Herald of Life The Easter Emphasis! T Pastor Joe McIntyre he Church in the West has reduced the gospel to, Christ died for your sins, receive Him as your Savior, and go to heaven when you die. As true as all these things are, that is not what the early Church preached. A survey of the book of Acts will confirm that they majored on the resurrection and the enthroning of Christ. Notice in Peter s first sermon on the Day of Pentecost: Therefore, [David] being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, He would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne, he, foreseeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that His soul was not left in Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption. This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses. Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear. For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he says himself: The Lord said to my Lord, sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool. Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. The apostle Paul also majored on the resurrection: And though they [the Jewish leaders] found no cause for death in Him, (continued on page 5) The Greatest Event in Human History The Resurrection of Jesus Christ is the greatest event in human history. Faith in His Resurrection has changed the course of human history. It has changed the life of every man who has embraced it. It is the living force in the world this hour. Matt. 28:1-8 tells us of the dramatic events surrounding His Resurrection: the earthquake, the rolling away of the stone that closed the mouth of the sepulcher, and the angel seated upon it who said, speaking to the women, Fear not ye; for I know that ye seek Jesus, who hath been crucified. He is not here; he is risen, even as he said, Come, see the place where the Lord lay. He died as Jesus, He arose as THE LORD. The women had come to finish the embalming, and they found Him alive. A few moments after the angel had spoken, Jesus suddenly appeared to them saying, All hail Fear not; go tell my brethren that they depart into Galilee, and there shall they see me. Luke 24:1-12 tells us the same J A N U A R Y. - A P R I L 2 0 1 5 He is not here; he is risen, even as he said, Come, see the place where the Lord lay. story, told by another witness of the rolling away of the stone, the appearance of the angels, and other evidences of His Resurrection. John 20:1-10 gives us a most graphic picture of these momentous events. (continued on page 3)
Herald of Life 2 NEWS of the Ministry D Bonnie & Jim Dofelmier ear friend, having aged recently another year, I can look back at my life and see all that I should have been as a person, husband, father and friend and as I should be today. In all those past days, I m sure everyone has seen me very differently, even my family and friends. It s important as Christians for us to know that God sees us too and not because of what or who we are, but because of who He is. So let s remember that only and celebrate this Easter with God, our Father and His Son, our risen Savior. Now the News of Ministry here is good, as our God is forever faithful, especially on the Kenyon Team s end that has made the Ministry side of our publishing company a huge success for our Lord Jesus and His Gospel. Your tithes and offerings are what help the Ministry spread the Good News through Dr. Kenyon s teachings all over the world. Several years ago through Pastors in India, we put one of our Christian tracts in the Telugu language with some success. Today we are considering having one of our books that is yet to be determined published by a great Christian Church in Southern India in the native Telugu and their main Hindi languages. We are always trying to keep the Gospel open to all as Jesus asked us to do. In December of last year we lost a great friend to this Ministry, Don Gossett of which many of you know and are familiar with. He was a great man of God that I was honored to know and share a couple of lunches with Him. Bonnie knew him better than I though. He authored many books over the years, several of them sharing his message and Kenyon s messages together. He was a great Evangelist and has preached the Gospel to millions over sixty years in more than 80 countries of which one he dearly loved and that would be India. I respectfully ask that you visit his website www.dongossett.com and learn the true story of a really beloved servant of God. He was our friend for more than fifty years. His wife Debra carries on his treasured works and Ministry today. May I also say that we are losing a faithful employee of Kenyon s of over 40 years to a warmer and drier climate in the eastern part of Washington. She is retiring and hopefully she ll enjoy her life there to the fullest, as she certainly deserves it. We will certainly keep her and her husband in our prayers. Her name is Barbara Collins and she ll be dearly missed. Bonnie and I want to wish each of you a blessed Easter and that our Lord s peace and comfort fill you always. A peace and comfort the world will never know unless we tell them how to receive it through our good works for our Lord and Savior. There is much to be done, but let not your hearts be troubled, because we have the Helper and Our Lord who is always with us to show us the way. He is faithful! Our Audio Books are now available to download in the MP3 format. Visit our website: www.kenyons.org What We Believe We stand for the whole Bible as the whole revelation of God in Christ, and that what God revealed in Christ is every true believer s heritage. We believe in the Eternal Godhead of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We believe in the finished work of Jesus Christ. We believe in the Holy Spirit, and His indwelling presence. We believe healing is for us. We believe the miracles of the Book of Acts are to be perpetuated. We believe in the new kind of love that Jesus brought to be the law of the brethren, and we believe that we are to walk in that love. We believe in the Great Commission. We believe in the eternal reward of the righteousness and the eternal punishment of the wicked. We believe that Jesus Christ is the Head and Lord of the Body. We believe in the Second Coming of our Lord.
The Greatest Event in Human History (continued from page 1) In John 19:39-41 the scriptures tell of embalming the body of Jesus. They used a mixture of myrrh and aloes, of about one hundred pounds. Linen cloth was torn up into strips, smeared with this sticky substance, and each hand, foot, arm and leg, was wrapped solidly like an Egyptian mummy. (They had learned this type of embalming during their captivity in Egypt.) Every part of the body was hermetically sealed except the face. It was to embalm the face that was left for three days that the women came to the sepulcher. It is evident that Jesus came out of this rock-hard cocoon, leaving it intact, with just the opening for the face, as when John saw it, he believed instantly that Christ had actually been raised from the dead. A God-Sized Miracle The Resurrection of Jesus is a Godsized miracle. There was no secrecy about it. It was done in the open. Acts 26:26, Paul standing before Festus said, speaking of the Resur rec - tion, For this hath not been done in a corner. The empty grave clothes (or mummified cocoon) left in the tomb, had been a silent witness of the actual Resurrection of Jesus for days and says, until on the Day of Pentecost, hundreds of thousands of Jews had seen the evidence of His Resurrection. Acts 2 tells us that an uneducated fisherman stood before a multitude of Jews on the Day of Pentecost, and in a thirty minute address convinced three thousand that Jesus had arisen from the dead, and that He was the Messiah. If three thousand were converted in the city of Jerusalem, under the very shadow of the cross, and almost in sight of the tomb, there must have been some evidences that were absolutely overwhelming! When Peter and John were arrested, as recorded in Acts 4, the Sanhedrin were whipped and defeated, and they charged the apostles that it should spread no further among the people, and they threatened them, and said that they were not to preach in this Name. In the Name of Jesus they had performed marvelous miracles. The Sanhedrin found that the Name of this Resurrected One was as mighty as He had been when He walked in Galilee. They charged them not to teach or to speak in the Name of Jesus. Let us read carefully the first five chapters of the Book of Acts, and we will find evidences of the Resurrection of Jesus that no one can successfully repudiate. No one in Jerusalem questioned the Reality of the Resurrection, and because of the facts that could not be repudiated, they sought by physical violence to silence the testimony of the disciples a confession of its Reality. What the Resurrection Means to Us In I Cor. 15:3-4 the Spirit says through Paul, For I delivered unto you first of all that which also I received; that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried; and that he hath been raised on the third day according to the scriptures. The reason for the Resurrection is seen here. He died for our sins. Romans 4:25, Who was delivered up for our trespasses, and was raised for our justification. He died for our sins, but He was raised because He had done that which would make our Justification possible, and so when He was raised from the dead we were Justified. Romans 8:1 illustrates it. There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. This means a complete Justification. Heb. 9:26, He put sin away by the sacrifice of Himself. This is the first and only settlement of the sin problem ever made for man. Now it is going to be easy for you to walk even as He walked, to live even as He lived, so that when your earth walk is finished you will find it perfectly natural to meet your heavenly Father without fear. The Resurrection Means Victory Man has been a failure in every period of human history. He has lived under the stigma of defeat. He has suffered the dominion of Satan through Spiritual Death. He has been humiliated with sickness and disease and finally conquered by death, but Jesus brought life and immortality to the human race. The Spirit climaxes Redemption in Romans 8:37, Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. The New Creation is united with Deity, as we find in Romans 6:4-7. You are actually raised together with Him, and His Resurrection Life is yours. You have become a dominant person rather than a dominated person. You have become a member of the body of Christ. Sin s dominion over you has been broken. The Centenary translation of Romans 6:14 should thrill you. For sin shall not lord it over you. Sin has lorded it over us. (Sin is another synonym for Satan.) It has ruled over our bodies, but Satan s dominion has come to an end. Romans 5:17 (Weymouth), For if by the trespass of the one (that was Adam) death reigned as a king through the one, much more shall they that receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness, reign as kings in the realm of life through Jesus Christ our Lord. We have received the abundance of grace and the gift of a right standing with God without condemnation. We have lived under condemnation, we have lived in bondage, now we have moved out into the realm of liberty of the sons and daughters of God. Romans 8:1, There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. Romans 8:32-33, Who shall lay any- (continued on page 5) 3
His Work is Complete W hen I know that Jesus died for me, that all that He did was done for me, I will stop thinking of Redemption as a great world program, and I will think of it as God and me. He gave His Son for me. He laid my sin on Jesus. He put the whole of me, my sin nature, my sickness, my diseases, my ignorance, my union with Satan, all of me upon Christ. When I know these facts, Redemption becomes a reality. Healing is no longer a problem. Finances are no longer a burden, because I am now in the family. I am in Christ, delivered from Satan s dominion, recreated, a partaker of the divine nature, a branch of the vine, actually one with Christ. Until I know this, I will be struggling, trying, praying, and seeking. When I know these facts, all my struggling is ended. His finished work was for me. What had He finished? What does it mean? It means a perfect Redemption from Satan s dominion. Satan can no longer afflict me with his diseases and his weakness. He can no longer keep me in poverty. What Jesus said about the Father is now a loving beautiful reality. Matt. 6:32. For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first His Kingdom, and His Righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. I am in the Kingdom. I am His Righteousness. Consequently, these things are being added unto me. Satan is whipped for all time. He has no dominion over the New Creation, of which I am a part. The New Creation s head is Jesus. The old creationís head is Satan. Satan holds the old creation in bondage. Jesus holds the New Creation in freedom. Satan has no lordship over the New Creation. Disease and sickness are impossible to him who walks in the light of the Word. Another tremendous fact is that the New Creation is a reality. It is not a doctrine, a creed, a philosophy, or metaphysics. It is as actual as the old creation. We are new creations, created in Christ Jesus. 2 Cor. 5:17. That New Creation is as real as the first creation. This time it is a spiritual creation. The other creation was physical. For of His fullness we all received,and grace upon grace. This time the very nature and life of God is imparted to this creation. We actually become members of the body of Christ. He is the vine out of which the branches have grown. We are a part of Himself. His life is ours; His nature is ours. We have become the Righteousness of God in Christ. This is the most soul-satisfying fact. What peace, what rest, what gentle quietness holds our spirit prisoner! 2 Cor. 5:21, Him who knew no sin He made to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. By the New Birth that Righteousness has become a fact. We have no sense of guilt. Romans 8:1, There is therefore now no condemnation. This is a blessed reality. Romans 5:17 much more shall they that receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, even Jesus Christ. Get the picture. You have received the abundance of grace. You have received the gift of Righteousness, the ability to stand in the Father s presence now without any sense of inferiority or sin or weakness or failure. We stand complete in Him. John 1:16 For of His fullness we all received, and grace upon grace. We are His very sons and daughters, actually members of His own body. We have the same standing before the Father as Jesus has. As He was, so were we. As He is today, so are we because we are in Him. We have the use of the Name of Jesus. That Name was given to us to help those who are not blessed as we are, but who are living under the dominion of Satan, whose bodies are wracked with pain, whose minds are filled with fear. We come as the Jesus men and women, and in the Name of our Lord we command the forces of darkness to be broken over these loved ones. We take their emancipation, their deliverance. We cast the demon out, we drive the disease out. We leave their minds clear to accept Christ as Saviour. We are the Righteousness of God. We are taking Jesus place. We have the sense of Righteousness. We are today one with Him, acting in His stead. 4
The Greatest Event in Human History thing to the charge of God s elect? It is God that has justified, or declared you righteous. There is no being in the universe that can put you under condemnation. 2 Cor. 5:21, Him who knew no sin God made to become sin that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. God made Jesus to become sin. The object was that by a New Birth, based upon the Resurrection of Christ, man might become a New Creation. Heb. 7:25 Wherefore also He is able to save to the uttermost them that draw near unto God through him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. By His death He put sin away, by His Resurrection He brings Justification to us. Now as a man, He goes into the presence of God and sits down at God s right hand, as the mediator and Intercessor for man. On the ground of His finished work He is able to save to the uttermost every one that comes to God through Him. The Resurrection was the center around which the early church moved. What the Resurrection Gives to Us No one adequately understands this yet. There is more in the Resurrection of Jesus than we have ever understood. Romans 3:21-26 tells us how, on the ground of the finished work which was consummated in His Resurrection and carrying of His blood into the Heavenly Holy of Holies, God can legally declare us Righteous. Heb. 9:11-12 tells us that He entered in once for all into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. Romans 3:21-26 shows us what that Redemption means. We became, by that Redemption, New Creations, partakers of the very nature of God, on legal grounds. Jesus became what we were so that we now become what He is, Righteous. He took our place as a sinner in order that we might take His place at the Father s right hand. He was made sin for us that we might be made the Righteous - ness of God in Him. He was made sick with our diseases that we might be made well through His Name. He became sin, accursed, cast out, sent to the place where we would have gone, met the awful penalties that should have been visited upon us, in order that we might stand before the Father without condemnation New Creations the very sons and daughters of God without spot or wrinkle. In that plan of Redemption we were to stand complete in Him. We were to be the fullness of God in Him. Heb. 4:14-16. We were to have access to the throne of Grace with boldness, freedom and liberty. We were to have a legal right to a home with our Father through eternity. Heaven legally becomes our home. God legally has become our very Father. We have become partakers of the Father s nature, love, and that makes us a love-family. It Gives Us Assurance of Heaven The climax of Redemption of course must be Heaven. Eternal fellowship with the Father. The Easter Emphasis! they asked Pilate that He should be put to death. Now when they had fulfilled all that was written concerning Him, they took Him down from the tree and laid Him in a tomb. But God raised Him from the dead. He was seen for many days by those who came up with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are His witnesses to the people. And we declare to you glad tidings that promise which was made to the fathers. God has fulfilled this for us HIs children, in that He has raised up Jesus. As it is also written in the second Psalm: (continued from page 3) John 14:1-6, In my Father s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and will receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. This has afforded more consolation and comfort to the human heart than any other sentence uttered by man. You notice first that He calls God, Father, Our Father. Romans 8:14-16, The New Birth has taken us into the family of God. We are now His children, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. God is now my Father, so that gives me a right to my Father s home. Heaven becomes legally ours the moment we are Born Again. John 3:3, Except one be born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God. You see, the New Birth is from above. It is of God. Eph. 2:10, For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus. This New Creation is made out of Eternal Life, the nature of God. 1 John 5:13, These things have I written unto you, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, even unto you that believe on the Name of the Son of God. Eph. 2:1, And you did he make alive, when ye were dead through your trespasses and sins. You see by these that you are a New Creation, a partaker of the Divine Nature, a very child of God. The nature of the Father has been given to you. (continued from page 1) You are My Son, today I have begotten You. And that He raised Him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, He has spoken thus: I will give you the sure mercies of David. As you can see from these two examples (which would be confirmed and enlarged by a survey of Acts) the focus was not on the death of Christ but rather His resurrection and victory over death. As we celebrate His resurrection let us remember: death is defeated, Satan is conquered and Jesus is Lord! 5
H We are Linked Up with God ow beautiful was Jesus story of the vine and the branches. It shows how we are more than near to Him, that we are actually a part of Him. The same life that flows through the Vine pours itself into the branches, causing them to bear fruit. We have Vine Life. Think of it. Say it over and over again, I have in me the very life of God. I have the nature of God. I have His substance and being in me. He has become our wisdom so that we may know how to rightly divide His Word and feed His people. How the heart thrills with the consciousness that Jesus was made unto us wisdom. When we advance into the deeper things of God, we no longer pray for wisdom because we have it in Christ. James, writing to the babes in Christ, tells them how to pray for wisdom, but Paul, speaking out from the heart of the Master, said, God has made Him to be wisdom unto us. He is not only our wisdom, but He is also our Redemption. How closely we are allied with Him. He was made unto us Righteousness. Now we have in us, as a part of us, the very thing that made Jesus the Master over disease and sickness, over demons and the laws of nature, and circumstances that surrounded Him. The thing that made Jesus a Master was Righteousness. He was made Righteousness unto us from God. We have in us all the elements that go to make for victory and usefulness. He was made unto us Sanctification. You can safely say, He is my sanctification. Of His fullness have we all received and grace piled upon grace. John 1:16. We have such an abundance of His grace. We have such unspeakable fullness. Here is something the mind cannot grasp. The completeness of Jesus is ours. It abides in us. We have received of His fullness. We have His love nature. We have that nature in us that drove Him to the cross. Now it will drive us to bear our cross and to take our place in this life of faith. God is now our own very Father. We are linked up with Him. We are utterly one with Him. He is in us, we are in Him. He is a part of us, we are a part of Him. We are His children by nature. We are born of Heaven. We are begotten of the Holy Spirit. The Word has given us life. Of His own will He brought us forth. This union with the Master and with the Father is beyond human intelligence. The natural man cannot grasp it. We stand in the presence of it beggared of the ability to fathom it, and yet it is ours. We are tied up with Him. We are partakers of His Nature. We are born of His Spirit. We are indwelt by His Word. We are kept by His grace. We are controlled by His love. What more could you ask? Now you can understand, Of His fullness, of His completeness, have we all received, and grace upon grace. This newsletter is available online only. It is financed by Tithes & Love Offerings. Check out our updated website at www.kenyons.org and also now on Facebook Kenyon s Gospel Publishing P. O. Box 973 Lynnwood, WA 98046-0973 Call us toll-free at 1-866-743-4243 Our Audio Books are now available to download in the MP3 format from our website at www.kenyons.org 6