​It is the Spirit that gives us power to be strengthened according to His might; filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding; to know the mystery of His will and the hope of His calling and the riches of the glory of His inheritance that He has given to us; for the purpose of attaining  all steadfastness and patience and endurance and giving thanks to the Father with joy even in the midst of persecution and sufferings and reproaches and tribulation and the plundering of your property. 

​We joyfully stand apart from the world in the confidence of knowing that we have a better possession and a greater reward in heaven,
Col 1:9-12, Eph 1:9, 17-20, Heb 10:32-36.

Colossians 1:9-12

​Jesus died and was resurrected on the third day. To any Christian, this is common knowledge, as well it should be. This is the bases of our faith. The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ has cleansed our sins and allowed us to be reconciled with the Father.
 
1Co 15:3  For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4  and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures,
 
We know and have faith that Christ died and was raised again on the third day. We know this because it happened in the past and is recorded in the New Testament, but Paul says, in the verse quoted above, that Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures, and rose again the third day, according to the scriptures. When Paul wrote this, the New Testament hadn’t been completed. So the scriptures he is speaking of is the Old Testament. This means that the death of Jesus and His resurrection was recorded in the Old Testament as prophecy.

​Everything God does, He first reveals and speaks it thru His prophets. There is a common saying that the Lord works in mysterious ways. This could not be farther from the truth, in fact, He just told us that He does nothing unless He first reveals it to His prophets. Now there were and are mysteries of the kingdom that are not meant for the enemy. For if the rulers of this age would have known, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory, 1Cor 2:8. God reveals His mysteries to those who seek Him. This means it is up to us to search the scriptures and unlock these mysteries that God has foretold. Now let us find the mystery of the Passion of the Christ, namely the death and resurrection of Jesus in the Old Testament.
 
The sign of Jonah
 
Jesus gives us a clue to His death when He tells the Pharisees that no other sign will be given except the sign of Jonah. “For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth”, Matt 12:40. So let us see what happened as Jonah was in the belly of the great fish. This account is recorded in Jonah 1:17 – 2:9. The text says that Jonah prayed to the LORD while in the belly of the fish.
 
Jnh 1:17  And the LORD appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the stomach of the fish three days and three nights.  2:1  Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the stomach of the fish, 2  and he said, "I called out of my distress to the LORD, And He answered me. I cried for help from the depth of Sheol; You heard my voice.
3  "For You had cast me into the deep, Into the heart of the seas, And the current engulfed me. All Your breakers and billows passed over me. 4  "So I said, 'I have been expelled from Your sight. Nevertheless I will look again toward Your holy temple.' 5  "Water encompassed me to the point of death. The great deep engulfed me, Weeds were wrapped around my head. 6  "I descended to the roots of the mountains. The earth with its bars was around me forever, But You have brought up my life from the pit, O LORD my God.
7  "While I was fainting away, I remembered the LORD, And my prayer came to You, Into Your holy temple. 8  "Those who regard vain idols Forsake their faithfulness, 9  But I will sacrifice to You With the voice of thanksgiving. That which I have vowed I will pay. Salvation is from the LORD."
This account and prayer of Jonah in the belly of the great fish is undoubtedly a foreshadowing of Jesus’ death.
No one, up to Jesus, had ever escaped the grip of death. And the only assurance that Jesus had to get out of hell was the promise of the Father, established before the foundation of the world, that He would not leave Him in Sheol. This redemptive work was not a second thought or a reactionary plan because Adam sinned. No, Jesus knew He would have to pay the price of sin and death on the cross and go into the pit of hell before one thing was ever created, before the foundation of the world.
Jesus clung to words and promise of the Father, and knew that which the Father had promised, He was also able to perform. He did this while in the pit of hell, surrounded by demons and Satan himself.

There are five main points that I underlined in the text of Jonah that I want to focus on:

The cross was not a failure, but a complete success, fulfilling the plan created before the foundation of the earth.
Jesus suffered a sinner’s death; even though He had never sinned, all sin was laid on Him and He was made sin for us, 2Cor 5:21. When He died, He was ushered into hell, I believe by Abaddon the angel, just as any sinner would be. But when He got down there, the Glory shined thru Him and death could not hold Him, Acts 2:24.
He spent the next three days in hell, not as a sinner suffering, but the King who conquered sin and death. Heb 2:14-15, Rev 1:18.
 
Jesus was victorious, full of faith and power, confident that the Spirit of the Father would raise Him from the dead. And not only raise Him, but all who believe in Him, including those in Abraham’s bosom.
Jesus had a mission. To capture those that had been captured by death, the old testament saints that had faith in the Messiah to come, and to make and open show of all the demons and fallen angels; to present Himself as the victorious King over all things in heaven, earth and under the earth.
 
Eph 4:9  (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? 10  He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.)
1Pe 3:18  For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, 19  in which he went and proclaimed victory to the spirits (angels) in prison, 2Pe 2:4  For God spared not the angels that sinned, Jude 1:6  which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, 2Pe 2:4  but cast them down to hell. Jude 1:6  He hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day, 1Pe 3:20  because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water.
Col 2:13  And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, has he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; 14  Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; 15  And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.
Eph 4:8  Wherefore he said, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, (He captured those that were captured) and gave gifts unto men.
Isa 42:6  I the LORD have called you in righteousness, and will hold your hand, and will keep you, and give you for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles; 7  To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house.
Hos 13:14  I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be your plagues; O grave, I will be your destruction: repentance shall be hid from mine eyes.
Heb 2:14  Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; 15  And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
 
 
This sign of Jonah is just one of many foretelling’s of Jesus’ death and resurrection in the Old Testament. Jesus tells us “The volume of the book, it is written of Me”, Heb 10:7.

Search the scriptures and know Him-
​
The Bible is the plan of redemption for man; the reconciliation of man with the Father, and Jesus is the key to all of it. Without Jesus, mankind would be destined for eternal damnation, separated from the Father for all eternity. But thank God for our blessed Hope, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who has given us the Way back to the Father and eternal life with Him. All we have to do is believe in Jesus, believe that He died and rose again for our salvation, and we will have eternal life thru Him. 

 We, Christians, are redeemed and reconciled with the Father thru Jesus; namely, the blood of Jesus and His glorious work on the cross, . It is by faith in His Name, and nothing else, that we are saved. Jesus has been given the Name that is above every name, Phil 2:8-9, and it is by that Name that we are reconciled with the Father, 2Cor 5:17-21.
 
The Father gave Jesus His Name, יהוה, the unpronounceable Name. In English the letters are YHVH. The only translation we have of this Name is the sound out each letter, but there are no vowels, which makes it is impossible to know the exact pronunciation of the Name. Hebrew reads from right to left, all languages flow towards Israel, so if you sound out each Hebrew letter, it spells Yod, Hey, Vav, Hey. People have tried to add vowels to pronounce the Name. That is where we get the words, Jehovah or Yahweh. These are just man’s attempt to pronounce the Name. Personally, I like to say the letters just as they are spelled, Yod Hey Vav Hey.
The meaning of this word is quite astounding; it simply means, I AM. Everything came out of the Father. He is the beginning of all things. He is the source of all things. The Father has always existed and His Name means just that, “I have always been and everything comes out of Me”.
 
When Moses first encountered God at the burning bush, Moses asked Him, “who should I say has sent me?” God answered, “I AM THAT I AM”, ehyeh asher ehye. The literal translation of ehyeh is I AM, Ex 3:14. The first place we see the Name of God, YHVH, show up in the Bible is Gen 2:4. This Name is usually translated “LORD” in the English Bible. It is recorded in the Old Testament 6,826 times. God gave Moses the first five books of the Bible, known as the Torah and had him write each word, one letter at a time. My guess is that Moses knew how to pronounce this Name. God told it to him personally!
 
How is that Name of Jesus associated with the Name of God?
 
Jesus is the only begotten Son of the Father, Jn 1:14. Jesus was born of God in the sense that He came out of the Father as His one and only unique Son. Jesus has always been, He wasn’t created, but rather is the creator of all things, Col 1:16. The nature of His deity, with respect of Him being the only begotten Son, is different than that of His human nature that He assumed for the work on the cross in this dispensation; never to return back to His incorporeal state, Phil 2:7, Micah 5:2-3.
 
Jesus is the Wisdom of God, 1Cor 1:24. So we must ask ourselves, has the Father ever been without Wisdom? Of course not, He has always been and He has always possessed Wisdom. Now if Christ is the Wisdom of God, then Jesus has existed from everlasting in the same way that the Father does not have a beginning.
 
Pr 8:12  "I, wisdom, dwell with prudence, And I find knowledge and discretion. 22  "The LORD possessed me at the beginning of His way, Before His works of old. 23  "From everlasting I was established, From the beginning, from the earliest times of the earth.
 
Time, as we know it, is a created dimension in which God is outside of and He does not participate in the constraints of its parameters. This is how He knows the beginning from the end, how He does not have a beginning and will never have an end. He is the Great I AM, the source of all. And we understand that Jesus has always been with, and is an extension to the Father.
 
In the same way, Jesus is also the Word of God, Jn 1:1-3, Heb 4:12. The Father spoke all things into existence, Gen 1,2, and Jesus, being the Word of God, created all things, Jn 1:3, 10, Col 1:16, Heb 1:2, 11:3, Ps 33:6, Rom 11:36, 2 Peter 3:5. Jesus carried out and is still performing the plan of God.
 
Heb 1:2  in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.
 
Heb 11:3  By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.
 
2Pe 3:5  For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water,
 
 
Jesus is the express image of the invisible or incorporeal God, the Father, Col 1:15, Heb 1:3. Jesus is the one and only extension of the Father. Jesus said “if you have seen Me, you have seen the Father”, Jn 14:7-9.
Thru Jesus, we can see and understand the incorporeal, magnificent, glorious Father. The Father is so great and awesome that no one can look or comprehend the glory of the Father except we see Him thru Jesus.
 
Jesus is a manifestation of the Father, given to us humans in a way that we might understand and comprehend the glory of the Father
 
Thru Jesus we can start to understand and comprehend who the Father is and His love for us. Jesus has always been, as stated above, so we should be able to find Him in the Old Testament. Even before Jesus became a man, He has always been the express image of the Father; a way for man to communicate and understand the Father. After Jesus had risen from the dead, that afternoon, He walked with the two men on the road to Emmaus. The Bible says in Luke 24:27:
 
Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.
 
Jesus took these two men on a seven mile bible study and showed Himself to them in the Old Testament. As you study the Old Testament, always watching for Jesus, you will find Him on every page. One thing will become evident, because Jesus is an extension of the Father, the only begotten, the only and unique Son of the Father, when God is talked about in the Old Testament, it is Jesus who was the one interacting with man. They are one, the Father and Jesus, and just as in the creation of the world, Jesus is the one implementing the plan of the Father on the earth. Below are just a few examples of how Jesus appeared in the Old Testament:
 
Jesus was the one who walked with Adam in the cool of the day, Gen 3:8
It was Jesus who met Abraham with two angels and prophesied about his son Isaac, Gen 18:1
It was Jesus in the burning bush that spoke to Moses, Gen 3:2
Jesus was the Rock that Moses struck that gave the Israelites water, Ex 17:6, 1Cor 10:4
Jesus was the commander of the Lord’s army at the battle of Jericho, Josh 5:13-15
 
These are just a few examples of Jesus literally talking and appearing on the earth before His incarnation. Not to mention the many prophesies and foreshadowing of Jesus all thru-out the Bible; which is far too much information to put down here, but is a very exciting and profitable study of the Bible.
 
Jesus is and shares the Name of YHVH with the Father. He is the Great I AM. Jesus said it Himself when He was on the earth:
 
Jn 8:56  "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad." 57  So the Jews said to Him, "You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?" 58  Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I AM." 59  Therefore they picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple.
 
He also said this in His Revelation to John, confirming what He said to Isaiah in the Old Testament:
 
Isa 41:4  "Who has performed and accomplished it, Calling forth the generations from the beginning? 'I, the LORD, am the first, and with the last. I am He.'"
 
Isa 44:6  "Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts: 'I am the first and I am the last, And there is no God besides Me.
 
Rev 22:13  "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end."
 
Rev 1:8  "I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty."
 
Rev 1:17  I am the first and the last, 18  and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.
 
An argument could be made that these verses are relating to the Father, until you get to Rev 1:17. This verse clinches and proves that this is Jesus; He is the first and the last, the one who was dead and is alive.
 
Also, in the book of Revelation, the Bible speaks of Jesus having a Name written on Him that no one knows but Himself, Rev 19:12. I am convinced that this is YHVH.
 
 
 
There is so much to learn from the Name. Jesus is the Way the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except thru Him, Jn 14:6.
 
The most important thing to take from this study is: