Benefits of the Son of God
no. 21
Understanding the Appearing of Christ
Rev. Brian Kocourek
19) The Twenty-first benefit or promise of God to us concerning His Son is that we
have a promise to see the heavens open up and the angels ascending and
descending.
John 1: 49 Nathaniel answered and
saith unto him, Rabbi, thou art the Son
of God; thou art the King of
Let
us bow our hearts and heads in a word of Prayer: Gracious and Loving Father,
your own son told us in St. John chapter six that 44 No man can come to
me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at
the last day. 45 It
is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man
therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me. Therefore,
Father knowing that no man can come unto you unless you draw him and then teach
him, we therefore, Father desire to be taught by your Holy Spirit in order to
know and understand these thins which you have promise to us for this hour.
Grant that our eyes and ears may be opened to the understanding you have for us
in this hour for we ask it in the precious name of your Loving and obedient
son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Now,
this morning I would like to take our study from the thoughts that Jesus gave
us concerning the benefit of seeing the angels ascending and descending. Now,
just think of that, we have a promise and all those that have been given the
Revelation of the Godhead, and as Nathaniel here was able to recognize that
Jesus was the Son of God, so to those that recognize the role of the Son of God
are also given this promise that we will see the angels ascending and
descending from heaven.
Now,
what does this mean? Well, the word see that Jesus was using here was
translated from the Greek word optomai, which means to look at or behold, to
allow one's self to be seen, to appear. So we are talking about an Appearing
here, or that is what Jesus is talking about. He is not speaking of a coming,
but an appearing which will be accompanied by angels and we are given promise
here that we shall be able to look upon this appearing, and to behold it. Now,
the word behold means: “To perceive by the visual faculty; to see.”
But it also means “to perceive through use of the mental faculty; or to
comprehend:”
Therefore
to behold something we must not only be able to visually see it but we must
also be able to mentally understand what it is that we are seeing.
Now,
notice that this promise that we have from Jesus concerns an Appearing with the
angels. The promise then is not only will we see it with our eyes but we will
also understand it with our minds. And remember, this promise is not for
everybody. He gave this promise to Nathaniel after he Nathaniel recognized who
he was, that he was the Son of God.
Now,. God is not a respecter of persons and if one person
approached God in a certain way for a certain thing and God rewarded that
person in a certain way, then He must do the same or
everyone else who approaches in the same manner for the same thing. Otherwise
His first decision was not right and He is not the same yesterday, today and
forever.
In
fact William Branham God’s end-time prophet explained this in the message EXPECTATION 61-0207 E-23 he said, “And if God
is ever called on the scene to make a decision on a certain thing, and the
decision that He made when He's called on the scene for the same thing again,
His decision has to remain the same way. He cannot change it for one, saying,
"Well, I did it to this one, and--but I won't do it for this one."
Now, if He does that, then He made the wrong decision when He made it the first
time. So He made His Word so that "If ye can believe..." When a man asked Him forgiveness for his sins, and God
forgave that man of his sins, if you come, or whosoever will comes upon them
same basis of humbly asking forgiveness, based upon faith, God's obligated to do the same thing He did for that man the first
time. And if a man's ever sick and calls on God, and if God ever heals one
person, ever did heal one person, and the same grounds that He brought that man
to for his healing, if He's ever called on again, He's got to remain with the
same decision. If He didn't, He made a mistake and then if He made a mistake
He's not infinite. And if He's not infinite, then He's not God.
Therefore,
if Nathaniel’s recognizing that Jesus was the Son of God gave him the promise
of seeing the Lord Appear with angels ascending and descending, then for us to recognize
that Jesus is the Son of God, then the promise is unto us and to our children,
and as many as the Lord our God will call and teach.
Now,
let’s look at this appearing of the angels ascending and descending that
fulfilled the promise to Nathaniel from Jesus.
ACTS 1:6 ¶ When they therefore were come together, they
asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to
Notice
that again we are given the promise that the same way in which he left he would
come again. In fact Jesus also promised us that when the Son of Man comes it
would be with the mighty angels. We see this given in both the Gospel of
Matthew and the Gospel of Mark.
MATTHEW 24:30 And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in
heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see
the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 31
And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall
gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the
other.
MARK
Again
in both Matthew and Mark we see the promise reconfirmed when the reference to
the Son of God is made, only this time it is made by unbelievers that will have
no part with that promise because they did not believe He was the3 Son of God,
but when they asked him if he were the Son of God and He said, I am He, they
said he made Himself God. We see the same trouble today among so called
Christianity who try to make Jesus His own Father when
the Prophet of God told us Jesus could not be His own Father.
MATTHEW 26:63 But Jesus held his peace. And the high priest answered and
said unto him, I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us whether thou
be the Christ, the Son of God. 64
Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you,
Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and
coming in the clouds of heaven.
MARK 14:61 But he held his peace, and answered nothing. Again the high
priest asked him, and said unto him, Art thou the Christ, the Son of the
Blessed? 62 And Jesus said, I am: and ye shall see the
Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of
heaven.
SHOW US THE FATHER
53-0907A E-96 There's only one God.
And I different agree with the organization of Pentecost that calls the Oneness
like your finger is one. That's wrong. Absolutely, it's wrong. Jesus couldn't
have been His Own Father, and if God is a Man, then Jesus was born sexual
desire and not virgin birth. That settles the whole thing. You see? If He's one like your finger's one, then what? Then He was
His Own daddy. How could He have been? That's wrong. He had a Father, Jesus
did.
QA HEBREWS PART 1 57-0925 233-145 Now, the oneness teaching of the oneness
church, I certainly disagree with them, thinking that Jesus is one like your
finger's one. He had to have a Father. If He didn't, how could He be His own
father?
CRUELTY OF SIN 53-0403 204
There He died, friendless, even forsaken by God Himself. God, and, then, His Own Father, forsaken Him, bleeding.
And
yet we have seen the promise to see the Appearing of the angels to those who
recognized that there is One God and he had a Son, yet when the Sanhedrin
Council asked Jesus if He were the Son of God and he acknowledged that he
indeed was God’s Son, then they wanted to crucify Him for making Himself God.
You see they just don’t have that revelation, and so they also will not see or
perceive the Appearing either.
So
let’s look at this Appearing this morning to better understand
what this promise is all about to those who recognize that Jesus was indeed the
Son of God.
From the message [I
KNOW MY REDEEMER LIVETH] pp. 47,
Notice here, brother Branham is telling us that it
takes the new birth to be able to recognize the
Presence of God. But most people find it difficult to able to separate the
Baptism of the Spirit from the Baptizer Himself.
But a quick study of Ephesians 1:13-14 in
contrast to verses 17-18 will show you the difference between the baptism and
the Baptizer Himself. And never forget that the word Christ means three things.
It speaks of the one who anoints, that is the anointer, it also speaks of the
one who is anointed, or the anointed, and it also speaks of the anointing. So anointer, anointed, and anointing, are three expressions of
the same word Christ, but you must understand in which context they are being
used or you will not understand who it is speaking of the Father who is the
anointer or the Son who is the anointed.
Ephesians 1:13-14 In whom
ye also [trusted], after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your
salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy
Spirit of promise, 14 Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the
redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory. 15 ¶ Wherefore I also,
after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, 16
Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; and verses 13-14 let’s you know
there is the Baptism of the Holy Spirit that is needed to prepare us to
receive the very Presence of God which Paul speaks of as the Spirit of
Wisdom and Revelation in the knowledge of Him in verses 15-17. EPHESIANS 1:17 That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto
you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: 18 The eyes of your understanding being
enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the
riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,
Now,
notice I said that God is the anointer and Jesus was the anointed one. That makes
God Christ and Jesus the Christ. And since Jesus came in His Father’s name the
whole thing could become quite confusing unless God has revealed it to you.
ACTS
10:38 How God anointed Jesus of
Now, if Jesus were His own Father, then you will
have to strike this and literally hundreds of New Testament scriptures from
your Bible because they will not make any sense to you. I mean if Jesus were
His Own Father then How is it that God could anoint
Him with the Holy Ghost? You see how the Oneness have it all mixed up?
Anyway, we are looking at this Appearing that is
promised us, and to understand it better let’s see what God’s vindicated
Prophet told us about it. From the message From That Time, William Branham said, E-102
"How many knows
there’s a difference between the Appearing of Christ and the Coming of Christ? It’s two different words. Now’s the Appearing;
the coming will soon be. He’s Appearing in
the midst of us, doing the works that He once did, in His church.
Now if we truly believe that
brother Branham was God's ordained Messenger for this age, then we
must examine carefully what he was trying to tell us. If in
fact Christ has always been here, then what do
we need a prophet to tell us what we already know. CONVINCED
AND THEN CONCERNED 62-0521 E-31
031 Now,
John was so sure that he was going to see the Messiah, till he said, "He's
in our midst now." Now, watch. Notice. There's a
great big difference in the sign of Jesus appearing, and then Jesus coming. There's two different
words, means
two different things: the appearing of the Lord, and the coming of the
Lord. Now, the appearing of the Lord is
now, when He's appearing in His people, His Spirit working among them, proving
that it's Him with them, getting them ready for the rapture, for the coming of
the Lord to catch away His--the Bride (See?): the appearing and the coming. All right. Now.
END TIME
EVANGELISM 62-0603 50 030 Now, we have
already seen and are witnessing the appearing of the Lord. Now remember, appearing
and coming is two different words: to appear
and then to come. Now is the appearing; He's already appeared in these last
days, right here with us in the last few years. Now, it's a sign of His coming.
He's appearing in His Church in the form of the Holy Spirit, showing that it's
Him, 'cause people cannot do these things that you see the Holy Spirit doing;
so that's the appearing of the Lord. Now, you remember,
it spoke both places, "appearing"
and "coming”.
LETTING OFF THE PRESSURE 62-0609E E-58 058 But if you can beat all that away from you, say, "Lord
God, I believe just exactly what Your Word says, and I believe (as we preached
last night), that the appearing of the Lord
comes before the coming of the Lord,"
for it's just two different words altogether. See? Now's the
appearing, as He promised in the
last days that He'd be with us.
IT
IS I BE NOT AFRAID 62-0611
E-81 081 You know, there's a difference between the appearing of Christ and
the coming of Christ. That's two different words altogether. He's appearing now in His church. We see Him; we know it's
Him. It's the Holy Spirit. See? We know it is.
BE
NOT AFRAID 62-0620 E-66 066 There's a different
word used. The appearing of Christ and the coming of Christ (See?) it's two different
words altogether. See? Now, Christ is
appearing in these last days in His church, bringing His church together in
unity, and faith, and power in the Word, all together; that when He returns He
will find the same church.
So then we must ask ourselves
if the word Christ means three things, anointer, anointed and anointing, which
application is Brother Branham using here. Is he
saying Jesus the anointed one is here, or is he saying God the anointer is
here? Because if you do not understand how to break this down you are going to
think he is speaking of the Son of God when he is speaking of the God of the
Son.
FROM
THAT TIME 62-0713
E-102 102 How
many knows there's a difference between the
appearing of Christ and the coming of Christ? It's
two different words. Now's the appearing, the coming will soon be. He's appearing in the midst of us, doing the works
that He once did, in His church. Now, you're a part of that church, and by
grace you believe. I am a member of that church.
GOD
HAS A PROVIDED WAY 62-0728 E-81 Now, remember
these two words before I leave you: the appearing of Christ and the coming
of Christ is two
different things. Christ is now appearing
in the fullness of His power. His coming will be afterwards: His appearing before His coming.
Therefore to understand who it is that is appearing
in this hour let me read to you another quote from William Branham.
In the sermon [THE
UNITING TIME AND SIGN] pp. 97 he said, " Never before
since the early church Age was the Pillar of Fire ever among the people.
Never before, since the early church Age, did they ever see the things that we
are seeing today. And this was only made possible when God sent the seven Seals
and give us a sign by it and sent Seven Angels down out of Heaven and come to
bring back that scattered Word in them denominations and tie it back into the
Word again, to bring down His Holy Spirit."
Now, these statements surely must cause us to ask
some questions. For instance, why would brother
Branham say, "To bring down His Holy
Spirit" if the Holy Spirit has always been here
throughout the Seven Church Ages? Again, why would brother Branham say "My ministry is to declare Him, that He is here."
if He, (God's Presence), has been here
all along?
In fact brother Branham
also said, "After almost 2,000
years He has visited us again." Why would he say such a thing unless He hasn't been here for the
past 2,000 years in the same way that He is here now?
Now if you are looking at the
Message with the Glare of another age, you will say that he was
talking about the Jesus of 2,000 years ago and your mind will
picture the Body with nail scarred hands. But, if you have correctly
believed brother Branham when he told us to not look back, and to
not look forward but to see what God is doing right
now, then all of these message titles point to one thing.
He's here, Alpha has become Omega. The One Who
Appeared to Paul in the first age has come back again in this last age to wind
up His work. From [The
Message of Grace]pg. 30
he said, " There's only one thing different
in Him being here this morning than He was amongst the people at
In fact brother Branham said, in [Just
One More time Lord pp. 52 "Man
is always thinking back on what God did, and looking forward to what God will
do, but ignoring what God is doing". And he also said in
his audio letter to brother Vayle, " If they only
see it in the hour past there's no hope for the church. The church must see it
in the present tense. So God sends his prophet to manifest
present tense of it." And He also said from His Message [False
Anointed Ones] PP. 219 He said, "I AM sent
me." I AM, not I was, or will be, I AM, present tense, the Word now. Not
the Word that was or Word that will come, the Word that's now.... and
then he said in PP. 233, "For
it is impossible for those which were once enlightened and didn't move
on with the Word as it come to pass... They're
dead, gone." This is why it is so important to understand the Alpha
and Omega principle that brother Branham laid out for us. He said this was
the very first principle he learned as a Christian. What God did in the first
age He is obligated to do in this last age. Then, if we can look at what God
did in the first age under the Pillar of Fire ministry of Paul, and how He did
it, we then will see what He has done under the same Pillar of Fire ministry of
William Branham in this last hour, and what He is continuing to do after
brother Branham went off the seen.
Remember he taught us that there were Three Exoduses and all three were under the Pillar
of Fire and leadership of a Vindicated Prophet. Moses,
Paul and Wm. Branham. And as you can see the people have missed the
whole purpose of this last time Exodus.
THE
UNVEILING OF GOD 64-0614M 297 Notice the same Pillar of Fire that sent
Moses, the same Pillar of Fire that was on Moses that wrote the Bible, the same
Pillar of Fire that Paul met on his road down to Damascus, and Paul wrote the
New Testament... Remember, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, they only wrote what
they seen, but Paul had the revelation. He pulled it out, for he had met the
Pillar of Fire, himself. And, think, the same... There, Joseph, all them wrote
what went on, everyone wrote back in that day. But when Moses came on the scene,
he had the revelation. He had met the Pillar of Fire, and it was revealed to
Moses how Genesis. He had wrote the first four books
of the Bible; Moses did. Is that right? For he met God in the
form of the Pillar of Fire, veiled in the Pillar of Fire. When Paul met Him
on the road... The disciples just wrote what they seen Him do, but Moses had
the revelation. Went down into
Brother Branham was concerned for the people
because they were not recognizing what God was doing in their midst, but they
were looking forward to the Second Coming and backwards at a Pentecostal glare
of another age and they were failing to see the very Presence of God in their
midst, as we have already explained.
In referring to Christ's presence here among
us brother Branham said, "I've
read the Scripture with a dozen or more evidences that we're living in the last
days, the generation that will see Jesus Christ return to earth, and I say to
you tonight, again! 'This
day this Scripture is fulfilled in your sight.'" And again we must ask which application of
the word Christ is brother Branham using? Christ as anointer or the anointed
one?
Again we hear brother Branham
saying in the Message Jehovah
Jireh PP 174, "The Appearing of
Christ and then the coming of Christ. That's two different
things altogether,
the Appearing and the Coming. He's Appearing now, working with
us in the form of the Holy Spirit, making it just perfect; the church. It has
to." And so, we must ask ourselves, if God has
come in what brother Branham and Scripture calls an Appearing, in what way is
it perfecting the church as He says here. And of Course we find in Scripture
that the Word of God perfects the church or Bride. So it is in the form of the
Word that perfection comes. And when that which is perfect
comes, then that which is part must cease. And brother Branham in
quoting this in the COD
book, 1005-56 he said, "When that which is
perfect ... and we have today by God's help the perfect interpretation of the
Word with Divine vindication." Then later in the same
series of questions he said, " when
that which is perfect is made known." And then he said,
"Now is there anything perfect but God? And then he said, "And
the Word's still God. " So we can see
once again His focus was to get the people to see God in the form of the Word
in our midst has come. And that is why he said, don't look back and don't look
forward but look to what God is doing now.
Now we know that we can not worship God apart from Revelation. But what
if our revelation is wrong?
MESSAGE OF GRACE 61-0827 176 Now, there's
only be one thing different in Him being here this morning than He was amongst
the people at Galilee, that would be His Own body of flesh, His corporal body;
because that was raised up (You believe that?), sets at the right hand of the
Majesty on high, ever living to make intercessions for our confession. Remember,
He cannot do one thing for us until first we accept Him, and believe that He
has, and say that He has, for He is a High Priest that may... He's a High
Priest making intercessions upon our confession.
The fact is, God HIMSELF has come down in this
last hour in a very special way in which He has
not been here for 2,000 years. Br. Branham said in
[C.O.D.] 54-0103 pg. 102-263, "Just think, the very Lord Jesus that was back in
the days of the Apostles is right here now. And It's
just winding up the end of the Gentiles. A great move is going on amongst the
Supernatural believers because we believe that God is Here."
You might ask, "How was He here in the days of
the Apostles?" People tend to
misunderstand Brother Branham in this area the most. Their
thoughts go back immediately to Jesus in His
flesh walking the shores of
In fact from [THE
MESSAGE of GRACE] PP. 176 Brother
Branham said, "There's
only one thing different in Him being here this morning than He was amongst the
people at
In fact he said in, [SPIRITUAL
FOOD IN DUE SEASON] pp. 167 " Now, if He Appeared here as a physical body, looked
just exactly like Hoffman's head of Christ at 33, and blood running out his
hand, and so forth, nail scars all over Him, I wouldn't accept it." He goes on to say, "we
don't believe these cults and clans. We believe God is the Word."
From the message entitled [THE
TRIAL]
Brother Branham even quoted people who were looking
for Jesus to come in bodily form and in HEBREWS
chptr 3, 57-0901m, pp. 99-73 he said, "I thought He was a man, has scarred hands; that they
claim is Appearing in meetings now, with nail scars in His hands and His head.'
No, No, not that Body, not in that body. See? He's now a light. Saul, when he was here on earth, He said, I
come from God I go back to God. He was the Angel that led the children of
Therefore I hope that you can see this morning the
difference between the Appearing and the coming and I also hope that you not
only can see it with your eyes, by seeing the picture of the cloud that
appeared over Mount Sunset, where the angels formed His white wig showing headship
has returned in the form of God in the Pillar of Fire, but I hope and trust
that all that you have seen with your eyes physically you have also understood
with the eyes of your understanding may be enlightened that you may know what
God is doing in this hour.
EPHESIANS 1:17 That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto
you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: 18 The eyes of your understanding being
enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the
riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, Let us pray….