Be Fruitful for Jesus – Foundation Class – Genesis 1:1

 

Remember the Parable of the Sower

 

མད་ཐཱ། 13:23

ས་བོན་ས་རྒྱུ་བཟང་པོ་ལ་འཐོར་བ་ནི་དཀོན་མཆོག་གི་བཀའ་ཐོས་ནས་རྟོགས་པའི་མི་དེ་ཡིན། འབྲས་བུ་སྨིན་ཏེ། འབྲས་བུ་ཁ་ཤས་ལྡབ་བརྒྱ་དང༌། ཁ་ཤས་ལྡབ་དྲུག་ཅུ། ཁ་ཤས་ལྡབ་སུམ་ཅུ་བཅས་སྨིན་” ཞེས་གསུངས།

 

Matthew 13:23

As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”

 

The key to being fruitful for Jesus is “the one who hears the word and understands it”. Knowing and understanding the words of God is foundational to obedience and doing the will of God.

This lesson starts with our foundational faith in God as creator

 

བཀོད་པ 1:1 ཐོག་མར་དཀོན་མཆོག་གིས་ནམ་མཁའ་དང་འཛམ་གླིང་བཀོད་དུས།

 

Genesis 1:1 – In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

 

There are lots of scientific debates about the origin of the universe and earth but Genesis 1:1 simply declares God as creator.

In our world of persistent human quest for scientific discovery, mathematical calculation, technical details, people are not satisfied with this one short verse in Genesis 1:1 that simply declares God created the heavens and the earth.

The authorship of Moses is also being disputed but historical facts do proof the credibility of Moses’ writing.

What made Moses a real person with divine authority was the mass exodus of the people of Israel from Egypt that left Egypt a devastated nation. God executed His judgement against Pharaoh and revealed His redemption power for the seeds of Abraham of the line of Isaac and Jacob in one single monumental event in human civilization. And the institution of the Passover when Israel left Egypt was also prophetic of the Lamb of God who sacrificed Himself to redeem people from sin and death.

That generation of Israel who left Egypt witnessed the power and glory of God and they all heard God spoke to Moses when he went up Mount Sinai to meet with God.

 

སྡེབ་ཐོན 19:16-20

16  ཉིན་གསུམ་གྱི་ཞོགས་པར་གློག་འཁྱུགས་ཏེ་འབྲུག་སྐད་རྒྱབ་བོ། རིའི་སྒང་ལ་སྤྲིན་པ་མཐུག་པོ་འཁོར་བ་དང་ཆབས་གཅིག་དུང་སྐད་ཤུགས་ཆེན་པོ་ཞིག་ཐོས་པ་དང་། སྒར་ལ་ཡོད་པའི་མི་དམངས་ཚང་མ་འཇིགས་སྣང་ཆེན་པོས་འདར་རོ། 17  མོ་ཤེས་མི་དམངས་རྣམས་ལ་སྒར་གྱི་ཕྱི་རུ་བཏོན་ཏེ་དཀོན་མཆོག་ལ་མཇལ་བར་འཁྲིད་པ་དང་། དེ་ཚོ་རིའི་གཤམ་དུ་ལངས་ནས་བསྡད་དོ། 18  གཙོ་བོ་དཀོན་མཆོག་རི་བོ་སི་ནཨེའི་སྒང་ལ་མེའི་ནང་ནས་བབས་པའི་རྐྱེན་གྱིས་རི་ཐམས་ཅད་དུ་བས་ཁྱབ་བོ། དུ་བ་དེ་ནི་རབ་ཏུ་འབར་བའི་མེ་སྤུངས་ཆེན་པོའི་དུ་བ་ལྟར་གྱེན་དུ་འཐུལ་ཞིང་རི་ཚང་མ་གཡོ་འགུལ་ཆེན་པོ་བྱུང་ངོ་། 19  དུང་གི་སྒྲ་དེ་ཇེ་ཆེར་ཕྱིན་པ་དང་། མོ་ཤེས་དཀོན་མཆོག་ལ་གསུང་གླེང་ཞུས་པས། ཁོང་གིས་འབྲུག་སྐད་ལྡིར་བ་ལྟ་བུའི་སྒྲ་ཆེན་པོ་ཞིག་གིས་མོ་ཤེ་ལ་བཀའ་ལན་གནང་ངོ་།་ 20  དེ་ནས་གཙོ་བོ་དཀོན་མཆོག་རི་བོ་སི་ནཨེ་རྩེ་མོར་ཕེབས་ནས་མོ་ཤེ་ལ་རི་བོའི་རྩེ་རུ་ཤོག་ཅེས་བཀའ་གནང་བ་དང་། མོ་ཤེ་ཡར་བཅར་རོ།

 

Exodus 19:16-20

16 It came to pass on the third day when it was morning, that there were thunder claps and lightning flashes, and a thick cloud was upon the mountain, and a very powerful blast of a shofar, and the entire nation that was in the camp shuddered.

17 Moses brought the people out toward God from the camp, and they stood at the bottom of the mountain.

18 And the entire Mount Sinai smoked because the Lord had descended upon it in fire, and its smoke ascended like the smoke of the kiln, and the entire mountain quaked violently.

19 The sound of the shofar grew increasingly stronger; Moses would speak and God would answer him with a voice.

20 The Lord descended upon Mount Sinai, to the peak of the mountain, and the Lord summoned Moses to the peak of the mountain, and Moses ascended.

 

Genesis 1:1 is a declaration not explanation about the origin of heavens and earth.

All of the heavens and Earth were brought into existence by God and how did God actually do it not disclosed not revealed explicitly.

The short precise message of Genesis 1:1 has a dual purpose

1) to declare God’s power and ownership over His creations and

2) to cause division and separation between people who accept God’s ownership and those who reject.

God’s redemption is based on His selection which is based on the response of those who believe and obey His words.

Genesis 1:1 is the beginning of a person’s foundation of faith in God as creator and owner and that means Man’s response to accept duty and accountability to God. This first foundational stone of our faith in God will help to set our path and vision of life clearly in living a life of obedience to God.

 

Jesus spoke of the same kind of division because of His words and teachings

 

མད་ཐཱ། 10:34-36

34 ང་ནི་ས་ལ་ཞི་བདེ་སྐྱེལ་བར་ཡོང་བ་ཡིན་མ་སོམས་ཤིག ཞི་བདེ་སྐྱེལ་བར་མ་ཡོང་གིས། རལ་གྲི་སྐྱེལ་བར་ཡོང༌།

35 བུ་དང་ཕ་གཉིས་མ་དང་བུ་མོ་གཉིས།།

མནའ་མ་སྒྱུག་མོ་བཅས་ནི་ཕན་ཚུན་བར།།

ཁ་གཏད་འགྱུར་ཕྱིར་ང་ནི་འདི་གར་འོངས།།

36 མི་ཞིག་སོ་སོའི་དགྲ་བོ་གང་ཡིན་པ།།

 

Matthew 10:34-36

34 “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. 36 And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household.

 

This message by Jesus caused great discomfort for those who listened to Him preach. Believers and disciples today are just as perplexed. Non-believers find this shocking and horrifying.

Jesus was not carrying a physical sword to threaten His followers but he was actually talking about sword.

Prophets of God like Isaiah and Jeremiah had also spoken of “sword” in their warnings against rebellious behavior in breaking covenant with God and they are talking about judgement of God.

So the sword in Jesus’s message is clearly referring to His words and teachings which will cause divisions and separations among His disciples who will obey and those who reject.

When Jesus preaches repentance there is the expectation to obey in order to receive forgiveness and to enter the kingdom of God and many rejected His teachings because they don’t think they need to do their acts of repentance.

 

The Apostle Paul warned us of the same problem –

ག་ལད་ཡཱ་པ། 6:7-9

7རང་མགོ་རང་གིས་གཡོག་མི༌རུང༌། དཀོན་མཆོག་ལ་འཕྱ་དམོད་བྱ་མི༌རུང༌། རྒྱུ་མཚན་ནི་མིས་ས་བོན་གང་ཞིག་བཏབ་ན་འབྲས་བུའང་དེ་འབྱུང་བའི་ཕྱིར༌རོ།། 8སུ་ཞིག་གིས་ཤ་གཟུགས་ཀྱི་ཕུང་བོ་ལ་བསྟུན་ནས་ས་བོན་བཏབ་ན། ཤ་གཟུགས་ཀྱི་ཕུང་བོ་ལས་འཇིག་པའི་འབྲས་བུ་འབྱུང༌ལ། སུ་ཞིག་གིས་དམ་པའི་ཐུགས་ཉིད་ལ་བསྟུན་ནས་ས་བོན་བཏབ་ན། དམ་པའི་ཐུགས་ཉིད་ལས་མཐའ་མེད་པའི་ཚེ་སྲོག་འཐོབ་ངེས༌སོ༎ 9བདག་ཅག་གིས་དོན་བཟང་པོ་གང་ཞིག་བྱེད་ནའང་ཡིད་ཕམ་མི་རུང༌སྟེ། ཡིད་མ་ཕམ་ན་དུས་གང་ཞིག་སླེབས་པ་དང་འབྲས་བུ་དེའང་ལེན་ཐུབ།

 

Galatians 6:7-9

7 Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. 8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. 9 And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.

 

After Jesus death and resurrection only those who fully believed and obey were gathered to Him and they were in the minority. And the records of Acts (Acts 1:14-15) show only about 120 were gathered together in prayers.

What happened to those thousands and large crowds who came after Jesus for healings and miracles?

 

The words of God revealed in scripture will cause division and separation.

The teachings and preaching of Jesus will cause division and separation.

Genesis 1:1 – the very first statement in the first book of the Bible already caused widespread and worldwide division and separation till today people are still arguing and debating over it even among those who claimed to be Christian.

Genesis 1:1 is the beginning of a person’s foundation of faith in God as creator and owner and this first foundational stone of our faith in God will help set our path and vision of life to live in obedience to God.

 

In-His-Service

David Z