Apologetics Session 26 - Christology - Part 2

Father, we lift up your holy name, Father. Lord, I want to confess, Lord, just the sins of the day, Father, whatever has happened in all of our lives, but especially me, Father, just lifting up before you, Father, the thoughts I've had, the work I probably should have done better, maybe even the judgment of other people at work or wherever, nothing that I know of, but Father, just knowing that in so many ways I offend your holy law and just your holy righteousness, Father, and I thank you, Lord, for the forgiveness that is in your Son, Jesus Christ.

I thank you, Father, for the blood that washes us clean, Lord. We thank you for this class, Father, and the fact that we can know you more through this class. Please help us tonight. Please be our teacher, Father, and we thank you for the girls in the precept class, and we pray for them, Lord.

We lift that class up to you, and we're so thankful for the ladies that were there, and Father, we're thankful for our brother Ivan. We know that he is not well right now, and he has some limited options going forward, but those options hopefully are going to be the cure that he needs for this pneumonia that he has.

Please, Father, touch his body and heal him, Lord. We ask for our brother, Lord, please. We thank you for John and his wife, Joan, and we pray for them, Lord, as they try to minister to their daughter, who has really been beaten up, Father, by this accident.

We praise you that you have spared her life, and that she is, Father, just alive right now, and we pray, Lord, that you would enable this situation with her getting around in the wheelchair, which is totally new for her, a young girl, and now she's bound to a wheelchair.

Father, we pray, Lord, that you would please help with this ramp situation, and, Lord, that you would just minister to her heart, Father. We thank you for all these things, in Christ's name, amen. Hey, guys.

So, thanks for being here. Last week, we just got into Christology, and I spent a lot of time on Jesus being God Almighty, and that's a very important subject, so I thought we should spend a lot of time on that, and we looked at about, I'll say, 25 or 30 verses at least.

There were many different categories that we went over. This week, we're gonna go into more of a description of who Jesus is. Is there something we didn't cover last week about Jesus? There was a lot of things about Jesus.

We could spend the rest of our life talking about Jesus, but this week, we're gonna talk, first off, that Jesus was also fully man. This is quite a concept for a lot of people. I'm gonna go through this much faster than I did the section last week.

I'm just gonna mention the arguments in the scriptures for this, and then there's a lot more after that. I'm hoping we actually get finished this time. We'll see how we do, but if Jesus was not a man, if, for some reason, some people would say he was a spirit or a witch, well, a spirit could not have offered himself in the place of humanity.

He had to be a man to bear the punishment and the guilt that men deserved, so in order for him to be the perfect sacrifice for the human race, he had to be a man. In addition to that, if he was not a man, he would not be able to sympathize as our high priest who knows our infirmities and knows our weaknesses and knows the pain and the suffering we go through.

Jesus took on human flesh so that he would know all those things so that he can be our great high priest, so if he was not a man, we wouldn't have that type of ministry from the Lord himself, so let's look at some of the things that we know about Jesus and see why we believe that he was also fully man.

So he was born of a woman. We know that, right? Certainly Luke chapter two, verses six and seven says it came about while they were there, the days were completed for Mary to give birth to her firstborn son, Jesus, so he was born in a physical way, a regular physical way through a nine-month pregnancy, right?

There wasn't some magic speeding up of the process, there wasn't a all of a sudden Jesus popped into the world, he came as impregnated by the Spirit, Mary was, and he grew as that little baby in her womb for that nine months and experienced a physical birth.

That's actually a very big deal. There's a lot of people that don't believe that even though the Bible is very clear about that. You remember some of the prophecies in the Old Testament that said that he would be born of the seed of the woman, so that he would be born of a woman.

Galatians 4 .4 says that in the fullness of time, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law. First John four, two, and three, and then there are many more verses than this, but first John four, two, and three says this, but by this you know the Spirit of God.

Every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. The first John was dealing with the Gnostics that dealt with this higher knowledge, and they believed that Jesus wasn't necessarily God in the flesh, they also believed he wasn't necessarily a physical representation of God, and a representation of man, maybe some kind of a spirit, and that's not it at all, and first John says, no, you must believe that he came in the flesh.

We have to believe that. Next, we know Jesus grew as a man, because very early on in the Gospel of Luke, we see him at 12 years old, he's in the temple. We knew he grew in stature with God and man, it says, and as a young boy, he was in the temple, and he was questioning the religious leaders, and they were all amazed at his teaching, right, or his knowledge and understanding, and he went to the temple, and it says that he was also in subjection to his parents, and grew up under the umbrella of their authority.

Some other things about Jesus being a man. We know that he fasted for 40 days and 40 nights, and he didn't do so by supernatural power. He did so in the strength of a human being. It says, and then he was hungry.

He suffered the pangs of hunger. He had a physical body that had the same sorts of needs, and wants that our body has, and he didn't give into those things. He fasted for 40 days, 40 nights. People have done that as well, I'll say normal people, but we often think that because Jesus was God, he could do all these supernatural, but he didn't use his supernatural privileges for many of the things we see him do, walking as a man, and this was certainly not one of them, because he suffered hunger, and he suffered to the point where the angels had the ministry after just 40 days and 40 nights.

We know that when he was on the cross, that he said, I'm thirsty. We know he was thirsty as well. We know from John chapter four, at Jacob's well, when Jesus was there, and he was going through Samaria, and his disciples were not there, they were in town, but a woman came to Jacob's well, and that's where he engaged her, and talked with her for a while, but it says that he was wearied from his journey at that point, that yes, Jesus got tired.

Jesus had a physical body that had limitations, and he was willing to endure that, and put on some flesh for our sakes. We know all these things about his body. The scripture tells us that he was also asleep in the bow of the boat, because he was very tired when the storm came.

We know that he ate many, many, many times. He didn't have this kind of body where he didn't need food. He needed nourishment, and he took in nourishment, just as anybody else would. We don't know if he ever got cut, or something like that, but we know he could heal all things, but we don't know if he was willing, and I'm sure he was willing, to suffer all things.

We know he certainly bled, but we don't know if he stubbed his toe, if he hit his hand with a hammer when he was a carpenter. Yes, he was a perfect, perfect Lord, and God, but he was a man, and he went through many of the same things we do.

It's hard for me to imagine some of these things, and it's hard for us to get our heart. It's like, if Jesus is hammering a nail, you think it's gonna be a perfect shot, right? He's kind of driving, just in there perfectly.

When I'm driving a nail, all bets are off, and I have a black and blue toe right now, because of some damage that I did to that, but he did endure a lot of the things that we do as a man in the physical body.

We know he had human relationships as well, and sometimes this was great, and something to rejoice over. For instance, when he sent out the 70, and they came back, and they said, oh, well, even the demons were subject to us, and Jesus rejoiced over them and said, oh, blessed be your Father, for you haven't revealed these things to mighty people, but as unto babes, and he just rejoiced over all the things that they were doing, and they were having fun together, just rejoicing in the Lord, but then we have Jesus also being betrayed by a dear friend.

He knows betrayal as well, right? You know, those are some of the things in our human relationships we know very well, people letting us down. Now, obviously, Judas betrayed him in a different way than his disciples.

His disciples more like didn't come through when he needed them, right? When the pressure was on, and the Roman guards came, it says, all the sheep scattered. They scattered just as it was written of them, and when it was time to pray in the Garden of Gethsemane, they fell asleep, and you know, couldn't, they knew Jesus was troubled, and they knew it was time to pray, but they couldn't do it.

They couldn't stand with him in that hour, and so they all scattered. So Jesus knew disappointment. He knew rejection. On the human level, and certainly we do too, we know his emotions were stirred by various things that have happened in his walk.

Certainly when Jesus wept over his dear friend Lazarus, and Martha and Mary who were grieving over that whole situation. You know, he experienced these things, and because of this, he knows us. He knows our frame.

He knows who we are. He experienced all these things for our sake. He's eternally God, but yet he stepped into time, took on human flesh to experience all these things, and eventually yield up his life for our sake, and he certainly had anger at times flipping over the money changers, and when the Pharisees were, you know, imposing their religious laws, and especially on the Sabbath, we remember the man with the withered hand, and they were watching him to see if he would heal that man, and Jesus looked around at them with anger in his heart, it says in the book of Mark.

So he experienced it. Now, his anger was always righteous, and his anger was always, you know, tempered in a perfect understanding and a perfect application for a particular situation, because the other thing is that Jesus was also sinless.

Although he was a man, he was sinless, and we'll read a couple verses about that, but before we do, there are also several verses that just flat out call Jesus a man. So I would like maybe a couple folks that could turn to the scriptures for a second.

Kevin, why don't you read first? This is gonna be John chapter eight, verse 40, and Dave, can you turn to 1 Corinthians 15? I'll tell you the verses in a second, and Phil, can you turn to 1 Timothy chapter two?

So 840. John 840. John 840. But now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did. Right, they claim to be Abraham's children, and they were arguing with Jesus, and Jesus says, you're trying to kill me, a man.

A man who's told you the truth. So Jesus calls himself a man. Dave, can you read 1 Corinthians 15? 21 and 22. 21 and 22. That's a nicely well-used Bible, Dave. We like to see that.

It's got a lot of teeth on it. Yeah, it's good. 21 and 22. Okay. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.

So by a man, there has been come the resurrection of the dead. That man's Jesus. Phil, can you give us 1 Timothy 2 .5?

For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.

The man Christ Jesus. And that's what Job cried for, right? Like, how can I arbitrate my case to the Lord? I need someone to go between us. And yet, there was none. But Jesus being fully God and fully man is the perfect arbiter.

And he can go back. He knows who we are perfectly because he walked as we did. He obviously knows God Almighty because he is. So the Bible calls Jesus a man. Now, although he was a man, he was sinless.

Let's turn to Hebrews 4 .15. Mike, could you read that? Bob, could you read 1 Corinthians 5 .21? And we'll leave it at that. There's some other verses that talk about Jesus being sinless, but we'll get the idea here.

There's also many other verses that talk about Jesus being a man. Hebrews 4 .15. Yes, sir. Am I seeing things? Hebrews 4. It only goes as far as 13. No, it goes to 16. Hebrews 4. Oh, there it is, there it is.

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who, in every respect, has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.

Yet without sin. But he endured those temptations. I don't think that Jesus did endure temptation because he did. Bob, 1 Corinthians 5 .21? Mine goes to 13. Do I have a bad Bible? No, 1 Corinthians 5 .21.

I know, my electronic Bible stops at 13. I'm serious. Mine goes to my paperback.

Mine goes to? Yours goes to? I'm sorry, it's 2 Corinthians. Oh. Type on the notes here, Drew. Got him. I'm thinking like there is no way. Drew is a man. Let's make a couple more verses. What is it, 5 .21?

5 .21. Yeah, 2 Corinthians 5 .21. Everybody knows this verse, so it's not. All right, here we go.

Get the commercial off first, okay. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Amen, so he who knew no sin, and that certainly is Jesus, never sin. There's other verses that speak of this, but a perfect, perfect walk as a man on this earth, fulfilled all the law, never did anything against his father's righteousness.

He fulfilled it all. Perfect. So, is Jesus half man and half God? This is the question now.

We were talking last week, I think, about parallel lines that converge in heaven. This is one of those.

Yeah, Bob, this is gonna be hard for us to wrap our minds around, but what do the scriptures teach? That's what we need to come down with. It's not that we're gonna be able to explain everything about this, but what do the scriptures clearly teach?

And the scriptures clearly teach that Jesus is fully man and fully God at the same time. There's been a lot of theologians that have tried to describe this for us, but this is so important because he had to be man to do the things I said earlier, which was to yield himself as a sacrifice that would be acceptable to God and would pay the debt for us, but he also had to be God in the flesh.

He had to be God Almighty to do the things that he did and to be an eternal life that was offered, and that's important too because it's an eternal life that continually, when we're redeemed, we're redeemed with an eternal life that has a power for all eternity, so that's very important, and Jesus said in John chapter eight, he says, unless you believe that I am he, I am, you shall die in your sins, so we absolutely need to believe that Jesus is God in the flesh.

Now, this has been a problem over the years. Now, there's a term son of man in the scriptures that is mentioned quite a few times in the Old Testament and quite a few times in the New Testament. We see it mostly in the book of Matthew, book of Luke, but in Daniel, when it talks of the son of man, I'm gonna read this from, I believe it's from Got Questions.

This is one of the answers you get. You know, you see Got Questions when you do some Googling. It says, the teachers of the law during Jesus' time on earth would have readily understood Jesus' meaning when he applied the title son of man to himself.

Jesus used the phrase to point to his exalted state as a person of the Godhead and the fact that he will fulfill Daniel's prophecy. In Jesus' case, the application of the title the son of man also highlights the humanity of Christ.

The difference is that he is the son of man, that is, he is the epitome of humanity. Jesus is the sinless one, humanity perfected, the one to reconcile God and man. So that was the explanation they had on Got Questions.

And it was a good explanation, and Jesus loved to use that phraseology about himself, the son of man, and it brought out both his deity and his humanity. From Jeff Cleaver, you've heard of him, right?

He's going to explain this union of man and God together in one being. Jesus Christ is one person of the Trinity. The one person Jesus Christ is infinitely greater than anything in creation. There is nothing in creation that adequately compares to him.

Unlike any other person that we as creatures may encounter, Jesus, the creator, actually has two natures that coexist in a hypostatic union. And you've heard of that hypostatic union before. When the son, Jesus, took on human flesh, he added a human nature to his personhood, which from all eternity had only been a divine nature.

Nothing of the divine nature was lost in this transaction, nor were the two natures mixed together like a tablet dissolving a liquid, meaning that there's some kind of co-mingling and Jesus is some kind of like a mutant being or something right now, that he has the two natures within him.

Rather, through the hypostatic union, the full extent of both natures now exist eternally together in one person. This does not affect God's immutability because he has not changed his divine nature by adding flesh.

It's a lot of deep thinking. It's a lot of deep things to think about, but that's exactly how the scriptures describe Jesus Christ, that he is God. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He has the attributes of God.

He exercises the attributes of God. He exercises the divine works of God, but he is also human and he is going to exist in the form that we see him, you know, after his resurrection in the resurrected body, he is going to maintain that for all eternity.

Now, we see Jesus as well in the book of Revelation, you know, and we see him also as a transfiguration. We see the glory of God coming out at times, but when, you know, he allowed himself to be touched by Thomas, you know, reach here your hands, Thomas, put it in my side, but his body's gonna have flesh and bone, and as he is the first fruits of the resurrection, the first new body of the resurrection, we are also gonna have a body like unto his, as Philippians chapter three says.

So he's going to maintain that for the rest of eternity, which is, that really blows my mind, that Jesus was not just willing to come as a man for the short time, we could say, these 30 some years that he was on the earth ministering, but he is gonna be, have the marks of a lamb as of slain for the rest of eternity.

How could eternal God do that? You can only, you can't explain it, but the only thing you can say about it is, it just demonstrates his immense love for his creation, for us, that he would be willing to do these things.

But these things are very important to get a grasp of, at least that we believe these things, not that we can explain them all, or understand exactly how God did this, but that the Bible teaches that Jesus is fully man and fully God, because there are a lot of errors, and I'm gonna talk about a few errors right now, and if you're in a camp where you have missed the boat on Jesus, and you believe that he is something that he is not, you're not believing in the right Jesus, and we mentioned some of those verses last week.

So, it's difficult to explain, but it needs to be believed. There was a group called the Ebionites. This is a sect from the second century AD, and they denied the deity of Christ. They believed that Jesus was just a man, a special man, conceived by a miracle, and that the Holy Spirit came upon him, but they fall short of accepting the deity of Jesus Christ.

Is that a problem? Yes. The Docetists and the Gnostics, that's another group from the second century, and before that, because we know the apostle John and apostle Paul, too, dealt with these Gnostics.

They also reject the idea of the deity of Christ, but they also believe that the body of Christ, it was more like a phantom. He's more like a spirit being. They believe that all flesh was evil, and he kind of appeared as more of a phantom, but he didn't have a real physical body, and so they denied that he came in the flesh and offered himself as a man.

That is also a heresy. That is a false belief, and that belief is not going to gain entrance into heaven if you believe that kind of Jesus. The Arians, we've talked about the Arians a few times. They also believe that he was a created being.

They believe Jesus was a created person inferior to the Father, and they taught that Jesus did not eternally exist with the Father, obviously denying the deity of Christ again. And there are many, many, many other variations and combinations that people have come up with over the years to attempt to basically walk away from what the scripture teaches.

But we know there's some bizarre things out there. We know there's some very, I'll say, nuanced isn't the right word, but they're very subtle. They try to trick you, like all the cults. All the cults are gonna go into some form of denying Jesus's person one way or another.

We know the Jehovah's Witnesses think that he's Michael the archangel, right? That he's not God in the flesh. We know that the Mormons believe that he is also a created being, that he and Satan are brothers, and there's a lot of baggage that goes along with that.

If you are in one of those camps, you're not believing in the Jesus of the Bible, and you will be in your sins. So the early church knew that they were dealing with all these things, so what did they do?

Well, they had a couple of councils. They had a council of Nicaea, right? And they had a council of Chalcedon, and out of those came some creeds, which we know, I think I have them in here. I was gonna put, the Apostles' Creed came out in the 5th century, and that was at the council of Chalcedon.

The Nicene Creed, I'm gonna read that one. That came out in 325, and it was slightly altered in 381 at the council of Constantinople. The reason, I believe that the change in 381 was, it was about the Holy Spirit, because it says that he proceeded from the Son, that was the original wording, but he proceeds from the Father and the Son, that was the change in 381, and that's also accurate, by the way.

So I'm gonna read the council, the Nicene Creed. We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible, and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, begotten from the Father before all ages, God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, so he was not created, of the same essence as the Father.

Through him all things were made. For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven, he became incarnate by the Holy Spirit, and the Virgin Mary, and was made human. He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, he suffered and was buried.

The third day he rose again according to the scriptures. He ascended to heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again with glory to judge the living and the dead. His kingdom will never end.

And we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life. He proceeds from the Father and the Son, and with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified. He spoke through the prophets. We believe only in one holy Catholic and apostolic church.

We affirm one baptism for forgiveness of sins. We look forward to the resurrection of the dead and to life in the world to come, amen. They created that creed not to go beyond the Bible, but to help clarify some of the doctrines of the early church to make sure that people were on the right page.

Now, creeds are good in one way, in a sense, but it is a man-made writing from afterwards that the council made up. But the reason they came up with it is because of all of these false beliefs about Jesus Christ.

So we need to believe that he was fully God and fully man. And those things are clear from the scriptures. And we need to latch on to several truths about Jesus that are non-negotiable. He's fully man, he's fully God.

We've already spoken about that. He was born of a virgin. That has to be a belief we have. He walked as a man and never sinned. We mentioned that before. He died a physical death. And believe it or not, there's heresies that revolve around that that say he didn't die.

The swoon theory and some other things that you'll hear about. He was resurrected. He is the only way to receive forgiveness of sins in eternal life. Have to believe that. John 14, six, Acts 4, 12. He is coming again to judge the world and establish an everlasting kingdom of righteousness.

Those are non-negotiables about our Lord Jesus Christ. We cannot waver on those things. Those things have to be locked up in our minds and we believe them about our great God and king. So that's a lot about who Jesus is.

Let's talk for a second about what he did and what he's going to do. So this gets a little bit into Matt's study of soteriology, which is salvation. But we'll look at some things here and just remind ourselves of what Jesus accomplished.

He came, as he said in Luke chapter 19, 10, he came into the flesh to seek and to save that which is lost. The only way that humanity could be saved was that if Jesus was willing to lay down his life for sinful humanity.

The EFCA, our denomination, the statement of faith says this. We believe that Jesus Christ, as our representative and substitute, shed his blood on the cross as the perfect, all-sufficient sacrifice for our sins.

His atoning death and victorious resurrection constitute the only ground of salvation. The only ground, that's the only way we could be saved is through his death and resurrection. The only way that was going to happen is if he yielded his life.

And because our life is going to be in union with him after we show faith in his finished work, in effect, we die with him on the cross and we are raised up again with him through the resurrection that we have new life in our mortal bodies because of what he has done, because he now indwells us and has given us life.

He has quickened our mortal frame, is what it says. The great substitute, Jesus, has taken our place in death and he's given us life. That work is the greatest thing that has ever happened in the history of the universe as far as, I guess, our thinking is concerned.

Obviously, we're kind of man-centric, right? We didn't see the Lord when he created the universe with a word. I think that would have been pretty amazing. But as far as we're concerned, the work of Jesus on the cross was the most amazing thing that has ever happened in the history of the universe.

And we needed him to do that for us. Now, what happens now? Jesus has died. He rose again. All those who believe in him are going to have life in his name. What's he doing now? Where is he? What is his activity right now?

Let's read a few verses on this. Brian, I haven't had you read yet, have I? No. Let's read Hebrews chapter one, verse three. And then, John, could you read Hebrews chapter nine, verse 11 and 12?

Okay, Hebrews one, three, correct? Yep. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact input 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.

So that's where he is. He's at the right hand of the father right now,.

Of the majesty on high. And John, Hebrews nine, 11, and 12 talk a little bit about his work as high priest. If you could read that.

But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, he entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation, and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through his own blood, to the holy place, once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.

Okay, I read that. We read that one because that kind of signifies his role as a high priest as well, going before the father. And that was the salvation event, that that was basically the offering of himself to the father.

But let's look now at the verse that Phil read a little bit earlier. Bill, could you turn to 1 Timothy 2, verse five again? And Brian, could you turn to Romans 8, verses 33 and 34?

It says 5, 8, right?

1 Timothy 2, 5. Oh, 2, 5, I'm sorry. Brian, you're in Romans 8.

Well, there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and man, the man, Christ Jesus.

So he, as high priest, mediates between us and the father. So we can go to God the father through the name of Jesus Christ. He is the one who allows us to have access to a holy God. And it says in early Hebrews, it says that we can boldly enter his throne room because of what Jesus has done.

So that is his ministry as high priest. He allows us to have access to the father. But your verse is gonna tell us a little bit more of what that means. Okay, Romans 8, what again? 33 through 34.

Who shall bring any change against God's elect? It is God who justifies, who is to condemn. Jesus Christ is the one who died, more than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.

Apostle 35.

That's probably good. I'm sorry. So who's gonna bring a charge against God's children, God's elect? Is anyone going to have a charge against? Well, some might try to bring a charge, but who's there sitting as our advocate before the father?

Jesus. Jesus is gonna say, yes, I've paid for that sin. I have paid for what this man is being accused of, and it looks like a courtroom scene in Romans chapter eight, where Jesus intercedes for us as not only the advocate and the lawyer, but he's also the one who laid down his life as the sacrifice, and can justly say, there's nothing wrong with this person.

This person is holy and blameless because of what I've done in his life by faith, washing and cleaning. So Jesus is our advocate. Now, I also think in Jesus's high priestly role as well, in the Old Testament, we used to see when the people needed wisdom, they would go to the high priests and they would minister to the people.

And they particularly had the, well, a lot of people think that they're called lights and perfections is what the actual translation is, but that's the erm and the thum. Some people think it's stones or whatever, and that the priest would go before the Lord on behalf of the people and make a request, and the erm and the thum would reveal the answer, and the high priest had that role.

Well, in the New Testament, what does it tell us? But it says in James, it says, if any of us lacks wisdom, we should go before the Lord and ask him. And I think that, again, is the Lord's role, the Lord Jesus giving wisdom.

And you can say, well, that's, it's the Father, it's the Spirit. All of them have a role in the ministry of our lives. I think Jesus's high priest, though, gives wisdom to his children when we ask him.

So when we pray, do we ask for our prayers to the Father, to the Son? If you ask for anything in my name, the Father will give it. So usually we say, when we pray, we pray in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Sometimes we might not remember to say that, or we might not think of that as a formula, maybe. But, you know, because when Peter cried out, Lord, save me, you know, there was no, sometimes we just cry out.

And sometimes we pray, as Romans chapter eight says, where our hearts are just groaning within us, and the needs we have just come up before the Lord. And it says in there that the Spirit actually interprets the things that we have before.

So, you know, the Father, Son, and the Spirit are all involved in our requests to come before him. But I think in particular, as a high priest, he would give wisdom to his children. Now, some amazing things about Jesus that we know, but I just wanna go over it real quick.

What are the titles of Jesus Christ in the Bible? There are a ton of them. You can probably think of many. I'll just start going through a couple of them. Son of Man was one we talked about. Son of God.

Son of David. Son of Abraham. That's in Matthew 1 -1, it talks about the genealogies. The King of the Jews. We remember he had that title. He's called the Passover Lamb. I have 1 Corinthians 5 -7. I probably, it's probably 2 Corinthians, the way my notes are going.

But I think it is 1 Corinthians 5 -7. He's called the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. And we certainly remember that title. He's also called the Balm of Gilead, reference to the Messianic coming in Jeremiah 8 -22.

He's called the Bright and Morning Star in Revelation 22 -16. You don't have to write all this down because this is, you know, I'll send this out to you guys. He's called the Word of God. Many times, you know, quite a few times in the scriptures we see that.

He's called our Sabbath rest from Hebrews chapter four. He's called the Lion of Judah. He's called the root and the offspring of Jesse in Isaiah chapter 11. And then he's called the root and the offspring of David in Revelation 5 and in Revelation 22.

Very interesting. He's called the Alpha and the Omega, or the first and the last. He's called High Priest. We read a lot of verses about that tonight. He's called the Chief Shepherd from Hebrews chapter 13 and 1 Peter chapter five.

He's called the Lamb of God. And that's not just from John chapter one. It's also, Revelation has a lot of references to Jesus being the Lamb of God. And really Isaiah chapter 53 also. He's called Emmanuel, God with us.