There's a work we're all to do, There's a work we're all to do,
Hark the voice of God is calling, To the heart is calling,
There's a work we're all to do, There's a work we're all to do,
Hark the voice of God is calling,
There's a work we're all to do, There's a work we're all to do,
Hark the voice of God is calling, To the heart is calling,
There's a work we're all to do, There's a work we're all to do,
All hail the power of Jesus' name!
All hail the power of Jesus' name! Let angels prostrate fall,
Bring forth the royal diadem, And crown Him Lord of all!
Ye chosen seed of His will's grace, Ye ransomed from the fall,
Hail Him who saves you by His grace, Then crown Him Lord of all!
Let every kindred, every tribe, On this terrestrial ball,
To Him all majesty ascribe, And crown Him Lord of all!
So that with yonder sacred throng, We at His feet may fall,
We'll join the everlasting song, And crown Him Lord of all!
Amen. For our second song, we're going to go to page 150,
My faith has found a resting place.
Song number 150.
Song 150.
My faith has found a resting place, Not in device nor creed,
I trust the ever-living One, His words for me shall plead,
I heed no other argument, I heed no other plea,
It is enough that Jesus died, And that He died for me,
Enough for me that Jesus saves, This ends my fear and doubt,
A sinful soul I come to Him, He'll never cast me out,
I heed no other argument, I heed no other plea,
It is enough that Jesus died, And that He died for me,
My heart is leaning on the Word, The risen Word of God,
Salvation by my Savior's name, Salvation through His blood,
I heed no other argument, I heed no other plea,
It is enough that Jesus died, And that He died for me,
My great physician heals the sick, The lost He came to save,
For me His precious blood He shed, For me His life He gave,
I heed no other argument, I heed no other plea,
It is enough that Jesus died, And that He died for me.
Good singing. Now we'll go ahead and have the announcements.
All right. Good evening everybody. Welcome to Sure Foundation Baptist Church.
Let's take our bulletins if you have one. I don't think there's very many left over.
Is there any left over? Anybody need one?
Okay. On our front cover we have our verse of the week.
And it's 1 Corinthians chapter 16, 9, it says,
For a great door and effectual is opened unto me,
And there are many adversaries. Ain't that the truth?
And on our inside cover we have, there's a short message there from me.
Just if you have any kind of spiritual questions or if you need time,
I'll reserve time right after the service if anybody needs to talk with me about anything.
And let's see, we have our church times.
We only have two services a week so far right now.
That might change in the future. We're hoping it will.
But it's 6.30 p.m. for Sunday evening and then 6.30 p.m. for Sunday night.
We have three different souling times to choose from.
We have 5 o'clock on Wednesdays, 11 o'clock on Saturdays,
and that meets in Tacoma, right? Or Auburn.
I don't know where everything is, but I'll figure it out at some point.
I need to look at a map or something.
But then we also have Sunday at 3.30 p.m.
And so we try to make things close to the church,
but we're already starting to knock out the things that are close to the church.
You guys are just too good.
We've had 27 salvations so far.
This is only like our second Wednesday and we've only had two Sundays.
So that's really good. We did kind of get skunked today,
but we kind of ran into like a, I don't know,
fortress of don't come in type of situation.
There was a lot of Muslims and stuff like that.
Nobody got a salvation, right? Am I right about that? Okay.
So we're a family integrated church.
That means the children and infants are welcome during the church services.
And I just was talking to our owner out here
and he was saying on Wednesday nights,
the church upstairs pays to have that shared hallway.
So we're allowed to use it if nobody's in there,
but if for some reason there's a bunch of people in there,
we're not going to be able to use that.
So we'd probably to kind of suffice the mother baby room type issue,
we might have to just like maybe close this door
and maybe have them sit somewhere.
I mean, right now we're low on women.
There's a lot of testosterone in this room right now.
But hopefully the women will come at some point.
Anyway, so anyway, it's closing.
I just want to make sure that you also understand that,
and I think that there was just a misunderstanding
about keeping the door open during the services.
But when we leave at the end of the night,
we need to make sure that we close and lock that door.
So soon we'll have access to some storage.
I think the key is going to come our way
so we can store some stuff in that room and then that closet door.
He's still looking for the key for that.
And we've had internet issues,
but I think that our problem is solved right now.
So we're able to live stream, and so that's great.
But anyway, we are family integrated,
so it might be a little bit of a challenge on Wednesday nights
that once we have children here
and if they're crying or need to be changed or whatever,
we'll have to try to figure something else out as far as that goes.
Maybe we could get a changing table that we could just bring
for the ladies' restroom or men's restroom or whatever.
And just remember when you're using the restroom,
turn the fans on.
There's a little switch right before you get to the toilets.
It's just that one that you turn, and he wants us to use those.
And it's probably good for everybody, right?
And then once you're done, just leave the doors open
because this happened to me when I was in Detroit,
but I was waiting for the bathroom.
I saw the light on underneath the door.
I'm just like, okay, this person's really taken a long time.
And then someone said, hey, have you knocked on the door?
And then nobody was in there.
But he said that that happens here sometimes too,
so that's why we let the bathrooms open.
So anyway, like I said, we've had 27 salvations already.
And what are our upcoming events?
Our upcoming events we have in Vancouver, we're having a ladies' team.
So if anybody's wives or it's anybody, any ladies are allowed to attend that.
And that's coming up.
It's going to be at noon this Saturday at our church down in Vancouver.
And then Mother's Day here, we're going to have just a PM service,
but there will be a gift for any mothers that are in attendance.
And then we're going to have some cake afterwards.
I might just throw in some ice cream, but you guys, we can't leave anything here.
So if the cake has to go home to somebody and then you get fat or whatever.
But even if there's no mothers here, then it's just a bonus for the guys, right?
And I'll think about ice cream.
But anyway, that's kind of what's going on.
And Brother Tal is going to be up here preaching.
He'll be with his wife, Alejandra.
And then of course we have the King James Conference coming up.
And that is in Vancouver, Washington on May 25th.
And we have a star lineup for that.
We have soul meeting every day.
And we also have dinner or at least lunch provided for every day of the conference.
And then we have Pastor Shelley preaching for us on Thursday night
to kick off the conference.
And then we have Pastor Anderson.
He'll be preaching at 7 p.m. on Friday.
And then Saturday at 1030 we'll have Pastor Roger Jimenez.
And then Sunday at 1030 we'll have Pastor Jones.
And then I'll be preaching the 3.30 service.
So if you can come, then please come.
And at least maybe even one of the times you'll hear your favorite pastor preach or whatever.
If you can only come one day, then just come one day.
But it would be great to have you all down there.
As far as Sunday, I want to make sure that if there's people that are planning on being here,
that we have someone here to preach.
So maybe after the service I'll just kind of make sure that people might be here.
If nobody's going to be here, then we might as well just put a sign out there
and say if the rapture happened or something.
They'd probably believe it.
But anyway, obviously it's a new church.
I don't want to just close up shop for any reason.
If we're going to have people here, no pressure.
So if you can't make it down or it's just not something you're wanting to do,
I want to make sure we have someone preaching here behind the pulpit.
And also we're going to start doing some training and having some guys preach.
Maybe on a Sunday night we can have after the service maybe a couple guys
do a mini men's preaching at or something and just kind of get people used to preaching.
And we don't have to do it with the cameras necessarily on or anything like that.
You don't have to go live for your first time and get all nervous about it or whatever.
Whatever you guys want.
But I'd like to definitely get you guys, some guys here have interest in preaching.
So I'd like to give you the opportunity to do that.
And the only other thing that's going on, let's see, we've got a mission stripped to SFBC Winnipeg
in the ordination of sort of Jim Neeb as evangelist there.
And I think that's all we have for announcements.
On the back page you can see, oh yeah, and I wanted to say this too also.
If you haven't filled out a communication card and put your birthday on there,
I'd like everybody in our new church up here to do that.
Just make sure we put your birthday in here for your anniversary.
And then there's a little spot for notes.
It's not very big, but you'll have to write really small.
But on the back here we have the list of the preachers that are coming up.
So that's all I have for announcements.
Let's go ahead and sing another song and then we'll receive the offering.
And are you going to be able to do the Bible reading tonight?
John chapter 1?
Alright, for our next song, let's turn to page 45.
When I can read my title clear.
Number 45.
When I can read my title clear.
Two mansions in the sky.
I'll bid farewell to every fear.
And wipe my weeping eye.
I'll bid farewell to every fear.
And wipe my weeping eye.
Should earth against my soul engage.
And fiery darts be hurled.
Then I can smile at Satan's rage.
And face a frowning world.
Then I can smile at Satan's rage.
And face a frowning world.
Let cares like the wild humans come.
And storms of sorrow thaw.
May I thus safely reach my own.
My God, my heaven, my all.
May I thus safely reach my own.
My God, my heaven, my all.
There shall I bathe my weary soul.
In seas of heavenly rest.
And not a wave of trouble roll.
Across my peaceful rest.
And not a wave of trouble roll.
Across my peaceful rest.
Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for this church here.
We thank you for our time together and for your fellowship.
We ask you bless it, the gift and the giver, that we confer with you your kingdom.
In Jesus' name, Amen.
And the Bible says in John chapter 1,
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God.
All things were made by Him, and without Him there was not anything made that was made.
In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.
And in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God.
In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.
And the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not.
There was a man sent from God, his name was John.
The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the light, and that all men through him might believe.
He was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of that light.
That was the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.
He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not.
He came unto His own, and His own received Him not.
But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God,
even to them that believe on His name,
which were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.
And we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
John bare witness of Him, and cried, saying, This was He of whom I spake.
He that cometh after me is preferred before me, for He was before me.
And of His fullness have all we received, and grace for grace.
For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
No man hath seen God at any time.
The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.
And this is the record of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask Him,
Who art thou? And He confessed, and denied not, but confessed, I am not the Christ.
And they asked Him, What then? Art thou Elias? And He saith, I am not.
Art thou that prophet? And He answered, No.
Then said they unto Him, Who art thou, that we may give an answer to them that sent us?
What sayest thou of thyself?
He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias.
And they which were sent were of the Pharisees. And they asked Him, and said unto Him,
Why baptisest thou then, if thou be not that Christ, nor Elias, neither that prophet?
John answered them, saying, I baptize with water, but there standeth one among you whom ye know not.
He it is, who cometh after me, is preferred before me, whose shoes latch it, I am not worthy to unloose.
These things were done in Bethabara beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing.
The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
This is he of whom I said, After me cometh a man which is preferred before me, for he was before me.
And I knew him not, but that he should be made manifest to Israel, therefore am I come baptizing with water.
And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him.
And I knew him not, but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me,
Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, the same as he which baptiseth with the Holy Ghost.
And I saw and bare record that this is the Son of God.
Again the next day, after John stood and two of his disciples, and looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold, the Lamb of God.
And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus.
Then Jesus turned and saw them following, and saith unto them, What seek ye?
They said unto him, Rabbi, which is to say, being interpreted, Master, where dwellest thou? He saith unto them, Come and see.
And they came and saw where he dwelt, and abode with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour.
One of the two which heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother.
He first findeth his own brother Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the Messiahs, which is being interpreted the Christ.
And he brought him to Jesus, and when Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon the son of Jonah, thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation a stone.
The day following Jesus would go forth into Galilee, and findeth Philip, and saith unto him, Follow me.
Now Philip was of Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have found him, of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth the son of Joseph.
And Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip saith unto him, Come and see.
Jesus saw Nathanael come unto him, and saith unto him, Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile.
Nathanael said unto him, Whence knowest thou me? Jesus answered and said unto him, Before that Philip called thee, when thou was under the fig tree, I saw thee.
Nathanael answered and saith unto him, Rabbi, thou art the son of God, thou art the king of Israel.
Jesus answered and said unto him, Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree, believeest thou? Thou shalt see greater things than these, and he saith unto him,
Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.
Let us pray.
Heavenly Father, please fill pastor with your spirit, please give him the words to speak, and please give us the ears to hear, please give us an understanding heart, and let the strength be kept to the minimum.
Thank you for gathering us all here, and in Jesus' name I do pray. Amen.
Amen.
Well, we're going to finish off the chapter tonight, last week.
It's a big chapter, so I try not to do more than, you know, 25 or 30 verses in a sermon.
Well, at least the passage itself.
Excuse me.
So, um, let's see if I can sit down real quick.
Let's look at verse number 29.
The title of the sermon tonight is, Behold the Lamb of God.
And, uh, is that, is that, I think it's the fan, possibly.
Just go ahead and shut that off, brother Robert.
Alright, verse 29, the Bible says, The next day, John seeth Jesus, thank you, John seeth Jesus coming unto him and saying,
Behold, the Lamb of God has taken away the sin of the world.
So, excuse me, I had like a coughing fit right before I came up here.
Thank you for the water, appreciate that.
Anyway, so that's the title of the sermon, Behold the Lamb of God.
And it says, so John sees him coming and recognizes that this is the Lamb of God.
Now that term, the Lamb of God, obviously has a lot of different references in the Old Testament.
And so it's referring to what's been spoken of in the Old Testament throughout the whole theme from Genesis.
Go ahead and turn to Genesis chapter three, verse 21.
I'll just show you some passages here where I believe it's clearly talking about this future fulfillment of Christ.
Even in the beginning, when Adam and Eve sinned, it says, verse 21, Genesis chapter three says, unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothe them.
So we have a tanner here in our midst right now.
And to make a coat, you have to kill that animal, right?
I mean, if you're going to make it with the skin, because once you take an animal's skin off, I mean, they're done after that, right?
So God had to be, he had to make that picture of that sacrifice that was going to come even as far back as Adam and Eve.
Now go ahead and turn to the next chapter in Genesis chapter four.
Genesis chapter four, verse two, the Bible says, and she again, bear his brother Abel and Abel was a keeper of sheep.
And he was also the first prophet, by the way, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.
And in the process of time, it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground and offering unto the Lord and Abel, he also brought of the first things of his flock and of the fat thereof.
And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering.
So why did God have respect? Because he is putting forth the picture of the Lamb of God.
What was he? A keeper of sheep.
So he's obviously from the beginning, the sacrifices of the land, the picture of the land that was to come is shown to us very clearly.
Now turn to Genesis chapter 22. And this one's, I mean, obviously really clear.
And you even have the picture of the father sacrificing his only son, which is Abraham with Isaac.
But Genesis chapter 22, verse six of what the Bible says, and Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it upon Isaac, his son.
And he took the fire in his hand and the knife, and they went both of them together.
And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father and said, my father.
And he said, here, my son. And he said, behold the fire in the wood.
But where is the lamb for the burnt offering? And Abraham said, my son, God will provide himself a lamb for the burnt offering.
And I believe that this is talking about, it's referring to Jesus Christ, that God himself would be that sacrificial lamb.
And so it says, and so they went together.
And then you even see the picture in the next verse of it being Jesus on the cross that says,
and they came to a place which God had told him of, and Abraham built an altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son
and laid him on the altar upon the wood. So there's the picture of him being bound.
He's on the wood and obviously Jesus Christ was bound on the cross.
His hands were nailed in his feet and he was also laid upon the wood.
Right. And so Abraham is ready to stretch forth his hand and kill him.
And then the angel stops him. And, you know, we have a shadow fulfillment in verse 13 where it says,
Abraham looked up his eyes and looked and behold, behind him, a ram caught in the thicket by his horns.
And Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering instead of his son.
So, again, there's the picture. And that's why God was really pleased with what Abraham did,
because, you know, God also had to sacrifice his only begotten son.
And the fact that Abraham had so much faith that he was willing to do that.
And Hebrews 11 talks about how Abraham, he knew that God, even if he did sacrifice him, would raise him up from the dead.
So Abraham was a man filled with faith, not only faith, but a lot of good works,
because his good works were good enough to boast to other people, but not before God.
Right. So now let's look at another instance in Exodus chapter 12.
Of course, this is something I appreciate about the Exodus.
And this has been clearly taught, but this is another instance where it's talking about a lamb.
Exodus chapter 12, verse 5, the Bible says, Your lamb shall be without blemish a male.
Obviously picturing Jesus Christ because he was without sin.
And it says of the first year, you shall take it out of the sheep or from the goats,
and he shall keep it until the 14th day of the same month.
And the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening.
So and this is a picture of the fact that we all put Christ on the cross.
He had to die for all of our sins.
And so that's a picture of the assembly having to kill.
You know, the congregation kills it because of our sins.
That's why Jesus had to be sacrificed.
And it says that they shall take of the blood and strike it on the two side posts
and on the upper door posts in the houses wherein they shall eat it and they shall eat it.
Or excuse me, eat the flesh and that night roast with fire and unleaven breaded with bitter herbs, they shall eat it.
And you notice almost every instance we're talking about burnt sacrifices.
And part of it is that Jesus' soul went to hell for three days and ten nights.
So we're starting on Isaiah chapter 53.
So remember the title of the sermon is Behold the Lamb of God.
Obviously we're going to cover a lot of other stuff, but I kind of wanted to just nail this down for us,
that it talks about the Lamb of God, it talks about sacrifices throughout the Bible.
There were pictures for us that the Lord Jesus Christ would come.
Now Isaiah chapter 53, it's a very famous chapter about the suffering of Jesus Christ.
And we're not going to read the whole chapter, but we're going to read a good portion here.
And look what the Bible says, it says in verse 5,
But he was wounded for our transgressions, and he was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes are we healed.
All we would like sheep have gone astray.
We have turned, everyone, to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth.
He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter.
And as a sheep before his shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.
He was taken from prison and from judgment, and who shall declare his generation?
For he was cut off out of the land of the living for the transgression of my people was he stricken.
And he made his grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death, because he had done no violence,
neither was any deceit in his mouth, yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him.
He hath put him to grief, when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin.
So in Acts chapter 2 verse 31, the Bible says his soul was not left in hell.
How do you explain that if Jesus didn't go to hell?
I mean, just a little side note here.
The people that say that Jesus didn't go, his soul didn't go to hell for three days and three nights,
well, they're like, well, let's just talk about the anguish of his soul on the cross.
And I'll say that, yeah, that's true, but why is it always talked about with a burnt offering?
I mean, nobody burnt him on the cross.
Right.
So what does that represent?
Well, it represents him being in hell for three days and three nights.
And people just deny that.
And it's just weird because it's like, we're not saying he's still there.
I mean, they're like, that's blasphemy to say that he went to hell.
It's like, that's how much he loved us.
That's how much he cared for us is that he actually suffered the eternal fires of hell for three days and three nights.
And I believe in the lowest hell.
So if you want to call me a blasphemy or whatever, but if he didn't go to the lowest hell, then how did he pay for every single person?
So anyway, it says he shall see his seed.
He shall prolong his days and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
He shall see the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied.
So that's, you know, and that's what propitiation is.
So when you want to define it, I mean, propitiation is the fact that God was satisfied with the sacrifice that Jesus made for us.
He's the propitiation for our sins, the satisfaction for our sins.
It says, by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore, will I provide him a portion of the great and he shall divide the spoil of the strong because he has poured out his soul into death.
And he was numbered with the transgressors and he bear the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressions.
And when I say many, that means all.
I've proved that in other sermons before, but that's what it means.
And so if John says, Behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world, then he's saying, you know, that every sin is taken care of.
He's covered it all.
So look back at our text of John chapter one, verse 30, it says, This is he of whom I said after me cometh a man which is preferred before me, for he was before me.
Remember, we kind of talked about that in the last the last service, but he was before him because he is from he's from everlasting.
So in reality, John's like six months older than Jesus and human reckoning.
But he was before him in the fact that he's always been.
That's what he's referring to, I believe.
And like I said, I alluded to that last week and I kind of just I was kind of getting ahead of myself because I really wanted to prove what I was saying there.
And for me to just say stuff sometimes, you know, I got to remember that this is an internship.
We are Baptist, so we should prove everything with the Bible.
Yeah. So, John, I mentioned it last week that John was a cousin of Jesus, but I didn't really go to the scriptures about it.
So let's go ahead and look at some scriptures about that real quick. Let's go over to Luke chapter one, Luke chapter one.
And but notice how it says that John didn't know Jesus.
Like, so even though their family, I'm about to prove that they were family, but even though their family, he didn't know him.
Like, you know, their mothers had contact when they were both with child at the same time.
And and obviously she went to stay married as a stay at her cousin Elizabeth's house.
But apparently there was afterwards. There's not much of a relationship.
Maybe they saw each other when their babies and don't remember each other. But John didn't it says he didn't know him.
The only way he knew was by him seeing the spirit at the baptism.
So let's look at John. Luke 124 says, And after those days, his wife, Elizabeth, conceived and hid herself five months.
Thus hath the Lord dealt with me in the days wherein he looked on me to take away my reproach among men.
And in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God into a city of Galilee named Nazareth.
So it's talking about Elizabeth. And she is the mother of John the Baptist.
I remember John's dad wasn't able to speak and tell the birth.
And then like they're saying, you know, call him John.
And he's like, you know, he had to write it down on a piece of paper or something or a scroll or whatever.
And then say his name is John. Right.
So anyway, I just want to give you that background.
But the verse 27 says to the to a virgin, a spouse to a man whose name was Joseph of the House of David and the Virgin's name was Mary.
And the angel came in to her and said, Hail, thou art highly favored.
The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women.
And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying and cast her mind what manner of salutation this should be.
And the angel said to her, Mary, excuse me, fear not, Mary, for thou has found favor with God.
And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb and bring forth a son and call his name Jesus.
So what was his name supposed to be called? Jesus. Yes. You should understand that.
But anyway, he shall be great and shall be called the son of the highest.
And the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father, David.
And he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever in his kingdom.
There shall be no end. Amen to that. Now, skip down to verse 36.
It says, you know, so he continues to tell her about this. And then in verse 36, he says, Behold thy cousin, Elizabeth.
So how are they? How are they related? Well, she marries the cousin of Elizabeth.
It doesn't say first cousin, second cousin, third cousin or anything like that.
But I would probably venture to say it's probably first cousins, but I don't know that for sure.
But what I do know for sure is if they're cousins, that makes John the Baptist and Jesus Christ also cousins.
So let me give you something real quick.
Anyway, so let me move on here. So for what God says,
verse 36. Oh, yeah. So and behold thy cousin, Elizabeth, she hath conceived a son in her old age.
And this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. So how old was John the Baptist inside the womb at this point?
He's six months. And so Mary is just newly with child and goes to visit with her cousin.
And it says so it says in verse 37, for with God shall nothing shall be possible.
So it sounds like she was an older lady and probably maybe past the time of her age to have children.
And it says that Mary said, Behold, the handmaid of the Lord beat him to me according to thy word.
And the angel departed from her. And Mary rose in those days and went the hill country with haste into a city of Judah and entered into the house of Zacharias and saluted Elizabeth.
And it came to pass when Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb.
So John the Baptist is like, woo. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost.
And she spake out with a loud voice and said, Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.
Oh, sorry. So it says blessed is the fruit of thy womb.
So what is she saying? Well, you know, it doesn't say that Mary was with child at this point, but like, doesn't that make sense?
That if she's saying blessed is the fruit of thy womb, that she knows that she's with child.
And she's filled with the Holy Spirit and she's, you know, she's preaching forth these things to her and says,
whence is this to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me for lo, as soon as the day the voice of the salutation sounded in my ears,
the babe leaped in my womb for joy and blessed is she to believe, believed for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord.
So the Bible is very clear. They were cousins. I'm not sure what what cousin doesn't matter.
They were family. Yeah, it was really interesting the fact that they're family, but then they don't know each other growing up.
And really, they don't really interact much when Jesus comes on the scene.
You know, he kind of just stands back. He's like, there's the Lamb of God.
He says it a couple of times in this chapter and he says that, but like his interaction with him is very small.
Yeah, like he he baptizes them, you know, and then he he baptizes them and he says a few things to them.
He's like, tries to stop him from being able to baptize them. And he said, no, it must be done for, you know, for righteousness sake.
But anyways, look back at our text in John chapter one, verse 31.
And we'll get a little more of the testimony, the record of John here as John the Baptist.
Right. So John one thirty one says, and I knew him not, but that he should be made manifest to Israel.
Therefore, am I come baptizing with water?
And John bear record saying, I saw the spirit descending from heaven like a dove and it abode upon him.
And I may make mention of this last week also that what did he see?
Well, he said it says he saw the spirit. Right.
So, you know, and we can't see the spirit. Only if God allows you to see him, then you would be able to see him.
I don't know exactly what he looked like, but a lot of people try to picture, you know,
the Holy Spirit as a dove because it says it was descending from heaven like a dove.
So the Holy Spirit was descending like a dove.
You know, I can't talk about last week how they kind of just flutter down.
And if you've seen them fly, they have like a real strange way of flying.
They're different from other birds in a lot of ways. But pigeons are kind of fly that way sometimes, too.
But pigeons are like rats. But anyway, that's not what I'm preaching about.
But look what it says in verse 32 says, and John bear record saying,
I saw the spirit descending from heaven like a dove and it abode upon him.
So he saw the spirit come down, you know, slowly floating down like a dove would and it abode upon him.
So it doesn't say the spirit was a dove, does it?
No. It says that he saw the spirit and it was descending like a dove.
So if the spirit's invisible, you know, the only way to see it is if God allows him to see that.
But, you know, and people will say, well, you know, obviously we know that there's the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit.
And each each three have their own bodies.
And obviously their own. Jesus had his own will. His will wasn't that he has to go to the cross.
But he did the will of the Father and so on and so forth. But we believe the Trinity.
These three are one. But look what it's. So let's look at keep your finger there.
Then look at Luke three, because I just want to prove to you that the Holy Spirit has a body.
Because people go, well, he's the spirit. He doesn't have a body. But the Bible says he does.
The Bible says that he saw the spirit. So what did he see? Like, you know, it had to have a form.
Right. And Luke chapter three tells us that for sure.
It says now when all the people were baptized, verse 21, it came to pass that Jesus also being baptized and praying the heaven was open and the Holy Ghost descended.
And look what it says in a bodily shape. See, it had a body.
The Holy Spirit had a body, a bodily shape. And then it says, like a dove upon him.
So but, you know, I'm not saying that the whole this the shape hat was the shape of a dove, because that's not what it says.
Right. That's not what it said in John chapter one either. It says to send him like a dove.
But it had a bodily shape. And it says, and a voice came from heaven and said, thou art my beloved son.
And thee I am well pleased. So, you know, obviously, God the Father has a body because Moses saw it.
He saw the hindered parts as he, you know, he asked to be able to see God.
God said, you die if you see me. I'll let you see the hindered parts.
So we know the Father has a body. We know Jesus has a body. And we know that the Spirit has a body.
So there are three individual bodies there, but they are one God.
So that's what the Bible teaches. You know, I don't care if you don't understand that, but you don't have to understand it.
You know, we take in the New Testament, we're supposed to take things the Bible says by faith.
So if you don't understand it, it doesn't matter. That's just what it says.
So whether it makes sense to you, one plus one plus one, you know, would normally be three in a math equation.
But in this instance, one plus one plus one is one. So, I don't know, you know, you figured it out.
God, God understands it. He put it down for us to see what it says and just believe it.
So do you believe you're saved by faith because you saw Jesus or something? No, you believe by faith because the Bible says so.
You believe that you have eternal life because the Bible says so. And the things that we believe in the Bible are because the Bible says so.
So who cares what these scientists and archaeologists are trying to say? I believe the Bible, no matter what they dig up in the ground,
no matter what cuneiform they find, no matter what Pharaoh they say, you know, it was out of the timetable and it wasn't the right Pharaoh or whatever.
They looked at the world will try to explain the way everything was science and archaeology.
But you know what's better than science and archaeology? This book. Because it's 100 percent accurate.
It's 100 percent true. We can count on it. Let's look back at our text in John chapter one, verse 33.
The Bible says, and I knew him not. See, it says he didn't he didn't know him before this happened, right?
But he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending.
So again, you know, just from that verse right there, it helps you say it helps you to understand when you put both, you know, both spots that I had to turn and John here.
But he saw the Spirit descending. He saw the Spirit.
So, I mean, we shouldn't take that lightly because it's not like everybody who where else in the Bible do you see where someone sees the Spirit?
I mean, I just maybe there is something's going to go past Tom. So you're so dumb.
I remember this person. I'm like, OK, if there is, then, you know, I'm wrong.
But as far as I know, nobody ever has said that they saw the Spirit of God in the Bible.
So right. But John did that. He was able to see it.
And he knew that Jesus would be the Lamb of God because that's the person that sent him to baptize with water.
And obviously that's that's God. The same said unto me, upon whom thou see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, the same as he which baptizes with the Holy Ghost.
So Jesus, you know, baptizes with the Holy Ghost. And a lot of people, you know, there's this controversy of baptisms.
Well, Jesus didn't baptize anybody in water. John did that.
His disciples did that. The 70 also did that. But Jesus did not baptize.
And we'll see that later on. But he baptizes a different kind of baptizing.
He baptizes with the Holy Ghost. Right. So, you know, there are different types of baptisms in the Bible.
So, you know, the first the first one is the baptism of water.
That's what John, you know, it's being plunged under water and risen up in the likeness of Christ's resurrection.
And then you have the baptism of the Holy Ghost. And that's something that Jesus gave.
And then we have the baptism of fire. Look at Matthew, chapter three, verse 11, the baptism of fire.
So this is kind of a parallel passage to John chapter one in this instance, but it gives a little more detail.
That's what's the nice thing about the Gospels is that we can get some other details from eyewitnesses.
But in Matthew chapter three, verse 11, it says, I indeed baptize you with water and repentance.
But he that cometh after me is mightier than I whose shoes I am not worthy to bear.
He's not even he's not even he's saying I'm not even worthy to pick up his shoes and carry him somewhere.
You know, and then he also says he's not even worthy to unloose his shoes from off his feet.
So John's very humble, isn't he? And it says he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire and with fire.
Now, I would say that saved people are obviously the ones that are baptized with the Holy Ghost.
And I'll go ahead and go to Acts chapter two. Saved people are baptized by the Holy Ghost.
Saved people are baptized with a fire, you know, because some people just, you know, they get on fire for God.
And then, you know, they want to proclaim God's truth and they care about the things of God.
And it's kind of like having a great zeal for things. Yeah, it's a great zeal for the things of God.
And, you know, so I believe there's two different types of baptism by fire, though.
There's the baptism of fire that sets a Christian on fire to tear the world up for Jesus Christ
and to just be on fire, you know, fervently heated up and you care a lot about the things of God.
But then there's also the baptism of fire that other people are going to go to. And that's hell, right?
So let's look at Acts chapter two, verse number one.
Verse number one, the Bible says, and go just hold your finger.
I guess I should have had you hold your finger, Matthew, but I guess it's too late for that.
I wrote a little note here so I can tell you to do that, but I didn't read it. Sorry.
So we'll just go back there a minute, but we'll also go back to John, of course.
But look at Acts two, one says, and when the day of Pentecost was fully come,
they were all with one accord at one place.
And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as a rushing mighty wind.
And it filled the house where they were sitting.
And there appeared unto them cloven tongues, like as a fire, and it set upon each of them.
So the Holy Ghost, the promise of the power of the Holy Ghost came at the day of Pentecost.
Early on in the book of John, and also Jesus blows on the apostles. Remember that?
He says, receive you the Holy Ghost. So they already had the Holy Ghost. They were already saved.
But the power of the Holy Ghost came upon them at Pentecost and see how it says like as fire.
And it says that they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.
So they're baptized here by the Holy Spirit, filled with the Holy Ghost,
and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.
And so they weren't flopping on the ground and walking, pretending they're dogs,
and rolling around on the floor and just going crazy.
They were talking other languages so they could get people saved.
It was a great outreach day.
It was the day when the Holy Spirit would come upon them with power
so that they would be able to reach the uttermost parts of the earth by the power of the Spirit.
So I'm sorry, go back to Matthew chapter three,
because the second part of that would be that a different kind of fire.
So yeah, God, you know that song Set My Soul on Fire, Lord, Set My Soul on Fire?
You know, God wants us to be on fire for Him.
He wants us to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
He commands us to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
And He tells us ways that we just ask and He will fill you with the Holy Spirit.
And when we're singing and making melody and worshiping God,
that's a way to be filled with the Spirit.
And sometimes God just fills you with the Spirit and you don't even probably ask for it.
You know, I mean, did Elizabeth say, hey, fill in with the Spirit, Lord, and I'll start talking to Mary?
No, it just said that just the presence of Jesus around her, you know,
as a newly formed child in the womb was enough to set her on fire.
And John the Baptist is like dancing around in her womb, right?
So just the presence of Jesus Christ will set us on fire.
And hey, you know, think about this.
You know, where two or three are gathered, there I am in the midst of them.
So Jesus right now is in this room right now and He's with us.
And, you know, if we want to be filled with the Spirit, you know, we got to obey what God says
and we got to care about other people.
And what He came to do, He came to seek and save that which was lost.
That's what He said.
And this church, the main way we're going to reach the world is by boarders or soloing.
Yes.
So, you know, and obviously there's going to be times when we're not as fired up.
Sometimes there's going to be lulls.
Sometimes it's going to get monotonous and things like that.
But don't ever let that newness wear off and you can revive yourself.
And you can ask God, hey, Lord, put that revival into my spirit and my bones
and help me to care about people again.
Help me to care about the church.
Help me to care about my brothers and sisters in Christ.
Help me to pray for them.
And God can set you back on fire when you cool down.
So, but He doesn't want you to be lukewarm, just pretending and going through the motions.
If you're cold, you're cold.
But He wants you to prefer that you're hot, you know.
He definitely doesn't want you like a lukewarm cup of coffee, the grossest thing ever.
Isn't that gross?
Like to have like a lukewarm cup of coffee and it's like the cream is like kind of floated to the top
and it's just like gross.
But I'll drink a cold coffee.
I like cold coffee.
I like cold brew.
It's good.
But I also like hot coffee.
And as I've grown older, the old man in me just craves that fiery hot cup of coffee.
Brother Alex, can I get an amen?
Amen.
So I've never seen him drink a cold coffee before.
So anyway, and I just, you know, that's the way God wants us.
So He wants us hot, doesn't He?
And now look what it says in verse 12, though, where I have to turn.
It says, whose fan is in his hand and he will thoroughly purge his floor.
So the scene is like a threshing floor where you're threshing wheat
and you're separating the wheat from the chaff, right?
And it says, he will thoroughly purge his floor and gather his wheat in the garden.
So the wheat is the precious fruit of the earth, the people that are saved, right?
And it says, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.
Amen.
So there are two baptisms of fire, isn't there?
Yep.
There's the filling of the Holy Spirit that sets your soul on fire,
that fires you up to do the things of God.
But then there's that unquenchable fire where, unfortunately,
some people are going to meet their doom.
And, you know, we've got to be like Aaron, stand between the dead and the living.
We're talking about Aaron, Moses' brother, not me.
But I want to stand, you know, between the dead and the living also.
But I like those first baptisms.
I even like the baptism of fire, but the baptism of the unquenchable fire,
you know, I don't want to go there.
I know for sure I don't want my family members to go there
and I don't want my friends to go there that I grew up with.
But, you know, people make their choices, you know?
And unfortunately, the heartache of being a Christian sometimes
is to know that the people that you love will never turn.
But don't give up on them.
Don't just consider them reprobate right away.
Sometimes it took some of us in here years to get rich,
and it took years of people seeing things and being steered in the right direction
to call upon Christ as our Savior.
So don't give up hope on them.
Obviously, if they're some kind of reprobate freak,
then you know that you can give up on them then.
Or if they're a false prophet, you know, they're a false prophet
or some kind of queer-do or whatever.
And you know they're gone.
But, you know, if it's, you know, people probably would have looked at us
in some of our darkest days and thought,
that person's never going to get saved.
I know people probably said that about me.
But, you know, he did.
Good grace is what saves us, right?
So turn back to our chapter number one in John.
Look at verse 34, the Bible says,
and I saw on bare record that this is the Son of God.
So John's record is what?
This is the Son of God.
This is the Lamb that taketh away the sin of the world.
He understood who he was.
The prophecy that he was, so, because remember,
he was told that these specific things happen.
If you see the Spirit descending and then you see it resting upon him,
you know that's the guy.
You know that's the Christ.
And so when he saw that, he bare record and said,
this is the Son of God.
Now that term Son of God, you'll find multiple times
and I do want to show you just a few verses about that.
Go ahead and turn to John chapter five, verse 25.
But you see here that John is the first person really in the book of John
to declare him as the Son of God.
And of course, God the Father will say,
this is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased to hear him
and things like that.
But you'll also hear, like even the centurion after he was crucified
and they stabbed him in his side and he said, what?
Truly, this is the Son of God.
And so then you have other people declaring him to be the Son of God.
Even in this chapter, you have Nathaniel talk about him being the Son of God.
And then, of course, there's times when Jesus says that he's the Son of God.
People will say, well, did people ever say that Jesus ever proclaimed himself to be God?
Yes.
He did. I think he did.
Absolutely.
I mean, if you're the Son of God, then you're God, right?
Because I'm a human being. My son's a human being.
He's the Son of man.
Jesus was the Son of man and the Son of God at the same time.
So he's very unique in that way.
So look at John chapter five, verse 25.
I had to turn there. It says,
Verily, verily, a son saying to you, the hour is coming and now is,
when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God,
and they shall hear, excuse me, and they shall hear and live.
For as the Father hath life in himself,
so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself.
So that's Jesus.
You know, if you have a red letter edition,
what's Jesus saying?
He's calling himself the Son of God.
Now turn to John chapter nine, verse 35.
John chapter nine, verse 35.
John chapter nine, verse 35, the Bible says,
Jesus heard that they had cast him out,
and when they had found him, he said unto him,
Dost thou believe on the Son of God?
So he's asking him, do you believe in me, that I'm the Son of God?
He answered and said, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him?
And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen him,
and it is he that talketh with thee.
I mean, that's just point blank.
He's just saying, I am the Son of God.
Do you believe on the Son of God?
I am the Son of God.
Believe on me.
And he's just like, well, tell me who he is,
and I'll believe him.
And he's like, I'm, it's right here.
So there's multiple other verses about it,
but I'm not going to belabor that point.
But we'll see it more as we go through the book of John,
but let's turn back to our text in our chapter here
in chapter number one, verse 35, the Bible says,
and again, the next day after John stood,
and two of his disciples, and looking upon Jesus as he walked,
he said, Behold, the Lamb of God.
So here he is the next day, seeing him again,
and he's standing with two of his disciples,
and he's just like, there he is right there.
It's him.
Because what was John's job?
To point people to the Son of God,
to point people to the Lamb of God.
So he's declaring him openly that that's who he is.
And the two disciples heard him speak,
and they followed Jesus.
And it says, then Jesus turned and saw them following,
and he saith unto them, What seek ye?
They said unto him, Rabbi, which is to say,
being interpreted, Master, where dwellest thou?
Where are you staying at tonight, Master?
And so we know that the word rabbi, what's it mean?
Master.
It means master.
So the Bible definitely is a built-in dictionary for itself.
Sometimes it helps us to understand some of the words.
Because rabbi is not like, I mean,
most of the time you think of a rabbi, you think of,
you know, yeah, it's a muy vey guy with the curly things hanging down.
He's got the broad and flackries,
and they're wearing the wizard kit or whatever that they have.
And that's not necessarily, you know, Jesus didn't look like that.
He wasn't, Jesus wasn't trying to be, you know,
he said, don't broaden your flackries.
Don't wear long robes.
But yet everybody paints Jesus in a long robe and long hair.
Yeah.
Right.
So, I mean, it's so funny that people actually believe that just because,
and that's why God said don't draw pictures.
Right.
Don't, you know, you shouldn't draw pictures of Jesus like that.
Because it's going to give people the wrong idea.
Because I mean, we should just do this as an experiment sometime
and just walk up to 10 random strangers and say,
what do you think Jesus looked like?
And you know what they're going to probably say to you nine times out of 10
is that he had long hair and he wore a dress.
I mean, they might not say dress, but like they'll say a robe,
but you know, it's a dress.
All right.
He didn't wear a dress and he didn't have long hair.
So anyway, but these two disciples follow him
and you know, then he explains to us what master means
or what rabbi means is master.
And he sayeth unto them, come and see.
They came and saw where he dwelt and abode with him that day,
for it was about the tenth hour.
One of the two which heard John speak and followed him was Andrew,
Simon Peter's brother.
So one of Andrew or one of Peter's brother,
Peter's brother's name is Simon, right?
He's one of those disciples.
And he findeth his own brother Simon.
He sayeth unto them, we have found the Messiah,
which is being interpreted the Christ.
So here we have a really important definition given to us here.
And it's that the Christ means the Messiah.
They both mean the same thing.
We say Jesus Christ.
That's how it's translated from the Greek scriptures for us.
But the Bible tells us and helps us here to understand
that it's talking about Jesus the Messiah.
And, you know, there's been many others in the book of Judges
that says God raises up the Savior to them.
This is a different Savior.
This is a Savior that can actually save your soul,
not just save you from some Philistine army or something.
So it is the Messiah.
He is the Christ.
There is nothing else coming after him that even compares to him.
And, you know, this is what Muslims believe.
Muslims believe that Jesus is going to come back and kill all the infidels.
So, like, he's going to come back and kill us.
Right.
And that the Imam or whatever is going to come back
and he's going to rule the world.
Well, that's probably the Antichrist.
Yeah.
And then, you know.
So, like, he is like where these big major world religions
will team up with the Antichrist.
They'll team up with the false prophet.
And they'll probably say, well, this is Jesus.
You know, the false prophet is Jesus.
Says there will be many false Christs that will come on the scene.
Many false prophets will come on the scene.
So, but anyway, he explains to us here.
There's another dictionary definition there for you from the Bible itself.
So, you know, it's perfect.
You know, it's right.
Verse 42 says,
And he brought him to Jesus.
And when Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon, the son of Jonah.
Thou shalt be called Cephas.
Now, here's another interpretation for us, which is by interpretation a stone.
So here you have the Lord Jesus Christ
giving the first nickname to one of the disciples.
He's like, you're the stone.
You're a stone, you know.
And so, you know, nicknames, apparently, it's okay to call people nicknames
as long as they're okay with it.
He didn't say, well, don't call me that.
Call me by my first name.
It's Cephas.
It's Peter.
Right.
Or no.
His name is Simon.
I'm sorry.
Simon.
And he said, you shall be called Cephas.
And the interpretation of Cephas is a stone.
So, you know, and we're built upon the foundation stone, which is Jesus Christ,
the chief cornerstone.
And then we're built upon the apostles and the prophets on top of that.
Two godly houses being built up.
And we're part of that house.
We're part of that main house that's going to be in heaven.
And one day we're all going to be worshipping together.
We're all going to be hanging out together.
And there'll probably be long lines for certain people to see
and talk to and things like that.
But I'm pretty sure that we'll be able to talk to each person
that we really want to talk to and ask those questions like,
what was it like to, you know, rip a lion's mouth off or whatever to Samson?
Or, well, you know, how happy was that gate that you picked up or whatever?
There's going to be some some cool conversations that go on in heaven.
I'm pretty sure.
But, you know, this isn't the only nickname that Jesus gave people.
He also nicknamed John and James.
And what did he call them?
The Sons of Thunder.
That's a pretty cool nickname.
So and, you know, so, you know, I think that Jesus had a little bit of a sense of humor.
Oh, yeah.
You know, maybe Peter will look like a stone.
You know, it looked like a rock or something.
And he called those guys the Sons of Thunder because they're probably really zealous.
Yeah.
And like, you know, maybe they preached hard.
Maybe when they prayed, maybe they had low voices or something.
I don't know.
But he called them the Sons of Thunder.
And so there's nothing.
You know, to me, that's Jesus being a little playful to say that he had no people.
Some people like he had no sense of humor at all.
I don't believe that for a second.
We're like God.
Obviously, you can get carried away, you know, with being too funny or trying to tell too many jokes.
And you just act like a goofball or whatever.
But there is a time to have fun.
I don't think we're supposed to be like sitting on wooden benches, you know, with no cushions and no musical instruments and women on one side and men on the other.
Just making church as hard and difficult and and loathing as you want it to be.
As you know, that's not how God wants us to be.
God wants us to enjoy our Christian life.
And, you know, he throws around a couple of nicknames and, you know, I nickname people too.
It's just part of who we are as people.
And there's nothing wrong with that as long as the people are OK with you calling them nicknames.
So I know people that aren't OK with that and I just don't do it.
I'm like, all right, fine. That's your name. That's fine with me.
I'm not going to tell you that anymore.
But, you know, sometimes a nickname can get you in trouble.
So you've got to be careful, especially what nicknames you get people.
So, I mean, if it's something really offensive, that would be cool.
But anyway, verse 43, it says,
And the day following Jesus would go forth into Galilee, and findeth Philip, and saith unto him, Follow me.
Now Philip was of Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter.
Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him,
We have found him of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.
And Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?
Philip saith unto him, Come and see.
And, you know, what happens next is really interesting to me, and I really don't quite understand.
I'll read it to you.
It says, Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and saith unto him, Behold, an Israelite, indeed, in whom is no guile.
And I don't know if he's being tongue-in-cheek about that because of what Nathanael said,
because doesn't that sound kind of like, you know, he's throwing shade on the city that he's forming?
I kind of just, maybe I just read that wrong, but like, to me, I think he's kind of being, you know, he's kind of joking.
You know, he's like, he knows what he said.
And so he's kind of just like giving him a little, he's giving him a little bit of the business or something.
He's like, indeed, you know, behold, an Israelite in whom is no guile, but doesn't it sound,
what he said before sound a little bit guileless, didn't it?
It sounded a little bit like he's taking a shot.
Like, could any good thing come from Nazareth?
I mean, is that a positive statement?
It's not.
So I kind of just, you know, I don't know how people read that, but I just kind of read it like he's kind of letting him know.
He knows what he said about him and just kind of making that statement.
That's my opinion about it.
But anyway, verse 48 says, that Daniel saith unto him, whence knowest thou me?
Jesus answered and said unto them, before that Philip called thee, when thou was under the fig tree, I saw thee.
So now he's saying, like, I picked you out way before you even realize you're even going to come over and meet me.
And Daniel answered and said unto him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God.
Thou art the King of Israel.
All you do is just say a couple things to him.
Like, I know what you said, basically, and I saw you under that fig tree.
And because they came up to tell him, we found the one that Moses and the prophets, we found the Messiah.
We found the Messiah.
And then all he has to do is just say a couple of things.
He's like, thou art the Son of God.
You know, he's just like, he's all in from that point.
Thou art the King of Israel.
Jesus answered and said unto them, because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree, believeth thou?
Thou shalt see greater things than these.
And he saith unto him, verily, verily, I say unto you, hereafter, you shall see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.
So, you know, I just think it's really interesting that he didn't have to, Jesus didn't have to walk on water.
He didn't have to show some great miracle.
He just had to pick out a couple of different things.
And that's all it took.
And, you know, when you have great faith, you know, you can see something simple.
And, you know, but what did the Pharisees do?
They saw Lazarus walk out of the grave after being dead for four days.
They saw all the miracles.
They saw the blind people healed.
They had, you know, there was a guy that was born blind from his youth.
And then the Pharisees were like, oh, you know, we don't believe on them.
You know, they're just all they're always contrary to him.
They're always just, you know, do another miracle.
Do another miracle, Jesus.
You know, they're like acting like he's a circus performer for them.
Like, hey, just do one more.
It's like, no.
And that's the thing is the Jews seek a sign.
You know, the Greeks want this, you know, you to show them some great intellectual thing.
But, you know what, if you're just a person that believes things really easily
and when you know the truth, you hear the truth, you respond to it.
And, you know, at the end of this chapter, you see this reference in verse 51.
It says, again, verily, verily, I send to you,
hereafter you shall see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.
What is this a reference to?
Well, it's a reference to, does anybody know?
Ascension.
Well, it's actually.
The ladder.
Yeah, the Jacob's ladder.
Amen.
So Jacob has this dream.
Let's look over there and then we'll be done with the sermon after this.
But Jacob's ladder is what he's talking.
He's referencing back to Genesis chapter 28.
And so let's just look at the story real quick.
It says in Genesis chapter 28, verse 10.
And Jacob went out from Beersheba and went toward Haran.
And he lighted upon a certain place and tarried there all night because the sun was set.
And he took of the stones that were in that place and put them for his pillows and lay down in the place to sleep.
So he took the stones and I don't know if you've ever slipped on stones before, but it doesn't seem like it'd be very comfortable to me.
But it's a picture because what do we rest our hope on?
We rest our hope on the rock.
Yeah.
And so it says in verse 12, and he dreamed and behold a ladder set up on the earth and the top of it reached to heaven and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it.
So Jesus is that ladder that gets us to heaven.
Yeah.
That's what that's basically what Jesus is saying.
You're going to see the angels ascending, descending upon the son of man.
And what was the dream?
The dream was that they're descending, descending upon this ladder.
So Jesus is that he's the only stairway to heaven.
That's good.
Led Zeppelin, whatever witchery that they were into, that their stairway to heaven is not the stairway of heaven that the Bible teaches.
The stairway to heaven is only going to be gotten to by the Lord Jesus Christ.
And that's what he's saying here, isn't it?
You're going to hear, you're going to see heaven open up.
You're going to see the angels ascending, descending upon the son of man.
And it says in verse 13, and behold, the Lord stood above it and said, I'm the Lord God of Abraham, thy father and the God of Isaac, the land wherein thou liest to thee will I give it and to thy seed.
And notice how it says seed.
It doesn't say seeds.
Right.
That seed is Christ.
And it says thy seed and thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth.
Thou shalt spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south.
And in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.
So he's blessing him with the same blessing that he blessed Abraham with.
Right.
So the same exact thing he said to Abraham.
Because Jacob is that line that the Messiah was going to come through.
So through his, through the families and the 12 tribes of Israel and from, you know, Abraham had other sons also too.
And he said, you know, and he told Abraham that all nations of the earth will be blessed through his seed.
So, and here it is, God promising in the same thing also.
And what it really is, is that his, his seed was going to ultimately be Christ.
And Christ is the one that blesses the whole earth because he thought he was the lamb of God.
He took away the sins of the earth.
Right.
Amen.
And all the sins of the whole, all people have to do is just be humble enough to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
And the Bible says thou shalt be saved.
Amen.
And that's all it takes.
And you can ascend, you can ascend to heaven one day like everybody else is saved.
So, and verse 15 says, and behold, I am with thee and will keep thee in all places, whether thou goest and will bring thee again into this land,
for I will not leave thee until I have done that which I have spoken of thee.
So, and then of course the fulfillment, Jesus is telling us of the fulfillment, but it's him.
He, I mean, there's, there's a reason why that's put there.
It's not just put there to end the chapter on a good note or something.
It's put there so that we would think back to Jacob's ladder and to think back about the promises of God through Jacob and his son.
So obviously genealogies don't matter anymore.
Christ has already come.
And so the Bible says for us to avoid genealogies, but before Christ came, genealogies were important.
It was important to know where these certain people came from and all this other stuff.
But, and when there was a Levitical priest, it was important then too,
because there was a tribal priest and you had to be able to trace back your lineage to Aaron and Moses and all those other people.
So anyway, that's the end of the chapter.
Next week, we'll hit John chapter two.
Let's pray.
Lord, we thank you so much for the scriptures, Lord, and what they teach us.
I pray that you would just, Lord, help us to, as we do our Bible reading,
sometimes just kind of take a little bit of time and do a little bit of extra study and some cross-referencing.
Lord, it's good to read a lot of Bible, but it's also good to study the Bible instead of studying to show thyself approved.
And Lord, I pray that everyone in this church, every single person that's coming here, Lord,
that they'd have the fire of the Lord burning inside them.
Lord, their mission would be to make this church a success through your power, through the Holy Spirit.
And Lord, that you would send us out and that we would see a great mighty harvest saved in this area.
Lord, I pray that you just bless everybody as they go home and keep us safe.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Amen.
All right, I've got to turn this off, right?
Yes.
I'm not leading this song, I'm just turning this off.
Come on, I thought we were singing.
No, no, no.
Test, test.
Okay.
You're okay?
Okay, for our last song, let's turn to 397.
397, little is much when God is in it.
Turn there real quick.
Here we go.
There's a crowd and you can win it
If you go in Jesus' name
Does the place you're called to labor
Seem so small that little know
It is great if God is in it
And he'll not forget his own
Little is much when God is in it
For God, for wealth, for fame
There's a crowd and you can win it
If you go in Jesus' name
Does the place you're called for service
What is more, for toiling care
You can still be in the battle
In the sacred place of prayer
Little is much when God is in it
Labor not, for wealth, for fame
There's a crowd and you can win it
If you go in Jesus' name
When the conflict here has ended
And our race on earth is run
He will say to all the faithful
Welcome home, my child well done
Little is much when God is in it
Labor not, for wealth, for fame
There's a crowd and you can win it
If you go in Jesus' name
Good, see you in the next game.
We'll try a little closer for more prayer.
Thank you more for having everybody get here nice and safe
Wonderful laborers that we do have
Please grant us more laborers for this harvest
Did you say pray amen?