The Cross - the Pathway to Ultimate Exaltation - by Pastor Doug Riggs

This was originally recorded on December 4, 2016.

My notes:

Jesus learned obedience through suffering. I've been learning, especially over the last year or so, that if that's how He learned obedience, how much more will God use suffering in my life to learn obedience. I came to realize that I have an entitlement mentality - that I deserve a carefree, pain free, happy life in Jesus. After all, I'm a child of the King! Realizing this, I'm learning that I really don't deserve this at all, and I should not expect anything less than what Jesus encountered on His path to glory. As for Jesus, "The crowning of His life as a Man is the cross. That's the highest place of moral and spiritual ascendency; it is the high ground of His humanity before His resurrection." Doug adds, "The Holy Spirit is not going to take a different course with us than He took with Jesus as Son of Man. He is the pattern; He is the way in which we come into the place of exaltation... Without the cross, there is no exaltation."

Do people who don't know the Lord need bible studies mostly? Doug explains, no! They need to see Jesus. As the song goes, we may be the only Jesus people get to see. Seeing Jesus in us is more effective than telling people about Jesus. The "testimony of Jesus" is much more than words. How do people see Jesus? In the members of His body. As Jesus fell into the ground and died, His life multiplied into the corporate body of Christ, the church. As we follow Him and take the path He took, we as His seed fall into the ground, our opportunities to die to self as we accept our cross. This produces fruit. We may see the cross as going down, but that's not the way Jesus saw it. "The cross is an exaltation. He's been exalted by the Father as the sin-bearer. 'If I be exalted up from the earth on that cross, I will draw all men to Myself.'"

Prior to the cross, Jesus said that the ruler of the world was coming, but he had nothing in Him. "If we're abiding in Jesus and He is abiding in us, the prince of the world will come, and he'll have nothing." "Uncrucified flesh ... is a feast for the adversary; God will do nothing to stop it. Why? Because it's on the other side of the cross; it belongs to the adversary."

As members of the body of Christ, we are called to follow Jesus. As He suffered, we are called to suffer with Him, not in the sense of dying for our sins, but yielding our soul-life as an offering to God as Jesus did during His entire life. Speaking of the race set before us in Hebrews 12:1, "The word "race"... it's the ag?n ... it's the agony; there's a conflict... There's a conflict serving the Lord; there's opposition." "The closer we get to the cross and being identified with Christ in His cross, we will come into the shadow of death."

Link to Audio: https://dougriggs.s3.amazonaws.com/Assemblies/12-4-16%2Bsunday.mp3

TRANSCRIPTION: Thanks to the labor of love from a dear sister in Australia, this was prepared for those who’d like to follow along: https://dougriggs.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/2016_12_04+The_Cross-the_Pathway_to_Ultimate_Exaltation+-+transcription.pdf

Maranatha!

John Mark

...hereby committing this unto the providential care of the enthroned Head of the Church; whose Name is blessed forevermore, Yeshua Mashiach - Jesus Christ!