The Preincarnate Christ

Sermon Transcript

Nothing better you could be doing with a Thursday night, I don’t think, than studying the person and work of Jesus Christ.

 

And so, knowing that there’s plenty that would love for you not to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, we better pray together here as we get started—for God’s help, his empowerment of this task.

 

So would you please bow your heads and let’s transition to our teaching time tonight. Pray with me, please.

 

God, we are very grateful to be able to have this opportunity in a setting like this—with tables and worksheets and pens and pencils and open Bibles and screens and PowerPoint—and just, God, the ability to have this setting for us to learn more about what you’ve told us, what you’ve revealed to us in your Word about your Son, who is the center of all of human history.

 

It is the center of all redemptive and biblical history. He is the apex of all of it. He is what the Old Testament was leading up to. He’s what the New Testament explains. He is the person that we will exalt and worship and cheer for in the kingdom. He is the reason that we do all that we do for the exaltation of Jesus Christ.

 

We exalt him as Lord. We want to bow our knees before him, so to speak, and bow our hearts and say that he is our King. We want to confess now before it is forced, and we want to say that he is the Lord. And we know that brings glory to God the Father, so we’re grateful, God, for the opportunity to please you by exalting your Son.

 

And as we learn more about him tonight, I just pray that you would give us clarity, understanding, economy of words as we work through this outline, and help us to tackle this entire section tonight really just as efficiently as possible. Give us a depth of insight, I pray, that may make a difference in how we pray, how we worship, how we think, and even how we live. In Jesus’ name, amen.

 

All right, let’s start with some definitions tonight. We need to define a few words.

 

I used this word last week. I said this is the first segment of Christ that we’re going to deal with because we’re going to study him chronologically, and I used the word **preexistence**. *Preexistence.*

 

And by *preexistence*, I’m referring not to a time before Christ existed, but I’m actually talking about his existence before his birth. And that’s obvious, I would hope, to most of you—although there are plenty of cult groups that want to talk about Christ’s preexistence, and they mean that there was a time before he existed. And that’s not at all what I mean.

 

Since not everyone uses that word the same—whether it’s the Hindus or the Mormons, whoever it might be—I want to make sure that you understand how we utilize that word: *preexistence*. Simple, okay?

 

**Pre-incarnate**—that’s a better way, I suppose, for us to refer to the idea of what we mean by preexistence. Pre-incarnate—*carne*, flesh, meat. He comes and takes on human form.

 

And since that human form exists through eternity, there’s no post-incarnate. Everything is either pre-incarnate or the incarnate Christ. Even though his earthly ministry is over, now he is still the incarnate Christ because he exists in human form. More on that when we get to it chronologically.

 

Tonight we’re going to have to deal with something that is under the label or the rubric **Christophany**. *Christophany.* And so let’s get that word into our mind and distinguish it from a few others.

 

*Phanos*, *phane* is the word in Greek for “to be manifest,” “to be visible,” “to be shown,” “to be able to be seen with your eyes.” And when we put *Christ* in front of that, we’re saying that Christ is seen. Well, of course, in his pre-incarnate state, you wouldn’t think he would be seen, but that’s an area we’re going to deal with tonight. Before his incarnation, was Christ ever seen? Well, that would be—if we get to that conclusion tonight—that would be a Christophany: that he shows up and he is visible and somehow interacts in time and space before his incarnation.

 

After the incarnation, there is no real Christophany. That’s not how we would use the word. If he shows up at the shore of the Sea of Galilee, you might say it’s a Christophany, but it’s not theological Christophany. If John sees him on the island of Patmos in the last letter of the New Testament, we wouldn’t say it’s a Christophany. It is an appearance of Christ, but that’s not what we mean by Christophany. We mean an appearance of Christ before the incarnation.

 

I should at least throw this word up since it’s still used in liturgical calendars, and that’s the word **epiphany**. Okay? *Epiphany.*

 

By epiphany, I guess we could say we mean the appearance of Christ because epiphany is celebrated in the high churches, liturgical churches. Actually, I should clarify this: it’s really not just about the appearance of Christ to the earth.

 

January 6th, which is celebrated as the Epiphany—the Day of Epiphany, the Feast of Epiphany—is the *epi-* (by the means “on top of” or “over”), the outcoming, the outshowing, the over-the-top appearance of Christ. Epiphany is in reference to the appearance of Christ to the non-Jews, to the Gentiles. And since all the appearance of Christ up until this point was all Jews, then what we have in Matthew chapter 2, when the Magi show up, the high churches celebrate the epiphany of Christ. That means he is revealed or shown now to the nations via, by proxy, the Magi—the kings from the east.

 

So I guess we could mean several things by this. We could mean the liturgical day where Christ reveals himself to the Gentiles. We could mean Christ at his incarnation. That’s… I don’t really use the word epiphany often.

 

You could mean—and some people do in theological discussions—use the word epiphany to talk about the appearance of God, because it’s just a compound or intensifier for appearance. It doesn’t give us the subject. Christophany gives us the subject: the appearance of Christ. And though it’s assumed in most usages, sometimes epiphany is used even in Old Testament references to an appearance of God because there is no subject attached to the word.

 

Do you follow me on that? It’s just the appearance, the showing. The showing of what? Sometimes it is the appearance of God.

 

And then fourthly, I guess, when you get a really good idea, you say you have an epiphany, right? Nobody says that anymore? I still say it. I have had an epiphany. And that’s not at all what we’re talking about. But that is how the word is used sometimes. Okay? Epiphany.

 

But you do know that word, right? That’s not a new word to you. Okay.

 

**Theophany.** That’s another word we need to distinguish from this. Now, we do have the subject attached to this—*Theos*, of course. You know some basic Greek because we hear these kinds of words from the pulpit all the time. *Theos* means God—the God appearance.

 

And when we say or use the word theophany, okay, we’re saying now God has appeared, and we’re not really sure if we mean Christophany—that Christ has appeared—because that’s a big debate in theology, which we’ll enter into tonight. But the idea of God showing up—like the wrestling with Jacob, or how about this one: Genesis, walking in the garden in the cool of the day—has that ever made you scratch your head? We would say that’s a theophany of some kind, an appearance of God. Is it a Christophany? That’s another discussion and open to speculation.

 

And then I suppose if you think about the fact—as the Bible says, John 4, 1 Timothy 6—that God is spirit, right? And here’s how 1 Timothy 6 puts it: that he dwells in unapproachable light that no man has seen or can see. See, God is invisible. Or as John 4 says, he is spirit, right? And later in the book of John, he says, if I’m spirit—when Jesus talks about his resurrected body—you wouldn’t see me because a spirit doesn’t have flesh and bones. So spirit is invisible.

 

And if God is spirit and the pre-incarnate Christ is spirit, then we need a Christophany or a theophany if anybody’s going to see either one of those.

 

And when it comes to this angelic class, this is a word we don’t use much, but it is a technical word in theology. If an angel is spirit, then he’s invisible as well. And when an angel appears, right, that’s an **angelophany**. That is an appearance of an angelic being. And they show up and there they are, and they have discussions, and they talk, and they even eat sometimes. Amazingly enough—how does that work? Very strange. But then they don’t appear, and then they’re not shown anymore. Okay?

 

*Phane*—I hate to say that word from the pulpit—is “to show,” right?

 

And that… and that doesn’t help either. Use the word *Amtrak* in a sentence and we’re all messed up. But… thanks—you didn’t get that? Yeah, you did.

 

So you attach that. Now we’ve got clarity on at least the last—or I should say C, E, and F: **Christophany**, **theophany**, **angelophany**.

 

Is it an angel showing up? Is it God showing up? Is it Christ showing up?

 

Epiphany is a broader word. It doesn’t tell us who’s showing up.

 

Pre-incarnate, preexistence.

 

All right, those are words we’ll use throughout the night. Some of them we will, and it’s important to make those distinctions. Okay, good enough.

 

No questions on that, as though we’re going to take questions—although I guess we could. You could shout one out. I’d probably respond.

 

## Christ’s Claims

 

All right, Christ’s claims—number two, Christ’s claims. The question is: what was going on here before the incarnation?

 

Let’s look this one up: John 8:52–59. Is the size of the font a little better tonight? And we’re going to have to bust for those HD screens someday, because it’s a little blurry, isn’t it? Doing the best we can with the offering you’re giving us, you know.

 

John 8. So many pastors want to say that, but I just did it. All right. I’ll get emails on that one.

 

John 8. Take a look at this, verse 52:

 

The Jews said to him, “Now we know that you have a demon.” He’s talking about Abraham now. “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 have not known him. I know him. And if I were to say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you.”

 

People don’t ever imagine Jesus saying sentences like that.

 

“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, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?”

 

And Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.”

 

And they got that loud and clear, so they picked up stones to stone him.

 

Let’s just put it this way. Jesus claimed, letter A, that he existed “before he was born.” I put it in quotes. What does Jesus claim? “I existed before I was born.” A long time before I was born. This is two thousand years before Christ—Abraham. “I know Abraham. I… I know all of his…” “I existed before Abraham was even born in 2000 B.C.” “I am”—which is a weird way to put it—but “I existed.” “I existed before I was born.”

 

Okay. Now that’s different than you, I trust, right? All right? You’re not making that claim, are you?

 

How about this one? And I only put one verse per line here, but there are others. Here’s an interesting one: Matthew 23:37.

 

Matthew 23 records Jesus sitting across there from the Temple Mount, from Jerusalem. Matthew chapter 23. Is that what I said?

 

This is Jesus talking here, right? You got a red-letter Bible? I don’t, so mine’s not red, but yours is red there, right?

 

Verse 37:

 

“Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often I would have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!”

 

Even that statement—you’re starting to now talk as though you existed through all the years of God sending prophets to Jerusalem. What’s with that? Well, he’s clearly making claims throughout the Gospels that before he was born, he existed.

 

How about this one? Matthew 22. You’re close to that one. Let’s just go to that one. Matthew 22:41.

 

Now while the Pharisees gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, saying, “What do you think about the Christ?” Now, that is his name, right? That’s clear. That is his title. That is who he’s claiming to be. “Whose son is he?”

 

And they said to him, “The son of David.”

 

Right?

 

And he said to them, “How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying”—quoting now Psalm 110—“‘The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet.’ If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?”

 

That’s a tricky question.

 

And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions because his answers are too confusing and convicting—because they didn’t want him to be the Christ. They didn’t want him to be exalted.

 

And here he quotes this—that David, the king of Israel, says, “The Lord says to my Lord.” Now, he’s the sovereign of Israel, right? Israel is not subject to anyone in David’s reign. “The Lord says to my Lord.” So if that’s the Christ, how is it that David looks up to the Lord, who is supposed to be the son of David? That speaks, of course, to preexistence. “The Lord said to my Lord.” In David’s day, that was a thousand years before the incarnation.

 

How about this one? Letter B. Let’s look this one up. John 17.

 

John 17—the great high priestly prayer of John 17—just before he goes into the final chapter of life. John 17.

 

Look at verses 5 and 6.

 

“And now, Father, glorify me,”—this is near the end of his earthly ministry—“in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.”

 

Okay?

 

Letter B: “I existed before the world was made.” Right? Before the world existed, I existed.

 

Now again—even that. You know, people talk about what to do with Christ. Most of our non-Christians—well, you know, he’s probably a good preacher, and a good moral leader, and all that. These are wild claims, are they not?

 

I mean, I know you’ve been in Sunday school and in church and all that, but if you really get outside of all that and you think about what’s being said here: here’s a guy saying, “Before I was born, I existed.” If your friend at work says that, right? That’s weird.

 

And then, “Hey, before the world was made, I was hanging out with God.” That’s really weird.

 

And the classic old C.S. Lewis thing of Lord, lunatic, or liar—you can’t be sane and say these things. I mean, if you’re lying, okay, you’re lying. That’s a weird lie. And if you’re crazy, that makes more sense. Or you’ve got to be who you say you are. And that’s a pretty wild claim.

 

Next—John 3. As long as we’re in John here—the Nicodemus discussion. Nicodemus, verse 9 said to him, “How can these things be?” Jesus answered, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?” That’s a pretty humiliating statement too.

 

“Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.”

 

I know this about Christ’s claims: he claims to have existed in heaven.

 

So before his birth, he claimed to exist. Before the world was made, he claimed to exist. In this eternal home of God that is called heaven, he claimed to live there. So he lived in heaven with God before the world was made and was aware of what’s going on on earth 2,000 years before he came to be. So he existed—his claim, at least—as he existed long before he was incarnate.

 

How about this one? Working our way back into the most famous statements in John, perhaps: John 1.

 

Turn the page and look at this. John 1:1.

 

“In the beginning was the Word.” Of course, this is described as God. You want to look at Christ—look at verse 14, I guess, is the key: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” We’ve seen his glory, the glory of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

 

So we’re talking about Christ. We use the word *logos* or “word.” Verse 1: “In the beginning was the *logos*, the Word, the expression of God, if you will. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that has been made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

 

Okay—well, you’re not just on the outskirts of heaven. According to this, you’re claiming that you are existing as equal with God—which, of course, he makes those claims throughout the book of John. John chapter 5 is a classic example. They’re seeking to kill him. He makes himself equal with God. That was the claim. That’s why he was crucified.

 

Philippians 2:6—you know that verse—though he existed in the form of God, he did not regard equality with God a thing to be hung on to or grasped.

 

Existed before I was born. Existed before the world was made. Existed in heaven. Existed as equal with God.

 

And then I guess we can go to the last book of the Bible for this one: Revelation 22. Revelation 22.

 

And before you get to Revelation 22, go to Revelation 1—the beginning and the end of the book. And I didn’t go to Revelation 1, although there is strong reason to believe that the quotation here about Christ continues in verse 8. At least let me give you this: even if we’re going to say this is God the Father, okay?

 

Verse 8—here are the titles here given to him:

 

“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

 

His always-existence is tied up in this phrase: the Alpha, the Omega, the beginning and the end.

 

Now go to Revelation 22. This is clearly Christ.

 

And if you’ve got a red-letter Bible, which I don’t, I’m assuming it’s in red, because he’s the one who’s promised to return. That’s the whole point—the *apokalypto*, the revelation of Jesus Christ, the coming of Christ.

 

It says this in verse 13. Let’s start in verse 12 just to make sure we know it’s Christ:

 

“Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me,”—we just looked at the great battle at the end of the book of Revelation—“to repay everyone for what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”

 

That’s the way—describing the one who, I put it this way, always exists. Always exists. “Existed before. I existed. I’m the beginning, the end, the Alpha, the Omega, the first, the last. I exist always outside of time.”

 

That’s who I am.

 

And back to that quote we started with—it’s the first one on the list—John 8: “Before Abraham was born,” he says, “I am.” *Ego eimi.* I am the existing one.

 

Which, by the way, to say *ego eimi*, to say “I am,” is the very root of the word Yahweh. That’s God’s proper name. Over 7,000 times in the Old Testament, the word is built upon the Hebrew verb “I am,” or the verb “to be.”

 

And he says this, taking on the name of divinity. “Before Abraham was born, I am.” Because Yahweh’s proper name is, “I am the existing one.”

 

Christ claimed: I exist before I was born, existed before the world was made, I existed in heaven, this is equal with God, I always exist.

 

So we know that Christ—if we’re going to take his testimony here, which by the way, I’m thinking a guy who dies and rises again, I’m going to listen to. More on that at Easter, at the Bren.

 

We have reserved the Bren again. So… it’s the first time we’ve announced that, which it wasn’t much of an announcement. But yeah—going back to the Bren. And this year at the Bren we’re going to talk about that one thing: that if he rose from the dead, and we’re going to look at that—does it even hold up to some scrutiny? If it does, then I’m going to listen to what he says.

 

Okay, well, all of that, that’s great. But eventually in my Bible reading I’m going to run across this word **firstborn**, and there’s a flag on the play.

 

Wait a minute. You said he always existed. You said he existed in heaven with God. How can that be? Because he uses—or the Bible uses—the word firstborn. I know what firstborn is. I got one, right? Firstborn. There was a time, I guarantee it, when he was not. And then he was born, and then he was.

 

I’m thinking if he’s the firstborn of God, then there was a time when Jesus wasn’t. This is where the cults—this is the diving board into denying everything we just said about the eternal existence of the Son.

 

So let’s look at this.

 

This is a word you should write down. You can transcribe it here—the English equivalents. *Prototokos.* *Prototokos.* *Prototokos.* Used eight times in the New Testament.

 

Firstborn. Firstborn.

 

Okay. Two occurrences speak of the firstborn—okay, born first.

 

One was Mary wraps her firstborn in the swaddling clothes. That certainly speaks to the fact this is the first one born for Mary. She took her firstborn son. That’s Luke 2:7.

 

The other one that speaks of born first is Hebrews 11:28, and that’s when in Hebrews 11—and they’re recounting how the firstborn of Egypt died. The firstborn sons of Egypt—they were killed in the Exodus, in the Passover. They passed over the Israelites if you had the blood on the doorpost.

 

So those two are just talking about who was born first. Those are the two human references to someone born first out of the eight times.

 

Three times the word *prototokos* is used to describe the **heir**. Okay? And these are all in reference now to Christ.

 

Let’s look at one. And I’ll give you another passage that doesn’t use it that shows you the same idea.

 

Once you write that down, then I want you to turn to Colossians 1.

 

Colossians 1—let’s start in verse 15.

 

Heir. You know what heir means, right? Heir means, in an ancient Near Eastern society, the heir was the firstborn. That’s why that whole thing with the redhead and the heel-grabbing—you know, slimy, underhanded, deceiving brother—the whole thing about the birthright was so important because that went to the firstborn. The secondborn didn’t get it. Firstborn was the heir. He gets the inheritance. He is the one that’s set because the family gives him the family wealth.

 

That’s gone now, much to the chagrin of my firstborn, who’s read the Bible and realizes it’s not quite fair that he has to split everything with his brother. But I tell him there’s not a lot, and there probably won’t be much left, so don’t worry about it.

 

Colossians 1:15. That was a stall to give you time to find that.

 

You found it, right?

 

“He is the image,” speaking now of Christ, obviously, “of the invisible God.”

 

Okay.

 

He is—now circle this—the *prototokos* 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.

 

So he creates everything, but he’s called the firstborn of all creation.

 

Now I could go to dozens of passages, but I put down Hebrews 1 as one example, and it uses a different word—which is the same idea in an ancient Near Eastern society of the firstborn.

 

Hebrews 1—you know the first verse:

 

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us in but in these last days he has spoken to us in his Son, whom he appointed—here it comes—**heir** of all things, through whom also he created the world.

 

He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature—which, by the way, God’s nature had a beginning, right? Help me with this. No. Can’t be the exact representation of nature if what firstborn means is that he had a beginning.

 

Didn’t have a beginning, because he is the exact representation of his nature.

 

And 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, having become much, much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

 

Everything is made for him, Colossians 1:15. If everything is made for him, or he is the heir of all things and the creator of all things, then that is the point: that Christ will be the one who has all glory, all submission—all, as the Scriptures like to say, glory, majesty, honor, wealth, and riches will all be to him. Everything is for him. He is the heir. The universe is the stuff. You people are part of the treasure, and you are all for him.

 

He’s the heir.

 

And the way to say that in an ancient Near Eastern culture is to say *prototokos*. You’re the heir.

 

1 Corinthians 15, I think, is another one. When everything is done and all the enemies have been put under his feet, then—right—he has this everything. And then even in that text, having had everything, being the heir of all things, everything put under him, now he delivers everything to the glory of God the Father and offers it up to him.

 

Heir.

 

*Prototokos*. So when you get to *prototokos*, ask: are we talking about “born first”? Only two passages that do that.

 

Heir—there’s three occurrences.

 

One more section and one more category—three occurrences—and I’ll just transliterate this word: **prototype**.

 

And if you still have Colossians open, let’s keep reading. We stopped at verse 17. Let’s read verse 18.

 

Prototype. Can you see where if you take the word *prototokos* and you transliterate it, you have the word **prototype**—the prototype.

 

Okay. Could that be? Let’s look at this.

 

Verse 18: After all those things that he is—the firstborn of all creation, the heir of all things, everything belongs to him, made everything, everything was made by him or through him and for him—he is, verse 18, the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning and the *prototokos* from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.

 

Question: did he rise from the dead before anybody else rose from the dead? Answer: no. Then what are you talking about?

 

He is the *prototokos* of those risen from the dead. 1 Corinthians 15—that’s what it’s all about. You’re going to have as the prototype of the resurrection Christ. Lazarus was risen from the dead before him, right? No, but Christ is the prototype—the *prototokos*. He is the template of all who will rise incorruptible. He’s the prototype.

 

Prototype.

 

*Prototokos*—born first, two times.

 

*Prototokos*—in context, look at it—heir of all things. *Prototokos*—three times.

 

He is the prototype.

 

Another one we studied not too long ago, it’s worth looking at, is Romans 8.

 

Romans 8.

 

And as you’re turning to Romans 8, just know that in 1 Corinthians 15 you’ll find another word that they use. Instead of *prototokos*, they use the word **firstfruits**. Instead of the firstborn, he’s called the firstfruits of those who rise from—same idea. The firstfruits are the sample. You bring the firstfruits to show what the rest of the crop looks like. Christ was the prototype from the dead.

 

“Oh, that means he had a beginning.” That’s what the guys who knock on your door on Saturdays will say. “Hey, how did we get it? Firstborn?” No, no, no. Eight? You tell them, throw this one out. “Oh, you’re talking about *prototokos*?” *Prototokos.* Yeah. Used eight times in the New Testament. Twice for born first, three for the heir, and three for the prototype.

 

You know what they’ll do? They’ll say, “Oh, we’ve got to get our elder and come back another day. Sorry, we’ve got to go now.” That’s what they’ll do.

 

And that’s how it works, by the way. They come to your door, they tag-team for the big shot, the elder will come. And then if you wrestle with the elder a little bit, then they stop coming.

 

They do. They’ll mark your house. There’s an X on it, and there’s files somewhere, and they go on.

 

So if you’re tired of getting interrupted on Saturday morning, just have this discussion about *prototokos*. It should be over pretty quick.

 

Is this taped, this message? All right. It’s all right. Bring it on.

 

Romans 8—is that what I said? 29.

 

Here’s the word again, *prototokos*, used in reference to prototype:

 

For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the *prototokos* among many brothers.

 

What’s the context? Well, it’s not resurrection here. It’s a conformity to the image of his Son. It’s sanctification. He’s the prototype of godliness. We always talk about being Christ-like. You could use the word *prototokos* there if you’d like: the prototype of godliness.

 

We are all supposed to be looking more and more like Christ—transformed, as Paul said to the Corinthians, from one level of glory to another level, reflecting more perfectly the face of Christ in my life. The *prototokos*.

 

So don’t stumble over the word firstborn. Is that helpful?

 

Because you read that word, you think, “Oh, that means he was created first,” and I thought he wasn’t created. No. He’s not created. He’s not a created being. He is the exact representation of the nature of God, which has no beginning. He claims, “Before Abraham was born, he was the all-existing one.” He’s the first and the last, the beginning and the end. He was, he is, and he is to come. He’s the ever-existing, always-existing one.

 

That’s how he’s presented in Scripture.

 

Firstborn—you need to understand in its context, historically, grammatically, and you’ll recognize we’re not talking about, you know, God gave birth to him in, you know, some day before creation.

 

## Old Testament Passages

 

A couple other passages, just to bring this home to you a little bit more—some Old Testament passages. These are fascinating.

 

So let’s turn to two of them. I won’t turn you to Habakkuk, but you can write it down.

 

Micah 5:2—you should be familiar with that—back to some Christmas verses. And they’re Christmas verses because they’re talking about the incarnation. But they describe the incarnation, or they describe the one who’s being incarnate, and the way they do it is interesting.

 

Micah 5:2—which some people may argue with, but that’s why I put Habakkuk 1:12. I’ll read Habakkuk 1:12 as you find Micah 5:2.

 

Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah—the sixth minor prophet. You can find it. One day you’ll take those tabs off. They’re like training wheels. At some point, you take them off.

 

No, it’s good to take them off. You still got—how many got tabs? You’re not going to raise your hand at this point, are you?

 

And I say, “But it’s faster.” It’s faster. My daughter, fight—taking off the training wheels too. I know. Hard, but it should come off at some point.

 

Equal opportunity offender tonight.

 

Micah 5:2. Are you there?

 

I was there five minutes ago, Pastor Mike.

 

Okay. Verse 2:

 

But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah—and I think part of that is, hey, he’s going to call the city that the Messiah is born from, and I’m not going to pick L.A., New York, or Chicago. We’re going to pick a very small little town, one that not much happens in.

 

From you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel.

 

2 Samuel 7—there it is. The Davidic covenant: the son of David, who is also called the Lord of David—that one is coming.

 

Whose coming forth is of old, from ancient days.

 

I guess I should have put Daniel 9 on here as well, or Daniel 7. But the Ancient of Days—the concept is not that, hey, he got started in ancient days, but like Habakkuk 1:12 says—it’s speaking now of Yahweh, God the Father here specifically—it says:

 

“Are you not from everlasting, O Lord…?”

 

Same phraseology, same idiomatic usage of this concept of from of old or from ancient days.

 

The idea here is that Micah 5:2—this was no ordinary kid being born. And certainly, even if we just start with preexistence, that’s weird. He has an origin from before he was born, but he’s described as being from ancient days.

 

And some of you say, “That wasn’t very convincing.” How about this one? Isaiah 9:6, as long as we’re in Old Testament Christmas passages.

 

Isaiah 9:6.

 

You know this by heart. My seventh grader—my seven-year-old—knows this by heart from the Christmas musical two years ago. I mean, they sang it a hundred times.

 

“For unto us…” and you know it—it’s on your Christmas card last year.

 

“For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulders.”

 

That was the idea of the Davidic king—the king of David, the king of Israel, the ruler from ancient days.

 

And his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, and then Prince of Peace.

 

What’s the one I skipped? Wow.

 

It’s not what you call the kid. Yeah—the kid born in Bethlehem who would be the ruler whose government would rest on his shoulders. In the increase of his government and of his peace there shall be no end. And on the throne of David and over his kingdom, he’s going to establish and uphold it with justice and righteousness forevermore.

 

Well, he is called the Eternal Father. Scratch your head on that if you’re not coming up with something that looks like classic Christology—one who has existed from all time.

 

## New Testament Examples

 

How about New Testament examples? Back of the page, back of the worksheet.

 

Just two—and we could spend a lot of time going through New Testament passages on this—but this one’s classic. And this has definitely made you scratch your head at one point or another. I know it has.

 

Because I’ve read Exodus, and then I read 1 Corinthians, and I’m thinking, “Wait a minute here. I don’t remember that.”

 

Let’s just get some context. Verse 1—1 Corinthians 10:1.

 

For I want you to know, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud and passed through the sea. That’s the parting of the Red Sea. That’s the whole cloud leading them. They were all baptized into Moses—we’re not talking about a ritual here, but that was their leader, their human leader—in the cloud and in the sea, right?

 

They all ate the same spiritual food and they all drank from the same spiritual drink. They all drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them. Okay—past tense—they drank from the spiritual rock. And that rock was…

 

I mean, that’s weird. They drank from Christ? What are you talking about?

 

Well, I’m not exactly sure what I’m talking about, but I’m talking about the fact that whatever they were doing there—being sustained in the desert as they marched out of Egypt—they had some spiritual sustenance there. And the New Testament author, right, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit—God-breathed text—says that was Christ.

 

And I’ve read Exodus, and I don’t read about Christ in there. Or do I? We’ll look at a little bit of that in a minute.

 

But that’s an interesting thing to say.

 

Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.

 

Drop down to verse 9. We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents. This is 10:9 now.

 

We must not put Christ to the test as some of them did.

 

What? How did they put Christ to the test? Christ wasn’t there. Or was he?

 

See, that’s the point. He was.

 

The triune God was in the desert with the children of Israel. They were sustained somehow by Christ. And when they sinned, they were testing Christ—just like you and I can test Christ.

 

Well, that’s because he’s living in heaven today. I get it. But you’re not walking around with Christ every day. But we talk about a walk with Christ. Well, they may not have been really clear, but the back—you know, what do they call it? Hindsight’s 20/20. That’s what I’m trying to say.

 

You look back on it, and from New Testament days they say, “Wow. Christ. Christ was there. They were testing Christ. They drank from Christ.”

 

That’s a great passage. Maybe you haven’t slowly read that enough to see that—ah—it’s powerful.

 

Hebrews 13:8—you know this one. You don’t need to turn there. Jot it down though:

 

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

 

Those words—yesterday, right? He’d long since been— we’re not talking about 24-hour days here. Forever means forever. He’s always the same.

 

And he was same before, and he’s the same today, and he’s the same forever.

 

There’s an immutability to the character of Christ. And if he is stated to always exist—if he’s the same forever—and he was the same then, he’s the same now—you’ve got a lot in Scripture about the preexistence of Christ.

 

Okay, but I want to know what he was up to.

 

What was Christ doing before the incarnation?

 

That’s the interesting question. All right, let’s deal with that.

 

## What Was Christ Doing Before the Incarnation?

 

John—I’ll try to keep these all, except for one, right in a tight spot here.

 

Keep your finger in 1 Corinthians 10 because I do want to go back there real quick—or I’ll just recall it to you, remember?

 

John 1—not 1 John—John 1. Let’s re-look at this text. We’ve already looked at it, but let’s figure this out.

 

“In the beginning was the Word.” I already told you clearly verse 14, that’s talking about Christ. “And the Word was with God. And the Word was God.” Verse 2: “He was in the beginning with God.”

 

That’s like a lot of statements in Scripture that use the phrase beginning. We’re talking about an eternity past, like 1 John 1:1.

 

What’s the point?

 

Well, whatever it is, he’s with God.

 

We know that in the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God. The Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. So I know this: before the incarnation, I know he was with God.

 

And here’s the thing about a holy God and a holy Son: they get along really well. They fellowship perfectly together. And everything’s rosy. It’s great.

 

That’s why God is described in Scripture—and this is the way we like to describe it, at least the way I like to—some theologians like to call it this: it’s a divine fellowship, a triune fellowship. Father, Son, Holy Spirit existed in all time. They didn’t need us to express love. They didn’t need us to have company. They didn’t need us for relationship. God is a self-existing, eternal, triune relationship.

 

So I know the Son was with God before his incarnation, and enjoying—I don’t know how that looks or what that means—but it means that they’re together, and things are good, and they’re expressing to one another in the Godhead something perfect. We’ll call it a fellowship.

 

Next verse:

 

“All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.”

 

The moon, Saturn, right? The universes, the galaxies, the Milky Way, the planet, the concept of water, air, photons, H2O—whatever was made, he was busy making it, right?

 

So I know this: before the incarnation, Christ was, here’s how he put it, the agent of creation. All things were made through him. He was actively involved, as was the Spirit. We learn that in Genesis 1. God the Father, if you will, the architect. And you’ve got Christ—I don’t know what this looks like, I don’t know how it pans out in a movie or a documentary, but he’s creating.

 

It all takes place instantaneously. I get that. With a word of his mouth, he creates something out of nothing with an appearance in history of age it never had. He does that, but the Son was involved in that, because without him was not anything made that has been made.

 

So he’s creating the world.

 

Well, that didn’t take long. I know. But he was involved. There’s a week of his preexistence at least. So write that down.

 

John 1:4—that’s what I’m trying to say. I don’t want to stretch this too far, but it’s right there, and I think it certainly is complementary to other statements that are much clearer. But look at verse 4 there. It says:

 

“In him was life, and the life was the light of men.”

 

In him was life, and the life was the light of men.

 

Okay?

 

I assume you could narrow that down and start being exclusive about what that meant and what kind of life. But let’s put it this way: he was sustaining the world.

 

And if you don’t think we can get it from there, I know we can get it from a passage we already read, Colossians 1:15–18, which said: he created everything, visible, invisible, thrones, dominion, power, authority—doesn’t matter. All things were created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

 

See, we’re not deists. We don’t believe that God wound up the universe, made it, and walked away.

 

So this is more than a week of his past. He made the world, had great fellowship with the Father and the Spirit, makes the world—everything has been made. He was involved in making it, and then he sustains it.

 

When it says he breathed in the breath of life—whatever that meant—the life was in Christ, and Christ was giving life. And he is, according to Colossians 1:17, sustaining life.

 

And when statements like in Acts 17, when Paul’s preaching to the Athenians in Greece, and he says, “In him we live and move and have our being,” well, specifically, Christ is the one who is holding things together.

 

And I know you can get trippy into quantum mechanics and, you know, all this bizarre stuff. But, I mean, Heisenberg’s principle of uncertainty—you’ve read about that? There are things about the universe that don’t quite make sense.

 

And I’m not saying he’s the God of the gaps—you know, whatever we don’t understand must be God—but I do know that things don’t quite work right, according to the Bible, unless Christ is actively involved in sustaining those things.

 

So he’s busy sustaining the world.

 

Colossians 1:15–18.

 

1 Corinthians 10:4—you’ve already read this. We read it just recently. Whatever we learn from that weird passage, we know that when they were sustained in the desert, they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ.

 

Didn’t mean he followed them in the desert, but he followed them in time—chronologically the incarnation.

 

But the one that sustained them, the one they drank from, was Christ. And then in the desert, when they were interacting with God, apparently the one they were testing was Christ.

 

So I know that when it comes to trying to be the energy, the source, the sustainer—and the interaction, and the testing, and the sin, and the falling short—that was Christ.

 

He was ministering to the world. He wasn’t just physically sustaining the uncertainty of atomic matter; he was ministering in the crisis in the desert.

 

And you can pick another one: Christ was involved. He was ministering the world.

 

Well, how was that?

 

Well, according to 1 Corinthians 10, it’s described in some broad strokes, but something was going on there.

 

And then there’s this whole thing that gets real interesting that maybe makes it much more visible.

 

There are these weird passages about **the angel of the Lord**.

 

## The Angel of the Lord

 

The angel of the Lord. You ready for this? Two of you? All right, let’s get into it.

 

The angel of the Lord.

 

Angel—*malak*, Hebrew; *angelos*, Greek. They mean messenger. A messenger.

 

An angel—etymologically—what does the word mean? It means someone who is a designated, sent representative. A messenger, an ambassador—a dispatched ambassador who comes and represents another.

 

Now there’s a whole class of those. Learn all about those—well, we haven’t yet here, but you know about them—there’s angels. You’re right, there’s a whole class of them.

 

And if you’re talking about Christ, I’ve got to be very clear: Hebrews chapter 1—the whole chapter—is about Christ is better than angels. He’s not an angel.

 

Jesus—no matter what the Adventists might say, or no matter what the JWs might say—he’s not an angel, okay? That’s what Hebrews 1 is all about. They are ministering spirits. Christ is the Son.

 

To what angel did he ever say, right, “Sit at my right hand till I make all your enemies a footstool for your feet”?

 

He didn’t do that for angels.

 

So, by nature, ontologically, he’s not an angel. Jesus is not an angel. Okay?

 

And clearly—you know where we’re going with this—angel of the Lord might… is that a Christophany?

 

Well, I know not all angelic appearances in the Old Testament are Christ. Not all Old Testament appearances of the angel of the Lord—or any angel—is Christ.

 

Why?

 

Because I can read about the fact that it’s not.

 

The book of Daniel is interesting because he starts naming names for these angels. There’s a real hot-shot angel named Michael, right? Just thought we’d let that word resonate in the room for a while. Michael.

 

There’s another one mentioned in Daniel named Gabriel.

 

Now, they got names. They got unique, identifiable personalities. There’s Michael, and then there’s another one over here, an angel, and this one’s the prince of your people over here.

 

So we know angels are not all Christ. And I know that Christ really isn’t even by nature an angel. I know that. The Bible’s clear on that.

 

Jude 9, even—there’s another one. Michael the archangel. Just thought I’d drop another Michael passage. Jude 9—there’s only one chapter—contends with the devil, disputes about the body of Moses.

 

So we’ve got a lot of activity in angels in the Old Testament, and clearly that’s a guy named—but not a guy—an angel named Michael.

 

But, letter D: Christ may have served in an angelic role.

 

It’s the difference between role and nature—ontology and function. Christ is not an angel. But there are some passages, which we’re going to look at, that lead us to maybe say, maybe Christ served in an angelic role.

 

We need a whole other slide for this.

 

Christ may have served in an angelic role, okay?

 

Angel of the Lord.

 

There are 67 references in the Old Testament to the angel of the Lord—67 references to this phrase, and all of them are “the angel of the Lord,” not “an angel of the Lord.” 67 references to that.

 

Okay?

 

Now, some of them, as we’ll see, clearly distinguished from a Christophany. Others of them though start to look like Christophanies—or at least the theophany—but something’s going on there that’s weird because it’s not like Michael or Gabriel or any other, you know, nameless angel messenger that Christ is better than.

 

And we start to have something going on in these passages that looks really weird.

 

Okay, let’s go to Genesis 22. Let’s start there.

 

Genesis chapter 22.

 

We know that Christ in general is depicted in Scripture as ministering to the world before the incarnation.

 

Could these be specific historic references to Christ before he put on permanent human flesh?

 

Could it be that these are manifestations of Christ before the incarnation, serving in an angelic role under the title, the angel of the Lord?

 

Genesis 22—you know the passage? Abraham, Isaac, altar, knife.

 

But the angel of the Lord, verse 11, calls to Abraham from heaven. And he said, “Abraham, Abraham.” And he said, “Here am I.”

 

Verse 12: And he said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing that you have not withheld your son, your only son, from him.”

 

Is that what it says? Correct me if I’m wrong.

 

Ah, probably just typo. It’s a typo.

 

Well, in the typo—this has been checked several times—you have not withheld your son, your only son, from… well, you’re an angel. Yeah, I know.

 

Welcome to the weird world of possible Christophanies in discussions about the angel.

 

What are you talking about “from me”? You just said, “Now I know that you fear God.” That seems like a third-person reference. And now you’re kicking it into first-person references: “You’ve not withheld your son from me.”

 

Were you the one who asked me to take my son? I thought that was Yahweh, the Lord.

 

And by the way, when I say Yahweh—angel of the Lord—you do know, and I didn’t put it in all caps, but all caps is the reference to the 7,000-plus references or occurrences of the proper name of God, Yahweh.

 

So God—Yahweh—there’s two Hebrew words translated Lord in your Bible. This is reviewed for most of you, so you can relax. But if it’s new for you, you need to know it.

 

When you see the word Lord in your Old Testament, it’s either the word *Adonai*, Hebrew word, or it’s the word Yahweh.

 

When it’s Adonai, it’s capital L, small o, small r, small d.

 

When it’s Yahweh, it’s capital L, small cap O, small cap R, small cap D. It’s a special little type font.

 

And every time you see that, you know it’s the proper name of God. Angel of Yahweh—proper name of God.

 

Angel of Yahweh says, “I know you fear God because you haven’t withheld your son from me.” That’s not how Michael generally talks. It certainly isn’t how Gabriel talks. And I think we’ve got something weird going on here.

 

Go back to Genesis 16.

 

And if you get there, because you’re real close, you can write this down. Oh, by the way—back to one. Another imperfect section of an imperfect message from an imperfect preacher.

 

So, okay, go back.

 

Angel of the Lord—56 times in the Old Testament.

 

I said 67 times in the Old Testament. I’m wrong. I am. 56 times in the Old Testament.

 

Eleven of those references are in the Greek New Testament, and every time it’s a Greek New Testament reference, it is clearly not Christ and there’s no confusion. And usually without a definite article, which means in Greek it’s an indefinite article, which is—because it’s before a vowel—“an angel of the Lord.”

 

Old Testament—we see mostly “the angel of the Lord.” New Testament—we see “an angel of the Lord,” with the exception of Matthew, which clearly in the context is just referring to an angel of the Lord, and then it says, “and the angel of the Lord said,” so it’s talking about an angel of the Lord.

 

So 11 occurrences in the New Testament are not in any way confusing us.

 

It’s the 56 references in the Old Testament, and it’s about, you know, a half of those start to get weird.

 

Okay, what we’re talking about in Genesis 22 is that he speaks in the first person as God.

 

And you’ve turned to Genesis 16, which is another example of this.

 

I’m going to read verses 7 and following. Genesis 16:7:

 

The angel of the Lord found her by a spring—talking about Hagar now—in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur. And he said, “Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?”

 

And she said, “I am fleeing from my mistress Sarai,” who would later be called Sarah.

 

The angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress and submit to her.”

 

And the angel of the Lord also said to her, “I will surely multiply your offspring.”

 

Now that’s interesting. That’s the kind of thing you’d think God would do, but it seems like, well, it could be an angel maybe delegated with that task—so that they cannot be numbered for multitude. There’s too many of them.

 

Verse 11: The angel of the Lord said to her, “Behold, you are pregnant and shall bear a son, and you shall call his name Ishmael, because the Lord has listened to your affliction.”

 

And he shall be a wild donkey of a man, his hand against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he shall dwell over and against all of his kinsmen.

 

Now Moses is writing verse 13, right?

 

So she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, “You are a God of seeing,” for she said, “Truly, I have seen him who looks after me.”

 

Who looks after her?

 

Is this her guardian angel? No—just called her God.

 

And Moses said she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her—clearly identified, though, as the angel of the Lord.

 

The angel of the Lord now is speaking, and now Moses said it was the Lord who spoke to her. And Hagar says, “God, you are a God of seeing.”

 

Angel of the Lord—God—blurred here. Pretty badly blurred.

 

Now, you should put as a footnote this: I’m saying the angel of the Lord spoke in the first person. That is not every 56 references in the Old Testament. There are several.

 

If you want an example, I don’t have one. There are many, but I didn’t… I thought I had one for you. But there are several where it’s clearly speaking of the Lord in the third person.

 

Yeah—another imperfect part of an imperfect sermon, an imperfect pastor.

 

Number three: he is referred to as Yahweh.

 

Maybe you’ve read this passage many, many times, and you’ve read it too fast.

 

Let’s read it slowly. And you’re going to find something here perhaps you’ve not seen. Maybe you’ve seen it. But perhaps you haven’t.

 

So let’s look at this one now. This is Exodus chapter 3. Why don’t you jot that down?

 

Now we know angel of the Lord is the angel of Yahweh, but now he’s actually called Yahweh. And that’s super weird.

 

Exodus 3.

 

For context, let’s get verse 1. Read it slowly and see what happens.

 

Verse 1—Exodus 3:1:

 

Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian. And he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.

 

And—here’s our phrase—the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush.

 

Oh! Now you’ve read that fast all of your life, haven’t you?

 

Who was speaking to him out of the bush? God.

 

No, no, no. According to this text, he’s identified clearly as the angel of the Lord.

 

Out of the burning bush, the angel of the Lord appears to him in a flame of fire in the midst of the bush.

 

And he looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed.

 

Drop down to verse 8. I mean, still—and you just, to keep me honest, you look through those verses. Verses 3 through 7—we’re still in the same conversation. And now first-person pronouns—they come up again.

 

Verse 8:

 

“And I have come down to deliver them out of the hand…”

 

Who has? Who’s talking? The angel of the Lord through the bush.

 

“…out of the hand of the Egyptians to bring them to a land that is good and broad, flowing with milk and honey,” blah, blah, blah.

 

Verse 13.

 

Moses said to God—wait a minute, time out. You’re not talking to God. You’re talking to an angel, right? I don’t know. That’s how it started.

 

Now it seems like I’m talking to God, which is really nothing but a ball of fire in a bush, but I’m talking—and I’m talking because I’m saying I’m talking to God.

 

Moses says:

 

If I come to the people now and I say to them, “The God of your fathers has sent me to you,” and they ask, “What is his name?” what shall I say to them?

 

Verse 14:

 

God said to Moses, “I am who I am.”

 

I’m still in the context of the angel of the Lord speaking out of the bush, which, by the way, starts to now maybe pull together that passage where Jesus says to them, “Before Abraham was born, I am.”

 

And we get the proper name of Yahweh from the verb “to be” in Hebrew—I am. It is the word Yahweh.

 

He says here, “Who sent you? I am sent you.”

 

Who’s the I am? Well, God.

 

Well, Christ is claiming to be God.

 

Could it be even that Christ, who claimed that he was the I am, was the one saying he was the I am from the bush?

 

See, you tell me, Pastor Mike.

 

Verse 15:

 

God said to Moses, “Say this to the people: Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.”

 

Go and gather the elders of Israel together and say, “Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, has appeared to me,”

 

Now who appeared to him? Verse number one and two: the angel of the Lord.

 

Saying, “I have observed you and what has been done to you in Egypt.”

 

Who has? The angel of the Lord.

 

You can see where we get to this conclusion, right?

 

Worse yet—let’s go to Judges chapter 13.

 

I say worse—better, whatever—more convincing yet is this, perhaps for you.

 

Judges 13.

 

Here’s the story, the history of the birth of Samson, who would deliver the people from the oppression and enslavement.

 

Manoah had a wife in the field, and the angel of the Lord shows up, starts talking to her about bearing a son, and she didn’t have any.

 

And so Manoah wants the angel to come back, and he comes back. And Manoah, in verse 17, wants to talk to the angel of the Lord about who he is. This is the end of the discussion about raising the kid and no alcohol and don’t shave his head—he’s going to be a Nazirite.

 

Look at verse 17—Judges 13:17:

 

And Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, “What is your name, so that when your words come true we may honor you?”

 

And the angel of the Lord said, “My name is Gabriel.” No. “My name is Michael.” No. “My name is Fred.” No. “I’m not going to give you my name.”

 

Why do you ask me my name, seeing it is wonderful?

 

Woo!

 

I mean, you can’t give me your name, right?

 

The other angels have names. Matter of fact, not just other angels—the archangels have names.

 

What’s your name? “My name is Michael.” What’s your name? “Who said to you? Gabriel.”

 

Here’s the angel of the Lord saying, “Why are you asking me my name, seeing that it is wonderful?”

 

Is it seeing that it is wonderful that now starts to sound like Isaiah 9? Perhaps.

 

Or could it be it’s too mind-blowing for you?

 

Well, then I’m into Revelation: a name which is written on him which no one knows but himself.

 

Either way, I got something too weird to be an angel—or so it seems. Right?

 

Verse 19:

 

So Manoah took the young goat and the grain offering and offered it on the rock to the one who works wonders. Manoah and his wife were watching, and when the flame went up toward heaven from the altar, the angel of the Lord went up in the flame of the altar.

 

Really weird.

 

Now Manoah and his wife were watching, and they fell on their faces to the ground. And the angel of the Lord appeared no more to Manoah and to his wife.

 

Manoah knew that he was the angel of the Lord—which maybe they had a better theology on that than we do, because we’re going, “Who was that?”

 

Verse 22:

 

Manoah said to his wife, “We shall surely die, for we have seen…”

 

the angel of the Lord? Is that what it says?

 

We have seen who?

 

Hmm.

 

Can’t see God.

 

You do understand, though, that Christ is the one we do see—or will see. They saw him. We haven’t seen him yet, but we will see him face to face. That is the exact representation of God. The God incarnate is the one we see. It’s the one who lives and dwells among us in the New Jerusalem.

 

And here is this—the understanding: is this the pre-incarnate Christ?

 

But his wife said to him—this is great—she’s a little reason here, and the frantic husband:

 

“If the Lord had meant to kill us, he would not have accepted the burnt offering or the grain offering from our hands, or shown us all these things, or now announced to us such things as these.”

 

And the woman bore a son and called his name Samson. Young man grew, and on he goes.

 

Joshua.

 

Oh—what I’m saying here is he appears to receive worship. He’s going up in the smoke, and he’s accepting this sacrifice. And you can say, “Well, he’s just kind of doing it on behalf of God.”

 

This one gets worse.

 

And I say worse—more emphatic and more undeniable.

 

Joshua 5.

 

Joshua 5.

 

Are you enjoying any of this? Are you sure?

 

Okay. Because we’re like five levels deep.

 

When I get up here, sometimes I’m like, “Wow, this is not stuff you talk about at Costco.” Or, you know, we’re down in the… we’re in this. And I’m looking at you going, “Okay, you’re into it too?” That’s okay. Good. Because I’m into it.

 

Sometimes I wonder if it’s just me that’s into it.

 

But you’re into it too. Okay, good.

 

Joshua 5—verse 13.

 

This one doesn’t use the appellation or the title “angel of the Lord,” but check it out.

 

Verse 13: When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and he looked—Joshua 5:13—and behold, a man was standing before him with his drawn sword in his hand.

 

And Joshua went to him and said, “Are you for us or for our adversaries?”

 

And he said, “No, but I am the commander of the army of the Lord. Now I have come.”

 

And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and said, “What does my Lord say to his servant?”

 

And the commander of the Lord’s army said to Joshua, “Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.”

 

Does that sound familiar? Does that sound Exodus 3? Yeah, it does.

 

Oh, and the whole worship thing—put in the margin of your Bibles—how about Revelation 19:10 and Revelation 22:8?

 

Revelation 19:10. Revelation 22:8.

 

Two very similar passages where the angel appears, says something, and they fall down to worship the angel, and the angel doesn’t say, “Hey, darn right, take off your sandals.” What does he say?

 

You know your Bible: “Get up. Don’t worship me. I’m just an angel, a minister like you, a servant like you to the Lord.”

 

Throughout the rest of the occurrences of people trying to worship angels, the angels go, “No, no, no, no, no, no—don’t do that.”

 

Here we have this guy, who is designated—I mean, he’s a bizarre person—receiving worship and saying, “Take your sandals off.”

 

The commander of the Lord’s army—the angel of the Lord, though the word’s not used.

 

And with all that said, I should make it clear: he is a distinct person. And we won’t have time to look at all these. I’ll just give you two.

 

How about this? Zechariah 1:12–14.

 

We like that passage a lot in the last year or two. That’s when Joshua—I’m sorry—yeah, Joshua the high priest, post-exilic period—Joshua the high priest is standing there, and the angel of the Lord is interceding before the Lord.

 

Well, the angel of the Lord there is definitely distinct from the Lord, but they’re both accepting worship. They’re both speaking first person as Yahweh.

 

Or how about the one we’ve already quoted—Psalm 110:1: “The Lord says to my Lord, sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool.”

 

David says, “The Lord says to my Lord,” then those are distinctly discussed grammatically.

 

We start to see the picture of the triune God: distinctive persons, one essence.

 

I said two—I’ll give you a third one to write down: Isaiah 63:8–10.

 

You can look that one up because we’re out of time.

 

But I’m going to do a really, really quick end of this.

 

## Melchizedek

 

Seven-point outline—seventhly.

 

What about Melchizedek?

 

That’s a backdoor church, you know, patio question I get a lot.

 

Melchizedek.

 

Why?

 

Because verse 3 of Hebrews 7 says:

 

“He is without father or mother or genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God, he continues a priest forever.”

 

Ooh—forever. No beginning. No end.

 

Ooh—Melchizedek—that’s Christ.

 

No serious student of the Bible is going to reach that conclusion, but a lot of people—the back row Bible readers who aren’t paying attention to the sermon—they read that and they think that must be Christ.

 

Let me give you some reasons it’s not.

 

Genesis 14 presents Melchizedek as a real human priest and king, and talks about him being the priest and the king of Salem, which is ancient Jerusalem, before David or the Jebusites were there. And that is not how we ever see Christophanies taking place. It is not a Christophany. Christophanies—they come, they do their thing, they leave. This guy lived as the king and the priest of Salem, ancient Jerusalem.

 

Psalm 110 talks about this one coming, who’s going to be the ruler. “The Lord says to my Lord,” who now says he’s “a priest according to the order of Melchizedek.” So the priest who’s clearly in that text—that messianic psalm—he’s referred to as Christ, now is said to be of the order of Melchizedek, not the Aaronic priesthood.

 

Because to be a priest, you’ve got to be of Aaron’s line.

 

Now you’ve got a whole other priesthood that doesn’t utilize Aaron’s line, and that’s where Christ is—in that order.

 

If you’re in the order of Melchizedek, you’d seem to think you’re not Melchizedek.

 

Those are the two Old Testament references to Melchizedek: a real human king in Genesis 14.

 

Because he’s a priest, and that’s not how it worked in Israel.

 

When the Messiah comes, he will be a priest according to that order, not Aaron’s order.

 

Hebrews 7 then says—well, the whole point of Hebrews 7 is that Christ is better than Melchizedek. And if you’re better than Melchizedek, you’re probably not Melchizedek, right?

 

Right. If you’re better than Melchizedek, you’re not Melchizedek. Of course not.

 

And because I knew we’d be out of time at this point, just go home and get on the Focal Point website and listen to message 06-31. I preached the whole message on the Melchizedekian priesthood. Actually, there’s three sermons.

 

If you go to our Focal Point website, and you can download all these sermons for free, there’s three messages on Melchizedek in there. The one that will probably be the most helpful to you is 06-31.

 

You may have preached a lot more sermons on Melchizedek than me, but I preached three in the last 10 years or whatever, and there’s one that might be helpful.

 

All right—book of the night, book of the week. Book of the week.

 

Was that too fast? Is that what—are you really? I’m sorry.

 

Which—06-31 is all you got to put under a letter D. You don’t need the words “listen to message.” 06-31. I’m sorry—there’s a lot of good notes being taken there, probably.

 

## Book of the Week

 

Book of the week.

 

I say I give you a book every week. Now don’t go to the bookstore and say, “Where’s the book of the week?” You’d think that you would be able to go to the bookstore and get the book of the week. But these books—and it’s funny because Debbie, the manager of our bookstore, she says, “I don’t get it, but all the books that you want in our bookstore are never available.”

 

And I said, “Well, if I pick bad books, they’d all be in print, but I pick good books, and those seem to be out of print.”

 

My book’s still in print.

 

Here’s one for you though, and it’s coming. We’ve got them on order. They will be in our bookstore. You can just, you know, circumvent all that and just buy it online or whatever.

 

But **Christ Among Other Gods**.

 

I know Urban Lutzer writes a lot of pop stuff, but this is actually a good, solid book about why we can’t just be sloppy about our Christology. So this is a good one for your bookshelf—**Christ Among Other Gods**.

 

You may be familiar with Ravi Zacharias’ book, *Jesus Among Other Gods*. This is not the same book. Christ Among Other Gods by Urban Lutzer—my old pastor—and that’ll be good.

 

Now, I fooled you because there’s really two books. It’s the books of the week.

 

Because you may be saying, “Well, you had a lot of maybes and what-ifs and it looks likes and it could be. You didn’t seem like you even really knew if this was Christ or not.”

 

That’s because I’m really not sure. There’s a lot of passages that I don’t think can—could possibly be.

 

So here’s a guy that is confident, right? James Borland wrote a book called **Christ in the Old Testament**—Old Testament appearances of Christ in human form.

 

Now, I can’t say I’m fully in agreement with his emphatic, convinced—he’s totally convinced. But if you want a guy who’s more certain than your pastor, then James Borland is definitely certain.

 

And Walt Kaiser, who’s been here to our church, wrote the foreword to that. And Boice—and it’s up at Master’s—has endorsed it too.

 

So it’s a good book, and maybe that’ll be helpful.

 

All right, we’re totally out of time, so I’ll see you later.