Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Here we are the very first Sunday in January in the year of our Lord 2020.

And we are are sitting here at the beginning of a new year, what did you think about last year?

What changes are you making in your life and in particular, what about your spiritual life?

What do you want in your spiritual life to be different?

I think each of us have a area, a spot that we want to change, to tidy up and set right as we live in front of the Lord.

And I also think that some have struggled in the past year with where the Lord is leading you.

What you are called and supposed to do.. but you have been hesitant to follow, maybe out of fear, past mistakes or something… but this year you want to be courageous and follow the Lord.

What you are called and supposed to do.. but you have been hesitant to follow, maybe out of fear, past mistakes or something… but this year you want to be courageous and follow the Lord.

I can only say one thing to each of us, myself included… Be brave, have faith and do it.

Now.. today I am starting a new sermon series for you, and I hope you will be blessed by what the Lord is leading me to say to you as we walk through the Scriptures about Christ.

So who is Jesus, what do we know about our Lord, we could call this topic Christology.. it is the theology of Jesus.

There is so much tied to him and we must know and understand if we hope to walk ever close to Him.

So this morning I want us to consider the topic of the pre-incarnate Christ.

Did Christ appear before His incarnation in Bethlehem as a baby.

So this morning I want us to look at a couple passages of Scripture as we break into this topic.

So lets begin with and Genesis 18:1-3

and

So lets build off of these two text and lets move forward today....

Now I would propose to you today that we know the Lord has always existed, He has always been.

We know this from the truth of the Scriptures.

So

So let this be our first thought..

1. Jesus is Eternal....

One truth we must begin with today is the truth that our Lord is eternal.

He has neither beginning or ending, and has always existed.

This truth is made clear to us in the fact that Jesus and the Father are one, He is the second person of the Trinity, and as God the Father always always existed, so God the Son and God the Holy Spirit has always existed as well.

So lets look at our text today..

Right in the opening of John’s gospel, the Lord makes it clear concerning the eternal nature of who Christ is...

In the beginning… the Word gave us our beginning, He was there alive and active in our creation.

says

And as I have shared with you before, it lines up perfectly with

The beginning that God speaks of is our beginning, the beginning of this world and the creation of man.

It is our beginning and not His.

The word for God here is “Elohim” and it is the only word in the Hebrew whose translated meaning is “Gods’

The beginning that God speaks of is our beginning, the beginning of this world and the creation of man.

It is our beginning and not His.

The word for God here is “Elohim” and it is the only word in the Hebrew whose translated meaning is “Gods’

Also we know that down a little farther, verse 26 it says…

This phrase “...let us… “ is the place were our God in verse one, the great God of creation, allowed the Son the second person of the Trinity according to Colossians chapter 1 and created everything God the Father desired.

So just for a look, says

And remember Verse 3 that we talk about a little while ago

So God had the Son created the world as we know it.

So there is the eternal God the Father and the Son, working together and , the Spirit of God, the Third person of the Trinity is hovering over the face of the deep.

So here is God, all three members of the Trinity in one person who were in existence, eternal before this world ever began.

So Jesus is eternal, and that is the one fact I want you to hang onto my friends, Jesus is eternal.

John the Beloved, wrote to us concerning all he heard and saw about Jesus nature in

There in that appearance, Jesus tells and the first and the last..

The one who has always been and will continue to be long after this world has passed away.

Why?

He is the eternal IAM

The Savior of the world, has always been.

“...Jesus said to the religious leaders, Before Abraham was, I AM...”

Being eternal, he has always known you.

Do you know Him?

The best decision in the world was the day I discovered He knew me and loved me!

This brings me to our second thought today....

This brings me to our second thought today....

2. Jesus appears in the Old Testament....

Jesus appears in the Old Testament.

Now please understand, it is more than just Jesus being prophesied about in the OT, there are times that He does appear and is worshipped.

And that is what we will look at today.

Now consider this point:

Now consider this point:

There are times in the Bible, that the pre-incarnate Christ is called the Angel of the Lord..

There are times in the Old Testament where a person encounters what is called the Angel of the Lord.

This is the pre-incarnate Christ himself appearing and doing the work of the Father in the lives of these people.

A. Lets see Jesus with Abraham....

Abraham had the joy of meeting the Lord and conversing with Him

Lets find again and lets look at verses 1-3

As we examine this passage there are some key thoughts we must hang onto and not neglect.

The first is just what verse one says.. The Lord appeared to Him by the oaks of Mamre.

There were three men there that day, the Lord and two angels.

Now do you see Abraham’s response to seeing the Lord..? He bowed low to the earth.

And act of respect and worship, also Abraham entreated the Lord to not pass by His house, but to stay there for a bit.

Listen when you see the Lord, you desire to be with Him.

Amen.

So Abraham asks permission to bless them with refreshment.

Food, drink and water to cleanse their feet, and the Lord allows himself to be served of Abraham.

Now people might ask why the Lord doesn’t need to eat.

It is not about the food or drink, just as the risen Lord ate with his disciples on the edge of the sea of Galilee, it was about being in their presence, fellowship and time spent close to those He loved.

Moving on in this visit...He tells Abraham verse 10, that by this time next year the promised son would arrive by Sarah herself.

He tells Abraham verse 10, that by this time next year the promised son would arrive by Sarah herself.

And if you drop down to verse 17, you see something else.

Verse 17… The Lord said shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do… and then verse 19, For I have chosen Him.

And then verse 17… The Lord said shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do… and then verse 19, For I have chosen Him.

If this were an angel, even a archangel like Michael or Gabrielle, they would not have said what I do, but what the Lord is doing… They would not take credit for the task themselves, for they act on no authority of their own, but the Lord’s authority.

This is a theophany.. Theo - meaning God and phaino - meaning manifestation or to appear.

This person is the manifestation of God in human form.

It is Jesus the Lord, the second person of the Trinity.

Now moving to another text...

B. Lets See Jesus with Jacob, who is renamed Israel.

;

Go a little further in the book of Genesis to chapter 32, verses 24-25, 28-30

Here we see the story of Jacob the deceiver, the one who tricked his brother Esau out of his birth right and blessings.

Now Jacob had a hard time, and now after many years he is about to meet Esau again and He is worried that it might be confrontational.

And after sending his wives and most of His possession ahead of him he is left alone next to the river and a person shows up and struggles with Jacob.

This moment is a defining one in Jacob’s life, for here there are no short cuts, no trickery, He has met God face to face and lived (cause the Lord is allowing it)and he refuses to let go until he is blessed.

And God changes his name to Israel.

I love that Israel says here, I have seen God.

It is Jesus...