Who Is This Savior? Pt. 2 (01/16/2005)

morning. Let's take a look at Matthew 121 this morning.

We sang about Jesus this morning and we've been talking about Jesus for the last couple of Sundays.

In fact, quite often around here we talk about him. But around Christmas time, we seem to talk about the manger scene more, about the miracle of his being sent to this world.

And we presented the question, who is this child, a couple of Sundays ago, so we're continuing on that.

And last time, we talked about the fact that his name was

Jesus, or as the Hebrews say it, Yeshua. And the interesting thing about that word is that it means the self -existent one along with the word to be safe or to save.

So his very name, Jesus, means Jehovah saves. And then we went into Matthew 121, it says, and she shall bring forth a son and shall call his name

Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. And tie that in with Isaiah 43 .10,

where God says in verses 10 and 11, beside me there is no savior.

So therefore, we ask the question, if God says in Isaiah 43 .11,

beside me there is no savior, and in the New Testament, the Bible says his name shall be

Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins, then who is he? So who is this

Jesus the savior? There is only one savior. He was the savior of the

Jews and the savior of the cosmos. But how can this be?

Well, Jesus appears as Jehovah of the

Old Testament, and that's how it can be. So we talked about these things last time, and we covered this topic of Jesus being the savior of the world, and I want to bring it to a second topic this morning.

In Matthew 123, if you turn there and take a look at it, the

Bible says, behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name

Emmanuel, which being interpreted is God with us.

Now, that is actually also quoted from the Old Testament in Isaiah 7 .14,

therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign. Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name

Emmanuel. Well, you know, there have been quite a few people.

For one, those people that we call the liberal theologians among our own group, but also people in cult groups such as the

Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, and so forth, have gone into Isaiah 7 .14,

and where it says, behold, a virgin shall conceive, they have retranslated the Bible, and they put the word a young maiden.

And then they come back into Matthew 123, and they make the same change.

They say, behold, a young maiden shall be with child. A lot of the modern versions,

I'm not sure which ones, but I know some of them, New American Standard, NIV, some of those

Bibles have changed that to young maiden. Why do they make that particular change?

Well, I can't understand why the liberals would make that change, but I do understand why the cult groups make that change, and because they don't believe that Jesus was virgin -born.

Now, it's interesting, but there is no other way to say the word virgin in Hebrew than to say it the way that it is said in Isaiah 7 .14.

And in the Greek language, in Matthew 123, there would be no better way to say that she was a virgin than the way it is said in Matthew 123.

And so I would ask you the question to the Old Testament point of view when the prophet comes to them in Isaiah, and he announces to the people as a prophet of God, and he says, therefore the

Lord himself shall give you a sign, a young maiden shall conceive. Now, what kind of a sign would that be?

It's fairly common. It's how all of the people got on the earth after Adam and Eve.

So that wouldn't be a sign. How would they know which one to use as a sign? The very next maiden that conceived, or the next one, or the next 3 ,000, or the next 10 million?

That's not a sign. So no matter how the liberal or the cult group tries to play with the language, they can't really change

God's word because he's written it in a mathematical way. He's written it in so many ways and so many verses, hidden it in so many different allegories and different things that try, though they might, to change it, they can't change the fact that Jesus Christ was virgin -born.

Now, so we go to Matthew 123. Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name

Immanuel, which being interpreted is God with us. Now, when you look at this word

Immanuel, it is not his name so much as it is his title, but it is a word that consists of two smaller words.

And the first one is Im. When you say Immanuel, you can sort of hear that Im.

It simply means with. And El is that simplest word for God that's used throughout the

Old Testament as well, which simply means mighty and strength.

And it's nearly always translated in English as the Almighty. So when you see the word the

Almighty God in your Bible, the first word that's in there, it's El or El, and in Jehovah, it's simply another word for God.

It's the simplest word for God and that word which speaks of his omnipotence.

And so this title that the angel gives to Jesus Christ as he is going to be born in this manger is the

Almighty with us. Now, what does that tell you about who this babe in the manger was?

It tells us exactly who he was. Tells us who he is. He is

God with us. Now let's move to another one. Turn with me to 1st

Timothy chapter 3 verse 16. The first thing that we see then that Jesus is, is he is the

Savior. The Old Testament says there is but one Savior. The second thing that we see that he is, is he is

God with us. Now let's look at the third idea found in 1st

Timothy 3 16. It's easy to remember in case you ever need this verse to show someone.

Just think of John 3 16 and put 1st Timothy in front of it. You can't forget where this one is and it's so important.

And without controversy, great is the of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh.

Now you're familiar with the rest of that verse. It shows clearly who we're speaking of. We're speaking of the

Lord Jesus here. He's the one that was received up into glory. He's the one that was preached unto the

Gentiles and so forth. So God was manifest in the flesh.

This tells us another answer to the question, who is Jesus? He was God manifest in the flesh.

Now it's interesting when you look at the word manifest in the Greek language.

It is phanero which means to render apparent. It comes from a root word phaneros which means shining.

And so when the Bible says that Jesus was God manifest in the flesh, it means that Jesus was

God made apparent. And the actual root word is it is

God shining forth so as to meet the eye. He is

God rendered apparent, God shining forth.

Webster's Dictionary defines manifest this way, readily perceived by the senses, especially by sight.

Easily understood or recognized by the mind to make evident or certain by showing or displaying.

So this is who Jesus was. He was God who was made readily perceivable by the senses, especially by your sight.

He was God seen. He was God made easily or more easily understood and to be more recognizable by the human mind.

He was God made evident by being shown and displayed.

This is who Jesus was. Now let's go to a third place we find this study.

John chapter 1 verse 1, probably the most magnificent place.

It's awesome to read it. It's wonderful that in God's sovereignty this passage was chosen through the years before the public schools came into being as most of the schools were in the little churches.

They would use the book of John to teach the little children how to read. And so, so many little children were exposed to these beautiful portions of scripture.

In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.

All things were made by him and without him was not anything made that was made.

And the Word was made, I'm going to skip down to verse 14 if you look at that with me. So we can be sure we define who this one called the

Word is. And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the

Father, full of grace and truth. So Jesus was the only begotten of the

Father. We'll discuss that a little bit later, but for now let's look at this first part.

He is the Word. He is the Word of God. He was in the beginning with God and he was

God in the beginning. And the same was in the beginning with God.

So he was with God and he was God and he was with God and all things were made by him and without him was not anything made that was made.

Now think about what it means to be the Word of God because this gives us an explanation of who

Jesus was. What if you were away and you wrote back home a letter?

What if you were perhaps in Iraq or maybe you were over in Indonesia trying to help those people and you write a letter back to your family and they receive that letter and they open it up and Bob reads it out loud to the rest of the family.

Isn't it true that when you receive a letter from a loved one, when you first begin to read about the first three words, you sense that it's them.

You can tell who it's from, you can see that it's in a way a caricature of their own person.

And this is a great example of who Jesus was. When you first heard him speak, you began to understand that this is

God. But I would ask you this question when you receive the letter from the loved one that's away.

You have part of that person's mind and soul right there. As you read it, it starts to come to life in the room.

But do you have all of the person? Is all of that person manifest by that letter?

No. And so even though Jesus Christ is God in the flesh, the very fact that he's the flesh or in the flesh makes it be true that there is more of God than we have seen.

There is more of God than has been revealed to us. And it may quite be that when we get to heaven, there will always be more of God than is revealed to us, but it will be continually eternal revealing.

In fact, one of God's name, in fact, the name Jehovah itself carries the connotation of the one true

God who reveals himself. It carries connotation of the one who reveals himself.

So since he cannot change, he will always be the one revealing himself to us.

So Jesus is God's seen, but God is larger than we can see.

Does that make sense? The fact that he is the word pictures this very well.

You can't put all of a human being in a letter, can you? No matter how long the letter is.

And so there is more of God that we will know and be knowing every day of our lives as we move forward.

That's part of the exciting relationship we have is there's always something new we can learn about God.

God is not changing, but our understanding of him is growing. Now let's go to Hebrews one in verse three.

Okay. Hebrews one, three, who being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person, the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person.

This is another description of who Jesus is. The word brightness means literally off flash, which doesn't make much sense in English, but it comes from the little

Greek word oppo, which means off or away. And I think to me, the word away would make more sense.

But also the second word that goes with it is, oh God, so, which means to beam forth.

So it means a beaming forth away from something or beaming forth off of something or away from something.

And that's literally what this word means when it says he is the brightness of God's glory.

Jesus Christ is, remember that even the word manifest in the

Greek means lightened, to be lightened up where we can see it. So he is a beaming forth off or away from God to us.

He is the brightness of God's glory, but he is also the express image of his person.

Now this word express image in the Greek is the word character.

What English word does that sound like? Character. And that's the actual word that it is.

It says that he is the express image of God's person. In the Greek, the word character means a graver, either the tool or the person who is doing the engraving.

And so it is an engraving. It is a figure that is stamped, an exact copy of figure that is stamped.

Now that's not a perfect illustration of who Jesus is, but it helps us somewhat to understand when it says he is the express image of his person.

He is more than if you use the example something engraved.

If you have the replica of something and you can put it on a tool and engrave it into a soft metal like lead, for example, where it shows the exact image of that now in the lead, and then you can stamp it in another place, there's the exact image.

This is what this word means. But let's read a little bit further and we'll get an illustration

I think will be helpful. To say that he is the exact stamped image of God is what the word itself means.

Now go to Colossians chapter 1. It's a very similar phrase, but the word image is used again, but it's a different Greek word.

So I want to put both of these together for us to get the idea of what God is telling us about himself here.

Colossians 1 verse 15, talking about Jesus Christ again.

Now remember in Hebrews 1 3, it says he's the express image of his person, which means he is like a caricature or a stamped image of God.

In Colossians 1 15, it says this way, Jesus who is the image of the invisible

God. Now that tells us something about God as he exists in the heavenlies.

He does not exist as a man like the Mormons teach with a body of flesh and bone.

He is invisible. He is pure spirit, whatever that is. He is pure spirit.

The theologians say that there is a pureness to spirit and a simplicity to spirit. By simplicity they mean this, it's not made up of different parts like a body.

So the father is pure spirit, but Jesus is the image of this invisible

God. The firstborn of every creature for by him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible.

That leaves nothing out. That leaves no place for other gods because Jesus not only created that which is associated with the earth, but he also created everything that's associated with heaven all the way up to the third heaven, which is where God is.

So if you see any angels flying around up there, Jesus created them too. But this word image in this verse in Colossians 1 15, who's the image of the invisible

God is a different Greek word. It is not character, it is icon. And that is another word that we use in English.

It's been brought from this language and we think of it as a statue or a profile. It literally means a likeness, a representation or a resemblance.

But let me explain to you what the Bible is saying. It is not saying that Jesus is a little statue of God.

It's not saying that he's like a caricature, but what it is saying is this.

And I was asking Charlotte this question. I said, if I were standing behind you and you couldn't see me, but you were facing a mirror and you could see me in the mirror, are you looking at me or are you looking at another person, a second person?

What was your answer? Right. So she's not looking at a second person.

She's looking at a reflection of the one true person. And that's who

Jesus is. Jesus Christ is God, the one true person seen.

God stands behind you all the time. No man hath seen him at any time.

God is the invisible God. You do not see him. But as you look in the mirror, you can see his reflection and that's

Jesus Christ. Now he's more than a reflection in a mirror, but we strive to think of human examples to try to understand

God and they always fail and fall short, but they give us a little bit of a better idea of how

God exists. I think when the Roman Catholics introduced the idea of saying the person of the

Father, the person of the Holy Spirit, the person of the Son, that they probably overused the word person.

And I'll just leave it at that. I don't think we have three gods. Now they didn't think we did either,

I'll be fair. They did not, those who write these word formulas, the theologians, they all made it clear that it's one

God. But the truth is, as you think of Jesus, as you look at Jesus, you are seeing the one true

God. You're not seeing a second person or another person.

You're seeing the one true God. Now as we said, you're not seeing all of the one true

God because simply he's in a physical form and God is outside of it all.

Everything came out from God and he is too big to be revealed to us totally, in his totality.

So there will be an ongoing eternal revelation of God to us. So these ideas in Hebrews and Colossians of the fact that he is the image of the invisible

God simply do this, they strengthen the fact that Jesus is God. He is

God. He is not another. He is not a second. He is not a different Savior.

He is the only Savior that there is. Now let's then talk about this idea that he is the firstborn of every creature that's also found here in Colossians chapter 1 verse 15, who is the image of the invisible

God, the firstborn of every creature. This word firstborn, proto, is the word for first and ticto is the word for born here.

And this Greek word literally means to produce from seed as from a mother, a plant, or from the earth, etc.

That is what the Greek word itself means. So when it says that Jesus is the firstborn of every creature, he is in a sense produced but not created.

And there is a very important difference. The cult groups will tell you that Jesus is created.

He's a created being, therefore he's a creature. He is the cousin of Lucifer, they will tell you.

And this is not the truth. We studied this fear here last time when we studied Hebrews chapter 1.

The entire chapter was written by the Apostle Paul to argue against this heresy which proves to us the heresy existed in the first century.

It's not new with the Mormons. It's not new with the Jehovah's Witnesses. It already existed. And Paul argues against the saying that Jesus is an angel.

And very effectively, in fact, he puts an end to the argument if you study that passage.

So when it says that he is the firstborn, let's examine for a minute what this can mean.

Turn with me, if you would, to John chapter 8. And let's start with verse 42.

Now, we're going to cover this in a little more detail, the Lord willing, next

Sunday, but I want to introduce you to this idea today. John 8, 42, who does

Jesus himself say he is? Jesus said unto them, if God were your father, you would love me.

They didn't even recognize him. They certainly hated him. But he said, if God really were your father, and he's talking to the religious leaders of that day, many of them anyway, if he was really your father, you would love me, for I proceeded forth and came from God.

Neither came I of myself, but he sent me. Now, there are some important words in that phrase.

When Jesus says, I proceeded forth and came from God, this word proceeded in the

Greek language means to issue out from a certain place of origin, or to come or to go forth from a specific place or origin.

Now, when he says, I proceeded forth, that means he proceeded forth or came out from God.

When he says that I came from God, this word for came, heiko, means he arrives and becomes present.

So it ties in with the idea that Jesus is the manifestation of God. He is

God, all of the fullness of the Godhead in a body. He is God seen.

He proceeded forth and came out from the invisible God, whom you cannot see.

And he came here. He arrived here. He was made present here by the father, and therefore you now could see him.

So he is Emmanuel, God with us. Proceeded forth, came from God.

Now look at this part. He says, neither came I of myself, but he sent me.

So he was sent by God. He was sent away.

Comes from two little Greek words, stela, which means to set fast and apo, which means off or away.

So picture Jesus coming forth out from the father and being set fast, which gives us the idea of something physical, something we can see, something that's set fast and set away from God the father and placed here where we can be with him in the sense that God the father cannot be around sin.

So why did God send Jesus forth? Because the father

God, as you think of God the father, will not be in the presence of sin.

So Jesus is the manifestation of God on the earth where we are and where sin is.

It was necessary, and this is why God did this this way, and this is why

God exists this way. All right, now let's look at another phrase in this passage back to Colossians chapter 1.

Now moving down to verse 16, for by him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth visible and invisible.

So we see now who Jesus is. He is the creator of all things. It's not the only passage that has said this in our study, but this one says it again.

The creator of all things. This word to create in this particular usage literally means to fabricate.

He is the maker, the creator of all things. And then we look down at verse 18 and we see that he is the head of the body, which is the church, and he is the head of the church.

So no man owns the church. No board of cardinals owns the church.

No Pope owns the church. No Mormon prophet is the father of the church.

Jesus himself, the living Jesus, is the head of his church, which is his body.

And then we see in Colossians chapter 2, if you'd move forward one chapter to verse 9. What a wonderful end to a study on who

Jesus is. Colossians 2 .9, for in him dwelleth all of the fullness of the

Godhead bodily. That is very clear. That is very clear.

Now it's interesting to think about this, that as we look at Jesus, we cannot see all of God, can we?

But within him dwells all of God. So the problem is not in him, the problem is in our seeing.

The problem is in our lack of ability to see. You see?

Because in him, it's not part of God. It's not a second person of God.

It's all of God. All of the fullness of the Godhead in a body.

That's who Jesus is. The fact that we can't see all of God when we look at him is not because all of God is not there.

It's because God is invisible. He is all there in Christ, but he's invisible.

So we see the visible part that God revealed to us. That's who Jesus is.

For in him dwelleth all of the fullness of Godhead bodily. Jesus is the part of God we see with our eyes.

I like what Rick said one Wednesday night. Do you remember? He said, well,

Brother David, it doesn't bother me that much that I can't see all of God ever because when we get to heaven we may have senses that we don't even have here where we can sense him in his totality far better than seeing him.

And I thought, Rick, that's a theologian way to go. And it's probably true.

All of the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Do you know what the word all, the Greek word for that is?

It's the word pos. You know what that means? It means the whole.

It doesn't leave anything out. The whole. He is the whole of the

Godhead bodily. All of the fullness. If the word pos were not enough, we have this word fullness.

It means completion. It means replete. It means fully or abundantly provided or filled in the body of Jesus Christ.

Now, if you walked into his presence, if you could have walked into his presence when he was walking on this earth during his ministry and you had known that information right there from that verse, what would you have done?

All of the fullness of the Godhead walked up to you and spoke.

What would you have done? Have you seen that new commercial on football games where it says, officer down?

I guess not. You may see it if you watch some of the playoffs. You would just hit the ground that fast.

It's amazing to consider who Jesus is. And it's a shame to consider who the cults teach that he is.

But we know who he is. Let's stand and have prayer together. Next time, we will talk about a little bit more about the proceeding forth and coming out from God.

And that will complete our study for now, anyway, about who Jesus really is.

Dear Father, we thank you that you make things clear in the scriptures. Sometimes the theologians confuse us a little bit, but your word does not.

We thank you that you've made things clear. We know that you use the written to teach us and to reveal more and more of yourself to us over time, day in and day out, when it's the right time for each of us individually.

That when it's the right time for each of us in our own time, our eyes are open to certain truths about you.

And we grow at different rates according to your purposes. But we're all growing.

And we thank you for that. We thank you for the word of God, which is the very food that makes us grow.

And we ask you, Lord, to be with us in our time of fellowship this afternoon. And in our

Bible study, we ask you to bless the meal in Jesus name. Amen.