Beam Me Up | Part 4

As we continue in John chapter 20, we need to keep our focus on the question, “What does the resurrection of Jesus Christ imply for us today?” As we have studied the different versions of what each Gospel says and what it doesn’t say, we can also ask ourselves how much of the resurrection of Christ we really understand, and how we can tell the story and allow the anointing of the Holy Spirit to flow. 

Matthew, Mark, and Luke each had limitations in what they wrote about the resurrection in their gospels. None of them was an “eye” witness at the tomb. The disciple John was. He was the last disciple at the cross with the women, and he investigated an empty tomb with Peter and Mary Magdalene. Everything I'm sharing is a collection of nuggets of insight and wisdom, continually seeking to understand what these nuggets mean for the resurrection of Christ today, as it is manifested in our natural bodies. Please do your own research, read these scriptures, and ask the Holy Spirit what He wants you to unveil in your life and in your walk with the Lord. Your community, country, city, and wherever you're at on the earth has groaned for over two thousand years for the manifestation of the sons and daughters of the body of Christ to take dominion over the earth.

“We know that the whole creation has been groaning in travail together until now; 23 and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies” (Romans 8:22-23 RSV).

In chapter 20:30 NIV, John wrote, "Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book, but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name." 

Moving to chapter 21, we see Jesus in Galilee. While Matthew and Mark describe Jesus and the angels instructing Mary to tell the disciples that He would meet them in Galilee after His resurrection, John simply states that Jesus is in Galilee. Why is this different?

This chapter offers more details about Jesus after the resurrection than Matthew, Mark, or Luke. It describes the reconciliation between Jesus and Peter following Peter's denial. Throughout the chapter, the question “Peter, do you love Me?’ is revisited. 

Look at verse 25 in chapter 21 of the NIV. John states for a second time, “Jesus did many other things. If every one of them were written down, I believe the whole world could not contain the books that would be written.” Both the final verse of chapter 20 and the last verse of chapter 21 reveal that Jesus performed many additional signs, wonders, and miracles beyond the resurrection. This emphasizes the importance of the resurrection, not just the relationship with Jesus before the cross, but as the resurrection itself. The magnitude of these deeds was so overwhelming that John was limited in what he could share. It’s up to us to seek out and understand them further, for it is the glory (Proverbs 25:2). This is more than the miracles Jesus performed while walking on earth as a man, healing the sick and raising the dead (Hebrews 6).

All of this focuses on the glory of Christ within us, revealed through us on Earth. When we mention the world, we're referring to the cosmos—not just our planet. This encompasses the entire universe, including all stars, planets, and both visible and invisible realms around us. Our grasp of this broader realm is supported by quantum science and modern discoveries, which have always existed; we are only now starting to uncover them. Using these insights, I want to share Paul’s words from 1 Corinthians 11. 

If you go to church and have communion, you're taking the cup and the bread, and we get down to where Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 NIV, “For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you. The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took the bread and, when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, 'This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.' In the same way, after supper, He took the cup saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this whenever you drink it in remembrance of me. For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes.'" That's a key factor that religion has held us hostage, “until He comes.”

Until He comes, the unveiling is that Christ is in you now. When we're teaching it from a someday, we must die to go to heaven unless He's coming in a cloud of witnesses on white horses flying in the sky somewhere. Both of those analogies hinder us from the anointing work of the Holy Spirit within us now, which we are supposed to be unveiling. 

I Corinthians 11:27 NIV says, "So then, whenever you eat the bread or drink the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, you'll be guilty of sinning against the body and the blood of the Lord." See, you're guilty of sinning against His body because you're not allowing the understanding that His body is your body. His life is your life. The life you now live is in Christ Jesus, because the old man is dead.

1 Corinthians 11:28-32 NIV, “Everyone ought to examine themselves before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup. For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ, eat and drink judgment on themselves. That is why many among you are weak and sick, and several of you have fallen asleep. But if we were more discerning regarding ourselves, we would not come under such judgment. Nevertheless, when we are judged in this way by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be finally condemned with the world.” 

That's powerful! Paul is stating that many among us are weak and sick, and several of us have fallen asleep or died because we take communion without discerning that we are the Lord’s body today. If we were more discerning regarding ourselves, we would not come under such judgment of death. Nevertheless, when we are judged in this way by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be finally condemned with the world. 

Paul discusses how we condemn ourselves when we restrict our ability to embrace our Divine Identity in Christ by adopting a ‘sin identity', which obscures our true self today. The core of sin is essentially living with a false identity. If you see yourself as a wretched sinner, believing you're only saved by grace, you overlook the radiant presence of Christ within your natural body. 

Our spirit was formed in Christ before our physical birth (Genesis 2, Psalm 139). We all missed that understanding when we entered this world in our physical bodies (Romans 3:23). From infancy, the world taught us that we are conditionally accepted and loved only if we confess our sin of unworthiness, which God supposedly desires. The glory Paul refers to in Romans is the identity we have in Christ. Being born in the flesh was a lower realm of life than the heavenly realm we were originally created in.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is also our resurrection life, unveiled within us. Today, we can do greater works than Jesus did while He walked on the earth. We are the ones who are supposed to be magnifying the one body of Christ to the rest of the world. What does that look like? It looks like God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, Christ Jesus, who is the head of the body of all humanity. Whether they know it or not, it's all.

When this concept becomes ingrained within us and the word embodies itself in our lives, our actions and words mirror it, and just being present can influence others. Drawing inspiration from Paul's reference to the Last Supper, I now invite you to revisit Matthew's Gospel, where Jesus takes His disciples to a location on earth that was once regarded as offensive for Jews to enter.

In Matthew 16:13-16 NIV, “When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, 'Who do people say the Son of Man is?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

Jesus takes the disciples north of Galilee to an area called Caesarea Philippi, at the foothills of Mount Hermon. There, Jesus asks, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?" His disciples give different answers. Then the big question comes, “Who do you say I am?" Jesus isn’t asking,
Who do you think I am?” They could have answered that Jesus was a teacher, a Rabbi, a carpenter’s son, Mary’s son, a healer, and many more, which would all have been correct, but there was one answer that summed it all.

In Exodus 3:13 -14 KJV, “Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, what is His name? what shall I say unto them? And God said unto Moses, I Am That I Am: and He said, thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I Am hath sent me unto you.”

The scriptures tell us that 'I am that I am.' The second 'I am' means 'I be.' Essentially, it’s simply 'I am.' What Jesus is asking here aligns with that understanding. The disciples, through their faith, would have recognized this.

Matthew 16:15-19 NIV, “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock, I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

As they left the area and traveled for six days, Jesus ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that He was the Messiah. Matthew 17 tells us they went from Caesarea Philippi, north of the Sea of Galilee, to Mount Tabor. This is where the story of the Mount of Transfiguration takes place. Jesus went to the top of this mountain, taking only Peter, James, and John. All the disciples traveled with Jesus for these six days, but not all of them went to the top of Mount Tabor. 

I've climbed to the top of that mountain and was fortunate to share the moment with a group. We gathered around a large table, and I sat at the end, allowing me to observe the conversations on both sides—an incredible experience.

What struck me most was that no one spoke to me. I felt as if I were almost disappearing, as if I were so blessed to be in a different realm. I watched the interactions and conversations of God's people as they shared a communion meal together in love, unity, and oneness on that mountain. It was an incredible moment, and I couldn't find the words to express the joy of being part of the body of Christ and sitting at the head of the table. I sensed that if anyone looked my way, with a big window behind me letting in light, they wouldn't even see my face — only this radiant glow from behind.

In Matthew and Mark, Jesus went ahead of the disciples to Galilee at a designated mountain. What was this mountain? I believe it was Mount Tabor. I believe that the whole reason Jesus needed to go ahead and meet them there was to serve as a reminder of their conversation at Caesarea Philippi and the transfiguration at Mount Tabor six days later. 

“Don't you remember Peter, the rock of the question of who do you say I am?" If Jesus arose on the third day, which was the first day of the feast of unleavened bread and first fruits, there would have been an urgency for them to travel quickly to the foothills of Mount Tabor. John’s version of this story in chapter 21 tells us that it was more than just Peter, James, and John who went to Galilee, so they would have searched an area familiar to them all to see Jesus. They were all fishermen.

John presents the resurrection life of Christ as a place where God’s love is unveiled on earth. The conversation Jesus has with Peter about taking care of and feeding sheep is not a literal depiction of being a shepherd, but of loving people as God loves. John is the only author who presents the foundational statement we have used throughout time as the gateway to eternal life and death in John 3:16-17 NIV, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” 

This moment captures Peter talking with the resurrected Christ Jesus, whom he had previously recognized as the Messiah, the Son of God, through a revelation before the cross. Peter also saw Jesus' transfiguration in a heavenly realm, where Jesus spoke with Moses and Elijah—figures Peter had never met physically. Having previously encountered the Holy Spirit's presence, Peter now experiences that same divine presence while in his natural body, engaging in conversation with Jesus as He had with Moses and Elijah.

It is the Holy Spirit who, when we ask, will unveil all this to our hearts with the unconditional love that is burning within us right now, for our hearts are the mountains of God. It is the temple that is being raised up, as in Isaiah 2:2-3 KJV, “It shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.”

All nations. What defines a nation? It is every individual person. A nation is not only countries, cities, or territory. It encompasses each person across all humanity, including those who came before us and those who will come after.

Here and now, we are revealing the kingdom of God on Earth as His glory, like sands covering the seas, like stars in the sky, and as the unity of one body of Christ — in spirit, in truth, and in holiness — united under one Father. Jesus Christ is the head of this new, unified man, as Paul describes in Ephesians. I pray that these insights I share will help you grow and be enlightened to the point where you realize, "Wow, love truly is the answer." Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal His love to you.

After the religious leaders wanted to kill Jesus for breaking the Sabbath and claiming to be the Son of God, Jesus answered them in John 5:19-23 NIV, “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.  For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed. For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it. Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son.”

Only John’s Gospel reveals that God does not judge anyone directly and has delegated all judgment to the Son. Jesus’s way of judging mirrors that of God. Allow the Father to reveal His actions and reasons for your current circumstances, which serve His purpose and the timing for revealing Christ in you—not for your own gain, but for His glory. This enables you to forgive sins even without being asked, to bring healing through your touch, and to embody the presence of His coming on earth.