Subject: “LIFT UP JESUS HIGHER”!!!

Text:  St. John 8:28: Then said Jesus unto them, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then shall you know that I am he”.

St. John 12:32: “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me”.

In both chapters Jesus is talking to Pharisaic Jews who were always confronting Him.

But Jesus knew His purpose for being manifested was to destroy the works of the devil, 1 John 3:8, and He did.  But in order to accomplish this He knew He had to be “lifted up”.  This was His main objective, “being lifted”!!

Moses demonstrated this in Numbers 21:8-9: And the LORD said unto Moses, “Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole:  and it shall come to pass that everyone that is bitten, when he looked upon it shall live”.  And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.

The word “lifted” has a variety of applications: as to ascend (be high); accept; advance; armor; bear (er, up); recover; restore. 

There are many other aspects of “being lifted”:  Hearts are lifted; (in the sense of exalting oneself); souls are lifted; heads are lifted – “Lift up your heads oh ye gates and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors”, Psalm 24:7; the voice can be lifted; the eyes can be lifted (in the sense of knowledge); hands can be lifted (whether in giving praise or striking blows).  Yet in every sense of being lifted indicates that one is brought from a low estate to a place of high degree.

Jesus the Son of Man knew that He had to “be lifted” from “Jesus the Man” to “Christ the Anointed”!

We know the “name of Jesus” is powerful within itself.  When you mention the Name of Jesus the atmosphere automatically changes.  Demons tremble at the Name, James 2:19: Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well:  the devils also believe, and tremble.

There is power, from the root word exousi’a, meaning, dunamis, in the Name:

• Mark 16:17-18: And these signs shall follow them that believe; in my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. 
• There is healing in the Name:  Isaiah 53:5: He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities:  the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
• There is deliverance in the Name:  Luke 6:17-18: And he came down with them, and stood in the plain, and the company of his disciples, and a great multitude of people out of all Judea and Jerusalem, and from the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon, which came to hear him, and to be healed of their diseases; and they that were vexed with unclean spirits:  and they were healed.

The “name Jesus” is above every name!  Philippians 2:9: Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name.  Philippians 2:10:  At the “name of Jesus” every knee shall bow and every tongue will confess that he is Lord.  St. John 14:6: No man cometh unto the Father but by Jesus,

Even with all that power and authority He had, He knew He had to be “lifted higher”!  Why?  It was because He was a flesh man, and yet He was God.  He knew no sin but He became sin for us:                          2 Corinthians 5:21. 

Anything pertaining to flesh had to die, Galatians 5:16-26.  Why?  Vs 17: The flesh lusts against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh.  Jesus knew with Him “being lifted” from the earth, would draw all men unto Himself, by way of the Cross.

When He was nailed to the Cross in that flesh body, everything pertaining to flesh was nailed with it: ignorance; poverty; sickness; disease; death; hell; and the grave.  Everything pertaining to flesh died with Him.  He had to “be lifted higher” to attain a higher level of consciousness.

When we begin to walk after the Spirit and not the flesh, we are “lifting Him higher”!

When we come to the place when we can “care - less” about what people say about us, we’ve reached a “higher level”!!!  We are beyond the whispers and rumors because we have become so in-tuned with Spirit and all we constantly think about is working in the kingdom or shall I say allowing the kingdom to work in us!

When Jesus was taken from that Cross, Joseph of Arimathea took Jesus’ body and wrapped it in fine linen.  After being in a borrowed tomb for three days He rose on the third day, with all power.  That tomb in which He laid, although it was a physical one, it was also spiritual.  The definition of tomb comes from a Greek word, mnemei’on, meaning, a remembrance; memory.  The three days in the tomb denotes the three movements of “Mind” that are involved in overcoming everything that doesn’t pertain to God, or related to flesh or carnality.  Romans 8:6: To be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

First there’s nonresistance and humility:

• Hebrews 6:11: And we desire that every one of you do show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end.
• 1 Peter 5:6: Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time.

 

 

Secondly, the taking on of the divine activity or receiving the will of God:

• John 6:38: I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.

Thirdly, the assimilation and fulfillment of the Divine Will:

• Romans 12:1-2: I beseech you therefore brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.  And be not conformed to this world:  but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.                                                So there’s the permissive will; the submissive will; and we must be in God’s perfect will.           

What is “assimilation”?  It is the process of taking in and fully understanding information or ideas.

The three days and nights Jesus was in the tomb also conquered the three-fold temptations in Genesis chapter three that the serpent used against the Woman and she failed, the same three-fold temptation the tempter used against Jesus, and He prevailed, Matthew 4:1-11)!  All this had to do with or having to deal with “the mind”!

I’m glad Jesus died, but I’m so glad He rose!!!  “He ascended on high”!!!

 Ephesians 4:8: Wherefore he saith, “When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men”.

When Jesus ascended He did not leave the Planet!  I repeat, “When Jesus ascended, He did not leave the Planet”!  He simply entered the inner Spiritual realm.  He becomes visible to those who put on Christ and manifest their incorruptible bodies: 1 Corinthians 15:53: For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.  This doesn’t happen out beyond the blue, it can happen here and now if we believe for it!

We have to know Jesus by the Spirit.  The world system is looking and waiting for the flesh aspect of Jesus to come back and deliver them.  The flesh aspect of God was embodied in Jesus and that body was nailed to the Cross.  After His resurrection He became Spirit by depositing that body back into the
Sprit realm from whence it came out of and now He lives in us, His Church:

• 2 Corinthians 5:16-17: Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh:  yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.  Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature:  old things are passed away; Behold, all things are become new.
• Ephesians 5:30: We are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.
• 1 John 4:17: As he is, so are we, in this world.

God is a Spirit and they that worship him, must worship him in Spirit and in truth, John 4:24.

 

“LET US LIFT JESUS HIGHER”:

• Let us walk in the Spirit and not after the flesh:  Romans 8:1.
• By the renewing of our minds: Romans 12:2.
• By being doers of the word and not hearers only:  James 1:23.

By doing these things, we can fulfill Ephesians 4:13: Till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge (recognition) of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

Evangelist Mary Perry