Scripture on Christ's Divinity

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Last week, we left off in the middle of a lesson, similar to the last we had when we first started.
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As I said, each one of these is a single lesson, but I'm not going to be able to do any of them in a single span of time.
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I've been asked in January if I would come and give a lecture on the doctrine of the Trinity to a local group of Reformed men who meet once a month.
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And they asked me for this particular subject to come give a lecture.
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And I have to try to condense six lessons into 45 minutes.
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It's never going to happen.
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So I've been trying to think what is the most profound, important thing about this subject that I could kind of cut down and deal with just that, especially for men who make it their life's ambition to study the Scripture.
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Something that, not necessarily that they haven't heard, but as a reminder of maybe something that they know that they need to be reinforced on.
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But as we started last time, and if you do not have the notes, they are here.
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I have these for everyone who would like them.
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Is there anyone who needs an extra copy? Could I just have you pass this back, brother? Just pass it to her? No, no, no.
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You don't have to walk around and pass it out.
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I was just saying, hand it to her, and she'll pass it.
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There you go.
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They'll go.
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There you go.
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Thank you, though.
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Did you get you one? Do you need one? Yeah.
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I'll keep you one for both of you there.
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Yeah, good.
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Thank you.
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And as you can see on this, the way we started this second session was by reminding ourselves of the three pillars of Trinitarianism.
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The three pillars of Trinitarianism, very simple.
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And maybe calling it the three pillars is a little negative because of the five pillars of Islam.
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It's not that, and nothing nowhere near that.
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But the three foundations upon which Trinitarianism rests, there is one God.
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The Bible clearly teaches that.
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And we looked at the scriptures relevant to that last time.
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There are three persons who are called God.
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The Father is called God.
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The Son is called God.
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The Spirit is called God.
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And that's what we're looking at, where we're in the midst of that.
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And then those three persons are co-equal and co-eternal and distinct.
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That's the three foundations.
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And what we did last time, we said, OK, here's some scripture on the oneness of God.
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And if you weren't here, I'll be happy to give those to you later, or you can go back and listen to the audio.
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So we looked at the oneness of God.
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That we know is true.
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We have looked also at the three persons who are called God.
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We said the Father is called God.
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No one really debates that.
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Jesus referred to the Father as God.
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The scripture refers to God.
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In fact, the use of the term Father, though, does make a distinct change in the New Testament versus the Old Testament.
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In the Old Testament, when God has spoken of His Father, it's more in regard to being the creator.
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Like if you said the Father of modern medicine or the Father of a nation, like George Washington or something like that.
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It was God the Father wasn't as intimate.
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When Jesus spoke of God as Father, it was in familial relationship.
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Not just He's the creator, so thus the Father.
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But He was my Father, our Father, who is in heaven.
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There was a familial sense.
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And that's why there was such a backlash against Jesus' teaching.
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No one had spoken of God in such familial terms as Jesus had.
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And when they said, when you speak this way, you make yourself equal with God because you're saying you're His son.
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You're speaking of God in a different way than is typical among our people.
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So Jesus speaking of God the Father is familial and intimate, much different than what we have within the Old Testament.
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So when Jesus speaks about the Father, we know He's talking about God.
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But is Jesus called God? Well, last week we looked at John 1 and 1.
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And John 1 and 1 says, in the beginning was the Word.
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And who is the Word? It's Jesus because it says later in verse 14, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld His glory.
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So we know who the logos in the Greek is.
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In the beginning was the Word.
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And the Word was with God.
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And the Word was God.
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So there was that distinction that's made that He was with God.
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And that's referring to His relationship with the Father.
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And yet He was at the same time He was God because they share the nature that is God.
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And then as we talked last time, it goes on to say in verse 3, all things were made through Him.
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And without Him was nothing or was not anything made that was made.
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And then in verse 4, it says, in Him was life.
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And that life was the light of men.
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The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.
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It says about Jesus, it says in Him is life.
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That's a statement of divinity in itself to say that in Christ is life.
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Because we say that about God.
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We say in Him, we live and move and have our being.
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Acts 17, when Paul's talking to the Areopagus and he's talking to the Athenian philosophers, and he says, in God, you live and move and have your being.
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And then in John's gospel in the first chapter, in the first couple of verses, he says, in Christ, we have life.
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And His life is the light of men.
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He is the one who brings true life.
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And there are those who hate that life, but they're not going to overcome it.
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And that's what that first section is about.
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Speaking of His divinity, we did reference, and I'm not going to go over this again, but we made reference last time to the fact that the Jehovah's Witnesses have perverted this text to add the indefinite article A.
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So it says, in the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was a God.
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Adding the indefinite article A creates Jesus as a second type of God, not equal with the Father, not eternal with the Father, and certainly while they would say He is distinct, they would say He's distinct because He's different than the Father.
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And they add that indefinite article, not going through the whole reason why that's unnecessary, but I will remind you what F.F.
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Bruce says.
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He says, to add the indefinite article proves nothing except their ignorance of Greek grammar.
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It's not necessary to add the indefinite article there for that passage.
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Well, tonight we're going to move on a little.
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We're going to look at a few other passages because I do want to, if there's one thing that the cults and the false teachers want to take issue with, it's the divinity of Jesus Christ.
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Very few times will you have anyone who shows up at your door or you meet them in an evangelistic conversation who wants to argue with you about the divinity of the Holy Spirit.
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Now, they may argue with the personality of the Holy Spirit.
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We're going to talk about that in a minute, whether or not He's truly personal.
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Jehovah's Witnesses will say, the Holy Spirit is not a person, He's a power.
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He's like the electricity that flows through your home.
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He's a force, not a person.
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And we're going to talk about why that's not true later.
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But generally, that's not the argument.
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When they come to your door, they're not arguing for the personality of the Holy Spirit.
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They're arguing for the subordinate nature of the Son and the fact that He is not equal with the Father, neither is He fully divine as is the Father.
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So tonight, we're going to look at a few very important passages.
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In fact, we may spend all of our time on this one and have to move to the Holy Spirit next week.
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But this is important stuff.
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This, to me, is the heart of the Gospel.
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If you don't know who Jesus is and you don't understand who Jesus is as the God-Man, then everything else from there really creates confusion.
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So we're going to look at, first, John 8, 58.
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One of my favorite passages on this subject, John 8 and 58.
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So since we're in the Gospel of John, I invite you to turn over just a few pages because there are people who will say this.
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Well, Jesus never said, I am God.
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Well, they will say, He never said, I am God.
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He never used the phrase, I am God, in that many words.
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Neither did He go up and say, I am man, either.
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I mean, you know, but there were certain clues that He gave and certainly things that He said that were very specific that only God could say.
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But this particular passage, in the scheme of the life of Christ, is hugely important.
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Starting in verse 48, we're going to read a long section here.
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Jesus is talking to the Pharisees.
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Well, He's talking to the Jews.
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And the Jews answered Him and said, are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon? Samaritans were half-Jew, half-Gentile, sort of half-breed.
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They weren't considered really part of the Jewish nation.
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And thus, they're not only saying you're a demon-possessed man, they're saying you're not even really a Jew.
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You're a half-breed, demon-possessed person.
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Are we not right to say that? Jesus answered and said, I do not have a demon, but I honor my Father and you dishonor me.
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Yet I do not seek my own glory.
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There is one who seeks it and he is the judge.
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Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.
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Again, that's a veiled reference to divinity right there.
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Because whose word do we keep for eternal life? God's word.
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And Jesus said, my word.
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So that's a veiled reference there, but it is there.
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So if anyone seeks my word, or rather, excuse me, I do not, if anyone keeps my word, verse 51, he will never see death.
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The Jews said to him, now we know that you have a demon.
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Abraham died, as did the prophets.
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Yet you say, if anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.
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Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died and the prophets died? Who do you make yourself out to be? Jesus answered, if I glorify myself, my glory is nothing.
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It is my father who glorifies me, of whom you say he is our God.
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But you have not known him.
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I know him.
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If I were to say I do not know him, I would be a liar like you.
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But I do know him and I keep his word.
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Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day.
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He saw it and was glad.
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So the Jews said to him, you are not yet 50 years old.
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And have you seen Abraham? Jesus said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.
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So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.
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Verse 59 is important because why did they pick up stones? Because it would have been blasphemy if it weren't true.
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Because he just identified himself in several ways.
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One, he said, if you keep my word, you have life.
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He's identifying himself with God.
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Then he says God is his father and he speaks very specific of having that relationship.
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But then he said this, he said, Abraham looked forward to when I would come, my day.
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He looked forward to when I would come.
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And they said, how could Abraham, you're not even 50 years old.
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Abraham's been dead for hundreds of years.
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At this point, well over a thousand years, he's been dead.
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How could he know that you were coming? Well, before Abraham was, I was.
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That's not what he said.
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But linguistically, that's what he should have said if he was only saying, I predated Abraham.
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If he only was saying, I existed before Abraham, he would have said, before Abraham was, I was.
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But he didn't.
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He said before Abraham was, well, ego, a me.
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Ego, a me, I am.
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This is the Greek form of the word existence.
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It's the same idea that God had when he spoke to Moses and Moses said, who is it that I should say has sent me to you? And the voice spoke and said, say that I am who I am.
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And I am has sent you.
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I am is not a statement of predating something.
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I am is a statement of being that is not dated.
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It's a statement of being.
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It's a type of being.
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When God says I am, it's a in, sorry, I lost my word.
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Independent word.
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When God says I am, I am independent of all other things.
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I exist in and of myself.
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God is the only being in the world that is eternally existing.
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And he's the only being in the world who is eternally existent.
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He requires nothing of anyone.
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You know, we talk about worship service as if we were serving God and giving him something.
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But really God, as Paul said in Acts 17, he doesn't need the work of our hands.
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He doesn't, it's not as if we're feeding him with food he didn't have or nursing him with ministry he didn't possess.
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You know, he says I own the cattle on a thousand hills.
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We do in the relationship with God to glorify him, but he is the one who has all glory.
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We are glorifying him because that's what we were created to do.
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But anyhow, we go back to this text.
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Jesus uses the divine title of himself, the title of I am.
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And I could spend more time here, but I do need to move on.
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But that is one of the most precious passages because Jesus didn't say ego eimi.
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This is often something I like to point out.
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Jesus didn't speak.
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Wait, he probably spoke Greek because it was a common tongue.
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But when Jesus was speaking to Pharisees, particularly he would have been speaking Hebrew or Aramaic, which is a dialect of Hebrew.
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But whatever he said, the Holy Spirit translated it as ego eimi.
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So I assume that it was the exact same idea in the Hebrew.
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It could have been that he said what God specifically said to Moses.
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Those Hebrew words God said to Moses, here the Spirit is translating this into Greek for us through the person who's writing this, who's the prophet John.
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So it's liable that Jesus used the divine title of himself in that language in such a way that they immediately reached down and grabbed some stones because this guy just called himself God.
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So like you said, he did call himself, he didn't say I am God, but in no uncertain terms, they knew what he meant.
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And while scholars of today and heretics of today might try to say, well, he never said I am God.
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They thought he did.
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They were confident that that's what he was saying.
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So much so that they were ready to take his life over it.
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So I like to look at that just as a, not again, these are not proof texts.
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These are texts that we use to, again, build our theology on.
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And a proof text is one that's ripped from its context simply to prove a point.
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We read the whole context.
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We know who he was talking to, what he was talking about and why.
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That's important.
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The next passage that I want you to look at is in Hebrew's chapter.
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Actually, you know what? We're in John, let's stay in John because I got another one from John.
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John 12, because it really doesn't matter the order we go in.
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John 12, 37 to 41.
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So if you'll turn a few pages over, John 12, Jesus is talking about himself and he's talking about what he came to do.
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He came to save the world.
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And it says, actually starting in verse 36, he's talking about himself as the light.
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He says, while you have the light, believe in the light that you may become sons of light.
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When Jesus had said these things, he departed and hid himself from them.
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Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him.
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So that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled.
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Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? That's a quote from Isaiah 53.
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Therefore, they could not believe.
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That's an important Calvinistic section.
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Not to take that road left, but we could.
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It says they could not believe.
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For again, Isaiah said, he has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they see with their eyes and understand with their heart and turn and I would heal them.
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Verse 41 is the key passage.
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Isaiah, he's quoting the passage from Isaiah.
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Isaiah said these things because he, Isaiah, saw his, that's Jesus, in the context in the pronouns, because he, Isaiah, saw his, that is Jesus's, glory and spoke of him.
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Now, we could go back to Isaiah and we could play find the prophetic word.
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And we could go to Isaiah nine and verse six and it talks about Jesus.
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We could go to Isaiah 53 and it talks about Jesus.
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You could go all through Isaiah and it talks about the coming of Messiah.
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But where in Isaiah did he see the glory of Christ? Because it says right here, he saw his glory and spoke of him.
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Turn to Isaiah chapter six.
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Isaiah chapter six.
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Give you a second to get there.
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It's 6-1, so am I.
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Bad joke? It's 6-1, I'm 6-1.
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Okay, chapter six, verse one, in the year that King Uzziah died, I, that is Isaiah, saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple.
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Above him stood the seraphim, each had six wings, with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.
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And one called to another and said, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.
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The whole earth is filled with his glory.
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This is, in my belief, in the belief of many scholars, the point that John is pointing back to.
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Because this is the point that Isaiah sees the glory of God.
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But what does he say in Isaiah 12? He saw Jesus's glory.
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Let me ask you this.
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Has anybody ever seen the Father? According to the New Testament, no.
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It says no man has seen the Father.
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It very specifically says no one has seen the Father.
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So who is Isaiah seeing here in Isaiah six? The Son, must be, right? Because it says very specifically no one has seen the Father.
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I would say Moses saw, well Moses saw Christophany in the bush.
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Abraham would have saw Christ because he saw a person, figure.
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What we saw, what we call, there are two different, what we call Christophanies and Theophanies, and really they can be sometimes a debate as to which is which.
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A Theophany is a divine presence like the flame in the, oh is she okay? A Theophany would be like the flame in the bush that's not consuming the bush.
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That's a divine presence.
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Again though, there's a specific reference to not seeing.
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The idea of seeing something but not God face-to-face as it were.
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And I don't know how that worked out.
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I'll be honest with you when it comes to how Moses saw the back of God in his hand, like the King James the Hinder parts is what it says.
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I don't know how all that worked out.
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But whenever there's a time in the Old Testament where we are face-to-face with Jesus, I'm sorry, with God as a man, whether it's at the Oaks of Mamre, with Abraham, whether it's here with Isaiah in the temple, anytime it seems obvious that it's not the Father because of the passage in the New Testament that says no one has seen the Father.
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It even caused me to question whether or not Adam saw the Father because it says he walked with him in the cool of the day.
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Was that the father or the son that he walked with? I don't really want to get into that as a debate, but personally, I tend to think it was the son because he said no one has seen the Father and that seems to be a universal negative, you know? But again, in looking at this passage though, we have specifically in John saying he saw his glory.
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Now, if you asked Isaiah, who did you see? I saw God because he wouldn't have understood at that point in the progressive revelation, he wouldn't have understood a distinction between the Father and the Son and the Spirit.
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He would have said I saw the Lord and that's what he said.
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But what does Jesus call? The Lord, right? So I believe and I think that this text, this isn't where I would go to prove this to an unbeliever necessarily or especially to a cultist, but for me, when I look at that passage in John 12 and I come back here to Isaiah 6, I see Isaiah seeing Christ, a pre-incarnate vision, what we would call a Christophany, a pre-incarnate expression of the Lord Jesus Christ as a man.
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Do you have a? Oh, okay, sorry.
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I want to move now to Hebrews, if we might.
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Hebrews chapter one.
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We're really jumping past some, but there's so many that we can look at.
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But these are really just ones like I said, I believe they're important, think we should know them.
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Hebrews chapter one, beginning of verse five, there's an entire litany of verses that are quoted.
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Some of them are from, we have some Deuteronomy, some from Psalms, 2 Samuel is in there.
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So we have some passages that are quoted from the Old Testament.
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But in verse eight, Hebrews 1.8, we have a very important one.
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Because in Hebrews 1.8, it says this, but of the Son, He says, "'Your throne, O God, is forever and ever.
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"'The scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom.
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"'You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness.
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"'Therefore, God, your God has anointed you "'with the oil of gladness before your companions.'" It calls the Son, God, and then says, your God.
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So it's an interesting dynamic there, again, referring to the Father as God as well.
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But here's the real cool part.
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It's cool, like, that's a silly thing.
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Here's the real groovy part.
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Now, here's the part that's neat.
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Hold your place in Hebrews 1, maybe stick a little bookmark in there or whatever, and go back to Psalm 45.
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Psalm 45, and go down to verse six.
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Psalm 45, verse six says, "'Your throne, O God, is forever and ever.
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"'The scepter of your kingdom is the scepter of uprightness.
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"'You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness.
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"'Therefore, God, your God has anointed you "'with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.'" If you were to have a Jehovah Witness come to your door, or, as I said last time, arguments about the Trinity might not be where you wanna start.
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But if you wanted to address this issue in a way that might get them to think a little differently than maybe they have before, invite them to open their Bible to Isaiah 45.
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Ask them to read verse six.
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Your throne, O God, is forever and ever.
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The scepter of your kingdom is the scepter of uprightness.
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And ask them, is that talking about Jehovah? They would have to say yes.
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Is this talking about Jehovah? Your throne, O God, is forever.
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Is that Jehovah? Yeah, it has to be.
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Then, in their Bible, you don't even have to use your Bible, say turn to Hebrews chapter one and read verse eight.
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But of the Son, it says, your throne, O God, is forever and ever.
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And here's the cool part.
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If they just happen to have one of their kingdom interlinear Bibles which has the study notes, if they go to the study note at this part in the Jehovah Witness translation, it says the passage that we just read in Psalms.
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It points them back to that Psalm.
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So you can say your Bible agrees with me because you can't get around this.
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The Son is called God, but of the Son, it says, your throne, O God, is forever.
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Jesus is either God or He's not.
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He cannot be half God because that is meaning that God is in some way diminishable or divisible, which He is not.
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He cannot be a created God because to be created means He's part of creation, not the creator.
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And He has a beginning.
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The last one we'll look at and then we'll move on to the Holy Spirit.
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We will get through this tonight, it looks like, is Colossians chapter two and verse nine.
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I've mentioned this one a few times, but it is a good one to memorize.
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Colossians chapter two and verse nine.
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And if you wanted to, for the context sake, you could begin in verse six.
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He's talking about receiving Christ.
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Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus, the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, just as you were taught abounding in thanksgiving, see to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world and not according to Christ.
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For in Him, the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily and you have been filled in Him who is the head of all rule and authority.
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Verse nine is the key.
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In Him, the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.
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Does anybody here have a King James Bible? Because in the King James, there is a different translation, but it's very good.
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It's just different because it doesn't use the word deity, uses the word Godhead.
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Is there anybody who has a translation that says Godhead, which is that the NAS? New King James.
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How does it read, Brother Lee? Yes, in Him dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily.
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Do you have a different word there? No, oh, that's okay.
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All right, so the word deity or the word Godhead can come into play.
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There are some people that take issue with the newer translations because they put in the word deity rather than the word Godhead.
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But ultimately, I do think that deity, I think while Godhead is a fine word, I think deity expresses more of what is the intention of the author, and that is Paul.
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Because the idea behind the Greek that underlies this is that all of that which is God is in Christ.
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Christ doesn't have a part of God.
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And Christ isn't a part of God.
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Remember we talked about modalism a few weeks ago, how He was the Father, then He was the Son, then He was the Spirit.
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Well, there's other views that say, well, God is in everything, so God was in Christ.
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And there's something called adoptionism, and that's the idea that Christ, we all had that sort of God spark within us, but Christ was adopted as God's Son when He decided to obey.
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And when He chose to be obedient, God adopted Him, and thus, you know, through that, He became His Son.
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So again, that is not what the Bible teaches.
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The Bible says that in Christ, the fullness of God, the fullness of that which is God, that's what the word deity is, that which is God, the fullness of that which is God dwells in Christ, not half of it, not a third of it, not a portion or a gradient form, but the fullness thereof dwells in Him.
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Now, there's one passage in Colossians that oftentimes can trip people up, and I wanna look at it since we're in Colossians, as I do wanna help you understand it.
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If you turn over to Colossians 1, 15, and 16, 15 and 16, this passage has been used to great extent by the cults and by those who seek to confuse, because it says in verse 15, "'He,' speaking of Christ, "'is the image of the invisible God, "'the firstborn of all creation.'" There, that's where they get, and we're gonna talk about that word in a minute.
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"'For by Him, all things were created in heaven "'and on earth, visible and invisible, "'whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, "'all things were created through Him and for Him.'" Stop real quick.
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Before we even deal with the issue of Him being firstborn, I wanna mention that there is an addition here, again, in that Jehovah Witness translation.
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They say all other things were created through Him.
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They add the word other.
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Why add the word other? Because He's created.
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According to them, He's created.
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He's not fully God.
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He's a created deity, which again is an oxymoron, but He is created, and thus, so He didn't create everything, He created every other thing than Himself.
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So even in their translation, they have to add to make their point a word.
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So let me go back to this word, the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
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People say, boy, that's the proof.
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Jesus wasn't, and then He was.
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He wasn't, and then He was born, and He's the firstborn of all creation, and that's proof positive that Arianism is right.
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You know, He was the first created thing, and all the Jehovah Witnesses are right.
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We need to just throw our Bibles away and go become Jehovah Witnesses, because no one's ever read it or studied it before.
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We now know we gotta quit this and start that.
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No, the word firstborn here has two variations of meaning, particularly in the Greek.
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Firstborn can reference the first in order, but it can also reference the first in placement, and in the Greek, this is referencing the first in placement.
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Christ is the head of all creation, and that's what the term firstborn here is intended to mean.
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If I had my Greek text with me, I would be able to tell you the exact Greek word, but for the life of me, I can't come up.
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I think it's protokos, but I could be wrong, but it references His position as being over all of creation, like He is not in order of creation, but over all of creation.
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Yes, sir, you have your? I'll donate it.
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Yeah, well, let's look at that just quickly.
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Hebrews, oh, I dropped my recorder here.
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Back to Hebrews just briefly.
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Hebrews 1-2.
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Long ago at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days, He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He created the world.
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Yes, yeah, He is the heir of all things, and He's the image of the invisible God in the sense that He and God together are part, well, I have to catch myself because Christ isn't part of the Trinity, share the glory of God together, and thus there is this image relationship that they have with one another.
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Did you have a question? Okay, I'm sorry, I thought I saw your hand.
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He just said Hebrews 1-2, which talks about Him being heir of all creation, but I like to at least point that passage out because you'll get that.
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If you try to have this conversation, somebody will throw that out there, and I do recommend your further study if you're interested in that passage to go get the study on the Greek word and how it is used and seen in other places in Scripture to verify what we're saying about not necessarily placement in order, but placement over all things.
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Christ is the firstborn in the sense that He is the one who is over all.
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The last one that we're gonna look at for Christ, well, I'm gonna put one up there, but you don't have to go there because there's two more.
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Revelation 22-13.
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Everybody should remember this one.
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What does Revelation 22-13 say? I'll start it, you'll finish it.
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I am the Alpha.
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And the Omega.
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The beginning and the end.
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I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.
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Who's speaking? Jesus.
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Jesus.
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He is the beginning and the end.
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And that's not to say He had a beginning, but in Him is the beginning and the end.
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He is fully God, and in Him the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily.
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Now, the last one, like I said, we're not gonna necessarily look at that.
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That's a, if you were, would be a proof text, but it's just one to look at.
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The last one is in John 20-28.
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I've mentioned this one already, but we haven't looked at it, and I think the context is helpful.
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John 20 and 28.
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One of my favorite characters in the Bible is Thomas.
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There's a point at which Thomas really impresses me, and it was the point when Lazarus dies.
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It's not the part we're looking at tonight, but in that point, you know, everybody gives Thomas a hard time because he doubted.
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There's a point at which, though, when Lazarus died and Jesus wanted to go, and Thomas said, let us go, that we might die with Him.
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That's a statement of faith, you know? Somebody said, well, maybe he's being a downer.
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Well, let's just all go and die with Him.
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I don't think it was.
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We'll go with Him, and we'll die with Him.
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It was a statement of confidence in Christ.
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So don't always give Thomas such a hard time.
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Thomas responded in much the same way many of us probably would have.
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If everyone else saw the raised Christ and we didn't, we might have a little, you know, why not me feeling in regard to that.
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Maybe we wouldn't be so bold as to say, unless I see the nail scars in his hand, but maybe we would.
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So, but Thomas is always referred to as the doubter, and we know the story of Thomas and his situation, but in John 20, beginning of verse 24, it says, now Thomas, one of the 12, called the twin, was not with them when Jesus came.
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So the other disciples told him, we have seen the Lord, but he said to them, unless I see the hands, unless I see his hands, the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.
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Eight days later, he had to live with that for eight days.
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Think anybody tried to convince him during those eight days? I really did see him, you know what I mean? For eight days, that's a long time.
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For eight days, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them.
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Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them, and said, peace be with you.
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Then he said to Thomas, who at this moment was probably eating his words, put your finger here, and see my hands, and put out your hand, and place it in my side.
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Do not disbelieve, but believe.
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Thomas answered him, my Lord, and my God.
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Koriasmu kai theasmen.
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Lord of me, God of me, is the Greek.
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There are people that try to argue and say, well, Thomas was just making an exclamation.
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Like if you saw someone, if something great happened in front of you, you might say, my God.
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There's nothing in the text to substantiate that this is simply a bare exclamation.
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Koriasmu, my Lord.
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Kai theasmen, my God.
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And here's the key.
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Jesus did not say, you're wrong.
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Instead, verse 29, Jesus said to him, have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet have believed.
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Believed what? Believed what you just said.
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That you're my Lord, and my God.
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Yes, sir.
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Similar in other areas.
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Yeah, yeah, we'll go run over there real quick.
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Mark two.
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Mark two.
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Yeah, yep.
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And when Jesus saw their faith, this is Jesus healing the paralytic.
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It says, when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, son, your sins are forgiven.
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Again, something only God can do.
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This isn't a, well, nevermind.
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I was gonna say something about Roman Catholic priests here, because they say that too.
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They say, your sins are forgiven.
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They don't have the right to do that.
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But anyway.
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Jesus does, though, because he's God.
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Son, your sins are forgiven.
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Now some of the scribes are sitting there questioning in their hearts, why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming.
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Who can forgive sins but God alone? See, even they knew.
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Even they knew that Jesus is making himself out to be God.
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So, as I said, we could go book by book, chapter by chapter, and we could pull passage after passage after passage out about the deity of Christ.
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There's so much.
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But ultimately, what we've done is we've established part of the second foundation stone for the Trinity.
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The first part is God is one.
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Well, we looked at passages that teach us that.
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Now we're looking at the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are all called God.
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Well, we've seen the Father is called God in several places.
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We've seen the Son is called God in several places.
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In many, many places, he is referred to as God.
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Next week, because we are out of time, we're going to spend an entire session on the person and the work of the Holy Spirit as he is within the Trinity related.
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So we're going to look at the passages that reference his personality and the fact that he's not just a force.
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So let's end with a prayer.
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Father, we thank you again for this time.
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Pray that it's been fruitful, that these passages will be ones that we commit to our heart for memory, that we might be overflowing with your word when we have opportunities to speak about your Son to a lost and dying world.
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And it's in his name we pray.
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Amen.