The Benediction

The man of God, Pastor Chris, through different kinds of programs and crusades has helped billions around the world experience the divine presence of God.
These meetings are exceptional times of worship, revelations, prayers, salvation, healing, and upliftment for everyone in attendance.
And so it was at the Healing Stream's live healing services with Pastor Chris, a program organized to take healing to the nations of the world.
In each of the services, billions around the world connected through various platforms to experience God's divine touch.
Be blessed as we bring you an excerpt of one of the teachings from the Healing Stream's live healing services with the Man of God, Pastor Chris.
Today, the Man of God teaches on the benediction.

Some important thoughts.
I want to explain a few things to you from what we all call the benediction.
And this benediction we draw from 2 Corinthians chapter 13 and in verse 14.
the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all, amen.
Now many of you have heard this said in churches, you've heard it said in meetings, different places.
Some don't know it's actually in the Bible, they just say, now rise up for the benediction and then they say this, they quote it, but many don't know it's actually a verse from the Bible.
So I'm showing it to you now.
See, it's in 2 Corinthians chapter 13 and verse number 14.
I want to draw your attention to the three major elements that he talks about there.
The first one is the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He says, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God.
Now there he's referring to God the Father and the communion of the Holy Ghost.
New versions will say Holy Spirit.
So Holy Ghost and Holy Spirit, the same thing.
The old King James translation used the word ghost for spirit.
Like you have in many languages, they have the same word for ghost and spirit.
But when they're talking about God, they'll add Holy to it.
That's the word.
All right, so he says, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, that's one,
And the love of God, that's true, and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you.
Why is this important?
There's something he talked about in the 11th verse of the same book and same chapter.
It is finally brethren, farewell.
The word translated farewell here is better translated rejoice.
All right, rejoice.
So you find that same word in the Greek is translated is rendered rejoice in several other portions of the New Testament.
So he says, finally, brethren, rejoice.
Then he says, be perfect.
That is remarkable.
That's extraordinary.
What a blessing.
It says, be perfect.
Now, this is God's will for you.
What does it mean by be perfect?
The word is drawn from another Greek word.
And maybe I should mention it.
Caratizo.
Caratizo means to be complete.
It means to be mended
Put together in such a way that you are perfected.
So in your health, you can be made complete.
Everything about your life, actually.
He says, be perfect.
Then he says, be of good comfort.
Isn't that wonderful?
Be of good comfort.
That's remarkable.
He's telling you, be encouraged, be strengthened, don't be disheartened, don't be discouraged, no matter what you go through, no matter what you experience, no matter what you face.
He says, be of good comfort, be encouraged.
Then of course, because it's right into a whole church, it tells them to be of one mind, live in peace.
And the God of peace and love, God of love and peace shall be with you.
Wonderful.
So having this in mind, he concludes it in that 14th verse that we saw.
You go back to that 14th verse.
He says, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.
What do you mean the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ?
Why is it so important?
when it says the grace of Jesus Christ be with you.
What is this grace?
What comes to mind is in 2 Corinthians chapter 8 and verse number 9, where he says, for you know the grace.
Look at it.
For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich,
Yet for your sakes, he became poor, that he, through his poverty, might be rich.
The key thing to observe in that verse, in our particular discussion tonight, is what he says, for your sakes.
Whatever Jesus did was for your sakes, for your sakes.
He did it because of you.
He gave up what he gave up because of you.
He suffered on the cross because of you.
He died on the cross because of you, not so that you can cry for him.
No, look at the principle here.
He says, for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
But though he was rich, yet for your sex he became poor,
that he, through his poverty, might be rich.
It's called the principle of substitution.
That means he took your place that you might take his place.
For your sakes, he became poor.
So that you, through his poverty, through his becoming poor, might become rich.
Now, here he was very clear when he says, for you know the grace.
He is saying to them whatever he was teaching in that whole chapter, because you can read the whole chapter, he was basing the particular instruction and direction on a principle of grace, the principle of substitution.
which means he could have said he became sick that you may be well.
Why?
Because sickness was put on him.
The Bible tells us Jesus became sick with our sicknesses.
He himself bore a sense on his own body on the tree.
Says that he being dead to sins, you live unto righteousness.
By whose stripes you were healed.
While he was doing that,
The Jews understood that He was representing them on that cross.
You see, the understood He was representing them says, He Himself burned, carried away, as sicknesses are infirmities.
So when they were crucifying Him, anyone with the understanding of prophecy would know what Jesus was doing on the cross.
There was for them.
But a beautiful thing, yes.
Even though he did that for the Jews, his blood was divine.
And what he did on that cross passed on to all nations.
that anyone can be free by the blood of Jesus Christ.
When he died on the cross, you died on the cross.
Think about that.
This is the gospel.
When Jesus died on the cross, you died on the cross.
Now,
Why is the grace of Jesus so important?
Why?
What makes it more important than the grace that we might experience from any other person?
Some good fellow can do something good for you.
Anybody can do something good for you.
Why?
Why is whatever Jesus did so important?
I'll tell you.
Because of who Jesus was.
Who was Jesus?
When he walked the streets of Galilee, Jerusalem, Capanim, Nazareth, all of those towns and cities in Israel, who was this Jesus?

He was who he claimed to be.
Can I tell you why Jesus was crucified?
Have you ever thought about it?
What was the reason, the singular reason Jesus was put to death?
I wonder if you've ever thought about it.
What was the singular reason for which Jesus was killed by men?
You'd be surprised why they killed him.
Jesus was not crucified because somebody lied about him.
Jesus was not crucified because they just hated him, even though they hated him without a cause.
Jesus was not crucified because he did something wrong.
and they misunderstood, or they assumed they did something that was so terrible, and they found out later on he didn't.
No, no.
You'll be amazed at the singular reason Jesus was crucified.
You want to know?
Yeah.
I'm sure many of you are saying, yes, you want to know.
Singular reason Jesus was crucified.
All right, let's read from St.
John's Gospel, chapter 19, verse number seven.

The Jews answered him.
You know, Pilate, maybe I should read from verse, verse four.
All right.
So you can get the picture.
Pilate therefore went for it again and said, no, Pilate was the governor, all right?
And said unto them, behold, I bring him for it to you.
He had examined Jesus.
So he says, behold, I bring him for it to you.
That he may know that I find no fault in him.
Pilate said, I find no fault in Jesus.
So he brought Jesus back to the Jews.
They charged him with crimes.
He says, I find no fault in him.
All the accusations wouldn't agree together.
There was no crime.
There was no fault in Jesus.
All right, let's keep reading.
Then came Jesus' fault, wearing the crown of thorns.
They put a crown of thorns.
He was already suffering, pains, affliction,
For no crime permitted.
At the judgment, Pilate says, I find no fault in this man.
And yet he had been punished.
For no wrongdoing.
Then came Jesus for to wear in the crown of thorns and a purple robe.
And Pilate said unto them, Behold a man!
When the chief priests therefore an officer saw him, they cried out saying, crucify him, crucify him for what?
The judge just said, I find no fault in him.
And yet they say, crucify him.
Paul has said unto them, take he him and crucify him, for I find no fault in him.
So he says, you go and crucify him yourself.
I find no fault in him.
Now watch, watch, this will show you what Jesus was killed for.
Watch, next verse.
The Jews answered him, they answered Pilate.
We have a law.
And by our law, he ought to die because he made himself the Son of God.
That's why Jesus was killed.
Because he said, I am the Son of God.

That's why He was killed.
They said, we have a law.
By our law, He ought to die because He made Himself the Son of God.
That's what Jesus was killed for.
For saying that He was the Son of God.
Question!
What's the meaning of Son of God?
I want to tell you the meaning.
You see, the Jews didn't know that the Christ would be the Son of God.

I'll show that to you in a second.
They didn't understand that.
They expected the Christ.
But who was Christ?
They didn't know him.
They didn't really know him.
Said Matthew's gospel.
Go to chapter 22.
Let's read from verse 41.
Why are the Pharisees?
No, interesting.
Jesus had similar encounters with Pharisees, Sadducees and scribes.
So if you go to some Luke's gospel, you'd find he dealt with the Sadducees and the scribes on this very matter.
Now here, Matthew reports he's dealing with the Pharisees.
So what are the Pharisees that were gathered together?
Jesus acts them.
He asked them, saying, what think he of Christ?
What do you think of Christ?
Whose son is he?
They say unto him the Son of David.
You see, then you, the Christ will be the Son of David.
So, look at it.
He asked them, what do you think of Christ?
Whose son is he?
They say unto him the Son of David.
He said unto them, how then did David in spirit call him Lord?
Because they knew the Scriptures.
So Jesus is quoting scripture to them now.
He says, why does David then call Christ Lord?
Now let's, I'll read it to you.
Watch.
He said unto them, how they end up David in spirit call him Lord saying, he could scripture.
The Lord said unto my Lord, sit down on my right hand till I make them enemies thy footstool.
They knew that scripture referred to the Christ.
If David then call him Lord, how is he his son?
Jesus is asking them.
They said, Christ is the son of David.
He said, but David called him Lord in spirit according to scripture.
So if David called him Lord, how is he his son?
He asked them.
Guess what?
They couldn't answer.
And no man was able to answer him a word.
Neither does any man from that day thought, ask him any more questions.
That's why he was right.
Because David called him Lord.
If he is his son, why does he call him Lord?

So when Jesus said he was the Son of God, they knew the meaning of Son of God and they were mad.
Because to say, Son of God, and I want you to understand, I've said it everywhere.
And I tell the whole world, because it's so important, most people don't understand, even among Christians, they don't understand the meaning of Son of God.
Son of God doesn't mean someone that you get birth to.
It's more than that.
That's why they accused him.
That's why they said he must die.
Because Son of God means God in flesh.
That's the meaning of Son of God.
That's why they said he must die.
They said he made himself the Son of God.
That means he's telling us that he was the God who appeared to Abraham.
He was the God who stood before Moses in the burning fire, the burning bush.
So they're saying, Jesus is telling us he was the God who split the red sea wide open.
They said, how can that be?
What he was.
But he was.
Let me show you something.
In Saint Matthew's Gospel, chapter 27, let's read from verse number 54.
When Jesus was being crucified, so many things happened.
While he was on the cross, the Bible says the earth began to quick.
There was darkness over the world for three hours, three long hours.
The world was dark.
when Jesus was on the cross, many things began to happen.
Watch, here's what the Bible says.
Now, when the centurion, the centurion, captain of our 100 soldiers who was in charge of the crucifixion, now when the centurion and they that were with him and the other soldiers watching Jesus saw the earthquake and those things that were done, they feared greatly saying truly this was the Son of God.
This was their testimony.
Those soldiers themselves, when they saw what happened at the crucifixion of Jesus, they said, truly, this was the Son of God.
And remember what I told you, Son of God means God in flesh, in human flesh.
So when Jesus came, he was no ordinary man.
He was God made flesh.
That's what's written to us in St.
John's Gospel chapter 1.
Look at verse number 14.
Look at it.
See it for yourself.
And the word was made flesh and dwelt among us.
And we beheld His glory.
The glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
The word.
Old King James says was made flesh.
The best rendering in the Greek is became flesh.
The word became the... Which word?
Let's see which word.
Go to verse 1.
Let's read.
What word became flesh?
In the beginning was the word.
And the word was with God.
And the word was God.
This is so... You know, when you read St.
John's Gospel, it's the story of the Word of God.
How the word became human.
That's what the book of John is about.
the story of the word from the beginning.
And what happened?
So he tells you, the word was in the beginning with God.
When you keep reading, it tells you all things were made by him.
That word was himself God, and that word became flesh.
Born of a virgin, lived among us,
and was crucified in our place.
This is why the grace of Jesus Christ is so important.
You're not dealing with the grace of some ordinary man.
No, this was God in flesh.
So when you serve Jesus Christ, when you believe in Jesus Christ, when you trust in Jesus Christ, when you are quoted with Jesus Christ, you're dealing with God.
You see it?
You're dealing with God for He is Himself God.
That's why He said, if you have seen Me, you have seen the Father.
He said, I and My Father are one.
Those are His words.
That's what they killed Him for.
But look at the day He ascended to heaven.
That's what convinced His siblings because the Bible says even His siblings didn't believe in Him.
His mother's children.
Then believe in Him until the day, until the day that He ascended.
For the Bible tells us they were all gathered together.
His siblings were there in Galilee.
And Jesus gave instructions to His disciples.
And as He spoke to them, suddenly He levitated.
His feet went off the ground.
He left it and he watched him as he levitated, ascended upward.
They kept watching him until he went through the clouds.
All his siblings were convinced more than ever.
Something was really different with this one.
That was the day.
From there the Bible tells us they followed the other disciples straight and never went back.
Never went back.
The ascension convinced them.
Because Jesus said, what if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before?
He had asked them.
So what would you do?
When you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before?
Because when he said to them, I am from above and you are from beneath, they were offended.
So what if you see the son of Manas sent to where he was before?
And the Bible describes how he left this world.
He didn't just disappear.
Like they're, oh, we don't know where, no, no, no.
He went slowly.
They watched him.
They watched him.
Until he went through the clouds.
And then the Bible says they all returned to Jerusalem with great joy.
Amazing what they saw.
Oh, you know, I read that in my Bible.
I'm scared.
I want to tell the whole world about Jesus.
He's no ordinary man.
No, no, no, no, no.
Jesus is God's Son.
He's God's Son.
And that means He's God in human flesh.
That's who He is.
Blessed be God.
Lift your hand and thank Him wherever you are.
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