I believe in the Son

Hey everyone, this is Josh from Encounter Church

Henley and thanks so much for tuning into our

podcast. Our prayer is that through this podcast

you can have an encounter with Jesus that'll

change your life. And now get ready for an inspiring

message from our preaching team. Jesus Christ!

It's a phrase which tradies love. It's a phrase

which has given so much power when it's used,

and I've heard it used on Sundays in prayers,

but I've also heard it used when people almost

fall off roofs, or when people shoot themselves

with a nail gun. That sort of stuff. I wonder

if Jesus' name comes out of tradies' mouths more

than Christians in the workplace. It makes you

curious if these people are actually praising

Jesus in their heads. or praising him for his

provision that they didn't fall off a roof, or

they didn't hit an artery with this nail, or

it's just a simple lack of vocabulary because

they're a tradie. Hi, my name's Tim, I'm a carpenter.

I don't think it's a surprise when Jesus's name

is used like that. Like when a plumber, a 54

year old plumber finds out, just finds all of

your poo that you've blocked up a pipe with and

now he has to clean it out. Because Jesus' name

has power. The man and idea of Jesus is one of

immense power and victory. Whether it's used

to bring joy or disdain and it holds power in

society and eternity. What do we really believe

about Jesus? Who is he? What did He do and why

does that matter? Because maybe you're here today

and you're simply unsure about who Jesus is and

why that matters and what He did and that's real

and that's perfectly okay. Questions are good.

I think when we stop asking questions is when

we stop growing. Or maybe you're here and you

feel like you know Jesus. You feel like you know

a lot about Him. I can promise you, there's more.

There's always more. Now this preaching series

here at Henley is called Essentials. And we are

here, we're following the Apostles' Creed. So

the Apostles' Creed isn't exactly in the Bible.

It's not a... everything in it is from the Bible,

but it's not in the Bible, if you know what I

mean. It's a summary of what Christians believe.

It's a developed, baptismal confession of the

early church, particularly in Rome. And it goes

all the way back into the early centuries of

Christianity. And it was a way for people being

baptized to stand up and to declare, this is

what they believe. This is what I believe. It's

something we recite here at before and baptism

is an encounter. And so it's a core part of what

we do here at Encounter, and I think this series

is really, really awesome in explaining what

that is and why we do it. It encompasses belief

in the Trinity and the saving power of Jesus,

the Church, forgiveness, God, Holy Spirit, internal

life. Now, I get the privilege today to talk

about Jesus, which is always awesome. Tim's really

given me a bit of a layup. I've been thinking

about this and like, there had to be a pastor

Tim here today, right? There had to be. And so,

I am that pastor today. My name is Tim. It's

a great time. The Creed goes like this. I'm going

to read a bit of it today and then we're going

to dive in. I believe in God the Father Almighty,

creator of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ,

His only Son, our Lord, who is conceived by the

Holy Spirit. born of the Virgin Mary, suffered

under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and

was buried. He descended into hell. On the third

day he rose again from the dead. He ascended

into heaven and is seated at the right hand of

God the Father Almighty. From there he will come

to judge the living and the dead." Now the Creed

goes on. That's just, that's probably about two

-thirds of it. The Creed goes on and so to recap,

To believe in Jesus means that we believe in

this. We believe in what is being said in the

Creed. Now Jesus's name, the name of Jesus, was

popular back in the times when Jesus was named.

It was a popular Old Testament name and it was

normal for people to have heard this name or

to even have this name. Now, it's, so the thought

is it's sacred and special but it's ordainly

human. The name of Jesus is ordainly human. The

name of Jesus is derived from Yeshua, meaning

the Lord saves. Now, Jesus is a human earthly

name. Christ is not. But Christ is not a surname.

Like my last name is Goldney, it's not Jesus

Christ. It's not His surname. Christ means Messiah.

It means anointed one. Anointed one. And it's

interesting that Jesus as a name is not mentioned

in the Old Testament. He's not, He's not, He's

not um, He's talked about, yes, but He's not

talked about as Jesus. He's talked about as the

Son, the Saviour, the Branch, the Emmanuel and

the Messiah. And Messiah is one of His titles

before He comes to earth. Messiah is a title

and Jesus is His earthly name. So when we are

calling Him Jesus Christ, we are calling Him

by His earthly name and His title, the Saviour.

Jesus, earthly name, Christ, His title. Jesus

is fully God and fully human. He is both. He's

not a 50 -50 mix. He's not a 100 % both therefore

equaling 200%. Now that seems really confusing.

That seems like a lot. And that's the kind of

the point that it is. It's actually not meant

to make sense, but bear with me because we're

going to talk about that a little bit today.

Jesus was fully human. He was fully human. He

didn't just wear humanity as a costume. He didn't,

he became fully human. He was born. He was a

child. I don't know if you ever think about that,

that Jesus was a child. Jesus would have had

mates that He played with growing up. I just,

every time I think about that, I always think

about Jesus in ministry, right? We always think

about those years when He was in ministry or

the things that are written down in the Bible.

But Jesus lived for 33 years. He was a man, He

was a child. Crazy. He experienced pain. He got

angry. He was sad when unjust things happened

or when he felt loss. He experienced rejection.

He was betrayed by his friend. He knew what it

was like to be overwhelmed. He felt feelings.

So when we're feeling overwhelmed, when we're

feeling tired, and when we feel like our lives

have no margin, when you feel like you're stressed

and you can't see your way through, when life's

just beating you, is beating you continuously.

And you maybe say that, God, the God, I believe

in you but you don't know what this feels like.

You have no idea what I'm going through. Look

up. Because He probably has more of an idea than

you think. Jesus was also fully God. He is divine.

He existed before coming down to earth. It wasn't

a birthed into existence when He came down to

earth. No, He was birthed into humanity. John

1 .1 says this, in the beginning, the Word, in

the beginning was the Word, and the Word was

with God, and the Word was God. The Word, meaning

Logos, is referring to Jesus. Jesus has always

been. Christ always existed and was given the

name Jesus when he descended and took on human

form. He is the God man. Sounds like a superhero,

right? He is the God man. 1 Timothy 2 verses

1 Timothy 2:5

5 says this, it says, for there is one God and

one mediator between God and mankind, the man,

Christ Jesus. Jesus in his humanity has the ability

to offer empathy. He has the ability to offer

understanding of how hard this world is, how,

how hard it is to be a Christian in this world.

He was killed for it. He was killed for his belief

and for, for saying that He was the Messiah,

He was killed for that. He understands how hard

it is to believe what we believe. We can connect

with this part of Him, with this, with Jesus.

We can connect with Him. and hear from Him and

read His stories and His struggles and His experiences.

And His humanity is what can draw us closer to

Him. His humanity is so often what draws people

close to Him. But His divinity is the part that

saves us. The divinity in rising again and defeating

death could only be done by one. He is our divine

Saviour, our Friend. He is both. Jesus can be

our friend and our Saviour and He wants to be.

So spend some time with Him because He wants

to be your friend. He wants to be your friend.

He knows what it's like to have friends. He wants

us to be friends with Him. The truth is He had

to be both. Jesus had to be both divine Saviour

and friend. He had to be both fully human and

fully God to do what needed to be done. He had

to be. He couldn't just be the anointed prophet,

fully human. He couldn't just be that. He had

to be the divine Messiah so that He could save

us. A prophet was not going to save the people.

It was God that was going to save the people.

And so God in human form saves the people. saves

us. We needed both. And I think that's so awesome.

This here is a Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant

signed Logo Man card. For all you basketball

fanatics out there, if you know anything about

basketball, you know cards can be valuable. This

card was sold in 2025 for $12 .932 million. You're

looking at, that's everything that comes in the

card. $12 .93 million. But what makes this card

so valuable isn't simply because it has two pictures

of the greatest players. It's not simply because

it's signed. It's not simply because it has patches.

It's because they're all together. There is literally

no other copy of this card and there never will

be one. Rest in peace, Kobe. But it has it has

signatures photos badges game worn badges this

card is Called the holy grail of basketball cards

It's a one -of -one There's only one and only

ever will be one of these cards and the point

of this card Isn't the value of the card yet?

That's might be what you remember is the 12 million

dollars for one card The point is its uniqueness

There's only one of this card and Jesus who does

not have a dollar amount Not because he isn't

valuable because he but because his salvation

is free to everyone. There is nobody like Jesus

Never has never will be Jesus is the ultimate

one of one Jesus isn't half man or half God.

He's fully God and fully man and that's what

makes him one of one There will never be anyone

like Him. And we get the opportunity to have

a relationship with Him. Now the Creed continues,

as we go down, it continues and says this, it

says, Jesus, oh we believe that Jesus was born

of a virgin. In Matthew 1, 18 to 24, He is the

only Son of God. In John 3, 16. His death, He

died and He was resurrected. In 1 Corinthians

15. and He ascended into heaven at the right

hand, is now seated at the right hand of God.

The Apostles' Creed, it tells the story of Jesus.

The Creed focuses on the who and the what of

Jesus, who Jesus is and what He has done. It

declares belief that Jesus is fully God and fully

man. He is the divine Messiah who saved us from

the punishment and mistakes of our failures and

saved us through His death and resurrection.

He did this out of love and love for each and

every one of us, to offer a relationship with

us. When we deserved death, He chose us to have

life. When we deserved death, He chose us to

have life. And from the beginning, God has always

wanted to have a relationship with humans. He

created a perfect world free from sin, free from

all of this evil and stuff, and humans, what

did we do? We destroyed it. And we gave into

sinful, hurtful patterns, and I know this wasn't

us, but we are still humans, so it's still a

part of our genealogy, right? But God has always

wanted to restore humanity. And God's chosen

people, the Israelites, were the front -runners

for this on many occasions. God has always spoken

to His people. He's always wanted to put people's

sin behind them. And a part of this Israelite

custom that happened was called the High Priest.

There was a High Priest who was a high -ranking

priest amongst the Israelites. And it was chosen

by God as a religious leader. And once a year,

once a year on the Day of Atonement, I feel like

I... I sin a whole lot more than once a year,

so I feel like I need the Day of Atonement a

lot. I don't know about you guys, but this would

not have worked for me. I'm so glad we have something

different. Once a year on the Day of Atonement,

the higher priest offered a sacrifice to the

temple for the sins of the people. And this is

how it used to be. You sin, you sacrifice, and

you're clean again. God has always been a God

who can restore. God has and always will. restore.

He's in the business of restoring. Now Hebrews

4, which Josh wrote out before, says, Therefore,

since we have a great high priest who has ascended

into heaven, Jesus, the Son of God, let us firmly

hold to the faith we profess. For we do not have

a high priest who is unable to empathize with

our weakness, but we do have one who has been

tempted in every way, just as we are. Yeah, He

did not sin. Let us approach God's throne of

grace with confidence so that we may receive

mercy and find grace to help us in our time of

need. God doesn't give up on humanity. God tries

to restore humanity. And the New Testament is

the end of this because of Jesus. The Old Testament

was, you sin, you sacrifice, and then you are

made clean. And Jesus came and said that I am

the sacrifice for your sin. I will be that sacrifice.

I will be the once -off sacrifice for your sins.

For all of your sins that you've done and for

all of the sins that you will do. Jesus is the

great high priest. He is the great high priest

who sacrificed himself to atone for our sins.

He broke the old covenant and gave us a new one

of love and grace. Jesus is both the priest and

the sacrifice. He is both. He is both. Now our

salvation depends on who Jesus is. He had to

be truly human to stand in our place and He had

to be truly God to accomplish salvation and a

radical forgiveness that we could never accomplish

on our own. And because of this we can come to

the throne of grace just as we are. Surrendering

our failures and our faults without worrying

if our sacrifice is big enough to cover our sin.

Not fearing judgment, but we can come with confidence.

Confidence in Jesus Christ, the Saviour and the

Messiah. And this all matters. This all matters

because we can come to God how we are. Jesus

understands what it's like to be like us. He

understands the temptations. He understands the

way that we are. And He so deeply cares for us.

And He so deeply wants us to live a better life.

It doesn't matter how many times we've messed

up. It doesn't matter how many times you've done

that thing that you swore you were never going

to do again. God doesn't move away from you.

He understands our weakness. He understands our

flaws and our mistakes and yet He doesn't make

us pay for them. That's the gospel. We don't

have to clean ourselves up before we come to

Him. We don't have to try and save ourselves.

Jesus has done what we never could. Jesus is

the ultimate one of one. We need to properly

understand who Jesus is to understand what He

has done. We need to properly understand who

Jesus is to understand what He has done and what

that means for us. We can come to Him as a Saviour.

We can come to Him as a friend. We can come to

Him wanting fully God or fully man. because He

is all of these things. We can come to the priest.

We can come to the, we can come to all of these

parts of Jesus because He is so big and loves

every part of us. We needed someone who could

understand both. We needed someone who could

understand us. We needed someone who could save

us. Because we've tried. I don't know about you,

but I've tried to save myself. I've tried over

and over again to try and walk away from this,

this pattern, this sin pattern. I've tried over

and over and over again, but I can't do it. I

can't do it by myself. It's not possible. We

can think that we might have it sorted, but we're

not the Saviour. We're not the Messiah. There's

someone who's done that for us. All we have to

do is come to the throne of grace and accept

it and receive. And that's why I believe the

Apostles' Creed doesn't just say that I believe

Jesus existed. It says I believe in Jesus Christ,

His only Son, our Lord. It's a declaration of

His divinity and His humanity. It's a declaration

saying, I believe who He is. I believe He says,

He is who He says He is. I believe He is both

Saviour and Friend. I believe He is both fully

God and fully man. I believe Jesus is both priest

and sacrifice. I believe that He died for my

sins. I believe that He is alive and on the throne.

I believe in Jesus. Let me pray. God, we thank

you. We thank you for doing what we never could.

What we've tried and tried and tried to do on

our own. Lord, you've been sitting there this

whole time with the answer. You've saved us already

and we can't comprehend that. Lord, I pray that

we, as humans in our flaws and foolishness, Lord,

that we can come to You. We can come to Jesus

Christ, the Saviour. Come and sit at the throne.

Let me thank You that You are so wonderful and

all of the things that we would ever need. and

come and lay that before you. We come and lay

ourselves before you. Now maybe you've come today

not believing in Jesus. Or maybe you've come

today with an alternate view about what Jesus

does and who He is. Maybe you've believed in

the existence of Jesus. But maybe not the true

divinity of Jesus. Maybe you've believed that

he is a man, but not God. Or maybe you've come

believing that he is God and not man. Maybe you've

lost sight of who Jesus is. I want to ask you,

would you put your trust in him again? Would

you put your trust in Jesus, maybe for the very

first time? I would love to pray for you. I would

love to pray with you. In this very next moment

as we enter into worship, I would love you to

come find me. Come tap me on the shoulder because

this Jesus is not one to be missed. And if you

maybe believe all of this, everything that I've

said to you, maybe you haven't heard anything

new today, or maybe you've got a few different

bits and pieces, or maybe what I said at the

start has really hit you. I wonder if Jesus'

name comes out of a tradie's mouth more than

your mouth. I wonder if you struggle to live

like Jesus Christ is your Saviour. I would love

to pray with you too. Let's team up the front,

we would love to pray with you. Because Jesus

is more than a man. Lift that up together. or

if you're interested in how you can support this

ministry, please go to our website encounteradelaide

.com .au Thanks again for listening. God bless

you.