Chapter
9
The
Firstborn
Hebrews 12:22-23
tells us that those who dwell in Zion will belong to the Church
of the Firstborn. The Head of the Church of the Firstborn
is Jesus Christ.
Colossians
1:18 And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the
beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may
have the preeminence.
Romans 8:29
For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the
image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many
brethren.
When we are
conformed to His image, we then become His brethren, and we
become a part of the Company of the Firstborn. In biblical
terms the firstborn has specific privileges and responsibilities.
The firstborn was presented to God and became His property.
The inheritance or birthright of the firstborn was a double
portion.
This double-portion
inheritance, as it relates to the born-again believer, guarantees
kingdom blessings in this lifetime and in the eternal hereafter.
Jesus pronounced this double-portion blessing upon those who
would join the Church of the Firstborn.
Mark 10:29
So Jesus answered and said, "Assuredly, I say to you, there
is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or
mother or wife or children or lands, for My sake and the
gospel's,
Mark 10:30
"who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time;
houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and
lands, with persecutions; and in the age to come, eternal life.”
The concept of
the redemption of the firstborn was first revealed in the Old
Testament when God was about to bring Israel out from under
Egyptian bondage. This great event is called the Passover
when God killed all the firstborn of the Egyptians. The
children of Israel were to place the blood of a lamb on the two
doorposts and on the lintels of their houses.
Exodus 12:12
For I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night, and will
strike 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.
Exodus 12:13
Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are.
And when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague
shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of
Egypt.
The blood of
the Passover lamb was a foreshadowing of the blood of Jesus, the
Lamb of God that would take away the sin of the world. However,
because the blood of Jesus had not yet been shed, the firstborn
of Israel became the property of God Almighty.
The Lord spoke
to Moses, saying:
Exodus 13:2
"Consecrate to Me all the firstborn, whatever opens the womb
among the children of Israel, both of man and beast; it is Mine."
Numbers 3:12-13
"Now behold, I Myself have taken the Levites from among the
children of Israel instead of every firstborn who opens the womb
among the children of Israel. Therefore the Levites shall be Mine
because all the firstborn are Mine. On the day that I struck all
the firstborn in the land of Egypt, I sanctified to Myself all
the firstborn in Israel, both man and beast. They shall be Mine:
I am the LORD."
Instead of
taking the firstborn from every tribe of Israel, He took the
tribe of Levi. The Levites would become the priests of God
who would attend to the work of the Tabernacle.
Now, we come
to the part of this story that gets very interesting. There
were two hundred and seventy-three more firstborn children of
Israel than there were Levites. The Lord then instructed
Moses as to how this mathematical problem would be solved.
Numbers 3:46-48
"And for the redemption of the two hundred and seventy-three
of the firstborn of the children of Israel, who are more than the
number of the Levites, you shall take five shekels for each one
individually; you shall take them in the currency of the shekel
of the sanctuary, the shekel of twenty gerahs. And you
shall give the money, with which the excess number of them is
redeemed, to Aaron and his sons."
The revelation
of the position of the firstborn is revealed in this transaction
when God purchased two hundred and seventy-three priests (Levites)
for a future purpose. Two hundred and seventy-three
represents the spiritual number of the firstborn that would
become the New Testament priests of God.
It takes
another Old Testament event to connect the revelation of the
firstborn to the New Testament. When Solomon finished
building the temple, he dedi-cated the temple to God. Once
the Ark of the Covenant was set in place in the Holy of Holies,
one hundred and twenty Levites (firstborn priests) began to
praise God (2 Chronicles 5:12). As a result of the praise
of these one hundred and twenty, the temple of God was filled
with His glory (2 Chronicles 5:13-14).
With this
understanding of the one hundred and twenty Levites, who
were the firstborn redeemed by God and bought with a price, we
can now take this revelation into the New Testament.
After the
resurrection Jesus instructed His disciples to wait in Jerusalem
for the promise of the Father. The disciples then went up
into an upper room where they continued to wait with one accord
in prayer.
Acts 1:15
And in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples (altogether
the number of names was about a hundred and twenty).
We see that
the one hundred and twenty priests that God purchased from the
Levites are about to become the New Testament priests. They
would be the temple made without hands, and on the Day of
Pentecost, the one hundred and twenty would become the Church of
the Firstborn, the last days’ temple of God. They
would become the first fruits of the firstborn, those who were
bought with a price, the precious blood of Jesus.
The events
that led up to the Day of Pentecost are very enlightening. Even
after the resurrection Peter decided to return to his old
profession of fishing. This episode is recorded in John
chapter 21. Simon Peter and the boys had fished all night
and had caught nothing.
John 21:4
But when the morning had now come, Jesus stood on the shore; yet
the disciples did not know that it was Jesus.
John 21:5
Then Jesus said to them, "Children, have you any food?"
They answered Him, "No."
John 21:6
And He said to them, "Cast the net on the right side of the
boat, and you will find some." So they cast, and now they
were not able to draw it in because of the multitude of fish.
Jesus told His
disciples to cast the net on the “right side of the boat.”
In other words, He was about to bring His disciples, and
especially Peter, into a “right understanding” of His
purposes for His church. He had already told them that they
were to become fishers of men, which the fish that they caught on
the “right side of the boat” represented.
John 21:10
Jesus said to them, "Bring some of the fish which you have
just caught."
John 21:11
Simon Peter went up and dragged the net to land, full of large
fish, one hundred and fifty-three; and although there were so
many, the net was not broken.
We now come to
the unsealing of the revelation of the firstborn. If we add
the 120 who would be in the upper room on the Day of Pentecost to
the 153 fish, which represents the harvest of souls to
come, we have 273. Remember, this is the number of the
firstborn that God purchased from the Levites.
If we subtract
120 from 153, we have 33, which is the age of Jesus at the time
of the resurrection. Jesus was the first fruits of the
firstborn, followed by the 120 on the Day of Pentecost, who would
be followed by the harvest to come, as represented by the 153
fish.
The Hebrew
alphabet letters each have a numerical value. In the Hebrew
“Beni Ha-Elohim” means the sons of God and has a
numerical value of 153.
The sons of
God are those who have been bought with a price, the blood of
Jesus, and have been baptized in the Holy Spirit in the same
manner that those in the Upper Room were. These are those
who dwell in Zion and belong to the Church of the Firstborn.
This is a
revelation that was set aside for the Third Day Church. John
21:4 tells us that a new day would come, and it is the morning of
the third day that springs forth in power from the womb of the
morning. (Psalm 110:3)
John 21:14
This is now the third time Jesus showed Himself to His disciples
after He was raised from the dead.
This event
took place the third time that Jesus showed Himself to His
disciples as a group, and it was His seventh appearance since the
resurrection. Once again, hidden in God’s word we have
a sign post of the Third Day of Christ and the Seventh Day of God.
Once the fish
and bread were eaten and breakfast was over Jesus prophetically
spoke about the Third Day harvest as He reminded Peter that he
was to be a fisher of men instead of fish. His question
which came three times was: Peter, do you love Me more than
these fish you have just caught? Three times He spoke to
Peter as a representative of the church. He was telling us
that three days of harvest would come and that His sheep must be
tended in all three days.
In this
conversation between Peter and Jesus, Peter represents the first
century church (first day) when he asked a question about John.
John 21:21
Peter, seeing him, said to Jesus, "But Lord, what about this
man?"
John 21:22
Jesus said to him, "If I will that he remain till I come,
what is that to you? You follow Me."
When Jesus
took some of His disciples up to the Mount of Transfiguration to
show them the glory of His kingdom, he took Peter, James and John
– three men representing the three days of the church.
Jesus said, “If I will that he (John as a representative of
the Third Day Church) remain till I come, what is that to you?”
John
represents the Third Day Church that will be here when Jesus
returns for the Church of the Firstborn. It is John who
tells us that we are kings and priests (Revelation 1:6). It
is John who received revelation of the resurrected Christ and the
end-time events of the Third Day. It was John that was in
the Spirit on the Lord’s Day, the Day of the Lord, the
Seventh Day of God, and the Third Day of Christ. John’s
message is also our message.
Revelation
1:7 Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will
see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the
earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen.
Revelation
1:8 "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and
the End," says the Lord, "who is and who was and who is
to come, the Almighty."
This is the
message of the sons of God, the firstborn of the Third Day.
Jesus is coming; let the redeemed say so. Let us shout it
from the mountain tops. The Firstborn of all creation is
coming for His own. Amen.
Faith Tabernacle