“The Lord Jesus Christ: The Beginning and the End” By Brother Parrish Lee April 1st,
2018 Thank You, Lord. Thank You, Lord. Hallelujah! You know, thank you for bearing with me a little bit in my folly. I had it bad. I had it bad all week long. I had it bad. And I want to thank everybody who sent me a text or well wishes, get better, because I was coughing and hacking, not being able to get up out of bed, that was bad. But, not being able to be where God’s pouring out a blessing on all His people, that's unbearable, that's unbearable. And I literally, yeah, literally, literally, found myself, and when I found myself I was able to get to work the next day and everybody was wondering what was wrong with me, but it didn't matter to me; I just had to talk about it. God is the kind of good, when He's real, real good to you, real, real, real good to you, you got to tell somebody. You gots to tell somebody. When people go see a movie they like a lot, you find them, they're talking about it when you didn't even ask Him. If there was a meal that somebody prepared for them that was outstanding, they talk about it over and over and over. And, they just want to revisit that. Or when somebody does something for them, and it just ministers so much to their soul, it has to come out. They want to be put in remembrance of something. That's why photos and voice recorders, that's why all that stuff was invented, so they can hold onto blessings, so they can remember it more vividly. That's why all that stuff came about. You got to talk about it. And, that’s how it is with God. When He pours out a blessing, you’ve got to talk about it. And, that's why they thought, the people I know thought I was crazy, but I couldn't—I felt sorry for them, but I couldn't stop myself. I talked to them a lot anyway. A visitor came, I ain't seen them in years, and I found myself going over a miniature Bible study with them on who God is. He pours out blessings, do you know? It was all surprise, ain't seen you in years, and you picked up where you left off five, six years ago. Compelled it, He's that kind of God. And, if anybody ever thinks that that's getting a little bit too carried away, then I'll let you in on a secret, this is just practice. Because, you see, there's coming a time when I'm going to see Him face-to-face. This don't hold a candle to how I'm going to praise Him when I see Him face-to-face. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. So, this right here, it’s just—they call it practice. And no, I'm not going to be surprised when I get there. I'm going to be amazed, but I'm not going to be surprised, because it's the same God that we’re worshipping today, that's going to be the same God that sits on the throne, and says, “Enter into the joy of thy Lord.” We've taken, we've taken as a thought, Saints, Matthew, chapter sixteen, and verse number thirteen, and this is going to be our theme for the month, and we're looking forward to a great time with it. It's:
Matthew 16:13 When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? Who do men say that I am? That is our theme for the month. And, I pray that the message, I pray that the sermon, does the message good. But, our Scripture thought for today, if I could ask brother Alex Rasumov, if he would come, is going to be, starting at Matthew chapter sixteen verse thirteen, reading on down, through verse nineteen. Brother Alex, if you would.
Matthew 16:13-19 When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets. He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Thank you, brother Alex. If we could bow our heads for just a moment. Almighty God, as it was said this morning, who is like You? God, who can be compared to You? Who loves us like You? God, who paid the price but You? And, Lord Jesus, we lift our eyes up to You, God; all we see is more of what we want to be like. God, with you, there is no fear, nor shadow of turning, and we come before You to give You thanks, and homage, and honor, and glory, and magnificence, God. And, we come before You, to just put ourselves there, and say words can't even describe the thanks that we give for all the things that You've done for us. And, God we thank You for the time that we can worship You, and praise You in the sanctuary. And, then, Lord we ask that You just lead and guide the sermon part of your message, God, that it would do everything that You would have for it to do for us to do today. And, God, You alone are the Minister, You are the Strengthener, You alone are the Comforter, so it is unto You, our Strengthener, our Minister, our Comforter, that we turn, our Lord, our God, and ask your blessings on this time. This we claim and pray in Jesus name. And, everyone said, amen. Amen. The title of today's message is, “The Lord Jesus Christ; the Beginning and the End,” the Lord Jesus Christ the beginning and the end. And, this, this, Saints this is part one: Part 1: Who Do Men Say That I Am? That I am? And, in verse number fifteen, He says to them, “But whom say ye that I am?” What a fitting message this is for Easter morning, because that has to be the question all over the world for people who have a casual relationship or a casual acquaintance with the Lord. It has to be, it has to be a fitting question, “Well, who am I, who am I to You?” Well, this passage takes place in Matthew after the Lord had taught the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-12). Blessed are they that... And it takes place it after in chapter six were the disciples came to Him and said, “Lord, teach us to pray,” (Luke 11:1-4, Matthew 6:9-15). This passage takes place after chapter seven where He gave a run of parables to them (Matthew 7). This passage takes place after the woman with the issue of blood (Matthew 9:20-22) and after the blinded eyes were opened (Matthew 9:27-31). It takes place after the lame were restored to walking (Matthew 15:30-31). This passage takes place after the call, the call on the disciples (Matthew 10:1-4). After that. It takes place after they were called, and they were ordained, and they were sent out, and given power over devils (Matthew 10:1-10), this passage takes place after. This passage takes place after the Pharisees came to Him, and said, “Art thou the Christ? We need a sign from You,” and He said, “The only sign is going to be given you people is the sign of the Prophet Jonas,” (Matthew 12:38-41). This passage takes place after the four thousand came out after Him and He healed, the Bible says, He healed all of those who were sick with infirmities, out of that four thousand, and after that, after He healed those who were sick, after that, the Bible says, He fed them. He ministered to both their needs: the physical needs, and then their nutritional needs (Matthew 15:32-39). After all that was done, the Bible says that He got His disciples together and He asked them two questions. He asked them, “Who do men say that I am?” And they began to say, “Well, some men say that thou art John the Baptist,” and, incidentally this passage takes place after John the Baptist asked, “Art Thou He?” (Matthew 11:2-5) and then they killed Him (Matthew 14:3-12). It takes place after that. But, the disciples said unto Him, you know how it is when people got something that they think that they want to say. And, so, some of them said, “You're Jeremias,” some said, “John the Baptist,” some said, “Oh, You're one of them prophets over there; You're one of them.” And, you know how it is, people always got an opinion about everything. Anybody ever notice that people got opinions about just about everything? Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah, yeah, they do. You know what we call that nowadays? Social media. I know some other people; you know what they call it? Fake news. Anyway, anyway, that was my feeble attempt at humor. Anyway, it seems that people have always got an opinion about everything, so He asked them who does everybody else say that I am. And, the opinions rolled in. But, then, the Bible says, the second question, as He turned to the disciples, and He said, “But, who do you say, who do you say that I am? Who am I to you?” And, the Bible says that Peter, Simon Peter, yeah, the one that got in trouble for so much, yeah, the one who got rebuked, yeah, the one who is always reaching out, the Bible says that He turned and said, in verse number sixteen: Matthew 16:16 And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
And, the Lord said, because, blessed art thou, Simon Barjonah: for Flesh and Blood—this revelation, this knowledge, this information you got, wasn’t something that you came up with and thought that you're smarter than everyone else; no, no, no, no, no. You have allowed God to reveal Me to you. You have allowed—many, many people saw the miracles and the wonders and the great works, but you have allowed God to reveal to you, Me. Blessed art thou, Simon Barjonah (Matthew 16:17). So, the question beckons: after all of that that He did for them, He moves here in 2018, so after the Lord opens our minds, and gives us blessings after blessings, after He gives opens our eyes and gives us a sight that we didn't have before. And, after He gives us a walk that we didn't have before. After the Lord gives us a spirit that we didn't have before. The question beckons, “Who do you say that I am? Who am I to you?” And, as we said we're taking this month and we're going to talk about who do you—who do men say that I am? And, who is Jesus to us? Part 2: The First and The Last Several of the ministers are going to be talking about this; we have several sermons. We have five weeks, I believe we have nine sermons in five weeks, this month. It's going to be a beautiful thing. I'm looking forward to every one of them, but, today, today we want to talk about the first and the last, the Alpha and the Omega. We're going to talk about Him being the beginning and the end. From the book of Isaiah, chapter forty-four, verse number six; the Bible says here: Isaiah 44:6 Thus saith the Lord the King of Israel, and his redeemer the Lord of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God. Yeah, I am the first, I am the last; and, and beside me there is no God; He didn't just say there's no others, He said there is no God. No other God beside me. Now, when He says here, “the first,” He's saying, “I am the Elder one. I am the beginning one. I am the one who formed and created, and before me, there was no before me.” And, then He goes on to say, “and the last,” in other words, there is nothing that comes after me. This is the finality of God. And, then He says, “and there is no God beside me.” Now that word, ‘beside’ the way it's used there, looking it up, that word, it's a greater context than meaning next to. We understand that ‘next to’ but when God says there's none beside me, He means there is none above Me, there is none around Me, there is none since Me. And, He also means there is no from me. I'm it! I'm it! There is none beside me. How precious, how precious this Scripture is. So when Isaiah is saying this, he's telling—when Isaiah is listening to God and prophesying, because he's telling the people that this that you are knowing right now, it exists even after you leave the plane of the living. Even after you're long gone, this stuff, this right here does not change. This is the Lord God on high. So, this is some seven hundred years—the time of Isaiah was between seven hundred BC and seven hundred and eighty-nine BC, I believe it goes, and all of this was written in that time. So at least, six hundred and eighty-nine years and at the most seven hundred and forty years before the birth of Christ came. This was Isaiah speaking. Since then, some seven hundred and some odd years later, we see Jesus. We see the son of God. We see One who came, and when He came, it was a virgin birth, or at least, that's what they were telling everybody. And, then, we see One who was coming teaching and preaching, and, then, we also see One who came and He opened blinded eyes. And, then, we also see One who came and He made the lame to walk. And, then, we see One who came and walked on water. And, we see one who came and He put the weather, the weather in check. The weather doesn't move unless it gets His permission. “Peace, be still,” He would say (Mark 4:39). And, then, after that, we see that which all of us are captive to; we see Him come and literally raise the dead to walk again, the dead. And, the Lord says, “I am the first and the last and beside Me there is none other.” So, before His resurrection, before His resurrection the Lord said, in John, chapter eight, verse fifty-eight: John 8:58 Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.
The Lord Jesus talking about Himself. Who is He? He says I am the I am, before Abraham. And John, chapter four, verse twenty-five to twenty-six: John 4:25 The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things. The Messiah, the Christ. And, in verse twenty-six, the Bible says: John 4:26 Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he.
I am your Messiah. I am your Christ. And, John, chapter ten, verse thirty-six. Just a few of the Scriptures where He talked about Himself before His resurrection. John, chapter ten, verse thirty-six: John 10:36 Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God? All the time the Lord was telling people who He is. “I am the Son of God.” Before the resurrection, before His resurrection. After, but after, His resurrection, after the fulfilling of everything He came to fulfill to see salvation brought to His people, after His resurrection in the Book of Revelation, the Bible says, chapter twenty-two, and verse number thirteen: Revelation 22:13 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.
Revealing who He is. Now these letters were of the Greek alphabet, Alpha and Omega, but in English, we could translate it to simply this: not just A and Z, but A to Z. That Alpha and Omega, that doesn't mean two separate letters, one at each end of the alphabet, of the Greek alphabet. That is not how it's conveyed, it is conveyed, “I am the beginning and the end and I am everything in between. I am all of it! I am it.” So, before He ever came into—before we ever came into existence did you know that He was our beginning? The Bible says in the Book of Isaiah, that He formed us in our mother's womb. Before we took our first breath, He was working on us. He is our Alpha; He is our beginning. And, according to the Bible, if we could only—it's kind of hard to comprehend this part, it's kind of hard for us to comprehend the end, you know, because we're trying to look down into the future, the future for us, we trying to see how things are going to pan out, nowadays, it's all about your 401k and your investments, if this is going to work out, if this is going to work out, it's all about a lot of that stuff. But, He said, “I am the Omega. I am the Alpha and the Omega.” Now, see, when He said He's the Omega that means He already wrapped everything up. But, because of the element of time it hasn’t been revealed to us. He's already done it, He's already sees it, time doesn't have any constraints on Him. But, for us, we are subject to the element of time, so, when He says He is the Omega, we are the ones that are just waiting on that. He is, and this just shows God's finality. #23:39# Part 3 He Came to Give Us All Things.
We want the things that—if we want anything from the Lord—let me say that: if we, being His children, want anything from the Lord, did you know that He said it is good pleasure to give you the Kingdom? If you are a child of God, the Bible says, it is His good pleasure to give you the Kingdom. If you find yourself, and, I've been there before, I'm sure many of us have before, I've had conversations with people that that say they've been there before, and you find yourself not just in need, but in want of comfort. Did you know from the Book of John, chapter fourteen, and verse twenty-six, the Bible's, here, says: John 14:26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
Need some comfort? Anybody ever need some comfort? It is His good pleasure to send you—ask and He will send it—the Comforter. The Comforter! He will send you the Comforter. Oh, all we have to do is ask. If it's peace that we need in our life, the Bible says, in the Book of John, Chapter fourteen, verse twenty-seven: John 14:27 Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. If you need peace, ask God and He said, “I will give you peace. I will give you peace.” You know? that's what we need. Why do we have so much tribulation and craziness? Those young people, when they were doing that skit here in front of us, that touched your heart. Every single one of them, every single one of them talk about a situation and how God is the Savior in every situation. Isn't that something? For us, I don't think there's few things more degrading, disgusting, conflictual then the Holocaust and slavery, the Holocaust and slavery. That's something that has never gone away in our civilization, you know, and if you don't believe me just going to different neighborhoods, go down into a Jewish neighborhood. Go down into a Jewish neighborhood, and they will tell you, “Never again. Never again. We remember it forever and we're never going to let it happen again.” You go into any neighborhood where African-Americans are, they'll tell you, “Yeah, I remember my great-great-great-grandfather…” And they’ll bring it up. What is the answer? Jesus. The Comforter. The Peacegiver. What about joy? I've heard it said that happiness is on the outside, but joy is on the inside. Do we want more joy? From the Book of John, chapter fifteen, and verse eleven: John 15:11 These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. And, now, I want to speak to anybody here that has found themselves—maybe they, maybe we have found ourselves and we have kind of fallen out of love with God. You know, we don't love Him like we used to. That love that was kind of new, and fresh at one point, it's kind of fleeting now, and kind of far away. And, maybe it's a good sense of like, but the love ain't there no more. If we ever find ourselves that we are one of those persons that had fallen out, or fallen away from that great love of God, we feel we might have fallen out of love with Him, but He has not fallen out of love with us. The Bible says no greater love is there than this, My love, My love is the greatest thing going. My love is the greatest. From the Book of John, chapter fifteen, verse thirteen; greater love, greater love: John 15:13 Greater love hath no man [no man! And, yeah, that includes women. Hath no man, woman, child, no person, no person has a greater love] than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
What about a more abundant life? I wanted to be richer than it is now, I wanted to be more abundant than it is now. From the Book of John, chapter ten, and verse number ten: John 10:10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. What about more of His Spirit in our life? From The Book of Luke, chapter eleven, verse thirteen: Luke 11:13 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? You want more of God’s Spirit? Ask. Ask, and He will fill you. “God, I want more of your Spirit.” Ask. In 2018, I have to say, that's quite a list. But, that, that's not the whole list. Just in case I left anything out, from the Book of Matthew, chapter twenty-one, first number twenty-two: Matthew 21:22 And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.
All things. Whatever it is. You ask, believing, believing you shall receive. Before I put this microphone down, I want to say one more thing. For everybody who thinks that it's passed you by, that's a lie! For everybody who thinks that your time has passed, and you can't do it, that you're used up, that it's fleeting, what you used to have you can't have no more, that's a lie! For everybody who thinks that you're the one who's going to be left out of that love, left out of that healing, left out of that peace, left out of that Joy, I only got one thing to say to that: that's a lie! He guaranteed it in His Word. All He said we’ve got to do is ask. Children of God, children of God, all we have to do is ask in faith believing. And the Bible says, all things, all things whatsoever we shall ask in prayer, believing we shall receive. We shall receive. Give the Lord a praise.
|
|
|
|
