A Word From God

Whenever you tamper with the text so it suits your ism, at some point it's going to take you to a dead end. But when you believe the text, you're led to believe something amazing, something miraculous, something, however, that is consistently presented throughout the record of Scripture. That Jesus Christ is equally, eternally, God the Son, having at a point in time, taking on the form of human flesh and blood through that miraculous conception.

Thanks for joining us today here on Wisdom for the Heart with Stephen Davey. Today we're focusing on the important doctrinal truth of who Jesus Christ really is. No one can understand the importance and significance of Jesus' birth without first understanding the truth that Jesus is eternally God. His birth in Bethlehem was not His beginning.

It was His incarnation because He has always existed and always been God. We're going to explore this truth together on today's broadcast. Today, Stephen begins a series entitled Christmas Light. This lesson is called A Word from God.

And here's Stephen. Barbara Thirring, longtime Australian professor of the Dead Sea Scrolls, author of the best seller that has been reprinted numerous times entitled Jesus the Man. The central thesis of her book is simply that Jesus was the leader of a rather radical sect of the seen priests that He had been crucified but He didn't die. Fortunately, His leader's followers slipped Him some venom which brought about an unconscious state, fooled the Romans, and when they took Him down, He eventually revived.

It's called the swoon theory. It's been around since His crucifixion. And He then went on to marry, of course, Mary Magdalene again. However, he believed that the Lord, or Jesus I should say, not the Lord to her, but Jesus divorced her and then married Lydia from Philippi that he had met when he was traveling with a guy named Paul, interestingly enough, and basically wandered around in obscurity until he died in obscurity in Rome. I couldn't help but sort of be overcome with sadness as I learned that Barbara Thirring, who taught this for decades, died three weeks ago in unbelief. Who is Jesus?

It's the most important question you will answer. In fact, that question started making the rounds 2,000 years ago when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on that unbroken colt. The Gospel of Matthew said, and the whole city was stirred asking, who is this man? And the religious leaders were stumped by his brilliant answers. On one occasion, they huddled together and asked, who is this man? Even the disciples, as they watched Jesus still that storm from their boat and with a word, He said, hush, literally, hush, and the wind immediately stilled and the waves turned into glass and they said to each other, who then is this man? If he is only a man, you can safely forget him. But if he is who he claims to be and who those eyewitnesses claim him to be, then you are actually created by him to worship him and to love him and to serve him and to walk with him and one day to live with him.

We can't get this wrong. It's one thing to mess up when Moses lived and who Jesus was baptized by and mix up the donkey and Jezebel, but it's another thing entirely to miss this. So what I want to do today and next Lord's Day, Lord willing, as we rehearse these wonderful truths of the Incarnation, is take you to the writings of an old man. He's writing one of the last books of the New Testament, even though in the order it is presented earlier as one of the Gospels. It was written about 50 years after Jesus Christ ascended to the Father and now intercedes for us.

Fifty years the Gospel has been tracing its way around that world and disciples are declaring an empty tomb and a resurrected Messiah. John is the name of this author and if you haven't figured it out by now, he's the last living apostle. When he wrote this Gospel, keep that in mind, he's the last living apostle as he pens his Gospel. Peter has already been martyred along with the other disciples. The apostle Paul has already been executed by Nero. John is the last among them and he's nearing the tape.

He's in his last lap. I mean, and I say that because if it's all wrong or if it's all made up or if it's all a misunderstanding, now would be the time for John to say, look, I kind of went along with the crowd, but I want to straighten it out now. I don't want this on my conscience. It's time for a deathbed confession. Instead, this dying apostle is more committed than ever. Go to the end of his account in chapter 21 and notice how he wraps it up. I'll deal with the last verse or two in the first verse and that's about it.

Nothing in between. You'll notice he says and he's speaking, by the way, in legal language. This, verse 24, is the disciple who bears witness of these things and wrote these things and we know that his witness is true. Rather interesting shifting in pronouns.

Let me give you an analogy to tell you what is happening. Over the years, I've had the privilege of doing something that not many get to do. Ship's captains can do it. Justices of the peace can do it.

Judges can do it. And for the time being, I'm licensed to do it as well. I don't know how much longer that will last, but until then, I have the privilege of joining in what we call holy matrimony, a man and his wife.

And we're sticking with that, by the way, okay? So I get to do that. Now, before that big day, the couple will go downtown Raleigh and they'll pay a fee to obtain a very important document. They'll answer some questions. They'll show their driver's licenses, social security number. They'll prove who they are.

And a little easier now than it was in my day. In my day, you had to give blood and I faint whenever that happens, but I lived through it for the sake of the joy set before me and that was my bride. But at any rate, they'll go get that. And then they get this certificate and it's printed on heavy stock linen paper.

I just love the way it feels and what it says. And then after the ceremony is finished, can't do it beforehand. After it's over, I will take out my pin, typically at the reception, and I will sign my name and it'll ask for my address and the county and the date. And I put it all down there.

You have to actually do it twice, but I'll put it there. And then I invite two witnesses to join me and they sign and they're attesting that my signature is really mine, that they actually saw me do this, that this was really a legitimate ceremony and we took it all the way to its conclusion. And so this is effectively my sworn statement attested to by eyewitnesses.

It was customary in Rome to have all legal documents signed and sworn testifying to their authenticity. And other witnesses would be there to verify. And that's what John is doing here at the end of his gospel.

In fact, you notice the way he changes the wording. This is the disciple who bears witness of these things. In other words, I'm signing here and I'm writing these things. I'm the one that wrote these and we know that his witness is true.

In other words, I've got witnesses that are attesting to this, that this is true. It's as if John says, I know that when you get close to your deathbed, you're going to want to tell the truth, right? You're going to want to unburden yourself. You want to come out with a secret, maybe something that you've carried for years or perhaps decades. And you have this compelling desire to set that record straight and clear your conscience. It's time to come out with the truth.

I don't have time, but I can tell you that in my research, I thought I might have time. Maybe I'll tell you a little bit about it next floor today, but just all you have to do is Google 10 famous deathbed confessions. Don't do it now.

It's dangerous to say people got their iPads and they're already looking down. Don't. But you have all kinds of revelations, from theft to murder. I'll tell you one of them, okay?

You force me. One of them, a silent screen movie actress and with her leading man who mysteriously is killed, murdered, shot, never able to solve it. She died several decades ago, but before she dies, she has a heart attack. She's lying on her kitchen floor. There's not enough time to get the priest there.

She's a Roman Catholic. So her neighbor, she says, I must confess to you that my leading man, all those 50, 60 years ago, I pulled the trigger and she dies. There's an intuitive sense that I'm going to give some kind of account and I need to unburden my conscience.

I don't want to die with this. And John is basically saying, as an old man, I'm coming to the end and I want to set the record straight. I want you to know my conscience is clear.

We didn't make it up. We didn't steal his body. He really is the Messiah. He really did die. He really was buried. He really rose again. I saw it.

This record is true. Now, John adds, if you look there in that last chapter, look at what he says in verse 25. And there are also many other things with which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books which were written. In other words, if you think that I have written some things that are rather amazing and difficult to understand, that remain mysterious, and are rather remarkable about the ministry and life of Jesus and what he did, let me tell you, if the world was filled with shelves, there wouldn't be enough bookshelves to contain everything if I put it all down. And you're left wondering, will John at least write a little more, you know, maybe another chapter or a verse? In fact, it leads you to wonder why the Spirit of God would inspire him to write these things, seven signature signs in this gospel.

Why those? Well, John answers that question. In fact, turn back one page. You'll read in chapter 20 and verse 30 his very clear purpose statement. John writes, and many other signs, therefore, Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples.

We all saw it. In other words, they're not written in this book, but these have been written. Why, John? That you may believe that Jesus is the Christ that is the anointed Messiah, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name. He's saying my record is not comprehensive, but it can be conclusive for you.

It's not exhaustive. It's not an exhaustive account of Christ's life and ministry and all that he did, but it is adequate. I'm giving you enough so that you can believe the gospel and answer the question, who is Jesus? Now, let's go to the beginning of his account for the time remaining. Chapter one of this gospel gives us a number of key phrases or words that describe who Jesus is. And for those of you that like outlines, I'm going to give you two truths. That's all we'll have time.

In fact, we're probably going to go a little over time. Truth number one is this, Jesus Christ is eternally equal with God the Father. Jesus Christ is eternally equal with God the Father. Verse one, in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. Now, if you're young in the faith and this is your first time to see this particular text, you might be wondering, well, who is the word?

Well, skip down to verse 14. John clears up any mystery. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father full of grace and truth. John bore witness of him and cried out saying, this is he of whom I've said, he who comes after me has a higher rank than I, for he existed before me. Oh, interesting, he was born after John the baptizer, but he existed before him. And of course, he goes on. So the word is Jesus himself, the eternal divine word that expresses the glory of the Father is none other than Jesus Christ. So this is quite a statement, isn't it? In fact, you notice how it sort of ratchets up in this rather audacious claim. In the beginning was the word Jesus and the word Jesus was with God, and the word Jesus was God. It's as if he, he brings you in at this point, and then the second point, and then the third, tightens the vice of truth.

Jesus was in essence, fully God of divine eternal essence. And this obviously creates a lot of heartburn, doesn't it? Because I don't know of a cult on the planet that doesn't want to use the Bible in some way, shape, or form. In fact, they typically do. They may have their own translation where they've noodled on the text and turned things around a little bit. For instance, the New World Translation of the Bible published by the Jehovah's Witnesses, you can Google, not now, you can Google the text and read their opening statement here, how they'll treat verse one. You got to do something with this because it's so clear that the word Jesus was God. And that doesn't mean it's easy to understand, but it's a clear statement, equal in essence to God the Father. And so what they do is they add a little word because they say that this definite article is dropped before you get to this particular phrase, and so it can mean a God or any God. And so they simply translate it that the word and the word was a God. Of course, they create a bit of a conundrum because now you've got two Gods.

You've got two Gods. It doesn't really say that Jesus wasn't God. Now they've just said that Jesus is another God. They do drop the capital G, though, and put a little case G. I'm not sure if that solves anything, but he's a little g God. And it doesn't solve their problem either because now they have to continue translating.

In fact, if they translate consistently according to that little rule where there's no definite article, and I know this is exciting to you to hear about articles and these things, but stay with me. You would have to translate verse six, and there came a man sent from a or any God because there's no definite article. And of course, they leave that one alone because they want John the Baptist coming from God. And so they'll leave it alone and say, and there came a man sent from God. And you'd also need to, by the way, translate verse 12 differently, which they don't, according to that same rule, so that it would read, but as many as received him, to them he gave the power or the right to become children of a God or any God. Joseph Smith tried to deal with it in his what he called inspired version. He altered the opening text as well. I mean, again, you got to change it.

It's so clear. If you're going to use the Bible and say we agree with it, we just have new stuff. You still have a problem with his opening declaration by the Apostle John. And so Joseph Smith in his inspired version tried to solve it this way. This is the way he wrote it in the beginning was the gospel preached through the sun and the gospel was the word and the word was with the sun. Now that's very clever, actually, because it'll resonate with anybody that understands anything about Christianity because we believe in the gospel and we believe Christ preached the gospel.

So that makes a lot of sense. The problem is you still got to translate a little further in verse three is coming up, which tells us that the word created all of it is. And so Joseph Smith evidently didn't think about that, and he just simply translated it word for word. So in his text and in your untampered text, it says all things were made by him and without him, Jesus was not anything made which was made. And now you got a problem because if Jesus is not preexistent, eternal deity, but at some point in time created humanity, then Joseph Smith has just effectively written that Jesus had to create himself before he existed.

And that would be a stretch. Listen, whenever you plagiarize, whenever you tamper, whenever you fiddle around with the text so it suits your ism, it suits your cult, it suits a God you'd really rather have than the God of the Bible, at some point it's going to take you to a dead end. But when you believe the text, you're led to believe something amazing, something miraculous, something you can't understand, something however that is consistently presented throughout the record of scripture, that Jesus Christ is equally eternally God the Son, having at a point in time taking on the form of human flesh and blood through that miraculous conception. I think of Augustine, the brilliant early church father who was walking one day along the seashore and he observed a young boy who had dug a little hole next to the water's edge and he was furiously running back with his bucket, filling it up with the sea and pouring it into that hole in the sand. And Augustine said, young man, what are you doing?

And the young man said, I am pouring the sea into this little hole in the sand. To fully understand the Trinity is to pour an ocean of infinite truth into a little finite mind. How would you communicate this truth?

Let me tell you, you could not communicate it any clearer than what John is doing here. Jesus Christ is eternally equal with God the Father. Truth number two, Jesus Christ did not have a beginning as God the Son. In other words, he has a beginning as a baby boy, a human being named Jesus. He's born at a point in time. But not as God the Son, invisible, preexistent, eternal, and according to their will, he agrees, as it were, according to an eternal plan to take on flesh. And at that point in time, he is effectively begotten. Now you have the most interesting Greek verb appearing three times in verse one.

Let me have you just circle this. In the beginning, was, there it is, the word, and the word was with God. And the word was, God. And again, the Greeks were so magnificent in the freighting of verbs. This tense is imperfect.

And you're going to forget that before you ever get to lunch. But let me just tell you that if you expand that tense out to understand what it means, it's talking about expressing an ongoing state. And so you can read it, in the beginning was and is and always will be the word. You could translate it to say, and the word was and is and always will be God. You can't say it any clearer. There is another expression that John uses.

One more, let me show it to you. It appears three times in this loaded text. It's simply the phrase, word, w-o-r-d. You may be familiar with the Greek text or the word, it's the word, logos. Logos.

That's not an accident, obviously. Jesus is the eternal, preexisting logos. He is the word.

You could translate that. He is the reason. He is the explanation. I love that particular translation of logos.

You insert that word into verse one and it explodes even further with implications. So that Jesus Christ, who is lying in that feed trough, is nothing less than the explanation of God. So when your six year old comes home and asks you, you know, how big is God? And what does God look like?

You can tell them, well just look at Jesus Christ. He is the one who came to display the glory of his Father. And one day when we go to heaven, we're going to see this second person of the Godhead.

I don't know how the Father will display his glory, but he hasn't taken on flesh and blood nor has the Spirit, but we'll be looking at Jesus. When someone asks you, what can God do? What's God like? Does he really exist? Does he even know I exist?

Just tell them. Let Jesus Christ answer that. If you don't believe the Gospel, let me encourage you to do what a gentleman in this fellowship did a few years ago on a business trip in Switzerland. His wife told me just a couple of days ago, so troubled, no Christian background. He got a copy of the Bible and alone he began to read the Gospel of John, spending a day or two just immersed in it and he emerged a believer.

This is sufficient. John said it was so that you could believe his testimony is true about who Jesus is. As we explored this important truth today, looking precisely at who Jesus Christ really is, I hope you've been encouraged by what you've heard. I also hope today's lesson has equipped you to be able to talk about this truth with people who might not believe in Jesus. This is Wisdom for the Heart, the Bible teaching ministry of Stephen Davey. Today's lesson is called A Word from God and it comes from the series Christmas Light. It's a two-part series and we'll bring you the second lesson on Monday. You can learn more about us and interact with us online by going to wisdomonline.org. You'll also find us on all the major social media platforms. Let me also mention that I certainly hope you can worship with your home church on Sunday, but if you're unable to do that, you can join Stephen live online Sunday mornings at 930 or 11 o'clock a.m. If you go to our website, there's a link to those live Sunday services. If you'd like to send Stephen a note or even make a donation to our ministry, our address is Wisdom for the Heart, PO Box 37297, Raleigh, North Carolina 27627. Have a great weekend and join us Monday for more Wisdom for the Heart.