Journey XIV
Jesus Christ

We have travelled a very long road.

From Creation to rebellion.
From Eden to the Flood.
From Babel to Abraham.
From Egypt to Sinai.
From the Wilderness to the Promised Land.
From Judges to Kings.
From David to exile.
From the Prophets to centuries of waiting.

And finally...
Bethlehem.

If we now turn around and look back across the entire journey, something remarkable becomes visible.

Many threads that began centuries apart appear to converge upon one life.

One Kingdom.
One Cross.
And one empty tomb.

Jesus Christ.

Eden → The Cross

The story of humanity's separation from God begins in Genesis.

The serpent deceives.
Humanity rebels.
Sin enters.
Death follows.

And yet, within the judgment comes a mysterious promise.

God speaks of the woman's offspring and the serpent:

"It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel."

— Genesis 3:15

Christians have long seen here the earliest shadow of the Gospel.

The serpent wounds.
But ultimately...
the serpent is crushed.

Now move forward to the Cross.

Jesus is wounded.
He dies.
For a moment, darkness appears victorious.

But the story does not end on Friday.

The tomb opens.
Christ rises.

The wound was real.
But death did not win.

Abraham → The Blessing of the Nations

God told Abraham:

"In thee shall all families of the earth be blessed."

— Genesis 12:3

At first, the story narrows.

One man.
One family.
One nation.
Israel.

But through Jesus the movement reverses.

After His resurrection He commands His followers:

"Go ye therefore, and teach all nations..."

— Matthew 28:19

Abraham's story began with one man being called from among the nations.

The Gospel ends with Abraham's descendant sending His followers back into all nations.

The promise has expanded outward again.

Isaac → The Beloved Son

Then there is one of Scripture's most haunting stories.

God tells Abraham:

"Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest..."

— Genesis 22:2

Isaac carries the wood.
Abraham climbs the mountain.
The son asks:
Where is the lamb?

Abraham answers:

"God will provide himself a lamb..."

— Genesis 22:8

Isaac is spared.
A ram is provided.

Centuries later John points toward Jesus:

"Behold the Lamb of God..."

— John 1:29

We should not pretend Genesis 22 tells the entire story of Calvary in advance.

But the pattern is difficult for Christian readers to miss.

A father.
A beloved son.
Wood.
A mountain.
A sacrifice.
And God providing the offering.

Passover → The Lamb

Then came Egypt.

Slavery.
Judgment.
A lamb.
Blood upon the doorway.
And death passing over those sheltered by that blood.

Centuries later Jesus goes to Jerusalem in the setting of Passover.

Bread is broken.
Wine is shared.
Jesus speaks of His blood.

Then He is crucified.

Paul later makes the Christian connection explicit:

"For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us."

— 1 Corinthians 5:7

This connection is therefore not merely ours.
The New Testament itself makes it.

Passover was deliverance from slavery.
The Gospel proclaims a greater Exodus:
deliverance from sin and death.

The lines are converging.

The Wilderness → The Bread of Life

Israel enters the wilderness.
They hunger.
God gives manna from heaven.

Jesus later feeds thousands in the wilderness.
Then He says:

"I am the bread of life."

— John 6:35

And He goes further.

Israel's ancestors ate manna...
and eventually died.

Jesus points toward a life beyond death.

The wilderness provision becomes a sign pointing beyond physical hunger.

The Serpent Lifted Up

There is another strange wilderness connection.

When poisonous serpents strike Israel, Moses raises a bronze serpent.
Those who look upon it live.

Jesus Himself takes this story and applies it to what is going to happen to Him:

"And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up."

— John 3:14

This is not later Christian imagination.
Jesus Himself makes the connection.

The ancient wilderness story becomes a picture through which He explains the Cross.

Tabernacle → God Dwelling With Us

At Sinai, God commands Israel to build the Tabernacle.
Why?

"And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them."

— Exodus 25:8

God dwelling among humanity.

Now listen to John's description of Jesus:

"And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us..."

— John 1:14

The Greek verb John uses carries the idea of dwelling/tabernacling among us.

The Tabernacle had represented God's presence among His people.

Now John presents something astonishing:
God's presence has come among humanity in Christ.

Not merely behind a veil.
Walking among us.

David → The King

God promised David:

"Thy throne shall be established for ever."

— 2 Samuel 7:16

But David died.
Solomon died.
The kingdom divided.
The Davidic monarchy collapsed.
Jerusalem fell.

Yet the promise survived.

Then Gabriel speaks to Mary:

"The Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David... And of his kingdom there shall be no end."

— Luke 1:32–33

The ancient promise of a throne returns at the announcement of Jesus' birth.

The King Israel had been waiting for is not presented merely as another temporary monarch.
His Kingdom has no end.

Isaiah → The Suffering King

And here comes one of the great paradoxes.

People could expect a Messiah to conquer.
But Isaiah had described a servant who suffers.

"He was wounded for our transgressions..."

— Isaiah 53:5

How can the victorious King also be the suffering servant?
Christianity answers:
The Cross.

His victory comes first through apparent defeat.

The crown He receives is made of thorns.
His throne appears to be a Roman cross.

His enemies believe they are destroying Him.
But something else is happening.

Daniel → Enoch → Jesus

Daniel sees:

"one like the Son of man"

coming with the clouds of heaven.

He receives dominion.
Glory.
A Kingdom.
And that Kingdom will not pass away.

Later, the Book of Parables within 1 Enoch preserves striking Jewish traditions about an exalted Son of Man / Chosen One, associated with righteousness and judgment.

Then Jesus appears.
And the title He repeatedly chooses is:
THE SON OF MAN.

Near His death He tells the high priest:

"Ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven."

— Mark 14:62

Jesus appears to combine the imagery of Daniel 7 with Psalm 110.

We do not need to say Jesus copied 1 Enoch.
And we do not need to declare 1 Enoch Scripture.

The important point is subtler.
The ancient Jewish world helps us hear how extraordinary this language could sound.

What might sound almost ordinary to modern ears...
was anything but ordinary.

Light → Darkness → The Kingdom

The Dead Sea Scrolls show us a Jewish community deeply concerned with a cosmic struggle between light and darkness.

The War Scroll speaks dramatically of the Sons of Light and Sons of Darkness, with heavenly dimensions to the conflict.

Then John opens his Gospel:

"The light shineth in darkness..."

— John 1:5

And Jesus declares:

"I am the light of the world."

— John 8:12

Again, this does not prove dependence upon Qumran.

The imagery has biblical roots much older than the Dead Sea Scrolls.

But Qumran shows us that light versus darkness had become powerful end-time language within parts of Second Temple Judaism.

And Jesus steps into that world declaring Himself:
the Light.

What If...?

What if Jesus' ministry was unfolding on two battlefields simultaneously?

On the visible battlefield:
A Jewish teacher walks through Galilee.
He heals.
Teaches.
Feeds crowds.
Confronts religious leaders.
Rome eventually crucifies Him.

But look again.

At His baptism:
Heaven opens.

Immediately afterward:
Satan confronts Him.

During His ministry:
demons recognize Him.

Jesus casts them out and says:

"The kingdom of God is come unto you."

— Matthew 12:28

He speaks about:
binding the strong man.

His disciples return saying demons submit to His name.
Jesus responds:

"I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven."

— Luke 10:18

Then comes the Cross.

And Paul later writes that Christ:

"spoiled principalities and powers... triumphing over them..."

— Colossians 2:15

The visible story says:
Jesus was executed.

The unseen story says:
the powers were defeated.

Perhaps Calvary was not merely an execution.
Perhaps it was a battlefield.

What If... The Cross Was a Throne?

Look at the irony.

Jesus is given a crown.
But it is made of thorns.

He is dressed like a king.
But in mockery.

He is publicly elevated.
But upon a cross.

And above Him appears His royal title:
THE KING OF THE JEWS.

Rome intended humiliation.

But John's Gospel repeatedly describes Jesus' approaching death with language of being “lifted up.”

What if the Cross is therefore the strangest enthronement scene imaginable?

Not because Rome understood what it was doing.
But because the King conquers differently.

He does not defeat sinners.
He dies for them.

He does not preserve His life by destroying His enemies.
He gives His life to save His enemies.

The throne looks like a Cross.
The crown draws blood.
And the victory looks like defeat.

Until Sunday morning.

The Debt → The Cross → Freedom

Now another connection becomes visible.

Sin created a debt.
Sacrifice taught Israel that reconciliation with a holy God was costly.

Isaiah spoke of another bearing transgressions.

Jesus speaks of His blood being poured out for the forgiveness of sins.

Paul describes the record standing against us as being:
nailed to the Cross.

And Peter says Christ:
bore our sins in His body on the tree.

Christianity therefore does not say:
Become good enough and perhaps God will accept you.

The direction is reversed.
God acts first.
Christ carries what we could not carry.
The debt we could not repay is placed upon Him.
And forgiveness is offered as a gift.

Death → Resurrection

Now we reach humanity's oldest enemy.
Death.

It entered our story near the beginning.
Generation after generation ends the same way.
And he died.

Kings die.
Prophets die.
Priests die.
Empires die.

Even Lazarus, after being raised, would eventually face death again.

But the resurrection of Jesus is presented differently.

Paul calls Christ:

"the firstfruits of them that slept."

— 1 Corinthians 15:20

Firstfruits imply something more is coming.
Jesus' resurrection is not merely about Jesus surviving death.
It becomes a promise concerning those who belong to Him.

The enemy that entered humanity's story near Genesis...
is now confronted by an empty tomb.

Creation → New Creation

And perhaps this is the largest connection of all.

The Bible begins:

"In the beginning God created..."

— Genesis 1:1

John deliberately begins his Gospel:

"In the beginning was the Word..."

— John 1:1

Creation begins with God bringing light into darkness.
John speaks of Christ as the true Light entering the world.

Genesis gives us life...
then rebellion...
then death.

The Gospel brings us through death...
toward life again.

Perhaps Jesus has not merely come to repair individual human beings.
Perhaps the Gospel is the beginning of something far larger:
NEW CREATION.

And that road will eventually take us all the way to Revelation.

The Clock — Four Thousand + Two Thousand?

Now return to the chronological observation we deliberately left waiting in Gate I.

Certain traditional biblical chronologies, constructed largely from biblical genealogies and historical periods, place Christ roughly four thousand years after Adam.

Again:
Scripture never gives us an inspired equation saying Jesus was born exactly in year 4000.
Different chronological systems disagree.

But now place the approximate pattern beside two intriguing biblical statements.

Moses writes:

"For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday..."

— Psalm 90:4

Peter writes:

"One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day."

— 2 Peter 3:8

Neither verse gives us a formula for calculating the date of Christ's return.
That must be stated clearly.

But...
what happens if we explore the pattern?

What If... History Echoes Creation Week?

Creation has:
Six days of work.
Then:
the Seventh Day — rest.

Now apply the thousand-year pattern symbolically—not as a prediction, but as an exploration:

Then approximately another two millennia pass.

And what follows the sixth day?

THE SEVENTH DAY.

The Sabbath.
Rest.

Now turn to Revelation 20.

There we encounter something fascinating:
a thousand-year reign of Christ.

Does Genesis explicitly say:
“The seventh Creation day represents the Millennium”?
No.

Does 2 Peter 3:8 tell us to calculate the Second Coming this way?
No.

But has this six-thousand-years-followed-by-a-seventh-millennium pattern interested Jewish and Christian interpreters for a very long time?
Yes.

And suddenly our chronology becomes difficult not to notice.

33 → 2033?

Jesus' exact birth year is uncertain.
Likewise, scholars commonly discuss AD 30 and AD 33 among the leading dates for His crucifixion.

So we cannot simply declare a perfect biblical stopwatch.

But consider one possibility.

If Jesus was crucified and rose in:
AD 33

then two thousand years later brings us to:
AD 2033.

Does the Bible predict that Jesus will return in 2033?
NO.

Jesus warns against claiming knowledge of the exact day and hour.
Chronological uncertainties alone should make us humble.

But is 2033 an interesting marker when placed beside:

• approximately 4,000 years → Christ
• plus approximately 2,000 years → our era
• plus six days → seventh-day rest
• plus the thousand-year Kingdom of Revelation 20?

It certainly becomes an intriguing date to notice.

Not a prophecy.
Not an appointment.
A PATTERN.

And perhaps a reminder that history is moving somewhere.

The King Who Returns

That distinction matters.
Christian hope does not ultimately rest upon a calculation.
It rests upon a promise.

Jesus came once.
And according to the New Testament...
He will come again.

The child of Bethlehem will not return as a helpless child.
The suffering servant will not return to be crucified again.
The King whose crown was made of thorns will return in glory.

Daniel saw a Kingdom that would never pass away.
Jesus proclaimed that Kingdom.

At the Cross, He paid the debt.
At the empty tomb, death lost its claim to final victory.

And before ascending, He declared:

"All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth."

— Matthew 28:18

The road from Genesis has brought us here.

But the story does not stop at the empty tomb.

Because Jesus leaves His followers with a mission:

Take the Gospel to the nations.

And something extraordinary is about to happen in Jerusalem.

Fire.
Wind.
The Holy Spirit.

And a handful of disciples are about to become a movement that spreads across the world.

The King has arrived.
The King has risen.
And now...
His Church is about to be born.