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JESUS IN THE OLD TESTAMENT #1 Genesis 1
7 Plays1 month ago
Revealing Jesus in Creation Week!
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Transcript
Opening and tech issues
00:00:05
Speaker
Hi there, Mary. How are you?
00:00:28
Speaker
Are you well? I can't.
00:00:41
Speaker
You're getting very excited with the mute button. but but
00:00:52
Speaker
Hello? Yeah, I can hear you now. Oh, very good. I will eventually get the back of this someday. Don't worry, you're fine. Once I can hear you, it's the main thing. It took me a long time to figure it out as well. Don't worry. oh i like I can watch things on telly. I'm here watching something come up on my thing. Revelation, John's final vision.
00:01:12
Speaker
Yeah. I was what watching that while I was waiting for you. But um I can do that. No problem. But it comes to the other end of things. I'm on the back foot. On the back foot completely. Don't worry about that at all. hello How are you? All good with you.
00:01:28
Speaker
Yes.
Weddings and travel experiences
00:01:29
Speaker
Thank you. Yeah. and I took a Turned for the worst health bodies this day last week. But I was out commission for a few days. But everything's right in the world again.
00:01:41
Speaker
oh God bless you. And you're away in Pakistan as well at her wedding, I believe. i was I was. Nida was getting married. and So she invited me along. And I just said, right.
00:01:58
Speaker
If I can, i will. i will. Didn't think it would happen necessarily because, you know, Christmas is pretty crazy month or season and January is usually quite tight.
00:02:09
Speaker
But in the end, i literally had all the money needed to get the flights and the the visa. I only had 47 cents in my bank account by the end of it, but I had money for the flights and the visa.
00:02:23
Speaker
but That's so wonderful. So I just said, it's an adventure. Why not? Go for it. Yeah, absolutely. So, yeah, was there. Well, the whole trip took five days, but was, you know, one day traveling there, one day traveling back.
00:02:37
Speaker
Yeah. So it was quite a compartmentalized holiday, but it was wonderful to be there for a big, well, really a day, it was a weekend, but for all the festivities, you know.
00:02:50
Speaker
For a special day. God bless. I didn't even know there was anybody in in a pipeline. but She wouldn't get a chance to top it those things ah at OHM. You know what, when God makes it happen, it can happen with exceptional speed. That's all I'll say. Of course it can. Oh my goodness. Yeah. yeah and let say where Yeah. How are you?
00:03:12
Speaker
ah little by a little. a little bit. ah I've already scored football in situations, but yeah. It is a little bit under under.
00:03:25
Speaker
It's like, if not that, then this. If not this, then patience now. If not that, then the other, you know, I thought, oh
Importance of patience and faith
00:03:33
Speaker
dear. So long as you're still in the fight, you're winning. That's how I see it.
00:03:40
Speaker
Yeah, that's right. You know, and you just, yeah, sometimes my patience, you know, just pops out and then again. Yeah.
00:03:49
Speaker
They went to the job, didn't have a thought, you know, and the patient goes, well, I'll give you half an hour and I'm gone. And I had the thought ring, you know, to manage this and this and that. And I go, oh, I need to talk to you. And I thought, all right, rightly so.
00:04:09
Speaker
Yeah. So I sat on the bike and went back and...
00:04:16
Speaker
It's like every day, like Adventure. Yesterday was Quiet Day, a little bit release, and then again, bang, bang, bang. Okay. and But, um yeah, God is good and he's for us and he wants us to do...
00:04:32
Speaker
Stay in these places so... Yeah. Rejoice. Rejoice. Not easy. It's not easy. Well, look, I pray that God... Sometimes, yeah. Sometimes. He opens just the right doors, but in the season that he does extend your patience, your stamina, your tenacity, your grit, because we're going to need them in the days the ahead.
00:04:58
Speaker
and But at just the right time, he opens just the right door. and for you to step in in terms of employment a place where you'll really shine and flourish where between the work culture and the tasks we'll all be right to be our latest tailor-made for you amen yeah amen welcome lisa carolina jamie great to see you ladies great to see you too hi how are you
Returning to Bible study
00:05:32
Speaker
I'm good, thank you. Excited to be back doing these again. i didn't think so long would pass between volume one, volume two, but I just needed to know I knew that I knew at what it was God wanted shared and no point running ahead of him.
00:05:53
Speaker
um and then about November time m he just began giving very very clear downloads and instructions so happy to be back at it it's going to be great and then amen amen
00:06:18
Speaker
all right guys we'll just give the others another minute or so and then we'll kick off because I want to honour all of your time okay cool cool hey brandon everything's jamie how's the family how's life how's everything ah good and bad good and bad okay mixed bag day by day brandon we're good we're doing all right Yeah. OK.
00:06:46
Speaker
OK. And how's all yours? I'll send you a message during the week and we'll we'll pray that that bad becomes. good and Thank you. How's your mom and dad and your brother? Everyone's very well. Thank you. He is in Poland at the moment.
00:07:02
Speaker
And on his Christmas present, actually, was a trip to Krakow. Really? So he's going to wax museums, he's going to Auschwitz, he's seeing all the sights.
00:07:18
Speaker
Enjoying himself. Oh, we're getting hour by hour updates by the photograph. It's good for him, Brandon. He's done enough. As a crack, I had actually been on my bucket list, but I might not need to go now. i can just vicariously look for his holiday, you know?
00:07:38
Speaker
It's like you're there. Like I'm there.
00:07:42
Speaker
It's a place I'd like to go as well, actually, one day. Please, God, I'd like to go. Yeah. Yeah. And together, Brandon, we could all go. Absolutely. Big Discipleship Wednesday trip to Krakow.
Weather talk and Bible study session
00:07:55
Speaker
Especially when the snow is there.
00:07:57
Speaker
ah We don't get enough of it here.
00:08:02
Speaker
That's a day. Yeah. ah I snow so much. it's what probably life fit in my favourite weather. we just only ever get it once every several years. Better than all this bloody rain. Oh, my goodness.
00:08:16
Speaker
Crazy. Absolutely crazy. But sure, look, we're a green country because of it, huh? Yeah, that's it. That's it. Looking forward to this now, Brendan. and Thank you. so am I. No, Godhead.
00:08:31
Speaker
Oh, the last number of months been giving me little words here, little words there, little pictures there. and I just wasn't quite sure how to piece it all together. um And then about November time, it just clicked.
00:08:48
Speaker
And I said, okay okay, I know exactly what it is you're saying. And my... My aim years ago, actually, had always been to do Bible studies that weren't just sit there, listen, nod, pretend to understand, and presumably forget five minutes later.
00:09:12
Speaker
I always wanted, not to project that any of you, but hypothetically, and um my aim was always that people would have the opportunity for a written record.
00:09:24
Speaker
would always have the opportunity to use lot of teaching as a platform with which to have a very directed study into the Word of God and themselves independently.
00:09:39
Speaker
And that's very much what he really stressed this time, was that there would be livestream teaching component. And then for those who wanted to, they would be able to do a guided study deeper into the word themselves afterwards.
00:09:55
Speaker
And so that's kind of something he's been talking to me a lot about, but it had been on my heart to do it years and years ago. And so this has just been a really wonderful opportunity, actually, to give that a test.
Jesus in the Old Testament
00:10:08
Speaker
Let's see how it goes. Sounds good.
00:10:10
Speaker
and's not good Amen. Hey, Reverend Joshua, you're very welcome. Sabina, Sharon, possibly Phil, Janie. You're all very, very welcome, guys. Thanks so much for joining this evening.
00:10:24
Speaker
All right. Well, we can crack into the word of God together and then let's see what is on his mind.
00:10:39
Speaker
So i'm calling volume two's discipleship series, Jesus in the Old Testament. There is a perception out there, which is actually really unfortunate, that in the Old Testament, i mean, this is how it was explained to me as a child.
00:11:00
Speaker
God was God, and he had a lot of mixed feelings. He was normally very angry. And 4,000 after doing absolutely nothing, suddenly Mary gets pregnant, and on comes Jesus.
00:11:15
Speaker
And Jesus is just like, you know, the nicer version of God, who's less angry and less and mega maniacal. That's how Bible was taught to me. Obviously by people who had never read it.
00:11:31
Speaker
and But they were still given a position and money to teach it. and And I knew as a child, I said, that's not right. There's something really off about that sentence. Nah, those sentiments are wrong.
00:11:46
Speaker
And... One day i remember being at Bible camp. Yes, I was your classic early noughties Christian kid who went to Bible camp around the lakes and the forests every June, July and August.
00:12:01
Speaker
And i remembered a teaching, they have to say the teachers there were phenomenal. and They really tailored the lesson excellently for children and made the word very, very accessible. It's something I've tried to emulate myself.
00:12:16
Speaker
And what they did was they got a candle and they lit the candle and they said, the candle has three parts, the wax, the wick and the flame.
00:12:29
Speaker
God has three parts, three persons, God, the father, God, the son, God, the Holy Spirit. And I said, sure, that makes sense. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:12:39
Speaker
And then they said that we humans remain in God's image. And we have three parts. We have the Bodsy that you can see. We have a spirit, a spiritual body.
00:12:52
Speaker
And we also have a soul. Minds, thoughts, emotions, feelings, the heart, and the will. So it's the heart, that's your emotional center.
00:13:05
Speaker
Your mind, everything intellectual and mental. and your will, you're making determinations, making choices. And I said, yeah, okay, that makes sense, sure, yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:13:19
Speaker
And they taught it that when Adam sinned, they blew out the candle, they blew out the light. And they said, you know, he's still alive, he still has a body, he's still able to think, feel, rationalize, make decisions.
00:13:33
Speaker
But actually his spirit man died straight away And I said, yeah, sure, that makes perfect sense. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And they said, but you know, people were living in darkness.
00:13:46
Speaker
And I said, well, that's what sin is. Yeah, okay, I think we can agree on that. And what they did was they had these wooden boards over the windows. And they they when they had originally been opened to let the light in But then the teachers came and they put the boards over the windows and the room was in pitch darkness.
00:14:06
Speaker
And they said, you know, why couldn't Father God come himself? And then they lit a candle. And even though the room was in pitch black, with the lighting of the candle, suddenly light penetrated the darkness. You might say the darkness was actually destroyed. And they said that the light of God is so bright that That Father God shining his light into a sinful earth would destroy reality. So we couldn't do it.
00:14:39
Speaker
That's why he had to send Jesus in human form. Jesus in a human wrapper. In a human wrapping paper. Again, I sat there and I said, okay, this makes sense.
00:14:50
Speaker
mi
00:14:53
Speaker
But then my suspicious little seven or eight year old brain said, hang on a second. In Genesis chapter three, after the fall of Adam and Eve, we're told the Lord came walking in the garden and spoke to them face to face, had a conversation.
00:15:12
Speaker
So I was thinking,
00:15:16
Speaker
all that made total sense. The light, the darkness, light killed the darkness. Sure, yeah, yeah, ya yeah, yeah. But if light kills darkness, light extinguishes darkness.
00:15:28
Speaker
Why didn't Adam and Eve die when the Lord spoke to them straight away? And again, seven or eight years of age. I didn't know what it was to have Holy Spirit revelation back then.
00:15:41
Speaker
But that's what it was.
Biblical literacy and hidden truths
00:15:42
Speaker
Holy Spirit turned the light bulb on and said that was Jesus. Jesus stepped into time and spoke to Adam and Eve.
00:15:53
Speaker
Well. i was the goody two-shoes little Christian who would never challenge authority or speak out loud or voice an opinion contrary to leadership.
00:16:06
Speaker
Oh, how the mighty have fallen, how far things have come. So I said nothing. I actually felt guilty. for what do God had revealed to me. Now, I'm not saying the teachers would have disagreed. They're amazing people.
00:16:22
Speaker
But I felt too afraid to ask in case they would see know that I was undermining them or in case I asked a question they couldn't answer. So I said nothing for years and years and years.
00:16:35
Speaker
And it was probably when I was 18, 19, 20, late teens, early 20s. Definitely it was that long. Before finally i began...
00:16:46
Speaker
testing the waters. And I'd have a conversation with someone and I would just throw it out there. i would say, what do you think about this idea? And then I began to read the words more and more, you know, from cover to cover.
00:17:01
Speaker
And as I was really exploring the word, i was like, hang on a second. There's God again i'm in the Old Testament. Speaking to someone face to face. And they didn't die.
00:17:13
Speaker
the Lord having a conversation with someone. And they're talking, you know, intimately. And they can definitely see him. didn't There's the Lord talking to a woman running away who's having a crazy lady moment. Or this woman wants to get pregnant. and lord's And suddenly realized the Old Testament was full of this.
00:17:33
Speaker
They were a not isolated incidents. It happened dozens and dozens of times. And then I began a private study. Of looking for the Lord in the Old Testament, engaging with people face to face.
00:17:51
Speaker
Where the Lord is actually Jesus. Leaving heaven, stepping into our dimension, our reality of time and space, and interacting with people.
00:18:02
Speaker
Prophesying to people. Performing miracles for people. Fighting on their behalf. Fighting wars in the spirit realm. They... maybe could, probably couldn't see, standing at their bed, appearing to them in dreams and giving them gifts of wisdom, etc.
00:18:24
Speaker
And the more that I studied all this, the more I realized Jesus did not abandon us for 4,000 years and then suddenly Mary gets preggers.
00:18:35
Speaker
but but He has always and I mean always, from the very beginning, been intimately involved in the human race, in our creation, in our sustenance, in the salvation project to save us from ourselves, from our sins, from the enemy, from sin, death, and the grave.
00:19:00
Speaker
And this study that we begin tonight and will continue for next number of months It's going to be about looking at just how intimately involved the Lord has been in the project of the salvation of the human race. And today we're really going to begin with the creation, with where it all began.
00:19:28
Speaker
So why is this necessary? Why is it actually necessary to even study the word of God? I know a lot of believers who really and truly don't seem to give a toss about the word of God. They seem very apathetic about it. um And I understand that that we have busy seasons. I understand that there are times it's easier than at other times. I understand that it is complex. It is crazy.
00:19:56
Speaker
It can be difficult. But it's supposed to be. God wants you to read the word and say, what the heck? Why is that in there? So then he can reveal it to you and you're like, and then you read it more and you're like, wow, wow, wowno wow, wow. wow wow well yeah And then you ask him, God, why is that in there?
00:20:20
Speaker
And then he reveals it to you, maybe through a circumstance in your life. And you're like, yeah, okay, now I totally understand how felt. And then you read something. Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow. wow And then you go,
00:20:34
Speaker
Makes no sense. that aspect And then he'll give you a dream. And in your dream, he connects all the dots. And you're like, mind blown.
00:20:46
Speaker
It's part of his relationship with us is to draw us into relationship. It's like he's throwing a fishing line to reel you in. to draw you deeper and deeper into intimacy with him.
00:20:59
Speaker
But a lot of people never actually enjoy that intimacy because they never open the Bible for themselves in the first place. And that's why with this study, we're going to have the live stream and then afterwards an opportunity for you to study the same theme, the same topic, but in much more detail yourselves with a personalized Bible study afterwards.
00:21:22
Speaker
So 2 Timothy, which is in the New Testament, chapter 3, verses 16 to 17 say this. All scripture, the whole word of God. There are 66 books in one book with about 40 different authors.
00:21:39
Speaker
All scripture is God-breed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness.
00:21:51
Speaker
and being right with God and right living. So that the servant of God may be thoroughly, not a little bit, not one out of seven days, not once in a wee while, thoroughly equipped for every good work.
00:22:08
Speaker
God does not want you to be ignorant of and anything as it pertains to your life. He wants you to walk in divine knowledge, divine strategies, And to be able to learn and teach when necessary, to correct when necessary, and even to put on your angry face and wag your finger when necessary. And then there's Proverbs 25 too.
00:22:36
Speaker
it says it is God's glory to conceal things and the king's glorious privilege to seek them out and discover them.
00:22:50
Speaker
Imagine how parents play peekaboo with their children. You know, they're like, you know, peekaboo, where are you? Oh, where's the baby going? Oh, there you are, peekaboo!
00:23:03
Speaker
That's thing. Or you play a hide and seek, you know, with your friends on the playground or tip the can with the neighborhood kids. but That sense of hiding with the intention of being found.
00:23:20
Speaker
Playing hide-and-seek or a peekaboo and not finding someone after 30 minutes is a really boring game. No one has a good time, even the people who are hiding. You play it by the adrenaline rush of the discovery.
00:23:33
Speaker
That's the Word of God is like. God does not hide things in the Bible from you. He might hide them from the devil. He does not hide things from you. He hides them for you.
00:23:46
Speaker
That you would be like a historian or an archaeologist, putting on your gloves, getting your trowel, and digging and excavating. Because what is the glory of God?
00:23:58
Speaker
It's the Hebrew word kabbald, which is the radiant, awe-inspiring self-disclosure of his being. That is... Glory is one word.
00:24:12
Speaker
That is what glory actually means. It is God's radiant, awe-inspiring self-disclosure of himself to conceal things, and the king's radiant, awe-inspiring self-disclosure of, well, the Lawrence itself, privilege, to seek them out and discover them.
00:24:35
Speaker
The Bible is the number one way in which God wants you to encounter him, to grow, to learn his personality, to learn how his mind works, to learn his opinion on things, and to get equipped to do whatever he has for you to do in life.
00:24:53
Speaker
It is not an optional extra, not to be biblically literate, not to be studying the word, not to be plugged in It actually makes you very defenseless.
00:25:04
Speaker
in many respects. And you end up missing out on so much that he has for you. So many riches, so many treasures. And um that's probably a nice segue for me to say just how appreciative I am that so many of you i even taking the time to sit under the sounds of my voice this evening and the trust that you're putting in me to present the word to you in a way that is clear,
00:25:36
Speaker
accessible, enticing, revelatory, and in a way that will help build you up. I do appreciate that. That's not something I take for granted.
00:25:48
Speaker
Then we have Luke chapter 24, verse 27, and it says, and beginning with Moses. Now Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible.
00:25:59
Speaker
We're going to look at Genesis today and next week. Moses wrote both of those books. And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, Jesus explained to them what was said in all the scriptures concerning himself.
00:26:14
Speaker
Jesus did not rock up at the beginning of the book of Matthew and say, hello world, here I am. he is the main character in the Old Testament. The Old Testament exists to point you to two Jesus So much of the Old Testament was specifically revealed by Jesus, and very many of the incredible, amazing works performed there were performed by him.
00:26:43
Speaker
Not Father God, not Holy Spirit, but by Jesus himself, which we'll be looking at bit by bit over the next number of weeks.
00:26:54
Speaker
And then we have John chapter five, verse 39. when Jesus was talking to his contemporaries, and he said, you study the scriptures diligently because you think that them you have eternal life.
00:27:09
Speaker
These are the very scriptures that testify about me. So again, that is Jesus saying point blank, no confusion, no delusion, no illusion.
Jesus' role in creation
00:27:22
Speaker
that the Old Testament is about him. He is the main character in the whole Bible, not just in the New Testament. And what we're going to look at today in particular is his role in the creation of all things.
00:27:42
Speaker
All right. We're going to look at Isaiah 40, 12.
00:27:49
Speaker
When people think of God creating reality, most people tend to think of this. They think of a really, really big guy with really, really, really big hands.
00:28:01
Speaker
And he's this giant and everything's in the abstract and everything is crazy and it's all science fictional. And I'm not saying doesn't have a science fictional moment, okay? Science fiction is spiritual reality.
00:28:14
Speaker
but But Isaiah 40, 12 actually says that the Lord created the heavens. He mapped out the heavens with the span of his hand.
00:28:30
Speaker
Everybody, i want you to lift up your hand. Can be right or left. I don't care. And I want you to stretch your thumb and your index finger as widely as you can.
00:28:42
Speaker
Your cameras are off. I'm going assume you're all doing it anyway. but but I know some of us have smaller hands and some us have bigger hands. That's irrelevant. Most man-sized hands, human man-sized hands, when they do this, it is a nine inch measurement.
00:29:02
Speaker
That is what Isaiah 40, 12 says. With a human man-sized span of the hand, and nine inch span of that human hand, the distance between the tip of your index finger and the tip of your thumb, the Lord mapped out the heavens.
00:29:28
Speaker
That means the Lord, spoiler alert, it's Jesus, was... human-sized when he created the heavens.
00:29:40
Speaker
When he created atmosphere, air, sky, outer space, the world of heaven where he lives. He was human-sized. He just did this and all it was created.
00:29:53
Speaker
How? Because he's Jesus. But I think that's absolutely phenomenal. um Because normally we picture incredibly large cosmic being and who's bigger than we could possibly imagine. And he tends to be dressed like God in The Simpsons with a long white beard and the robe. And he's only one of five fingers.
00:30:15
Speaker
But no. Literally means he was human-sized, did this with a human-sized hand and created... The skies.
00:30:26
Speaker
Now, Earth, we do live in a phenomenal place. I know it's pretty crazy down here. i know the days are dark. But I personally love exploring. Every Saturday, i try to explore somewhere. I'll go to the mountains. I'll go the rivers. I'll go to the lakes.
00:30:42
Speaker
Those of you in Ireland, Sleave Gullion has become my favorite place for the January-February season. I'm just addicted to going there right now. and i met some of you, Lisa and Janie, in three d for the first time in Pakistan a week ago.
00:31:01
Speaker
I'm always traveling somewhere, exploring. i love the adventure. The world is so big, so amazing. i believe we should see as much of it as we can and enjoy it all. and But the Earth is 40,000 kilometers around.
00:31:18
Speaker
You know that song? It's a small world after all. and Not really. And when you consider all the oceans, continents, and ice, and everything that fills the Earth, you're looking at more than 510 million square kilometers.
00:31:39
Speaker
It is just absolutely breathtaking, this world we live in, for all the misery, all the pain, all the craziness, all the crises,
00:31:52
Speaker
Jeffrey Epstein files. Hello. All the wickedness that people do to the earth, to themselves, to each other.
00:32:01
Speaker
We actually are living on a miracle, on an absolute miracle planet. And even for the human body, when I was a teenager studying leaving search biology between the ages of 16 17, I Most academic students are 18. I finished at 17.
00:32:25
Speaker
I have to say, studying the human body convinced me that God was real more than anything else ever had before. And I was already totally sold out for Jesus by then.
00:32:38
Speaker
But even looking at the construction of the human machine, the human body has gifted us, it's just absolutely phenomenal. it definitely has an all-powerful creator behind it.
00:32:51
Speaker
And here are just some more funny oddities that I've come across recently. Here's a jellyfish called the, I'm probably going butcher this pronunciation, Turritopsis dorni.
00:33:05
Speaker
If anyone speaks Latin, maybe you could pronounce it better than I just did. With this jellyfish, when it gets injured, perhaps in an attack,
00:33:16
Speaker
It can actually revert back to a juvenile, prepubescent stage of its life. It can actually age backwards to protect itself, to regenerate, to heal itself.
00:33:32
Speaker
Think of Doctor Who. I know the show has gone woke and crazy. It used to be decent. But you know, when you get when the doctor injured, he regenerates and creates like a newer, usually younger body.
00:33:43
Speaker
Literally what this jellyfish does. Why? Because God. Personally, I think if an eyes of humans did that too.
00:33:54
Speaker
Then I came across as this fun fact on Instagram. and This is a process called anting. This is when a crow intentionally goes to an anthill.
00:34:06
Speaker
Now, when humans see ants, they're like, oh my goodness, pour something on them. If they bite you, it'll sting. Ugh. Not so with the crow. Crows go to anthills and intentionally roll around on the anthill to get as many ants crawling over them as possible.
00:34:25
Speaker
Why? Because it looks pretty gross in the photograph. Well, one, they actually like the sensation of ants running all over them.
00:34:37
Speaker
Two, it helps them to preen their feathers for future purposes. And three, the ants will eat up smaller mites on their feathers.
00:34:53
Speaker
And actually, while the ants are eating all these unseen parasites or microscopic creatures, it actually will save the crows long-term discomfort and distress.
00:35:10
Speaker
How did they figure this out? God knows.
00:35:16
Speaker
And then i was teaching once and a video on octopi just to kill time with students and this fun fact came up. There are octopi out there with blue blood, three hearts and nine brains.
00:35:33
Speaker
Most people seem to struggle using one brain effectively. But God has given these creatures a brain in their head and a brain in every one of their limbs.
00:35:46
Speaker
Why? Because he is a creative God. And he said, why not? He did it all for his own goodness, creativity, and pleasure. He made this wild, beautiful, crazy, wonderful world that we live in just because it made him happy.
00:36:02
Speaker
Because he wanted to.
00:36:09
Speaker
Now we're told about the creation of the world in Genesis chapter 1, verse 1. And it says, in the beginning, God made the heavens and the earth. A lot of people are familiar with that verse already. ze I think that was probably the first Bible verse I ever heard. i remember when I was a child, my dad picked up a Bible and said, this is God's book.
00:36:30
Speaker
Believe everything in it. This is God's word. It's all true. And I said, okay. I had known Jesus already from the murals and like the Catholic Church windows.
00:36:41
Speaker
um But suddenly I saw a Bible and I just said, OK. And suddenly the light bulb went on and I just made a decision to believe it all anyway. And this is the first verse, because we're going to read a book. You might as well start at the beginning.
00:36:57
Speaker
Genesis 1.1. In the beginning, God made the heavens and the earth. And I've recently been looking into that Bible verse in the original Hebrew language.
Hebrew language and symbolism
00:37:10
Speaker
Now, when I was in junior infants, and actually for most of primary school, to be honest, as a child, we were given this wonderful and cartoon called Letterland, with which to learn the alphabet.
00:37:27
Speaker
We had Annie Apple. We had Bouncy Ben, who had a blue ball. We had Clever Cat. She always kind of freaked me out, actually. I didn't trust her eyes. Very suspicious.
00:37:37
Speaker
You had Dippy Duck. You had Eddie Elephant. and All the other ones. And it was a brilliant... tool for children to actually practice the pronunciation and of different letters and there was constantly alliteration and you were learning the same letters again and again and all the different sounds they can make and you would have the letterland letters up on a wall and you would watch videos and you would read books and they were in your textbooks everywhere you went it was letterland letterland letterland letterland
00:38:13
Speaker
Why they don't do it school anymore, I have no idea. Personally, i thought it was amazing. But this was just a tool to teach kids, Irish kids, maybe in other countries too, the alphabet.
00:38:28
Speaker
But actually in Hebrew, and remember I told you, Moses wrote the book of Genesis, and Moses wrote it in Hebrew. The original language of the Old Testament is Hebrew.
00:38:41
Speaker
When you read the Old Testament in Hebrew, there is often so much depth and revelation and richness that we actually miss out on in an English translation, where even the very letters themselves have meanings.
00:39:01
Speaker
Or the letters themselves have pictograph meanings. They have meanings as pictures. So just like letterland when I was in school.
00:39:13
Speaker
Let's see how that translates to Genesis 1-1. So the first word in the Bible is in the beginning. Now, I might sound like a bit of a nerd saying this, but I used to read Genesis 1-1 and say, God, it's a little bit strange that the first word in the Bible isn't God.
00:39:35
Speaker
Like, why didn't you just put yourself there? Why didn't you say, God made the heavens and the earth in the beginning. I just thought it was very unusual, a very strange choice. But actually, he has put himself in in the beginning, in the first word.
00:39:53
Speaker
But it highlights Jesus specifically. So if you look on the right-hand sides of your screen, you'll see Bereshit. Bereshit is how we pronounce it. Above, you'll see the Hebrew letters.
00:40:06
Speaker
And it means in the beginning. So the individual letters are Yit, meaning covenant. Esh, meaning fire.
00:40:21
Speaker
Rosh means first head, chief, first fruits. The choice part, the finest. Top summit, top of a mountain. The start of a royal reign, start of a military crisis. Why? Because he broke.
00:40:37
Speaker
And bet means son. That is what the individual letters of Beresheet in the beginning mean.
00:40:49
Speaker
And every single one of those letters actually speaks of Jesus.
00:40:57
Speaker
First we have yeet. Yeet, yeet. Someone will watch the this video on YouTube and correct my pronunciation. It means covenant.
00:41:07
Speaker
Luke 22 20. We're talking about the Last Supper here. And likewise, the cup after they had eaten, saying, this cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.
00:41:23
Speaker
Where the wine was a picture of the blood of Jesus, that would be poured out for us on the cross. So the word, when i what is the covenant?
00:41:34
Speaker
A covenant is a legal document. It's an agreement. It's a treaty between two people, between two parties, God and humanity. But it's relational.
00:41:46
Speaker
A lasting relationship established by the cross of Jesus.
00:41:54
Speaker
As for the letters which make Esh, fire. 2 Peter 3.7 I know we're looking at the beginning of all things here, and now we're going to skip to the very end.
00:42:07
Speaker
By the same word, the presence, heavens, and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. At some point, the Lord will obliterate this reality by fire, and he will remake it in a way where it will never be full of sin or corruption ever again. They won't exist in this dimension.
00:42:30
Speaker
So the fire speaks to the prophetic destiny the Lord has for the earth.
00:42:39
Speaker
As for Ash, let's go with first or ahead. Colossians 1.18 says, and Jesus is the head of the body, the church. We are the body of Christ. We're his physical representation on the earth.
00:42:56
Speaker
And he's the boss. He's in charge. He's over us. He is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead. The first human who ever came back to life of his own volition, of his own power.
00:43:11
Speaker
So that's in everything he might have the supremacy. Here he's the head and he's the first.
00:43:24
Speaker
Ephesians 2, 20 says, together, we, the body of Christ, we, his people, are his house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, and the chief cornerstone, the block, the stone that holds it all together, is Christ Jesus himself.
00:43:52
Speaker
Then we've got 1 Corinthians fifteen twenty Rosh also means first fruits. But now, as things really are, Christ has in fact been raised from the dead.
00:44:06
Speaker
And he became the first fruits. If you don't know what that means, because you're not into Argo culture, that's okay, it describes it for you. That is the first to be resurrected with an incorruptible immortal body foreshadowing the resurrection of those who have fallen asleep in death.
00:44:29
Speaker
So the Lord died on the cross. He came back to life three days later. And that body of his right now is imperishable.
00:44:40
Speaker
It is perfect. It has one imperfection and there the nail pierced hands. But that's okay. When he holds up his eye, he's not blind to you. He can see you.
00:44:51
Speaker
You're always in his eyeline. You're always in his peripheral vision. Other than that, his body trauma-free. It's supernatural. it can teleport. It can fly. it can walk through walls. It's a miracle body.
00:45:04
Speaker
And he still lives in it.
00:45:10
Speaker
Rush also means top summit, or top of the mountain. Now, I thought that this one in particular was a bit curious. I kind of said, OK, God, I don't quite know why.
00:45:22
Speaker
and why is that one significant? And then i had a moment. speaks of his death. In John 1917, it says carrying the cross by himself.
00:45:38
Speaker
He went to the place called Place of the Skull. or in Hebrew, Golgotha, the mound, the mountain, the hill of the skull. Why was it called that?
00:45:51
Speaker
It actually does look like a skull. If you look at photographs of Calvary, the place of the skull, Golgotha, different names, same place. It actually does look like a skull. You can actually see, like, you know, the hollowed out eyes, the mouth, the nose, it's Really, really creepy.
00:46:11
Speaker
And that's where he was crucified.
00:46:15
Speaker
And again, friends, we are only one word into the Bible. This is all just better sheets. This is still the very first word. right
00:46:27
Speaker
It also means the start of a royal reign. This speaks to the titles of Jesus. He has many.
00:46:37
Speaker
We're just going to look at Revelation 19, 16 for this tonight. On his robe and on his thigh, he has this name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
00:46:59
Speaker
And then we have the letter bet. Again, letters mean words in Hebrew. And bet means son.
00:47:11
Speaker
And Matthew 3.17 speaks about John the Baptist baptizing Jesus in the River of Jordan. And next thing, and behold, a voice from heaven said, this is Father God opening a portal and speaking audibly so everyone can hear it.
00:47:29
Speaker
This is my beloved son, with whom i am well pleased. And now because of the cross, all of your sins have been dealt with.
00:47:41
Speaker
Every bad day, every wicked moment, every moment when you were cruel just for the sake of being cruel, every moment when you got it wrong and it was unintentional, Jesus suffered the punishment for all of that on the cross.
00:47:57
Speaker
And now Father God can look at you, too not with judgment and condemnation and fury and vengeance. He looks at you and he says, this is my beloved son.
00:48:10
Speaker
This is my beloved daughter. These are my beloved kids. With whom I am well pleased.
00:48:29
Speaker
But not only do the letters mean words, we also have the proto-Synatic pictures. This means that individual letters actually represent pictures.
00:48:44
Speaker
And the pictures also represent words. why Because he is inherently a creator and a creative creator, and he wants to.
00:48:56
Speaker
So one of the letters in Bereshit is Aleph. And Aleph in its picture form is an ox head.
00:49:07
Speaker
Now an ox head would represent to its original audience strength, power, and leadership. But actually we can see that the Aleph image of Jesus flows the whole way through the Old Testament.
00:49:25
Speaker
Now, why is a left particularly significant? It's actually the very first letter in Hebrew. It's like, would be the equivalent of our A.
00:49:36
Speaker
And thing with an ox that's really interesting is in Leviticus 1.3, an ox could be an atoning sacrifice. What is that? Well, before the cross, a perfect...
00:49:51
Speaker
unblemished animal would be sacrificed to, as a picture, of the Lord washing away your sin. And one of the animals that could be sacrificed on the human's behalf was an ox.
00:50:07
Speaker
It could also be a peace offering, as seen in Leviticus, which I realize now I've misspelled. You can read these things time after time after time, and they still slip through the cracks. There we go.
00:50:21
Speaker
um So a peace offering is in Leviticus chapter 3, verse 1, which was the ox would be sacrificed, and it was a way of saying that you and God were in good relationship. You had a shalom, shalom relationship.
00:50:41
Speaker
In 1 Corinthians 1.24, it describes Jesus as the abundant might, the miraculous power and the strength of Father God.
00:50:53
Speaker
And again, the ox represented strength, power, and leadership.
00:50:59
Speaker
And in Matthew 11, 29 to 30, Jesus actually referred to himself as an ox. The people were burned out on religion.
00:51:11
Speaker
The Pharisees were putting the Old Testament law on people, but absent from the love of God. They also added oral tradition. They added lies. They added power play. They added manipulation to wear out the people, to push them down and to elevate themselves.
00:51:31
Speaker
They tried to use the word of God as a stumbling block to say, yeah, you can't access the Father. God doesn't love you, but I'm good with God because, you know, I'm a Pharisee.
00:51:44
Speaker
And Jesus spoke to the people and he asked them, are you burned out on religion? Are you just tired? You feel like you can't go on? You feel like God will never love you?
00:51:57
Speaker
Well, friend, take my yoke upon you. What's a yoke? If you have a strong ox and you have a weak ox, a yoke was a head attachment around their neck.
00:52:12
Speaker
So the strong ox would set the pace and the weaker ox would still have to move along at that pace. If you had a family farm, you had work that needed doing. You didn't have time to say, oh no, the poor weak ox, this is a tragedy. You know, take three weeks off work. Now, you need the job resolved.
00:52:32
Speaker
So you put the yolk over its head and then the weaker one could keep the pace with a stronger one. Think of a dance partner. Maybe you go to dance classes. You've got the dancer who's really, really great. They've been there for 16 months.
00:52:50
Speaker
And then you rock up one day and you're not so good. But the strong one says, it's okay. I'll set the pace. I'll set the rhythm. You just dance with me. You do what I do. You copy me. You emulate me.
00:53:03
Speaker
That's what Jesus said. Walk with me. Work with me. Watch how I do it. You'll find the unforced rhythm of grace for your life. Walk in step with me. my yoke is easy.
00:53:15
Speaker
I'm very gentle. I'm not going to burden you. but I'm going to get you where you need to go. Will you keep your eye on me? I'm the strong ox. You are the weak one. but we're going to get you to your destiny. We're going to get you where you need to be.
00:53:29
Speaker
So here we have Jesus actually calls himself an ox. He reveals that he is the Bereshit. He is the ox of Genesis 1.1.
00:53:44
Speaker
And the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet is Tav is also in the word Beretit. And Tav means crossed sticks in its proto-Synatic image.
00:54:01
Speaker
Or mark. Or signal. Monument. Seal. And as you can all see, it looks like a cross or a crucifix.
00:54:13
Speaker
And the symbolic meaning is a covenant or a sign. This means to mark people with a covenant, to mark people with a guarantee.
00:54:25
Speaker
And all of you have that mark. You might not see it unless God gives you a vision or a dream, but it's there in the supernatural realm. Second Corinthians 1, 21 to says, Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ.
00:54:45
Speaker
He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us and put his spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. And Ephesians 1, 13 to 14 says, and you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, the good news, the best news.
00:55:10
Speaker
When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit, guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those were God's possession to the praise of his glory.
00:55:25
Speaker
That all sounds very beautiful and very heavy. What does it mean? It means because you believe in the finished work of the cross, that all your sins have been washed away, Holy Spirit has been sent to live in you.
00:55:40
Speaker
When God looks at you, he sees Holy Spirit looking back at him. He doesn't say, you slapped your child one time too often last night, you psycho mother.
00:55:50
Speaker
He doesn't say, one addict. He doesn't say disgrace. He doesn't say, failure. If you're doing things wrong, he might call you out on it. He's God. He probably will.
00:56:02
Speaker
But he chooses to see you as a new creation. He chooses to see you with an act of his will as a vessel of Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit living in you.
00:56:15
Speaker
Until the day of redemption. That's the day of the rapture. A day when he will supernaturally, well, Jesus specifically, will supernaturally lift every human up off the earth.
00:56:27
Speaker
And their bodies will instantly become perfect for heaven. No more backache. Amen. No more silver teeth like I have. No longer will you need glasses, praise Jesus, or contact lenses.
00:56:44
Speaker
Maybe, you know, yeah had you had one leg longer than the other or some abnormality. Maybe you have tar on your lungs with a 12 years of smoking. None of those things will be an issue.
00:56:56
Speaker
He will make your body fit for eternity in the blink of an eye and send you up into the world of heaven to be with him forever.
00:57:09
Speaker
And that's why Holy Spirit lives within us now. And that's how God sees you. Marked, sealed, set apart. And of course, just by looking at the picture of Tav, its protocynetic image, we can see the cross of Calvary as well. Very, very clearly.
00:57:30
Speaker
Now, like I said, Aleph is our letter Tav is the equivalent of our letter or Z. This is all still beretit. This is still the first word in the Bible.
00:57:45
Speaker
But this is saying that the Lord, who makes covenants with you, who is on a cross...
Jesus as the foundation of the world
00:57:52
Speaker
who has put a seal on you, who was the son of God, who was the first raised from the dead, who's the beginning of all things, who's the end of all things.
00:58:03
Speaker
This God is the one who created everything in the beginning.
00:58:12
Speaker
So that's Bereshit. So it says, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. So that is Bereshit. That is in the beginning.
00:58:24
Speaker
Now, the word God in Genesis 1-1 is Elohim. God has a lot of names in Hebrew and Greek. This one calls him Elohim.
00:58:36
Speaker
Elohim is an interesting word. It's singular and it's plural, but here it's singular. Elohim refers to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Elohim literally means a supernatural being.
00:58:54
Speaker
A supreme supernatural being. A supernatural being of all supernatural beings. was The Elohim of Elohim. But they're distinctly three individuals. They're not the same.
00:59:06
Speaker
Where the Father is God. But he's not the Son or Holy Spirit. Jesus is God. But he's not the Father, nor is he Holy Spirit.
00:59:18
Speaker
Holy Spirit is God. But he is not Jesus, nor is he the Father. Think of, I have a grandfather, well, dead, I had one. um My father, myself.
00:59:31
Speaker
All of us are Marits. If you don't what that is it's my surname. But we're three distinctly different people. That is the most basic human example I could probably give for this.
00:59:45
Speaker
So Elohim is plural and singular. but in this verse, it is singular specifically. So it's highlighting a very specific person in the Godhead who creates the heavens and the earth.
01:00:04
Speaker
Who is it? Well, let's examine that together. When people think In the beginning, God made the heavens and the earth.
01:00:14
Speaker
They often get fixed on time, on when. Now I can tell you how many thousands of years old the earth is, it's about 6,000. And in a later study, I'm going to give you a breakdown of the Old Testament timeline and to prove that.
01:00:28
Speaker
But I actually think more than a time, the beginning actually speaks to a person. Oh. Because Jesus is the Aleph and the Tav, the Hebrew A to Z. But Revelation 22, 13, this is what Jesus says about himself.
01:00:51
Speaker
I am the Alpha and the Omega. I am the Greek A. I am the Greek letter Z. I am the Alpha and the Omega. I'm the first and the last.
01:01:04
Speaker
I am the beginning and the end. He literally calls himself the beginning. The beginning is not just a time, it is a name.
01:01:16
Speaker
So in Genesis 1-1, in Jesus, one person of God created to the heavens and the earth. Well, if it was created in Jesus, then Jesus was the singular Elohim.
01:01:32
Speaker
So in Jesus, Jesus made the heavens and the earth. In himself, Jesus created all of reality, physical and spiritual.
01:01:48
Speaker
And we can also see this throughout the rest of Genesis 1. In Genesis 1, it says, the lord god said He did, there was evening and morning the first day.
01:02:00
Speaker
God said, God did, there was evening and morning the second day. God said, God did, there was evening and morning the third day. So on, so forth.
01:02:11
Speaker
So, our God is very creative, but he is also a talker. He really likes to communicate by speaking. So let's see if we can use this to help further unpack exactly who that Elohim says this.
01:02:34
Speaker
By the words of the Lord, the heavens were made. Now heaven with a capital H, singular, is the world of heaven. Heavens with a H and S, a lowercase h and an F, means the air the atmosphere.
01:02:51
Speaker
outer space, and the world of heaven. So by the words of the Lord, the heavens were made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth.
01:03:02
Speaker
The sun, the moon, the stars, planets, solar systems, constellations. He gathers the waters of the sea into jars. He puts the deep into storehouses.
01:03:17
Speaker
Let all the earth fear the Lord and all the people of the world revere him. For he spoke. So this is the God who who spoke, who uttered. And it came to be.
01:03:29
Speaker
He commanded and it stood firm. So again, Psalm 33 telling us the same thing Genesis wanted. This God is a talker.
01:03:41
Speaker
Who is he specifically? We're told in John chapter one, verses one to five. It says, in the beginning was the word.
01:03:54
Speaker
That's Jesus. And the word, Jesus, was with God the Father. And the word was God. Again, Elohim, he's singular and he's plural, but we're really focusing on the word, the talker.
01:04:09
Speaker
The one Jesus, was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him. In the beginning, God made the heavens and the earth.
01:04:23
Speaker
In Jesus, Elohim made the heavens and the earth. In himself, Jesus made the heavens and the earth. So all things came into being through the beginning, through Elohim, through Jesus.
01:04:36
Speaker
And apart from Jesus, not even one thing came into being that has come into being. In Jesus was life.
01:04:48
Speaker
And the life was the, mark this one now, the light of mankind. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not grasp or overpower it.
01:05:03
Speaker
Some verses say it didn't grasp or understand it or comprehend it. Grasp can mean understand. Grasp also means to snatch, to take power, to take control.
01:05:17
Speaker
And isn't that what evil does every single day in our lives, in our world, tries to take control? So here Jesus is the Word, he's God, he's the Creator, and he is the Light.
01:05:33
Speaker
Well, in Genesis chapter 1, verse 3, The light is spoken into being. The very first prophetic utterance the Lord ever declared was, let there be light. Light be. Light exist.
01:05:55
Speaker
I used to read that and think, right, so he made the song then. no. If you read Genesis 1 very carefully, you realize the sun was not in existence until day 4.
01:06:10
Speaker
so And that's important, because most pagan theologies out there say that the sun came before the earth, the sun made everything a sun god created, blah, blah, blah, blah. blah So the Lord is saying very clearly here, nope.
01:06:26
Speaker
The sun did not come first. The S-U-N, sun. The sun did not create physical reality, but there was a light.
01:06:38
Speaker
That light was the manifested light of Jesus himself. The light of men. The lifelight of men. On day one, he shone himself.
01:06:53
Speaker
On day one, he revealed himself. On day one, he blasted his own light, because he had been invisible, but it became apparent, and he blasted his light into the void so that he truly would be the Alpha and the Omega, the first and last, the beginning and the end.
01:07:18
Speaker
What did he create the first day? He shone his own light into time and space.
01:07:26
Speaker
2 Corinthians 4.6 tells us this specifically. For God, Jesus, who said, Light shall shine out of darkness, light be, let there be light, is the one who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
01:07:49
Speaker
The light of Jesus lives in you. The light of Jesus shines in you. And that is the same light that shone on that first day when he shone himself.
01:08:06
Speaker
And in case there's annie more doubt, in John 8, 12, Jesus spoke about himself and he said this. When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, I am the light of the world.
01:08:19
Speaker
There's no illusion. He's speaking about Genesis chapter one. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness. and The darkness will not grasp you. the darkness will not overtake you. The darkness will not overcome you, but will have the light of life.
01:08:37
Speaker
The light that is in men, the lifelight.
01:08:44
Speaker
And while what the Lord did was absolutely phenomenal on that first day, on that first week, he has continued to be that phenomenal, that amazing. and He continues to hold all of reality together. He is the one who sustains it.
01:09:06
Speaker
You know, the great philosopher, well, in academic circles, he's a great philosopher. Newton, Isaac Newton, had this idea of the earth as a clock, where there was a great creator, presumably the Lord, and he created earth, and then he just took a step back, and he just let things play out.
01:09:30
Speaker
There was an intelligent design, and he just let things happen and unwind. It was a cop-out. Rather than saying, yes, there is a God, his name is Jesus, he's involved in every moment of our lives.
01:09:42
Speaker
He wanted a very non-supernatural Christianity. But that is not good enough. In fact, it's not true. The Lord not only created reality, but he sustains it. He holds it together. he is always intricately involved in its maintenance through miracles, through salvation, through directing his people, through overthrowing wicked governments, through exposing really wicked evil people and bringing justice upon them. 1 Corinthians 8, 5-6 says this, For even if there are so-called gods, people who say that they're gods or demons, whether in heaven or on earth,
01:10:32
Speaker
as indeed there are many gods and many lords, yet for us there is but one God, the Father from whom all things come and from whom we live, and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live.
01:10:52
Speaker
He holds us together. He sustains everything. It is very, very good that he came back from the dead after three days.
01:11:03
Speaker
Because if he hadn't, reality would have collapsed. He is the one who maintains physical reality. Without him, we would have been annexed into oblivion.
01:11:18
Speaker
And Colossians 1, 13 to 17, says this. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness.
01:11:29
Speaker
And brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves. In whom we have redemption. The forgiveness of sins. The Son is the image of the invisible God.
01:11:42
Speaker
And he was invisible until day one when he shone himself. Jesus shone himself. The firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created.
01:11:55
Speaker
Things in heaven and on earth. visible and invisible, natural and supernatural, physical and spiritual. Whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities, heaven is a monarchy.
01:12:10
Speaker
All things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things in the beginning, before there was a before. And he is preeminent. He is number one. he is the boss.
01:12:24
Speaker
And he knows it. He does not have self-doubt or question himself. He knows how amazing he is And in him, all things hold together.
01:12:39
Speaker
So in Genesis one one in the beginning, the beginning is a person. The person is Jesus. God, Elohim, singular, Jesus, creates the heavens and the earth.
01:12:54
Speaker
He is the Alpha and the Omega. He is the Aleph and the Tav. He's the first and the last. He's the beginning and he's the end. He holds everything in between.
01:13:08
Speaker
He's preserving it until the end of days when he destroys it with fire and recreates reality. Perfect. Never to be corrupted ever again.
01:13:18
Speaker
His plan for us as the rapture to snatch us up one day and take us home to heaven in super special, awesome, amazing 3D bodies. And until that day, he has put a covenant on us, a supernatural mark, Holy Spirit, to live within us as a seal, as a guarantee.
01:13:40
Speaker
You are signed, sealed, and delivered in Jesus' name, his own personal prized possession. One that he gave his very life for on that cross.
01:13:54
Speaker
When like an ox, he was sacrificed to atone for your sins in place of your sins and to make a peace fellowship offering with Father God on your behalf.
01:14:10
Speaker
Where you and the Father are in right relationship. You are righteous before God now. He looks at you and he says, you and I are good.
01:14:25
Speaker
A-okay. You are justified. He looks at you just as if you had never sinned. If you are up to nonsense, he will call it i because he wants you to be spotless and holy.
01:14:36
Speaker
But he looks at you on a deeper level in your spirit as 100%, 10 out of 10. And you've been reconciled to him. He calls you his temple. He calls you his body. He calls you his house.
01:14:51
Speaker
He calls you his son or his daughter. He's the king of heaven. He calls you a prince or a princess of heaven.
01:14:58
Speaker
And he absolutely loves you to bits. And God is absolutely good. So I'll take any questions or comments in just a moment.
01:15:11
Speaker
But first of all, I'll just make a couple announcements. For those of you in the Joshua generation, my church on Sundays, know some of you were kind of wondering, oh are we meeting Wednesdays now and not Sundays? No, we're doing both.
01:15:27
Speaker
This Sunday, we'll be looking at the Tower of Babel and the one world government of perverts and pedophiles who run the world today. will be giving names and a prophetic word against them.
01:15:38
Speaker
That'll be at 11 a.m. and any of you would like more discipleship in the Word of God throughout the week, And just let me know and I can get you in contact with the ministry some of us are in called Open House Ministries. You meet on Tuesdays on Zoom at 8.
01:15:57
Speaker
Discipleship on Wednesdays, like before, friends, we'll meet every Wednesday apart from the we last Wednesday of the month. It just gives me time to us but make these because they do take quite some time put them all together, especially the the yeah physical Bible study afterwards.
01:16:19
Speaker
And for those of you in the UK who might be interested, Open House Ministries have Saturday day meetings once a month. Let me know and I'll connect you with individuals have more answers than I do.
01:16:32
Speaker
And for those of you in Ireland, you might remember we had revival back in June in Drew's Town House, which was such a special, beautiful time together. And then we had one in November, which was ah beautiful time together and three times as big.
01:16:49
Speaker
um We're doing our next revival in two weeks time, two and a half weeks time on Saturday, twenty eighth of February. in the Gateway Hotel Dundalk. The venue is beautiful. It's amazing. Our worship team are going to give it socks.
01:17:07
Speaker
We're going to have beautiful time of teaching, of prayer, of ministry, of deliverance. And we also have Kids' Corner, because I know that some people and were a bit nervous about its attending back in June. thought, oh, only see my kids every...
01:17:23
Speaker
second weekend or, um while if there's nothing appropriate for them, we will have an entire section of the room just dedicated to the children, the kids.
01:17:34
Speaker
So, um, bring them along. Children come free. And you can find all the information you need on Eventbrite. Please book, um, your ticket as soon as possible to avoid later disappointments.
Bible study resources and schedule
01:17:51
Speaker
And you are all going to get a copy of the PowerPoint that I showed tonight. I know and when you're trying to listen to me and take notes, sometimes a bit difficult. You are all going to get that on the WhatsApp chats, the discipleship group and the Joshua Generation group. And you're also all going to get this Bible study. OK, OK.
01:18:18
Speaker
Um, this Bible study is on the same theme as what we looked at this evening, but it's going to go into a heck of a lot more detail, okay?
01:18:31
Speaker
And there'll be things for you to read, and then Bible verses for you to crack open the Word of God yourselves and really get into it. Um, tonight I looked at, you know, um in the beginning God's There are actually seven words in Genesis one one so I break all of them down.
01:18:53
Speaker
When you see that kind of teal colour, you've got questions for you to meditate on. When you see the yellow highlight, there'll be questions for you to read the Word of God and then actually write answers to those questions. You can do it on a sheet of paper or you might think it's easy to print this off and do it on the page.
01:19:15
Speaker
um You're going to have additional words in the proto-synaptic script in their picture form and their meaning. i go into more fun facts than just the jellyfish, the octopus, and the crow.
01:19:30
Speaker
and Lots of additional Bible references for you. and Lots of names of Jesus hidden in the word search. i There's a section here on the number seven. The number seven has a recurring pattern in Genesis 1-1 and Genesis 2. I go into that.
01:19:50
Speaker
And also, if you count every so many letters in Genesis, you end up revealing a secret code that most Christians don't even know is there.
01:20:01
Speaker
So that is there for your further study on a personal level. You will also get the answer key as well. So after you've read it, don't need, let's see, it's 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, people messaging me like, don't get the answers. You can correct them yourselves.
01:20:21
Speaker
about that and So the live streams, guys, will always be free. and I don't typically agree with charging people for the word of God. and But for the Bible studies action there, the first one will be free.
01:20:36
Speaker
But if you would like them from next week onwards, they will come with a 10 euro fee for the extra Bible study with the questions and the extra details and the answer keys because an absolutely ridiculous amount of time goes into creating them. Weeks and weeks go into creating each one because I do not take word of God for granted.
01:21:01
Speaker
I know just how heavy me and how serious it is. And, um, It's not something that I think should be wistful or lastminute.com.
01:21:12
Speaker
Amen. I want thank you all for your attention tonight. Are there any comments, questions, or observations on anything that's been shared?
01:21:24
Speaker
Need to go through it. More questions. Need to link, you know, to go to have a look. Yeah. It's quite interesting. Yeah. and then
01:21:37
Speaker
that word, Berish Berish Berishet Berishet yeah
01:21:49
Speaker
Amen Word, word, word That's it Older efforts I i skipped you now once you know when I was young but it's good, it's good Amen, thank you Amen
01:22:09
Speaker
Lovely. Anyone else? Anything to contribute? So, Brendan, this copy structure, is this going to be one every week or do we have to, like, will we be able to fit all of that in one week? Will there be questions and stuff like that the next week or that's just for ourselves or what?
01:22:28
Speaker
Great question, and Jamie. so I would probably suggest reading it at one's own pace. and Because we all know that we have weeks when we just have more time available to us than others.
01:22:44
Speaker
um We all know that we have weeks when we can barely do the things that we need to do just to survive. um So with the personal Bible study, and i would say i invite people to do that. i would ever pace suits them.
01:23:01
Speaker
If it's a case where... People really want to say, okay I haven't actually been reading the word of God a lot. This will be a great incentive just to get into it.
01:23:12
Speaker
Great. Go with the flow. If it's a case where people are like, yeah, there's like about like a month worth of material in this alone. Yeah. Pace yourself. You could even say, okay you know what? Every Thursday evening, I'll spend one hour on it.
01:23:28
Speaker
And it's okay if you end up with a backlog at the end because we're all going to be alive for several decades to come. are i look I look at the countdown clock. We're all good. Do you think we should be we should be getting them every week? like We should pay for them every week?
01:23:46
Speaker
i again wait every I would say bree each to each their own. To each their own. okay Whatever people are most happiest with because what I'm going to do is my friend Mark, who some of you know, is putting a website together.
01:24:04
Speaker
We had hoped it would already be up, but he's up up to his eyeballs with work right now. and And when his website is up, all of these will be very easy to find and purchase on the website.
01:24:19
Speaker
yeah So and locating them, even retroactively, there'll be no difficulty. We're gonna make it as easy as possible. Okay. be behind around that we're just taking at our own pace and stuff exactly exactly because all of our schedules are different even for myself there are times when i might just be meditating on one line of the bible for a week and then there are times i can just sit down read chapter after chapter after chapter it's not every week and so to each their own and just have a flow that works for them okay thank you very much brandon sorry i'm
01:24:56
Speaker
Brendan, I missed what you said about the subscription. lot What's the story there? Sherry, Deirdre, yeah. So the live stream is always free.
01:25:08
Speaker
and What we're doing now, is it? Exactly, yeah. The live stream is is the live call. Yeah, exactly. Right, okay. um Then the first Bible study, which I i just shown on the screen there.
01:25:20
Speaker
I'm going to put that up on the group for everybody now, as well as the answer key. for people to do at their own pace, at their own letter. And then and from next week onwards, next week we're going to look at Adam and Eve, um which is just one of my favorite stories in the whole Bible.
01:25:40
Speaker
Why people don't read it so often, I'll never know. um For the other ones, the live streams will be free, but there'll be a 10 euro fee for that Bible study and the answer key.
01:25:55
Speaker
Because weeks and weeks of study and preparation and formatting. formating and not speakinging them excuse yes fair enough.
01:26:09
Speaker
Plus, I'm losing my job in 12 working days, so I need a roof over my head.
01:26:18
Speaker
I'm not scared.
01:26:23
Speaker
that's fine yeah You know, the the word studies takes a lot of time. So we have to be, someone has to be paid to do that, to be honest.
01:26:34
Speaker
And whatever you think, because even the Bible says, you know, share everything with a who've got that service of a word, because it takes a lot, consumes a lot.
01:26:49
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, I'm in. I'm in. You need, yeah. you need that but say Very sad to hear that, Brandon. it's It's time. It's time. I'm actually excited for a change of pace.
Personal reflections and concluding prayer
01:27:02
Speaker
I've been in the same place for goodness. Literally just shy of nine years. um So ready for something different. Ready to flap my butterfly wings and see how else I can take the world by storm what else God has for me so thank you but I'm I'm very okay with it yeah you you will do brilliantly amen thank you amen
01:27:32
Speaker
amen all right it would be too late into people's time and almost your work in the morning then any final comments questions queries or concerns
01:27:48
Speaker
Okay. Well, Father God, I thank you for all of your sons and daughters, Lord God, who've joined tonight, Lord, to sit under your words, to glean together, to learn together, to grow together. Thank you, Lord, your word is a never-ending tapestry of revelation.
01:28:12
Speaker
And just when we think that we know it, You absolutely blow our minds and you show us so much more than we could ever have asked, thought or imagined. Thank you, Lord, that you do not hide secrets from us. You hide them for us.
01:28:29
Speaker
And as we excavate, as we dig, you show us the most wonderful gems and jewels in your word.
01:28:39
Speaker
So, Lord God, thank you so much, Lord, for this opportunity and to facilitate this gathering of believers and this Bible study. I pray, Lord, that as your people and meditate on this, think about this, and this teaching, and Lord God,
01:28:58
Speaker
hack away at the Bible study version, Lord, that you reveal even more to them and you personalize it for them, Lord. You bring it to life in an amazing way that they otherwise would never have even considered because you are, yes, the God of the abstract, but you're also the God of the personal.
01:29:19
Speaker
Yes, you're the God of the finer details, but you're also God who so desperately wants an intimate tell-all relationship with his kids.
01:29:31
Speaker
So Lord, use this study, in this series of studies, to lull your people into a relationship with you deeper and deeper. more and more loving, more and more revelatory, more knowledge, more understanding, more insight, more revelation, and just continue to take our breaths away.
01:29:55
Speaker
And as we continue to see Jesus in the Old Testament, may our love for him only ever grow grow and grow. and growled In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. amen. Be blessed, each and every one of you. Thank you so much for joining tonight.
01:30:16
Speaker
We've gotten off to great head start. And they see you on Wednesday next week. God bless, friends. See you. It's okay you missed some of this teaching. It will be put up on YouTube today or tomorrow. And I'll post a link in the chat for you as well, okay?
01:30:35
Speaker
Yeah. Bye, everyone. See you then. Bye.