Hey everybody, this is Pastor John Ewart from Inglewood
Baptist Church in Rocky Mountain, North Carolina.
Thank you so much for tuning into our podcast.
You're going to hear from God today as we share from his word
about important issues facing your life that can guide you
according to the Bible. So welcome to this this session
of of core training. I appreciate those who are
listening online and I hope that you've been listening to other
episodes. I thank you for the good group
that's here tonight live with me.
And then also if some of you who are here, if you've not been
here for all these weeks, you can go online and listen to this
on podcast as well. And we last week we talked about
what we believe about the Bible and why is that important.
A part of really there's two parts to this series. 1 is one
is I need to know what I believe and there are there are certain
doctrines that I need to believe in order to be a Christian.
And so I need that for me. But then also I need to
understand how to articulate or to express those things to this
lost world. And so this is a kind of A2 fold
intent to help you. I'm really setting you up.
You may not know that because down the road we're going to be
talking about personal evangelism.
And I'm trying to give you some content that you can use in your
conversations as you go and show the gospel, but also for your
own benefit as well, because we live in a we live in an
interesting world that Matt Carter and Josh Redberg wrote
this. They said the current religious
culture in America loves to talk about belief and believing.
These spiritual buzzwords are often used generically and end
up devoid of any meaning. Contemporary spirituality
trumpets not belief in an object or a person, but rather belief
in belief. It goes something like this.
It doesn't matter who you believe or what you believe.
All that matters is that you believe.
So there's a belief in belief and that's really pretty
accurate when you look at our culture today.
But but we recognize in in our world and Christianity and
biblical Christianity that that are the belief about what is the
truth actually determines not only in my eternity, but it
actually should determine how I live day by day.
And so this is hugely important for me to understand what I
believe and why. And I know that if I were to
just call this a doctrinal study, that might sound boring
because because I really want it to be a life study.
This is this is how I should live.
And this is how I should be able to respond.
And This is why I should make the decisions, the way I make my
decisions and why I'm for things or even against things because
there's a reason for that. And and it's, it's, it's even
beyond me most of the time. So again, last week we examined
what we believed about the Bible is the word of God, our
authority and our truth. And if you missed that, because
the topic of the Bible and authority, they're going to come
up in conversations out there because people don't necessarily
believe this book. And as we've talked multiple
times, we're, we're at a different beginning point than
we once were. The Roman Rd. which is a classic
gospel presentation. And obviously the word of God is
always going to be useful, but often in, in our conversations
today, we might not be able to start in Romans.
We have to maybe start in Genesis and define who God is
and who what his word is. So, so that's going to be
important. But another vital apologetic
point that we're going to talk about tonight is equally
important, if not even more important.
And that is how, how can I understand and be able to
explain to others what I believe about Jesus Christ and why that
really matters? And it might seem like something
you already know or we ought to all know, but you've got to
believe me when I say that the world does not.
And so we need to know how to express what we would we would
say about Jesus. And so why that belief is
important and how that actually effects why I have to live the
way I do and why I have to make the decisions that I do because
who is Jesus? The answer to that is vital for
every aspect of my life. And this world out here holds
several different views. Obviously, there are all kinds
of historical views. There's there's a Jewish view of
Jesus, there's Islamic views of Jesus, there are ancient
philosophical views of Jesus, there are modern philosophical
views of Jesus, there are atheistic views of Jesus and all
kinds of liberal views of Jesus. And they range everywhere from
heretic to deceiver to prophet, to lunatic, to good teacher, to
moral example, to myth. And I may never totally be able
to understand all of those views.
And I've said this to you before that the key to, to apologetic
thinking, the key to being able to deal with everything and
everybody out there where there's so many different
beliefs is not that I understand all of those beliefs perfectly,
but that I understand mine. And so I need to know what I
believe about this because some out here and maybe some of you
know the what about Jesus because they've heard the story
somewhere, but they don't necessarily know The Who and the
why about Jesus, which is extremely important.
So the doctrine of the work and person of Jesus Christ is called
Christology. Don't let that word throw you.
And this is definitely what we would call a primary doctrine.
We need to believe this. We must believe this.
Now, in the next session together, I'm going to start
talking about some secondary and tertiary doctrines.
We might call these mountains worth dying on.
I'll call those mounds of identity right to where we could
have some differences of opinion and some different view.
And some of those will separate us.
And some of us, we could still work together.
We'll be talking about those over the next couple weeks.
But but for this session, we need to focus on this primary
doctrinal hill that's worth dying on.
And because without it, we recognize that we're missing the
very essence of Christianity, frankly.
I mean, it's named after him. And so if we don't understand
Christology, we don't understand Christianity at all.
My former boss, my friend Doctor Danny Aiken, has written
extensively in the area of Christology.
It's a speciality of his. And he says there are at least
three ways to approach this. So you can approach Christology
from above. In other words, you think about
the beginning with his divinity and his pre existence.
And we're going to do some of that as we look at John chapter
1. You can look at Christology from
below, where you begin with the life of Jesus on earth, which is
what some of the Gospels do when you have the classic Christmas
stories, the Bethlehem Manger stories and those kinds of
things. Or you can look at Christology
from behind, where you start in the Old Testament and you
recognize that the whole story of the Bible is really the story
of Christ. So even though the Bible is
made-up of, of many different books written by many different
authors and several different languages and many different
places over many, many years, it's actually because of the
unifying perfect inspiration of the Holy Spirit that we talked
about in the previous session. But because of what the Holy
Spirit can do in, in the work of inspiration and revelation, we
recognize that according to the will of the Father, this is 1
big grand story. This Bible is 1 big story.
We call that the grand narrative or the meta narrative.
So I'm just throwing language out there at you because you
might hear those terms along the way.
So when we talk about the grand narrative or the meta narrative,
what we mean is is from Genesis to Revelation, the story is
about Jesus. And it really is pointing to him
and leading to him and helping to define who he really is and
why he is and who he is and what he did when he came.
So theologian and author Christopher Morgan said this.
He said Jesus is the hero of the grand narrative of the
Scripture. He is the Father's agent at each
stage, and often that grand story, that story, the whole
Bible, is broken down into a few pieces.
There are a couple of different ways to describe it, but God the
Son plays a role in every single one of these steps in the
unified narrative that we call the Bible.
So from creation to the fall, from redemption and what we
would call restoration, from Genesis to Revelation, Jesus is
the is the theme. He's the fulfillment, He's the
culmination of the whole story. And I want to break that down
for just a couple of minutes. And then I want us to go to John
chapter 1. So you've got to recognize, and
this is something that often I don't think we think about as
much as we should, that at creation nothing is a created in
the in the beginning, nothing is created apart from Jesus.
And you might sit there and think, well, in Genesis it just
talks about God. I know, but listen to what
Colossians tells us. In Colossians chapter 1, it says
he is the image of the invisible God, the first born of all
creation. For by Him all things were
created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether
Thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were
created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and
in Him all things hold together. I often say that Jesus Christ is
actually the glue that holds the universe together.
And so we recognize that we, we, we often do not recognize the
Trinitarian formula in Genesis at creation.
And sometimes that's because of our English translations,
because in the original Hebrew there are plurals in there.
We scholars will call them the divine plurals to where there's
us, there's we in the creation story to where God the Son, God
the Father, and God the Holy Spirit are all working together
in Genesis in the creation story.
So we we recognize that that God the Son plays a key role even in
creation. And then we talk about the fall
or Genesis chapter 3 when sin comes into the creation.
So we see that when Adam and Eve sinned, God announced his plan
to rescue humanity. Even from the very beginning, he
mentions his plan to rescue humanity through Eve's
offspring, which we know that was the second Adam, which is
Jesus Christ. And so you, you have what is
called, here's your fancy word to throw out tomorrow at work.
You have the proto evangelium in, in, in Latin.
So the first evangelist, first evangelism, proto evangelium,
which is the first indication of a Messiah in the Bible.
It's the first mention of a deliverer.
It's the first mention of Jesus and it's in Genesis 315.
And you, you've probably read this verse before.
He says I will put enmity between, he's cursing the, the
serpent, right? And you, I will put enmity
between you and the woman and between your offspring and her
offspring. He shall bruise your head and
you shall bruise his heel. And so Jesus is the one who
strikes the head of the serpent through his life, through his
death, and through his resurrection.
So Jesus is actually the fulfillment of Genesis 3:15.
In fact, if we go on the writer of Hebrews, and as I mentioned
in previous sessions, we need to have a conversation someday
about who we think actually wrote Hebrews.
I know the leading vote getter, but you know who actually wrote
Hebrews? But in Hebrews chapter 2 it says
this. It says since therefore the
children share in flesh and blood, He himself likewise
partook of the same things, that through death He might destroy
the one who has the power of death, that is the devil, and
deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to
lifelong slavery. So we see his role even in the
from the very beginning because of the fall.
But then you move into the phase called redemption, which is a
part of the the meta narrative or grand story.
So God's plan to redeem, to fix that problem, to fix the fall,
to fix sin, to give us hope and salvation.
So God's Kingdom throughout the Old Testament, we recognize that
he prophesized and testifies to the fact that that there's going
to be a deliverer that comes. And you see that it all the way
in the in what's called the Pentateuch, the first five books
of the Bible, you'll see it there, you'll hear it through
the prophets, you'll hear it in the psalmist to where God's
going to deliver, God's going to work.
And step by step in the Old Testament, God begins to reveal
who this deliverer is going to be.
He tells us that he's going to come from the line of Abraham,
he's going to come from the line of Judah, he's going to come
from the line of David. And so there are these messianic
prophecies talking about who this is going to be and how he's
going to come and from what his background might be.
Isaiah of all the prophets probably tells us more than
anything. If you ever want to really read
about Jesus in the Old Testament, read, read in, read
in the 50s of Isaiah, read in those fifty chapters, those
especially chapters 52, 53, where you have what are called
the suffering servant passages of Isaiah.
This is the best way to share the gospel with a Jewish person,
by the way, is take them to Isaiah.
They'll have a hard time not concluding with you that he's
talking about Jesus because Jesus fulfills these chapters
perfectly. And so there's no question about
what Isaiah is prophesying about.
Daniel even tells of one who is, who is like a son of man, but
who is both God and man. And so you see these prophetic,
these prophetic images of Christ as he fulfills one image after
the next, one prophecy after another as the Redeemer.
And then of course, because of what Jesus actually does in the
gospel, he actually dies and lives again so that we can do
that, that he, he fulfills the redemption of God and that part
of the story and then the last part of the grand narrative.
And there again, there are different ways to describe that,
that grand story, but it's often the the last part of it would be
called restoration. And so because of what he's
done, Jesus is the great restorer.
He's going to be the great consummator because of his
incarnation, because of his saving work, because of his
resurrection. He not only saves, he preserves
and, and even the creation itself is, is seeking this, the
creation itself. And, and when I talk about the
problem of evil here in a few sessions from now, and we're
going to do that, I'm going to take on kind of this doctrine of
evil conversation because I feel like you need those
conversational points. Plus in talking to some of you,
some of you need to hear this. Why is why does evil exist?
Why? Why do bad things happen,
etcetera. If God is real, why does he
allow this kind of conversation? We're going to talk about that.
But even the creation itself, as a part of that answer, the
creation itself groans. The Bible says the creation
itself has fallen. So when Genesis Three took
place, it wasn't just humanity that suffered.
Creation itself suffered. So that's why we have disease,
and that's why we have natural disaster, and that's why we have
certain things that happened today.
And so even the Bible says even the creation seeks restoration.
And so in Romans chapter 8 it says this.
For we know that the whole creation has been groaning
together in the pains of childbirth until now.
And not only the creation, but we ourselves, we have the first
fruits of the Spirit, who have the first fruits of the Spirit
grown inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption of sons,
like the redemption of our bodies.
And so part of this is the fact that Jesus will return one day,
I can guarantee it. So one of these days, you know,
maybe I'll be right, but not today.
I guess so. And there will be a new heaven
and there will be a new earth. See, those are going to be a
restoration of everything. So the the place of eternal
restoration, the place of this consummation of God's incredibly
grand story because he's the alpha, he's the Omega, he's the
beginning and the end, the creator and frankly the judge as
he plays both roles. So we need to be very clear
about Jesus. The Old Testament taught that he
would come. Then the New Testament taught
that he came and we need to be clear that the whole book is
really pointing to him. And if you need more evidence
sometime look at Luke chapter 24 as he's talking after the
resurrection to some of the disciples on that road to
Emmaus. And he explains to them how the
how the prophets were speaking about him.
And so when we look at that and we go to the New Testament, we
and we're going to go to John just as the example for time and
and emphasis tonight. We recognize that that John
writes his gospel to a large degree to reveal and to define
the identity of Jesus. That's what the Holy Spirit's
leading him to do, which is why John's gospel is kind of
different. You don't start off with
Bethlehem. You don't start off with a
Manger. You don't start off with with
with with shepherds and wise men and things like that.
You don't even start off with talk of the virgin birth,
though. The virgin birth in itself
should be a doctrine we could talk about one night because
it's absolutely important to us. It's a crucial doctrine for us.
Believe it or not, the virgin birth is extremely important to
believe in because it actually displays this humanity and
divinity as well. But John begins at a different
place. John begins before there was an
earthly story. John begins at a place before
the beginning. And he wants us to understand
the awesome and eternal nature of who Jesus really is.
And so that's where I want us to go in John chapter one verse one
in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and
the word was God. He was in the beginning with
God. Now we need to break this down
some. So let's just start with the
idea of the identity of the Word.
Who is this? Who's this Word?
So you need to note, and I hope you see it immediately, the very
the first 3 words in the beginning.
What does that remind you of Genesis?
Don't miss the parallels between John 1 and Genesis 1.
They're extremely intentional to, to, to make you understand
that in the beginning. Now the, the very first part of
this verse could be literally translated this way.
And so we'll listen to this. It would get a little confusing
because Greek doesn't follow our word order, but listen to this.
When the beginning began or before there was a beginning,
the word had been or the word was already there, or in the
beginning the word was existing. Those are those are different
options that all mean the same thing.
In other words, before the beginning was beginning, the
word already was. And that's the way this works.
So, so there, this is before time.
This is before Genesis One. This is before any part of the
creation, before anything else. The word was and the and the
even that little word was the way it's written in the original
language indicates A continuous state of being.
So in other words, the word continually was.
There was never a time when the word was not, and that's
significant. And it's hard because the world
has struggles with this. So in the beginning that had no
beginning, the word existed, right?
I can confuse you more. And so the, the the whole point
is the word is it is eternal. The word had no beginning.
And this this is hard for our very limited linear football
size cranial cavity, human minds to comprehend our minds struggle
with eternal. It's hard for we have no
reference point. It's hard for human beings to
grasp or accept the idea of eternal but but it's not that
way with God. So eternal has no beginning.
Eternal has no end. And the world will reject this
because it can't comprehend it. The world reject this because it
can't control this. It can't fence that in.
It's hard to box up forever. And the world struggles with
that. Because if I if the if I can't
understand that it must not be true because obviously I'm
smarter than anything else in existence.
I mean, it's almost the attitude, right?
That's the pride and arrogance of spiritual blindness.
And so it's beyond us. It's, it's greater than us.
It's different than us. And that's what John's trying to
express. This is not normal.
And so it's difficult for many because they don't, they don't
want to acknowledge anyone or someone greater who might
actually know more than they do who, who might actually be
powerful enough to hold them accountable for what they would
define a sin. And the world just doesn't want
that. But we need to understand this
because who Jesus is is absolutely crucial in the
understanding of why the cross matters.
And so verse 3 says this. And this just echoes what we
were reading Colossians. One, all things were made
through him and without him was not anything made that was made.
So you have Paul writing to a church in Colossae and you have
John writing a gospel saying the same thing.
Jesus is creator, Jesus is God, That's who this is.
The Word is God. So we recognize that not only is
he eternal, but there has never been a thing which does not
depend upon the Word for its existence.
You got to wrap your head around this.
I've shared this earlier that all you know, all creation
depends upon the word. They they had a beginning,
creation had a beginning and and the word is the creator who does
not have a beginning. But the word is not the first
thing created. That's not what that first born
word means. That's some heresies have taught
that throughout the years. He has always been.
So the word is the source of life, including ours.
And so he deserves ours. He deserves our surrender.
He has earned that and he deserves our commitment.
So who was this word? And the Bible says, and the word
was who word was God. Now in the original Greek,
there's no was. So it literally reads and the
word God, it's the same thing. It's the same person, it's the
same being, They're all one in the same, right?
So this is not simply saying there was something divine or
holy about the Word. The Word isn't in fact, God.
All that is true of God is true of the Word because they're the
same thing and there's really nothing higher that could be
said. There's really nothing more
dramatic for the reader, especially these original
readers to have heard. So the word is the revelation of
God's truth and great power wrapped in this most unexpected.
It's never happened like this way before.
Unique experience in the way he was born and the way he lived.
So we see the identity a little bit.
So let's talk about secondly, the incarnation of the Word
because you you can't not read verse 14 and the word became
flesh and dwelt among us and we have seen his glory glories of
the only Son from the Father full of grace and truth.
The word became a physical body that there's no other way.
You can't make this mean something else.
The word became a physical body. God became a man and, and, and,
and this is so important. And even that verb became these
little verbs matter. It's written in a tense.
That means that it's a one point in time thing.
This happened one time. There's, there's, this has never
happened before. It's not something that had ever
happened since It happened at one point in history.
This is a unique one time historic event.
And this isn't even the word for created.
This is a word for physical birth.
This is so he's physically born. So now we're back to the virgin
birth idea, sort of, even though John doesn't describe it in
detail. So this, this may be the most
important verse in the Bible as far as the doctrine of the
incarnation, which is a doctrine itself we don't pay enough
attention to. We talk a lot about crucifixion.
We talk a lot about resurrection.
We really need to talk more about incarnation because
without the incarnation, the crucifixion and the resurrection
don't count. It doesn't work.
It doesn't matter. A good man dying on the cross
can't save us. Someone else had to die on that
cross. Something else had to die on
that cross. See.
So the incarnation is huge. So nothing like this had ever
happened before since. And John uses extremely careful
and very specific language here to leave no doubt.
The creator God, the word of God, took on flesh for our
salvation. Jesus is God, the Word, the
fully human also fully reveals the Father.
And so he has a unique nature that's different than us.
He's not just a man. And that's where this world
today often struggles. There are still people who would
consider that nobody named Jesus ever even existed.
Most people of intelligence don't say that.
Most of the lost people out there will believe there was
actually a historic figure named Jesus.
They'll they'll often give in to that.
But who he really was, the fact that he was God and man, that's
going to be something they'll want to dispute.
Chuck Swindoll once said this. This is a great, great sentence
if I can do it right, he said. Take note of John's deliberate
progression from Infinity and eternity down to the single
individual Christ, in whom resides all that is infant
infinite and all that is eternal.
And so God accommodates himself to fulfill his eternal plan of
redemption by coming to be one of us.
And, and there was no other way to do it.
There is no other way to deal with the sin problem.
There is no other way to pay the debt that needed to be paid so
humanity could have the opportunity to be saved.
And so this is an encounter with the divine in a special way.
And the Bible says that he dwelt among us or, or another
translation might say he made his dwelling among us.
And that word means to pitch your tent.
It means to Tabernacle. So he literally tabernacles with
us. He lives with us.
Jesus lived with us temporarily in the physical so that we could
live with him forever. So this is John's Bethlehem.
This is John's nativity scene. This is as close as you get.
No camels, no shepherds. Instead, the miracle of the
incarnation wrapped in the mystery of the Trinity.
I mean, it really is powerful. It truly is Emmanuel, which
means what? God with us.
Yeah. And so we recognize that no
other world religion contains this doctrine.
You can understand that that why do we believe that Jesus is the
only way you can be saved? Because there are unique
qualities to Christianity that that that no other belief system
teaches, nobody else teaches that God became man to die for
us. No one else does.
And so the Greeks and the Romans had myths of God, God's
temporarily taking human forms, but it was always for selfish
reasons, not for not for reasons of sacrifice or substitutionary
atonement. They never, they would never
teach that. And so not, not to come and save
us or to appease the wrath of the Father against sin.
It's not to sacrifice or not to substitute on our behalf.
These are unique qualities of true biblical Christianity.
And if somebody would just listen to that long enough and
you could get them to focus with you long enough without trying
to debate you about that, then I think all of a sudden they would
realize that God's pretty cool and pretty good and and pretty
gracious and went out of his way for us.
And it might just change their attitude about who he is.
But one of the marks that makes Jesus Christ the only true way
to salvation is this unique quality.
Yet many do not understand that. But that's not new.
They didn't understand it back then either.
Look at verse 10. He was in the world, and the
world was made through Him. See how many times this gets
emphasized? The creation part?
It was made through Him, yet the world did not know Him.
He came to His own, and His own people did not receive Him.
So the very world that the Creator makes rejects the
Creator, rejects Jesus as God to explain away or to hide from any
single path of salvation through Him alone.
The world doesn't want that. The world doesn't want that
singular path. They want to be able to have
multiple paths that they can create on their own, if they
believe in eternity at all. And so pluralism is that idea
that we've talked about in a previous time together.
We talked about there are many paths to salvation, but this
doesn't work because no one else is qualified to pay the price
for our sin or or universalism where where that says that all
the paths work, right? This can't be true because no
sin debt is covered. And so these cannot be truth in
themselves. The incarnation is one of these
truths about Christianity that make it the only way to be
saved. Thus, it leads us to what we
call exclusivism. There's an exclusive path to
salvation, and it has to go through Jesus.
So no other faith knows a God who gave up so much to be with
his creation. No one else did because no one
else could, because they don't exist.
So please, at times, acknowledge, praise.
Thank God and remember the sacrifice of the incarnation,
how much He gave up for that, for these verses to be true, and
what He gave up to be here with us.
And so recommend recognize the search it represents too, and
the love it displays and the grace that it demonstrates in
what He did for us. Right again, verse 14.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we've seen
his glory. Glory is of the only Son from
the Father, full of grace and truth.
And what a what an experience, what a moment.
So the number three, we just need to look at this glory of
the Word. So the glory of the Incarnate
tabernacled with us. It actually brings to mind an
Old Testament imagery of the Shekinah glory of God that
filled the Tabernacle and filled the temple.
So in Exodus, for example, in Exodus chapter 40 is when when
the Tabernacle was first being committed, it says this.
Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting and the glory of the
Lord filled the Tabernacle and Moses was not able to enter the
tent of meeting because the clouds settled on it and the
glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle.
So Moses, and this is really interesting because I've been
studying the pastors and the staff.
I'll tell you, I've been reading, reading and rereading
Exodus this year. It's been interesting.
I'm not exactly sure why, but I've actually been working
through it twice. And I, and I again, I was just
reading about Moses going back up to the mountain to get the
second set set of the, the tablets.
You know, long story if you don't know the story.
And, and he's up there for 40 days and 40 nights, he comes
back and his face is glowing and then he has to wear a veil.
And every time he goes into the Tabernacle, he takes the veil
off. But every time he comes out, he
has to put the veil on because his face is glowing in the dark.
And I just think to myself, the glory of God and that
reflection. How long did Moses have to wear
a veil? You know, I couldn't find that
answer. But but Moses couldn't approach
God's presence in this story because it was simply too holy.
But now God has come to Yahweh has come to us, God dies for us,
God removes the barrier for us and he desires, even commands
for us to approach his throne with a sense of complete
confidence, with a sense of complete honesty is what those
words mean that I can approach the throne of grace with
confidence. The word really is complete open
honesty, full transparency. I, I, I, I can come just like I
am a mess and all God says come. I mean, it's really amazing.
So, so they not because we're holy, because we're not, but
because he the word is holy and he's gracious and he's the
truth. And the way this is written in
is, is in such. They saw his glory with the
physical eye. There wasn't any question about
that. I mean, what a privilege to have
been there then to have seen him, to have walked with him.
You know, everyone should have trusted in him.
Everybody should have believed in him.
You know, they should have, they should have recognized him for
who he truly was, but not all did and not all will.
I've read the end of the book. The book tells me that they're
still going to be people who don't believe in him at the end.
And that breaks my heart. I want them all to come with us.
I want us all to be in the throne room.
I know we're going to have people from every tribe, tongue,
and nation, but I want them all. I just want them to be there.
I don't want anybody to miss out, right?
So John chapter 1, he helps us some more.
He says in John 1/4 in him was life and the life was the light
of men. The light shines in the darkness
and the darkness has not overcome it.
Your translations might actually say something else.
This is ESV, but overcome might say comprehend.
And what it really means is to to, to hang on to, to lay hold
of the darkness can't grasp it there, there.
It's beyond the grasp of the darkness that the darkness can't
get it. It can't, and it also can
overcome it. You know darkness cannot
overcome light, right? Darkness has tried everything it
can. And darkness is going to
continue to try again. But no matter what darkness
tries, it's going to fail. And it's really interesting
because this is written in, in a, in a tense where it's a
completed action. It failed and it will fail.
It will always fail is the way this is written, which ought to
give us hope, because the world will do all it can to refute, to
distort, to dilute, to destroy the concept of the true
biblical, historical and spiritual Jesus.
And surely this is just a myth. It's what they're going to say.
There'll be TV shows every Easter, every Christmas.
Surely this is just a myth. Surely he really was not who he
claimed to be. Surely he did not really die on
the cross and rise again for me. So we peer, we we peer in into
that and we say to the and we say, pour it on darkness, keep
pouring it on, pour it on thick constantly pour it out.
But what we know is this verse says the light shines and it's
continuous present tense. It shines, it keeps on shining.
It's never not going to shine. It's always going to shine.
So no matter how dark, it's still there shining.
One flicker of light can overcome it.
Some of you have done this, I am sure some of you've probably
heard this story before, I'm sure.
But if you've ever been to one of the largest caves in North
America, at Mammoth Cave up in Kentucky, they, I don't know if
they still do this or not, but a billion years ago when we went
up to Mammoth Cave, you know, they used to take you deep down
into The Cave. And then there, there the Park
Rangers in there and the park Ranger, you know, you know,
flips the switch and all the lights go off.
And I mean, and it's dark. There's no light.
It's, it's dark, dark, right? And then that park Ranger will
flick a cigarette lighter or light 1 little candle and you're
in this huge room as big as this room.
And, and by the time it's done, you can see everything in that
whole room because that one little bitty light overcomes all
that darkness. So the powerful light of the
word of Jesus illuminates our souls.
It illuminates our minds, it illuminates our lives.
And we can know Him by grace through faith, and we can
experience this glorious truth. So he goes on.
Look at verse 9. He says the true light, which
gives light to everyone was coming into the world.
Then on in verse 12, he says, But to all who did receive him,
who believed in His name, He gave the right to become
children of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of
the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
And so the true light, notice what it says, the true light.
Not one of them, not, not one of many.
You don't get to vote on which one is the true light.
And that's where our world makes its mistake You.
You don't get to choose which one's the true light.
There's only one. You either get the light or you
live in the darkness. That's your choice.
And God and his incredible graciousness has given us the
free will to make some choices. But either kicking that one
light or you're out in the dark. So there's only one.
And he's absolutely unique. The light, the truth comes and
you can be lit up or you can struggle in the darkness.
Now, what's interesting is one day, those of us who know him,
and I sure hope it's all of us, I hope it's all of us.
And I hope we take a whole bunch of those people with us to where
there's no more empty seats in here.
There's nobody. Because everybody's starving for
the word and they all want to hear it and they all want to
grow, and they're all in connect groups with you and studying
together. If you've been in a connect
group, you ought to be in a connect group.
Connect groups are good, good connect groups good.
But in the end of time, just listen to this in the end of
time at the very end of the book, at the very end of the
book in the in Revelation chapter 22, I mean, you're
getting toward the end. One day we're not going to need
or want any other light from any other source because here's what
the Bible says and night will be no more.
They will need no light of lamp or sun for the Lord God will be
their light and they will reign forever and ever.
But to experience that, you have to receive and believe the light
of this specific biblical truth about Jesus.
You have to believe this specific.
We are given the authority, the right.
The privilege to become children of God if we receive, if we
believe, if we are born again into the family of God, not
because of something we did, but because of what he has done.
So the incarnation was not the completion of something.
The incarnation is just the beginning of something.
So the crucifixion, the resurrection, the the ascension
fulfil the incarnation. And he was born to die and born
to rise again so that we might experience this new birth again.
Verse 14, We've got to hit a couple more points.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen
his glory. Glory is the the only Son from
the Father full of grace and truth, the only Son, the one and
only the the only begotten. And I've shared this word with
some of you before in in previous times in the word, this
word of mono genes, which means that the only one of the family,
he is completely different. He's of a different stock.
He's of a different personhood. He's different.
He's not just a good or great man.
He is fully God and fully man. It's hard for us to comprehend
and heresies and philosophies dating all the way back to the
early church have refuted that they've they've argued with that
many of them still believe today are going to try to explain away
either his divinity or believe it or not, his humanity.
You have heresies on both sides. And so Dosatism, for example,
suggested that he only seemed physical, that he really was
just spiritual, that he really was never here physically.
Gnosticism tells stories of how Jesus actually created the
illusion of being physical, of the illusion of being material,
but he really wasn't fully man. But the truth is much different,
and man can't explain it away. He was here and he will be
again. First John, and notice this, in
First John, he not only writes the Gospel, but he writes these
epistles. First John chapter 1, that which
was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen
with our eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands have
handled concerning the word of life.
Notice those words we heard, we've seen with our eyes, we've
looked upon, and we've handled with our hands.
They're talking about Jesus, that Jesus Christ was physically
here, but he's also the only one of his kind, the only one of his
stock, making it impossible to come to God any other way.
Who he is makes all the difference.
So no one else could be the proper sacrifice.
Not Buddha, not Muhammad, not good works, not yourself, not
Jesus and blank, not Jesus and anything.
It's only Jesus, the one and only, which is why John 14-6 is
truth that Jesus said to him, I'm the way and the truth and
the life. No one can come to the Father
except through me, and that's why that's true.
So Jesus reveals the Father because he shares his nature, He
shares his character. He's full of his grace, He's
full of his truth. He is the truth, so we receive
the gift of salvation from the Father by grace and truth.
And the world chases this. The world refuses to submit to
the authority of the truth. I mean, what the world can't
control, what the world can't comprehend, what the world can't
overcome, it seeks to redefine, cancel, or compartmentalize
until it can control it. And that's what it tries to do
with the church. That's what it tries to do with
Christianity. So we need to proclaim that the
word Jesus became flesh, died on a cross for us and rose again.
Again in first John chapter 2, he says this.
He is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but
also for the sins of the whole world.
He's the substitute. He's the payment he took the
place of. So then we we we see that
Jesus's resurrection is not fable or fiction.
It really, really did happen. Listen to what Paul wrote to the
church at Rome in Romans chapter 1.
And it says and was declared to be the Son of God in power
according to the spirit of holiness by his resurrection
from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, he sacrifices and he's
resurrected and he and, and Christ is established as
lordship over all things. He's the Lord over all, all
things. That means you, whether you
believe that or whether you don't believe that right now, it
doesn't change the fact that he is still the Lord of authority
over you. And one day, I promise you,
you're going to believe it. Now my prayer for you is it's
not too late, but I promise you, you're going to believe in Jesus
one day and everybody out there is going to believe in Jesus one
day. And for some it's just going to
be too late. Listen to Philippians 2 says
therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him
the name that is above every name, so that the name of Jesus,
what every, every knee shall bow in heaven and on earth and under
the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is
Lord to the glory of God the Father.
Every, every, every. You can bow now and you can bow
later, but you're going to bow. And I want these folks out there
to bow now so we can serve together.
So that means us. That means that that stubborn
lost person, you know, that means that every atheist will
one day bow when it's too late, I'm afraid.
So we may need to fall on our faces.
We need to plead with God now to show us what he wants and to,
to, to do what he wants. Right.
And then we also need to recognize there's a church.
We have this incredible relationship with him.
Colossians 118 says, and he is the head of the body, the
church. He's the beginning, the first
born from the dead, that in everything he might be
preeminent. In everything he is preeminent.
You know, it was interesting, 40 days following his resurrection,
Jesus ascended back to heaven and he was exalted at the
Father's right hand. And now Jesus sits at the right
hand of the Father interceding on our behalf.
He does that in heaven. So we're right now in heaven.
There's a glorified Jesus Christ.
In fact, once again, the unknown anonymous writer of Hebrews.
How many think Paul OK, Hebrews one says he is the radiance of
the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he
upholds the universe by the word of His power.
Are you hearing these words? He upholds.
He upholds the universe by the word of His power.
After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right
hand of the majesty on high. Do you sense the immense power
of Jesus? So he and then again, he's going
to come again to this earth as King of kings and Lord of Lords.
And and this is our blessed hope.
In fact, Paul writes to Titus and encourages him in Titus
chapter 2, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of
the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.
And this event brings history to a close.
And I long for that moment, but I also know that for now, we
have a lot of work to do. We've got to grow.
We've got to worship, We've got to bring Him glory, and we've
got to bring other people with us.
We've got to work at this. We've got to serve.
So there are lost people who need to hear about this truth.
There are lost people who need to become believers.
And then there are believers who need to grow in our knowledge
and our love and our action for Him.
So we truly need to understand who He truly is, and we need to
understand why that really matters.
Now, throughout history, hang in there with me.
I don't want to bore you with church history, but hang in
there for a second. Throughout history, the church
has faced, as I mentioned earlier, many, many false claims
contrary to the biblical truth concerning Jesus.
And the early church had to deal with this.
So the early church had had to deal with these several
heresies. Many of them were about
Christology, in fact, perhaps most of them.
And so they had what were called christological councils.
If you ever heard of the great church councils of church
history, that's what we're talking about.
And many of these church councils were about the the
doctrine of Christ, right? And so there were false teachers
who denied his incarnation, there were false teachers who
denied his deity, there were false teachers who denied or
argued about his relationship to the Father.
And so these meetings of early theologians met to discuss and
debate and decide these critical issues.
One of the best known ones is the Council of Nicaea that took
place in the year 325. Don't worry about that.
There is no test. There is no pop quiz.
But it happened early and they wrote what is called the Nicene
Creed that we often some people know that some people, some
churches actually recite this creed as part of their their
liturgical worship. And so the Nicene Creed.
And so here's just a brief portion of the Nicene Creed.
We believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten
of the Father as only as only begotten that is from the
essence of the Father. Now listen to this part, follow
this part, God from God, light from light, true God from true
God, begotten, not created. And then it even goes on to say
there he's of the same essence. And they, they use a lot of
Greek in here that I won't bother you, but it just means
the same stuff. He's the same stuff as God the
Father, right? Same essence as the Father,
through whom all things came into being, both heaven and
heaven and earth, who for US men and for our salvation came down
and was Incarnate, becoming human.
He suffered, and the third day He rose and ascended into the
heavens. And He will come to judge both
the living and the dead. But those who say, but those who
say once He was not or He was not before his generation or He
came to be out of nothing or who asserts that that He the Son of
God is of different substance. They just Greek again or that he
is a creature or changeable or mutable The church.
But they use a fancy word. But basically they said the
church denies them, kicks them out, removes them, has nothing
to do with them. They use fancy language for
that. Can't share that mixed public.
No, I'm kidding, but they just use strong language.
So anyone, anyone of a different nature, anyone who says that
he's of a different nature or a different substance than what
Scripture clearly states that that's not the biblical Jesus.
And whoever claims those things in their minds, this is what
that word really means, should be considered a heretic and
removed. Have nothing to do with them is
the idea. So it's very strong language.
And then and then the last of these great, the last of these 4
great councils of that kind was held at Kausa then and this
listen to this, it's shorter. You can, you can handle it.
Jesus Christ is one person with two natures, with the person
being that of the Son of the triune God, the eternal Son of
God took to himself a truly human nature.
And Christ's divine and human nature's remain distinct and
retain their own properties, yet they are eternally and
inseparably united together in one person.
Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man.
And that's where that phrase generally comes from.
And so they're concluding that this biblical Christological
thinking basically was, was, was right.
And, and it's interesting because in history, it basically
went unchallenged for over 1000 years.
And it really wasn't until the age of of enlightenment and the
age of reason that came 1000 years later or so when we're
once again his deity and his work on the cross were being
questioned. And it continues today with
atheism or modern liberal theology where they question who
he is and they redefine scripture.
But I also need you to hear this cultic religions and I'll you'll
see what I mean in a minute. Cultic religions do the same
thing today, for example, and you may come from this
background, I'd be glad to visit about that.
Jehovah's Witnesses, for example, deny the full deity and
intern eternality of the Son. They don't believe Jesus is
eternal. The Church of Latter Day Saints
or Mormons have distorted the person and the work of Christ.
So it's a very important for us to to have strong conclusions
about the truth about who Jesus is.
So let me go back to Danny Eakin for just a minute and he's going
to give us some affirmations. So there is a true incarnation
of the Lagos, You know that word log logos or logos is simply the
the word for word, the second person of the tribe in God.
So the Son of God assumed the whole of human nature.
Wrap your head around that sentence that the Son of God
assumed the whole of human nature and the humanity of Jesus
was exactly like Adam and Eve prior to the fall.
It was sinless humanity, and he maintained it through his entire
life on earth. And so the truest and most
genuine expression of humanity is seen in Jesus Christ.
This is who we're supposed to be.
This is how we're supposed to really be humans.
This is how we were intended to be when we look at Jesus, Study
Jesus in the Gospels. That's why we're supposed to be
Christ like. This is how humanity was
supposed to be without sin. And so Jesus Christ exists only
by the means of the incarnation. Listen to what First Timothy 3
reminds us about. Great indeed, we confess, is the
mystery of godliness. He was manifested in the flesh,
vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the
nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.
The second affirmation that Danny Aiken brings is Jesus
Christ possesses the totality of both the divine and human
natures. He is the God man and the God
man is the result of the incarnation and the virgin
birth. Again, this that's a very
important doctrine and and is the means by which God chose to
accomplish his, his purpose. Yet in the incarnation, there is
no diminishing of either Christ's deity or his humanity.
He is still fully both. He's 100 percent, 100%.
We can't be that. And in fact, theologian John
Owen says this. He is God and man in one person.
In Him are two distinct natures, the one eternal, infinite,
immense, almighty, the form and essence of God, the other having
a beginning in time, finite, limited, confined to a certain
place, which is our nature. And each nature retained its own
integrity and each nature retained its own genuineness.
So whatever it is that constitute God is God the Son is
this in all its fullness. And whatever it is that
constitutes man as man, Jesus of Nazareth is this in all its
fullness. And so he's special, He's
different. He's not just a prophet on a
wooden cross. He's not just a good teacher.
He's not just some figure in history.
Paul wrote to the Colossians again in Colossians 2.
He says for in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily,
and you have been filled in him who is the head of all rule and
authority. So there's there's this genuine
union and which is the divine nature and the human nature come
together and are present in this one person, Jesus Christ.
The union is real, it's supernatural, it's inseparable
and it's permanent. So there is in heaven right now
a God man who is at the right hand of the majesty on high,
interceding for us again, the writer of Hebrews.
If I asked you who wrote that Chapter 7.
Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw
near to God through him, since he always lives to make
intercession for them. Think about that.
He's still working. He's always working on our
behalf. The third affirmation, the last
one, would be the whole of Christ's work.
All that He does requires that He is both man and God.
This is necessary. This is why the cross works.
This is why salvation can be had.
It was only as man that he could be a Redeemer for humanity, and
only as a sinless man that he could die in the place of
another. And it was only as God that his
life, ministry, and redeeming death could have infinite value
and satisfy the demands of God to so as to deliver others from
sin. We need a God, man.
It's the only way it works. So what does Englewood Baptist
Church believe about Jesus? I'll just read it to you.
We believe and we affirm the Baptist Faith in Message 2000.
Here's what it says. The eternal triune God reveals
Himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit with distinct
personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or
being. Christ is the eternal Son of
God. In His incarnation as Jesus
Christ, He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the
Virgin Mary. Jesus perfectly revealed and did
the will of God, taking upon Himself human nature with its
demands and necessities, and identifying Himself completely
with mankind, yet without sin. He honored the divine law by His
personal obedience, and in His substitutionary death on the
cross, He made provision for the redemption of men from sin.
He was raised from the dead with a glorified body and appeared to
His disciples as the person who was with them before His
crucifixion. He ascended into heaven and is
now exalted at the right hand of God, where He is the one
Mediator, fully God, fully man, in whose person is affected the
reconciliation between God and man.
He will return in power and glory to judge the world and to
consummate His redemptive mission.
He now dwells in all believers as the living and ever present
Lord. So Jesus of Nazareth is the
Christ, the fulfillment of Old Testament promises and prophecy.
He is the Son of God. He is the Savior of the world.
He's my Savior. Jesus is the God man, complete
in his deity and perfect in his humanity.
And he's the only one who is God, the only one who is God
that should be Lord of our lives.
So only one who is divine like him should have the right to
have every knee, bow and every tongue confess his lordship.
And God the Father loves to exalt his Son.
The Holy Spirit loves to exalt the Son and magnify his name.
And so should we. Only one who is God should be
granted that kind of allegiance. So what I believe about Jesus
really does matter. Here's what I know.
I know that Jesus is the sovereign Creator of God
Incarnate who came to fulfill the perfect plan and mission of
God by living a perfect sinless life and thus being the only one
ever qualified to pay the price for the sins of humanity for all
time. I believe He died on a cross for
me, and that because He was perfect and who He claimed to
be, death could not hold Him. So the wages of sin is death.
And since he did not sin, death could not hold him.
And and he rose again from the dead and left an empty tomb.
Then he ascended from earth into heaven so the Holy Spirit could
come to help and guide us. But one day, one day Jesus is
coming back to take us home and pronounce final victory.
And I know this, I know you must truly believe all of this to be
saved, to be a Christian, and God will graciously save you and
give you eternal life with Him. But that also means your life is
hidden in Him and must be lived for Him.
Therefore, I must believe what I do, and I must make the
decisions that I make, including at times those not supporting
what this world with its false truths support.
My faith forces me to live a certain way.
My faith forces me to choose a certain way to act a certain
way. I cannot separate my faith from
my life. So faith without actions, the
Bible tells me, is lifeless. So as a follower of Christ, I
have no choice but to follow the truth.
And as the world spins its truth, we must share the truth,
and we should only give our worship and service to the one
we confess, like Thomas did in John chapter 20, verse 28.
My Lord and my God, now what are you going to call him?
Heretic, deceiver, prophet, lunatic, good teacher, moral
example, myth? Or will you dare call him my
Lord and my godfather? Thank you.
Thank you for the incredible price that you paid.
Father. What a what a dramatic story.
The sacrifice, what you surrendered.
And I don't, I don't know that I'll ever fully understand it
for us. You did that for us.
And we are so frail. We are so fragile at times.
We're so sinful at times we're we fail you.
Yet you still love us. Father, I pray that if there's
somebody here in this room or people listening to this online
right now, who would have to admit that they have not
believed all of this about Jesus, but now they do.
They recognize that right now the Holy Spirit's working in
their heart. They may not be able to explain
that, but they know it and they need to be saved.
They need to ask Jesus to come into their heart to forgive
them. They need to confess their sin.
They need to agree with you about what their sin is.
They need to be willing to turn from that, to repent, to fill
their life with you and Father. I pray that you'll help them.
Lord by grace, Father, help them to have the faith to believe.
Father, I pray if someone is here that they would come and
talk to me after this session or if somebody's listening online,
that they would call the church to talk to us about what it
means to be saved, to really believe in Jesus this way.
And Father, I pray for those believers who are here and
listening that we would be better equipped to be able to
say this is who Jesus is. That TV shows not right.
That's special. That documentary is not right.
The word of God's right. Here's the truth.
This is who He is, and this is the only reason any of this
works. The only reason the cross makes
sense, the only reason the cross has any effect, the only reason
the resurrection matters, the only reason we were created in
the first place. So Father, help us to lay hold
of this. The darkness can't.
The darkness can't comprehend it.
But Father, I pray we will. And that will bury it in our
hearts to the point that we can share with someone else or we
can refer someone else to listen to this and help them to
understand who you are, what you've done, what your plan is.
And Father, I just pray that then we will recognize that
because of what you've done, Lord, we owe you our lives.
We owe you our service. We owe you our time.
We owe you our resources. We owe you our giftedness, Our
Calling. We owe you our whole being,
Father. So help us to serve you well.
Help us to worship you. Help us to bring you great
glory. Father, thank you for what
you're doing at Inglewood. Thank you, Father, for the new
members that are joining us. Father, many of them with great
experience, great skill, great, great giftedness to Father.
They're going to plug in and help us.
They're ready to serve others who are brand new believers that
we need to help grow and disciple.
What an exciting opportunity. So, Father, bless us, guide us,
but help us to remember. Help us to remember who you are
and what you've done. And Father, one day, Father,
maybe not my lifetime, certainly not with my prediction, the
Father, one day I want to hear trumpets blow, I want to look up
and I'm ready to fly. But until then, we got work to
do. So fill us with your spirit.
Empower us, bind the enemy from this work, and bring revival,
bring salvation, bring growth and discipleship, and we're
going to praise you for it in Christ's name, Amen.
Thank you all so much. Thank you so much for listening
today. And I also hope that you'll go
to ourwebsite@englewoodbaptist.com
as well as our app and find many other resources that will bless
you and your families. Thank you once again.