Core Training: Primaries – The Mountain of Jesus

Hey everybody, this is Pastor John Ewart from Inglewood

Baptist Church in Rocky Mountain, North Carolina.

Thank you so much for tuning into our podcast.

You're going to hear from God today as we share from his word

about important issues facing your life that can guide you

according to the Bible. So welcome to this this session

of of core training. I appreciate those who are

listening online and I hope that you've been listening to other

episodes. I thank you for the good group

that's here tonight live with me.

And then also if some of you who are here, if you've not been

here for all these weeks, you can go online and listen to this

on podcast as well. And we last week we talked about

what we believe about the Bible and why is that important.

A part of really there's two parts to this series. 1 is one

is I need to know what I believe and there are there are certain

doctrines that I need to believe in order to be a Christian.

And so I need that for me. But then also I need to

understand how to articulate or to express those things to this

lost world. And so this is a kind of A2 fold

intent to help you. I'm really setting you up.

You may not know that because down the road we're going to be

talking about personal evangelism.

And I'm trying to give you some content that you can use in your

conversations as you go and show the gospel, but also for your

own benefit as well, because we live in a we live in an

interesting world that Matt Carter and Josh Redberg wrote

this. They said the current religious

culture in America loves to talk about belief and believing.

These spiritual buzzwords are often used generically and end

up devoid of any meaning. Contemporary spirituality

trumpets not belief in an object or a person, but rather belief

in belief. It goes something like this.

It doesn't matter who you believe or what you believe.

All that matters is that you believe.

So there's a belief in belief and that's really pretty

accurate when you look at our culture today.

But but we recognize in in our world and Christianity and

biblical Christianity that that are the belief about what is the

truth actually determines not only in my eternity, but it

actually should determine how I live day by day.

And so this is hugely important for me to understand what I

believe and why. And I know that if I were to

just call this a doctrinal study, that might sound boring

because because I really want it to be a life study.

This is this is how I should live.

And this is how I should be able to respond.

And This is why I should make the decisions, the way I make my

decisions and why I'm for things or even against things because

there's a reason for that. And and it's, it's, it's even

beyond me most of the time. So again, last week we examined

what we believed about the Bible is the word of God, our

authority and our truth. And if you missed that, because

the topic of the Bible and authority, they're going to come

up in conversations out there because people don't necessarily

believe this book. And as we've talked multiple

times, we're, we're at a different beginning point than

we once were. The Roman Rd. which is a classic

gospel presentation. And obviously the word of God is

always going to be useful, but often in, in our conversations

today, we might not be able to start in Romans.

We have to maybe start in Genesis and define who God is

and who what his word is. So, so that's going to be

important. But another vital apologetic

point that we're going to talk about tonight is equally

important, if not even more important.

And that is how, how can I understand and be able to

explain to others what I believe about Jesus Christ and why that

really matters? And it might seem like something

you already know or we ought to all know, but you've got to

believe me when I say that the world does not.

And so we need to know how to express what we would we would

say about Jesus. And so why that belief is

important and how that actually effects why I have to live the

way I do and why I have to make the decisions that I do because

who is Jesus? The answer to that is vital for

every aspect of my life. And this world out here holds

several different views. Obviously, there are all kinds

of historical views. There's there's a Jewish view of

Jesus, there's Islamic views of Jesus, there are ancient

philosophical views of Jesus, there are modern philosophical

views of Jesus, there are atheistic views of Jesus and all

kinds of liberal views of Jesus. And they range everywhere from

heretic to deceiver to prophet, to lunatic, to good teacher, to

moral example, to myth. And I may never totally be able

to understand all of those views.

And I've said this to you before that the key to, to apologetic

thinking, the key to being able to deal with everything and

everybody out there where there's so many different

beliefs is not that I understand all of those beliefs perfectly,

but that I understand mine. And so I need to know what I

believe about this because some out here and maybe some of you

know the what about Jesus because they've heard the story

somewhere, but they don't necessarily know The Who and the

why about Jesus, which is extremely important.

So the doctrine of the work and person of Jesus Christ is called

Christology. Don't let that word throw you.

And this is definitely what we would call a primary doctrine.

We need to believe this. We must believe this.

Now, in the next session together, I'm going to start

talking about some secondary and tertiary doctrines.

We might call these mountains worth dying on.

I'll call those mounds of identity right to where we could

have some differences of opinion and some different view.

And some of those will separate us.

And some of us, we could still work together.

We'll be talking about those over the next couple weeks.

But but for this session, we need to focus on this primary

doctrinal hill that's worth dying on.

And because without it, we recognize that we're missing the

very essence of Christianity, frankly.

I mean, it's named after him. And so if we don't understand

Christology, we don't understand Christianity at all.

My former boss, my friend Doctor Danny Aiken, has written

extensively in the area of Christology.

It's a speciality of his. And he says there are at least

three ways to approach this. So you can approach Christology

from above. In other words, you think about

the beginning with his divinity and his pre existence.

And we're going to do some of that as we look at John chapter

John 1 · chapter mention

1. You can look at Christology from

below, where you begin with the life of Jesus on earth, which is

what some of the Gospels do when you have the classic Christmas

stories, the Bethlehem Manger stories and those kinds of

things. Or you can look at Christology

from behind, where you start in the Old Testament and you

recognize that the whole story of the Bible is really the story

of Christ. So even though the Bible is

made-up of, of many different books written by many different

authors and several different languages and many different

places over many, many years, it's actually because of the

unifying perfect inspiration of the Holy Spirit that we talked

about in the previous session. But because of what the Holy

Spirit can do in, in the work of inspiration and revelation, we

recognize that according to the will of the Father, this is 1

big grand story. This Bible is 1 big story.

We call that the grand narrative or the meta narrative.

So I'm just throwing language out there at you because you

might hear those terms along the way.

So when we talk about the grand narrative or the meta narrative,

what we mean is is from Genesis to Revelation, the story is

about Jesus. And it really is pointing to him

and leading to him and helping to define who he really is and

why he is and who he is and what he did when he came.

So theologian and author Christopher Morgan said this.

He said Jesus is the hero of the grand narrative of the

Scripture. He is the Father's agent at each

stage, and often that grand story, that story, the whole

Bible, is broken down into a few pieces.

There are a couple of different ways to describe it, but God the

Son plays a role in every single one of these steps in the

unified narrative that we call the Bible.

So from creation to the fall, from redemption and what we

would call restoration, from Genesis to Revelation, Jesus is

the is the theme. He's the fulfillment, He's the

culmination of the whole story. And I want to break that down

for just a couple of minutes. And then I want us to go to John

John 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1. So you've got to recognize, and

this is something that often I don't think we think about as

much as we should, that at creation nothing is a created in

the in the beginning, nothing is created apart from Jesus.

And you might sit there and think, well, in Genesis it just

talks about God. I know, but listen to what

Colossians tells us. In Colossians chapter 1, it says

Colossians 1 · chapter mention

he is the image of the invisible God, the first born of all

creation. 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. And he is before all things, and

in Him all things hold together. I often say that Jesus Christ is

actually the glue that holds the universe together.

And so we recognize that we, we, we often do not recognize the

Trinitarian formula in Genesis at creation.

And sometimes that's because of our English translations,

because in the original Hebrew there are plurals in there.

We scholars will call them the divine plurals to where there's

us, there's we in the creation story to where God the Son, God

the Father, and God the Holy Spirit are all working together

in Genesis in the creation story.

So we we recognize that that God the Son plays a key role even in

creation. And then we talk about the fall

or Genesis chapter 3 when sin comes into the creation.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

So we see that when Adam and Eve sinned, God announced his plan

to rescue humanity. Even from the very beginning, he

mentions his plan to rescue humanity through Eve's

offspring, which we know that was the second Adam, which is

Jesus Christ. And so you, you have what is

called, here's your fancy word to throw out tomorrow at work.

You have the proto evangelium in, in, in Latin.

So the first evangelist, first evangelism, proto evangelium,

which is the first indication of a Messiah in the Bible.

It's the first mention of a deliverer.

It's the first mention of Jesus and it's in Genesis 315.

And you, you've probably read this verse before.

He says I will put enmity between, he's cursing the, the

serpent, right? And you, I will put enmity

between you and the woman and between your offspring and her

offspring. He shall bruise your head and

you shall bruise his heel. And so Jesus is the one who

strikes the head of the serpent through his life, through his

death, and through his resurrection.

So Jesus is actually the fulfillment of Genesis 3:15.

Genesis 3:15

In fact, if we go on the writer of Hebrews, and as I mentioned

in previous sessions, we need to have a conversation someday

about who we think actually wrote Hebrews.

I know the leading vote getter, but you know who actually wrote

Hebrews? But in Hebrews chapter 2 it says

Hebrews 2 · chapter mention

this. It says since therefore the

children share in flesh and blood, He himself likewise

partook of the same things, that through death He might destroy

the one who has the power of death, that is the devil, and

deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to

lifelong slavery. So we see his role even in the

from the very beginning because of the fall.

But then you move into the phase called redemption, which is a

part of the the meta narrative or grand story.

So God's plan to redeem, to fix that problem, to fix the fall,

to fix sin, to give us hope and salvation.

So God's Kingdom throughout the Old Testament, we recognize that

he prophesized and testifies to the fact that that there's going

to be a deliverer that comes. And you see that it all the way

in the in what's called the Pentateuch, the first five books

of the Bible, you'll see it there, you'll hear it through

the prophets, you'll hear it in the psalmist to where God's

going to deliver, God's going to work.

And step by step in the Old Testament, God begins to reveal

who this deliverer is going to be.

He tells us that he's going to come from the line of Abraham,

he's going to come from the line of Judah, he's going to come

from the line of David. And so there are these messianic

prophecies talking about who this is going to be and how he's

going to come and from what his background might be.

Isaiah of all the prophets probably tells us more than

anything. If you ever want to really read

about Jesus in the Old Testament, read, read in, read

in the 50s of Isaiah, read in those fifty chapters, those

especially chapters 52, 53, where you have what are called

the suffering servant passages of Isaiah.

This is the best way to share the gospel with a Jewish person,

by the way, is take them to Isaiah.

They'll have a hard time not concluding with you that he's

talking about Jesus because Jesus fulfills these chapters

perfectly. And so there's no question about

what Isaiah is prophesying about.

Daniel even tells of one who is, who is like a son of man, but

who is both God and man. And so you see these prophetic,

these prophetic images of Christ as he fulfills one image after

the next, one prophecy after another as the Redeemer.

And then of course, because of what Jesus actually does in the

gospel, he actually dies and lives again so that we can do

that, that he, he fulfills the redemption of God and that part

of the story and then the last part of the grand narrative.

And there again, there are different ways to describe that,

that grand story, but it's often the the last part of it would be

called restoration. And so because of what he's

done, Jesus is the great restorer.

He's going to be the great consummator because of his

incarnation, because of his saving work, because of his

resurrection. He not only saves, he preserves

and, and even the creation itself is, is seeking this, the

creation itself. And, and when I talk about the

problem of evil here in a few sessions from now, and we're

going to do that, I'm going to take on kind of this doctrine of

evil conversation because I feel like you need those

conversational points. Plus in talking to some of you,

some of you need to hear this. Why is why does evil exist?

Why? Why do bad things happen,

etcetera. If God is real, why does he

allow this kind of conversation? We're going to talk about that.

But even the creation itself, as a part of that answer, the

creation itself groans. The Bible says the creation

itself has fallen. So when Genesis Three took

place, it wasn't just humanity that suffered.

Creation itself suffered. So that's why we have disease,

and that's why we have natural disaster, and that's why we have

certain things that happened today.

And so even the Bible says even the creation seeks restoration.

And so in Romans chapter 8 it says this.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

For we know that the whole creation has been groaning

together in the pains of childbirth until now.

And not only the creation, but we ourselves, we have the first

fruits of the Spirit, who have the first fruits of the Spirit

grown inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption of sons,

like the redemption of our bodies.

And so part of this is the fact that Jesus will return one day,

I can guarantee it. So one of these days, you know,

maybe I'll be right, but not today.

I guess so. And there will be a new heaven

and there will be a new earth. See, those are going to be a

restoration of everything. So the the place of eternal

restoration, the place of this consummation of God's incredibly

grand story because he's the alpha, he's the Omega, he's the

beginning and the end, the creator and frankly the judge as

he plays both roles. So we need to be very clear

about Jesus. The Old Testament taught that he

would come. Then the New Testament taught

that he came and we need to be clear that the whole book is

really pointing to him. And if you need more evidence

sometime look at Luke chapter 24 as he's talking after the

Luke 24 · chapter mention

resurrection to some of the disciples on that road to

Emmaus. And he explains to them how the

how the prophets were speaking about him.

And so when we look at that and we go to the New Testament, we

and we're going to go to John just as the example for time and

and emphasis tonight. We recognize that that John

writes his gospel to a large degree to reveal and to define

the identity of Jesus. That's what the Holy Spirit's

leading him to do, which is why John's gospel is kind of

different. You don't start off with

Bethlehem. You don't start off with a

Manger. You don't start off with with

with with shepherds and wise men and things like that.

You don't even start off with talk of the virgin birth,

though. The virgin birth in itself

should be a doctrine we could talk about one night because

it's absolutely important to us. It's a crucial doctrine for us.

Believe it or not, the virgin birth is extremely important to

believe in because it actually displays this humanity and

divinity as well. But John begins at a different

place. John begins before there was an

earthly story. John begins at a place before

the beginning. And he wants us to understand

the awesome and eternal nature of who Jesus really is.

And so that's where I want us to go in John chapter one verse one

in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and

the word was God. He was in the beginning with

God. Now we need to break this down

some. So let's just start with the

idea of the identity of the Word.

Who is this? Who's this Word?

So you need to note, and I hope you see it immediately, the very

the first 3 words in the beginning.

What does that remind you of Genesis?

Don't miss the parallels between John 1 and Genesis 1.

They're extremely intentional to, to, to make you understand

that in the beginning. Now the, the very first part of

this verse could be literally translated this way.

And so we'll listen to this. It would get a little confusing

because Greek doesn't follow our word order, but listen to this.

When the beginning began or before there was a beginning,

the word had been or the word was already there, or in the

beginning the word was existing. Those are those are different

options that all mean the same thing.

In other words, before the beginning was beginning, the

word already was. And that's the way this works.

So, so there, this is before time.

This is before Genesis One. This is before any part of the

creation, before anything else. The word was and the and the

even that little word was the way it's written in the original

language indicates A continuous state of being.

So in other words, the word continually was.

There was never a time when the word was not, and that's

significant. And it's hard because the world

has struggles with this. So in the beginning that had no

beginning, the word existed, right?

I can confuse you more. And so the, the the whole point

is the word is it is eternal. The word had no beginning.

And this this is hard for our very limited linear football

size cranial cavity, human minds to comprehend our minds struggle

with eternal. It's hard for we have no

reference point. It's hard for human beings to

grasp or accept the idea of eternal but but it's not that

way with God. So eternal has no beginning.

Eternal has no end. And the world will reject this

because it can't comprehend it. The world reject this because it

can't control this. It can't fence that in.

It's hard to box up forever. And the world struggles with

that. Because if I if the if I can't

understand that it must not be true because obviously I'm

smarter than anything else in existence.

I mean, it's almost the attitude, right?

That's the pride and arrogance of spiritual blindness.

And so it's beyond us. It's, it's greater than us.

It's different than us. And that's what John's trying to

express. This is not normal.

And so it's difficult for many because they don't, they don't

want to acknowledge anyone or someone greater who might

actually know more than they do who, who might actually be

powerful enough to hold them accountable for what they would

define a sin. And the world just doesn't want

that. But we need to understand this

because who Jesus is is absolutely crucial in the

understanding of why the cross matters.

And so verse 3 says this. And this just echoes what we

were reading Colossians. One, all things were made

through him and without him was not anything made that was made.

So you have Paul writing to a church in Colossae and you have

John writing a gospel saying the same thing.

Jesus is creator, Jesus is God, That's who this is.

The Word is God. So we recognize that not only is

he eternal, but there has never been a thing which does not

depend upon the Word for its existence.

You got to wrap your head around this.

I've shared this earlier that all you know, all creation

depends upon the word. They they had a beginning,

creation had a beginning and and the word is the creator who does

not have a beginning. But the word is not the first

thing created. That's not what that first born

word means. That's some heresies have taught

that throughout the years. He has always been.

So the word is the source of life, including ours.

And so he deserves ours. He deserves our surrender.

He has earned that and he deserves our commitment.

So who was this word? And the Bible says, and the word

was who word was God. Now in the original Greek,

there's no was. So it literally reads and the

word God, it's the same thing. It's the same person, it's the

same being, They're all one in the same, right?

So this is not simply saying there was something divine or

holy about the Word. The Word isn't in fact, God.

All that is true of God is true of the Word because they're the

same thing and there's really nothing higher that could be

said. There's really nothing more

dramatic for the reader, especially these original

readers to have heard. So the word is the revelation of

God's truth and great power wrapped in this most unexpected.

It's never happened like this way before.

Unique experience in the way he was born and the way he lived.

So we see the identity a little bit.

So let's talk about secondly, the incarnation of the Word

because you you can't not read verse 14 and the word became

flesh and dwelt among us and we have seen his glory glories of

the only Son from the Father full of grace and truth.

The word became a physical body that there's no other way.

You can't make this mean something else.

The word became a physical body. God became a man and, and, and,

and this is so important. And even that verb became these

little verbs matter. It's written in a tense.

That means that it's a one point in time thing.

This happened one time. There's, there's, this has never

happened before. It's not something that had ever

happened since It happened at one point in history.

This is a unique one time historic event.

And this isn't even the word for created.

This is a word for physical birth.

This is so he's physically born. So now we're back to the virgin

birth idea, sort of, even though John doesn't describe it in

detail. So this, this may be the most

important verse in the Bible as far as the doctrine of the

incarnation, which is a doctrine itself we don't pay enough

attention to. We talk a lot about crucifixion.

We talk a lot about resurrection.

We really need to talk more about incarnation because

without the incarnation, the crucifixion and the resurrection

don't count. It doesn't work.

It doesn't matter. A good man dying on the cross

can't save us. Someone else had to die on that

cross. Something else had to die on

that cross. See.

So the incarnation is huge. So nothing like this had ever

happened before since. And John uses extremely careful

and very specific language here to leave no doubt.

The creator God, the word of God, took on flesh for our

salvation. Jesus is God, the Word, the

fully human also fully reveals the Father.

And so he has a unique nature that's different than us.

He's not just a man. And that's where this world

today often struggles. There are still people who would

consider that nobody named Jesus ever even existed.

Most people of intelligence don't say that.

Most of the lost people out there will believe there was

actually a historic figure named Jesus.

They'll they'll often give in to that.

But who he really was, the fact that he was God and man, that's

going to be something they'll want to dispute.

Chuck Swindoll once said this. This is a great, great sentence

if I can do it right, he said. Take note of John's deliberate

progression from Infinity and eternity down to the single

individual Christ, in whom resides all that is infant

infinite and all that is eternal.

And so God accommodates himself to fulfill his eternal plan of

redemption by coming to be one of us.

And, and there was no other way to do it.

There is no other way to deal with the sin problem.

There is no other way to pay the debt that needed to be paid so

humanity could have the opportunity to be saved.

And so this is an encounter with the divine in a special way.

And the Bible says that he dwelt among us or, or another

translation might say he made his dwelling among us.

And that word means to pitch your tent.

It means to Tabernacle. So he literally tabernacles with

us. He lives with us.

Jesus lived with us temporarily in the physical so that we could

live with him forever. So this is John's Bethlehem.

This is John's nativity scene. This is as close as you get.

No camels, no shepherds. Instead, the miracle of the

incarnation wrapped in the mystery of the Trinity.

I mean, it really is powerful. It truly is Emmanuel, which

means what? God with us.

Yeah. And so we recognize that no

other world religion contains this doctrine.

You can understand that that why do we believe that Jesus is the

only way you can be saved? Because there are unique

qualities to Christianity that that that no other belief system

teaches, nobody else teaches that God became man to die for

us. No one else does.

And so the Greeks and the Romans had myths of God, God's

temporarily taking human forms, but it was always for selfish

reasons, not for not for reasons of sacrifice or substitutionary

atonement. They never, they would never

teach that. And so not, not to come and save

us or to appease the wrath of the Father against sin.

It's not to sacrifice or not to substitute on our behalf.

These are unique qualities of true biblical Christianity.

And if somebody would just listen to that long enough and

you could get them to focus with you long enough without trying

to debate you about that, then I think all of a sudden they would

realize that God's pretty cool and pretty good and and pretty

gracious and went out of his way for us.

And it might just change their attitude about who he is.

But one of the marks that makes Jesus Christ the only true way

to salvation is this unique quality.

Yet many do not understand that. But that's not new.

They didn't understand it back then either.

Look at verse 10. He was in the world, and the

world was made through Him. See how many times this gets

emphasized? The creation part?

It was made through Him, yet the world did not know Him.

He came to His own, and His own people did not receive Him.

So the very world that the Creator makes rejects the

Creator, rejects Jesus as God to explain away or to hide from any

single path of salvation through Him alone.

The world doesn't want that. The world doesn't want that

singular path. They want to be able to have

multiple paths that they can create on their own, if they

believe in eternity at all. And so pluralism is that idea

that we've talked about in a previous time together.

We talked about there are many paths to salvation, but this

doesn't work because no one else is qualified to pay the price

for our sin or or universalism where where that says that all

the paths work, right? This can't be true because no

sin debt is covered. And so these cannot be truth in

themselves. The incarnation is one of these

truths about Christianity that make it the only way to be

saved. Thus, it leads us to what we

call exclusivism. There's an exclusive path to

salvation, and it has to go through Jesus.

So no other faith knows a God who gave up so much to be with

his creation. No one else did because no one

else could, because they don't exist.

So please, at times, acknowledge, praise.

Thank God and remember the sacrifice of the incarnation,

how much He gave up for that, for these verses to be true, and

what He gave up to be here with us.

And so recommend recognize the search it represents too, and

the love it displays and the grace that it demonstrates in

what He did for us. Right again, verse 14.

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we've seen

his glory. Glory is of the only Son from

the Father, full of grace and truth.

And what a what an experience, what a moment.

So the number three, we just need to look at this glory of

the Word. So the glory of the Incarnate

tabernacled with us. It actually brings to mind an

Old Testament imagery of the Shekinah glory of God that

filled the Tabernacle and filled the temple.

So in Exodus, for example, in Exodus chapter 40 is when when

Exodus 40 · chapter mention

the Tabernacle was first being committed, it says this.

Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting and the glory of the

Lord filled the Tabernacle and Moses was not able to enter the

tent of meeting because the clouds settled on it and the

glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle.

So Moses, and this is really interesting because I've been

studying the pastors and the staff.

I'll tell you, I've been reading, reading and rereading

Exodus this year. It's been interesting.

I'm not exactly sure why, but I've actually been working

through it twice. And I, and I again, I was just

reading about Moses going back up to the mountain to get the

second set set of the, the tablets.

You know, long story if you don't know the story.

And, and he's up there for 40 days and 40 nights, he comes

back and his face is glowing and then he has to wear a veil.

And every time he goes into the Tabernacle, he takes the veil

off. But every time he comes out, he

has to put the veil on because his face is glowing in the dark.

And I just think to myself, the glory of God and that

reflection. How long did Moses have to wear

a veil? You know, I couldn't find that

answer. But but Moses couldn't approach

God's presence in this story because it was simply too holy.

But now God has come to Yahweh has come to us, God dies for us,

God removes the barrier for us and he desires, even commands

for us to approach his throne with a sense of complete

confidence, with a sense of complete honesty is what those

words mean that I can approach the throne of grace with

confidence. The word really is complete open

honesty, full transparency. I, I, I, I can come just like I

am a mess and all God says come. I mean, it's really amazing.

So, so they not because we're holy, because we're not, but

because he the word is holy and he's gracious and he's the

truth. And the way this is written in

is, is in such. They saw his glory with the

physical eye. There wasn't any question about

that. I mean, what a privilege to have

been there then to have seen him, to have walked with him.

You know, everyone should have trusted in him.

Everybody should have believed in him.

You know, they should have, they should have recognized him for

who he truly was, but not all did and not all will.

I've read the end of the book. The book tells me that they're

still going to be people who don't believe in him at the end.

And that breaks my heart. I want them all to come with us.

I want us all to be in the throne room.

I know we're going to have people from every tribe, tongue,

and nation, but I want them all. I just want them to be there.

I don't want anybody to miss out, right?

So John chapter 1, he helps us some more.

John 1 · chapter mention

He says in John 1/4 in him was life and the life was the light

of men. The light shines in the darkness

and the darkness has not overcome it.

Your translations might actually say something else.

This is ESV, but overcome might say comprehend.

And what it really means is to to, to hang on to, to lay hold

of the darkness can't grasp it there, there.

It's beyond the grasp of the darkness that the darkness can't

get it. It can't, and it also can

overcome it. You know darkness cannot

overcome light, right? Darkness has tried everything it

can. And darkness is going to

continue to try again. But no matter what darkness

tries, it's going to fail. And it's really interesting

because this is written in, in a, in a tense where it's a

completed action. It failed and it will fail.

It will always fail is the way this is written, which ought to

give us hope, because the world will do all it can to refute, to

distort, to dilute, to destroy the concept of the true

biblical, historical and spiritual Jesus.

And surely this is just a myth. It's what they're going to say.

There'll be TV shows every Easter, every Christmas.

Surely this is just a myth. Surely he really was not who he

claimed to be. Surely he did not really die on

the cross and rise again for me. So we peer, we we peer in into

that and we say to the and we say, pour it on darkness, keep

pouring it on, pour it on thick constantly pour it out.

But what we know is this verse says the light shines and it's

continuous present tense. It shines, it keeps on shining.

It's never not going to shine. It's always going to shine.

So no matter how dark, it's still there shining.

One flicker of light can overcome it.

Some of you have done this, I am sure some of you've probably

heard this story before, I'm sure.

But if you've ever been to one of the largest caves in North

America, at Mammoth Cave up in Kentucky, they, I don't know if

they still do this or not, but a billion years ago when we went

up to Mammoth Cave, you know, they used to take you deep down

into The Cave. And then there, there the Park

Rangers in there and the park Ranger, you know, you know,

flips the switch and all the lights go off.

And I mean, and it's dark. There's no light.

It's, it's dark, dark, right? And then that park Ranger will

flick a cigarette lighter or light 1 little candle and you're

in this huge room as big as this room.

And, and by the time it's done, you can see everything in that

whole room because that one little bitty light overcomes all

that darkness. So the powerful light of the

word of Jesus illuminates our souls.

It illuminates our minds, it illuminates our lives.

And we can know Him by grace through faith, and we can

experience this glorious truth. So he goes on.

Look at verse 9. He says the true light, which

gives light to everyone was coming into the world.

Then on in verse 12, he says, But to all who did receive him,

who believed in His name, He gave the right to become

children of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of

the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

And so the true light, notice what it says, the true light.

Not one of them, not, not one of many.

You don't get to vote on which one is the true light.

And that's where our world makes its mistake You.

You don't get to choose which one's the true light.

There's only one. You either get the light or you

live in the darkness. That's your choice.

And God and his incredible graciousness has given us the

free will to make some choices. But either kicking that one

light or you're out in the dark. So there's only one.

And he's absolutely unique. The light, the truth comes and

you can be lit up or you can struggle in the darkness.

Now, what's interesting is one day, those of us who know him,

and I sure hope it's all of us, I hope it's all of us.

And I hope we take a whole bunch of those people with us to where

there's no more empty seats in here.

There's nobody. Because everybody's starving for

the word and they all want to hear it and they all want to

grow, and they're all in connect groups with you and studying

together. If you've been in a connect

group, you ought to be in a connect group.

Connect groups are good, good connect groups good.

But in the end of time, just listen to this in the end of

time at the very end of the book, at the very end of the

book in the in Revelation chapter 22, I mean, you're

Revelation 22 · chapter mention

getting toward the end. One day we're not going to need

or want any other light from any other source because here's what

the Bible says and night will be no more.

They will need no light of lamp or sun for the Lord God will be

their light and they will reign forever and ever.

But to experience that, you have to receive and believe the light

of this specific biblical truth about Jesus.

You have to believe this specific.

We are given the authority, the right.

The privilege to become children of God if we receive, if we

believe, if we are born again into the family of God, not

because of something we did, but because of what he has done.

So the incarnation was not the completion of something.

The incarnation is just the beginning of something.

So the crucifixion, the resurrection, the the ascension

fulfil the incarnation. And he was born to die and born

to rise again so that we might experience this new birth again.

Verse 14, We've got to hit a couple more points.

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen

his glory. Glory is the the only Son from

the Father full of grace and truth, the only Son, the one and

only the the only begotten. And I've shared this word with

some of you before in in previous times in the word, this

word of mono genes, which means that the only one of the family,

he is completely different. He's of a different stock.

He's of a different personhood. He's different.

He's not just a good or great man.

He is fully God and fully man. It's hard for us to comprehend

and heresies and philosophies dating all the way back to the

early church have refuted that they've they've argued with that

many of them still believe today are going to try to explain away

either his divinity or believe it or not, his humanity.

You have heresies on both sides. And so Dosatism, for example,

suggested that he only seemed physical, that he really was

just spiritual, that he really was never here physically.

Gnosticism tells stories of how Jesus actually created the

illusion of being physical, of the illusion of being material,

but he really wasn't fully man. But the truth is much different,

and man can't explain it away. He was here and he will be

again. First John, and notice this, in

First John, he not only writes the Gospel, but he writes these

epistles. First John chapter 1, that which

1 John 1 · chapter mention

was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen

with our eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands have

handled concerning the word of life.

Notice those words we heard, we've seen with our eyes, we've

looked upon, and we've handled with our hands.

They're talking about Jesus, that Jesus Christ was physically

here, but he's also the only one of his kind, the only one of his

stock, making it impossible to come to God any other way.

Who he is makes all the difference.

So no one else could be the proper sacrifice.

Not Buddha, not Muhammad, not good works, not yourself, not

Jesus and blank, not Jesus and anything.

It's only Jesus, the one and only, which is why John 14-6 is

truth that Jesus said to him, I'm the way and the truth and

the life. No one can come to the Father

except through me, and that's why that's true.

So Jesus reveals the Father because he shares his nature, He

shares his character. He's full of his grace, He's

full of his truth. He is the truth, so we receive

the gift of salvation from the Father by grace and truth.

And the world chases this. The world refuses to submit to

the authority of the truth. I mean, what the world can't

control, what the world can't comprehend, what the world can't

overcome, it seeks to redefine, cancel, or compartmentalize

until it can control it. And that's what it tries to do

with the church. That's what it tries to do with

Christianity. So we need to proclaim that the

word Jesus became flesh, died on a cross for us and rose again.

Again in first John chapter 2, he says this.

1 John 2 · chapter mention

He is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but

also for the sins of the whole world.

He's the substitute. He's the payment he took the

place of. So then we we we see that

Jesus's resurrection is not fable or fiction.

It really, really did happen. Listen to what Paul wrote to the

church at Rome in Romans chapter 1.

Romans 1 · chapter mention

And it says and was declared to be the Son of God in power

according to the spirit of holiness by his resurrection

from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, he sacrifices and he's

resurrected and he and, and Christ is established as

lordship over all things. He's the Lord over all, all

things. That means you, whether you

believe that or whether you don't believe that right now, it

doesn't change the fact that he is still the Lord of authority

over you. And one day, I promise you,

you're going to believe it. Now my prayer for you is it's

not too late, but I promise you, you're going to believe in Jesus

one day and everybody out there is going to believe in Jesus one

day. And for some it's just going to

be too late. Listen to Philippians 2 says

therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him

the name that is above every name, so that the name of Jesus,

what every, every knee shall 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.

Every, every, every. You can bow now and you can bow

later, but you're going to bow. And I want these folks out there

to bow now so we can serve together.

So that means us. That means that that stubborn

lost person, you know, that means that every atheist will

one day bow when it's too late, I'm afraid.

So we may need to fall on our faces.

We need to plead with God now to show us what he wants and to,

to, to do what he wants. Right.

And then we also need to recognize there's a church.

We have this incredible relationship with him.

Colossians 118 says, and he is the head of the body, the

church. He's the beginning, the first

born from the dead, that in everything he might be

preeminent. In everything he is preeminent.

You know, it was interesting, 40 days following his resurrection,

Jesus ascended back to heaven and he was exalted at the

Father's right hand. And now Jesus sits at the right

hand of the Father interceding on our behalf.

He does that in heaven. So we're right now in heaven.

There's a glorified Jesus Christ.

In fact, once again, the unknown anonymous writer of Hebrews.

How many think Paul OK, Hebrews one says he is the radiance of

the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he

upholds the universe by the word of His power.

Are you hearing these words? He upholds.

He upholds the universe by the word of His power.

After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right

hand of the majesty on high. Do you sense the immense power

of Jesus? So he and then again, he's going

to come again to this earth as King of kings and Lord of Lords.

And and this is our blessed hope.

In fact, Paul writes to Titus and encourages him in Titus

Titus 2 · chapter mention

chapter 2, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of

the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.

And this event brings history to a close.

And I long for that moment, but I also know that for now, we

have a lot of work to do. We've got to grow.

We've got to worship, We've got to bring Him glory, and we've

got to bring other people with us.

We've got to work at this. We've got to serve.

So there are lost people who need to hear about this truth.

There are lost people who need to become believers.

And then there are believers who need to grow in our knowledge

and our love and our action for Him.

So we truly need to understand who He truly is, and we need to

understand why that really matters.

Now, throughout history, hang in there with me.

I don't want to bore you with church history, but hang in

there for a second. Throughout history, the church

has faced, as I mentioned earlier, many, many false claims

contrary to the biblical truth concerning Jesus.

And the early church had to deal with this.

So the early church had had to deal with these several

heresies. Many of them were about

Christology, in fact, perhaps most of them.

And so they had what were called christological councils.

If you ever heard of the great church councils of church

history, that's what we're talking about.

And many of these church councils were about the the

doctrine of Christ, right? And so there were false teachers

who denied his incarnation, there were false teachers who

denied his deity, there were false teachers who denied or

argued about his relationship to the Father.

And so these meetings of early theologians met to discuss and

debate and decide these critical issues.

One of the best known ones is the Council of Nicaea that took

place in the year 325. Don't worry about that.

There is no test. There is no pop quiz.

But it happened early and they wrote what is called the Nicene

Creed that we often some people know that some people, some

churches actually recite this creed as part of their their

liturgical worship. And so the Nicene Creed.

And so here's just a brief portion of the Nicene Creed.

We believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten

of the Father as only as only begotten that is from the

essence of the Father. Now listen to this part, follow

this part, God from God, light from light, true God from true

God, begotten, not created. And then it even goes on to say

there he's of the same essence. And they, they use a lot of

Greek in here that I won't bother you, but it just means

the same stuff. He's the same stuff as God the

Father, right? Same essence as the Father,

through whom all things came into being, both heaven and

heaven and earth, who for US men and for our salvation came down

and was Incarnate, becoming human.

He suffered, and the third day He rose and ascended into the

heavens. And He will come to judge both

the living and the dead. But those who say, but those who

say once He was not or He was not before his generation or He

came to be out of nothing or who asserts that that He the Son of

God is of different substance. They just Greek again or that he

is a creature or changeable or mutable The church.

But they use a fancy word. But basically they said the

church denies them, kicks them out, removes them, has nothing

to do with them. They use fancy language for

that. Can't share that mixed public.

No, I'm kidding, but they just use strong language.

So anyone, anyone of a different nature, anyone who says that

he's of a different nature or a different substance than what

Scripture clearly states that that's not the biblical Jesus.

And whoever claims those things in their minds, this is what

that word really means, should be considered a heretic and

removed. Have nothing to do with them is

the idea. So it's very strong language.

And then and then the last of these great, the last of these 4

great councils of that kind was held at Kausa then and this

listen to this, it's shorter. You can, you can handle it.

Jesus Christ is one person with two natures, with the person

being that of the Son of the triune God, the eternal Son of

God took to himself a truly human nature.

And Christ's divine and human nature's remain distinct and

retain their own properties, yet they are eternally and

inseparably united together in one person.

Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man.

And that's where that phrase generally comes from.

And so they're concluding that this biblical Christological

thinking basically was, was, was right.

And, and it's interesting because in history, it basically

went unchallenged for over 1000 years.

And it really wasn't until the age of of enlightenment and the

age of reason that came 1000 years later or so when we're

once again his deity and his work on the cross were being

questioned. And it continues today with

atheism or modern liberal theology where they question who

he is and they redefine scripture.

But I also need you to hear this cultic religions and I'll you'll

see what I mean in a minute. Cultic religions do the same

thing today, for example, and you may come from this

background, I'd be glad to visit about that.

Jehovah's Witnesses, for example, deny the full deity and

intern eternality of the Son. They don't believe Jesus is

eternal. The Church of Latter Day Saints

or Mormons have distorted the person and the work of Christ.

So it's a very important for us to to have strong conclusions

about the truth about who Jesus is.

So let me go back to Danny Eakin for just a minute and he's going

to give us some affirmations. So there is a true incarnation

of the Lagos, You know that word log logos or logos is simply the

the word for word, the second person of the tribe in God.

So the Son of God assumed the whole of human nature.

Wrap your head around that sentence that the Son of God

assumed the whole of human nature and the humanity of Jesus

was exactly like Adam and Eve prior to the fall.

It was sinless humanity, and he maintained it through his entire

life on earth. And so the truest and most

genuine expression of humanity is seen in Jesus Christ.

This is who we're supposed to be.

This is how we're supposed to really be humans.

This is how we were intended to be when we look at Jesus, Study

Jesus in the Gospels. That's why we're supposed to be

Christ like. This is how humanity was

supposed to be without sin. And so Jesus Christ exists only

by the means of the incarnation. Listen to what First Timothy 3

reminds us about. Great indeed, we confess, is the

mystery of godliness. He was manifested in the flesh,

vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the

nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.

The second affirmation that Danny Aiken brings is Jesus

Christ possesses the totality of both the divine and human

natures. He is the God man and the God

man is the result of the incarnation and the virgin

birth. Again, this that's a very

important doctrine and and is the means by which God chose to

accomplish his, his purpose. Yet in the incarnation, there is

no diminishing of either Christ's deity or his humanity.

He is still fully both. He's 100 percent, 100%.

We can't be that. And in fact, theologian John

Owen says this. He is God and man in one person.

In Him are two distinct natures, the one eternal, infinite,

immense, almighty, the form and essence of God, the other having

a beginning in time, finite, limited, confined to a certain

place, which is our nature. And each nature retained its own

integrity and each nature retained its own genuineness.

So whatever it is that constitute God is God the Son is

this in all its fullness. And whatever it is that

constitutes man as man, Jesus of Nazareth is this in all its

fullness. And so he's special, He's

different. He's not just a prophet on a

wooden cross. He's not just a good teacher.

He's not just some figure in history.

Paul wrote to the Colossians again in Colossians 2.

He says 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. So there's there's this genuine

union and which is the divine nature and the human nature come

together and are present in this one person, Jesus Christ.

The union is real, it's supernatural, it's inseparable

and it's permanent. So there is in heaven right now

a God man who is at the right hand of the majesty on high,

interceding for us again, the writer of Hebrews.

If I asked you who wrote that Chapter 7.

Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw

near to God through him, since he always lives to make

intercession for them. Think about that.

He's still working. He's always working on our

behalf. The third affirmation, the last

one, would be the whole of Christ's work.

All that He does requires that He is both man and God.

This is necessary. This is why the cross works.

This is why salvation can be had.

It was only as man that he could be a Redeemer for humanity, and

only as a sinless man that he could die in the place of

another. And it was only as God that his

life, ministry, and redeeming death could have infinite value

and satisfy the demands of God to so as to deliver others from

sin. We need a God, man.

It's the only way it works. So what does Englewood Baptist

Church believe about Jesus? I'll just read it to you.

We believe and we affirm the Baptist Faith in Message 2000.

Here's what it says. The eternal triune God reveals

Himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit with distinct

personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or

being. Christ is the eternal Son of

God. In His incarnation as Jesus

Christ, He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the

Virgin Mary. Jesus perfectly revealed and did

the will of God, taking upon Himself human nature with its

demands and necessities, and identifying Himself completely

with mankind, yet without sin. He honored the divine law by His

personal obedience, and in His substitutionary death on the

cross, He made provision for the redemption of men from sin.

He was raised from the dead with a glorified body and appeared to

His disciples as the person who was with them before His

crucifixion. He ascended into heaven and is

now exalted at the right hand of God, where He is the one

Mediator, fully God, fully man, in whose person is affected the

reconciliation between God and man.

He will return in power and glory to judge the world and to

consummate His redemptive mission.

He now dwells in all believers as the living and ever present

Lord. So Jesus of Nazareth is the

Christ, the fulfillment of Old Testament promises and prophecy.

He is the Son of God. He is the Savior of the world.

He's my Savior. Jesus is the God man, complete

in his deity and perfect in his humanity.

And he's the only one who is God, the only one who is God

that should be Lord of our lives.

So only one who is divine like him should have the right to

have every knee, bow and every tongue confess his lordship.

And God the Father loves to exalt his Son.

The Holy Spirit loves to exalt the Son and magnify his name.

And so should we. Only one who is God should be

granted that kind of allegiance. So what I believe about Jesus

really does matter. Here's what I know.

I know that Jesus is the sovereign Creator of God

Incarnate who came to fulfill the perfect plan and mission of

God by living a perfect sinless life and thus being the only one

ever qualified to pay the price for the sins of humanity for all

time. I believe He died on a cross for

me, and that because He was perfect and who He claimed to

be, death could not hold Him. So the wages of sin is death.

And since he did not sin, death could not hold him.

And and he rose again from the dead and left an empty tomb.

Then he ascended from earth into heaven so the Holy Spirit could

come to help and guide us. But one day, one day Jesus is

coming back to take us home and pronounce final victory.

And I know this, I know you must truly believe all of this to be

saved, to be a Christian, and God will graciously save you and

give you eternal life with Him. But that also means your life is

hidden in Him and must be lived for Him.

Therefore, I must believe what I do, and I must make the

decisions that I make, including at times those not supporting

what this world with its false truths support.

My faith forces me to live a certain way.

My faith forces me to choose a certain way to act a certain

way. I cannot separate my faith from

my life. So faith without actions, the

Bible tells me, is lifeless. So as a follower of Christ, I

have no choice but to follow the truth.

And as the world spins its truth, we must share the truth,

and we should only give our worship and service to the one

we confess, like Thomas did in John chapter 20, verse 28.

John 20:28

My Lord and my God, now what are you going to call him?

Heretic, deceiver, prophet, lunatic, good teacher, moral

example, myth? Or will you dare call him my

Lord and my godfather? Thank you.

Thank you for the incredible price that you paid.

Father. What a what a dramatic story.

The sacrifice, what you surrendered.

And I don't, I don't know that I'll ever fully understand it

for us. You did that for us.

And we are so frail. We are so fragile at times.

We're so sinful at times we're we fail you.

Yet you still love us. Father, I pray that if there's

somebody here in this room or people listening to this online

right now, who would have to admit that they have not

believed all of this about Jesus, but now they do.

They recognize that right now the Holy Spirit's working in

their heart. They may not be able to explain

that, but they know it and they need to be saved.

They need to ask Jesus to come into their heart to forgive

them. They need to confess their sin.

They need to agree with you about what their sin is.

They need to be willing to turn from that, to repent, to fill

their life with you and Father. I pray that you'll help them.

Lord by grace, Father, help them to have the faith to believe.

Father, I pray if someone is here that they would come and

talk to me after this session or if somebody's listening online,

that they would call the church to talk to us about what it

means to be saved, to really believe in Jesus this way.

And Father, I pray for those believers who are here and

listening that we would be better equipped to be able to

say this is who Jesus is. That TV shows not right.

That's special. That documentary is not right.

The word of God's right. Here's the truth.

This is who He is, and this is the only reason any of this

works. The only reason the cross makes

sense, the only reason the cross has any effect, the only reason

the resurrection matters, the only reason we were created in

the first place. So Father, help us to lay hold

of this. The darkness can't.

The darkness can't comprehend it.

But Father, I pray we will. And that will bury it in our

hearts to the point that we can share with someone else or we

can refer someone else to listen to this and help them to

understand who you are, what you've done, what your plan is.

And Father, I just pray that then we will recognize that

because of what you've done, Lord, we owe you our lives.

We owe you our service. We owe you our time.

We owe you our resources. We owe you our giftedness, Our

Calling. We owe you our whole being,

Father. So help us to serve you well.

Help us to worship you. Help us to bring you great

glory. Father, thank you for what

you're doing at Inglewood. Thank you, Father, for the new

members that are joining us. Father, many of them with great

experience, great skill, great, great giftedness to Father.

They're going to plug in and help us.

They're ready to serve others who are brand new believers that

we need to help grow and disciple.

What an exciting opportunity. So, Father, bless us, guide us,

but help us to remember. Help us to remember who you are

and what you've done. And Father, one day, Father,

maybe not my lifetime, certainly not with my prediction, the

Father, one day I want to hear trumpets blow, I want to look up

and I'm ready to fly. But until then, we got work to

do. So fill us with your spirit.

Empower us, bind the enemy from this work, and bring revival,

bring salvation, bring growth and discipleship, and we're

going to praise you for it in Christ's name, Amen.

Thank you all so much. Thank you so much for listening

today. And I also hope that you'll go

to [email protected]

as well as our app and find many other resources that will bless

you and your families. Thank you once again.