Jhn 15:15   “Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you”.

In Luke’s inspired writings, the Gospel of Luke and Acts, there is a pivotal individual. This individual is the one to whom Luke wrote in both cases. This individual’s name has meaning that is not confined to he alone, but to all to whom the Lord reveals Himself and in whom the Lord, by His Spirit, teaches. This individual is Theophilus, and his name means “Friend Of God”. The account to Theophilus known as the Gospel of Luke, sets forth in order, for Theophilus, an account of all the Jesus BEGAN to do and teach up to the moment He was received up into the heavens. The account to Theophilus in the book of Acts, is an accounting of the Resurrected Lord, by His Spirit, resuming unto a conclusion in His people, those things He began as the Word made flesh. Though we can know Him no more in terms of flesh and blood, and though we see Him no more in flesh and blood, we are not left orphaned. Know Him we must. The continuation of His doing and teaching, is by His Spirit. Reading the opening sayings of  Acts reveals this transition, by the coming of the Spirit of Christ, into the ongoing of revelation of Himself, in them He calls friends:

“The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, Until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen: To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God: And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.”

Jesus did not depart from His own for very long, but according to the saying of the prophet Malachi,  “Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts”. This was fulfilled, “not many days hence” , exactly as Jesus told the disciples. It was not fulfilled in an upper room. It was fulfilled upon the arrival of the full day of Pentecost , and was the fulfillment of the ritualistic enactment which the Jews, in their religion, had acted out by ordinance, once each calender year.

  “And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language. And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans? And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born? Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia, Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God. And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this?”

These events, involving so many individuals, on a day in which the Lord defined His temple as the people in whom the Spirit came and comes, had to require a great deal more space than any upper room could ever provide.

On this day, the Holy Spirit, the Promise of the Father came. He came to His temple. Now, does this temple refer to the stock and stone edifice, the “house” which David desired to build, but was told of the impossibility of it, and Solomon built anyway? This work of Solomon now surrounded by an outer court of massive proportions (approx. 1.5 million square feet), built by Herod , the offspring of Esau, and Roman Senate appointed king of Judeah? For concerning the buildings, when they were pointed out to Him, Jesus had said not one stone would be left upon another which would not be thrown down, yet to Christ and His people it is said:
  “…Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious. To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded.”

And again:

   “…And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.”  ( Christ is the foundation of the apostles and prophets, and the foundation in you upon which all are built)

So, the dead is cast down, the living is raised and built upon. The fulfillment of the day of Pentecost is not a calender day. It is an eternal day, a “day”, a “time”, a “manner” , the coming of which “ye think not”…the carnal mind does not accept or entertain it. In His revelation to John on Patmos, Jesus declared Himself to be raised eternally. He WAS, He IS, He IS TO COME…the ALMIGHTY. He abides eternal. On the final legitimate calender day of Pentecost, the Lord came to His temple, and in them added to Him since the resurrection , He came. In them being “caught up” , apprehended in Spirit this moment, He is coming (present tense and active), and in those who hereafter will receive the Holy Spirit, from this moment, until the Lord concludes all that He began to do and teach, He is to come. The calender day is finished. The eternal day is at hand, ready to be entered into. And so long as the door is opened, it suffers violence (energetic assault) and the energetic take it with force (power to become). If you desire the kingdom of God, it is yours for the taking. When the Lord shall complete this great work, in which it is written, we are His workmanship, when the last to be added are added, all shall be revealed. But make no mistake, the Lord is in His temple now. And living stones being added, stone by stone, implies an on going work, which shall surely be completed. If God is “invisible” , what is it then, if His house is also invisible at this present time? Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.

When Jesus stood and overlooked the city whose end had come, to Jerusalem below, He said, “Your house is left unto you desolate”. The sun, moon , and eleven stars of Joseph’s dreams darkened, became ordinary flesh, and fell. The lamp of the earthy temple , now no more visited by the Lord, went out. And now we read of the lighting of the lamp anew, in a new house, an eternal house, the Father’s resurrected house of many houses, a place for each, Jesus in His departing prepared for you, and in His Spirit, has come again to receive you, as he said, “To Myself”.

Christianity so called ( I say so called, because many adopt a name that they live, but are dead) , Christianity today, in it’s various franchises and distinctions, has been largely reduced to the same sad and fallen state of the Hebrews today. They bob and bow in front of a stone wall, built by an Idumean, a seed of Esau ( Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated), with eyes transfixed on a vacant city, waiting for Messiah to come ( who will never again come as Messiah, for Messiah is in the earth now, if you comprehend what His Body is), looking for a temple to be built, all the while ignorant of the temple, the Spiritual House, which is raised and will never be pulled down. This is a condition rife and begging for great deception. As Paul wrote, many are weak, many sickly, and many sleep among them, because they fail to discern the Lord’s body (and often substitute it in their minds, with a cracker and a thimble of grape juice).

But the ongoing Revelation among them He calls “friends” is real, is present, and essential. It is not theoretical, theological, and it is by no means a hospice like environment where the often dead congregate to await burial. And happily, this blessed state of life and walk in the Spirit of Christ, is available and attainable to all who believe, seek, and ask. And should any believe, seek and ask, do not be surprised if the things to follow by revelation of Christ in you, bear little if any resemblance to the things you have been commonly given to believe by the builders:

“Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes?”    [Matthew 21:42 KJV]

“And have ye not read this scripture; The stone which the builders rejected is become the head of the corner:”    [Mark 12:10 KJV]

“And he beheld them, and said, What is this then that is written, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner?”   [Luke 20:17 KJV]
  
The opening of the eyes of the man born blind resulted in his being cast out of the synagogue. It seems that there is a never ending contention between these “experts” who would have you see all through their eyes, and the the Spirit of Truth who prefers that you see through your own. As it is written, “The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light” (Mat 6:22) and again, “Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch” (Mat 15:14).

I truly believe the man, in time, would have left the place on his own. The “casting out” by the Pharisees was an act, as was and is everything they do, for show…for “to be seen of men”. It was the cowardly act of self appointed “somewhats”, threatened by the reasoning of God in the mind of an individual. For upon being put out, the Lord, who had opened the eyes of the man born blind, found him, as you may read in John 9, and then began the condition described and told by the prophet Isaiah, “And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them” (Isa 42:16).

We were all born blind. It need not be a permanent condition. Jesus came not to offer His elbow to the blind, but to restore sight to the blind.