Secrets Of Jesus Hidden In The Tribes Of Israel—Part 2
Sunday, 7 April 2019
These are notes on the sermon, Secrets Of Jesus Hidden In The Tribes Of Israel—Part 2, preached by Pastor Joseph Prince on Sunday, 7 April 2019, at The Star Performing Arts Centre, Singapore. We hope these sermon notes will be an encouragement to you!
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Pastor encourages us to say to the Lord, “You are so good to me.”
Even if bad things are happening—delayed answers, traffic holdups, or a child who is late for school—God works all things to work for your good.
We are made in God’s image. God created us to be beautiful and full of His glory.
So what happens when we sin? Sin is coming short of the glory of God. The best that God has for us is to be a person full of His glory. This means we shine with everything that is radiant and beautiful.
God made us beautiful. Sin mars, sin defiles, sin destroys, and sin finally brings people to an early death.
We are made in God’s image. God wants to see something happen, God speaks.
When God saw darkness in Genesis 1, God said, “Let there be light: and there was light” (Gen. 1:3).
10 times in Genesis 1, God spoke and called forth what He wanted to see, e.g. God called forth the dry land and the animals.
We are made in God’s image, and we have the power to call good things forth too.
So if you received an X-ray report or CT scan with bleak results but you want health and healing, call it forth.
Say, “By Jesus stripes, I am healed.” Call yourself well and healed in the name of Jesus Christ.
When Jesus encountered Jarius’s daughter and the man with the withered hand, He did not speak what he saw about their situation. He called forth what He wanted to see. Jesus raised Jairus’s daughter from the dead and healed the man’s withered hand.
God sees the invisible realm and the supply.
The Bible says, “For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal” (2 Cor. 4:18).
Can you see the available balance in your bank account? Can you see you are single? Can you see the tumor? Can you see the negative medical reports? Whatever you can see is temporal.
For believers, our reality is the invisible and the eternal.
God who is an invisible divine being spoke forth everything that we can touch and feel.
God does not want us to focus on things that we can see (which are temporary), but focus on things that are eternal, like His Word and His promises in Scripture.
When you want to see something good in your future, speak good.
Proverbs 18:21 says, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue.”
Don’t speak death, choose to speak life!
The only time we speak death is for those things we want dead like cancer cells and tumors. Jesus spoke death to the fig tree and the next day it was dried up from its roots.
Speak death to your tumor and let it dry up from the roots.
Speak life to your body. Say, “God renews my youth like the eagles,” and it shall be so!
God’s Word reveals scientific truths and modern day events.
Pastor shares a few examples of how the prophecies and scientific facts in the Bible have been proven to be true:
Jesus fulfilled every messianic prophecy in the Bible.
When David wrote Psalm 22:16, “They pierced My hands and My feet,” the method of crucifixion had not been introduced as capital punishment. So hundreds of years before Jesus’s crucifixion, David prophesied the Lord’s death.
Long before Jesus was born, Micah 5:2 prophesied where the Messiah would come from:
“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
Though you are little among the thousands of Judah,
Yet out of you shall come forth to Me
The One to be Ruler in Israel,
Whose goings forth are from of old,
From everlasting.”
—Micah 5:2 NKJV
We find prophecies of Jesus in the blessings of the 12 tribes of Israel (see Gen. 49).
“And Jacob called his sons and said, “Gather together, that I may tell you what shall befall you in the last days”
—Genesis 49:1 NKJV
The “last days” refer to Jesus in the gospels.
Pastor Prince recounts the testimony of the lady who heard him preach on the verse, “As He is, so are we in this world” (see 1 John 4:17). The same week she heard this verse preached, she discovered a lump in her breast. She wrote on her medical report, “Jesus, do you have lumps in your breast? As you are, so am I in this world.” When she went back to the doctor, they couldn't find the lump!
Many people have heard this testimony and so believed the same thing this woman believed about their physical conditions, so many more testimonies have been birthed!
Many times, we apply this verse 1 John 4:17 spiritually and say, “As Jesus is righteous and accepted by the Father, so am I in this world.”
But 1 John 4:17 is not only about our spiritual standing. It is also about our health.
“For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones.”
—Ephesians 5:30 KJV
We are members of Jesus’ flesh and bones.
Jesus does not have weak bones or porous bones. He does not have sickly flesh.
So when you say, “As He is, so am I in this world,” don’t just see it spiritually, but apply it physically as well. “As Jesus is healthy, active, and young, so am I in this world. As Jesus never forgets anything, so it is the same with my memory, in this world.”
The Holy Spirit has come to glorify only one Person—Jesus, the Father’s beloved Son. When we behold Jesus, the power of the Spirit works in our lives.
We are transformed from sickness to health by beholding Jesus. We are transformed from glory to glory, not by striving, but by beholding Jesus (see 2 Cor. 3:18).
Is it practical to see Jesus? It is more practical than you think. It made a man do the supernatural; Peter walked on water when he beheld Jesus.
Pastor briefly recaps his teachings on the tribes of Joseph, Gad, and Naphtali from last week’s sermon, Secrets Of Jesus Hidden In The Tribes Of Israel—Part 1.
Every time you see Jesus, something good happens to you.
“Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.”
—Acts 1:9–11 NKJV
“This same Jesus … will so come in like manner” — The same Jesus who had compassion on the widow in Nain and raised her only son from the dead, the same Jesus who told people over and over again, “Do not be afraid,” is coming back for us in the rapture.
Let’s look at Jesus in the rest of the 12 tribes in Genesis 49.
The Tribe of Reuben
“Reuben, you are my firstborn,
My might and the beginning of my strength,
The excellency of dignity and the excellency of power.
Unstable as water, you shall not excel,
Because you went up to your father’s bed;
Then you defiled it—
He went up to my couch."
—Genesis 49:3–4 NKJV
The Tribes of Simeon and Levi
“Simeon and Levi are brothers;
Instruments of cruelty are in their dwelling place.”
—Genesis 49:5 NKJV
The Tribe of Judah
“Judah, you are he whom your brothers shall praise;
Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies;
Your father’s children shall bow down before you."
—Genesis 49:8 NKJV
There is power in praise. When you praise the Lord in the midst of your troubles, your valley of attack will turn into a valley of blessing.
When you praise the Lord even when bad things are happening, your perspective changes.
Pastor Prince shares real life testimonies of people who chose to praise the Lord in the face of their troubles and saw breakthroughs.
“Judah, you are he whom your brothers shall praise;
Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies;
Your father’s children shall bow down before you.”
—Genesis 49:8 NKJV
When you praise, your hands are around the neck of your enemies.
“The scepter shall not depart from Judah,
Nor a lawgiver from between his feet,
Until Shiloh comes;
And to Him shall be the obedience of the people.”
—Genesis 49:10 NKJV
"Shiloh" means “tranquility” or “rest.” It is also a messianic name for Jesus.
The kingship will not depart from Judah until Shiloh (Jesus) comes. The last record we have of the genealogy of kings is in the book of Matthew ending with Jesus.
Jesus fulfilled this prophecy.
“Binding his donkey to the vine,
And his donkey’s colt to the choice vine,
He washed his garments in wine,
And his clothes in the blood of grapes.”
—Genesis 49:11 NKJV
In John 15:5, Jesus says, “I am the vine, you are the branches…”
A vine tree has no trunk. The vine is made up of many branches. The vine and the branches are one.
The vine needs to be lifted up and placed on a trellis to bear fruit. The trellis is the shape of a cross.
“Binding his donkey to the vine” — A vine has to incredibly thick and strong to be able to hold a donkey. This is a picture of our salvation and the life we have in Christ. As believers, the vine life (the life of Christ) that flows through us and into our lives is strong and robust.
“He washed his garments in wine” — From vines, we get grapes and wine. Wine is a picture of luxury and celebration. With the Lord, wine is so abundant that garments can be washed in it.
In Cana of Galilee, Jesus performed His first miracle of turning water into wine, showing He is the Lord of time. In Cana, He also performed another miracle where He spoke the word and healed a boy in another city, proving that He is the Lord of space.
This is the power of the vine life that we have in Christ.
The Tribe of Benjamin
“Benjamin is a ravenous wolf;
In the morning he shall devour the prey,
And at night he shall divide the spoil.”
—Genesis 49:27 NKJV
All the prophecies thus far has got to do with Jesus in the gospels. But in this last one, God makes mention of a ministry that will unveil Christ like no other—the ministry of the Apostle Paul.
The Apostle Paul came from the tribe of Benjamin.
“In the morning he shall devour the prey” — In the morning of Paul’s life, he was slaughtering Christians. He was rounding them up and throwing them into dungeons. He was present at Stephen’s stoning and he consented to Stephen’s death. In the morning of his life, he was “devouring the prey.”
“at night he shall divide the spoil” — In the evening of his life, he was dividing the spoil. The Apostle Paul was feeding the grace of God to the various churches. He was blessing and enriching the churches by teaching and sharing with them.
Pastor Prince reads Acts 26:6–29, when Paul stands before King Agripa and gives his testimony. Paul shares his testimony and almost gets King Agripa saved. Although in chains, Paul is a picture of love, joy, and peace.
When we partake of the message that Paul brings, we will be filled with the same love, joy, and peace.
The Tribe of Zebulun
“Zebulun shall dwell by the haven of the sea;
He shall become a haven for ships,
And his border shall adjoin Sidon."
—Genesis 49:13 NKJV
Although Zebulun was born after Issachar, Jacob blessed Zebulun before Issachar. Why?
Zebulun was blessed first because Nazareth was in Zebulun. Zebulun means “dwelling.” Jesus dwelled in Nazareth for the first 30 years of his life.
God was thinking of Jesus so much that He inspired Jacob’s spirit to bless Zebulun before Issachar.
Two weeks after Jesus rose from the dead, the disciples went fishing on the sea of Galilee (also in the territory of Zebulun) and they caught nothing. You might feel the same way with regard to your business. You might be disappointed and discouraged because you are not seeing results in the area of your expertise.
Look at what Jesus did for His disciples:
Jesus told them to cast their nets on the right side and they caught a huge load of fish. When they got to the shore, they saw a fire, where Jesus had prepared breakfast for them after they had toiled all night and caught nothing.
“After these things Jesus showed Himself again to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias, and in this way He showed Himself”
—John 21:1 NKJV
This simple story of Jesus meeting His disciples on the shores of the sea of Galilee is worth paying attention to because He specifically chose to reveal Himself in this way.
In this encounter with His disciples, Jesus showed that He cares for us not just spiritually, but in every way.
He will meet you and provide for your needs in all these areas. He cares for your body, soul, and spirit. He has the power to meet all your needs.
We are well provided-for in Christ.
“This coming week, the Lord preserve, protect, and keep you and your family from every danger, harm, terror, disease, and all the power of the evil one in the name of Jesus. The Lord favor you everywhere you go. Favor is on you in a mighty way. You have favor with God and with men. The Lord bless you. You are blessed coming in, blessed going out. The Lord bless everything you touch because the Lord is with you. And all the blessings of the tribes are yours in Christ, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And all the people say: Amen.”
We hope these sermon notes blessed you! If they did, we encourage you to get the sermon and allow the Lord to speak to you personally as you watch or listen to it.
© Copyright JosephPrince.com 2019
These sermon notes were taken by volunteers during the service. They are not a verbatim representation of the sermon.
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