New Covenant - Jesus Revealed Father - Part 2

John chapter 20, he told Mary in verse 17, Mary Magdalene, stop clinging to me. That's the meaning of that verse. Don't try to hold me down here on earth because I have to ascend.

You know, the King James Version says, touch me not as though nobody could touch him. In fact, he asked Thomas to touch him. What he meant was, stop clinging to me.

Don't try to hold me down. I've got to ascend to my father, but go to my brethren. Go to my brothers and say to them, I ascend to my father and your father.

That expression, my father and your father. That's the only time that Jesus ever used it. Otherwise, he was always talking about my father.

And in some other situation, your heavenly father. But never did he put the two together. Never.

It's very important to see these little things in scripture. My father and your father, which means that we can also be sons and daughters. That's the point.

That's why he prepared his disciples for the new covenant by saying, from now on, don't pray like they did in the old covenant. My guess is that 90% of Christians still pray according to the old covenant. Oh God almighty.

I do call God almighty. But most of the time, when I address God, I say father. I say dad.

Because that's the way Jesus taught me to do it. And I take every word of Jesus seriously. 95% of Christians don't.

That's why their lives are so shallow. I'll tell you a little secret. If you want to experience New Testament Christianity, take every word of Jesus seriously.

I have many times thought, if I had the time, I would do this. I don't have the time to write the things I want to write. If I had a few years with no meetings at all, I'd probably write a lot of things which I want to write.

One of the things I've had in mind is to write a little book only with Bible verses. No single word of mine. Only Bible verses which Christians don't believe.

Bible verses that Christians don't believe. That would be the title of the book. And I tell you, I could make a thick book of them.

That's the reason for the shallowness of a lot of Christianity. So, my father and your father means I'm also a son. I have come into this wonderful position through Christ.

I have come to the Father through Christ. And he said, I'm the way. The way to what? Not to heaven.

I'm sick and tired of a gospel that people preach telling people how to go to heaven. I never came to such a gospel and I never preached such a gospel. Jesus said, I'm the way no man comes to the Father.

And I'll tell you there's a world of difference between the way to heaven and the way to the Father. A lot of people who think they're going to heaven, they don't know the Father because they see Jesus as a way to heaven. He's not.

He's a way to the Father. That's right now. Those words, the way, the truth and the life.

I tell you, most Christians don't even know what it means. The way means the way to the Father. The truth does not mean 2 plus 2 is 4. That's also truth.

Or Christ died for our sins. That is truth. That's not what he's talking about.

Truth as opposed to lie. When God Peter told Ananias, why did you lie? He didn't even open his mouth. It's unreality.

What Ananias had was unreality. And Jesus was saying, I am reality. What I am outside, I am inside.

And that's the truth I need to have. Nobody in the Old Testament could have it. Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ, John 1, 17.

You think they didn't have written truth in the Old Testament? Three quarters of the Bible is Old Testament. No, he's talking about reality. Many Christians think they have the truth.

They don't have the truth. They are not real. I want to tell you in Jesus' name, if your outer life is not the same as your inner life, you don't know the truth.

If your outer life is better than your private life, you don't know the truth at all. You're living a lie. You haven't known Jesus as the truth.

And life, way, truth and life, life is eternal life. It's not living forever. It's the very life of God.

You know, there's a life in a pig that makes it behave in a certain way. There's a life in a cat that makes it behave in a certain way. There's a life in an angel.

There's a life of God, different from the life of Adam. And that's what Jesus has come to give me. The way to the Father, truth and reality in every part of my being, and the very life of God.

You shall know the truth. The truth shall set you free. You see why so many Christians are in bondage? And do you know why so many preachers, many of you have heard hundreds of preachers on television, CDs and MP3s and this, that and the other, and you claim to have been blessed by this and blessed by that and blessed by the other preacher.

Why are you so defeated then? Because what you've got is information, not truth. The truth would have set you free long ago. Information just fills your head.

I don't want information. We've got more information than we need. What we need is truth.

The Holy Spirit, Jesus said when He comes, He will lead you not into information, He will lead you into all the truth. He's called the Spirit of truth. So that's what we need, brothers and sisters.

And to know God as our Father, not just, you know, in our heads, but to know by revelation, God is my Father. I am a son. I was in God's mind before Genesis 1 verse 1. In the beginning was God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit and you and me in His mind, for He knew us before the foundation of the world.

To know Him as Father, something which no Old Testament person ever knew, the only five or six references or seven references to the word Father with capital F in the Old Testament are all mostly prophecies about one day how we would call God Father. But as soon as you come to the Gospels, as soon as you come to the pages of the Gospels, in those four Gospels you'll find Jesus calling God Father and referring to Him as the Father more than a hundred and fifty times and nearly a hundred of those in the Gospel of John. Suddenly, how is it something which is not found in three quarters of the Bible suddenly appears a hundred and fifty times in four Gospels? This is the New Covenant.

And God wants to say to you and me as well. And when you say son, it means daughter as well. It includes that.

Like, you know, when we talk about man as a human being and we're sons and daughters. So when I talk about son, don't think women are excluded. This is my beloved son.

God wants to say that about you and me in whom He is well pleased. Not, this is my son who goes around doing miracles because Jesus didn't do a single miracle at that point. That's another thing we need to learn here that in the New Covenant you don't have to do miracles to please the Father.

Because Jesus was thirty years old. He'd never preached a sermon at this point. He'd never healed a sick person.

He'd never done what you call ministry.