this. And we know
that the conversation goes on to him being resurrected, right? Goes on to where he's been
resurrected. I want you to jump to 41. And note that we have seen a lot of believe, right? Believes,
believe, we've seen that. So 41 now, and then they took the stones away. This is out when they had
gotten to the tomb. And then they took the stones away from the place where the dead man was laying,
lying. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, father, I thank you that you have heard me.
And I know that you always hear me. But because of the people who are standing by, I said this,
that they may believe that you sent me, that they may believe that you sent me. Now, when he had
said these things, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, comfort. And he who had died came out,
bound hand and foot with grave clothes. And his face was wrapped with a cloak, and he was
wrapped with a cloak. And Jesus said to them, lose him and let him go. 45, we're going to read to
46. Then many of the Jews who came to Mary, who had come to Mary, who had come to Mary and had
seen the things Jesus did, believed in him, believed in him. But some of them went away to
Jesus' grave. And the rest went on. The Pharisees now wanted to kill him because now they have two
people in their hands. They have Jesus Christ who has been causing, has been disrupting their
own system. And then they have this dead man that, you know, the fact that this person was dead and
people came for the funeral, praise God, people came for the funeral. And then now the story has
changed because there has to be an explanation to that, right? Because the dead man now has been
dead for four days. So there's evidence now. Now anybody that hears that will think, okay,
has there been any cases of people that are around? That should be something spectacular.
But know that that begs the question that it's beyond the resurrected man.
If you were, you heard the story, your attention will be on the dead man. But very quickly,
it should shift to the person that is responsible for the, because the dead man didn't just
resurrect. Someone called him out. And that person had already mentioned in earlier verses that I am
the resurrection and the life. I am the resurrection, not the resurrection and the life. And then this
same person calls for someone from the dead. That should really be on the headlines because those
people went to give them, you know, there's no WhatsApp, YouTube, all of those things to be able
to communicate the information very quickly. So they were the ones that went and reported and
then now they sought ways to kill the person. But know that they are not the ones that are
responsible for the death of the person. They are the ones that are responsible for the death of the
person. And that's why the purpose of the story is to kill the person. But know that the killing
the person is all part of the plan. Killing him was all part of the plan. And I want you to take
note of the fact that he asked a couple of questions. He says, do you believe? Do you believe?
Do you believe? And the aim of all of this is that they may believe that the people standing
but there's something about knowing that this has happened. It goes beyond that because believing
should bring you into something. Praise God. Believing should bring you into something. And
as I said earlier, note that at this point in time, Christ had not yet died. Christ had not yet
resurrected. But I want us to look at Luke 9, 23 to 26. Luke 9, 23 to 26. And we'll see that
it's very likely that Peter was willing to say, I will lay down my life because of something that
he had been taught earlier or something that has been mentioned earlier. And in 23, we see that
then he said to them all, if anyone decides to come after me, let him deny himself and take up
his cross daily and follow me. Know that that's an instruction but there's a lot of things I've
gone before that instruction that will explain. But whoever decides to save his life will lose it
and whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. Then 25, he says, but what profit is it to a
man if he gains the whole world and then is himself destroyed or lost? That's 26 last.
They say, for whoever is ashamed of me and my words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed of
when he comes in his glory and in his fathers and of the holy angels. I want you to pay attention
to the fact that Peter was there when all of this was said and then he now says, I'm willing to lay
down my life because that's part of the instruction. But know that there is the Lord's
instruction but know that there is the laying down of his life first that has to happen afterwards.
Even in this text of scripture you discover that in earlier verses Christ spoke about him laying
down his life and we see that in 22, the verse 22 of Luke 9. In 22, he says, the Son of Man must
suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and be
raised and be raised the third day. Praise God. So it means that the disciples were fully aware
of all of these activities that this and this and this and this would have to happen. Praise God.
That they were aware but there's me communicating what I'm saying and there's the
understanding of what it is because you have an understanding of what there's an expectation but
the expectation should have to match what exactly it is that they are hoping and believing and
believing that was going to happen through him. And going back to our text in John 4 verse 1,
establishing a couple of things that when Jesus was speaking, he was not talking of going to a
location. He was talking about dying. He was talking about dying and he didn't stay dead.
He was talking about also him resurrected, being resurrected and in his death and because you know
when someone resurrects, if they never died, in fact there's no resurrection without death. The
premise of the resurrection is that the person had died for the person to be resurrected and in his
own case that had to happen for us to come into this family and we'll tie it into John
14 verse 1 because if you look at the passages you see that there's he said he talks about
in 1, he says, let not your heart be troubled. Know that what will cause the trouble, I remember
we had saved from John 13 from 36 to 38. He was speaking about himself dying and he's encouraging
them, don't be troubled, don't be worried because we have seen from the different passages even though
he dies on the third day he's going to be resurrected. It means that anyone that is listening
that trusts or believes what is being said or places their trust on what is being said,
there's no surprise for what will happen afterwards. Praise God and then we see that he says let me
do have and there's a lot of troubles because he is dead. In fact you notice that that happened
when the disciples, even Peter, the different things that happened, he was really worried. He
was like oh what will happen to my master? There's someone I've been with for this number of years
and this is happening to him. They were all stressed but he is explaining and he explains
and talks about that there should not be trouble and then in verse 2 of that chapter he now
puts in something strange. He now says in my father's house are many mansions. If it were not so
I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. So not that when he says he's going
somewhere that he can't go and then now he's saying I go to prepare a place for you. What would that
be making reference to? What had been said earlier? That's why when you're reading the text of scripture
you're reading you're not reading it because yes they partitioned it for us but it's not like
a movie where it ends there. Even if it ends there it continues. So you want to understand that
from that verse down to this verse there's a communication that's going on and the communication
stays and then he says in my father's house are many mansions and you know
some of us probably might not. There's house and there's mansion. If you think of what
I'm from Nigeria and I'm from the part of Nigeria where there's this craze around village mansion.
If somebody says I have a mansion in my village you know that it's not a house. The mansion is
not a house. Say I have a mansion in my village and there are certain characteristics that you know
of a mansion that you see. If the roof is not high it's not a mansion. If there's no chandelier
it's not a mansion. There's a staircase. Some of us live in an apartment where there's a staircase.
Staircase in the house inside the house is different from staircase that you use to go
to other people's apartments. There are different things that that tells you and you see there's
things like swimming pool. You know a house is a mansion when there's a swimming pool
because the house has to be big enough. There's rooms, a dimension. That's a mansion. So when
somebody tells you that in my father's house there are many mansions you should get confused. Praise
God because they say you know one can be but the other cannot. You know and say all human beings are
missing but not all. Look okay I used to do that when I was in class. They say every man is a human
being but not every human being is a man. Right? So all mansions are houses but not all. Does that
make sense? So it means that if he says in my father's house there are many mansions it would
be better if it was the reverse. Right? It would be better if it was the reverse. And I when we were
speaking the last time I said when Jesus Christ is speaking we saw it from John 16. He used figures
of speech. Right? He uses figures of speech. So it means that and there are several figures of speech
that can be used when he talks about oh like I think we discussed it where the word house
can be literal or metaphor. And very quickly I want you to the word house there is oikia.
Oikia if you're here in the church you'll be very familiar. That's in the Greek is oikia. But in the
Hebrew is beit. Oikia let me spell oikia. The Greek is o-i-k-i-a. But in the Hebrew is b-a-y-i-t.
Greek is oikia like ikea o-i-k-i-a. Then the Hebrew is b-a-y-i-t. And the word there is can be a
household or family. A household or family is not a house because the household can be like a family
can be in a house. Well the house is not a family. Praise God. So there are different figures of
speech that can be used like the metonyms the metaphors and you want to be able to track what
has been said. But the reason why I gave us the Hebrew is that this word is used I looked at the
couple of where is used but there's one particular place it was used that you will not miss the point.
Let's go to Genesis 46 verse 31. Let's look at that very quickly. Genesis 46 verse 31. So please
look up. Yeah you can look but just look look look up and then let's read it together. Genesis 46
verse 31 it says then Joseph said to his brothers and to his father's household. That word there in
fact if you I think if you put it in the in the King James King James in the King James yeah.
So note that it says and Joseph said to his brethren that's we know that from the new King
James's brothers and then he and on to his father's house. Just imagine I speak to my brothers and I
talk to the house too. Praise God. Yeah so so it's like he says he spoke to his brethren which is
brothers and then he then spoke to the house. Will it be his house or the extended members of
his family? Ten members of family. Okay if you didn't miss that if you missed that then let's go
further. He says I will let's go back to the at least we've confirmed that his house. Let's go
back to the new King James before I get stuck reading the on to him. So he says he now says he
now said to the brothers and his father's household to confirm that the word there is household or
family. He says I will go up and tell Pharaoh and say to him my brothers and those of my father's
house who were in the land of Canaan have come up to me. So you know first and foremost you know
would have missed it if we said okay he was talking to the house then next minute now the house is now
moving to him. You know the house you know if it was a house it won't move to him but if it was a
household the people would have moved to him. I know some people were like and but the way their
house is where they would have been able to dismantle it and then carry it and then yeah enjoy
enjoy. So know that from this passage we get a sense of the fact that the word house
the word house can it used in that particular text will not be a literal house. I think we looked I
think I mentioned Mark 3 verse 25 where it says a house divided by dividing itself you know it's not
literal house dividing itself but probably this speaking of the people part of the house and those
figures of speech you have different types of it can be used you know like when somebody says
um let me give you a hand they don't mean giving you their hand or take times or what becomes when
you say say I gave her my heart not your you what's surgical tool did you use to tear yourself open
and give the person your heart but we know that the use of those words like if you say if you say
let me give you a hand it means that that hand will be symbolic of help or assistance right
symbolic of help or assistance and then when he says give her a heart that that was love
I gave her my love um we know that when he says even in the text when we read around it says the
kingdom of god is at hand you know the word hand in I gave him a hand it's not the same it's not
it's not like the word was a hand it's like the word the help no it's just it will be symbolic
of proximity right closeness so not that you want to be able to know that when you're reading
reading and it's not the same everywhere right it's not the same everywhere so it means that
is when you read it you know what exactly it is is it literal now is metaphorical and then you can
be able to make sense of that praise god so it says and then we have order even in new testament
we have order in first corinthians 16 verse 15 in the new king james first corinthians 16 verse 15
in the new king james there are other texts where i just want to give us this where it's clearly 16
verse 15 in the new king james you'll see it very it's the same word though but it uses household
but in the new king james you notice that he uses house house of stefano so it will not mean the
physical building right it will mean the family or the members of that house and then in philippians
4 22 philippians 4 22 is another family to another household or family so we can write that down
write it down and and then check and then check so we said that is the household is if or the
house is a family or household so that's one then the other thing there is the mansion right the
mansion there is another is a greek word mornay the mansion is a greek word mornay and the mansion
is is a is it means a dwelling or dwelling or dwelling place and and this will not be a physical
a physical mansion but rather spiritual right and to be with god because it's spiritual praise god
so when he says household and then he says dwelling right dwelling means that we now have a family
with god or family in god praise god that we are now a family and that's basically what jesus
was going to do at his resurrection that family would be established and i think i mentioned
matthew 16 i want us to look at that very quickly and then i'll tie it together and then close
in matthew 16 we'll see something in matthew 16 that's where some other figures of speech we use
matthew 16 there's 18 matthew 16 verse 18 is matthew 16 verse 18 we just read 18 and 19 it says
but i say to you that you are peter and that's the conversation jesus was having his Peter says and
on this rock i will build my church and the gates of hades shall not prevail just stay here for a
while it says and i say to you that you are peter and on this rock i will build my church if the
idea will be who huh the idea will be who if if it will be the christ jesus christ is speaking right
it says i will build and then when he says i will build my church will the church be a physical
building think about it i will build my church so know that when somebody tells you i'm building
a church or i like you think you know when i say building a church first yeah a lot of things will
come to mind right a lot of things will come to mind okay is it he is sponsoring the building of
the church or his fist is his he's taking off his shirt wearing some civil engineering helmet and
then actually building the the church he's talking about but he goes forward and he says the gates of
hell shall not prevail against it a lot of things can be modeled up together and if you read the
earlier verses there's the confusion about whether peter is the one that is this all of that but i
i don't want to dive in but i want you to pay attention to the fact that he says i will build
my church if we understand that the church there that i spoken of is not a physical building but
family it will make a lot of sense praise god to make a lot of sense and let's just read nine and
then and he says and i will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven remember this is another
i say i'll give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven so you were thinking the disciples now had
keys and then we now we have no you're gotten the keys yet we'll get the keys sometime later and you
start thinking about keys but not the keys there is clays it will not be literal keys right but
note that it's uh the figure of speech used there will be a metonym right a metonym is when you use
a word that which is what we're given us examples of where you use words related to anytime you
think of keys you think of access right because keys grant you access to your apartments if you
forget your keys you stay outside for a while and that's when you know that you lack access
that's because without the keys you don't have access so when he says access of the kingdom of
heaven it means that it means that these keys and not that how we gain access is predicated on the
on the act the him being resurrected praise god we're able to come into this family on the basis
of what christ has done and that's why jesus christ was telling peter where i'm going to you'll not
be able to go now but there's a coming that comes after when i've gone and done you are able to
follow suit is when he had laid down because if there's no cross how do you then carry a
cross without his cross like without him carrying this cross and then dying for us we can be able
to do it effectively and know that the way we are able to do what he has done he doesn't leave us
helpless he creates a system by which he enables us to do the lifting and to do the carrying
praise god very different from what the world is i might just set you up and i've done it for you
do your own part but no i've done it for you let's do it together praise god let's do it together
and what i want you to see is that in verse eight the i will build and i am going to prepare a place
for you that we see in john 14 speaks of the same thing speaks of the same thing that in in matthew
16 verse 18 where he says i will build my church if you're writing on your notes the way i wrote
it down is just just write matthew 16 18 just write i will build my church put in bracket and
then put an equal to sign and say john you know some of us say i'm talking about writing it down
some people are just folding their hands that's why you take notes so equal to john 14 there's two
this is i am going to prepare a place for you so it's a very it's an equation that will make sense
or makes it's making sense already if you are looking at it properly so note that all of these
things will only happen when and i did i failed to mention that the world the word build there is
oikodomeo and it's kind of very interesting because it's kind of similar the spelling is
kind of similar to oikia it's o the word build is o i k o d o m e o o i k o d o m e o that's the word
build and know that as i said earlier that the church is established that's another word for that
established or founded at the resurrection of christ and we'll see this in first peter
and as peter that was spoken to first peter two four to six first peter two four to six
okay so it's first peter two four to six is it coming to him as to a living stone rejected by
men but chosen by god and precious five now says something very interesting you also as living
stones are being built built that's word or code or equal to me up a spiritual house you know it's
clarifies it a spiritual house a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to
god through jesus christ very important is christ that enables us to come into that relationship
that union and it is a spiritual union when he uses the word heavenly seated in heavenly
sitting in the heavenly it is all spiritual it is we it can work if we don't manifest it
praise god it's almost like your it's we are the agency we are the means by which that spiritual
gains finds expression praise god we are the agency by which that thing that had been done
spiritually gains expression in and through us what has been done in us finds expression
through us and i will close with efficiency to verse 17 to 22 to clarify and just while i'm
speaking notice notice the use of in fact when you read the gospels which is your matthew mcloop
john when you read the gospels you see that things that are communicated they are properly
clarified or explained in the epistles the epistles give clarity to what exactly it is that has been
communicated we didn't just say all we said we came to the epistles because the the the
the the apostles clarified the things that christ has said and efficiency is paul's
epistle to the church in ethos and in 217 he says and he came and preached peace to you
who were far far off and to those who were near for through him we both have access and remember
we talked about keys access by one spirit to the father remember what he said i'm going to
to prepare right so we have access to by one spirit to the father 18 19 now therefore
you are no longer strangers and foreigners but fellow citizens with the saints and members of
the household household of god 20 and then it it uses the team of john 14 and the team of matthew
the what was spoken about going to prepare a place we see it in john 14 and then in matthew now
brings the word bell built up you see having been built up built on the foundation of the apostles
and the prophets jesus christ himself being the chief corner stone in whom the whole building
know that now it's not speaking of something that is it's it's it's done already is in the past is
done being fitted together grows into a holy temple in the lord a holy temple in the lord
in christ in the lord and that sees it all praise god that puts everything together and if you are
not confident in the reality you now have i'm praying that this will make you more confident
in the fact that what you have now was not an afterthought what we have in christ jesus
is the plan all along and what we need to do is to understand it and work in the reality when you say
manifesting the kingdom of god what you're doing is you're giving expression to your identity in
christ and my prayer is that as we are listening to this we are trusting god for myriads of ways
to express his kingdom to everywhere and everyone around us so i want you to just close your eyes
and just pray and see father i thank you that in my actions my actions are not just a prayer
that in my actions my actions would demonstrate always my trust in you because whether you like
it or not your action would demonstrate your trust in god if you if you are acting in doubt it
communicates it's just very equivalent to the fact that you don't you there's something wrong with
your knowledge of what god has done and we grow by building our trust in god and we the knowledge
growing the knowledge will build our trust in him and the more we are confident the more in what he
has done the more more of him find expression in and through us confidence in christ jesus is what
is able to establish us what is able to cause his kingdom to be established and note that we are
part of his family and that in itself should communicate a force communicate that we have
authority we have authority we have authority we are part of a family and we're not alone we're
not alone we're not alone we have his spirit we have his identity and we move around with that
and that in itself causes us to make ensure that the influence the influence his influence not our
influence his influence is spread so i want you to just pray and see i thank you for listening to
today's sermon your journey matters to us let's keep walking together visit our website for more
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additional insights if today's message was a blessing shared with a friend so next time be blessed