Paid In Full: An In-depth Look at the Defining Moments of Christ's Passion (34 page)

The resurrected Jesus drew near to His disciples — but do you draw near to Him as you go about the activities of your daily life?

How about you? Do you experience Jesus Christ in the daily activities of your life, or is Jesus just relegated to church services and Sunday school? From what you just read, you now know that Jesus was “in the midst” of His disciples after His resurrection. They ate with Him, talked to Him, and fellowshipped with Him. Jesus even helped them catch fish! The resurrected Jesus drew near to His disciples — but do you draw near to Him as you go about the activities of your daily life?

Even though Jesus is seated right now at the right hand of the Father on High, you can know Him intimately through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the Great Revealer of Jesus Christ. Just ask the Holy Spirit to show you Jesus, and He will be faithful to make Jesus more real to you than your natural mind can even imagine.

Jesus chided Thomas for not believing until he saw. At the same time, Jesus pronounced a blessing on all who would believe He had risen from the dead without actually having seen Him.

The Person of the Holy Spirit is a Revealer. It is His role to not only show you things to come, but also to show you, in increasing depth and clarity, who Jesus is both
to
you and
through
you as a member of His Body on the earth. Are you taking the time to fellowship with God so the Holy Spirit can give you the revelation that you need and that your heart desires?

Did you ever wish you could have walked with Jesus when He was on the earth? If so, you’re actually longing for less than what is available to you right now. Through the written Word of God and the ministry of the Holy Spirit, you can actually experience an even closer, more intimate fellowship with Jesus than His disciples shared with Him during His earthly ministry.

Scriptures describe the strength and exploits demonstrated in the lives of those who walked with Jesus. Think about what God can accomplish through
your
life as you consciously choose to walk daily with Jesus via His Word and His Spirit.

Jesus told His disciples that when they saw Him, they saw the Father (John 14:7). Can the same be said of you?

If you’re a Christian, you are to be Jesus’ representative on the earth, reflecting His nature and His ways. When people reach out to you, do they sense Jesus reaching back to them through you? In what ways do you deliberately give witness to the fact that Jesus is alive in you?

Chapter 34:
What Has Jesus Been Doing
for the Past 2,000 Years?

When Luke wrote Acts chapter 1, he chronicled events in the final days of Jesus’ appearance on earth. He says that Jesus “…shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God” (v. 3). In Acts 1:9, Luke goes on to tell us that at the end of those 40 days after Jesus had spoken to His followers one final time, “…he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.”

Luke continues, “And while they [the apostles] looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven” (Acts 1:10,11). On that day, the angels declared Jesus would return in the same manner He left nearly 2,000 years ago.

Days later when Peter preached his first message on the Day of Pentecost, he declared that Jesus would remain in Heaven until the fulfillment of all Scripture at the end of the age (
see
Acts 3:21). Only when every prophecy as yet unfulfilled has finally been fulfilled will Jesus return — and when He does return, it will be exactly in the same way He ascended nearly 2,000 years ago. However, this time Jesus won’t return as a humble Servant. The Bible declares that He will return as the King of kings and the Lord of lords!

When the disciples watched Jesus ascend into a cloud of glory that received Him into Heaven, it was the last time Jesus was ever seen on earth in His physical human form. Of course, since that time, people have experienced supernatural moments when they’ve seen Jesus in the Spirit, whether in visions or in dreams. And we also know that Jesus is touching people’s lives today through His Church, which Scripture even refers to as the
Body
of Christ.

But Jesus Himself — in His actual physical form — left the earth 2,000 years ago, and He has been absent ever since. And He will remain absent until every scripture related to the last days has been fulfilled. Although we may try to predict when that day will come and may even be able to recognize the reason for Jesus’ second coming, Matthew 24:36 tells us that only the Father knows the exact day and hour when Jesus will return.

When Peter preached on the Day of Pentecost, he told his listening audience where Jesus was at that moment: Having ascended to Heaven, Jesus was sitting at the Father’s right hand! Peter then declared that once Jesus was seated in His new permanent position at the Father’s right hand, His first order of business was to pour out the gift of the Holy Spirit upon the Church (
see
Acts 2:33). That is
exactly
what happened on the Day of Pentecost.

In Acts 2:1 and 2, the Bible tells us, “And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they [the 120 disciples who gathered in the Upper Room in Jerusalem] were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.”

The rushing mighty wind heard on the Day of Pentecost was the supernatural sound of the Holy Spirit’s descent and entrance into the Church that initiated the Church Age and the Dispensation of the Holy Spirit. The words “rushing wind” come from a Greek word that was normally used to describe
an ear-deafening crash
or
the roar of the waves of the sea, especially during winter storms.

Have you ever been near the sea during a winter storm and heard the crashing roar of the waves? It’s so loud that you can hardly hear another person speak — even if he’s standing alongside you.

This categorically tells us that when the Holy Spirit made His entrance on the Day of Pentecost, it was no quiet affair. It was loud, noisy, thunderous, and boisterous. Although the Holy Spirit is a Gentleman, He isn’t afraid of a loud noise.

The truth is, the entrance of the Third Person of the Trinity was so vociferous that every person present on the Day of Pentecost understood that the Holy Spirit had descended, just as Jesus prophesied (
see
John 14:16). Ever since that time the Holy Spirit has been on the earth to represent and glorify Jesus and to empower believers to do the works of Jesus.

These past 2,000 years — and as long as the Church Age exists — have been and will be the
Dispensation of the Holy Spirit.
As wonderful as this Dispensation is, all of our hearts long for that day when the clouds will roll back and Jesus Himself once again will descend into the world. But until that time when Jesus suddenly and supernaturally appears, this is and will remain the age when the Holy Spirit is at work as Jesus’ Representative in the world. This is why we must do everything we can to learn more about the Holy Spirit and how to partner with Him in this life.

Since this is the Dispensation of the Holy Spirit and Jesus Himself has been physically absent from the earth since the day He ascended into Heaven, where is Jesus now and what has He been doing for the last 2,000 years?

When Jesus’ feet lifted from the earth and He was received into Heaven, Hebrews 8:6 tells us that He started the next phase of His ministry — a phase so wonderful that this verse calls it “…
a more excellent ministry
, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.”

The Greek word for “excellent” means
incomparable, unparalleled, unsurpassed, unmatched, finest, greatest
, or
most excellent
. This means Jesus’ present-day ministry is
not even to be compared
to His previous earthly ministry. In fact, Hebrews 8:6 emphatically lets us know that Jesus’ ministry in this Dispensation of the Holy Spirit is His
finest, greatest,
and
most excellent
ministry.

Why is this phase of Jesus’ ministry so excellent?

What is He doing right now that is so mighty?

The moment Jesus sat down at the Father’s right hand, His ministry was initiated as the Great High Priest to everyone who calls on His name. Under the Old Covenant, there were many priests, but each of them eventually died due to their human condition. However, Hebrews 7:24,25 declares, “But this man [Jesus], because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing that he ever liveth to make intercession for them.”

Jesus' ministry today is to represent you to the Father. And because Jesus lived on earth as a Man, He understands every problem or temptation that will ever come your way.