Believer’s Basics #1 – Jesus Christ (Part A)

And then God may use us to introduce them to this Jesus as He used Andrew. He is eternal, this Jesus Christ whom we worship. We know this verse. John 1, 1, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God, beginning of eternity past. He has no date. He is holy.

That is pure, sinless, capable of evil. This is Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through his series called The Believer's Basics.

Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross-Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. But for now, let's join Pastor Rick in the Gospel of John chapter 5 as he begins his message Jesus Christ. We begin a series this morning titled The Believer's Basics. And these are subjects that are very basic to our faith. And I feel that most of you are very familiar with it, but some may not be. I think a lot of Christians fail to emphasize the essentials of our faith when we share our faith. And hopefully this will be a benefit to you.

And one way I think a pastor should measure whether or not it is a blessing to everyone else is if he is getting blessed. Open your Bibles, if you would, to John's Gospel chapter 5. This is not going to be my text. That will be in Colossians.

This is a preface to the text. John's Gospel chapter 5. We'll take verses 16 through 23.

Beginning in verse 16. For this reason the Jews persecuted Jesus and sought to kill Him, because He had done these things on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, My Father has been working until now, and I have been working.

Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God. Then Jesus answered and said to them, Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself but what He sees the Father do, for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner. For the Father loves the Son and shows Him all things that He Himself does, and He will show Him greater works than these that you may marvel. For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom He will. For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son, that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.

Please be seated. There's nothing confusing about what I just read. It is plain.

It is clear. Our first subject is Jesus Christ. And we'll cover other subjects, the Father, the Holy Spirit, prayer, a few of them, forgiveness, sin, and salvation.

This, though, is our foundation. We speak of Jesus as He spoke of Himself. That's why we know that Jesus is the Son of God, God the Son. And so we begin this series with Jesus Christ because without Him there is nothing else. He is everything. He is the foundation. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 3, and you'll get a lot of scripture verse this morning, because the reason why we believe these things is because of the scripture. 1 Corinthians 3, verse 11, for no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. He supports it all.

He holds it all together. Now again, this is basic, but I find it thrilling to hear it, to read it, to know that it is there. But here's my text for our presentation of Jesus Christ as God the Son. Colossians chapter 2, verse 9, for in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. That word Godhead translated into English from the Greek, it means the divinity. Now, Paul writes also to the Romans a similar thing concerning Christ in Romans 1, verse 20, for since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal Godhead, so that they are without excuse. Well, that word translated Godhead there in Romans 1 is a little different from the one translated in Colossians 2. This one means the Godhood, the Godhood of Christ, the state of being God. This does not diminish the role of the Father or the Holy Spirit. The Scripture is showing us about God, teaching us about God, so that we can form what we believe from the Scripture. It's called doctrine. Don't be afraid of that word.

Some may overdo it, but it's not necessary. What we believe is to be the result of what the Bible says. From where do I get my knowledge? Where does my faith come from? What is it based on? From the Scripture.

Doctrines are formed by consulting what the Bible says, what God has said through His servants, through His prophets, through His apostles. And so, Jesus, the Son of God, what does that mean? Well, if I say to you, I have a son, he is the son of Rick, that means he's human like me, he's flawed like me, and he's like me.

He has the same nature. But when we say God's son, we are saying that the Son of God is like God, in that He is God. Even though He became human, we'll get to His humanity in time. We must establish this fact, and when we share our faith, we must make it clear that when the Jews heard Jesus say the things about Himself that He said as we just stood just momentarily ago in red, they understood that He was making Himself equal with God, because He was, and because He is. He is the only begotten. Many years ago, as a teenager, I told a family member who was much more educated than I was, that we were the sons of God, but Jesus is the Son of God. And he said, well, we're all sons of God, and he said it in such a way and what he meant was is that we're all sons of God. There's no special thing about Jesus just because He's the Son of God, so am I. Well, he was wrong, he was inaccurate in his conclusion because Jesus is the only begotten of God, the one that comes from God directly. When he said that to me, when he said, shot my scripture quotation down, I drifted from the faith for many years. God is the one that reeled me back in and explained to me what that meant to be, what it meant to be the only begotten Son. Here's a quote from A.W.

Tozier. The truth is that the man who walked among us was a demonstration not of unveiled deity but of perfect humanity. In other words, Jesus did not come to show himself to be God Almighty without toning it down. Again, we'll cover that when we come back to his humanity, but we have to understand that when we come to the scripture verses, Jesus is not trying to show himself to be in all of his glory, though he is glorious all the time.

If we get it wrong about who he is, then our soul stands in jeopardy of judgment, of rejection from God. He is the second person of the Trinity. Now, the Trinity, I don't know if we'll cover a particular, take a session out on the Trinity. This is such an overwhelming topic, Jesus Christ.

How do you cover that subject in one session or a thousand? But the Trinity will work it in as we go through when we get to the Father and the Holy Spirit and some of it here. But here is something that the church fathers, those before us, had concluded from their analysis of scripture and preserved it for us, and it is very accurate. The Father is made of none, neither created or begotten. The Son is of the Father alone, not made nor created but begotten. The Holy Spirit is of the Father and of the Son, neither made nor created nor begotten but proceeding. The Trinity is so locked together, it cannot be separated even though the individuals that belong to what we know as the Trinity are distinct, what we know as to be the Godhead. They are distinct in their presentation of themselves to us.

They are equal, and they are fully on board with each other, and they're never ever divided. The cults, all of the cults who claim Christ, because there are cults that belong, I guess, to other religions too, but those who claim Christ but are cults, Jehovah's Witnesses and the Mormons, for example, and there are some others, they actually think they know better than the Bible, so they've written other materials that they use to over rule what the Bible has said. That is what makes them a cult, is that they overrule the clear Word of God. Then there are those lost souls that reject Christ. They have their unworthy definitions. Dictionary.com says this about Jesus Christ, the source of the Christian religion.

Well, that is true, but that is not enough truth. Webster says the Jewish religious teacher, whose life, death, and resurrection as reported by the evangelists are the basis of the Christian message of salvation. Scripture says that he is God, Savior of the world.

You see, to leave that out, to say, well, he was a Jewish teacher and other people say, to say that he is the founder of a religion and to leave out who he is, his identity, his person, is unforgivable. You cannot just dismiss that, and we must not leave it out and we share our faith. Let me tell you who Christ Jesus is, the Savior of yours, the one who died for you.

I know we know this, but I'm not so sure that we're always mindful of how critical it is to be said out loud and clearly said out loud. First John 4.14, and we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. It is up to us to begin to open that up to an unbeliever. Now Jesus, of course, when he came to earth, he yielded his sovereignty, but he never let go of his deity.

He remained divine the entire time he confined himself to flesh and blood. So what comes into our mind, knowing who this Savior of the world is, what comes into our minds when we think about God is the single most important thing about all of us, about every human being. Notice Timothy chapter 2, for there is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Jesus Christ. There's one bridge to God, and it is Jesus Christ. There's no other. There's no alternate.

There's no auxiliary. There's no alternative. Now those who are in a lost state may despise hearing that. Fine if all roads lead to Rome, but they do not all lead to the throne of God. Jesus, the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through him.

We know that, but do we remember? We must emphasize that as the Holy Spirit opens the door for us when we share our faith. Jesus has all the attributes of God.

Now we're getting into why, to back up the statements, the declarations. An attribute is that which you attach to, that which belongs to. These things that belong to Jesus Christ belong to God and God only.

They cannot belong to both. God says he doesn't share his glory with another, but for one to be omniscient, all-knowing, to be present anywhere, everywhere, at the same time, such things as this, these are divine attributes. The angels don't have them. Satan does not have them. Little Satan will lie and tell you he knows everything.

He will lie and say he can be everywhere, present at the same time. It's not true, but first we'll take his omnipotence, the omnipotence of Christ. Matthew 28, 18, Jesus came and spoke to them saying, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.

Who else can make such a claim? That's a lot of power. All authority in heaven and earth. We know, again, read Revelation and find out how powerful some of those angels are that are presented to us in the revelation of Jesus Christ and yet he has all authority over them. His omnipresence can be everywhere at the same time, ubiquitous. Matthew 28, 19, and, well, I'll just take verse 20.

I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Now, if he can say that, he said that to the 11. How could he be with each one of them at the same time? They would go into different places apart from each other unless he were omnipotent.

And then there is his ability to know everything. Now, these are just some verses. We'd be here a long time if we opened up all the scripture verses that we could find that reveal these truths to us. John 16, 30.

Now we are sure that you know all things, said the disciples to him, and have no need that anyone should question you. By this we believe that you came forth from God. Not created, but begotten. And that begotten means that he came forth from the Father where he always was when he prays in John 17, he says, Lord, Father, return me to that place we had long before all of these things began.

His eternal state, eternity past. There is more to Jesus Christ than what we read in the scripture. We're not to think that everything in, that the scripture tells us everything there is to know about God. There is more.

There is much more. But we have enough to do our duty to make the Savior of the world known to those who have no Savior because either they've gotten a dose of bad Christianity or no Christianity or they've just been in a place of sin and they've just been in a state of rebellion. And then God may use us to introduce them to this Jesus as he used Andrew. He is eternal, this Jesus Christ whom we worship. We know this verse, John 1, 1, in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God, beginning of eternity past.

He has no date. He is holy. That is pure, sinless, incapable of evil. Acts chapter 3 verse 14, Peter preaching, Would you deny the Holy One and the just? Now that cannot be said by a Jew to anybody less than God. You denied the Holy One and the just and asked for a murderer to be granted to you. Now I left that part of the verse in there because we're going to consider Barabbas briefly when we get towards considering his cross, the cross of Christ that is. He is the creator, Christ Jesus is, Colossians 1 verse 16, for by him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible.

That covers everything. He continues, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, we mentioned his omniscience, there it shows up again. All things were created through him and for him and he is before all things and in him all things consist. There is deity. There is godhood.

There is Jesus Christ, the glorious one. In the New Testament, Jesus is understood as making it clear to those that listen to him speak, whether they were friend or foe, that he indeed claimed to be God the Son. Hebrews 1 verse 8, but to the Son, now he's quoting the Psalms, but to the Son he says your throne, oh God, is forever and ever. A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of your kingdom.

The question is the Son. He is referred to here as God having a throne, the throne of God. That's just the doctrinal statement that backs up what Jesus did during the days that he walked the earth. Thomas said, we all know this, my Lord and my God.

He was not making an exclamation. He wasn't saying, oh my God, I can't believe that you're risen as some foolish person might say. He was calling Jesus God. He was directing his words to the Christ, my Lord and my God.

Thomas got it. He understood it just like the writer of Hebrews got it, understood it, connected it to the prophecies of the Old Testament. And then there's John 10. In addition to the text we read when we stood momentarily ago in John chapter 5, but John 10 verse 29, my Father who has given them to me is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them out of my Father's hand.

I and my Father are one. So in one moment he says, he presents himself in his humanity in honor of his Father. In the next breath he presents himself in his deity. He says, I and my Father are one. We're inseparable.

We're the same thing. Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered many good works.

I have shown you from my Father. For which of those works do you stone me? The Jews answered him saying, for a good work we do not stone you, but for blasphemy because you being a man make yourself God, quote unquote. You see they could not understand his humanity that God came in human form to reach humans, that he would be numbered with sinners though separate from them. So Jesus came to earth not to behave as God, though he is God and never stopped being God, but to behave as man because of sin, to rescue man. He came to behave as a man because he loves the sinner, not the sin. His distinction and that which makes him unique flies off the pages to we who believe when we read the scripture. It is supposed to, but unbelievers won't come to the scripture.

Some will, but most won't. They're dependent on us to share what the scripture says even though they don't know it. We have this advantage to share the scripture, quote scripture, but in the language they understand. If you say Jesus is the Son of God, they may not get that.

You have to break it down for them. If you understand it, it won't be a problem. That's what makes you a witness. One thing unique about Christ and distinct is the virgin birth prophesied by Isaiah. Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name God is with us. See, that's how I would say it to an unbeliever. Isaiah wrote over 700 years before the birth of Christ and he said his name will be God is with us. Well, you know it says Emmanuel, but the meaning of Emmanuel is God is with us and that is the idea. There was a veil concerning the coming of Christ. That veil is lifted away for those who genuinely want to see behind it, but it stays for those who are false, who have no genuine interest. This was the case with the Pharisees. They didn't want to know he was the Christ except men like Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea.

So this distinction from the very beginning was so exact that he would not be confused with anyone else at any time. No one has this claim and the life to back it up. It's not just the claim. There's so much more that goes into establishing what we believe than simple declarations. When I say simple, I don't mean that they are weak. I mean that they are clear, that anyone can understand them. They're not complex. It can be if you want to make them so. They'll go as deep as you want to go. You'll never get to their bottom or you can take them right off the surface and enjoy them there, the truths of the scripture.

Unique, that is to be without equal, be one that is separated from the others. The virgin birth, the sinless life, his death, his resurrection and his return, all of these are unlike anyone else in history. So Micah rings in and says, and Micah wrote at the time of Isaiah also, some 700 years before the birth, you Bethlehem have rather, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to me the one, the one to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from old, from everlasting.

Can't say that about anybody else. Thanks for joining us for today's teaching on Cross Reference Radio, the daily radio ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia. We hope you've been blessed by this believers basic series, exploring the fundamentals of what it means to follow Christ. If you'd like to listen to more of this series or share it with someone you know, please visit CrossReferenceRadio.com. We encourage you to subscribe to our podcast too, so you'll never miss another edition. Just visit CrossReferenceRadio.com and follow the links under radio. Again, that's CrossReferenceRadio.com. That's all for today. We hope you'll tune in next time to continue studying the Word of God right here on Cross Reference Radio.