Hello. I pray this post would stretch your heart and mind to the great story of Christ in our generations. Graciously and thankfully we are not alone.
Expansion
One of the mysteries of the gospel is the multiple aspects of our journey. We follow in the footsteps of those who’ve gone before us, and yet travel deeper, richer, and farther in the revelation of Jesus Christ.
There is much to be conquered, and it will take the entire New Testament Church age for Christ in his church to apprehend the completion and maturity of the sons and daughters of God.
The plan of God, from the time of Adam has been advancing, ultimately culminating in the establishment of Christ’s kingdom on earth. You and I play a vital part in the advancement of Christ’s kingdom, first in us, then in others.
Expansion Foretold
The advance and expansion of the kingdom of God is threaded throughout the Old Covenant in types and shadows and New Covenant in the plain text of Scripture and parables.
It is even evident in the order and context of certain New Testament writings, (Romans through Thessalonians), and of course, in the seven churches of the book of Revelation.
For example, the writings of Romans through Thessalonians paint a picture of the stages of growth, maturity and completion of the sons and daughters of God. You find a similar display of spiritual growth and maturity in the seven churches.
(Even the order of the six days of creation and all that was involved speaks and points to the plan of God in Christ, in the church and Israel, for this creation.)
And one needs to only look at the proliferation of the gospel of Jesus Christ since the time of Luther to see the approaching maturity and completion of the sons and daughters of God.
Over the last couple hundred years, starting in Europe, much of the world has been offered and invited into the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Connected to the Family of God
Jesus promised not to leave you and me as orphans. We are intimately connected to the great stories of the family of God.
(I remember one time, and maybe you’ve had this experience as well, where the Lord comforted me by showing what I was experiencing was something a specific person from the Old Testament experienced.)
Christ’s story, connected him to the great stories of men and women all the way back to the first Adam. Christ’s genealogy is first and foremost the “stories” in the “seeds” (their fruitfulness) preceding Christ.
And Peter, continues the legacy by connecting himself not only back to Christ, but back to the ancients in the time of Noah (1 Peter Chapter 3 and 2 Peter Chapter 2). And in connecting himself, he connects you and me as well.
And so, like Peter, we draw sustenance (i.e., wisdom) from the fruitfulness of those who preceded and prefigured Christ (for example, Noah), from those following Christ (for example, Peter), and feast on the greater revelation Christ is revealing of himself today – to you and me.
Yes, the insight and revelation of Jesus Christ today is greater than those who preceded us, even the first century church. The kingdom of God continues to advance in revelation, in power, in expanse, and in the depths of the heart and mind of men and women.
Men and women of God, in the womb of the church, are growing and maturing in the wisdom and stature of Jesus Christ, increasingly advancing his kingdom from generation to generation.
We serve a living God. We serve a risen Savior. God is doing an unprecedented work of righteousness in the hearts and mind of men and women as never before.
***
Are you comforted by the Lord Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit today? Is comfort and peace fleeting? Do you desire the deeper things of Jesus Christ, to experience him deeply and passionately?
Do you desire the revelation of Jesus Christ to the wounds and brokenness within you?
Do you face opposition from within and without? At times does opposition seem to sabotage the work of Christ in your life?
My friend take heart. Christ has not abandoned you and me to the lawlessness of our own hearts and minds and to the lawlessness of this culture. Christ is here, now…
Jesus, come and visit with us in the delight and love of the Holy Spirit. Jesus, come and wrap your arms of grace and warmth around our cold hearts and revive them to life.
Jesus come and press your lips against ours, that our mouth and hearts might be cleansed of all bitterness and resentment.
Jesus, come and cleanse us, body, soul, and spirit. Remove the soil of past generations and culture.
Jesus, come and wash away the stain of our sins and the blemishes of our youth. Come and clothe us with the righteousness of Christ from the inside out.
***
Continuing our short journey in 1 Peter:
1 Peter chapter 3, “17 For it is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good then for doing evil. 18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit.” (NIV)
“19 After being made alive, he went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits – 20 to those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water,” (NIV)
“21 and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also – not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ,” (NIV)
2 Peter 2:5, “if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others;” (NIV)
Hebrews 11:7, “By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith.” (NIV)
The Flood
I believe there was a special dispensation of grace to Noah’s generation. Noah was the forerunner for those who would follow and prepare for the coming of the Lord in the floodwaters.
Noah prefigured the true baptism unto righteousness, completed and fulfilled by Christ.
In 1 Peter, Peter, reflecting on his personal walk of sanctification (his testimony, 1 Peter 1:2, see Part 10 in this series), writes, in effect, in Chapter 3 – Noah prefigured the baptism of sanctification he’s undergone these last 30 years or so which Christ pioneered, fulfilled and completed, and, sadly, there were those in Noah’s generation who were disobedient to it.
What is it about Noah, and Noah’s generation, compelling Peter to include their journey in his letter, other than the general knowledge of Noah of the day?
What is it about Peter that connects him to Noah so personally he includes him twice in the only letters we have of his writings? Was it a personal revelation from the Lord about some aspect of Peter’s own life?
There are probably many reasons why Peter included the story of Noah in his letters. Peter was the first to be taken by Christ into the baptism of sanctification, at least from the evidence we have in the Scriptures. (See Part 5 in the series)
And like Noah and Christ, Peter came to understand the suffering of opposition from within and without in the healing and restoration journey Christ laid out for him.
One thing is certain. We all have the potential and natural inclination to say no to God at some point in our journey like the disobedient of Noah’s generation.
Maybe Peter is reminding you and me, comforting himself and us as well, be not discouraged – Noah and his family faced sufferings and opposition, but endured the baptism and prepared for the coming of God.
How much more, we who have Christ, who has endured all things for us and provided everything we need, shall apprehend and overcome in like manner.
In essence, Peter is saying, “Look, our natural man does not want to be baptized in Christ – to die to sin and walk in newness of life – but I, like Noah and Christ have overcome the face of opposition, so, in Jesus, you can to!
The flood is a type of revival – more intense following a time of preparation. It is comparable to the Lord coming, “taking” his saints, yet deeper still, in intimate fellowship and relationship, ushering them into a new place in his Spirit.
Preparation and revival are interconnected. One leads to the other, and you cannot have one without the other, unless in your particular story, time runs out and the Lord cannot wait any longer.
There is a timetable in the grand scheme of things and the plan of God.
Thankfully, men and women in the womb of the church have the opportunity now for deep and intimate revival in the inner man (the revelation of Jesus Christ in grace, 1 Peter 1:13), all the while the church is moving forward and bordering a corporate revival on a grand scale.
There is an unfolding of the Lord’s revelation in successive moves of the Spirit. Since the time of Luther, the revelation of the Lord has increased from generation to generation.
The floodwaters of revival will take those who prepare, who respond now to the call of God to go deep in him, into yet a deeper place in God.
We do not live isolated lives; God’s grace is here to take his sons and daughters deeper in him, and deeper yet again and again when the waves of revival come.
A word of caution. If precedent is history, our journey is a long and arduous at times. There will be seasons of scarcity and famine in the journey.
Like the time of Elijah, those who are preparing now, and those in the church at large, may need to endure a season of scarcity and famine before the floodwaters and rains of God’s Holy Spirit comes.
The flood is a continuation of Noah and his family’s journey, more intimate, more revelatory, and greater glory.
The flood is a type of the “word” made flesh, a tangible demonstration of the word of God. It is also a type of the “Spirit” of God, bringing the truth of God’s word in power and conviction.
And it is also a type of the coming “blood” of Christ, expressing the travail of sanctification – dying to sin to walk in newness of life.
In essence, it is a cleansing of the body, soul, and spirit – the whole man, a type of the baptism of Jesus Christ, pioneered by Christ, and made available to you and me.
To the ones who have submitted and held firm to the revealing of Christ in their life by grace, the flood continues the journey in baptism – greater revelation of the word, greater power of the Spirit in healing, and greater death to sin.
To the ones who have not prepared, who did not respond to the call of God, or turn aside in their journey, the “disobedient(?),” they may be like the five virgins who did not have enough oil in their lamps.
Or, maybe like the Laodiceans who are saved in the tribulation, holding firm in Christ, giving their life and refusing the mark of the beast in the flood of evil and persecution.
Noah’s journey, Christ’s journey, Peter’s journey and yours and mine are all interconnected, pillared on Christ, designed by God to reveal his grace, delight and love in mankind.
The flood is an outward expression of what has come to fruition in people’s life – those who heap judgment on themselves and others, receive the flood as waters of death.
Those who receive Christ’s care and sanctifying work in the inner man receive the flood as waters of greater life, intimacy and connection with God.
There’s will be greater death to sin, surrendering of rights and privileges, and greater authority and rulership advancing the kingdom of God.
Those who heed the call of Christ, prepare, and are made ready by Christ, will receive increased life when the flood of his Spirit comes.
And those who fail to heed Christ, miss the Scriptures, or the call of the Lord Jesus Christ, may have a quick work done in them by the flood of his Spirit, and experience what Jesus intended for them late in their journey.
The church is certainly in transition. Who knows how many more moves of God will come and go before the New Testament age transits into the Millennium?
Who knows how many times the Lord will call his church to seek him with all their heart?
Who knows how many opportunities and chances we all have to deepen our relationship with Christ, to be taken deep in him, transformed into his glorious image?
Who knows how many opportunities the church has to come out of the world and be separate under Christ?
The good news is, Jesus is here, now, calling you and me deep in him; to prepare us for the banqueting table of his love and care.
***
The flood waters of God’s Spirit “reveal” the inner man and woman, and in grace, grant those in Christ and those new to Christ, an opportunity to go deep in Jesus, to be changed by Jesus, transformed, sanctified, a new creation in Christ.
Sadly, some may not be prepared nor accept his invitation to go deeper in him.
Christ has a large plan. Jesus desires all of us, you and me, to make the most of everything we have in Christ, now.
Oh, the magnificent and majestic and gentle love of Christ.
Now is the time to experience and invest everything we can in the things of God.
Together, let’s respond to the call of Jesus Christ to take us deep in him, as far as we can go in the richness of his love and grace.
Only Christ knows this path. He’s waiting for our response to his call.
Blessings, Drake
(NIV) Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright© 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.Zondervan.com The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblical, Inc.™
