Preexistence of Jesus (Part 1)

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2 verse 5 where the Apostle Paul said, "...but we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.".

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

Why Christology Matters and Why Jesus Is Central

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, my name is Mike Abendroth, and I like the day outside so far. Weirdly humid, funkily sunny. October, fall, autumn, leaves changing, leaves dying, orange, red, yellow, purple haze.

What's up for today? Well, don't forget you can find some YouTubes at No Compromise Radio's site on YouTube. No Compromise, maybe radio or 90, don't know, they're not 90 seconds fully anymore. I had such a hard time trying to figure out how to get them exactly 90 seconds, I had to do quite a few takes, that sweatshirt on and all that stuff with the hoodie evangelism.

So now they're just, when I'm done, I'm done, but they try to stay around two, three, four minutes for the attention spans of the listeners, of the watchers, of the viewers. Wasn't there a show called The Watchers, The Viewers or something?

Speaking of shows, why did Shyamalan Night have so many good shows and then now so many bad ones? I don't know. Okay. I think about his shows during these spooky Halloween times. Get Fed Online asked me to teach a Christology class, and it was my pleasure to do.

Well, I haven't done it yet, it starts tonight, but this is No Compromise Radio time, not real time. And so I'm thinking a lot about who Jesus is, and Christology, and I want to talk about him, Jesus, on the show today.

Every pastor has hobby horses, every person has a hobby horse, says, have hobby horses. And what those are, I think should reflect scripture. So I hope when I'm dead and gone, I hope even now while I'm alive and present, if you said, well, what's Mike always talk about?

Yeah, well, he talks about mysticism a lot. That's true. But even before that, he talks about, and by the way, when I talk about mysticism, then I talk about Sola Scriptura too. But I hope the two strings on the guitar that I can constantly and continually strum would be the person and work of Christ.

That's guitar string one. I haven't strung a guitar for years, since I was 12 years old and sang Leaving on a Jet Plane, solo, recital, Omaha Orpheum, no, it's probably some other little podunk place.

And I also like to talk about what? I talk a lot about Jesus. And probably the second thing I talk about a lot is the sovereignty of God. So I like those topics. I hope you like those topics. And why do I talk about them a lot?

Well, they just continue to show themselves in scripture. So we teach verse by verse on Sunday mornings here, Sunday nights. And when you teach verse by verse, you have the perfect ratio. If your church is not an expositionally based church that is sequential exposition, then it's hard for the pastor to try to figure out how many sermons on love, how many on wrath, how many on justice, how many on, and the list goes on.

But if you just go verse by verse, then there's a perfect proportion of sermons for every topic because you're just teaching what the Bible teaches. And so I want to talk about Jesus for lots of reasons.

I could give you one. He's at the very center of history, whether you look at your calendar or not, or you like BCE, BC, AD, Jesus is the central figure of all human history. Of all people, Horace Bushnell said it would be easier to untwist all the beams of light in the sky and to separate and erase one of the primary colors than to get the character of Jesus out of the world.

And so he's a very important figure in world history, the most important. Additionally, I want to study Jesus and talk to you about who Jesus is on No Compromise Radio because he's the center of the Bible.

Jesus in the Old Testament and the Center of Scripture

So he's not only the center and focus of all of the world and history, but also of scripture. And you know these verses, what did Jesus say to them? Emmaus wrote, these are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms concerning me.

So the central theme of the Old Testament is Jesus. And it doesn't take much reading, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, the gospel of Jesus according to those four men, acts of Jesus's messenger, the Holy Spirit, epistles from Romans through Jude, talking about the theological implications of who God is, who the son of God is, and then the book of Revelation, an uncovering or a unveiling of the second person of the Trinity.

Jesus also said in John 5, you search the scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life. And these are they which testify of me. So we want to study Jesus because yes, he's our savior. He's our Lord.

He's our sin bearer. He's our substitute. He's our mediator. He's our advocate. He's our friend. He's our king. See, there's lots of different things that he is. It's pretty amazing to think about, isn't it?

But he's also the center of history and he's the center of the Bible. And as I said to the students at Christology class, or as I will say to them, when you think of all the other disciplines in theology, how is Jesus related to them?

So for instance, theology proper, study of God, he is a person of the Godhead, right? He's a member of the Godhead. If you think of soteriology, the doctrine of salvation, well, you have to think about the work of Christ.

That's an easy one. Anthropology. Well, how does Jesus fit in to anthropology as a theological topic? Well, we know we're depraved and you've got to have a man to save a man. So Jesus adds human flesh, right?

He adds human nature. How about pneumatology? Pneumatology, the spirit, the study of the spirit. L-O-G is for word. We get the word word, logic, ology, logos, the Holy Spirit is the personal, just like, if you want to use the words of John's gospel, a personal representative of Jesus.

Ecclesiology, well, whose church is this? Whenever I say something about my church, I try to quickly correct myself because I don't like to talk about my church because I don't have a church. I have a family, I have all kinds of other things, but this is not my church.

I didn't save anyone. I didn't redeem anyone. I didn't seal anyone. I didn't gift anyone. I can't convict anyone, ultimately. It's the scripture's work through the Holy Spirit. And so with the ecclesiological view, Jesus is the head of the church, right?

He is the groom of the church. How about eschatology? How would eschatology fit into a study of Christ or the other way around? Well, Jesus is the center of the program of God, and he's the one who's going to return.

He's the one in whom everything is culminated. How about bibliology? Well, that's an easy one because Jesus is the living word and the beginning was the word, John 1, 1. And even angelology, let's throw that in there.

How is Jesus related? Well, he creates angels. He's sovereign over angels. He will judge angels. And so I love to study the person and work of Christ. You just never get tired of seeing who Jesus is in scripture.

The Eternal Son and His Preexistence

So let's talk a little bit first about his pre-incarnation. What was Jesus doing before he was born? Now let's just ask you the question on No Compromise Radio. What were you doing before you were born?

Well, you say, for nine months I was in the womb of my mother and I was kicking, I was sucking my thumb, I was rolling around. Isn't it amazing when you look at your wife's stomach and she's eight months pregnant and it's like you see a heel just push against the side of the stomach and you can just watch it come across and it's just an amazing thing.

So if you say, what were you doing before you were born? Well, I was in my mother's womb. Then let's go a little bit farther back in the direction of eternity past. What were you doing a month before you were conceived?

Now let's just make it easy. A day before you were conceived. A week? A month? You said, you just said that. I know. A year? A decade? A century? A millennium? I'm starting to run out of words that I know the definitions for.

Myriads of myriads. What were you doing when, I don't know, when Alexander the Great took over? What were you doing when Augustine was, or Augustine was fighting the Aryan controversy? What were you doing when Adam was around?

I mean, all right, what were you doing before Genesis 1 -1? That's a good question. Yet with Jesus, He existed forever. He is eternal. Think about it. John 1 -1, in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.

He was in the beginning with God. The language is eternal. The language is eternity. The language is from everlasting. How about Micah 5 -2? But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth the one who is to be the ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from old, from ancient days.

Micah chapter 5. And you know the passage in John chapter 8, verse 58. Jesus said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, okay, before Abraham, remember Abraham? Genesis, before Abraham was, Genesis 12, before Abraham was, Jesus said what?

I am. So Jesus existed before His incarnation. What's another way we know that? Well, because everything was created by Jesus. So even before He was born, whatever was on the earth at that time, whatever stars existed, whatever moons existed, Jesus created them all.

So He had to be around. Now His name might not be Jesus, but the second person of the Trinity, the eternal Son of God. He didn't get the name Jesus till later. So if you say Jesus as Jesus in the Old Testament, well, what people mean is the second person of the Trinity.

But technically, He didn't get the name Jesus until He was given that name, told by God was Joseph to give His Son that name. John 1 -3. All things were made through Him, talking about Jesus and without Him, not anything was anything made that was made.

So it's a way to really exclude everything else, everything, any, anything else, rather everything that was made, Jesus made it like Mary, right? Jesus made Mary. So figure that out. Colossians 1 -16.

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 Jesus and for Jesus. And Hebrews 1 -10.

And you Lord laid the foundations of the earth in the beginning and the heavens are the works of your hands. So He made everything. And by the way, I think this original outline, Gary Gilley might've had it.

If you go to Gary Gilley's site, think on these things, he has a great website, lots of good reviews, books and issues and a keenly aware and astute man regarding evangelical issues, written some good little books as well.

And I think this outline comes from him and he's got a free outline you can get on Christology. And so I want to say upfront, if you say, well, this sounds strangely familiar, like Gary Gilley. Well, that's probably the reason why is because I probably used it.

So anyway, I just, you know, I don't make up anything anyway. It's just all Abendrothizing the material that we have. Hebrews 1 -2. Through whom also He made the world or the ages, literally universe of time and space.

Jesus is God, the son. See now I just said Jesus again. The son was God's agent is what I was after according to FF Bruce in creation. So everything, whether it's matter, or if you like Star Trek, anti-matter, is anti-matter really around?

If anti-matter exists today, Jesus made it. And you say, well, the second person Trinity, the son of God, okay, I get what you mean. He sustains everything as well. Verse three, and upholds all things by the word of his power, holding it.

That's the idea of picking something up and carrying it to one place, carrying it from one place to another. And I love the tense and the tense is an ongoing hands on divinely providential government and preservation by Jesus himself.

See, I just did it again, son of God. So looking back, though, this is what we're going to say, anachronistically, anachronily. I don't know the words. And then what about in the Old Testament? When the angel of the Lord shows up, what do you find?

Who do you find that to be? Who is that? Well, I think it's Jesus, right? It's the second person of the Trinity, the son of God. It's what we call a theophany, generally, Theo, God, epiphaneia means to shine forth or to appear.

And more specifically, we'd call it a what? A Christophany. That's what we would say a Christophany, an Old Testament appearance of the son of God or an Old Testament appearance of Christ, the second person of the Trinity.

And so when you read Walvoord's book, now some Walvoord books, I don't know, not so great. This particular book is great. Jesus Christ, our Lord. I had to read that, I think, in Christology back in 1990-ish, 91-ish at Lagos Bible Institute at Grace Community Church.

It is safe to assume that every visible manifestation of God in bodily form in the Old Testament is to be identified with the Lord Jesus Christ. So we're talking about the pre-existence of Jesus. How do we know that he existed before he was born?

Well, because he made everything, because when you see him in the Old Testament, I mean, when you read the Old Testament, he shows up. He shows up. You can read some of the angel of the Lord passages, and you will find that this is Jesus showing up before the incarnation.

I have a question for you. Why aren't there any of the angels of the Lord showing up in the New Testament? Answer, because after the incarnation, there's no need for the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, to show up, right?

Right. That's right. And so at Christophany, Jesus appears, and he appears, probably, if you look at Adam and Eve, who was walking in the garden? God was. And many folks believe that Jesus, I think John Owen, that Jesus, Son of God, he was the one walking in the garden.

The angel wrestles with Jacob. That's the pre-incarnate Jesus wrestling with Jacob. Abraham speaks to the angel of the Lord in Genesis 18. He's talking to Jesus, who was the captain in Joshua 5, 13 -15.

Well, I believe, along with Luther and Origen, that that is Jesus. And then how about the fiery furnace? There's someone in there besides those three that's like the Son of God, Daniel 3 -25. With Jonathan Edwards, I take that to be Jesus, the incarnate, pre-incarnate rather, the second person of the Trinity, who's taking on a bodily form.

When Isaiah sees God, holy, holy, holy, and high and lifted up, it says in John 12 -41, Isaiah said this because he saw his glory and spoke of him. And so we see that Jesus pre-exists because he made everything, he shows up in the Old Testament, and he makes certain comments, before Abraham was, I am.

And also because he is called the Eternal Son. He is the Son of God, the Eternal Son. And you can read Psalm 2, verse 7, I will tell of the decree, the Lord said to me, you are my son, today I have begotten you.

Or you could read Psalm 110, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. So I go back to my question again, what did you say before you were born? What did you say before you were conceived?

I mean, my first words were probably not words, they were shrieking, yelling, crying. My first words, I don't know, mama, dada, something like that. But since Jesus was alive before he was born, Jesus existed in eternity past, the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity.

He is the Eternal Son. It is fascinating that Hebrews chapter 10 tells us about a discussion. And so we go to Hebrews chapter 10, and of course, Hebrews, everything in it points to Jesus has a superior ministry.

His ministry is superior to the prophets, the angels, Moses, Aaron, old covenant ministry. And when you drop in to Hebrews chapter 10, it says this in verse 1. For since the law has but a shadow of these good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near.

Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? But in these sacrifices, there is a reminder of sins every year.

But it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. And so when you look back at chapter 10, verse 1 in Hebrews, the same sacrifices continually and always offered every year. It means without interruption, over and over, year after year, on the great day of atonement.

What does it tell you if something's got to be done every year? Well, it doesn't last past a year. There's some deficiency in it. There's some lack, there's some insufficiency. And it says in verse 2, you know, basically, if sin had really been taken care of by sacrifices, you'd have a good conscience.

But you don't. Animal sacrifices don't make the conscience completely clean, or clear, or our consciences assuaged. You can't have Old Testament sacrifices remove sin. So what was the purpose? Oh, to draw attention to God's law, His holiness, what is sin, but also, this is deficient.

There's a new covenant talked about in Jeremiah 31, that's going to be sufficient and good. There's going to be a time when the sins are remembered no more. Regarding Jeremiah 31, found in Hebrews chapter 8, God did not have, by intention, the Old Testament sacrificial system, the Levitical system, designed to completely and forever deal with sins.

It wasn't supposed to, it wasn't intended to, right? But Jesus' death is going to be a different kind of sacrifice. Oh, yes, I'm sinful, I get that from the Old Testament sacrificial system, I understand God has justice and the wages of sin is death, I get all that, but something needs to be done in a greater fashion.

Mankind can't solve his own sinful problem through himself, and he cannot solve his sinful problem through any sacrifice. We need a Savior. Sacrifices by ourselves are deficient. Sacrifices by ourselves are insufficient.

We need a Savior, and that is why we celebrate Christmas. All right, so some of you are saying, you know, we don't really celebrate Christmas. I get it. But we celebrate the Incarnation, or we're glad for the Incarnation.

You don't have to have a special calendar day, there's no special days in the calendar of the New Testament Church, right? Every day we celebrate Resurrection, every Sunday, Resurrection Sunday. So Jesus has to be born because we couldn't pay for our own sins and still go to heaven.

We could pay for them in hell, that's for sure, but we need Christ to be born so he can sacrifice in a way that God accepts and we don't have to redo the sacrifice. Once and for all, sacrifice is what I need that is greater than and superior to the Levitical system.

And we need Jesus to obey because we didn't obey. And so that's exactly what happens in Hebrews 10, verses 5 through 7, Jesus willingly obeys. Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, what did you say when you were born?

What did you say before you were born? What did you say when you came into the world? Here's what Jesus said, sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me. In burnt offerings and in sin offerings, and sin offerings, you have taken no pleasure.

Then I said, behold, I've come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book. Wow, that's who we need, the Savior who's going to die and be raised from the dead. Well, my name is Mike Abendroth.

Closing Announcements and Sign-Off

We're talking about Christology today. Come back next week, same time. We're going to learn a little bit more about Jesus, my favorite topic. I hope he's your favorite topic. You can email me at mike at nocompromiseradio .com or info at nocompromiseradio .com.

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life-transforming power of God's Word through verse-by-verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 10 .15 and in the evening at 6. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff or management.