Jesus' Ministry: God's Mystery Secret for Life

Jesus’ Ministry:

God’s Mystery Secret For Life

James Magee III, DDS

Copyright © 2012 by James Magee III, DDS.

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ISBN: 978-1-4497-6473-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4497-6472-2 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4497-6474-6 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012915545

WestBow Press rev. date: 09/11/2012

Contents

Introduction

The Tabernacle: God’s Design For Reconciliation

The Tabernacle From Man’s Perspective: The Law

The Tabernacle From God’s Perspective: Grace

Christ-Centered Living

Christ-Centered Worship: The Furniture Pieces

Christ, The Hope Of Glory

Author Biography

Introduction

Between 2003-2010, I experienced my greatest church worshipping experience. There is something to be said about a church filled with excitement and celebration every Sunday, with a praise and worship team so good it could be in the class with Hillsong as the best around. Those were exciting times.

Well, I guess you know that since I am speaking in the past tense, there has to be a story here. And there is.

I grew up in the church, as a preacher’s kid. My dad is a pastor at a Baptist church and has been since I was born. Growing up in a small town in southern Mississippi, church was my life. Everything we did centered around our church, although school and sports allowed me the opportunity to have fun and not feel as if I were being watched or judged. I truly believe that churchgoers back then started out being sincere about God, but eventually the judgmental and condemning thinking would become part of you. I can remember many instances of seeing someone sing or preach the church down, only to witness them later get caught in some act of sin and be condemned for it, often to the point where they would leave the church and never return. I saw this happen time and time again, and I used to find myself saying, What a waste of talent.

As I got older, I began to notice that the church experience was a repeated cycle of a feel-good experience. I mean, it was exciting while it lasted, but it never translated to producing fruit or results in my Christian walk. I am not saying the seed or the Word of God that was planted by my parents didn’t have an impact on my life, because it did. This is the reason that I am in love with my Lord Jesus Christ today. However, the picture that was painted in my mind was not the acts that I saw Jesus and the apostles performing. Therefore, as I got older, I started asking God why these acts weren’t manifesting in the church.

Well, if you know God and you keep on asking Him your questions, He will eventually answer. His answer came in 2003, when He led my former wife and me to a Pentecostal church. This church experience was different from all the rest. The pastor taught more like a non-denominational minister. There was freedom in the atmosphere. I saw miracles manifested by the power of God. Intimate with God the Father, people were being loved, healed, and taught. From the parking lot volunteers, door greeters, children’s ministry, and the worship leaders, all the way up to the pastors, it was nothing but the love of God released to the members. I remember saying to myself for the first time in my life, I really enjoy going to church. I felt that my pastor loved his members, and that message was communicated by his supporting staff and volunteers.

This church was a God church. The congregation was White, African-American, Latino, Asian, and African, Mideasterner—you name the ethnic group, we had it—with everyone praising God and enjoying the fellowship. I know you are thinking that there is no way all of this could be happening in one church, because that would be called a perfect church. I thought the same thing. But for the first time, I was seeing acts performed by Jesus and the apostles come to pass. So as far as I was concerned, it was as perfect as a church could be.

Then the unthinkable happened. In early 2010, there was a major disagreement between the pastor and leaders of the church, causing a major separation of a seventy-five-hundred-member congregation. I had heard of church hurt but never experienced it, and I was a leader involved in this affair as it unfolded. I sat and watched things go on that stressed me out to the max. I asked myself, If we are brothers and sisters in Christ, why are we at odds with one another to the point of non-reconciliation? God through Christ has forgiven us; why can we not forgive each other? I remember sitting in a board meeting and watching all this drama unfold, saying to myself that we were pushing the Word of God and the Spirit of God aside to allow the flesh to lead—and that this couldn’t have a happy ending. It didn’t.

Finally, I decided to resign as a board member and leave the church—the same church that had helped me see a side of God that I was reading in the Bible. It was a hard thing to do, but my wife at that time and I were in agreement. At this point, I was disappointed in the leadership of the church, so I did not have the desire to get involved with another church anytime soon. I thought, If the children of God can’t work together in brotherly love, then who can? We are supposed to be an example to the world, but if we are fighting and back-biting one another, how can we lead the lost to a loving Savior? The answer was that we can’t, if we are divided.

A few months after all the drama with the church, I relocated to another area due to a job promotion. As soon as my family and I were settled in, we immediately started to visit churches in the area. You would be correct in guessing that the churches we visited did not come close to the worship experience of our former church, so I began to seek God for direction. What He shared with me blew my mind and changed my life forever. God sees the end from the beginning; therefore, what we may see as a problem or a curse is something that is occurring to move you into your destiny of blessing, favor, and protection—you could say it was entering you into God’s rest. The purpose is to help you cease all your self-efforts and instead to trust God to go before you to perform all of your prayers. God started telling me that He was entering me into His rest. I had heard other ministers talk about this, but I guess I didn’t get the revelation of it. I now understand it. God was moving me out of a system that was teaching self-effort. I was seeing results in my life, but many of those results involved my efforts. At least I thought they did. Over time, this type of ministry will drain the life out of you. This is called a ministry of death, or the Law, or the ministry of condemnation. Paul talked about this type of ministry in 2 Corinthians 3:6-8. The ministry of death (Ten Commandments) has some glory, but the end is death. The ministry of righteousness far exceeds the former because it involves Jesus and God alone performing the works. God never created us to perform His Word; if that were the case then there would be no need for Jesus and His ministry of righteousness to replace the Law (Ten Commandments), the ministry of death. God created us for love. His desire is to love us. You will understand this better as the Holy Spirit walks us through the tabernacle explaining these very facts.

I know, you’re asking yourself where I’m going with this. Trust me, I was just as blown away with these teachings as you will be. We serve a loving God. He is also a jealous God, and He will not share the spotlight with anyone. It is time for us as the body of Christ to put our pride aside and acknowledge that we are poor and helpless without our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Then and only then can we see the Lord as our deliverer in whatever area we lack, and God the Father will bring it to pass. If you don’t believe me, just read about any of the miracles Jesus performed in the four gospels. They came to Him in that type of mind-set, saying, Jesus, we need you. Can you or will you help us? His answer was always, Yes. What do you need today? If you come to Jesus in this way, He will answer you. Wow! We serve a loving Savior.

This book is written in love to encourage, strengthen, refresh, and restore the body of Christ in preparation for Jesus’ return. It is written to shed light on the state of the church and to warn of the danger of not accepting or believing in Jesus’ finished work, thereby ignoring the grace of God in your life.

I do not write this book to create an atmosphere of fear or panic. I believe if you read this book and study the Scriptures for yourself, you will be in an excellent position to make an informed decision concerning your Christian walk.

This book is also going to focus on the tabernacle and the importance it plays in atoning and reconciling God’s children. Remember that from the beginning of time, sin has been and always will be an enemy of God, but it is God’s desire to fellowship or tabernacle with us. The problem is that we are sinners. However, God is holy, and can never come into the presence of sin without judgment being executed. Therefore, there has to be a plan to atone and reconcile us from sin so that we can fellowship or tabernacle with Him. The tabernacle was the meeting place for the children of Israel in the Old Testament; it is also the meeting place for the body of Christ in the New Testament of covenant. I will explain this to give clarity between the old and new covenant design tabernacle. I believe it is God’s desire to continue fellowship with His chosen people this way; He desires to walk His children right up to the secret place of the Most High God—the throne of God—through an intimate relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

In summary, this book will establish the importance of the tabernacle and its impact on the church worship experience, as well as help the body of believers to develop a revelation knowledge and understanding of our King Jesus Christ. The more Word you see concerning Jesus, the more intimate you become with Him. As a result, Jesus will present you to God the Father. Once in His presence, the glory of God is manifested. Most every Christian desires to enter into His glory, but believe me, it is more God’s desire to welcome His children back into His presence than it is our desire to enter. If you will allow the Holy Spirit to guide you as you read this book, He will open your eyes and reveal to you a spiritual roadmap into the very presence of the almighty God.

Enjoy it, and allow your intimate walk with Jesus to lead you to the throne of God.

If you are unsaved, and have a desire to give your life to the Lord Jesus Christ, anytime while reading this book. You can return to this page and confess this prayer:

Lord Jesus, you said if I speak your name with my mouth, and believe that God raised you from the dead that you would save me. Now that I have done so, I ask you to save me and come into my heart and change my way of thinking. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

The Tabernacle: God’s Design for Reconciliation

I doubt that even Moses, the man God used to lead His children out of Egypt, had any idea as to how much of an impact the tabernacle would have on the Jews, not to mention the whole world. I believe he was just obeying the instruction of God, the Father, not knowing that the design of the tabernacle was God’s message of how Jesus, the Son of God, would come from God the Father into this world to save men and bring them back to God.

Hang on in this chapter; there are a lot of foundational teachings that have to be established before we can get into the meat of the teaching. Before I go any further, let me ask you a question. Based on what I have said so far in this chapter, do you see God showing His love for us, or do you see us showing our love for Him? I believe you see what I see: God is showing His love for us. So why are we being taught that we need to love God with all of our heart, mind, and soul, when that was never communicated by God when He designed the tabernacle? In