WITHIN THE GLORY OF JESUS

March 25, 2001 pm
Genesis 1:1-9  In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness [was] upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that [it was] good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.  And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which [were] under the firmament from the waters which [were] above the firmament: and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day. And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry [land] appear: and it was so.

John 1:1-14  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 was not any thing made that was made. 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, whose name [was] John. The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, 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.



This parallel to Genesis in John has been preached before in our church, here. The way in which the Spirit "moved" upon the waters was a "fluttering" manner. The same Hebrew word for "moved" Gen 1:2 is also translated as "fluttereth" above.

And the Hebrew term for "without form" in Gen 1:2 is translated "waste."

And Deut. 32 is speaking about the time of the Exodus time.

Israel was always a foreshadow of what God would have later in His Church. Like Genesis, Israel's establishment, in God's mind, was a new creation. Its like being in the wilderness -- when the Earth was void and without form.

And before this we read...

John 1:19-23  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.
There is wilderness! After the Exodus story, we read about crossing the Jordan with Joshua. Jordan is mentioned in John, too!

So we see Genesis and Exodus combined in the picture given by John!

And then Jesus appears, who is the light of the world, as though God said once again, "Let there be light!"

John 1:29  The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
And similar to Moses, Jesus spends, not forty years, but forty days in the wilderness before He proceeds to deliver people in HIs ministry.

John called the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

Why is Exodus connected with Genesis in the Gospel? The idea of God's glory, also, is throughout the Garden story.

Before we show that, let's read about the glory here:

2 Samuel 22:7-12  In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried to my God: and he did hear my voice out of his temple, and my cry [did enter] into his ears. Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations of heaven moved and shook, because he was wroth. There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it. He bowed the heavens also, and came down; and darkness [was] under his feet. And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly: and he was seen upon the wings of the wind. And he made darkness pavilions round about him, dark waters, [and] thick clouds of the skies.
Notice the term CHERUB. Manifested HIs Glory! Notice another parallel. Look at how the temple was modeled after the Garden in Garden imagery.
1 Kings 6:18  And the cedar of the house within [was] carved with knops and open flowers: all [was] cedar; there was no stone seen.

1 Kings 6:22-23  And the whole house he overlaid with gold, until he had finished all the house: also the whole altar that [was] by the oracle he overlaid with gold. And within the oracle he made two cherubims [of] olive tree, [each] ten cubits high.

1Kin 6:28-32 And he overlaid the cherubims with gold. And he carved all the walls of the house round about with carved figures of cherubims and palm trees and open flowers, within and without. And the floor of the house he overlaid with gold, within and without. And for the entering of the oracle he made doors [of] olive tree: the lintel [and] side posts [were] a fifth part [of the wall]. The two doors also [were of] olive tree; and he carved upon them carvings of cherubims and palm trees and open flowers, and overlaid [them] with gold, and spread gold upon the cherubims, and upon the palm trees.

1Kin 7:18-20  And he made the pillars, and two rows round about upon the one network, to cover the chapiters that [were] upon the top, with pomegranates: and so did he for the other chapiter. And the chapiters that [were] upon the top of the pillars [were] of lily work in the porch, four cubits. And the chapiters upon the two pillars [had pomegranates] also above, over against the belly which [was] by the network: and the pomegranates [were] two hundred in rows round about upon the other chapiter.

In chapter 7 there were molten seas like ponds and lakes from a Garden. We read more of the Garden here:
Ezekiel 28:13  Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone [was] thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. Thou [art] the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee [so]: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.
The Garden was atop a mountain, on a plateau. The glory of God was upon the ark of the covenant in the temple and tabernacle, between the place where the chuerbims were fashioned on the mercy seat.

All of this shows us that the temple and tabernacle were models of the Garden of Eden.

As the Temple was a model of the Garden, it is little wonder that after so many parallels of the Garden story with John's Gospel, that we find Jesus casting people out of the temple as God cast Adam from the Garden! The reason that the New Jerusalem is covered with jewels and precious stones and gold, etc., was because the original plan of God in the Garden was for it to develop into a City! The word DWELT in the above verse literally means "tabernacled." His wings are those of the CHERUBIM!

We are come to Mount Zion already!

Hebrews 12:22  But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,

Isaiah 4:4  When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning. And the LORD will create upon every dwelling place of mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night: for upon all the glory [shall be] a defence.

The DEFENCE is literally a "COVERING".
SERMONS