May I Present Jesus (Part 3)

Take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, that we might be able to equip you to understand how you might be the offensive one in your battle against those forces that are unseen. It's important to understand what the Bible says about Jesus Christ. I mean, after all, he is the author of the Scriptures, and he is the theme of the Scriptures.

He's the subject of the Scriptures. We must understand who he truly is. And we are studying John's Gospel.

And John's Gospel is all about declaring and describing the deity of Christ our Lord. John has taken one verse, one phrase from one verse in the Old Testament, and expanded on that phrase. That verse is found in Isaiah chapter 35.

Isaiah chapter 35, the prophet is giving hope to Israel. And he tells them in verse number 2 of chapter 35 that one day they will see the glory of the Lord. They will see his majesty on display.

And then in verse number 3, he says, when you do, you'll be encouraged. Those who are exhausted will be encouraged, and those who are feeble will be strengthened. So when you see the glory of the Lord, encouragement comes to those who are exhausted.

To those who need strength, it comes because you see the glory of the Lord. And then he says this in verse number 4. Say to those with anxious hearts, do you have an anxious heart this morning? A troublesome heart? One that's always worried and uncertain? Say to those with anxious heart, take courage.

Fear not. Behold, your God will come. And that's the phrase that John has taken.

Behold, your God, in order to describe and declare to us the deity of Jesus Christ. He says, behold, your God will come with vengeance. The recompense of God will come, but he will save you.

Our God is a savior. That's who he is. He is the only savior.

There is no other one. And so it's imperative that you know who he is. And the first five verses of John's gospel equip you to defend, to declare, and to describe the deity of Jesus Christ, our Lord, unlike any other portion of scripture in the Bible.

So we are taking our time in going through the first five verses. In fact, we're taking one verse a week. And I kind of calculated that out.

If we continue doing one verse a week through 21 chapters, which contains 879 verses, it will take us 17 years to get through John's gospel. That is if we preach on it every single day or every single week of the year, 52 times a year, without ever taking a break. Well, you know as well as I know, we're not gonna take one verse every single week, but the first five are very important.

If you were with us in our study of the book of Genesis, we spent four weeks on in the beginning. In the beginning, God, four weeks, because it sets the tone for everything in the scriptures. You needed to understand that one phrase.

Well, here we are breaking apart 1 John, or excuse me, John 1, verses one to five, that you might come to grips with the understanding of the true identity of the Christ. Because you see, that's the ultimate question, right? Who is Jesus? That's the only question that ever matters. That's why two weeks ago, we took you to the first day of the Passion Week of Christ, that triumphal entry day on Monday, where the Greeks came and asked a question, sir, we wish to see Jesus.

Because that's what matters. And then on Wednesday of that week, that Passion Week, we took you there last week, after Christ had been asked all kinds of questions, he then turns the table on the religious establishment and asks them a question, whose son is the Christ? Is he son of man? Is he son of God? Is he son of David? He asked them that question. Well, this morning, by way of introduction, I wanna take you to Friday of Passion Week.

In the wee hours of the morning, sometime between 12 a.m. and 3 a.m., it happens at that time because the cock would crow at 3 a.m. in the morning. And Peter's gonna have to deny the Lord three times before that happens. So sometime in the wee early hours of what we commonly call Good Friday, Christ has been taken captive.

They came and took him from the Garden of Gethsemane, and they took him to go through four trials. The first one was with Annas. Annas was the father-in-law of Caiaphas.

They took him there first because Caiaphas had to gather all of the Sanhedrin around in his house. After he left Annas' house, he went to the house of Caiaphas. And he was there that he might be put on trial.

It, of course, was an illegal trial because they were not to try anyone at night, and the whole purpose of the Sanhedrin was not to take a life, but to save a life. But they weren't interested in saving the life of Jesus. They wanted to get rid of Jesus.

So in Matthew's Gospel, the 26th chapter, we see in verse number 58 that Peter follows from a distance. That's a sermon in and of itself because you're never to follow Jesus from a distance. You're to follow him up close and be as near to him as possible.

But Peter follows from a distance, and that is the beginning of his downfall in his denial of the Lord Jesus. He's in the courtyard of the house of Caiaphas, and those of you who have been to Israel with me, you understand the setting, and you understand where the house is and in conjunction with the Kidron Valley and the Garden of Gethsemane, and you understand the courthouse set up. And Peter was able to see the trial happening within the house of Caiaphas.

And so they bring in some witnesses that they might bring a charge against the Christ. But the witnesses are inconsistent. The witnesses misunderstand all that Jesus had done and all that Jesus had said.

But in the midst of all of the false accusation, Jesus sits there majestically, completely silent. He stands there in all of his integrity, all of his veracity, all of his dignity, all of his humility, and never says a word. Because you see, when you're innocent, you have nothing to defend.

And he was completely innocent of all charges. So Caiaphas will speak. And Caiaphas says in verse number 62, the high priest stood up and said to him, do you not answer? What is it that these men are testifying against you? But Jesus kept silence.

And all that did was goad Caiaphas. All that did was infuriate Caiaphas. You see, because when you don't defend yourself, people are furious.

They are looking for all kinds of ways to accuse you of wrongdoing, but Peter tells us that when he was reviled, he said nothing. He could say that because he was there, he watched it. He knew exactly how his Lord would respond, and that's how he did.

But Jesus kept silent. By this time, Caiaphas is so infuriated that these are the words he speaks. In verse number 63, he says, I adjure you, I charge you under oath by the living God that you tell us whether you are the Christ, the son of God.

Now that statement right there tells you something. It tells you that the Jewish nation believed that the Messiah would actually be the son of God, that the Messiah would be equal in position to the God of the universe. People always ask, does the Jewish nation believe in the divinity of the Messiah? Yeah, Caiaphas did.

Are you the Christ? Are you the son of God? To which Jesus said to him, you have said it. I like Mark's account. Mark says, all Jesus said was, I am.

I am, those two Greek words, ego eimi, that John uses eight different times in his gospel to prove that Jesus Christ is the God who spoke to Moses from the burning bush in Exodus chapter 3. Jesus says, I am. Nevertheless, Jesus says, I tell you, hereafter you will see, Caiaphas, you will see the son of man sitting at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven.

Jesus takes two messianic passages from the Old Testament, one from Psalm 10, verse number 1, the one he used just two days earlier on Wednesday of that week with the religious establishment. A lot of them were there in the house of Caiaphas. So he uses Psalm 110, verse number 1, and Daniel chapter 7, verse number 13.

Both, every Jew understood to be messianic that the son of man would come in clouds of great glory because Daniel in his vision saw one like a son of man and yet it was God who was coming in great glory and he will sit at the right hand of power, the right hand of judgment from Psalm 110, a position of equality with the true and living God. You ask me if I am the Christ? You ask me if I'm the Messiah? You ask me if I am the son of God? I got news for you, Caiaphas. One day you will see me judging you, not you judging me.

Incredible statement. To which, verse 65, the high priest tore his robes and said, he is blaspheming. What further need do we have of witnesses? Behold, you have now heard the blasphemy.

What do you think? They answer, he deserves death. Then they spat in his face and beat him with their fists and others slapped him and said, prophesy to us, you Messiah, who is the one who hit you? Do you know that all those who reject Christ as Messiah, the son of God, actually spit in the face of Jesus? They slap him, they mock him because they refuse to believe the obvious. You see, they were in a quandary because they had already attributed everything that Jesus did to Satan.

They had already attributed all of his miraculous work to him being of Beelzebul. They were caught between a rock and a hard place. And so here Jesus comes to them and tells them exactly who he is and exactly what he will do.

So John says in his gospel, many other signs did Jesus do, but these are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the son of God. This is why John writes his gospel, behold your God, stand in awe, this is your God. You must see him as he is accurately described, as he is accurately seen in the gospel.

And so John shows to us and says, behold, number one, his eternality. Behold, number two, his personality. Behold, number three, his deity. Behold, number four, his vitality. And behold, number five, his invincibility. And that's the outline, the five-point outline of the first five verses of John's gospel, John chapter 1.

And so as we go through this and open up to what the word of God says, and I will do all I can with all of my power and with all the ways I can say it to describe to you and declare to you the deity of Jesus Christ our Lord. But in all of that, I will never, ever be able to convince you. I cannot do that.

Only the God of heaven can do that. I can't, I'm good, I'm just not that good. You see, only God can do that.

That's why when Peter describes Christ as the Messiah, the son of the living God, Jesus said, flesh and blood, man did not reveal that to you. But my Father in heaven, he revealed it to you. See, Peter understood the identity of the Messiah because the Father revealed it to him.

And the only way you're gonna believe what John says is that the Father reveals it to you. Now, the reason I preach it is because faith cometh by hearing and hearing by a word about the Christ. Romans 10:17, right? And God works in conjunction with the word of God.

How shall they hear without a preacher, right? So Paul says in Romans chapter 10, and how beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good news. And so we have to preach the truth. We have to put it out there so people can hear it.

But I cannot convince you that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God. But these things were written so that you might believe. And God will use his word to impact your life.

That's why Paul would say, I am not ashamed of the gospel. For the gospel is the power of God unto salvation, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. The power of salvation is the gospel.

It's not my ingenuity. It's not my illustrations. It's not my alliteration.

It's none of those kinds of things. It is the word of the living God working in conjunction with God himself to bring conviction to your soul. So my job is just simply to take you to the scriptures, open the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, and show you how your senses can be sharpened and how they can be tuned to know the truth about Jesus Christ, our Lord.

So John says, behold, your God. John chapter 1, verse number 1. In the beginning was continuously the word.

The eternality of the Son. And the word was continuously with God or face to face with God. So the eternal word was face to face with the eternal God helping you understand the triune nature of God.

I mean, the word trinity, I know it's not in the Bible. We probably shouldn't even use that word. The best word to use is triunity.

It's better than Trinity. Triunity, one God manifesting himself in three distinct persons. And here John introduces us to two of them because the word, which is eternal, was face to face with the eternal God.

And then he says, and the word was God. So you move from his eternality to his personality, to his deity. Notice what it doesn't say.

It doesn't say the word was a God, although the New World Translation, the Jehovah's Witness Translation inserts the indefinite article there. There is no indefinite article in the original language. So it just simply says the word was God.

Notice it doesn't say that the word was the God. Now that would be true, but that's not what John says, which is so important to understand. The word was God.

When the definite article is not used before the noun, it describes the essence, the substance, the quality, and nature. In other words, the word in essence, the word by nature, the word in substance is God. In fact, the original language says God was the word.

So we read it, the word was God, but the original says God was the word. Explain to us the fact that this word, verse 14, would become flesh and dwell among us. The enfleshment of the word, the incarnation of the word, Christ becoming man.

The word was God. Very God of very God. God, not a God, not the God, simply God.

Jesus was not simply the revealer of God, but God himself revealed. Did you get that? Jesus didn't come just to reveal God, but he actually was God revealed in the flesh. The deity of Christ and full equality of Christ with the Father is the one non-negotiable element of Christian faith.

This is non-negotiable. This is not up for debate. This is absolute truth.

The word was God. And John, of course, will go into great detail explaining to us through those I am statements to hearing the words of Thomas when he says in John 20, my Lord and my God. And Christ never said, oh, you got it wrong.

No, because he was right, absolutely right. In fact, just let me arm you with some verses that will help you understand because when you talk about the deity of Christ, you must understand it in four ways, okay? The deity of Christ is revealed in his name, reaffirmed in his attributes, reinforced by his works, and ratified when he is worshiped. You must understand that.

It's a very simple way of understanding how to explain the deity of Christ, that Christ is actually God in the flesh. Why is this important? Isaiah told you. For the feeble, you will be encouraged.

For the weak, you will be strengthened. Why? Because you will see the majestic glory of the Lord. So behold your God, for when you see him for who he is, everything changes, everything does.

Because everything about your life is related to one person, the Lord Jesus Christ. Once you know him, once you understand him, once you come to believe in him, everything else changes. Any other change outside of that knowledge, outside of that encounter is a superficial kind of change and will not last, maybe a week or two or three or four, but it will not last.

True change happens when you are in Christ. For if any man be in Christ, he is a brand new creation. Old things are passed away.

Behold, all things have become new. Everything is about the identity of Christ. That's why John is so, so keen on these first five verses.

By way of introduction, that you might understand the true nature of the Messiah. Notice, the Bible says these words in Philippians 2 that Jesus existed in the form of God, equal with God. In Colossians 2, verse number 9, Paul says, for in him, all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form.

In Romans 9:5, Paul refers to Christ as God, blessed forever. In Hebrews 1, verse number 8, the father says to the son, your throne, oh God, is forever and ever, and the righteous scepter is the scepter of his kingdom. Peter, in 2 Peter chapter 1, says this.

And mark this down. Simon Peter, a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours by the righteousness of the God and Savior, Jesus Christ. That same phrase is used in Titus chapter 2, verse number 13.

And there is a rule in Greek grammar that's used over 250 times in the New Testament, and it's always the same, it never varies. And here is the rule. When the definite article the, precedes the first noun, and not the second noun, and they are separated with a conjunction and, the two are always equal, without exception in the New Testament.

So whoever God is, the God, that God is the Savior, and that Savior is Jesus Christ. It's irrefutable in the New Testament. And so you can go through different passages of the Old Testament.

I won't take you to all of them, I'll take you to one of them, but in 1 Corinthians 2:78, Paul says, you crucified the Lord of glory. Well, who's the Lord of glory? Psalm 24:7-10 tells us that the Lord of glory is the Lord of hosts, who is the King of glory. And Psalm 24 is a messianic Psalm.

So when Paul is speaking to those in Corinth, he is saying that the Jews crucified the Lord of glory. The Bible says in, in Acts 3, verses 14 and 15, Peter says, but you denied the Holy One and the just, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and killed the Prince of life, whom God raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses. So Peter calls Jesus the Holy One.

Isaiah chapter 48, verse number 17 says, thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, I am the Lord, your God. So you see the deity of Christ is revealed in his name. In Zechariah chapter, I'm sorry, Jeremiah 23, verse number 6, Jeremiah prophesied that the Messiah will be called the Lord Yahweh of righteousness.

So whoever the Messiah is, he is the Lord of righteousness. But there's one verse in the Old Testament that I love to hang my hat on because it's so powerful. It's found in Isaiah chapter 44.

Isaiah 44, verse number 6. And if you're talking to a Jew, if you're talking to a Jehovah's Witness, if you're talking to a Mormon, if you're talking to a Muslim, if you're talking to a Hindu, I don't care who you're talking to, take him to Isaiah 44, verse number 6. Because the Bible says, thus says the Lord, remember when Lord is all in caps, it's Yahweh.

Over 6,000 times it's used in the Old Testament. It speaks of the Lord who spoke to Moses from the burning bush. It's the name of God that the Jews refuse to pronounce.

So he says, thus says the Lord Yahweh, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts. If you're talking to a Mormon, they will tell you that the first Lord is Yahweh and the second Lord is Adonai because it refers to an earthly Lord. And it is true that Adonai can refer to an earthly Lord, but it doesn't mean it only refers to an earthly Lord.

But the problem is the second Lord is not Adonai. It's Yahweh. So you have two Yahwehs, you have two Lords.

How can you have two Lords? How can you have a Lord who is the King, a King of glory or the King of Israel and another Lord who is Yahweh Sabaoth? Well, the Jews got around that after the death of Christ, of course. So in the Jewish Old Testament, they translate it this way. Thus says the Lord Yahweh, the King of Israel and their Redeemer, the Lord of hosts.

But you see, grammatically, you cannot do that. They should know that because you can't take a third person singular pronoun and translate it there, it's His. It's irrevocable, it's irreplaceable, it's very clear.

The Lord is the King of Israel and He has a Redeemer and that Redeemer is Yahweh Sabaoth, the Lord of hosts. That's who He is. If you turn over to Isaiah 47, it says this in verse number 4, our Redeemer, the Lord of hosts.

That's true, the Lord of armies, Yahweh Sabaoth is the Redeemer. Our Redeemer, the Lord of hosts is His name, the Holy One of Israel. So whoever the Redeemer is, He's the Lord of hosts and the Lord of hosts is the Holy One of Israel.

And we read to you earlier in the book of Isaiah that the Holy One of Israel is the Lord God of Israel. And then over in Isaiah 54, verse number 5, it says these words, for your husband, Isaiah speaking to Israel, your husband is your maker, your fashioner, whose name is Yahweh Sabaoth, the Lord of hosts. And your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel who is called the God of all the earth.

So the Redeemer is the Lord of hosts, the Lord of hosts is the Holy One of Israel, the Holy One of Israel is your God. Again, exemplifying and explaining the deity of Christ that the Redeemer, the Savior, the Lord Jesus, the Messiah, God's Messiah is the Lord of armies. He is your Savior.

There are so many verses, but when you want to explain the deity of Christ, you must explain the fact that His deity is revealed in His name. His name is His character, His nature. It's reaffirmed in His attributes.

As God is omnipresent, Jesus is omnipresent. As God was omnipotent, Jesus is omnipotent. As God is omniscient, so Jesus is omniscient.

As the God of Israel is called Yahweh Sabaoth, so His Redeemer called Yahweh Sabaoth, the Lord of hosts. So the deity of Christ is not just revealed in His name, it's reaffirmed in His attributes. It's ratified when He is worshiped and He made it very clear, Jesus did, that no one should worship Him, but God alone.

In Matthew chapter 4, He talks about the fact that you should only worship God alone and yet Jesus received worship, indicating that He is God in the flesh. But number four, the deity of Christ is reinforced by His works. And that leads us to the next point.

Not only is He seen in His eternality and not only is He seen in His personality, His deity, but His activity or His creativity. What's the next verse say? Verse 3, all things came into being through Him. The Father, listen carefully, was the architect of creation.

Jesus was the agent of creation. You must understand that. Verse 10 of John one says, He was in the world and the world was made through Him and the world did not know Him.

So Jesus is the agent of creation. If He brings all things into existence, that means He existed before all things came into existence, declaring His eternality, that He existed before all things. That's why Colossians 1:15, it says, He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn or the preeminent one of all creation, for by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things have been created through Him and for Him.

So in order to create all things, to bring all things into existence, you had to exist before all those things came into existence. Speaking of His eternality, and He created all things. The Bible also says in 1 Corinthians chapter 8, verse number 6, there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and we exist for Him.

And one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things and we exist through Him. Same thing. The Father was the architect behind creation and Jesus was the agent by which creation came into existence.

All things came into being through Him. This speaks of His activity, His creativity. In other words, He is the creator.

Now why is that important? Because that is the first doctrine of the Bible. So, in the beginning, God, what's the next word? Created. That's how God introduces Himself to the world.

In the beginning, God, not loved. In the beginning, God, not mercy, although He's all that. In the beginning, God, and His grace, although He is graceful.

The very first way that God introduces Himself is as creator, designer, the fashioner of everything. So the Bible says in Psalm 19, verse number 1, the heavens are telling of the glory of God. The heavens, when the sun rises, when the sun shines, when the sun sets, it is declaring to you the glory of God.

It is showing you the presence of God. If there is a design, there is a designer. If there's a creation, there is a creator.

And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands. Day to day pours forth speech. Day to day, from sunrise to sunset, day after day after day, the heavens continue to pour forth speech.

They continue to speak, and night to night reveals knowledge. This is why the world hates God. This is why the world is so against God.

Because the Bible says very clearly, that which is known about God is evident within them, Romans 1:19, because God made it evident to them. In other words, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness, because men suppress the truth. What's the truth? There is a creator.

And you see what you see because the Lord, who is the creator, allowed you to see His creation. And day to day, there is a speech that is taking place in the ears of everybody who ever existed that screams, there is a God, screams it. For since the creation of the world, verse 20 of Romans 1, His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen.

Not vaguely seen, not partially seen, clearly seen. Being understood that, or excuse me, being understood through what has been made so that they are without excuse, for even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks. But they became futile in their speculations and their foolish heart was darkened.

Professing to be wise, they became fools. And exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and of four-footed animals and of crawling creatures. The world hates the creator.

But this is why God introduced Himself this way. Why is there an evolution creation debate? It's really not a debate, it's a closed deal, but they debate it anyway, right? Because they refuse to believe in a creator. Why do you think abortion is as bad as it is? Because those people who kill their babies deny the creator, that's why.

See, that which is born in you, that's what conception is. We think the birth of the baby is when the baby comes out. Oh no, that's wrong.

For the Bible says in Matthew chapter 1, that which is born in you is the Son of God. At conception was the birth of the child or the child that was born. At conception.

That's what the Bible says, that which is born in you. When you conceive, that is the birth. You just happen to see the results of the birth nine months later, but the birth happens at conception.

But you see, they refuse to acknowledge God as God. And so they feel that they can kill their unborn babies because they don't recognize that they are truly born babies and that God had fashioned them in the womb. Psalm 139: and all their days were ordained before there was even yet one of them because God is the creator, the maker, the fashioner of everything.

He is fashioning that child in the womb and that abortion is the way it is because of Romans chapter one, they suppress the truth. They know there's a creator and they know. Don't you think for one minute that a woman who aborts her child does not know that God created that child in her womb.

Because Romans one says that she suppresses the truth. She knows the truth and she will not subject herself to that truth. Why do you think there's a transgender issue? Male and female created he them.

Have you not read that? So Jesus says, have you not read? Male and female created he them. There's no debate about transgenderism, but because all those people who claim that know the truth, they suppress the truth. They deny the truth because they do not want to be held accountable to the creator of the world.

But don't ever think that all those unbelieving pagans out there who do not want to submit to Christ do not know what they are doing. They know exactly what they are doing. Because Romans one tells us.

Psalm 19 tells us. And that's why John says, because of him all things came into existence. He's the creator.

This is his creativity. This is his activity. This is who the son of God is.

Behold your God, he says. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Why is this important? Because once you understand God as the creator and maker and fashioner of your life, you will submit to him as Lord and king and follow him.

The Bible is so clear on all these issues. And John says, behold your God. Understand his eternality.

Understand he's a person. His personality. Understand that he is deity, he's God in the flesh.

Understand his creativity, his activity, that he is the creator of all things. And then he says these words in John one, which are so very, very important. In him was life.

And the life was the light of men. And by the way, which he will ultimately say, that this light enlightens every man who comes into the world. Every unbeliever has been enlightened by this light who is life. And we'll pick that up next week, let's pray.

Father, we thank you, Lord, for today. It is so important that we understand who you are.

You've allowed us to spend time in the word of God, stretching our minds, taking us through various scriptures to understand the true identity of the Messiah. We are a blessed people. My prayer, Father, is that you would open the hearts and minds of all who are here, and they would see you for who you are.

And they would follow you and serve you and understand you. They would embrace the Messiah, Christ, the Son of God. So, Lord, we thank you for our time.

If there's one here who does not know you, may today be the day of their salvation. They may walk with Christ, the true life, the true light, the true Lord, the true lion, the true lamb, the true liberator of life. Until you come again, Lord, we thank you in Jesus' name.

Amen.