CHRISTMAS TEACHING, “THE SHEPHERDS” Prophet Dr. Owuor, 24th DEC 2015
“The Meaning of Christmas”, December 23rd, 2016, by Prophet Dr. David Owuor!
Live via Jesusislordradio.info by Prophet Dr. Owuor, December 23rd, 2016.
Many Christians have not understood the meaning of Christmas. They have not understood why Jesus came to the earth. Many Christians celebrate Christmas just like the heathen. They have turned it into a secular holiday for eating and drinking, for merrymaking, for sexual sin, for lying, and there is nothing at all to do with the kingdom of God, and there is nothing at all to do with the redemption of men, of the church.
You see very clearly that there is no meaning to the Christian for Christmas except that you understand why Jesus came to the earth to save man. Except that you understand the meaning of believing in him, and being born again, born of water and born of the spirit then Christmas will have no meaning to you. Christmas is meant to celebrate the advent of when God remembered men and sent Jesus of Nazareth that unless a man be born again born of the water, which means crucify the flesh, in the spirit which means open the channel the bridge of communication between the creator realm, the world, the filthy world that He came to redeem and Heaven. And that is the meaning of the bridge that Jesus came to build between sinful man, and Holy God. And you see very clearly here that the works of the cross became very, very central.
In the conversation that Jesus had with Nicodemus, and Nicodemus is you to church. You are the ones who have been going out there telling the people of the world how they should live, how they should eat, how they should sleep, and yet you yourself are lacking in the Kingdom of God, in the inheritance of that Kingdom.
And so Jesus is telling the church today that unless you be born again, which means you kill your own self by the water baptism, by being born of water you cannot see the kingdom of God. Why? Because only by baptism of water, the baptism of the cross the killing of the flesh on the cross can the spiritual church be birthed out: a church that is worthy of the Wedding of the Lamb of God, the spiritual wedding of the Lamb.
Precious people it is incredible to me even to realize that many Christians have gone about their lives without truly envisioning, truly understanding, realizing what it means to be born again and to be spirit formed. Now listen to me precious people, when you are born of water that means you have centralized the cross the works of the cross in your life, and when you centralize the cross into your life as a church, as a Christian then that means you have embraced the crucifixion of the flesh, and the sinful desires of the flesh.
In the book of Isaiah it has been mentioned repeatedly Isaiah 53:1 all the way down to twelve (12). He talks about the crucifixion of the flesh. He talks about the disfiguring of the flesh. But precious people, in other words, I am talking about what it means to be born again, a born again Christian today. I want you to turn with me to John chapter 19, again John chapter nineteen (19), a few verses, verse thirty-eight (38) on. And here I want to emphasize why Jesus says that you must be born of the water and the spirit.
And when he continued expounding on what it means to be born of water we see that there is a washing away. The washing that takes place. And I said it is that washing when you are dipped into water with Jesus that takes away the sinful flesh, the sinful desires of the flesh and opens a channel of communication between the created physical realm and the spiritual realm. That is what I want to emphasize to you here in John chapter 19:38 onward.
He says, “Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jewish leaders. With Pilate’s permission, he came and took the body away.”
You see very clearly here that Joseph was a secret disciple of Jesus. Haha! Verse thirtynine (39), he says, “He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds. Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs. At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid.” A virgin tomb, in other words. Verse 42, “Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.”
I want to emphasize on one thing here. If you look at the Joseph who came with Nicodemus to take the damaged body of Jesus from the cross, this Joseph was also a secret disciple like Nicodemus was. Nicodemus had monitored the ministry of Jesus despite Nicodemus coming from the Jewish ruling Council. He had already been convicted that this man is the Messenger of Peace that has come from our God Almighty in Heaven. And we see that Joseph too was a disciple of Jesus convicted and convinced that this man is the son of the Living God, but they were secret disciples.
Nicodemus chooses to come to Jesus at night, because that was an act of separating from the Jewish tradition, the Jewish ruling Council, and that is the separation that you the church need to take in order to discover an encounter with Jesus!
But what is most important is that they moved the damaged body of Jesus from the cross and put the bitter myrrh. And we remember the Magi, when Jesus was born in the manger, the Magi already spoke of the crucifixion of Jesus in the way that they worshipped Jesus in Bethlehem. They put the gold, the purified gold before the baby Jesus in Bethlehem–the three wise men–they put purified gold which symbolizes the purity of God that Jesus was going to live on this earth. The purity, the holiness of God that he was going to live as the Messiah who has come to redeem man from this sinful world. He was going to live a life of purity and holiness. And they put bitter myrrh which symbolizes the fact that this life of purity that you the Messiah that you were going to live on this earth in order to redeem man this life of purity, which is symbolized by the purified gold, is going to bring you bitterness; extreme bitterness on earth, because you are going to testify on the sin that men commit, on the sins of the world.
We know that the devil is the greatest author of counterfeit just as the church the Christians you are the holy habitation. 1st Corinthians 6:12 and on, He says, “Your bodies are the holy habitation the Holy Temple of the Holy Spirit.” And so in that way the devil, also uses the bodies of men as his habitation. And that’s why when the rapture takes place and the church is taken away that means the holy habitation of the Holy Spirit has been taken away then the Holy Spirit is also taken away at Rapture. But, the three wise men, when they met baby Jesus at Bethlehem, they laid gold. That symbolizes the purity of God that was in Jesus the purity of holiness, and righteousness that he was going to live and leave on this earth as he comes to redeem sinful man. But the bitter myrrh was the bitterness that now because He is going to testify against the devil, against the sinful world now mankind who have been inhabited by the devil, they are going to be offended when Jesus testifies against sin.
They would fight Him bitterly and crucify Him; but, in that crucifixion of bitterness the frankincense but the three wise men put before Jesus represents the precious fragrance that was going to leave from the damage body of Christ from the cross. That was going to leave from the damaged body of Christ from the cross, into the throne room of God saturating it, with this precious fragrance of worship at the cross, and that now God the Father would atone for the sins of man.
That is the message that Jesus spoke to Nicodemus when he said, “Unless a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Unless a man be born of water and the spirit he cannot see the kingdom of God.” The water baptism is the killing of the flesh by total burial with Jesus to create a communication channel, a portal into the spiritual realm of Heaven that now the Holy Spirit may descend on the church and pronounce sonship, “this is my son, these are my children, and pleasure whom I am pleased with, when they live their lives their lives now please me.”
And then say finally that this realm, this realm in the church belongs to the kingdom of God, and then the declare finally that that church born of water, baptized of the Holy Spirit is the rapture church the bride of Christ.
So you see there is no room for sin. There is no room for the created realm, in this conversation. This is what I wanted you to understand even as you prepare in a very sensitive time across the globe, when everybody is celebrating Christmas without really understanding the underpinnings of the Emissary, the Messenger, the Messiah Christ Jesus of Nazareth who was sent to redeem man.