10 Essentials Series: 3. Christology, The Doctrine of Jesus Christ

Okay, so, we're going through our ten essential series. So, Bibliology is the study of the

Scriptures, Theology Propa, the study of the Godhead. Today, we're going through Christology, which is the study of Jesus, Pneumatology, the study of the

Spirit, Angelology, the study of angels. Then we have

Anthropology, the study of man's condition, humanity, Homardiology, the study of sin,

Soteriology, the study of salvation, Ecclesiology, the study of God's government, and Eschatology, the study of last things.

So, this morning we're going to talk about Christology, which is the doctrine of Jesus Christ. But it's a lot more than just Jesus Christ.

It's his person and his work. Okay, so when we talk about Jesus from a

Christological standpoint, we're talking about the person and work of Jesus Christ. Those two things cannot be separated, because in addition to who he is, we also have to look at what he's accomplished that's essential for our salvation.

So, Wayne Grudem says it like this, we may summarize the biblical teaching about the person of Christ as follows, Jesus Christ was fully

God and fully man in one person and will be so forever. The scriptural material supporting this definition is extensive, and we're going to discuss first the humanity of Christ and his deity, and then attempt to show how

Jesus' deity and humanity are united in one person of Christ. Last week when we went through Theology Proper, we cited the

Chalcedonian Creed, which gave us a definition of Jesus and how his natures cannot be separated yet pulled apart.

It's very important to go through that and understand what that means. And today we're going to hone specifically in on the second person of the

Trinity, Jesus. The biblical witness concerning the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is woven like a scarlet thread throughout the entirety of the written word of God.

As the second person of the Godhead, the Savior's person and work constitute the central testimony of all scripture.

Worship God for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. And like I said last week in the sermon, the scriptures are the testimony of Jesus Christ.

Each one of us have a testimony, how we lived our life in a certain way, how we lived our life in a certain way, and how God intersected our lives and saved us.

That's our testimony. The testimony of Jesus starts at Genesis and goes through to Revelation.

This is all about him. It's his testimony, his witness. Okay, so first,

Jesus the man. Was Jesus a man? Raise your hand. Was he? Yes, absolutely.

He was a man. John 1 .14, and the word became flesh. Now, I highlighted the pertinent words in red just to draw your attention to the fact that the scriptures point to Jesus being man.

The word became flesh and dwelt among us and we have seen his glory. Glory is of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

So Jesus was of flesh. Romans 1 .3, concerning his son who is descended from David according to the flesh.

And why is that important? Yes. The genealogy of David, there will always be one sitting on the throne.

So not only was he a man, the flesh, but he was descended from David.

So this is going to fulfill the genealogical issue of David always having one of his descendants sit on a throne.

Luke 1 .26 and 7, in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named

Nazareth to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David and the virgin's name was

Mary. Why are we pointing to the virgin's name as Mary? Well, Mary was a human being, right?

And we know the scripture says flesh gives birth to what? Flesh. So if Jesus was born of the

Virgin Mary, he is of the flesh. Again, this is pointing to the humanity of Christ. And this is essential for us to understand as Christians.

Galatians 4 .4, when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son born of a woman, born under the law.

Again, flesh gives birth to flesh. Genesis 3 .15, I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring and her offspring.

He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. Right from the beginning in Genesis, God promised

Adam and Eve that he was going to put enmity, which is being mad on steroids, between him and the woman, okay?

Between your offspring and her offspring. So he tells the devil, there's going to be enmity between you and my offspring.

Jesus fulfills that. He is the offspring that Genesis 3 .15 points to.

This is a fulfillment of a prophecy that God made way back in Genesis, that he is going to be the one who crushes the head of the serpent.

Now, why is it important that he crushes the head of the serpent? Yes, say again?

Symbolic of conquering evil. Like if you want to take someone out, you take out the top guy.

Yes, sure. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

Okay, we're going to continue on in the humanity of Jesus. John 6 .62.

Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? Now, the term

Son of Man in Daniel refers to his deity. Son of Man also refers to humanity. So depending on the context, okay, it can mean either.

So here we have Jesus, the Son of Man, ascending to where he was before. Well, where was he before? With the

Father, right? John 1 .1, right? He was with the Father. He was in heaven. He descended to heaven, to earth,

I should say. He descended to earth as a what? As a man. That's what this whole point is.

Hebrews 10 .5, consequently, when Jesus came into the world, he said, Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me.

All right, Jesus took on a human body. Now, what heresy did we talk about last week would deny this?

Gnosticism, right? They said that Jesus appeared to be a human, but he really wasn't.

He was a spirit, okay? Didn't have true flesh, because flesh is bad on gnosticism.

1 Timothy 3 .16, great indeed we confess is the mystery of godliness. He was manifested, what?

In the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, and taken up in glory.

Scripture over and over and over puts forth the humanity of Jesus. This is a big one.

Philippians 2 .7 -8, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross.

So, does anybody know what the theological word is behind this?

Jesus taking on flesh? This is called kenosis theory, okay?

And so many people distort this. They say that when Jesus took the form of a servant, he laid aside his deity, such that he was just a man, faithful and trusting in God.

That's the way he was able to do the miracles. That's the way he was able to do the things that he did. That's a heresy.

Jesus did not lay aside his deity. He's truly God and truly man in one person.

What he did do was take on the voluntary limitation of the flesh. So, Jesus didn't lose anything.

He took on flesh, a voluntary limitation. That word human form is the word morphe, and it means nature or character.

In other words, what Jesus did was he became the undercover boss. He was boss over everything, but he became one of the servants, one of the workers to, in submission to God the

Father, to do everything that was needed to be done by humanity here on earth. Yes, I like that illustration, the

Superman illustration where Karl can't become Superman and vice versa. He does not stop. It just depends on what cape he's wearing, what kind of clothes he's wearing that you recognize him or not.

I like that illustration. 1 John 1, 3, That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands concerning the word of life, the life was made manifest and we have seen it and testified to it and proclaimed to you the eternal life, which was with the

Father and then what? Made manifest to us. That which we have seen and heard we proclaim to you so that you too may have fellowship with us.

And indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. Here, John labors over the point to show that we saw him, we touched him, we heard him.

Those are all part of your five senses. He's saying we actually witnessed Jesus in the flesh.

We touched him. You can't touch spirit. Spirit is invisible, right? We heard him. So this again is

John pointing to the fact that Jesus was a bonafide human being, right?

And in 1, 1 he was God in the flesh. We're going to get to the deity of Jesus. Okay. So we went through Jesus as a human being.

Now, we're going to go through Jesus as God. In fact, the

God -man because he's both. John 1, 1 in the beginning was the word.

The word was with God and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God.

Now, Jehovah's Witness translation, the New World translation is going to say the word was a

God. Right? So one of the things I do when Jehovah's Witnesses knock on my door, first of all, you don't want to stop berating them.

You want to invite them onto the porch to talk to you. This may be the only opportunity they get to understand and know what the scriptures actually say.

So I say, how many gods do you believe in? Well, there's only one God and his name is Jehovah. I said, okay.

How many saviors do you believe in? Well, there's only one Savior. Who's that?

Jehovah. I said, okay. The scripture says Jesus was, using their translation, a

God. And over and over the scriptures in the New Testament point to Jesus as Savior.

So the scriptures point to Jesus as a God and a Savior. You say

God, Jehovah God, is God and Savior. So we really don't have a theological problem here.

We have a mathematical problem, that's a good word, right?

A mathematics problem here. You have two saviors, two gods, right?

But you claim there's only one. So this is a math issue, not a theology issue.

There's much, much more we can say about that. And we're going to get through to some of the scriptures that we can use.

Matthew 1, 23, behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel, which means

God with us. I don't know how you can get around that. God with us, that's

Jesus. Mark 1, 2, and 3, as it is written in Isaiah the prophet,

Behold, I send my messenger before your face who will prepare your way, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the

Lord, make his paths straight. And like I mentioned in last week's sermon, this is capital

OL, capital O, capital R, capital D. Have the

Jehovah's Witness look that up in Isaiah and see what the word is in their translation. It's Jehovah, it's

Yahweh, it's the covenant name of God. So this is the prophet

John the Baptist prepares the way for who? Jesus, Jesus is capital

L, O, R, D. He is God in the flesh. John 5, 17,

I again referenced this last week, but Jesus answered them, my father is working until now, and I am working.

This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, he was even calling

God his own father, making himself equal with God. And I never quite understood the phrase, my father is working until now and I am working.

Why would that point to his deity? Well, again, this is unity of essence, my father.

Like if I pointed somebody to my father, who's a human being, that would entail that I'm a human being, he's my father.

So Jesus calling God his father, in essence, he's saying he's of divine nature, and my father is working until now and I am working.

This is unity of function or cooperation. So whatever the father does, he does.

And whatever the father is, he is. That's why they understood this as a claim to deity.

John 8, 58, Jesus said to them, truly, truly, I say to you before Abraham was, I am.

He didn't say, I will be or I was. And we talked about it last week.

Sproul says God doesn't exist. X means out of, is means being. God never came out of something.

He always is, always was, and always will be. Next verse, this is a real important one.

If you're going to bring a Jehovah's, if a Jehovah's Witness knocks at the door or someone else, a Unitarian. John 12, 41,

Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of him. And he's talking about Jesus here.

So where did Isaiah see Jesus's glory? Anybody?

Isaiah chapter 6, and what does he say? I see the

Lord seated on the throne and the train of his robe fills the temple.

Isaiah says that's Jesus. That's the glory of the Lord. That's Jesus in the

Old Testament, in the temple. Okay, so this is, in John chapter 12, this is where John says that Isaiah saw

Jesus's glory. It's an excellent place to bring someone who doesn't really believe Jesus is

God. Okay, so Jesus as creator. So we know him as man.

We've seen the scriptures of him as God. He's the God man. What does the scriptures say about Jesus being the creator?

John 1, all things were made through him. And without him, not anything that was made, not anything made that was made.

He was in the world and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. Jesus was present at creation.

All things were made through him and for him, Colossians is going to say. 1

Corinthians 8, 6, for us, there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one

Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist. Okay, this is likening

Jesus with the Father. Again, we hold to the triunity of God. God is Father, Son, and Spirit, a unity in community and a community in unity.

Jesus was at the creation and part of it, taking part in creating. He's not a created being.

Colossians 1, 16, for by him, Jesus, all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions, rulers or authorities, all things were created through him and for him.

So that's a big verse. Not only does this point to Jesus as creator, this points to Jesus as the reason for the existence of the universe.

God didn't create the universe for you. God created the universe for Jesus.

Why? Any ideas? For his glory, great answer.

That's always like Jesus, Sunday school answer, Jesus. Everything is created for God's glory, yes.

This is the way that God is gonna display all his attributes to every human being created.

Some people always ask, why did God decree? Why did God allow the fall? God allowed the fall to show you the extent of the mercy that he's willing to have towards mankind, the extent of the love that he has for mankind in putting his only innocent son on the cross in the place of rebellious sinners.

You would not be able to see that had God not allowed a fall or decreed a fall. Why did he create

Satan? God has a purpose for everything. This is gonna display God's mercy. It's also gonna display

God's justice. You would never see that if God created human beings like golden retrievers that just wag their tail and lick your palm.

Yes, right. That's more of a Molinus perspective, but yes, I understand what you're saying.

So out of everything that God could do, he decided to do this. Now, everything that God does is perfect.

So this is the perfect scenario in which he's gonna display his attributes, his love, his mercy, his grace, his wrath, his anger, his justice.

Hebrews 1, 2, and 10, but in these last days, he has spoken to us by his son, whom he appointed the heir of all things through whom he also created the world.

And then verse 10, and you, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands.

Now, this is another great verse to take Jehovah's Witnesses to. You read

Hebrews 1, 10. You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands.

That's talking about Jesus, right? Yes, then take them to Psalm 102, verse 25.

It says, and you, Jehovah, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning. So what you wanna do is point to the

New Testament where it's pointing to Jesus, referring to the Old Testament where it's pointing to Jehovah, and you tell them

Jesus is Jehovah God, right? Hopefully, God uses that to make the connection in their minds.

Okay, Jesus, the righteous one, right? So if Jesus is going to pay the price for our sins, he would need to be righteous.

What does the scripture say? 1 Peter 2, 22, he committed no sin, neither was there deceit found in his mouth.

1 John 3, 5, you know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.

John 8, 46, which one of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me?

Hebrews 4, 15, for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.

Jesus lived a sinless life. If he sinned, that would disqualify him from being our

Savior. We would not have a perfect Savior. We would not have a lamb without spot or blemish, okay?

Very important. So also, Jesus as Savior, does the scriptures, do the

New Testament scriptures point to Jesus as Savior? 1 Corinthians 15, for I delivered to you as of first importance what

I also received, that Christ, what? Died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and then he appeared to Cephas, and then the 12th.

Notice, very important, when Paul writes this, everything he says about Jesus is in accordance with the scriptures, in accordance with the scriptures.

What scriptures is he talking about? The Old Testament. You have teachers today in the church saying, unhitch yourself from the

Old Testament. You don't need that, we have the resurrection. We have a resurrection of who without the

Old Testament? Some guy came back to life, and strange things happen.

If it's not connected to the Old Testament, prophesied of a specific person, why believe this guy?

Can the devil do lying signs, wonders, and miracles? Certainly can. How do you know? So what?

This guy rose from the dead. This is in accordance with the scriptures who point us to a savior, who point us to Jesus Christ.

Don't ever unhitch yourself from the scriptures, Old or New Testament. Gosh, a little upset about that.

Anyway, Colossians 2. And you who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh,

God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands.

This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing them over them in him.

When were you saved? At the cross, right?

You were chosen before the foundation of the world. The payment was made at the cross.

So Old Testament saints who were saved were looking forward to the payment for their sins. New Testament saints looked backward at the payment of our sins.

It all points to the cross because that's where the record of debt was canceled. It was then at that point in time that our debt was paid.

It works out over time when the spirit awakens us and applies that payment to our account, okay?

So Jesus certainly fulfills all these things in the sense of being called savior.

He's gonna save us from our sins. We're gonna continue on.

Galatians 6, 14. But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our

Lord Jesus Christ by which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world, all right?

So what does that mean to be that the world is crucified to you and you to the world, right?

Romans 6, consider yourself dead to sin, right? You're now taken from the domain of darkness and brought into the kingdom of light.

Those things are now past. You have new desires. You're to pursue the things of the kingdom. Now, obviously the world, the flesh and the devil try to pull you in a different direction because you have

God's Holy Spirit in you and you have new desires. You're able to carry them out. You have to remember that your debt was paid for at the cross.

That is a huge encouragement to people who are struggling. Michael Kruger uses an illustration that I absolutely love.

He says when somebody's going to buy a house, right, and they come to, in New York anyway, you have attorneys on both sides and one attorney who's selling the house receives a check from the buyer's attorney and the check has to be certified.

Why? Because he wants to make sure the funds are there. If he gives you a check and it bounces, well, you know, now you have a problem.

Jesus is God's certified check on the cross guaranteeing the payment for the people he died for.

Certified. This is done. It is finished. Colossians 1 .20,

and through him to reconcile all things to himself, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

Philippians 2, and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death. To the point of death, even death on a cross.

And this was prophesied in the Old Testament. Isaiah 53. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.

Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But he was what? Pierced for our transgressions, not his own.

He was crushed for our iniquities, not his. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace.

And with his wounds, we are healed. Verse eight, that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people.

A lot of Jewish people read Isaiah 53 and think that's part of the

New Testament. And I've seen videos online where they say, no, that's Old Testament and the

Jews are adamant. No, it's not. No, it's not. So the guy opened up his Bible and said, look, this is Isaiah.

Read it. And some of them are shocked to see that this, they know it applies to Jesus, but they don't realize that it's in their half of the book, their side of the book.

Zechariah, this is another one. I will pour it out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, a spirit of grace and please for mercy, so that when they look on me, on whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and we bitterly over him and weeps over a firstborn.

This is Zechariah is pointing to someone being pierced. This is Jesus. And it also gives a veiled reference to the

Trinity because it says, so that when they look on me, Jesus, whom they have pierced, they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child.

So I'm sorry, the first one would be the father. When they look upon, oh no, I'm sorry, still Jesus. So this is

Jesus in the flesh. Okay, God can't be pierced, he's spirit. When Jesus takes on flesh, now that's when they're gonna mourn for him.

They're gonna see it. And he was raised from the dead, 1

Corinthians 15. For I deliver to you as first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was raised on the third day.

When anybody asks you, where's the clearest presentation of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus, it's 1

Corinthians 15. Just mark that in your Bible. That's where you wanna go. 1 Corinthians 15, that's gonna lay out all the information that Paul wants us to know.

It actually forms the basis of an early creed. John 2, 22, when therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he said this, and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

Jesus was raised from the dead. It's part of the apostles' creed. 1 Peter 3, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

Over and over and over, the scriptures talk about the resurrection of Jesus. Revelation 1, 5, and from Jesus Christ, a faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead.

Revelation 1, 17, fear not, I am the first and the last and the living one. I died and behold,

I am alive forevermore and I have the keys of death and Hades.

He is alive forevermore. He doesn't shed his body like a hyperpredator would say and dissolve on his way to heaven.

He's in that body forever. He's a glorified human being. He's the first fruits of what we're going to look like.

And if your faith and trust is in Jesus as your savior, you need not fear anything as he holds the keys of death and Hades.

One of my favorite verses is because I live, you will live also. You are in complete union with Christ.

Once you're born of his spirit, you are connected to him. So as he lives, so shall we.

Thank God. So what's Jesus doing now? Ruling and reigning, you've heard that every once in a while,

I think, right? Okay, Matthew 28, 19, and Jesus came and said to them, all authority, how much authority?

All authority in heaven and earth, where? All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me,

Jesus. Go, therefore, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the

Holy Spirit. Jesus has all authority now, where? In heaven and earth.

Tells us what to do. Mark 16, so then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God.

What does the right hand of God mean? I mean, does it like literally mean

God's right hand and he's sitting? What does the right hand of God mean? If I was to tell you, oh, that's his right hand man, what would that mean?

Say again? Right, he's a place of preeminence and he holds the power.

He's the one who can get things done. He's seated at God's right hand. Acts 2 .33,

being therefore exalted to what? The right hand of God. First Peter, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God with angels, authorities, powers, have been subjected to him, right?

Jesus is over all. Hebrews 10, Christ offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins.

He sat down at the right hand of God, waiting until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. That's where we're at right now, right?

Jesus is ruling and reigning, seated at the right hand of God the Father, waiting until his enemies are made a footstool for his feet.

And how does that happen? Through the church, through us. We got work to do.

We have to proclaim the gospel. We have to bear witness. We have to work here on earth to bring his kingdom on earth as it is in heaven, right?

The more we do that, the faster the kingdom grows until he's got all his enemies under his feet and then he comes back.

1 Corinthians 15, he must reign until what? He's put all his enemies under his feet.

1 Timothy 6, 14 and 15, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the blessed and only sovereign, the

King of kings and the Lord of lords. Interestingly enough, it says Jesus is sovereign.

He's Lord over everything. He's in control, in power. Revelation 19, on his robe and on his thigh, he has a name written

King of kings and Lord of lords. Very difficult to get around the deity of Jesus seeing that he's the

Lord of lords. How would you call him the Lord of lords if he's not the Lord? He's not the

Lord of lords if there's a Lord over him. Okay, Jesus now, he's still saving people.

Forgiveness is found only in him or in him only, however you wanna phrase it.

Luke 1910, for the son of man came to seek and save the lost, right?

A lot of times we hear negative things about seeker -sensitive churches and I always like to flip it around and say, oh,

I wanna be a seeker -sensitive church. What do you mean, how do you cater to the people? I say, no, no, I wanna cater to the seeker, that's

Jesus. He's the one who seeks and saves. I wanna cater, I wanna seeker -sensitive church because Jesus is the seeker.

Acts 4, two, and there is salvation in no one else for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.

Why is that, why is that important? He's, right, the scripture says he's the only way.

If you could get to heaven any other way, well then, Jesus' death on the cross is just one way out of many ways.

So God paid the penalty and put his son on the cross when you could have got to heaven by saying a rosary or doing something else.

That's disrespectful to what God has done in rebellion to what God has done.

Philippians 2 .10, at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is

Lord to the glory of God the Father. If there's another way, then God wouldn't get glory for that way.

There's only one way, God alone gets the glory. This is his plan. First Timothy 2 .5,

there is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. Now there are other so -called

Christian traditions that say, well, there's more than one mediator. Moses was a mediator, you can ask me to pray and I would mediate for you.

Say, okay, so then based on First Timothy, maybe there's more than one God, right? Well, no, there's only one

God. Okay, so there's one God and many mediators. Is that what the scripture says? No, there's one

God and one mediator. Mediator meaning the only one who can take away your sins, pay for them, that's

Jesus Christ, the man Christ Jesus. Okay, this is important as well.

Jesus holds three offices, prophet, priest, and king. So what is the difference between a prophet and a priest?

Okay, good, I would say both stand between man and God. The prophet speaks to man on behalf of God.

The priest speaks to God on behalf of man. And guess what? Jesus fulfills both of those offices.

He's the one mediator that stands between both. John 6 .14,

when the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, this is indeed the prophet who has come into the world.

Hebrews 4 .14, since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens.

Jesus, the son of God, let us hold fast to our confession. And finally, on his robe and on his thigh, he has the name written

King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Now, that was Jesus saving and prophet, priest, and king.

Is he coming back? Acts 1 .11, man of Galilee, why do you stand looking to heaven?

This Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven. Now, did he bodily go into heaven?

Then he's going to bodily come back based on that verse. Matthew 25, when the son of man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne before him and be gathered to all the nations.

And he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats and will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

That's important because you go through Matthew and there's a spiritual coming of Jesus, right?

Jesus coming in judgment upon Israel. And then there's a physical coming of Jesus where he comes back and it's the final judgment and he separates the sheep from the goats.

Gotta be a little discerning as you go through that. Hebrews 9 .28, so Christ having been offered once to bear the sins of many will what?

Appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

So to the people who say, well, Jesus came back in 70 AD, okay, and everything is fulfilled.

Everything is passed at this point. Did he appear a second time? Or was this a spiritual coming of the

Lord? He didn't appear a second time in 70 AD. He came in judgment upon the

Jews. Mark 8 .38, for whoever's ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the

Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.

Finally, Revelation 22 .20, he who testifies to these things says, surely

I am coming soon, amen, come Lord Jesus, come. That's probably, when he says

I'm coming soon, that's probably closer to his judgment upon the Jews in Israel.

Questions? Any questions? We understand that Jesus is

God. He took on flesh. He's the God man. He's the mediator. He's the savior.

He had a part in creation. He's the king of kings. He's the Lord of lords. Yes, it probably is.

I don't necessarily know what that is at this point, but that's a really good question, something to look into for sure.

Yeah, on his thigh, there has to be significance. There's no word in the scriptures that's frivolous.

So yeah, there's significance to it. I wish I knew, yeah. All right, if there's no more questions, let's close in prayer.