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| Pastor Raphael Adegoke |
By Rachael Oke
The Assembly Pastor, Christ Apostolic Church, Victory Chapel (an English Speaking Assembly), Pastor Raphael Adegoke, during the online Easter Monday message, has said that one cannot replicate the Christ one has not been with.
He said this while stating the reasons for Christ's ascension in line with the Easter Monday message which was titled “He Must Ascend”.
According to him, one of the reasons Christ ascended after His resurrection was for the Great Commission to begin and for the assurance of the divine backing.
Explaining the words of Jesus in Matthew chapter 28:16, he said,
“Jesus committed unto us the Great Commission; whenever a father wants to travel, He calls his children to give them instructions, and by the time he returns, the first thing he wants to know is if the children carried out his instructions and the best of instruction is always given at the point of exit because the instruction at that time is peculiar. So, Jesus Christ when he was about ascending gave an instruction to the church which is the Great Commission that we should go out to preach the gospel.”
He added that having relationship with Christ is the prerequisite for being commanded by Him.
“Whatsoever I have commanded you; take note of this, that you cannot be commanded by the one you don’t know or have relationship with. The reason why you can be commanded by the Saviour is because you relate with him and He can talk to you; He called the twelve so that they might be with Him that he might send them out.” He said.
“After he had sent them out even after He ascended, at a point in time, when people saw the way the apostles spoke, and they wanted to know what their secret was and the people then found out that their secret was their abiding presence with the Saviour; they knew they had been with Christ. So, all they were doing was to reflect and replicate Christ. You cannot replicate the Christ who has not rubbed on you; you cannot replicate the Christ you have not been with; you cannot replicate the Christ that has never impacted you, you cannot receive the life of Christ when He has not released His word into your life.” He added.
Explaining further from verse 18 of Matthew 28, Pastor Adegoke said that Jesus gave the great commission to the disciples, assuring them that all power is given unto Him; hence the need for them not to worry about principalities or forces of darkness as they go to preach the gospel.
As part of the reasons for Christ's ascension, Pastor Adegoke stated that through Christ's ascension, Christians have been empowered by Jesus and are therefore, higher than the highest in the kingdom of darkness.
Pointing to the book of Ephesians chapter 1 verses 22 and 23, he said, “Jesus is the head of the church, that is what the Bible says and we are the members of His body; because Jesus is the head, we receive fullness from Him and due to that fullness, we operate at a realm higher than the devil because we are members of His body and whatever part you may be in the body of Christ, be it the hand, jaw, chest, toes or feet, you are higher than the highest in the kingdom of darkness because all these things are under Christ and even if you are the feet, it means all those things that are under Christ are under you.”
He therefore, urged the church to go back to the responsibility of preaching the gospel as instructed by Christ Himself.
“Jesus is calling us back to our responsibility this morning; He said these words many years ago, but He is renewing the word this morning, that you don’t need to be afraid, go and preach the gospel. As a church, let’s go and preach the gospel; it is not commercialized gospel now, let’s go and preach the unadulterated gospel of the Lord, Jesus Christ, that’s when He will be glorified and I pray the grace we need to do this as a church, the Lord will release upon us in the name of Jesus."
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