What the Holy Ghost was Given
for no 27
Resurrection - The Alpha Convocation
Brian Kocourek, Pastor -
Genesis 1:14 And God said, Let there be lights in the
firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be
for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: 15 And
let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. 16 And God made two great lights; the greater
light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. 17 And God set them in the
firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, 18 And to rule over the day and
over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw
that it was good. 19 And the
evening and the morning were the fourth day.
Let
us pray...
This
evening we will begin a look at the season of the resurrection since this
Friday is
Even though a total solar eclipse is a noteworthy event, March 20 will
be extra special because it is also the March
Equinox! On that date there will be a total solar eclipse that will coincide
with Northern Hemisphere's Spring Equinox and Southern Hemisphere's Autumn or Fall Equinox, and this has not happened since 1662
and it will not happen again until
Total eclipses of the Sun happen when a
new Moon comes between the Sun and the Earth covering the entire Sun. On
Two weeks after
I
do not know the significance, However the next day is day one of the Jewish Calendar, it is Nissan one. God commanded Moses in the Book of Exodus to make a
new calendar. We are going to read from the Book of Exodus and always remember,
in any Exodus there is a coming our from and a going
into. never forget that. And this book of exodus is
very important for us to know, because there are many things that were done,
and commanded By God to be done that represent the time of the Resurrection and
Rapture of the church. That is why we will pick up tonight at 12. By the study
of the Book of Exodus we should get a good view into the time and season of the
resurrection.
Exodus 12:1 And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron in the
To
digest what we have just read, God is telling Moses that on the 10th day of the
first Month of the New calendar, the children of Israel are to set aside a lamb for a house, and they
are not to allow it to fall asleep for 4 days, and then at evening time on that
14th day of the month they are to slay it and eat it and leave nothing until
the morning, and whatever they do not eat they must burn before the morning.) the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill
it in the evening. (notice the significance, 2 x 7 days and then they will kill
it at the evening time.) 7 And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper
door post of the houses, (notice this is the sign of a cross
signifying how the Lamb of God will die.) wherein
they shall eat it. 8 And they shall eat the flesh in that night,...
Notice
this is not a morning or
roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs
they shall eat it. 9 Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with
water, but roast with fire; his head with his
legs, and with the purtenance thereof. 10 And ye shall let
nothing of it remain until the morning; and that which remaineth of it
until the morning ye shall burn with fire.
This is why we have the deacons make sure there is no
bread or wine left over after the communion service is complete. Other wise if
there is, then the deacons are commanded to burn what is left before the
morning, to fulfill the Scripture.
11 And thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet,
and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste: it is the LORD'S Passover.
This is the first : where God
actually gives us a definitive name for the event. It is the Lords Passover,
which the Lord begins in the next : to describe what
is to take place on that event.
12 For I will pass through the land of Egypt this
night, (the night of the Passover
feast, the night of the communion, so to speak, the 14th day of Nissan,) and I will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt,
both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute
judgment: I am the LORD. Notice then that the Passover speaks of the time of God's judgment upon
the unbelieving world.
13 And the blood shall be to you for a token
upon the houses where ye are: and when I
see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon
you to destroy you, when I smite the
Now, this is the first place where we see that not
only is this ceremony a time when men were to reflect upon the judgments of God
in the earth, but it was a promise from God Himself that if He saw evidence of
the Passover Lamb slain and consumed by each house, that it would mean
deliverance from those judgments for those house where the Token was applied.
14 And this day shall be unto you for a
memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the LORD throughout your
generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for
ever.
The word memorial means something that is created or
done to honor a person who has died or to remind people of an event
in which many people died. So memorial speaks of a reminder of death. And
notice it is to be kept throughout all generations, that
means even to this day.
15 Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread; (These
seven days represent the seven church ages) even
the first day ye shall put away
leaven out of your houses: (notice "even the first day, and the
Apostle Paul made it quite clear that to add to what he taught or take away, you
would be cursed. So from the first Age until the seventh to add to or take away
from the Pure Word will bring the curse.) for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day
until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from
Now, leaven represents doctrine of man that is added
to the pure Word. Jesus tells us this in Matthew 16.
Matthew 16:6 Then
Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the
leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. 7 And they
reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have taken no bread. 8 Which
when Jesus perceived, he said unto them, O ye of little
faith, why reason ye among yourselves, because ye have brought no bread? 9 Do ye not yet understand,
neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets ye
took up? 10 Neither the seven loaves of
the four thousand, and how many baskets ye took up? 11 How is it that ye do not understand that I spake it not to you concerning bread,
that ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees? 12 Then understood they how that he
bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine
of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.
Now, back to exodus
Now,
I want you to notice that in the first and seventh Age there is to be a Holy
convocation or gathering. And during the time of this gathering there is to be
no work done.
No manner of work shall be done in them, save that which every man must eat, that only
may be done of you. So during the time of
this convocation there will be no activity but eating. Now, the word
convocation means a gathering, and this will be a Holy Gathering.
Future home 64-0802 P:114
You don't come by laws, and rituals, and orders; you come by
predestination. Amen. There's the genuine holy convocation. See, and we're ending the seventh church age, church age,
the Pentecostal age. Do you see it? We're entering the holy convocation.
We are entering into that real, genuine eternity, where the Church is
called, not to some station, some denomination, but into eternity with their
eternal King. See? We don't have it at all. There's no such a thing as days
and things and times. You passed into Eternity, where you come from. You
was there to begin with.
Now, I would like to stop here for a moment and review
what we are looking at. He said in the first and seventh there would be a Holy
Convocation, and we already established that this means a Holy Gathering.
Jesus spoke of such a gathering in Matthew
And we see the Saints had gathered together to receive
the Holy Ghost in Acts 2:1 And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all
with one accord in one place.
(as
the song says, "They were gathered in the upper room all praying in his
name, they were baptized with the Holy Ghost and power for service came."
So they were gathered. There was a Holy Convocation.) 2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing
mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. 3 And there
appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. 4 And
they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other
tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
Now, I want to show you how there has already been one
Holy Convocation on the day of Pentecost where they were gathered in the upper
room, and this led to the climax of the Old Testament saints gathering together
in the first Age as well.
Matthew
27:45 Now from
the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour. 46 And
about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that
is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
47 Some
of them that stood there, when they heard that,
said, This man calleth for Elias.
48 And
straightway one of them ran, and took a spunge, and filled it with vinegar, and put it
on a reed, and gave him to drink. 49 The rest said, Let be, let
us see whether Elias will come to save him. 50 Jesus,
when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. 51 And,
behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom;
and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent; 52 And the graves were opened;
and many (Polus, many, much ,
a great deal of) bodies of the saints which slept arose, 53 And came
out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many, (a
great deal of people)
O, what a time that must have been. many
Old Testament saints came out of the grave and appeared also to many. Now, Paul
tells us that there were seen by as many as 500 people who witnessed Jesus
resurrection, and that is no small witness, brother.
Ephesians 4:8 Wherefore he saith, When
he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.
Rapture
the 65-1204 P:98 David said over there, "Lift up, ye everlasting gates, and be ye
lifted up." He led captive captive and give gifts unto
men. When the
Old Testament saints went in with Him, they said, "Who is this King of righteousness?" "The Lord of glory, mighty in host--mighty host."
Here they come in, marching. Jesus led captivity captive. And here He
comes with the Old Testament saints, and went into the new gates up there,
and said, "Lift up,
ye everlasting gates, and be ye lifted up, and let the King of glory come in." The voice come from the inside,
said, "Who is
the King of glory?" "The Lord, mighty in battle."
The gates flew open. And Jesus the Conqueror led captive captive them that
had believed on Him, and the Word had come to them. There the Old Testament
saints laying in there waiting. He led captivity captive, ascended on
high, took the Old Testament saints, and went in. There's one rapture already passed. The next rapture takes place is
II Thessalonians for the church, the Bride, to be resurrected to be raptured
into glory. "We which are alive and remain (That's the
body that's left on earth.) will not prevent or
hinder them which are asleep; for the trumpet of God shall sound first, and the
dead in Christ shall rise. (See?) And we which are
alive and remain shall caught up together with them."
Entombment
57-0420 P:44 Caiaphas standing there, saying, "You
know what? There was something happened the other day, just look at this mess
this temple's in. There's... We're going to have to get someone to sew that
curtain up. Look at those, sacrifice box turned over. What happened? Was that
guy an astrologer? Was He a witch? Or, what happened? Say, come here, Josephus,
who is that young couple standing there? "Abraham said, "Sarah, we're recognized.
We better get out." "Appeared
to many." That wasn't all of it. In closing, watch. One day when after He had, they'd visit: Abraham,
Isaac, Jacob, and all of them had visit the homeland.
When Jesus ascended up...You say, "Brother Branham,
is that mythical?" No, sir. I'll show you the
Scriptures in a minute. When He begin to go up, they only seen Him, but the
Old Testament saints went with Him, for the Bible said that He led captivity
captive and give gifts unto men. And I can see Him as He goes up, and joins
with His church.
How can
I overcome 63-0825M P:95 If we suffer for Christ and His Word, we
will reign with Him; for He is the Word. Remember, if we suffer for Him and
His Word, we'll reign with Him in His Word. Notice, He, our Example,
overcome and then ascended up after He conquered death, hell, sickness, grave,
everything He conquered, then He ascended up, and led captivity captive, give gifts unto men. That was with the Old Testament saints
that had overcome.
Now, let's go to 1 Corinthians 15 and read from a chapter that
deals primarily concerning the resurrection and change of the body.
In 1 Corinthians 15
The apostle Paul also tells us of this event that
occurred at the conclusion of the Alpha ministry of Jesus Christ. Now, the
first 22 verses deals specifically with the first resurrection,
and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Verse 23 through the end of the chapter deals with the second half
of the first resurrection which is scheduled for this hour.
1 Corinthians 15:1. Moreover,
brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also
ye have received, and wherein ye stand; 2 By which
also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. 3 For
I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ
died for our sins according to the scriptures; 4 And
that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according
to the scriptures: 5 And that he was seen of
Cephas, then of the twelve: 6 After that, he was seen of
above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto
this present, but some are fallen asleep. 7 After that, he was seen of
James; then of all the apostles. 8 And last of all he was seen
of me also, as of one born out of due time. 9 For I am the least of the
apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I
persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am
what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon
me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I,
but the grace of God which was with me. 11 Therefore whether it were I or they, so we preach, and so
ye believed. 12 Now
if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that
there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 But if there be no
resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: 14 And
if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching
vain, and your faith is also vain. 15 Yea, and
we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he
raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead
rise not. 16 For
if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: 17 And
if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. 18 Then they also which are
fallen asleep in Christ are perished. 19 If in this life only we
have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. 20 But now
is Christ risen from the dead, and become
the first fruits of them that slept. 21 For since by man came death,
by man came also the resurrection
of the dead. 22 For
as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
Now, we will skip the rest for now, because that
pertains to the next half of the resurrection which is set forth for this the
seventh day, the next Holy Convocation, which I believe we are in that season
for it at any moment now.
I would like to pick
up our reading from Brother Branham's sermon, "What the Holy Ghost was Given for"
and we will begin reading at paragraph 82 for
our thoughts tonight.
82. One
more Scripture, if you want to write it down: John
12:24. Let me quote it to you right quick. Jesus
said, "If a corn of wheat falls
into the ground, except it die, it cannot bring forth another life."
Now, look. One closing remark now. And remember then,
it is absolutely, now, to you people, It's absolutely essential, and necessary, and compelling,
and compulsory that you receive the Holy Ghost now, for if you don't, you can't
come in the resurrection. Now, watch. God cannot break His laws; we know that. He
follows His laws. Now, a grain of wheat, or corn, we'll take, like Jesus said
there. 'Course a corn in the Bible (I was just reading it today.) refers to flax, or any kind of a seed, but... Wheat, barley, maize, or
anything, it's a corn. But when a corn of wheat falls into the ground... Now,
there's... All of us here has seen, know this happens.
A corn of wheat, or a grain of corn can look as
perfect as it can be. And you put it in the ground, and if that corn... It has
perpetual life; it'll go down today, reproduce itself in a stalk, and come back
down, and go up again, and come back down. It's perpetual life. If
that corn hasn't got the germ of life in it, no matter how beautiful it looks,
it'll never raise. It'll go to the ground and rot, and that's it. Part of
it (the materials) can be used for fertilize and things in the ground. But as
far as it ever living again, it'll never live unless it's got perpetual life in
it. Anyone knows that. You just can't.
Let's just turn to this scripture and read for
ourselves for a moment before we continue.
John 12:24 Verily,
verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall
into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth
much fruit.
Now, the
Apostle Paul said in Romans 8:11 But if
the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that
raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his
Spirit that dwelleth in you.
And I hope you can
see from our reading tonight where brother Branham makes it very apparent that
without having the same Spirit that was in Jesus you will never partake of this
next Holy Convocation.
83 There
can be two men, both of them just alike. One of them can be a good man; he
could do good works; he could do so forth; but except that man has Eternal
Life in him, he'll never rise in the resurrection. He can't do it; there's
nothing there to raise. There's nothing to bring
him up; there's no life. So you see, my dear brother, my dear sister, except a
man be borned again, he can in no wise come back into this Kingdom. He can't.
"Except this Corn of wheat falls into
the ground and dies..." He's talking of Himself. But
He had, not perpetual life; He had Eternal Life. And the Life He gave to
you, that you might have the same kind of Life...Now, if you've just got
human life, enough to move you around, lust... "She that
liveth in pleasure is dead while she is alive."
You can't rise. You might be the most popular girl in school. You might be the
most popular girl at the card game of your society. You might be the best
dressed woman in the country. You might be the prettiest. You might be the best
built. You might be a idol to your husband. You might
be all these things, which that's wonderful. But, sister, unless you have
the Holy Ghost in you, which is Eternal Life, at the
end of this road you are finished. And I don't care what you look like, or
how these things are, or how unpopular, or popular you are, how pretty, or how
ugly; if you've got Eternal Life, you'll live forever and forever.
Therefore, this
evening we are examining this scene as brother Branham speaks of here in What
the Holy Ghost was Given for and he tells us that if we are not born again and
filled with the Spirit of God, you will miss this event called the Resurrection.
And as I have already pointed out this evening it is the Holy Convocation or
gathering for the resurrection we are looking at here.
We know the first
half of this event has already taken place back when Jesus arose from the dead,
as we saw in Matthew 27.
But now, we have a
promise of another Holy Convocation, another Holy Gathering that I wouldn't
want to miss for the world.
I Thessalonians
Now, as we have read of the first Holy Convocation
where the Entire Old testament saints were raised from the dead, and were seen
by many witnesses in the Alpha resurrection we now will focus on the Omega
Resurrection, and the Omega Holy Convocation. So then there has to be Scripture speaking of
such a Holy Gathering in the seventh age as well. But I'm going to leave that
for Sunday morning,
God bless you.
Let's bow our heads in prayer.