Sovereign Grace Bible Church
These are the sermons and teachings of Sovereign Grace Bible Church in Biggsville, Illinois. We exist to fulfill the Great Commission through the Great Commandment within Gospel Community.
Sovereign Grace Bible Church
Who is Jesus Christ?
Who is Jesus? It seems like a simple question, but our understanding is often shaped more by culture than by biblical truth. From Kanye's version to "He Gets Us" commercials, from Hillsong's "boyfriend Jesus" to progressive interpretations, we're bombarded with distorted images of Christ that leave us confused and misled.
John's Gospel offers a crystal-clear revelation of Jesus's true identity. In just five verses, we discover Christ is eternal, divine in essence, uncreated, creator of all things, the source of life itself, light that darkness cannot overcome, and perfectly holy. These aren't theological abstractions but transformative truths that reshape how we understand our salvation and relationship with God.
The hypostatic union—Jesus being fully God and fully human simultaneously—stands as Christianity's most profound mystery. Unlike anything in nature, this isn't a mixture or dilution of either nature but maintains both completely within one person. This explains why Jesus could experience hunger and fatigue while also walking on water and raising the dead. His virgin birth preserved his sinless nature while ensuring his full humanity, qualifying him as our perfect sacrifice.
When Scripture describes Jesus as "firstborn of creation," it speaks of his preeminence, not his creation. He is the sustaining force of the universe—the very "atomic glue" that holds all molecules together. His self-emptying (kenosis) wasn't abandoning deity but voluntarily laying aside divine privileges to serve humanity through perfect obedience to the Father.
The biblical Jesus demands more than casual acknowledgment or cultural reinterpretation. He is Lord of lords and King of kings, greater than our greatest desires and idols. What in your life needs to bow before the reality of who Christ truly is? Join us as we rediscover the awe-inspiring truth about the God-Man who changed everything.
Today we get to talk about Jesus Christ and truly, even Jesus himself said that all of scripture speaks about and to him. And that's an interesting phrase when we think about it, because, uh, I don't know if you ever read through Job, but you're not in the middle of Job's crying out and, like man, jesus is right there. I see it. It's very hard for us, with our finite minds and with our lack of belief, to understand how Jesus is shown or shown to, pointed to or proven throughout the scriptures. And that's really important for us to really kind of set as a foundation, because you and I are inundated. We have a barrage of information coming at us all the time, trying to tell you who Jesus Christ is, and you might look at me and say, okay, the most popular rappers in the world aren't trying to tell me who Jesus Christ is, and I would tell you actually, no, a guy named Kanye West was trying to tell you who Jesus was not too many years ago and he's gone insane since then. Well, he was already beforehand. But the point is that it is actually becoming this culturally relevant thing to become a Christian again. It's becoming trendy in a sense. Conservative mindset, especially with young men is coming back in full force and with that comes this air of. I just kind of naturally check myself as a Christian, right, that's just a part of the job. Not only that, we have millions and millions of dollars being spent on Super Bowl ads for the. He Gets Us ads right. Jesus is just like you and me, a rebel, a misfit, an outlaw, and it's like okay, you have the Jesus of the chosen who 75% of the time looks normal and then sometimes just forgets that he's God and just asks Matthew, hey, can you tell me what I should preach? Should I say salt and light, or should I say light and salt? We have all of these different references coming to us. Not only that, the worst is music. My favorite would be Hillsong with the. Jesus is my boyfriend. Music that was really popular about 10 years ago. It's still trending a little bit today.
Speaker 1:So, dear friend, you might think I already know who Jesus is. It's all good, no biggie, and I'm here to tell you. You need to know him better and the number one concern, number one issue that this world has around you is that they do not know who Jesus is and they have a million different perceptions attacking them on a daily basis of who Jesus is. That's not even touching the dying churches that have just made a Jesus in their own image, who show up to worship on a Sunday morning. And if you said, tell me about Jesus, they would explain someone that is not in the Bible.
Speaker 1:It is so easy for us with our legalistic minds, with our thoughtlessness, to just go through life assuming I've been to Sunday school, I've read part of my Bible, I've actually read through all the Gospels, I've studied this, I've heard a sermon on it, I know. And yet, as a rule of thumb we have to always understand. The truth of Jesus is one that's so simple that a three-year-old can understand it, and yet the oldest and wisest of us can still be astounded and overwhelmed with the depth of who Jesus is. It's not just a drive-by, easy, one-off kind of concept here. Jesus is the Son of God, he is the God-man and, as we'll see today, there are some scriptures that point to that very specifically. If you'd like, go ahead and turn your Bible to John, chapter 1. We'll kind of start there and go out from there. Branching out John chapter 1, as I said whenever I preach through John, verses 1 through 18, is like a little chicken bouillon cube of chicken soup. Everything that he's going to say in the entire gospel is said in microcosm in the first 18 verses, and the primary thing that is said in this area of scripture is who Jesus is.
Speaker 1:John, chapter 1, read with me, starting in verse 1. This is God's holy word. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made. That was made 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. Now this is.
Speaker 1:You could spend weeks on this text if you would like, but I'm going to give you what I call eight glimpses of Christ that are found in these first five verses. If you have our handout for this week, you'll have a slide that has all these on them, but you're welcome to notate them. In just these five verses we see that Christ is eternal, that he is coexistent with God, that he's the same essence as God, that he is uncreated, that he is creator, that he is life, that he is light and that he is holy. Now, that's a lot, a lot of things to fit into five verses and they have deep ramifications for us in our lives. So again, we'll go back and forth here.
Speaker 1:In the beginning was the Word. So what is that pointing to? Christ is eternal. So when the beginning started, christ was already there. That would mean that he is eternal, that he existed before time began. Okay, next, and the word was with God. That means that Christ is coexistent with God, that he not only is God, but he is coexistent with God.
Speaker 1:Part three, and the word was God, explicitly pointing to the fact that Jesus is God and what we really point to is that he is the same essence as God. So not only has Christ always existed with God, the Father, but he has also always been of the same essence as God. He is eternal, verse 2, he was in the beginning with God. What does that mean? Well, we're about to go into creation here for a second. That means he's uncreated, that he did not come from some emanation, that it wasn't, that God was lonely and said I'm going to make another one of me so that I have someone to talk to.
Speaker 1:Christ is uncreated, verse 3, all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. Again, this is that he is creator. Christ is the creator of all things, and that's very Johanan, right here of the of the text where he says all things were made through him. And you're like got it, all things were made through him. And it's like okay, just want to make sure you got this, and without him, there was not anything made that was made. Like this is like when you're trying to train your toddler on not hitting people and you're like don't hit that person. You're like, okay, and no matter what you do, that person is not to be hit by you. You'd be like all right, I get it, I get it, but the problem is you and I don't. And that's why it has to be written like this. We need to be reminded and remember these things.
Speaker 1:Verse four in him was life. This is perfect, this is beautiful and brilliant. Not Jesus knows where to find life. Not Jesus knows where to get it for you. Not Jesus can sacrifice himself in order to make life happen. Life is found inside Christ. It's not something that's outside of him. It is not just a benefit that just emanates from him that we get to receive. It is inside of Christ, which is important for you and I, because we would say the things we look for in the American dream is life right? I want to live life to the fullest. Where is life to the fullest found? Why? It's found in Christ. It's found in Jesus. Okay, if I was the enemy of your soul, what would I try to convince you of your soul? What would I try to convince you that life is truly found in anything and everything else? Jesus Christ is not one of the answers to life. He is not some partial fulfillment of life. He is life.
Speaker 1:Verse four continues and the life was the light of men. This is very important because you and I need to understand that God is light. We learned that in first John. God is light, not again. God knows where light is. God created light. No, no, no. God is light. Well, guess what is light? Well, guess what? Jesus is light. But he has a special job because he is the light of men. He is to go forth with the light that is already a part of God God is light and to go forth into a dark and dying world and to shine the gospel truth.
Speaker 1:Now, what happens? Verse 5. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. Jesus came into the world, came into this dark, dreary world where the enemy ruled over all, where the enemy thought he had victory by killing Jesus on the cross. But we learn from the scriptures before we even get to the crucifixion in John's gospel the darkness is not able to overcome the light and we know that to be true.
Speaker 1:No matter what, you take a five-year-old into a dark room and say, here's a little flashlight, and you say, okay, what's more powerful, the flashlight or the dark room? And the five-year-old will look at you and say, the flashlight, why? Because I can poke it around if I want. I can shine it over here, I can make it go bigger, I can do all these different things and the controls where the darkness is not vice versa. That's very important for us to understand, because we can have this mindset of like the light versus the dark in our lives, like spiritual warfare, and we're like it's just this even battle. They're battling it out and who knows who's going to come on top. It's like no, no, no, no. The battle between Christ and his enemy is very similar to the battle between light and dark. Do you know how the light wins? It just turns on. Do you know what the dark can do? Nothing. That is security.
Speaker 1:But also what this points to is Christ's holiness. He is perfectly light set apart and nothing can overcome him. He is holy, set apart and above all else. And these are the eight glimpses of Christ that we see in John, chapter 1, verses 1 through 5. We continue, john, chapter 1, verse 14. So, continuing in that same text, it says and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Speaker 1:Now again, the word here is pointing to Jesus Christ. It says the word became flesh and dwelt among us. Remember, we explained that word means tabernacled, right. He tented up with us Very temporal habitat here. The word became flesh for a season and dwelt among us in a temporal sense, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only son from the father, the idea being that even when Christ was temporal, in a sense, when he was here in his ministry, even in that moment, everyone looked at him and said this guy's glory is something that can't be described by human terms. He must be God, which is why you see his enemies say that the guards that are next to him when he's dying say truly, this guy is the son of God. Can you imagine being the guy on duty next to the cross? You're not a Christian, you don't believe in him, and yet you see the signs, you see what he says and you say he must be God. Now you and I again can get to this point where the word became flesh is just this kind of term that pops into our head. Let's go over why that matters.
Speaker 1:This is going to be one of our only theological terms that we'll have on a slide. It's called the hypostatic union. It's highly important. When the word becomes flesh, when God becomes human, it's important that we keep ourselves from error and thinking the wrong thing. The hypostatic union is what allows us to be safe while explaining and understanding Jesus's nature. So the hypostatic union teaches that Jesus is both fully human and fully divine, that there is no mixture or dilution of either nature and that he is one united person forever. Jesus is the God-man, and this is very important because you and I again can so easily fall back and forth. We can look at one scene where Christ is depending on the Father and we're like, see, he's not all the way God, because he would have remembered something there. Or we get to a point where he reads someone's mind and heals somebody from miles and miles away and we're like, see, he's God. It's so important that we keep this truth Again.
Speaker 1:Like I said the last time we preached here on the Trinity, the second hardest doctrine to understand and comprehend fully is the hypostatic union. Why? Because we have no illustrations on earth that can help us to understand it. You will never see a dog that is both a dog and a cat. It just does not happen. In cartoons it might, but not in real life. We cannot understand this concept fully, but it's important that we hold it with open hands and say this is what sets God apart. We'll go to Jesus's birth, because this is actually an important part. This is where Jesus becomes flesh.
Speaker 1:Matthew, chapter 1, verse 18 and 22 and 23, says now, the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way when his mother Mary had been betrothed to Jesus before they came together, she was found to be with child from the Holy spirit. All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet. Behold, the Virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which means God with us. That's right Now. Why does the virgin birth matter? I remember at one point in time someone told me that if you don't believe in the virgin birth, you're not saved. And I was like whoa, that's aggressive Like no. All you got to believe is Jesus died on the cross for my sins. And that's aggressive like no. All you got to believe is jesus died on the cross for my sins, and that's it.
Speaker 1:How is the virgin birth an essential doctrine? I'm glad you asked. Jesus had to be born of mary to have a human nature. He had to be born of no earthly father because, as we learn from I think it's Genesis, chapter 5, adam begets a son like himself, and so on and so forth. The sinful nature passes through the father's lineage into the child and they come out with a sinful nature. Jesus had to not have an earthly father because then he would have had a sinful nature and Jesus was sinless. That's required for him to be a perfect sacrifice.
Speaker 1:So the virgin birth is actually essential on multiple levels. Number one it makes him fully God. Number two number two it makes him fully man. Number three, it keeps us from thinking that he might have a sinful nature or have something wrong with him. And number four, it keeps us from thinking that God might have created Jesus. You see, if Jesus had just come from a man and a woman and nothing else, there could have been plenty of arguments to say God created Jesus.
Speaker 1:However, because the Holy Spirit is the reason that Jesus was conceived inside of Mary, we can now live freely in this moment and say my Savior is perfect, my Savior is pure. My Savior actually is a sensitive high priest who knows every way that I was tempted, and more, because he had a perfect human nature, with no sin, which means he was tempted far more than I'll ever be tempted and he never failed. But not only that. I can be sure that his payment of my penalty is perfect, because he is God. God is more satisfied I'll say this again in a couple weeks when we get to this doctrine God is more satisfied in the sacrifice of Christ on the cross than on thousands and thousands of years of sinners dying in hell again and again. I'll say it again God is more satisfied with Christ's sacrifice than he is if every person died and went to hell and suffered for thousands of years. His justice is perfectly fulfilled within Christ, because Christ is eternal. So God's eternal wrath is satisfied perfectly. Meanwhile, one of the reasons that hell goes on forever is you and I are finite. We cannot pay an eternal price, so we must pay a finite price for an eternal amount of time. Thank God, jesus became flesh and was born of a virgin, because if he wasn't, I would have to pay that penalty and I could not depend on him.
Speaker 1:Now, with that, we saw that there was a fulfilled prophecy in there. This is fascinating. The mathematician Peter Stoner calculated that the chances of someone fulfilling only 48 of these prophecies is 1 in 10 to the 157th power. And Jesus fulfilled over 300 prophecies from the Old Testament. If you don't know what 1 in 10 to the 157th power is, just take the one and write 157 zeros after it. That was the probability of someone being able to fulfill only 48. And Jesus fulfilled over 300 prophecies, ending in John, chapter 118.
Speaker 1:Here, before we go to our next text, it says that no one has ever seen God, the only God who is at the Father's side. He has made him known. One of the things that our children learn is that God is invisible, that he is a spirit and does not have a body like men. So when it says no one has ever seen God, it means it no one has ever seen God, the only God. And then it transitions but Jesus is God and he's at the Father's side and he has made him known. That word there means to be revealed or even to be narrated Like someone's reading the story of God to you to explain him. Jesus is God and he takes the invisible God that you and I could never see and makes him known in the greatest way possible.
Speaker 1:Colossians talks about that. In Colossians, chapter 1, verses 15 through 20. It says he is the image of the invisible God. That means the imprint, the icon, the exact representation. He is the firstborn 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. Now let's pause. At the end of verse 15, it says he is the firstborn of all creation. I know shock. Now what does that mean? It's very important we first off, get out of our Western mindset and get to a thousands of years Eastern mindset.
Speaker 1:The firstborn was not simply a term for the first child that came out of the womb, not simply a term for the first child that came out of the womb, it was a term of priority, of preeminence, of prominence. So when it says Jesus is the firstborn of all creation, it is not saying, hey, by the way, Jesus was the first created thing, no, no, no. Jesus is uncreated. He has never been created and never could be. It's saying that he is the premier one of all creation. He is the priority of all creation. Everything revolves around him, bows down to him and is given for him. Which is why then we can see the next part. Because a lot of people that will argue well, jesus has to be created. Because it says he's the firstborn of all creation. We'd say, keep reading. It says for by him all things were created. Okay, that's really hard. If you're the first thing to be created, okay. Then it says all things were created through him and for him. Then verse 17 really gives us the concept of this premier, primary one, verse 17,. And he is before all things and in him all things hold together. It's the idea that Jesus is in charge on top and has everything in his hands. Even creation holds together just because he's the one that does it.
Speaker 1:Again, I'll go back to an old sermon. I preached this text probably about two years ago actually. I talked about how there's a theory out there that tries to make sense of the fact that an atom shouldn't exist. You see, because an atom is positive and negative hanging out together and the negative kind of swirls around it, and so a scientist eventually asks the question wait a second, shouldn't this eventually like it should do something right? The atom should eventually, like the negative, should just keep going away from the positive and shouldn't circle around it or stay in the vicinity. So why is all of creation not just tearing itself apart? And the best the scientists had at that moment was what's called the atomic glue theory, and it was the idea that there is an invisible glue, this invisible force that they can't understand or comprehend, that holds all the atoms together.
Speaker 1:And we all want to look at them and just say I know his name, it's Jesus. He is the premier one, he is the priority, he is in charge, he is God. Not only that, verse 18,. He is the head of the body, the church. So he's primarily now pointed to as in charge of his brine. Who is in charge of this church? It's not Dan. It's not Dan, it's God. He is the beginning, that's right. He is the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.
Speaker 1:Again, pointing back to this main point, this firstborn concept is just pointing to the fact that Christ is number one. Everything else is secondary at best. Why? For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, not some, not partially, not after he was resurrected. Then he got the whole kit and caboodle. At all times. God has always been and will always be fully Christ and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. See, jesus is perfectly God and perfectly human, and his mission is a mission of reconciliation, to save a dying generation that cannot save itself, that is dead in its sins, that is unable to respond to the gospel, and it needs him to humiliate himself, to humble himself, to come down to our level and say to come down to our level and say I will be human for you, I will be spit on for you, I will die for you. Peace only comes by the blood of the cross. Here's your favorite little picture that you guys always like.
Speaker 1:Today we go over the wrong views of Jesus. So the first one we're going to have is adoptionism. This is the idea that Jesus was not eternally God but became God after his physical birth, and as you can see, it's in the red, so that means it's bad. Arianism is that Jesus is a created being who is a quote-unquote lesser God than God the Father. We also say that is wrong. We'll skip to the next one. And Docetism says that Jesus is fully God but only pretended to be human.
Speaker 1:And the Kenosis theory says Jesus stopped being God during his earthly ministry. And very popular people communicate this truth. People like Bethel Church have communicated this. Hillsong TD Jakes have said the kenosis theory is true. Now here's why that's an issue. It's because they'll point then to Jesus and say you can do everything he did, because he just did everything by the power of the Spirit. He wasn't God in that moment, he was just the best Christian that ever lived. So you can do the same thing. And so all of that. We say no, I am not Jesus and I will never be. He is God, and we'll go over this correct view of the kenosis in a moment. But the correct view of Jesus's nature is that Jesus is truly God and truly man, two complete natures in one person. That's called the hypostatic union. And we end with Philippians, chapter 2, verses 5 through 11. And this is where the kenosis theory comes, so we need to make sure we understand it correctly. It's probably the most popular heresy today.
Speaker 1:Paul says have this mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form. He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. We'll pause there. The beginning of verse 7 is where the kenosis theory comes from. That word emptied there. That's where you get in the Greek. That's where you get the word kenosis from. So it's very important that we try to understand. Now what is Paul trying to say? Is Paul trying to say that Jesus emptied himself of his divinity and became no longer God? Is that what Paul is saying in this text.
Speaker 1:Let's look at it again, starting in verse 6. Who, though? He was in the form of God. So again, we'll say the essence right. Jesus has the same essence as God did not count. Equality with God a thing to be grasped? That means to be held on to, to demand the right of. So he did not count. So, even though he's the same essence as God, he did not demand to be treated as or revered as God, but instead emptied himself.
Speaker 1:Paul's not going to leave us hanging and be like. What does that mean? He's going to explain it. How did he empty himself? By taking the form of a servant and being born in the likeness of men. That's how he emptied himself. This is the humiliation of Christ. That Christ, who is perfectly God, would choose to take the form of a servant when he did not. He deserves to be served. He deserves to be served by everyone and everything for all time. And yet he emptied himself of his privilege, of his right, and said I will serve you instead. And what that looks like is he was born in the likeness of men. Again, the best possible close description we can get to is the concept of if you had Superman, who had all of his powers and all of these things, and then, out of love for somebody else, he gave all of his powers up and became just this normal human, just to love somebody and sacrifice for them. And that representation is about 1% true of the 100%, much greater picture of Christ choosing to empty himself by taking the form of a servant Now continuing in verse 8, being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross.
Speaker 1:One of the most important aspects of Christ's life is that he was sinless. Part of that is his perfect obedience. Is that Christ, through obedience, fulfilled every objective that him and God and the Holy Spirit had planned before the foundation of the world to save you and me. Now, what happened in light of his death on the cross, verse 9. Therefore, god has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that, at the name of Jesus, every knee should 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.
Speaker 1:This is Jesus. He's not some sissy Jesus who's begging you to think about something different. He's not your boyfriend, he's not a human, he's not finite, he's not fickle. He is perfectly God. He is Lord of Lords, king of Kings, he is the Messiah, he reigns and he is more important than your greatest indulgence, your greatest desire, the greatest idol of your heart. None of it compares to Christ. He is greater than everything and your application is so simple today is to take all this knowledge and that line that he is greater and to go home and say what do I need this truth to be applied to? We all have it. I have it. It might be food, it might be relationships, it might be YouTube, entertainment, gossiping, friendships, whatever. You need to remind yourself that Christ is greater than something. The question is just simply what?
Speaker 1:Today, and I'd encourage you to share it with somebody, let's pray, father, we come before you and we are simply in awe of your word. You are Jesus Christ, the word, the Messiah, the risen one. Lord, we ask that you would help us to have our hearts and our minds focused on you and on your truth, that you would help us to not be distracted and discouraged by the things of this world, but that, as we continue to grow in our understanding of your word and apply it in our lives. You to grow in our understanding of your word and apply it in our lives. That we would live lives on mission, not out of obligation or some sort of shaking in our boots, fear, but out of sincere gratitude and love and reverence for the King of Kings and Lord of Lords who died for me. Lord, I ask that you would touch our hearts in a special way today, that you would change us from the inside out and that you would do a mighty work in and through us, here where you've planted us. In Jesus' name, we pray Amen.
