What Every Christian Should Know About Jesus Christ – Part 2

Hey, podcast listeners! Thanks for streaming today's podcast, From Pathway to Victory. Pathway to Victory is a nonprofit ministry featuring the Bible teaching of Dr. Robert Jeffress. Our mission is to pierce the darkness with the light of God's word through the most effective media available, like this podcast. To support Pathway to Victory, go to ptv.org slash podcast and click the donate button, or follow the link in our show notes. Now, here's today's podcast, From Pathway to Victory. And I'm glad to study God's Word with you every day on this Bible teaching program, on today's edition of Pathway to Victory. And today as we continue our study, what every Christian should know about the 10 core beliefs of historic Christianity, we've come to that third pillar that supports the Christian faith, the truth about Jesus Christ.

And that's what we're going to talk about for a few minutes today. Welcome to Pathway to Victory with author and pastor, Dr. Robert Jeffress. You know, every year at Christmas, we celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. But sometimes we forget that Jesus existed long before he came to earth as a baby.

And today he's still at work. Today on Pathway to Victory, Dr. Robert Jeffress identifies three distinct events in the life of Jesus and explains their importance for our lives today. Now here's our Bible teacher to introduce today's message.

Dr. Jeffress. Thanks, David. And welcome again to Pathway to Victory. I'm glad you're along today because our current teaching series is designed to help you build a strong, solid foundation for your Christian faith. Those who don't run the risk of falling prey to cultural pressure. The Bible uses this metaphor to state the obvious. The Bible teaches that houses built on sand will eventually crumble, which means this, people who build their lives on the shifting values of culture will ultimately collapse. And this is one of the many reasons I've written a best-selling book for you called What Every Christian Should Know, 10 Core Beliefs for Standing Strong in a Shifting World.

You see, I believe that theology matters. And in my book, I'll equip you with clear explanations and vivid illustrations that teach you essential facts about the Trinity, angels and demons, sin, salvation, future things, and more. My book is yours today when you give a generous gift to support the growing ministry of Pathway to Victory. There's another resource that I've prepared for you that's devotional in nature. Did you know that Pathway to Victory produces a magazine? Yes, and Pathway Magazine is filled with devotional readings I've written for you, along with fascinating articles on Christian living. We receive wonderful feedback from our readers, and you can join their ranks by signing up for Pathway Magazine today.

Just go online to ptv.org and follow the simple instructions. What you're about to hear may be the most important message in my teaching series. Today, I want to talk to you about the person and work of Jesus Christ. For the Christian believer, there's absolutely no wiggle room in what we believe about Jesus. John says, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

And notice in this one verse three things John tells us about Jesus. First of all, He was in the beginning. He didn't come into existence at Bethlehem. He is eternal.

In the beginning was the Word. And secondly, Jesus was with God, meaning He's distinct from God the Father. He was with God. And yet, the third thing was He was God. While being distinct from God, He was God. That's the mystery of the Trinity. And now that leads us to what happened when God came to earth, when He became flesh and dwelt among us. Let's look at Jesus on earth. John 1.14 says, And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. That is what the incarnation means.

What does it mean to us? What is the result of Jesus taking on human flesh? Let me just mention three things Jesus did in His humanity during His brief 33 years here on earth.

Number one, He defied expectations. We saw this in our study on the Sermon on the Mount. The Jewish leaders, they were looking for a conquering warrior who would finally free them from the oppression of Rome. Instead, they got a suffering servant. That's why they missed Jesus.

They didn't understand that, as He said, He came not to be served, but to serve and give His life as a ransom for many. Secondly, Jesus during His 33 years suffered. He suffered the betrayal of His friends, the insults of His enemies, but most importantly, Jesus suffered the agony of the cross. Jesus suffered. The fact is, He has suffered and experienced everything we've experienced. I heard one commentator say this week, when Jesus took on human flesh, He wasn't pretending to be something He wasn't.

No, He actually became flesh, and He experienced every heartache we experience. What does that mean to us? It means when we talk to Jesus, we're not talking to some distant deity who doesn't understand what we're going through. In Hebrews 4, 14 through 16, the writer says, for we don't have a high priest who can't sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who was tested in all points as we are, and yet without sin.

Let us come boldly with confidence to the throne of grace, that we might receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. Thirdly, Jesus prioritized His relationship with God during His 33 years here on earth. If we're a disciple of Jesus, if we're a follower of Jesus, we're going to follow that same priority, making God the priority of our lives. Let me just mention three ways He prioritized His relationship with God.

He prioritized His Father's Word. There's no indication that Jesus, when He was in that manger, had a knowledge of Scripture just automatically poured into His heart. There was a data dump of Bible verses into Jesus' being. He learned the Scriptures. We see that in Luke chapter 2, verses 47. He grew in His understanding of God. He memorized and meditated on the Scripture.

It was an important part of His life. You see that illustrated in Luke chapter 4, verses 1 to 13, in His temptation by Satan in the wilderness. In epic battles between good and evil in the world of Marvel comics or Star Wars universes, whenever good and evil clash with one another, it's described in terms of energy pulses that change the landscape of the earth, or lightning bolts that come from fingertips.

It's very dramatic. But Jesus used a weapon when confronting evil far more powerful than energy pulses and lightning bolts. He used the Word of God.

You've heard me say this before, but it bears repeating. When Satan tempted Jesus at a level of temptation none of us has ever experienced, how did Jesus repel those temptations? By quoting Scripture. The Scripture He repeated each of those three times came from the book of Deuteronomy.

Most Christians can't even find the book of Deuteronomy, much less know how to use it and how to use the precise verses that will help us combat Satan's temptation. But priority of God's Word was a part of Jesus' life. He prioritized His Father's Word. Secondly, He prioritized His Father's presence. Being with His Heavenly Father, connecting with Him, was vital for Jesus' survival.

We often talk about Mark 1.35. It's a verse that records what happened the next day after Jesus' busiest recorded day in ministry, how He administered late into the evening. The Bible says on the next morning, Mark 1.35, in the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up. He left the house and went to a secluded place and was praying there. I just came on this verse this week that shows that that wasn't a one-time event. Luke 5 16 says Jesus Himself would often slip away to the wilderness and pray.

Now think about it. If spending time in the early morning before anything else was a priority for Jesus, it was necessary for His spiritual survival, how much more important was it for ours? He put a priority on connecting with God. By the way, He didn't do it just alone. Jesus found an equally effective way to connect with God.

It's not an either or, it's both and. It was in worship with other Christians. That's how He connected to the presence of God. Luke 4 tells us immediately after that temptation, the wilderness, you know where He went?

Luke 4 16 says, He went to Nazareth and entered into the synagogue as was His custom. It was His habit to be involved in worship once a week with other believers. That was vital for His connection to His Heavenly Father. We're glad to have everybody who worships with us online and watch His pathway to victory. That's great, but it's no substitute for in-person worship.

We all need the connection, the energy to God that comes from being with other believers. Thirdly, Jesus prioritized His Father's will. One time the disciples were concerned that Jesus wasn't getting enough to eat.

He said, don't worry about that. John 4 34, my food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to accomplish His work. Obeying God, saying yes to His commands and no to His prohibitions, that was the cornerstone of Jesus' life. And it should be of ours as well.

You know, let's be honest. For most of us, our problem is not that we don't know what God wants us to do. It's deciding whether we are going to do what God wants us to do. We know what God's will is.

We may not know our future, but we know God's will for us. Jesus made obeying God the cornerstone of His life. George W. Truitt, who was pastor here for 50 years, once defined success this way. He said, success is knowing the will of God and doing it.

Doing it. That was the cornerstone of Jesus' life. We've talked about Jesus before Christmas in heaven from eternity past, what He was doing.

We've talked about what He did during His 33 years here on earth. What is He doing in heaven today? Remember, after 40 days in His resurrected body, Jesus gathered His disciples on the Mount of Olives. He made this prophecy. He said, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. And you shall be my witnesses, both in Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria and to the remotest part of the earth. And then Jesus ascended into heaven. The disciples were gawking at that. And remember in verse 11, the two angels said, why are you staring into heaven? The same Jesus is returning one day.

Now, we know what we're supposed to be doing until He comes again. We're to go and to make disciples. But what is Jesus doing in heaven right now?

Two things I want to mention to you. First of all, Jesus is advocating our case before His Father. He's advocating our case before His Father. Hebrews 7 25 says, He always lives to make intercession for them. Now, I want to confess to you, the way I've understood that in the past and perhaps even preached it was thinking, well, yeah, Jesus is in heaven praying for us. But then I began to think of it, okay, if Jesus is seated at the right hand of God the Father, why would Jesus be bowing His head and praying for us when His Father is right next to Him?

I mean, it doesn't make any sense to me. And I came to realize that word intercession isn't a synonym for prayer. It literally means to intervene for. He is intervening for us in heaven right now. And to fully understand what that means is, 1 John 2 1, John says, my little children, I'm writing these things to you so that you may not sin, but if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. That word advocate can mean lawyer. Jesus is our lawyer.

He's arguing our case before God the Father. Now, when do you need a lawyer? When you're being sued, right, Doug? You need a good attorney. If somebody's trying to drag you into court, put you into jail, you want an advocate. You want a lawyer. We have an advocate.

Why do we need a lawyer? Because we have somebody who's prosecuting us day and night before God the Father. His name is Satan. In Revelation 12 10, he's described as the accuser of the brethren who day and night is accusing God's children before God the Father. Right now at this very moment, Satan is not down here on earth.

He's not sitting next to you whispering into your ear. That's the work of demons. Satan, the Bible says, is before God the Father slamming us, prosecuting us, accusing us, arguing why he ought to be able to take us to hell forever. But while he is prosecuting us, we have an advocate seated next to the judge of the world.

His name is Jesus Christ. And day and night, he is pleading our case before the Father, reminding the Father of what he accomplished on our behalf. Jesus is advocating our case before the Father. Secondly, Jesus is building a home for us in heaven.

Now, we don't have time to get into this. Second Corinthians 5 8 says, the moment we die, we go to be with the Lord. To be absent from the body is to be at home with the Lord. That's the third heaven where God is, wherever that is. But that third heaven is not our final home. The final home for all believers will be the new earth and the new heaven. And the centerpiece of that newly recreated earth will be a new capital city called the new Jerusalem.

It's going to be 1,500 miles long, wide, and high. Revelation 21, John says, I saw that city, the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven to earth. Jesus right now is in heaven, preparing a place for us.

John 14. That new Jerusalem is what I call the ultimate in prefab housing. It's being built someplace else. It's being built by the greatest carpenter of all time. Jesus Christ is overseeing that, John 14 says, and one day it's going to come out of heaven to earth. He's building a home for us. Now, I've got about six minutes left, and this is the most important part of the sermon. What does all of this information about Jesus Christ mean to us today?

How does it affect us today? You know, there's a term in our culture called parting gift. We talk about parting gifts.

I looked it up. The origin of that phrase actually is from TV game shows in the 60s and the 70s. When a contestant lost, didn't make the final cut, and didn't win the grand prize, it was time for him to exit, the host would say, well, we've got some parting gifts for you as you leave the stage.

From my own game show stint 40 years ago, we still have, Amy and I, some of our parting gifts, some microwave cookware, a Shasta beach towel that didn't hold up that great, but we still have it anyway. But we understand parting gifts to mean a consolation prize that you receive. When Jesus was ready to leave the world stage, instead of receiving a parting gift, he gave a parting gift to all of us.

And instead of being a consolation prize, it was the grand prize of them all. He describes it in John 14, 27, peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you, not as the world gives do I give to you, do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful. What kind of peace does Jesus give us? First of all, he gives us peace about our past.

He offers us peace about our past. I read this week some sage advice that came from an army ranger. He said, if you're ever an army ranger in a Black Hawk helicopter, about to land in the dead of night and capture the next Osama bin Laden, here's what you need to do. Legs in, rear tight, mind blank, goggles down, bolts checked, straps pulled, grenades tested, and relationship to God figured out.

It's great advice. When you're facing the end, make sure your relationship with God is right. All of us have sins in our background. That we're fearful that what if God decides to judge us for those sins? But the death of Jesus Christ means our sins are forgiven and forgotten forever.

That's what Jesus coming means to us. Psalm 103 verse 12 says, as far as the east is from the west, so far God has removed our transgressions from us. We never need to fear the condemnation of God. He offers us peace about our past.

He offers us peace about the present. Jesus never promised us that we would be exempt from problems. He said, in this world you will have tribulation.

But he also said, I will be with you through those problems. I'm not going to abandon you. Matthew 28, 20, lo I am with you always, even until the end of the age. Hebrews 13, 5, I will not leave you as orphans. I will neither leave you nor will I desert you. And finally, Jesus offers us peace about our future.

Let's all admit it. Sometimes we wonder what's going to happen to us when we die. When we die, do we just close our eyes and enter into a nothingness we're not even aware of? Or is there something beyond death? And if there is something beyond death, if there is a heaven and a hell, how can I know for sure that I'm not going to end up in hell and I'm going to be with God forever?

How do I know that for sure? I've been reading the new autobiography of novelist James Patterson. James Patterson, not a Christian, agnostic at best, but in his story he tells about a good friend of his who was very devout Catholic. The friend was terminally ill, only had a few days left to live, and Patterson went to visit with him. And his friend wanted to call for the priest to have one final talk with him.

So the parish priest entered the hospital room and the patient, on seeing the priest, just stared at him, really glared at him with a stone cold expression. Patterson has said it really got to be uncomfortable after a few moments, and finally the patient started shaking his rigid finger at the priest and said, you'd better be right. What are you trusting in? Who are you trusting in for your eternal future? If it's some priest, some pastor, some philosopher, they may or may not be correct.

There is only one reliable source to entrust your future to. It's the only one who's ever lived in heaven and come back to tell us what it is and how to get there. His name is Jesus Christ.

He's the one who said, let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. You believe in God, believe also in me. For in my Father's house are many mansions.

If it were not so, I would have told you. For I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you unto myself, that where I am, there you may be also. And Thomas, one of the apostles, said, Lord, we don't know where you are going. How can we know the way? Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth and the life.

No man comes to the Father except through me. Jesus Christ not only pointed the way to heaven, Jesus is the way, the only way to heaven. That's what every Christian needs to know about Jesus Christ. I've written an entire chapter in my book on today's topic. Jesus Christ not only showed us the pathway to heaven, He's the only way to heaven.

We live in shifting times when false teachers have concocted some shaky ideas about God in the Bible. In a moment, David will explain how to get in touch with Pathway to Victory so that you can request your copy of my book. It's called What is the Bible? That you can request your copy of my book. It's called What Every Christian Should Know, 10 Core Beliefs for Standing Strong in a Shifting World. My book clearly explains 10 of the essential doctrines that will keep you standing strong. And a hardbound copy is yours today when you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory. Let me clarify that your gift does far more than cover the cost of these materials. Every gift goes directly toward helping others create a strong spiritual foundation as well.

Let me give you a real-life example of how this works. Henry recently wrote to us and said, Pastor Jeffress, I always had doubts about my salvation, a misunderstanding about what true faith, saving faith, really is. I'm not a person who cries, but when I heard one of your messages about salvation, I broke down right there. I finally understood what saving faith really is.

I know I am saved now because I trust in the blood of Jesus Christ. Isn't that wonderful? And to those of you who support this ministry, this man's story of spiritual victory involves you as well, because you helped make this ministry possible.

David? Thanks, Dr. Jeffress. When you give a generous gift to support Pathway to Victory, you're invited to request a copy of the bestselling book by Dr. Robert Jeffress called What Every Christian Should Know. Call us toll free at 866-999-2965 or visit ptv.org.

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Again, that's P.O. Box 223-609, Dallas, Texas, 75222. I'm David J. Mullins, inviting you back next time when Dr. Jeffress shares what every Christian should know about the Holy Spirit. That's Tuesday here on Pathway to Victory. Pathway to Victory with Dr. Robert Jeffress comes from the pulpit of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas. The Pathway to Victory cruise to Alaska with Dr. Robert Jeffress sets sail from Vancouver, British Columbia on June 15th, 2024. Join me along with musical artists Rebecca St. James and Michael O'Brien and comedian Dennis Swanberg for a vacation you'll never forget.

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