Isaiah 43:10b-11
Before me no god was formed, nor will there be one after me. I, even I, am the Lord, and apart from me there is no savior.
INTRO:
- We begin a new series today — Keys of John
- Note the purpose for this series.
- To understand the Book of John more deeply by focusing on five fundamental truths from the Gospel.
- To grasp the book’s context and purpose while, more importantly, being equipped to live out/practice as a disciple five of its essential teachings
- Gospel writers purpose/audience
- Matthew wrote with his fellow Jews in mind and emphasized that Jesus came from Abraham through the line of David and had fulfilled the OT prophecies of the Messiah
- Mark wrote for the Romans, he presents Jesus as the Servant who came from Nazareth, ministering to needy people
- Luke wrote for the Greeks and introduced them to the sympathetic Son of Man.
- John, who was known as the beloved disciple, wrote for everyone, both Jews and Gentiles, with purpose of showing the Jesus is the Son of God:
- While the first 3 writers emphasize and describe events (where+what) in the life of Christ — John emphasizes the meaning of those events to reveal WHO JESUS IS.
- One major theme runs throughout John’s gospel:
- But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. John 20:31
- The preamble to John—first 18 verses— is critical for reinforcing the preeminence(supremacy) of Jesus, His pre-existence and His deity.
- The first eighteen verses of John counter many false beliefs about God.
- It is a summation of the entire book
- It is like the overture of an opera or ballet
- Today’s Key: The Preeminence and Lordship of Christ
- Church of the Nazarene – Article of Faith II – Jesus Christ
- 2. We believe in Jesus Christ, the Second Person of the Triune Godhead; that He was eternally one with the Father; that He became incarnate by the Holy Spirit and was born of the Virgin Mary, so that two whole and perfect natures, that is to say the Godhead and manhood, are thus united in one Person very God and very man, the God-man. We believe that Jesus Christ died for our sins, and that He truly arose from the dead and took again His body, together with all things appertaining to the perfection of man’s nature, wherewith He ascended into heaven and is there engaged in intercession for us.
- T.A Noble writes:
- “It is not enough to know doctrines or theories. It is not enough to know practices and follow them. What is at the heart of the faith is to know God. This is not just sub-personal knowledge about God. This is Person-to-person knowledge of God…but to know God it is not enough to be present when the Church gathers, and it is not even enough to know the Bible by heart. Bible and church are essential. But God’s self-revelation is centered in the Person of his beloved Son, the Word made flesh. We ‘come to the Father through Jesus, the Son.’”
(SLIDE) John 1:1-5
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
- 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning.
- “In the beginning”
- This refers to the timeless eternity of Genesis 1:1 (In the beginning, God created the heavens and earth).
- ‘was the Word’
- Gr. logos – The idea of the logos had deep and rich roots in both Jewish and Greek thinking.
- i. Jewish rabbis often referred to God (especially in His more personal aspects) in terms of His word. They spoke of God Himself as “the word of God.” For example, ancient Hebrew editions of the Old Testament change Exodus 19:17 (Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God) to “Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet the word of God.” In the mind of the ancient Jews, the phrase “the word of God” could be used to refer to God Himself.
- ii. The Greek philosophers saw the logos as the power that puts sense into the world, making the world orderly instead of chaotic. The logos was the power that set the world in perfect order and kept it going in perfect order. They saw the logos as the “Ultimate Reason” that controlled all things.
- Verse 1 establishes that the universe had a beginning, contrary to the idea that it is eternal.
- It also states that God has existed from that beginning.
- Later verses will show that God, in fact, created all that exists. This verse also makes it noticeably clear that this Logos, Jesus, is identical to the Creator: the Word was God.
Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
- The Word created ALL things that were created. Therefore He Himself is an uncreated Being, as the Apostle Paul wrote in Colossians 1:16:
- (SLIDE) Colossians 1:16
- 16 For in him (referring to Jesus) all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him.
- And the writer of Hebrews wrote:
- (SLIDE) Hebrews 1:1-3
- In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. 3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.
- That the New Testament is full of references to the preeminence and divinity of Christ is difficult to deny.
Romans 9:1-5
9 I speak the truth in Christ—I am not lying, my conscience confirms it through the Holy Spirit— 2 I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people, those of my own race, 4 the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption to sonship; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. 5 Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of the Messiah, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen.
Colossians 2:9-10
9 For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, 10 and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority.
Titus 2:13
13 while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ,
Philippians 2:5-7
5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature[a] God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 7 rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature[b] of a servant, being made in human likeness.
Revelation 2:8
8 “To the angel of the church in Smyrna write: These are the words of him who is the First and the Last, who died and came to life again.
- Jesus is not only seen as the Messiah (or Christ) but also equated with God Himself.
- Jesus repeatedly placed Himself in the place of Yahweh by assuming the Father’s divine prerogatives. He was often doing and saying things that only God has a right to do and say.
- C.S. Lewis
- “The doctrine of Christ’s divinity seems to me not something stuck on which you can unstick but something that peeps out at every point so that you’d have to unravel the whole web to get rid of it.”
- OPPOSITION
- With all of this — the powers of this present world seek to find every way to deceive men and women, boys and girls, into believing that Jesus is not God — he wasn’t who John clearly says he is in John 1
- To claim that Jesus is not God makes Christianity a house of cards — it is this reality coupled with the reality of the resurrection that makes the Gospel such incredible news for you and I!
- The culture and many other faith based groups will challenge your truth claims about Christ Jesus
- Muslims
- Mormons
- Jehovah Witness
- Deist
- Atheist
- State of Theology 2022 (Ligonier Ministries + LifeWay Research)
- The survey revealed an increase in evangelicals who:
- Believe God is pleased with worship that comes from outside the Christian faith
- Deny Jesus divinity
- Believe the Bible is not literally true for us
- Believe that religious faith is a subjective experience rather than an objective reality.
- Most religions and people in general are ok with Jesus as:
- A wise teacher that lived and taught a good moral LIFE
- One inspirational man showing a part of the truth that makes up a small part of the many paths to TRUTH.
- A great prophet
- A created creature and lesser ‘divine being’ then God himself
- A way to gain knowledge, and goodness, and “love”, and your best life.
- But it all changes when you declare Jesus EXCLUSIVELY as LORD:
- The WAY
- The TRUTH
- The LIFE
- BOTTOM LINE:
- JESUS IS GOD IN THE FLESH—HE IS PREEMINENT—HE IS THE LORD—HE IS ETERNAL—HE IS THE CENTER OF ALL OF CREATION
- “Observed C.S. Lewis, the brilliant and once skeptical Cambridge University professor who was eventually won over by the evidence for Jesus,
- ‘I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about him: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher… You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God; or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool … or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God.’”
- If Jesus is who he claims to be, then your conclusions about him, one way or the other, speak more of who you are than anything else.
- You can’t change what is true.
- You can only change your orientation to the truth.
- So, who do YOU say that Jesus is?
- If you claim today that Jesus Christ is the center of your existence then the evidence of your life should reflect that reality
- Matthew Henry
- “In John we learn to put our faith in Christ as the eternal Son of God, and the true Messiah and Savior of the world, that we may be brought to receive him, and rely upon him, as our Prophet, Priest, and King, and to give up ourselves to be ruled, and taught, and saved by him.”
Colossians 1:15-20
15 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.