Below are notes to a sermon preached Sunday morning, June 01, 2003, at Gospel Light Baptist Church, Albany, Georgia. For more outlines, including a zipped file of all of my 1999, 2000, and 2001 sermon outlines, click on the link at the bottom of this note, and go to our website:

IN THE BEGINNING, JESUS

By Michael D. O'Neal              Pastor, Gospel Light Baptist Church              Albany, Georgia

Scripture Reading: Genesis 1:1-5

Text: Genesis 1:1

Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

Introduction: This Bible is about Jesus! You may not have seen His name in the first verse, but He is there. He IS the Word, and every word points to Him. What I'm going to preach to you about the Lord and Genesis 1:1 is the truth. The verse IS about Jesus. However, a child of God who loves His Savior can see Him in almost every word of the Bible.

The first word of the Bible is "IN." I'm not going to preach a message about Jesus from that word, but I could. I could do so legitimately. Jesus is IN. That's right. He said that He is IN the Father and the Father is in HIM.

Did you know that everything that is really worth having is IN Christ? Do you know that salvation is IN Christ? Do you know that if you're not IN Jesus, you're not born again, for "if any man be IN Christ, he is a new creature!" (2 Corinthians 5:17) God told Noah to come IN to the ark! Are you IN?

The last word of the Bible is "AMEN." Glory! Jesus said HE is the Amen in Revelation 3:14! This Bible starts with Jesus, it ends with Jesus, and everything in between is about Jesus!

I. JESUS WAS PRIOR TO THE BEGINNING

How could Jesus be before the BEGINNING? How could anyone or anything be before the beginning. Here is how. The heaven and earth were created in the beginning. However, read what Jesus said to the Father of Himself:

John 17:5 And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.

A. Jesus had an everlasting past

B. Jesus has an everlasting presence

C. Jesus is an everlasting Person

II. JESUS WAS PRESENT IN THE BEGINNING

Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

Isaiah 44:24 Thus saith the LORD, thy redeemer, and he that formed thee from the womb, I am the LORD that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself;

John 1:1-3 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 The same was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

Ephesians 3:9 And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:

A. He was the Creator

B. He was the clay-molder

C. He was the carpenter

D. He was the composer

III. JESUS IS THE PERSONIFICATION OF THE BEGINNING

Revelation 1:8 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.

A. He is the beginning of creation

B. He is the beginning of the church

C. He is the beginning of the Christian

D. He is the beginning of consecration



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