SRR 130 WLC: Why was our Mediator called Jesus Christ?

You're listening to Semper Ephraim on the radio where the Bible alone and the Bible in its entirety is applied to all of life.

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You know, we are polemical and polarizing Jesus style. I would first say that to characterize What we do as fashion is Itself fashion. It's not hate. It's history. It's not fashion. It's the Bible Jesus said woe to you and men speak well of you for their fathers used to treat the false prophets in the same way.

As opposed to blessed are you when you have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness? It is on we're taking the gloves off it's time to battle. To describe the Trinity and Also Christology who remembers what this means.

Yeah, that's what so that's what we had that's what I had mentioned last time this often gets translated as substance and What about rupal stasis or hypostasis? Right person so that often gets translated as persons.

Persons or Subsistence is This. There's a slight problem with those definitions though and part of this became a problem with the Translation from Greek to Latin and things like that. So this Lucia technically means It's the participial noun form of to be so a more accurate rendering of this would actually be being.

So.

Well, we'll cross this one out that is you have to kind of bear with the confusion and the inconsistent use of the term because it often gets translated to that but It more literally it means being more accurately means being that's the verb form, you know to be the noun form of it and.

Another.

Form of it is essay or which is another form of the to be verb to be or. Who can think of a word that sounds like essay s s. Essence. Yeah, so essence.

Essence is.

More accurate these two are more accurate terms of that Lucia. Because it means to be.

Now.

This.

Well that we talked about last time to how existence kind of means nothing right it doesn't really mean anything but if you're if you're Using it correctly and in a meaningful way this in reality means definition.

So it's it's like the definition of something. So there is one Lucia One being one essence one definition of God, right. Now what was that says we need to break this down. We need to break this down into two parts.

It gets translated into persons a lot from the Latin persona, but in the Latin persona means mask masks that Actors were to to act and to portray another character and actually it's also tied to demonic possession because they would That's where the whole white face would come in.

They would white themselves out and pretend to be dead and then they would summon spirits to Sort of possess them and so that they can act apart so that's why theater was condemned in the early church drama theater and that stuff because of And not to mention that it was also the false god of Bacchus I think who was the god of the theater debauchery in the theater and stuff like that.

So anyway person that's like very Inaccurately translated as person this is where people get confused because they think well not everything can be a person but in reality the Greek term means something else and so If we break down this word hoopoe.

What do you all think that means hoopoe or hypo? Under yeah, it means it means under so this is hypo and in Language, you know, I'm late. Well in language if you ever studied linguistics or Stuff like that, you know that letters the words tend to morph and change.

So use often become wise in English from the Greek. So hoopoe hypo is the same thing and then this is really.

Under.

Under or.

Sub.

Sub like submarine under the water so that's. That's a more accurate rendering for that. And then stasis stasis.

That.

Is a little trickier, but it actually sounds similar to an English word. Anybody want to take a guess. Stasis. What's that. Kind of it's a little close. Not quite. It's actually the word is already listed here.

Yes. Stance it means stance, right? So literally. The word means stance To stand under so there's three hoopoe stasis that stand under one. Oosia.

So.

This is where it gets confusing, right? Because typically Oosia gets translated to substance but substance really means hoopoe stasis so I wanted to make sure to clarify that to in the Greek that's literally what it means.

So it means a sub substance right right here substance. That's that's ugly. I mean, can everybody see that so substance that's hoopoe stasis. Subsistence is I haven't even gotten into that yet, but This also tends to get translated as as hoopoe stasis, but technically that's really what I mean.

It's it's more accurate to say so there's one essence of something or this in this case God and there's three substances of God there's three Persons or substances it's more accurate to say that. Any any questions about that?

What it's basically in a sense just standing under this term there's three Hoopoe stasis standing under Oosia. So and it gets often translated into substance so that and this this this word. So this all kind of ties into Greek metaphysics again Greek philosophy Aristotle accidents in essence, so a Substance is an instantiation of an essence, right?

It's it's a a Hoopoe stasis is an instance of this in reality. So in reality, how many hoopoe stasis of God are there? Three, right? So that's where the whole Greek philosophy comes into play. Yeah, so that that's it gets very confusing and very technical so and then the translations often make it worse so It's good to know what what it literally means and that hopefully will make a little bit more sense.

On that.

Any other Questions about that. All right, so let's I think that was mainly what I wanted to review. Let's review. I mean, let's I think we can start on the next question here 41 and 40. I guess we'll work on 41 and 42.

So let's go to this question 41 of the larger catechism. Yeah, this is where we left off. So Question 41 says why was our mediator called Jesus? Our mediator was called Jesus because he saveth his people from their sins.

So that's pretty straightforward, right? And there's a verse tied to that. So let's jump over to Matthew.

121.

What's that. Yeah, we can we can pray a Late start prayer. All right before we read up to say a quick prayer. Okay. Precious Heavenly Father, we thank you Lord for this new day and new year. We ask that you help us to open our minds or to be receptive to the truth of your word and sound doctrine.

Learning from the church and the history of the church and it's sound distillation of truths and these confessions and Catechisms, we ask that you help us to learn and to apply these truths in our own lives.

We thank you father and we ask that you also heal those who are sick and couldn't be here and we ask this in Jesus name.

Amen.

Alright, so Matthew.

121.

She will give birth to a son and you are to give him the name Jesus because he will save his people from their sins. So this is one of those straightforward questions that kind of just literally takes it from Verse but I wanted to kind of capitalize on this a little bit a little bit because there's a lot of cults going around today That that really left to make a big deal out of the name Jesus.

Anybody know what I'm talking about. Modern day cults that claim that Jesus is not Jesus real name.

Yeah.

Hebrew Israelites is one of them. Another one is a sacred namers. Of which Hebrews lights as a type. So some people claim that Jesus doesn't actually mean Jesus that it means it comes from Zeus. Yeah, it's kind of ridiculous.

It's actually really ridiculous, it's just flat-out stupid. I wanted to read Easton's Bible Dictionary, that's a very well-known. That's a very well-known car dictionary, I mean car, sorry. Bible Bible Dictionary.

And The entry for Jesus there Explains where it comes from the name. So Jesus the proper as Christ is the official name of our Lord to distinguish him from other so-called he has spoken of as Jesus of Nazareth and Jesus the son of Joseph.

This is the Greek form of the Hebrew name Joshua. So that's where it comes from. It comes from Joshua. Which was originally Hosea in numbers 13 and 8 and 16, but changed by Moses into Jehoshua. Or Joshua after the exile it assumed the form Jeshua whence the Greek form Jesus.

So that's where the name Jesus comes from. So people start telling you, you know. No, it's not Jesus. That's not the real name. The son is real name. They're completely wrong because that's it comes from the name Joshua.

It's a Greek form of the.

Name Joshua.

That is Greek, it's a little ugly because I don't write very nice, but. This is the Greek form Jesus. Actually, I've heard that it's pronounced with three syllables. Yes. So who's or something like that?

But this is just the Yoda beta Sigma Omicron. What is this one? Upsilon and Sigma, so that's the Greek form and I'll throw in a little bonus.

For you all.

Let's jump to Hebrews 4 8. Okay, so Hebrews 4 8 says. For if Joshua had given them rest God would not have spoken later about another day. There remains in a Sabbath rest for the people of God. So who has the King James.

Anybody have a King James? I actually have it. Let me read the King James. For if Jesus had given them rest Then would he not afterward have spoken of another day? So back in my fundamentalist, you know Fundy Mundy King James only days.

This was one of the verses that King James only us would use against modern Bible translations. Because they would say it's corrupting the name of Jesus into Joshua and referring to somebody else.

And.

This is an interesting passage because in the Greek in the Greek the actual name is.

Jesus.

So it's actually talking about Jesus, but they're they're taking that to mean the Hebrew form of Joshua. Because it's talking about a specific event in Exodus. Does anybody know what that's referring to.

If Joshua had not given them rest had given them rest? God would not have spoken about another day. Anybody know what that's talking about? Promised land. Ring a bell. Who went to. Who led the conquest of Canaan?

Joshua. Right. Joshua and Caleb were those two spies. So that's what it's referring to here. It's referring to the Joshua entering the promised rest that God Promised them when they entered the land of Canaan and took over it.

So that's an interesting little tidbit there for in case you run into a King James only is. Yeah, yeah, you kind of have to you have to. Be mindful of what it's referring to. It's an interesting passage to study, but every other translation translates at Jesus.

I mean Joshua every other translation. The only one that uses Jesus I think is a King James.

So.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it literally says yes, so. That's some interesting information there about oh. Anybody know what the name Jesus literally means? Yeah, yeah, that's basically the gist of it is Jesus or the Joshua comes from Jehovah is his help Jehovah the Savior or What is which one.

Adam online and I'm online calm. That's another good website. They say Jai salvation. Jai is a short form of the term Jehovah Yahweh Yah, I saw salvation. So This is a little resource for Etymologies for those of you who like Words playing with words in the history.

This is a really good resource. Yeah, it means Joshua Jahweh Jai salvation.

So.

Yeah.

That's a good question so.

Emmanuel.

Jesus is called different things, right? He's called a number of different things. Those are known as titles. They're prophetic titles so Emmanuel means God with us, right? It's a it's a prophetic title of what's what he's going to do.

He's gonna become flesh and dwell among us and so he has numerous titles like that, you know. The the son of God son of man. You know several several others hundreds of others. Maybe hundreds. Maybe that's an exaggeration, but he has several titles like that.

There's a big poster in case anybody I don't know if anybody's seen it with all the you know names of yeah. They're not literally names or titles. So it's important to keep that distinction in mind. Okay, so yeah we dealt with that.

Yeah.

They don't they can't even agree on what the name is themselves. Yeah, sure. Yeah, how I had Shua. Yeah. Oh sure. They don't even know what the name they can't agree on it themselves. That's a really dumb thing to say and it actually it's more of a Muslim tendency.

Because Muslims believe that you can only fully properly understand the Quran in Arabic and God is not like that, right? He redeems out of every tribe tongue a nation and the Bible was translated into Koine Greek.

It was written in Koine Greek because that was the language of the people at the time so that's a Totally ridiculous like claim and Jesus has different names when you translate it in different languages.

That's obvious, right? It means the same thing, but Just like man is hombre or something else in a different language Jesus is different in Greek. Yes, ooze or yes. Oh, so whatever. And In Arabic, does anybody know what Jesus is in Arabic?

Isa yeah, so it's the same name, but it just takes a different form in a different language. So that's really really ridiculous stuff and it's similar to cults like King James only guys who say that the King James Bible is the only accurate version and they even go as far as to try To make King James black like Hebrew Israelites.

They try to claim that King James was black. That's how stupid it gets. You know, they get really really caught up in their cult and.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, part of the problem is that in in ancient Hebrew or in there's different kinds of Hebrew, but in Hebrew, there's no vowels and so there's the Something called.

I.

Don't want to mislead it might be to don't use. Oh, yeah, it's two ages. So it's actually. So that's anybody know what that's called there's a technical term for that. Yeah, tetragrammaton. It's just the four letters that are used to represent the name Yahweh or God and so people tend to they fill in the vowels, right?

So they they don't really know what it is if it's Yahweh or. Another form is Jehovah, right. Jehovah. That's a more I think Germanic that that was a more Germanic eyes. I think rendering the translation of it Jehovah, that's where you know, Jehovah's Witnesses they also they're not as picky about what you call Jehovah as long as you don't call Jesus Jehovah, right according to them, but.

Yeah, yeah, are you asking me? Yeah, that's a God that's where they get Yahweh or.

Jehovah.

Yeah, I think I've heard something like that. Yeah something. Yeah, that sounds familiar. Other night the Jews they weren't they were. They didn't like. Writing down or pronouncing God's name because they felt like that could violate the commandment not to use the Lord's name of a so they would replace these Words these letters or this tetragrammaton it to Adonai which means Lord.

So that's where you often see especially like in the King James when it says the Lord in capital letters. That's it's pointing to that.

Okay, so.

This.

Brings me to the brings us to the next question. So this one is another loaded. Another loaded question here. We might not finish it today.

But.

We'll get started on it. So question 42 says why was our mediator called Christ? Our mediator was called Christ because he was anointed with the Holy Ghost above measure and so set apart and fully furnished with all authority and ability To execute the office of prophet priest and king of his church and the estate both of his humiliation and exaltation.

So another note that I wanted to I wanted to stress this again the importance. Why it's important that we study. Why we're studying these confessions and in catechisms as you can see this a hunt this 196 Catechism breaks down every just about every major term or doctrine in the Bible term and doctrine.

It defines everything for you and it gives you a very comprehensive comprehensive summary of just about everything the Bible says summarized into a concise question or answer so these are extremely beneficial and useful and We ignore them at our peril.

You know that I've been in churches where they give little kids coloring books and Junk like that to basically babysit the kids while people are in church. When what they should be doing is catechizing them with these doctrinal standards, right shorter catechism Baptist catechism for us because we're Baptist.

You know the the larger catechism that was more for adults the confession the this is good and it's good for everybody because most people are not familiar with this stuff as they used to be and So it's really important to be familiar with these and to get familiar with these which is why we're studying these standards because they help you Make sense of the Bible as a whole every major doctrine every major term.

It's all defined here. So Let's jump to the verse to the verse that it's pointing to here. Okay, I'm getting first one of Matthew 3 16. Anybody want to read that one? Yeah, Matthew 3 16 wants to read that you want to read it brother.

All right. I'll go ahead.

Oh.

Yeah, so.

That's showing the the Holy Ghost he received the Holy Ghost above measure there, right? Jesus had the infilling of the Holy Ghost like nobody else had before and Everybody knows what ghost means, right?

It's not some Halloween yeah spirit, it's just the old English word for spirit. The next verse here is Acts 10 37 through 38. Okay, that says I'll start in 36 as for the word that he sent to Israel preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ.

He is Lord of all. You yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed. How God anointed Jesus the son of the Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power.

He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil for God was with him so that's showing once again the Infilling of the Holy Spirit that Christ had that empowered him to do all of the all of the stuff that he did in this life when he was walking the earth and.

So, let's go to the next verse here any questions about this. That was acts Acts 10 37 through 38. And I have a different one it might be a little bit different. I apologize for that guy. I don't have the hard copy of that.

But they should be mostly similar. Another verse here that I have is John 3 34 and that one just says. For he whom God has sent utters the words of God for he gives a spirit without measure. So again, it's it's referring to that same Concept of receiving the Holy Ghost being baptized and then receiving the Holy Spirit in full measure like that and then Isaiah.

I mean the last one here I have is Psalm 45 7 Says you have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore God your God has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions. That's an that's an important verse there.

Because it helps us to understand what? What Christ means so who knows? What the word Christ literally means.

Yes.

Yeah, literally means like anointed or like anointed one. All right here, what was I gonna say. Oh Christ.

Christ.

Yeah, Christ literally means anointed or anointed anointed one.

The Christ Anointed one.

So that that who knows? There's another term for that in Hebrew. Anybody knows what the Hebrew term for that is? Messiah. So it also means for the Hebrew Term is Messiah.

Messiah so.

That's why in some of the Movies those Jesus movies. They say Yeshua. I'm a sheik. I'm a sheik. That's the Jesus the Christ or Jesus Christ. That's the messianic term. And anointing. Does anybody know what?

That signifies in the Old Testament. What's up? How it was tied to a specific. Well, what what it represents a certain action? What what what is the action of anointing something? Yeah, you basically you put oil on it and.

It's the act of putting oil on something. And so in in the Old Testament they would anoint rulers with oil. To signify or it's like a ceremonial Proclamation that they are now in charge that they got us put them in in rulership.

And so. That's what it that's basically what it means. It's it's anointed and so it also represents the Holy Spirit. It's a it's a representation that the Holy Spirit because when rulers would get anointed the Holy Spirit will come upon them.

Right, and so it represents the action or the activity. The presence of the Holy Spirit on that person or on that ruler and so. There's an interesting debate about that with new covenant theology folks, but I don't know if we should get into it right now.

But.

Some some disagree that they believe that the Holy Spirit did not indwell Old Testament believers, they believe that was a New Testament thing. Not an Old Testament thing. But okay, so I will say this you have to make a distinction between the anointings or the the Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit's activity in the Old Testament because the anointing of rulership is not the same thing as the anointing or as the The the indwelling of the spirit that is in us now Anointing of rulership was not permanent right, so whenever like Saul for example Did the anointing stay with him?

No, right the spirit departed from him and that was a sign of God's Displeasure with him and he was no longer recognized as the the authority of the ruler. So that was a temporary activity of the spirit Specifically tied to rulers it is not the same thing as what happens when believers are Regenerated by God's Spirit and indwelt by the Holy Spirit and that was the case in the Old Testament because we're saved the same way Old Testament and then a New Testament.

There is no different Activity going on there with how the Spirit saved us before the New Covenant and after the New Covenant and That is because the New Covenant Was a surety it was guaranteed to to happen.

And so those promises of The New Covenant were retroactively applied right because Jesus hadn't died yet Jesus hadn't died yet, but they were still forgiven because they believe in the promised Messiah.

And so those promises were retroactively applied to Old Testament Saints and they received the same blessings of salvation. But it manifested in a different way because that was a very different Dispensation in time in the theocratic nation of Israel, right?

So the Spirit did different things back then than he does now so it's important to keep those distinctions in mind and that's really the Science of doing good theology is making the proper distinctions.

It's right may dividing the word of truth like the Bible says, right? That's that's how you do good theology. You have to make proper distinctions. And so let's continue with the What the question says here, okay, so the next part says.

And.

So set apart and fully furnished with all authority and ability. So that that's just kind of pointing out what we've already pointed out.

That.

The Holy Ghost is a Anointing and it's an anointing of authority right. The Holy Spirit Descended on Christ and gave him the messianic authority to begin his ministry and to begin to fulfill his messianic role as the promised Messiah and.

So let's see. The verse is tied here.

Yeah, so.

We can go we can. Let's jump to John 6 27. So John 6 27 says do not work for the food that perishes But for the food that endures to eternal life which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal and that again is a signifying of the anointing and the seal of the Holy Spirit and.

So.

That's actually a really important passage because it sounds like Jesus is saying you need to work for your salvation. Right, it's it kind of sounds like Work for the food that endures to eternal life.

But let's if we keep reading so verse 28, then they said to him what must we do to do the works of God? Jesus answered them. This is the work of God that you believe in him who he has sent. Right, so that's extremely you see a lot of false teachers twisting passages like these to make them mean something that they don't and.

This is a textbook example of what Christ using logical argumentation. It's called an ad hominem argument.

And.

One one type of argument. And before you freak out because I know most people think that that's an invalid form of argument. But there's two types of it. There's two forms. So add.

Hominem.

Anybody knows what that means. Yeah, add is to in Latin hominem is the man so it's towards the man or to the man. This argument type of argument. There's two types there's an abusive so there's an abusive ad hominem and that's the one where you say Aristotle was a pagan.

So anything he said it was false because he was pagan right that that's it. That's an abusive ad hominem. You're attacking the character of the individual making the argument rather than dealing with the substance of the argument itself so a Valid-ad hominem argument.

Jesus the New Testament is loaded with these kinds of arguments and that was one of them. Because the Jews are over here thinking what do we need to do? Right? What do we need to do to gain eternal life and Jesus tells them what you need to do is what?

Believe right. It's an ad hominem reply to them saying you're not. What you need what you really need to do is not work for it. You need to believe so. That's similar when he said anybody think of any other examples that Christ did like that comes to mind.

Yeah, that actually is kind of yeah because they said their father is Moses right and he says your father is Satan not Moses. So that's that's kind of a form of it. Yeah, another one. I was thinking was I did not come to call.

Righteous.

Self-righteous, but sinners to repentance, right? I did not come to those who are well. Or those who don't need a physician but to those who are sick, right? So he's he's he's Totally mocking the Pharisees with arguments like these.

He's he's saying like you guys are completely missing the point of why I'm here and what God is doing through me. And so. That's really important to keep in mind. Because the New Testament is full of examples like that and.

Okay, any other questions so far? Yeah, let me yeah, I didn't explain it so ad hominem argument is when you adopt the person's Assumptions or presuppositions in their argument and you carry them to their logical conclusion or you show them to be absurd.

And so it's a form of Refuting them with their own arguments. It's kind of like judo. Is it judo you use your own opponents? It's like logical judo, I guess or jiu-jitsu or whatever that fighting style is that?

That's basically what it is. You're using your own opponent your own opponents argument against him.

The valid.

The valid one. Yeah, the abusive one is just attacking the character with no regard for the argument itself. Aristotle was paying so nothing. He said it was true. Even what he said about logic. So stuff like that.

In the spirit of social justice most of your Hispanics, so you don't know what you're talking about because you're Hispanic, right? Or no, actually white you white people are wrong because you're white and you know, so anyway.

It gets that that's that's the abusive time because you're attacking the character rather than what their actual argument.

Okay, so.

What's the next phrase here. The next phrase is. Okay, let me let me. Did we read these. I don't think we read these passages yet. The next passage let's go to Matthew 28 18 through 20 and This is a well well known passage.

That we all would do well to memorize so in verse 18. Matthew 28 18 to 20 says. And Jesus came and said to them all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore make disciples of all nations Baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Teaching them to observe all that I've commanded you and behold. I am with you always to the end of the age. So that's the authority that has been given to him. He's now transferring or imparting on the disciples to the apostolic great commission of spreading the good news, right and Giving them the Holy Spirit to continue the work that Christ started and in spreading the gospel and in healing.

Miraculous sign gifts and all that stuff to establish to validate their message because the New Testament was still being written. So That was part of the apostolic office. That they would do. So that's the other one.

I think there's one more here Romans 1 3 through 4 so Romans 1 3 through 4 says. Concerning his son who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power According to the Spirit of Holiness by his resurrection from the dead Jesus Christ our Lord so that's again signifying the authority and the power that he had as.

The.

The Son of God who was indwelled by the the full measure of those the Holy Spirit to with the power to do all of the things that he did and.

So.

What else here. So there's a There's an interesting debate. Discussion I guess debate about how much. How much of Christ's activity was due primarily to the Holy Spirit. And how much of it was due primarily to the fact that he was the eternal Son of God?

Right, so. Anybody familiar with that that people kind of go back and forth as to how much exactly?

The Spirit.

Was responsible for it operating in Christ and because of the fact that and this is what we've been talking about and also with Christ. Hypostatic union right. Because Christ is both God and man in one person and so.

The union of the two natures is there is the divine.

What.

I'm looking for a more. He has two natures. That's right. He has a God nature and a man nature, right. Or another term is Substances. The creeds they say he's co-substantial with God and co-substantial with man, so he's two substances, but.

Is he two persons? Therefore. No, right because that's an historian ism. So what is he? He's a divine. What he's a? Christ is a divine Divine who bust asses right? He's a divine person. Quote-unquote.

But.

Because he cannot be two persons because of the debates centered around the story is The early church and I've been learning more about this. Chelsea calcidon did not resolve the issue. It actually created more issues.

And so somebody came along really clever theologian. His name is late Leontius or Leo Leo Leon Leontius.

Or Leo.

And they don't even know where the guy is from. They don't really know a lot about him but the ones that I the church histories that I consulted they say he comes from Byzantine and.

So.

Leon. Leon Tia's. He was the guy that Justinian The Emperor Justinian he was in charge at the time of this this whole issue and he basically used Leontius to kind of force everybody to finally agree on this issue of how Christ can be two natures.

But not two persons and that does anybody remember. What his term was that helped resolve that? Tension, what was the term that he came up with to help? Resolve attention. That was actually serials. Now the serials phrase a hypostatic union, but it wasn't clear enough because.

The.