Jesus as Son of God

But I'm delighted to be here and thank you, Conley, for having me here, and especially on this particular topic.

And I know we've been involved with both of us on a common ministry now, First Love Ministries, which is such a great ministry.

I don't work with a lot of other ministries, but I really enjoy First Love because we're on the same page in terms of ministry philosophy.

And my role in ministry and evangelism is get to the cross as fast as possible. Because you can waste a lot of time in evangelism talking about all kinds of things because nonbelievers have a tendency to just take rabbit trails and bring you all over the place.

But the crosswork is the very means that God chooses to save his people. So whatever you do, get to the cross as fast as possible.

However you've got to get there, get to the crosswork as fast as possible. It doesn't matter where you are. The gospel doesn't change.

But we just have to evangelize. That's evangelism, getting to the crosswork. I've been in ministry since the early 90s.

And as Connie pointed out, I normally don't tell people this. In my past life,

I was on the power team for many years. And then in the late 90s, I started teaching, doing apologetics and Christian education.

We have an organization called Department of Christian Defense. It's an educational apologetic ministry.

And I've been involved in that for many years. And I feel very privileged by the

Lord because he doesn't have to use me. He can use anybody. But I enjoy what I do. I'm going to Nepal, gosh, in three weeks, which is literally the longest flight

I think anyone can take. It's just a long flight.

But it's really worth it. We have right now 250 students with Grace Bible University.

It's our university, our seminary that we offer to everybody. And in Nepal, they don't have resources out there where they can just pick up some kind of English translate.

They don't speak the language. It's not like Philippines or Kenya or these other places. So we translate books.

And we would just give them out. And it's really, when you travel around the world, you see all kinds of ministries and missionary groups.

And a lot of times, missionary groups, they, we need missionaries out there.

But we need the right ones with the right message. We don't need watered -down theology. We don't need a repetitive

John 316. That's all they have. Because frankly, you give John 316 to everyone, and a

Catholic and a Mormon and Jehovah Witness will say, hey, that's good. I like that. We've got to be definitive in our theology.

We have to have a set foundation. Jesus taught details. He taught to Nicodemus.

And if you look at, very interesting, Nicodemus is in that whole dialogue, Christ and Nicodemus.

Jesus presented just enormously important theological details to Nicodemus.

He was very defined. He was very definitive. He talks about the necessity of being born again. There's no commandment there, actually, in the first eight verses.

There's no imperative verb. Rather, statements of facts. You've got to be born again if you want to enter the kingdom of heaven.

And he talks about the spirit as a distinct person, the age of regeneration. In verse 13, he talks about his preexistence, his affirmation, as we'll see later this evening, of the

Son of Man, which, as I'll point out, that was a divine title primarily. He points that he was given by another person,

God the Father. He affirms himself as God the Son. So now, you look at all the theology, you have the concept of the

Trinity, three persons. You have the concept of regeneration by the Holy Spirit. You have his preexistence.

You have his deity being sent by the Father. And you have the concept of solus

Christos, right? Christ alone. Whoever believes in me, in me, shall not perish.

And then in verse 19 of chapter 3, he speaks on the depravity of man. We've got to be definitive.

And unfortunately, too, I see a lot of open air. I do open air. And too often, we see open air evangelism doing a very mushy view of the gospel with no definition because they think, well,

I don't want to get too deep. I don't want to talk about the deity of Christ because they might not accept it.

And we're not supposed to evangelize that way. We just preach Christ crucified and the

Jesus Christ of biblical revelation. And of all the titles that Jesus uses, and he uses many, one of the titles that I'll be speaking about this morning is

Jesus as the Son of God. And if you ever deal with Muslims or Jehovah's Witnesses or Unitarian groups,

Unitarian groups are groups that see God as one person.

Muslims, Jehovah's Witnesses, Christadelphians, Oneness Pentecostals, they all share that fundamental

Unitarian assumption. They all share that, that God exists as one person.

And we know from Genesis to Revelation, God is presented as multi -personal.

He's triune. That's how God revealed himself. And the

Trinity is one of the most important doctrines. Our whole salvation really is dependent on the fact that God the

Father sent God the Son. God the Son incarnated himself, became flesh, lived the perfect life, a vicarious life on behalf of his people.

He died on a cross, taking the sins of his people. He really did die. He really did resurrect from the dead, ascended to another person,

God the Father. The Holy Spirit is sent to regenerate the agent of regeneration. The whole

Trinity is involved in our salvation. A Unitarian God is a false concept of God.

And one of the main reasons why Jehovah's Witnesses or Muslims do not believe that Jesus is

God, aside from the fact they're unregenerated, is that if there's one person,

Allah or Jehovah, then no other person could be God. So it's because of their Unitarian assumption that they deny one of the most important doctrines of Scripture, the deity of Jesus Christ.

It's interesting. It's one of the most important doctrines, but where is it these days behind the pulpit? You just don't see it.

I know I do a lot of pastor converses, and I always ask the pastors, where did you put the Trinity? Where is it?

We've got to teach the Trinity. We've got to teach justification through faith. This is part of the gospel. The incarnation, says

Paul, is part of my gospel, 2 Timothy 2 .8. Remember, he says to pastors, remember,

Jesus Christ, risen from the dead. Then he says, a descendant, in the Greek term there is spermatos.

It doesn't get more literal than that. A descendant of David, according to my gospel.

The fact that he was truly man is part of the gospel. The fact that he was truly God, salvation is dependent on believing that.

Jesus said in John 8 .58, starting with John 8 .24, unless you believe that I am the eternal

God, semantically, I am the eternal God, unless you believe that I am, you'll perish.

So to me, it's crazy not to mention the deity of Christ in your evangelism. Jesus said, unless you believe this, you'll die in your sins.

Because a non -deity Christ is not the Jesus Christ of biblical revelation.

One of the phrases or titles that Jesus uses of himself, and as I'll point out later, dealing with the

Son of Man, that was his favorite title. In fact, if you add up all the places, you know, assuming the duplications in the gospels, the parallels, 78 times

Jesus referred to himself as the Son of Man, 78 times.

And nobody in the gospels, not one person, very interesting, dared to address him as the

Son of Man. He was referred to as other titles, but not the Son of Man, as we'll see.

Son of God, I'll be dealing with this morning. The Son of God is the very marrow of the person and nature of Jesus Christ.

Son of God, it's interesting, every group, every non -Christian group, and Christian, they all have a meaning of the

Son of God. And because of that, the word or the phrase, the title

Son of God is normally misrepresented. So is the word Trinity.

I was in my mall, I mean, my mall where I live, it's a giant mall, for the first time,

I grew up there in that area, the first time in my life going to that mall as a kid.

I walked in there, about two weeks ago, I was going to the Apple store, and I saw a giant table, first time

I've ever seen this, a giant table with all this literature and artwork. I thought it was an advertisement for TimeShare to go on some vacation.

I saw six people, there was three women, five or six people, and two men, five people.

And I walked closer, and it was a watchtower table with live, active

Jehovah's Witnesses. And I'm thinking, where are the Christians? Why don't we have a table? And I got my phone fixed,

I came back, and I did talk to them, and after talking for a little while, and keep in mind, you never want to bombard someone with a thousand verses, that's not good evangelism.

So we were just, and I always pray for wisdom, so I think we were talking about the Son of Man, which they didn't really know what the

Son of Man was, but afterwards, the lady asked me, are you a Trinitarian? And I didn't,

I never answered that question right away, because I first asked, depends what you mean by Trinitarian.

And of course, when I asked her her understanding of the Trinitarian, it was simply this, well, the

Trinity is the view that Jesus is the Father and Holy Spirit, and the Son.

And I said, no, I'm not that kind of, that's not a Trinitarian, and I said, you don't understand what the

Trinity even teaches. Anyways, same with the Son of God. Everyone has a different meaning.

Pours into a different meaning, the word Son. Joel Witnesses think the

Son of God means lesser than, because you're a son of your father, so you're not, you were created, right?

The Mormons put a spin on it, they think the Son of God is this weird, they really, this is official

Mormon doctrine, by the way, that he's called the Son of God the only begotten in the flesh.

I always wonder what exactly does that mean to them, the only begotten in the flesh? Because only

Jesus was the only begotten in the flesh to them, and only begotten in the flesh means to a

Mormon, Mormon theology, that God the Father came down himself, as Brigham Young said, and fathered that spirit,

Jesus, with a body, instead of letting any other man do it. That means the

Father and Mary had relations, physical relations, to produce the body of Jesus.

He's the only begotten in the flesh, that's what they mean. Of course, the average Mormon coming to your door will backpedal and he'll try to avoid all those subjects, but the fact is, that's how they see the

Son of God. Everyone has a definition of the Son of God. I'm first gonna,

I wanna quote a passage, Ephesians, before we get into the Son of God, Ephesians 2 .12.

Because when we're dealing with groups, whether it's Mormons or just your garden variety non -believer, we have to understand the status and of these unsaved people.

I used to refer to these kind of groups, Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, Oneness, as just non -Christian cults.

Muslims, Roman Catholics, and these other groups as non -Christian world religions. However, Paul has a different definition for non -believers, it's interesting.

In Ephesians chapter, and he always does this, chapter two, he always reminds you of where you were before you were saved.

He wants you to appreciate grace. He wants you to understand that God didn't have to choose you, and we just look up to him and say it's amazing grace that he even chose us as Christians.

In 2 .12, Paul speaks about the pre -converted Ephesians. He says, remember, remember at that time you were separated from Christ, excluded from the people of Israel, strangers of the covenants, of the promise.

Then he says, having no hope without God in this world. Well, they had lots of gods.

I've been to Ephesus before, there's a zillion statues and all kinds of idols there. The pre -converted

Ephesians had lots of gods, but they were without the true God of biblical revelation.

The word without God is athioi, the plural of atheist. Paul calls these people atheists.

I would see all these world religions, all these non -Christian cults, I don't even refer to them as that anymore because theologically they're atheists, they have the wrong

God. Muslims are atheists, Jehovah Witnesses are atheists, one is Pentecostal's atheist, it goes on and on because they have the wrong

God. It doesn't matter what God they have. The Unitarian starting point is why they, most folks would deny the

Trinity. Unless you're some bizarre universalist where it doesn't matter what you believe, the reason, the main and plain reason why

Unitarians deny the Trinity is because they're Unitarian or unipersonal starting point,

God is one person. Jesus says the Son of God. Now, if you ever talk to Unitarians on this issue,

Son of God, here's what you're gonna get. Everybody's called, they'll point out, everyone's called

God in the Old Testament. Moses was called God, angels, mighty men, everyone's called

God, everyone's called Sons of God. Angels, Adam, false gods,

Israel, David was first born, angels, Christians were called

Sons of God by adoption, of course. Even the Jews in John chapter eight, they refer to themselves as Sons of God, meaning we have one

Father, they said. We have one Father, we have one God and one Father. So everyone's

Sons of God. So if Jesus claimed to be the Son of God, so what? That wouldn't mean, that doesn't mean deity because everybody's a

Son of God. What in the world would that mean? Well, I'm gonna show, same with Son of Man.

In fact, Ezekiel, more than Christ, was referred to as a Son of Man, I think 94 times.

Jesus, as mentioned, claimed he was a Son of Man 78 times and four times outside the Gospel, they refer to him as a

Son of Man. So everyone's a Son of God. How can that be a title of deity?

So if Jesus were to claim I am God or I am the

Son of God, that would be a very ambiguous way of claiming deity, particularly

I am God. And this is one of the main arguments of Muslims. Show me in the Bible where Jesus claimed to be

God and said worship me. That's their big two questions. If you ever deal with Muslims, okay, show me, or they'll just assert,

Jesus never claimed I am God, he never said worship me. So what are you gonna do? Well, where do the most

Christians go? Show me where Jesus claimed to be God. Well, they're gonna probably go to the I am verses or there's a whole string of other verses.

But the Muslim will press the Christian and say hold on. They'll say hold on, sport. I said show me where he literally said

I am God. Did he ever say I am God? Did he ever say

I am God? Like that. I am God. Well, if he had, there's no verse that says, that shows

Jesus saying I am God. Because if he had, think about it, what would he be claiming?

Because everyone was called God. Mighty men, judges, right? Exodus 21, 22, the judges were

Elohim in Hebrew. Everyone's called God. Maybe he was claiming he's an angel.

Maybe he's claiming he's just a judge. Or maybe he's claiming he's a mighty man like Moses or someone else.

In other words, that would have been, why would he do that? That would have been very ambiguous. But instead, what

Jesus did, unlike angels and false gods and mighty men and Adam and everyone else who was called sons of God or God, Jesus used phrases and words and titles that were exclusively used by Yahweh.

And that were definitively, in terms of meaning, definitively had the semantic linguistic meaning of truly ontologically

God. So there's no mistake. Why do you think the Jews wanted to kill him?

They thought they were sons of God. But when Jesus claimed to be the son of God, why do you think they wanted to kill him? Because they understood the unique way that Jesus claimed to be the son of God.

The unique way he claimed to be the I Am. The unique way he claimed to be the son of man.

They understood. They were there. Today, these world religions,

Unitarians, they're not as smart as the Jews in terms of understanding the claims of Christ.

I told the Jehovah's Witnesses, I said it's interesting, the

Jews, everyone wanted to kill Jesus. And I asked the Jehovah's Witnesses, isn't that interesting?

Everyone wanted to kill Jesus. I said, why? They tried to say because of his morality and he was supposed to bring the kingdom down, all these other things.

And I said, none of those things warrant blasphemy. Saying I'm an old guy and I knew

Abraham, that's not blasphemous. That just means you're kind of crazy to the Jews. Saying you didn't do something as the

Messiah to bring the kingdom, that's not blasphemy. But claiming you're God is blasphemy.

And I asked the Jehovah's Witnesses, why do they want to kill him? And after they said these reasons, they thought,

I said, no, and I quoted John 10, 33. When Jesus claimed to be, as we'll see, when

Jesus claimed, I and the Father, literally it reads in John 10, 30, I and the

Father, one thing, it's a neuter adjective, hen. It's not the masculine.

He's not saying I and the Father, one person. It's neuter. So literally, I and the

Father, one thing we are. That's how it literally be translated.

In fact, there's two issues there. First, there's the neuter adjective for one, hen, one thing, one substance, not one person, but also the plural verb, esmen.

I and the Father are one, not am one or is one. And in the previous verses, claiming he has sheep, he gives them eternal life.

They shall never, never, not a possibility, perish into the end of the age. So all these things that only

Yahweh does, only Yahweh, Micah the archangel doesn't have sheep. He can't save anybody.

But Jesus says, I give them eternal life, and nobody can snatch them from my hand.

The Father is greater than all. No one can snatch them from my Father's hand. That is Deuteronomy 32, 39 language.

That's what Yahweh said in Deuteronomy 32, 39. Very interesting, the parallel there.

In the Septuagint, the same words are used. In Deuteronomy 32, 39 in the

Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, Yahweh says, see now that I am.

That's one of the un -predicated I am statements of Yahweh in the Old Testament, the ego eimi.

See now that I am, I am what? Just I am, I am the eternal one. Not Exodus 3, 14, but Deuteronomy 32, 39.

See now that I am. And there is no God or gods aside from me.

I have wounded, I've killed and I make alive. I have wounded and I've healed. And he says, and nobody can deliver from the hand of me.

Jesus, no one can snatch you from the hand of me. The Father, then he refers to the

Father. No one can snatch you from the hand of the Father.

The same language is being used, the same words. And just a side note, in Affirmation of the

Trinity, it's very interesting. In Deuteronomy, Yahweh says, no one can deliver you from my hands.

The Septuagint and the Hebrew, it's plural, hands. But then in Deuteronomy, same language, except my hand, singular, and my

Father's hand, singular. It's a beautiful, I think, indirect way that's affirming the multi -personal

God of Scripture. In 1907 of John, we have a law, the

Jews said. Remember, everyone claimed they're sons of God. Jews did, had no problem with that.

Adam, everyone, angels. But the Jews, when Jesus said, I'm the son of God, the

Jews said, we have a law, 1907. And by that law, he ought to die because he made himself, reflexive pronoun, he did it himself, he made himself the son of God.

They understood the unique way that Jesus claimed ontological deity by claiming he was the son of God.

Now, there's other phrases and titles that Jesus, and we don't have time to go through all the titles and phrases. But he, again, he used, he didn't say,

I am God, because that would have been ambiguous. If he just said, I am God, maybe he's a good judge.

Rather, he uses phrase and titles that were exclusively used of Yahweh and exclusively denoted ontological deity, like the

I am's, several times. Not just in John, but we see it in Matthew, Matthew 14, 27, you know, the walking on the water.

I love the phrase, it's repeated in Mark 6, 650. The walking on the water incident, disciples were scared in the boat, and he said, be of good courage, and the

Greek says, I am, don't be afraid. That should put their fears to rest.

I am, I'm the eternal one, I created all things, I still the waters, don't fear.

That's one of the un -predicated I am. What's an un -predicated I am? It's where the

I am is used, ego, a me, and there's nothing after it, there's no predicate.

In other words, here's a predicated I am. I am the door, I am the gate, I am the shepherd.

Those are significant, but there are predicates there after the I am, but the several times that Jesus claimed to be the

I am, theologically, there's no predicate, it's un -predicated, there's no stated predicate.

The walking of the water, Matthew 14, 27, Mark 6, 50, parallel in John 6, 20, but then

John, here's the list of them, John 8, 24, John 8, 28, when he lift up the

Son of Man, then you will know that I am. Then of course, John 8, 58, 13, 19 of John, which is parallel to the

Septuagint of Isaiah 43, 10, it's very interesting if you compare those, and John 18, five, six, and eight, when the guards fell back at the

I am proclamation. It's funny, Unitarians and Jehovah's Witnesses, particularly in debate, they explain the falling back as Jesus' high morality was just too high and they couldn't take it.

We're talking about Roman soldiers. They didn't even know about the Messiah. They didn't have any doctrine.

They're not gonna fall because Jesus' morality. He claimed to be the eternal God and they fell back.

He also claimed to be the agent of his own resurrection. He claimed to be the unique son in John 3, 16, the monogamous, the unique one, the one and only.

In other words, in all these places where Jesus claimed to be the Son of God, it was tantamount to God the

Son. Now, in a Semitic context, the

Son of God, just in a Jewish mind, it did mean one who possesses the very nature of something or in a relationship, like we're adopted.

We're sons of God by adoption. But the way Jesus claimed to be the Son of God was understood in a

Semitic context as God the Son, and they wanted to kill him. For example, possessing the very nature of that something,

Ephesians 2, 2 and 3, the unbelievers are called sons of disobedience, possessing the very nature of depravity, sons of disobedience.

Then Paul says, children of wrath. We, only believers, are children of God.

The unbelievers, says Paul, children of wrath. Look, the unbeliever is not in a neutral, he's not in a neutral status.

You know, he's just like that nice lady down the street, she feeds the cats. Actually, in my neighborhood, there was a nice lady that fed the cats, but she was unsaved as anything.

She wasn't mean, she wasn't rebellious, but the fact that she didn't believe, she was an object of wrath, biblically.

God lovers, God haters. Only believers are called children of God. Unbelievers, in John 8, 44, are called sons of the devil, possessing that very nature.

Sons of the devil, unbelievers, 844. Again, we have a law, and by that law, you ought to die, because he claimed to be the son of God.

They understood it. So when Muslims or Unitarians or anyone else tries to use the argument that everyone was a son of God, well, go to 1907.

The Jews didn't hold to that, because they understood the unique way Jesus claimed to be the son of God meant

God the son. Significant passages, we'll just go over these few, and then we'll conclude.

Mark 14, 61 through 64, I think in your bulletin, there's a list of these.

These are some of the significant ones. When Jesus is before the high priest, the high priest asked him, are you the

Christ, the Messiah, the son of God, or in Mark it says, the son of the blessed one?

And I like Jesus' response, because he adds to it. He doesn't want any misinformation or ambiguity.

He adds to this, and he says, yes, I am, meaning yes, I am the

Christ, the son of God. Remember, obviously, the priest wasn't asking him, hey, are you a son of God like Adam?

No, the priest knew, you know, he was a smart guy in his own theology. Are you the son of God?

And both questions, Christ, the son of God, Jesus says, yes, I'm the Christ, and I'm the son of God.

But here's what he adds. And you shall see the son of man coming with clouds.

Now, the priest knew full well, the high priest, Daniel 7, the background of son of man.

And in Daniel 7, as we'll see, the son of man, in the ancient of days, were two objects of divine worship, two distinct persons.

The son of man was, the Septuagint says they were worshiping him. It's a participle there in Daniel 7, 13 and 19.

But it says the son of man rides the clouds. In the Old Testament, only Yahweh rides the clouds. So this incredible affirmation, which

Jesus adds to it, I'm the Christ, I'm the son of God, and I'm the son of man, which you're gonna see riding the clouds.

Of course, the response of the high priest, he tore his clothes. What further need do we have of witnesses?

He says, you've heard this blasphemy. You've heard this blasphemy. And they all condemned him as deserving death.

John 5, 17 and 18. Now, these are the places where Jesus makes a clear, definitive affirmation of ontological deity, the son, possessing the very nature, co -equality.

That's our doctrine. We are monotheistic Trinitarians. If you're a

Christian, if you're a Unitarian, come see me afterwards. We'll talk about it.

These are some of the significant places where the affirmation is so crystal clear. Undeniable, because the response of the

Jews. They understood the Old Testament. They understood the

I Am proclamations by Yahweh. Deuteronomy 32, here's the places, if you wanna write these down.

In the Old Testament, Septuagint, where Yahweh claimed to be, nobody else did, not

Adam, not mighty men, not judges, not angels. Yahweh claimed to be the I Am, the unpredicated, eternal

God. The I Am, the Ego Emi. Deuteronomy 32, 39. Then in Isaiah, Isaiah 41, 4, which actually has two titles.

I Am, Unpredicated, and First and Last. Then 43, 10 of Isaiah.

45, 18. And 46, 4. These are the places in the

Old Testament, Septuagint, where Yahweh, nobody else claimed this, claimed to be the

I Am. So when Jesus does it, of course the Jews understood what he was saying. In John 5, 17 and 18.

My father is, this is a response to the Jews complaining that he was healing on a

Sabbath. My father is at work to this very, until now, this very hour.

I myself am working. And this is his response to the accusations brought before him before that.

So he claims my father is working and I too am working. God's creative activities, his creative activity, you know, stopped in six days.

If you go to the garden, go to Eden, you know, he created all things. We read in Genesis 1, stopped after six days, but that doesn't mean that the activity of governing the universe, you know, the father just left or something.

No, he's still working. And the son too am working. Now keep in mind, it was blasphemous even to make the claim,

I can work on the Sabbath. Because they only, in Jewish tradition, it was only Yahweh that can loose the

Sabbath. Nobody else. Jesus says, that's what I'm doing. And they saw that. So that in and of itself was a claim of deity.

But then he says this, in verse 18. For this reason, claiming

God was his father, breaking, loosing the Sabbath.

It says in verse 18, for this reason, the Jews, exeitun, it's an imperfect tense, they kept seeking.

In other words, this is a customary imperfect tense, this verb, we're seeking.

And what the imperfect tense shows, it was a repeated action. In other words, this wasn't the first time they were seeking to kill him.

Imperfect tense is used. Customary. It was a repeated thing. They were always seeking to kill him.

They were seeking to kill him all the more because not only was he loosing or a looing, breaking the

Sabbath, and that's an imperfect tense as well. This was not the first time he was loosing the

Sabbath. A looing, it's imperfect. But listen to this. But he was also a looing, calling, he kept calling, imperfect tense again.

This wasn't the first time he was calling God his father. He had been doing this before. It's an imperfect tense, not the first time.

But also he was calling God his own father, making himself. Nobody else was doing it to him.

He was making, it's a reflexive pronoun. That's where the subject becomes the object. He's doing something by himself, for himself.

He was making himself, the Alton, making himself equal with God.

And they wanted to kill him all the more for doing this. This is our doctrine. I told those Jehovah Witnesses when

I said, seems the Jews were always trying to kill Jesus. And I read these passages, the end, claiming he's

God, and you being a man in John 10, 33, and you make yourself God, that's what the

Greek literally reads. I said, they killed him, they wanted to kill him because he was always claiming to be

God. They had stones in their hand, John 8, 59, because he was always claiming to be God.

I said, you have that same view, don't you? You don't believe he's God. So, wait, you have the same view as the

Jews. That's interesting. Oh, and all she can say, it was really interesting. She looked at me, because she didn't know how to answer that because they do have the same view as the

Jews. I said, you should have rocks in your hand. They said, I think you're trying to trick us.

It's not a trick. John 10, 30, I and the Father are one, I explain this. In verse 31, they picked up stones again to kill him.

And then Jesus said, for what good work do you want to kill me? For what good work did

I do in which you want to kill me? What did they say in verse 33?

Not for a good work, because you being a man, literally in Greek, make yourself

God. It warranted blasphemy.

The apostles, disciples, centurion, angels, demons, God the Father also affirmed he was the

Son of God. The apostles with Peter and Mark 1, 1, John 14,

I mean, there's a whole list of verses where the apostles affirm in a positive way that he was

God. His disciples, one of my favorite affirmations is in the boat when

Jesus, he already said I am, right, in verse 27 and 14 of Matthew. But when he got in the boat, when he was in the boat, and again, in 27,

I am, don't fear, but interestingly, they said this. Or we read this in John 14, 33.

They worshiped the Son of God. Just like they worshiped the Son of Man. The text says they worshiped him, and it's a present tense participle.

They kept saying, you are the Son of God. So notice that action there.

They were worshiping him in a religious context. The word worship in Greek can mean the main word.

There's several words for worship, but the main word, proskuneo, it can mean just to fall before someone in reverence.

Right? Obeisance, respect, which is not wrong. I was in New Zealand, and we had to,

I met the governor, and he was called Lordship, and we all had to do this. It was in a religious context.

But then there's the word, the same word that's used in a religious context, like in John 4, 24, where devotion and holiness exist.

Well, this is attached to the phrase, Son of God. They worshiped him and kept saying, you are the

Son of God. That's our doctrine. We worship him as God. We worship him, he's the

Son of God, Son of Man, God in the flesh. The only way we can worship him without being accused of idolatry is because he's

God. 14, 33, also John 11, 27, the

Satorian. And when the Satorian, he was by the cross facing him, saw that in this he breathed his last, he said, truly, this is the

Son of God. He wasn't saying, truly, this is like Adam or angels. No, he recognized.

The Satorian recognized he was the Son of God. Angels affirmed he was the Son of God in Luke 1, 32.

So did demons in Matthew 8, 29. God the Father, prologue of Hebrews.

We can spend a whole, you know, an hour talking about the prologue. I'll just, suffice it to say, the prologue of Hebrews, the author makes a contrast in the prologue, chapter one, of everything created, angels, the heaven and earth, everything created, he contrasts that with the eternality of the

Son. And in verse six, the Son was worshiped. The Father says, let all the angels, when he brings his firstborn into the world, he says, the

Father, let all the angels worship, worship him, the Son.

The Father commands all the angels, which excludes Jesus from being an angel, to worship, and this is the strongest way in the

Greek language, in Hebrews 1, 6, to issue a command, arius imperative. It's an urgent command, like, do it now, angels, worship the

Son of God. And then in verse eight, then in verse 10, he's affirmed, in verse 10 through 12, the

Father affirms he's the unchangeable creator, Yahweh, the unchangeable creator of all things, because he quotes

Psalm 102, verses 25 through 27, he applies it to the

Son as the Yahweh, the creator of all things, in verse 10, 10 through 12.

It's beautiful. The Son was worshiped, as we saw.

So in closing, this was not a generic Son of God, but God the

Son, the object of divine worship, starting in Daniel, chapter seven. And they worshiped the

Son of God, they worshiped the Son of Man. One of my, it's a great verse, 1

John 5, 20. The ending clause, the ending sentence.

John says this, hutos, this, this one, this. This masculine pronoun referring to the antecedent, the

Son. This, the Son, is the true

God. It's articulate there. The, eleisonos, theos, the true

God, and eternal life. This, the Son, is the true

God, and eternal life. And then in verse 21, John says, little children, guard yourself from idolatry.

Notice the connection? If you're not believing that Jesus Christ is the true God and eternal life, then it's just idolatry, whatever other

God you have. We worship one God in three persons. All three persons are the true

God. We worship one being, there's three persons that share the nature of the one being.

Guard yourself from idolatry. So our confession should be the same confession as Peter.

You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. That's our doctrine, that's what we need to proclaim.

Let us close in prayer. Lord God, we thank you that you revealed this information to us,

Lord God, about your Son, Son of God, God in the flesh, our God, Jesus Christ.

And just as Peter in Matthew 16, 17, this did not come by flesh and blood, but you revealed this,

Lord God. You regenerated us in order that we would understand the truth, the beautiful truth in Scripture, that you sent your

Son, God the Son, truly God, who became truly man, for us to live the life vicariously, a substitutionary life, fulfilling that which

Adam broke, and dying on the cross, averting wrath that was due to us because of sin, and forgiving our sins.

And we thank you, Lord God, that we have come to know the only true God, Jesus Christ, your Son, who you sent on our behalf.

And Lord God, let us hold this confession dear to our heart that Jesus Christ, the

God Christ, as the variant in Jude 1, 5 refers to him, as the

Christ, the Son of the living God, and let us take that and marinate in that and just brand it in our minds, in our evangelism, in our personal prayer life, and let us worship the

Son of God as he rightfully deserves. Pray all these things in the name of our

God, Jesus Christ, in his glory, his power, authority.