The Deity of Christ

Sermon Transcript

All right, well, we have a divine mandate to study Christology. Jesus was concerned about it. Who do you say that I am? He asked his disciples, and as we learned our very first week, there’s nothing better we could do with our time than to think about, study, dive a little deeper into understanding who Christ is.

 

And we’ve come quite a ways already, but we’re just barely getting started. So tonight, before we go any further, after that great meal, was that not good? You didn’t like it? No? No smiles down here in the front? Didn’t like it? Oh, okay. We need to thank God for that, and we’ll thank God. Hopefully we’ll get you fed here tonight in the Word. So let’s pray.

 

God, we thank you for the privilege that we have to gather together to be able to look at your Word, as I think often just to have the privilege of a printed Bible in our hands, the ability to read, the ability you give us to think and to reason. And God, we know that all of that capacity that we have is absolutely impossible for us to appraise or discern spiritual things unless your Spirit gives us that. You call us spiritually dead without your spirit.

 

And so, God, we ask that we would be not only alive in Christ because of our glorious and privileged and grace-filled standing before you in Christ, but that you would give us extra grace to be able to understand and comprehend something about what Christ said and what he did and how it makes such an important difference as we think through the issues of Christology.

 

God, as we continue to move a little bit deeper each week and get into some issues that have been debated and discussed and hotly debated at times throughout church history, may you give us a kind of peaceful resolve about the truth. Let us not be driven and tossed by every wind of doctrine. Let us be grounded in the truth about who Christ is, what your word says about who Christ is, in whose name we pray. Amen.

 

All right. Now, so much of what we talk about cannot be divorced from where we’ve been in understanding the reliability of the text of the Bible. And I can’t overemphasize that. If someone jumps into any discussion about pneumatology, Christology, theology proper, if we don’t have an understanding of bibliology, you know, then all of this is for naught because you’re always going to wonder, well, is the word historically reliable? Do we have something that we are grounding these doctrines on that we can trust is a word from God?

 

So if you haven’t been through that, some of you are new to Compass Night. I remember the hands that went up the first night. Get that series. All of it’s free. You can get it on your iPod or whatever you use to stream or download the MP3s. It’d be good for you to go through that 13-week series so that you know that what we’re dealing with when we look at passages of Scripture is indeed what God has said. He has inscribed His voice on the pages of Scripture, and it is good for us to refer to it now in every other discipline and study to know what God has told us.

 

But tonight, we need to start as we think through the nature. We’re kind of transitioning now from the incarnation to the nature of who Christ is, and we want to deal with tonight the divinity of Christ. And to do that, we need to start with the claims of Christ. And I noticed when we were all done that we didn’t have the concept of the deity or the divinity of God anywhere on the page there, so you may want to sketch that in.

 

We’re talking about the claims of Christ about His divinity, about Him being God. And we want to look at those, and there’s lots we could say. There’s hundreds of pages we could print and talk about, but I’m going to scratch the surface then give you another good book of the week, and you can go further in this study.

 

But let’s start by turning in our Bibles to John chapter 8. John chapter 8. This is an important place for us to start, and it is full. I mean, if we did a series of messages on the divinity of Christ, this would be one you could spend several weeks on, just diving deeper into exactly what Christ is getting at throughout this entire discourse.

 

But let’s start jumping into the middle of it in verse number 42. John 8, 42. And we’ll go through 58 or even 59.

 

John 8:42 says:

 

Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me. For I came from God, and I am here. I came not on my own accord, but he sent me. Why do you not understand what I say? Well, it is because you cannot bear to hear my word. You are of your father, the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and has nothing to do with the truth because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I tell you the truth, you do not believe me. Which one of you convicts me of sin? I mean, I’ve already got so many things—the pre-existence of God. Now he’s talking about the sinlessness of his nature. More on that in weeks to come. But for now, if I tell you the truth, you do not believe me. Whoever is of God hears the words of God. That’s what he’s speaking. The reason why you do not hear them is that you’re not of God.”

 

The Jews answered him, “Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?” See, they hated the Samaritans. They were worse than the Gentiles. That’s the biggest put-down you could come up with. And now, you know, you’re possessed or indwelt by a demon.

 

Jesus answered, “I do not have a demon, but I honor my Father, and you dishonor me. Yet I do not seek my own glory. There is one who seeks it.” That’s an interesting point. We’ll look at that later tonight. “And he is the judge. Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.”

 

The Jews said to him, “Now we know that you have a demon. Abraham died, as did the prophets. Yet you say, ‘If anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.’ Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets died. Who do you make yourself out to be?”

 

Jesus answered, “If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God.’ But you do not know him. I know him. If I were to say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and I keep his word. Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.”

 

So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?”

 

Jesus said to them—note carefully here now—“Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.”

 

Is that what it says? No. That’s what we would expect if we’re talking about pre-existence. He says, I am. So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.

 

Jot this down: A. He claimed to be “I Am.” And that has a tremendously loaded importance throughout the Scriptures, from the beginning of that burning bush experience that came through the messenger of the Lord—if you remember—the angel of the Lord.

 

Now let’s sort through some of this. This phrase, ego ami—and perhaps that’s not new to you—ego ami is a very technical, strong, clear, overstated way to say “I am.” He could have said “I am” a different way. He says “I am” in the strongest, most technical, most formal way he could possibly say it. Ego, eimi. “I” and the verb “to be” in the first-person form. I am the I Am. That’s who I am.

 

Now in Exodus 3:14, you’ll remember that Moses asks God—the angel of the Lord, who’s speaking in the first person as God and later identifies himself in verse 15 as the Lord, Yahweh—he says, Moses says, “Who am I supposed to say sent me?” Remember that? And God says in that text, “Tell him I am who I am,” as formal and strong and as clearly and emphatically as he could say what he said, which is exactly what Jesus is saying in the most formal way he could possibly say it.

 

Now the Hebrew word here, which is compounded together, is hayah. It is the verb “to be.” And it is stated in a compound way, the same way that we find in the Greek language.

 

And before there was ever any debates about the divinity of Christ, the Hebrew Old Testament was translated into Greek because Alexander the Great—what a name, Megas Alexandros, the great one, the mega-Alex, the conqueror of the fourth century BC—wanted to build this great library in Alexandria, Egypt. And in building the library, of course, we needed all the important books. And so one of the very important books he had to translate from Hebrew into Greek was the Old Testament, the Bible of the Jews.

 

So he commissions seventy scholars to work on this. Thus the abbreviation, if you’re with us in Bible introduction or bibliology, you’ll know that is represented by the Roman numerals LXX. The Septuagint was translated between the third and second century BC. This is two hundred years before Christ.

 

And it’s very helpful for us in any New Testament study to watch how Old Testament words were turned into Koine Greek before Christ came. Okay?

 

So in the text, if you were to read a Greek translation—the Septuagint—translated before Christ came, which was the Bible of the day in Israel—I mean, that’s what they spoke by and large. They were trilingual, usually. They could speak Aramaic and formal Hebrew, perhaps in the synagogue and the temple. And then, of course, Koine Greek, which was the lingua franca of the day. Everyone spoke it in the marketplace.

 

That Bible that they were using, if you were to look up Exodus 3:14—of course it’s in Greek now—you’re going to find the phrase ego ami. “Who do you say that I am?” Or—I’m sorry—“Who do I say sent me?” And in Greek, in the Hebrew Old Testament translated into Greek, same exact phrase.

 

It’s the first revelation of God to Moses, who would bring the law to the people. And he identifies himself in one of the most dramatic and important launchings of the writer of the Bible with the name ego ami. Very formalized way to state, “I am that I am.” “I am who I am.” And that’s my name.

 

Ego ami.

 

We need to talk about a little sidebar now—God’s proper name. A lot of white space under number one here, is there not? And if you’ve been through this with me before, then you can lean back, digest your taquitos and guacamole. But if you’re new, we’ve got to go through this just to figure out a little bit about God’s proper name.

 

So sidebar here, a little bit.

 

The name Yahweh is God’s proper name. In Exodus 3:14, he says, “I am who I am. I am that I am. I am the ever-existing one.” And then he gives his name in the next verse. He says, “I am Yahweh.” And he gives us this name. More on that a little bit later, but what you need to understand, at least, is that the word Yahweh—the root of it is the Hebrew verb “to be.” They are cognates. The proper name of God is built on the word “I am,” Yahweh.

 

It is translated in our Bibles into English, capital L, small-case O, small-case R—I’m sorry—small-cap O, small-cap R, small-cap D. Sometimes you’re reading in your Old Testament and you have capital L, small-case o, small-case r, small-case d. That’s not the word Yahweh. But some 6,828 times in the Old Testament, you will have a capital L—which is just a little bit taller—than a smaller capital O and a small-cap R and a small-cap D. You’ve noticed that, right? Every time you see that, that’s the proper name of God. It is not his position. It’s not describing his role. It’s not describing his job. It is his name.

 

Examples of that is the very next verse, Exodus 3:15, where God says to Moses—in verse 14—“I am who I am. I am that I am.” And he said, “Say to the people that I am has sent you.” God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel, Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob has sent me to you. This is my name forever, and thus I may be remembered throughout all generations.”

 

This is my name, and my name is Yahweh. And if you want to know who sent you, the I Am, the ever-existing one, has sent you.

 

Proper name, built on the verb “to be” in Hebrew—Yahweh.

 

The word Adonai is the Hebrew word that translates in our Bible “Lord” with the small-case o, small-case r, small-case d—not small caps, but small case. When you see that in the Bible some 442 times in the Old Testament, it is distinguished from the capitals. The small case is distinguished from the small caps.

 

For instance, Exodus 5:22, when Moses turned to Yahweh and says to him, “O Adonai, why have you done bad to these people? Why did you send me?” He starts complaining.

 

Adonai is his title. Yahweh is his name.

 

And at work—maybe like at my work—you have a title, you have a name, obviously, that you were given. And my title is pastor and my name is Mike. And sometimes they call me Pastor Mike. Sometimes they refer to me as just pastor. Sometimes it’s his title—he is the Lord. He’s in charge of the universe. And his name—his proper name—Yahweh, which is built on the verb “to be,” is God’s proper name.

 

Now let’s put this to rest, if it hasn’t been in your mind already—the word Jehovah, right? As in Jehovah’s Witnesses, or all the great hymns that use the word Jehovah, right? Or your Sunday school class, when you learned all the names of God in the Old Testament—Jehovah Jireh, right? Things like that. Jehovah, okay?

 

That’s translated in your Bible, if you have a King James Version, only four times. And it’s translated, unfortunately, from zero occurrences in the Hebrew language. There are no examples of that. Actually, there is no such word.

 

Okay? Well, it sure is popular for not being a word, Pastor Mike.

 

It’s been around. We’ve named cult groups after it. How do we do this if it’s not a word?

 

I want it in your mind, at least, to jettison the word Jehovah, and I’ll show you why it came to be, and understand there are just two words when we think of the word Lord or Yahweh and try and make sense of those and distinguish those.

 

So let’s work through this just a little bit.

 

The word Jehovah is a conflation of the word Yahweh and the word Adonai. Those two Hebrew words were conflated. They were smashed together. And they created a word that doesn’t exist, and that word is Jehovah. There is no such word.

 

Okay? Well, how did you create a word that doesn’t exist? Well, it doesn’t exist in the Hebrew language, at least.

 

Okay. Here’s our word Yahweh. Okay? It is what we call the tetragrammaton. The tetragrammaton are the four sacred letters that represent God’s sacred name. They are written in Hebrew texts—even texts that have all of the completed and fancy calligraphy and all the vowel pointings.

 

More on that in a second.

 

This word never occurs with vowel pointings. This word doesn’t have vowel pointings. It’s just a bare word. Okay? Yahweh.

 

The word Adonai, like any other word in Hebrew that was carefully vowel-pointed—because Hebrew has no vowels, no vowel characters, they’re all consonants—those were added by the Masoretes, ninth century AD, to be able to help people vocalize the language if they didn’t grow up with the language.

 

As a matter of fact, if you’re a kid in Israel, if you go to the Barnes & Noble equivalent on Ben Yehuda Street in Jerusalem and you look through the bookstore, only the little kids’ books will have vowel pointings on them because that is to help beginners learn the language.

 

Or any Bible student—when we go to learn Hebrew—we have to learn with vowel pointings. And any Bible that’s printed, because most of us are reading it as a second language, we have vowel pointings.

 

And Adonai, of course, has vowel pointings. This is the word Adonai.

 

And, of course, it reads not from left to right—I’m trying to always do this backward for you—but from right to left. Actually, left to right—not right to left. We read from left to right. They read from right to left. God reads from right to left.

 

Okay, is that how I meant to say it?

 

I learned early as a preacher to try and do everything with the hand gestures backwards. And when I’m trying to do things like Hebrew backwards, then it’s a double backwards and it doesn’t work.

 

So Adonai is written with vowel pointings. Adonai is his title, like the word pastor, and Yahweh is his name, like the word Mike—just to keep our illustration alive here.

 

Okay. Now, when the text in Hebrew—at any synagogue or any place in the temple—when you had a text that read in the text some 6,800 times Yahweh, okay, the Jews would read or vocalize out loud—and still do—the word Adonai.

 

If you go to a bar mitzvah or you go to, you know, Temple Beth El and you start listening to the cantor or the rabbi reading, when the text reads some 6,800 times Yahweh, they don’t say the word Yahweh. They don’t vocalize the sacred name. They say the word Adonai.

 

To help with that, what began to happen in the history of the text is that they would take the vowel pointings from the word Adonai and they would put them on top of the consonants for Yahweh so that the reader would say, “Don’t say Yahweh. Say Adonai instead.” But we want to show that the word Yahweh is there, so we’ll keep the consonants there, but we’ll throw the vowel pointings for Adonai on top of the consonants of Yahweh, so the reader will say, “Okay, now I know I’m supposed to say Adonai.”

 

To prompt this, the Masoretes put the vowel pointing of Adonai on the consonants of Yahweh.

 

So if you want to read the word Yahweh, it’s yod, he, waw—or vav, depending on who you study with—he. Yod, he, waw, he.

 

The vowel pointings for the word Adonai are—reading again from right to left—the reduced patach, the holam over the dalet, and a qamets, an “ah” sound, under the nun.

 

So those are the vowel pointings.

 

Now watch what happens.

 

If you throw them on top of Yahweh, you take the reduced patach—which is an “a” sound but it’s an “a” letter with an “e” sound—it now goes between the yod and the he. The holam gets thrown between the he and the waw, and the qamets gets thrown between the waw and the he.

 

Now, if you’re—did you catch all that?—if you’re a Jew, you would never say that because those vowel pointings are simply just prompts to say the word Adonai.

 

But, of course, some second-language Hebrew readers would see that and say, “I know what that word is. Well, I don’t know what it is, but I’ll sound it out,” and it’s Yehovah, right?

 

So Jehovah—because, of course, we lost the Y sounds in Hebrew when they went through German and into English—and we got the word Jehovah out of a conflation of Yahweh and Adonai.

 

Now, that’s more information than you’ll ever need at the workroom at lunch this week, but it will help you understand next time you hear the word Jehovah to know, I get it. It’s not really a word. It’s the conflation of Adonai and Yahweh. And you saw how it worked.

 

Now, here’s the problem. Just like often it’s addressed to me in the hallways of the church—what happens when we have this combination of words, right? Adonai, Yahweh.

 

Because you’re thinking, you’re not just going to call him Mike and not just going to call the guy, you know, pastor. You’re sometimes going to call him Pastor Mike.

 

Then what do you do?

 

And because in our English translations they’re not giving us the word Yahweh, then we’ve got to do something because I’ve got this little code to figure out whether it’s Yahweh—God’s proper name—or whether it’s Adonai—his title.

 

See, this Adonai-Yahweh combination—they translate it in your ESVs, and I’m glad they do it this way. I’m not—I mean, I’m not super glad—but it’s better than the NIV. They will translate it “Lord God,” which is Adonai, and instead of saying “Lord Lord,” they’ll say “God,” but then they’ll put the small-cap O and the small-cap D.

 

Do you see that? You’ll find that in your Bibles 144 times in the Old Testament.

 

Why do I say it’s better than the NIV? Do any of you remember—you Sunday school grads—how the NIV translates this? “Sovereign Lord.”

 

Which I thought was quite a leap, and they had reasons for it, but I prefer what the ESV has done, and that is let’s just call it Lord God.

 

I would prefer we just, you know, said “Lord Yahweh,” which is what it says. But anyway, examples of that—just to round out the examples—Exodus 23:17.

 

And if you were to look at that in your ESV, you should find “Lord” with a small-case o-r-d and a small-cap o-d after the G in God.

 

Now, you’ve got to distinguish, I guess, if you want to just round out this entire discussion, the words “Lord God.” When you have the capital—what is it?—capital L, small-cap O, small-cap R, small-cap D, and then it’s G—capital G, of course—small-case o, small-case d, what is that? That’s Elohim, right?

 

So that’s when it’s Yahweh Elohim or Elohim Yahweh—Lord God—that’s the real Lord God. But the Lord Lord or the Lord Yahweh looks like that in your text.

 

The claims of Christ.

 

Christ not only called himself the I Am—which again, if you have a little bit of that background in your mind, you’re going to say that was huge for you to say that. You said what God said in the most sacred moment of revealing his divine name. You used that name. You lifted it right out of the Septuagint and you applied it to yourself—not just that you pre-existed Abraham, but you pre-existed Abraham as the ever-existing one that is the I Am.

 

That’s a big, big deal. That’s a slam dunk right there. Well, what divine titles did he accept? Well, let’s start with this—Yahweh, translated in our Bibles “Lord.” If you go into the Septuagint, you don’t have Yahweh, of course. What’s it translated? It’s translated kurios.

 

Kurios in Greek is the Greek word that translates “Lord.” And it is the word that—if you look in the 6,800 times the word Yahweh shows up in the Hebrew text—in Alexandria’s library, and the seventy scholars are translating, what word are they using in Greek to translate the divine name? They’re using the name kurios.

 

That then becomes—if you’re an Old Testament Sabbath school graduate in the first century and you’re reading the Septuagint—you’re going to find the word kurios translated some 6,800 times for the word Yahweh, God’s proper name.

 

Now, in the New Testament, when New Testament writers are quoting the Old Testament, if that’s the case, well then obviously, when the Hebrew text is being quoted or the Septuagint is being quoted, every time we’re referring to God in his proper name, the word kurios shows up.

 

What is the most common title in the New Testament for Jesus? It is the word kurios—the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord Jesus.

 

Now some will say, “Well, I know enough about the word kurios to know that sometimes it refers to other things besides Yahweh.” So it’s not a done deal because even Jesus gives parables and he talks about the master over the stewards and he calls them the kurios.

 

Well, he doesn’t call them the kurios in that sense. And it is a term that is used besides for Christ, but primarily it is used for Christ, and it’s used not just in a sense of a lord over the estate or a lord over the stewards. It’s used in a very distinctive way as the Lord.

 

Which won’t convince a lot of the people at your door, but it is telling. Well, what did I give you here? Some passages to look up, right?

 

Matthew 21, for instance—and this is just Jesus referring to himself—and he says, “Go get the animal for me to ride on into the city of Jerusalem.” It is Palm Sunday. And he says, “If anyone asks you”—anyone asks you, you know, “What is this all about?”—you’re to tell them, not “a lord,” which would be the way you would expect. We’re talking about a manager of an estate, you know, a respected person.

 

But this is the kind of phraseology you would expect if we’re talking about something other than just, you know, a pastor. No, this is the Lord. “The Lord has need of it.”

 

Or Luke 2:11. Luke 2:11. This is a familiar one. I didn’t write this one down because I ran out of space. But you remember this. This is the angel’s announcement: “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” Right? He’s not Christ a lord—Mr. Christ. He’s Christ the Lord.

 

Which, when you use the word kurios—let me put it this way. I didn’t do the count on this, but in the book of Matthew alone, before you get to Jesus, he refers to himself as kurios by the seventh chapter of Matthew. We’ve already had the word kurios used multiple times.

 

I’m guessing fifteen. Let’s just throw a number out there. And every time it’s used before Matthew 7, Lord is referring to Yahweh.

 

Then he begins to teach the Sermon on the Mount, and he gets near the end of it, and he talks about himself when people come to me on that day, and they say, kurios, kurios—“Lord, Lord.”

 

I mean, that’s a major shift now. Now I’ve gone from using that word that has been translated over 6,000 times in the Old Testament for Yahweh, and you are now appending that and bringing that to yourself and using that to describe yourself.

 

That was big. That was big.

 

You don’t find Peter taking on a title like that. You don’t see Bartholomew walking around talking about himself as the Lord.

 

I put down John 20:28. This one you should turn to, I suppose.

 

We’ve got lots to turn to tonight, but since there’s nothing else to write—unless you’re perfecting your Greek characters. Hebrew’s more fun to write, though, isn’t it?

 

No? I didn’t get any takers on that.

 

Okay. You didn’t even try. Did you try? Some of you tried.

 

John 20. He said to Thomas—this is Jesus, right, after his resurrection, proving that he’s not a phantom or a ghost—“Put your finger here. See my hands. Put out your hand and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.”

 

Verse 28: Thomas answered him—again—“My kurios and my theos.”

 

“My Lord and my God.”

 

Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

 

And again, the combination of the words Lord and God—some 144 times in the Old Testament—is a common connection.

 

And by the way, if you were to open up a Septuagint, what would you find when we see the words Adonai Yahweh? You’d see the words kurios theos—Lord God.

 

Right?

 

And that’s how this word is being tossed around.

 

I think it’s often overlooked. I read a lot of stuff that doesn’t even deal with this much. But some guys—thankfully—do. And I think it’s important for us to recognize it’s no small thing that Jesus is known as the Lord and that he’s called things like “my Lord and my God.” That’s a big, big deal.

 

And if you have an Old Testament background, that’s huge.

 

Here’s another one. And I could pick a lot of titles. Matter of fact, I went through my file. I’ve got tons of stuff on all the titles of Christ. And I could present a bunch of those, and we could laundry-list them out.

 

But I thought I’d pick two that aren’t very often discussed.

 

One is kurios—the Lord—for Yahweh.

 

And the second one is this phrase the Son of Man, which seems to most to be a lesser title than Son of God.

 

And we could deal with that. We just don’t have time to deal with all the names and titles that point to divinity. But let’s at least look at this one—Son of Man.

 

And I often throw this out whenever we see it, and I quickly will say something like Daniel 7.

 

Well, we need to turn to Daniel 7 and see what this is all about.

 

Son of Man—Daniel chapter 7, verses 9 through 14.

 

If you know Old Testament theology, you start to recognize this is a very, very, very, very bizarre statement.

 

If you know Old Testament biblical history, this becomes even more frightening.

 

If there’s one thing that the post-exilic Jews understood, it’s you never bring God down.

 

Matter of fact, it’s one of the reasons we say that Jesus didn’t come on the scene and say repeatedly, “Hey, I’m God. Hey, I’m God. I’m God.”

 

Why didn’t he do that?

 

Every time he even hinted at that, they picked up stones to stone him.

 

Because after the Babylonian exile, when they started to recognize that their high view of God became a lower view of God, they came through the exile and said, “We will never take God off that high and exalted place ever again.”

 

At least that was the commitment they had.

 

And there was that sense of let’s not ever bring him to a place—what they like to say—of anthropomorphizing him. Let’s not make him more like us. Let’s make sure that he’s the transcendent God.

 

Daniel’s right in the middle of all this.

 

Daniel’s been taken captive to Babylon. He’s having these visions.

 

And if you want to talk about a statement that would make no sense in Old Testament theology, it would be this discussion about someone called the Son of Man.

 

Daniel 7, verse 9:

 

“As I looked, thrones were placed, and the Ancient of Days took his seat. His clothing was white as snow, and the hair of his head was pure wool. His throne was fiery flames; its wheels were burning fire. A stream of fire issued and came out from before him. A thousand thousands served him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. The court sat in judgment, and the books were opened.”

 

And I looked then, because of the sound of the great words that the horn was speaking. And as I looked, the beast was killed, and its body destroyed and given over to be burned with fire.

 

As for the rest of the beasts, their dominion was taken away, but their lives were prolonged for a season and a time.

 

Verse 13:

 

“I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man.”

 

That’s a key phrase. It became a very interesting point of discussion for the rabbis in trying to figure out what are we dealing with here. This is very bizarre.

 

“Like a son of man.”

 

“And he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.”

 

Now you read that from a Christian perspective and you say, “Well, yeah, that’s Christ.”

 

You read that from a Jewish perspective and you’re going, “Where do I file that?”

 

The God who will not give his glory away, who will not share his glory with any.

 

A God who receives all praise, all glory, all honor.

 

Who possesses all dominion.

 

Whose sovereignty is all his and his throne alone.

 

I mean, the book of Isaiah alone is all about the exclusive sovereignty and dominion of God.

 

And now I’ve got one like a son of man who comes and gets all of this.

 

And this is not partial.

 

Look at it again in verse 14.

 

“To him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all peoples, everyone created, all nations and languages should serve him.”

 

Who am I supposed to serve according to the law in Exodus chapter 20?

 

God.

 

I only serve God.

 

I don’t serve a man.

 

Well, he’s not just a man. He’s like a son of man.

 

And everyone should serve him.

 

And every dominion, all power, should go to him.

 

And his kingdom is one that will be eternal. It will not be destroyed.

 

Now some of this might make more sense when you start reading passages—

 

Oh, there you go. Isaiah 42:8 is one example:

 

“I am Yahweh; that is my name; my glory I give to no other.”

 

Statements like that.

 

You get those kinds of statements—and we could quote them for half an hour—and you start reading this and you say, “Well, what is this? How does this work?”

 

If there’s one God, and that God should be served alone, and that God—and only that God—has power and dominion, and his dominion is forever (just read the Psalms), how do we get someone like a son of man proceeding from heaven on a cloud who gets all of this?

 

This doesn’t make sense.

 

Unless, of course, God is not just a singular person, but he is a triune fellowship.

 

And we’re talking about one who makes the invisible visible and all deity dwells in him in bodily form.

 

If we’re talking about the Christ.

 

Now, Matthew 25:31–32.

 

You start thinking about how God is exclusively the monarch of the universe, shares his glory with no one, and you start now thinking about this one mysterious statement—the Son of Man.

 

Now you put Jesus on the scene, and he starts saying things like this.

 

Everything starts to come together.

 

And if you don’t like to accept who Jesus says he is, then your gaskets blow like they do here at the end of the book of Matthew.

 

Verse 31—are you with me on this?

 

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory”—now again, the one who gets glory is supposed to be God—“and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people from one another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.”

 

But he is now in authority over them all.

 

We’ll go to the next chapter—Matthew chapter 26.

 

When he’s about to be crucified, Jesus says in verse 64—Matthew 26:64–66—Jesus said to him, he’s standing here on trial, “You have said so. But I tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man”—which, by the way, is his favorite title for himself, more than Son of God.

 

He loves this phrase—the Son of Man—because from this Old Testament passage that was somewhat cryptic—who is this Son of Man?—he comes on the scene saying over and over again, “I’m the Son of Man.”

 

And most of us think, well, that seems lesser than the Son of God.

 

No.

 

You’ve got a bigger divinity claim in the phrase Son of Man than you do in the phrase Son of God if you put it in its Old Testament theological context.

 

That’s why you see the reaction this way from the high priest.

 

Are you with me now?

 

Matthew 26:64:

 

“From now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven.”

 

Couldn’t it be any clearer, right?

 

That’s Daniel 7.

 

Then the high priest tore his robes and said, “He has uttered blasphemy. What further witnesses do we need? You have now heard his blasphemy. What is your judgment?”

They answered, “He deserves death.”

 

Why? Because he’s just made the most outrageous claim of all—that he is this one who receives all dominion, all power, all glory, a kingdom that never ends. Son of Man—more a statement of divinity than we think.

 

So I chose those two to take time on as our time quickly ebbs away.

 

A couple more things.

 

1. He accepted worship.

 

Now again, we’re talking about claims now—just claims. He accepts worship. Why is that a big deal? Exodus 34:14. You don’t need to turn there. You know it. It’s the restatement of the Decalogue. It’s very clear: “You shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.”

 

So God is jealous. He doesn’t want any worship going to anyone else. He shares his glory with no one. No one else should be worshiped. You try to worship an angel, he’ll slap you on the head and say, “Stop it. We don’t do that,” right? That’s the biblical picture from the beginning of the Bible to the end—with one gigantic exception: this Son of Man who seems to be quite comfortable with it.

 

As a matter of fact, his life starts—you don’t need to turn to this one either because you know it—Matthew 2:1–2. These magi from the east come, and they say, “We’ve seen his star, and we’ve come to”—what?—“worship him.”

 

Can you imagine the Jews? That’s like fingernails on a chalkboard. What are you talking about? There’s a baby born in Bethlehem, and you’ve come to worship him? No, you don’t do it.

 

And Matthew’s holding this up in the beginning of his book—which is written, you know, a book written to Jewish people about the Jewish Messiah—and the first thing he says about this baby Jesus as he’s growing up in this home, he’s less than two years old, and people come to worship him.

 

That’s another gasket blower, unless you divorce it from its biblical context, which is you don’t worship anybody but God.

 

“Well, he’s a little toddler. I mean, come on. How can you prove this?”

 

Well, how about this one? John 5:21–23. You’ve got to turn to this one.

 

John 5:21–23. Now you can’t claim he’s a toddler and he didn’t know, and I don’t know, Mary should have stopped him, but she didn’t. She’s a mom. It’s busy. You know how it is with kids. I mean, Joseph was at work. Sorry, we didn’t mean to have Magi worship him.

 

Well, Jesus now is all grown up.

 

John 5:21: “For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son”—comma—verse 23—“that all may honor the Son, kathōs”—very important—“just as,” just like, to the same extent as they honor the Father.”

 

Again, you’re hearing what? Blasphemy.

 

Just like you hear if the Son of Man gets all the dominion and power and glory and all of this goes to him. God only gets that. Now you’re going to say, “You want us to honor you the way we honor the Father?”

 

Nothing could be more blasphemous than that.

 

“Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.”

 

And if you don’t worship Christ—that’s why we worship Christ on the weekends, right? With our music—hopefully you worship him every day—you can’t even honor the Father unless you’re honoring the Son.

 

Which, by the way, brings great pleasure to the Father, according to Philippians chapter 2. When every tongue confesses and knees bow, it’s all done to the glory of God the Father.

 

So God, who said don’t worship anybody else, is now very happy when you worship someone else. What’s with that?

 

That someone else must not be a holy-other someone else. This must be part of this weird divine, you know, calculatable Trinity thing.

 

Now, these are the two examples. You don’t need them if you know them. But Acts 14 and Revelation 22.

 

Acts 14 is when they tried to bow down and worship Paul and Barnabas, and they said, “Sure, because we’re trying to be like Christ. We want to imitate Christ, so worship us, because we worship Christ.”

 

Is that what they said? No. They tore their clothes. They were like, “No! You can’t do this. Please don’t do this. Don’t worship us.”

 

Well, by the way, they’re busy worshiping Jesus.

 

Revelation 22:8–9—this is when John falls down and he’s just overwhelmed with all that’s happened. The angel gives him this. He falls at his feet to worship. And the angel says, “No, don’t do it. You must not do that!”—exclamation point—“I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers the prophets. Worship God.”

 

But he accepts it.

 

Hmm.

 

1. He did divine things.

 

Now we’re on the back of the worksheet, are we not?

 

He forgives sins.

 

Why is that a big deal?

 

Jot this one down: Psalm 103. Psalm 103:2–4. Very clearly—you know this one too—you don’t need to turn there. “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.”

 

Whose benefits? Yahweh’s benefits.

 

What are Yahweh’s benefits? First thing on the list: “He forgives all your iniquity.” He heals your diseases, redeems your life from the pit. He’s the one who saves you. He’s the one who forgives you.

 

Who forgives sin? Well, if you’re a Jew, you know there’s only one that can forgive sin. God forgives sin. Even when you sin against someone, the forgiveness needs to come ultimately from God.

 

That’s why—here’s another one—Psalm 51:4. When David had sinned with Bathsheba—and that’s the title of the psalm—when David went and sinned with Bathsheba, he says, “Against you, you only, have I sinned.”

 

And he’s not talking to Uriah’s headstone. And he’s not talking to Bathsheba. He’s not talking to Uriah’s brother or family. He says to God, Yahweh, “Against you and you only.”

 

So when we sin, every sin—no matter if it’s against anybody laterally—is ultimately a sin against God.

 

Therefore, the only person that can bring the benefit of forgiveness is God, because you’ve sinned against God. God is the one who forgives.

 

That’s the Old Testament theology. We could go on and on and show examples of that.

 

Yet in Mark 2:6–12—let’s look at that text. Mark 2:6–12. I should have added verse 5—5 through 12.

 

Paralytic. Can’t walk. Jesus saw their faith. He said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

 

Now, just to make it clear, everyone understood what was happening.

 

Verse 6: “Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts.”

 

This was a question going on in their hearts.

 

“Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming. For who can forgive sins but God alone?”

 

Those scribes were right. They’re in the Bible every day. That was their job. They knew the right answer to that.

 

Immediately Jesus, perceiving in his spirit that they thus questioned within themselves, said to them, “Why do you question these things in your hearts? Which is easier—to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise, take up your bed and walk’?”

 

Now, a lot of people don’t answer the question, but the question should be answered. It’s easier for you to make a guy who can’t walk, walk, than for you to somehow relieve a debt before God.

 

But just so that you know—verse 10—“that the Son of Man”—that’s no mistake. What’s that? That’s a divinity claim—“has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the paralytic, “I say to you, rise, pick up your bed, and go home.”

 

And he rose and immediately picked up his bed and went out before them all so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this.”

 

They were impressed with the wrong thing, obviously. But the point is, how did this happen? That someone—the Son of Man—who has all dominion, all authority, and all peoples are supposed to give their service to him—is forgiving sins. He must be more than a man or a prophet.

 

By the way, did you notice in this text he’s reading minds? He’s a mind reader. Just a side note here, but that’s a big problem. Big problem, because 1 Corinthians 2:11 says no one should be able to do that if they’re human. And if anybody tries—Deuteronomy 18:10–12—they’re supposed to be stoned to death. So there should be no mind readers. And Jesus is clearly claiming to have that. That’s another argument we don’t have time for.

 

But he did some divine things.

 

Okay. He made some outrageous claims, and he did—so far—some divine things. What were they? Well, he accepted worship and he forgave sins.

 

And I’m saying this to you tonight—easy—I could do that. I could. I could claim to forgive your sins. A lot of guys do that—dress in robes and say that. I could accept your worship. And I could walk around saying all the things that Jesus said about who he was.

 

Matter of fact, some examples—you know this guy, right? I’ve talked about him before. In Florida, who strangely, recently after his divorce and lawsuits, he’s now taken on the title 666 because he says in Revelation that says in that number there is wisdom. He claims to be God, right? Lives in Florida.

 

Or—I just thought I’d give you some that you might remember—do you remember Wayne Bent in New Mexico? Obviously, he has some adoring fans here. He claimed to be God as well. Lived in New Mexico. Actually got busted for crimes—sex crimes against his followers.

 

Or how about this one? Remember Laszlo Toth? He went into the Vatican with a hammer, started banging—knocking the Michelangelo statues and all that. He claimed to be God. He said he was God.

 

How about this one? Maybe you don’t know this one. He’s been banished from his land. Matter of fact, he’s on the hit list of Islam. Islam wants to kill him. They have a bounty on his head. Ayan Pinn is a man who claims to be divinity. He claims to not only be God, he claims to be Jesus reincarnate and Mohammed reincarnate. That’s going to get you in trouble. The Christians will roll their eyes. The Muslims will want to take your head off. So he’s on the run right now.

 

But he claims to be God. And by the way, if you want to worship Ayan Pinn, guess what? He’ll accept it. And if you say, “I’ve sinned against you, please forgive me,” I’m sure he’ll forgive your sins. I mean, I don’t know—maybe, maybe not—but he’ll definitely take that on as an assignment.

 

Or this guy—if you want to talk about our friends over in Russia—have you ever heard of this guy, Torop? He claims to be God. And looks more like Jesus than the rest, so I don’t know.

 

And I felt bad as I was doing a survey today, kind of looking at all the people that claim to be God. I thought, we’ve got a guy from Florida who’s originally from Puerto Rico, and I’ve got an Australian in Thailand and Russia and New Mexico. I thought we needed a Californian. So here’s one. You remember this guy down in San Diego—Marshall Applewhite. And I just love his picture, so I thought I’d throw that up.

 

Okay. So not hard, right?

 

Look at your outline so far, right? I mean, all I’m saying is that Jesus claimed a lot of stuff about who he was. And he was going around accepting worship, and he was telling people their sins were forgiven.

 

And I’m thinking every one of these guys on the screen can do that. Every single one of them.

 

But most of those you’re going to say are kooks, right?

 

C.S. Lewis rightly said—our professor of lit at Oxford—he said, “You can shut him up, speaking of Christ, for a fool. You can spit on him and call him a demon”—which you might want to do with these guys that I just showed you on the screen—“or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

 

Right?

 

Just like you can’t call that last collage of would-be divine, embodied, you know, God-in-human-form people—you’re not going to call them good teachers. Either you’re going to worship them as God they claim to be, or you’re going to call them a nut or, you know, call them a fool or spit on them.

 

But none of this patronizing nonsense about being a good teacher.

 

I love that. And it’s great. It’s been used by a lot of people just to think like C.S. Lewis through the problem. You cannot be neutral about this person.

 

So far, what we’ve said—you’ve either got to say he’s really who he says he is or he’s a nut.

 

So let’s continue our outline now.

 

With that said, he did divine things.

 

What divine things did he do?

 

Number three—he gave life.

 

And by the way, I’m missing a number five that should be there, so leave room for number five.

 

He gives life.

 

John 5:21—we already read it. It says, “For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will.”

 

Now that’s his claim.

 

Big deal. You claimed it.

 

Here’s where the rubber meets the road—John 11.

 

Now again, I’m relying on the fact that you know that the Word of God is not like the Book of Mormon or even the Quran or a lot of these books that claim to be revelations from God but do not have the literary veracity or the evidence of being statements from God. The Scripture is wholly different. You need, you know, twenty hours at least to work through that perhaps if you’re a skeptic.

 

But now I’m looking at a historical account.

 

Those are statements—“Hey, I can give life to whoever I want.”

 

Really? Prove it.

 

John 11.

 

Jesus, deeply moved, came to the tomb. This is Lazarus. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it.

 

And Jesus said, “Take away the stone.”

 

Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.”

 

And if you remember the context, he could have gone. He heard about it. He didn’t come. He wanted him to get nice and ripe in the grave—to make it very clear he wasn’t unconscious. He didn’t swoon. He wasn’t sleeping—sleepy sleep—for a few extra days in a cave. He was dead.

 

Jesus said, verse 40, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?”

 

Now the glory of God—you’re talking about you having glory. You’re talking about you giving life to whomever you will. How is this going?

 

Hmm. Maybe you’re God.

 

So they took away the stone. Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me. I came from heaven. No one else claims to be coming from heaven.”

 

When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.”

 

And the man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth.

 

And Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”

 

He was a star, by the way, after that. If you know your Gospels, they wanted to talk to the guy who was dead for four days. That’s a big deal.

 

The accounts are reliable. The eyewitnesses—the people that mourned his death, who came to his funeral, who now see him alive—that’s something those six guys on the screen have never done.

 

Right?

 

I mean, you’ve got guys around the corner healing migraine headaches and things that I can’t prove. But when someone’s dead for four days and comes back to life, you’re starting to prove that you’re someone.

 

How about this one, which we’ll be dealing with at the Bren Center this year—John 10:17–20.

 

Just to give you the prediction, the prophetic statement.

 

John 10:17 says, “For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again.”

 

Now he calls Lazarus out of the grave. Maybe God’s going to call Jesus out of the grave.

 

He makes it very clear—I’m going to take it up again.

 

“No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again.”

 

Because he said that just as the Father has the ability and the authority to give life, I have the ability to give life to whom I will. And if I lay my life down into death—real death—I’ve got the authority to take it up again.

 

“This charge I have received from my Father.”

 

And there was again a division among the Jews because of these words. Many of them said, “He has a demon. He is insane. Why listen to him?”

 

That is, of course, unless you were there—a witness to the resurrection, the bodily resurrection of Christ.

 

That’s a big deal.

 

So again, that’s something that Applewhite has not yet done, right? Risen from the dead.

 

So that’s now something beyond all of our would-be messiahs or God-incarnates.

 

How about this one?

 

He did divine things—he controls nature.

 

He controls nature.

 

Why is that a big deal?

 

You don’t need to turn to these, but you remember the end of the book of Job. God goes off for three chapters telling everyone how he controls everything in the universe—that he is the one who guards the ocean and he tells it what to do and he makes its waves do this and stop there.

 

There’s a sample of it in Job 38.

 

Psalm 107—again, another psalm that we praise Yahweh, the I Am, the proper name of God—who is able to still the storm and the waves of the sea. He’s able to hush them, and they are glad—we are glad—when the waters are quieted.

 

God is the one who does these things.

 

But of course, that’s why we have these events that are so important. They speak volumes about the essence of who Christ is.

 

Matthew 8:24–27:

 

“And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves, but he was asleep.”

 

And they went and woke him, saying, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing.”

 

And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?”

 

Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm.

 

And the men marveled, saying, “What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey him?”

 

What would the scribes say? They would say, “Men don’t do that. God does that.”

 

That’s something none of our would-be messiahs have ever done.

 

Two number fours—which means this should be number five.

 

He creates out of nothing.

 

He creates out of nothing with a word—things that have an appearance in history of age they never had.

 

Of course, Genesis 1:1 says that’s the way God creates. 2 Peter 3 says that’s the way God creates. That’s the way he destroys. That’s the way he creates. He speaks the word and things come to be.

 

John 1:3 says that nothing has been made that has been made unless Christ made it.

 

So now Christ is in the prologue of John. He is exalted as the Creator.

 

Genesis 1 says God—Yahweh—is creator. Elohim is creator. Adonai is creator.

 

Now John says Jesus is the Creator.

 

And nothing has been made that has been made unless he made it.

 

There’s a bit of a conflict unless Jesus is God.

 

One example—maybe two.

 

John 2:6.

 

Can you look at this with me? John 2:6.

 

Yahweh will share his glory with no one, right? I just quoted you one. I did a couple from memory and a couple other places in Isaiah. It is all over the place in the Bible.

 

The Old Testament is very clear—there is one God. Serve him only. No one else. Don’t serve anybody else. He is God.

 

Now I’ve got all these weird contradictions—that there’s this one like the Son of Man who everyone’s going to serve, and I’ve got someone who’s going to take glory.

 

Can we start at the bottom of this little narrative here in verse 11?

 

You see the little heading on the paragraph. This is about the water-to-wine situation.

 

But it says this in verse 11:

 

“This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested”—now pronouns are important—whose glory? “His glory.”

 

How did the book of John start? He creates. He’s the Creator. Nothing was made that has been made if Christ didn’t make it.

 

“Oh, I know—God makes everything. Yahweh makes everything. Elohim, Adonai. But, you know, Jesus is really the Creator.”

 

He manifests his glory by doing what?

 

Well, you know the story.

 

Verse 6—six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty to thirty gallons.

 

Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” They filled them up to the brim.

 

And he said, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.”

 

They took it.

 

When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from—though the servants who had drawn the water knew—the master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.”

 

So he makes perfect wine for these people at the wedding feast to drink.

 

How did he do that?

 

Well, he did it with a word.

 

How long does it take to make wine? Well, it’ll take a while, I suppose. If it’s going to be the best wine at the party, it’s going to take some time.

 

But he’s got something.

 

You said “out of nothing.” No—he had something. He had hydrogen and oxygen molecules.

 

That’s what he had.

 

But if you’re going to make wine, you do understand you’re going to need some of this right here—you need some glucose. You’ve got to somehow go from H₂O to adding a proper amount of sugar—hexose.

 

You’ve got to have that.

 

And that’s a pretty complicated little compound there.

 

You need even more—some tannic acid, which is usually in the skin of the grapes. And that’s a really complex thing. As a matter of fact, it’s one of the most difficult things to think through in terms of the composition of what wine is all about.

 

So you need that in the right balance.

 

Oh, you’re going to need some yeast enzymes. And those look like this—at least when you sketch them out in your chemistry class.

 

This is how it works.

 

And you’re going to need the proper amount of those yeast enzymes.

 

Then, of course—hopefully not too much—but you’re going to need some C₂H₅OH, which is ethanol, right? You’ve got to have a little bit of that. I’m sure in Christ—not a whole lot—but there’s some alcohol in this, which is a pretty complex thing.

 

And then it’s very important, if it’s going to taste right, you’ve got to have the right pH balance.

 

And all of these mixtures have to be together just right.

 

And Jesus does it with a word so that he can show his glory.

 

What is his glory?

 

That he’s the Creator.

 

Who’s the Creator?

 

God is the Creator.

 

Who is Jesus?

 

He’s God.

 

Pulled this off a website—a French winery website. Not the picture—the picture came from some Eastern Orthodox church mosaic, I think.

 

They said this:

 

“The study of the chemical components of wine made great progress thanks to the development of modern methods of chromatographic analysis. One knows some three hundred chemical bodies today taking part in the composition of wine.”

 

Very complex thing.

 

That’s an easy miracle, right?

 

No, it’s not.

 

That’s an amazing miracle where God manifests his glory—God in human form, that is.

 

He did other things—creating out of nothing.

 

He did things like this in John 10—you don’t need to turn there. You know this one too.

 

He healed a blind man.

 

And here’s what they said after he said all these things about who he was:

 

“There was again a division among the Jews because of these words.”

 

We read this earlier.

 

“Many of them said, ‘He has a demon, and he is insane. Why listen to him?’ Others said, ‘These are not the words of one who is oppressed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?’”

 

I don’t do this to gross you out. I didn’t do a very close-up picture of it. But here’s a blind man from birth.

 

I wish we had high-def at this point. I’ve talked to you about that, though, haven’t I?

 

There’s a lot missing there that he needs to see. And we can’t, with our modern technology, give him what he needs to make those eyeballs work. He doesn’t have what it takes.

 

So when Christ does things like take a blind man—which he did multiple times in his ministry—and makes him a seeing man, in the most complex and delicate organ of the body, and makes that thing work—he goes from sunken-in eye sockets that do not work to eyes that can see—that’s a big deal.

 

That’s a manifestation of the glory of God.

 

That’s creating something out of nothing.

 

That’s not healing a migraine headache at a rally with TV cameras on.

 

I mean, this is the creation of something out of nothing.

 

And we could go on.

 

How about bread and fish?

 

Evolutionists say it takes a long time to create a fish, right?

 

Jesus created them instantaneously—ready to eat.

 

How about muscle tissue in the forearm of the man with the withered hand?

 

He does it with a word.

 

Creates something that didn’t exist in a moment with the word of his authority that has—if you were a scientist and could analyze it—the appearance of a history and age that it never had.

 

It’s a big deal.

 

His contemporaries understood this. His enemies understood it. They called it blasphemy.

 

They picked up stones to stone him when he said in John 10:30, “I and the Father are one.”

 

And it’s, “Well, you know, he says that about us in John 17. We’re supposed to be one.”

 

That’s not what they meant.

 

The Jews understood what he meant. They picked up stones to stone him.

 

And Jesus said, “I have done many good works. Which of them are you stoning me for?”

 

And the Jews answered him, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you, but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself out to be God.”

 

His enemies understood what he was saying.

 

John 5:18:

 

“This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.”

 

John 8:58—Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.”

 

So verse 59—they picked up stones to stone him.

 

They knew what he was saying.

 

His enemies knew what he was saying.

 

That’s why they crucified him.

 

I already read for you Matthew 26—but you remember that.

 

“I’m the Son of Man. You’ll see me coming on the clouds, seated at the right hand of power.”

 

High priest tears his robes.

 

“He has uttered blasphemy.”

 

What should we do?

 

“Well, we should kill him. He deserves death.”

 

His enemies understood his claims.

 

And of course, his friends understood his claims.

 

Philippians 2:5–8—one of the best Christological passages in the New Testament.

 

We won’t take time to read it because we have no time.

 

Colossians 1:15–20—all things were made by him and for him. In him dwells the fullness of deity.

 

I mean, these are clear statements about Christ being more than a man.

 

Hebrews 1:1–3—he is the exact representation of his nature.

 

He is the image of the invisible God.

 

He’s the one like a Son of Man that you can see of the God that you can’t see.

 

All of this could be expanded upon.

 

And I have on many other messages that are all for free on the Focal Point website, and I’ve already printed those for you in that little box, so you don’t need to write them down.

 

But if you just want to go through some of these great Christological sections of Scripture that deal with the divinity of Christ—that he claims to be God, that the Bible says that he’s God—08-54-05-26-00-39-00-25.

 

You should be able to search for those numbers on the website and get all those for free.

 

Book of the Week

 

So badly wanted to give you two, but I hate telling you I’m going to give you one and give you two. So I’m sticking with one.

 

Robert Raymond wrote—for Mentor Press—not too long ago. It was a fairly new book—2003. I guess that’s kind of new.

 

You know Raymond’s name—it’s because he wrote recently a systematic theology—one volume, but good.

 

This one he wrote on Christ.

 

And I forget how many pages—I would guess 250, maybe 200. It’s not that big, but it’s not that small.

 

Jesus, Divine Messiah: Old and New Testament Witness.

 

If you want to go further with what we’ve talked about tonight, there’s a great book for you to dive into.

 

All right, let’s pray.

 

Hey—what I’m saying is Jesus is God. That’s what I was trying to say.

 

Did you get that?

 

That’s what I’m getting at here.

 

Why didn’t you just say that?

 

That’s what I’m trying to say.

 

Let’s pray.

 

God, we thank you so much that Jesus has revealed himself in the Scriptures to be who the Old Testament looked forward to him being.

 

And I love that about Raymond’s book—he spends a lot of time looking at how the Old Testament anticipated someone who was not merely human, but was the image of the invisible God.

 

And we’ve looked at that and thought about the incarnation and the pre-incarnate Christ—that this baby was going to be born who’s going to be called the Everlasting Father, a Prince of Peace, a Mighty God.

 

These are words that just don’t compute unless we have a triune God—a second person of this Godhead, this divine fellowship—who comes and lives among us in a human form.

 

So God, I thank you for our study of this.

 

May you help us to even go deeper in our own study, maybe listening to more messages, digging into good theologies, and just reading your Word, looking with open eyes at how statements—they do not compute to be some rabbi or some good teacher or some man that’s exalted.

 

This has to be God in human form.

 

Let us be grounded in this truth that we may be able to worship Christ with a clear conscience and be able to defend the divinity of Christ with apt and capable skill, because this doctrine is under attack.

 

It is the hallmark of most cult groups today.

 

And we need to know that Jesus is God.

 

So God, we look forward to next week as we dig into John 1:1 and spend a lot of time looking at all of that and how the JWs deal with that and how we need to understand a bit about Greek grammar.

 

And I just pray we can roll up our sleeves and get into that next week and really profit from looking at one passage and what it has to say about Christ.

 

So God, thanks for our time. Thanks for our meal. Thanks for our fellowship tonight.

 

Dismiss us now, please, with a better understanding of who your Son is.

 

In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.