Let's go before our God in prayer, and before we got started here, Annette Craig asked me to pray for her friend Ruby Wallen who has had a terrible stroke and is Clinging to life and so we're gonna pray for her in addition to praying for our time together as a body around the world So let's let's go to God in prayer Heavenly Father, we thank you first of all that you have called us here as your people to study your word Lord it truly is a lamp to our feet a light to our path Thank you for it, and we pray that we would be attentive to it as we study tonight just the great wonder of Who you are Lord Christ as our mediator as our Savior and we pray to you tonight as we consider our friend Ruby Wallen Who is very sick Clinging to life? We pray Lord God that you would be with her by your Holy Spirit That you would encourage her encourage her family We pray for her healing that she would be restored to us Lord we ask your blessing and your peace upon her Be with us now. We pray this in Jesus name Now if you have been with us up into this point or if you've been dropping in you know We are eight weeks now. This is our eighth week in a series. We've been doing on Wednesday night here called basic Christianity And we've been asking some of the the questions that are sort of at the core of what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ What it means to be a believer and this week we're looking at the question of Do you know who Jesus is? Okay, very basic question, but let's take a look at this Now It lets we're gonna play a little game. Do you all remember the show password? They're a password they had they had a They had a word that was the password and you had to say something that would try to get to answer the question, right? So a little clue Well tonight I'll give you two words. You can use a noun and an adjective But whatever words you like if I asked you to describe who Jesus is in two words Where are the first two words that come to your head? This is interactive. So you raise your hand or just say it Son of God Savior Lord King of kings good God incarnate good very good all these are right. Let's keep let's keep going Ken wonderful counselor alpha and omega good creator Holy man Fully man fully man good
fully God good. We need to team you up together
Yeah Okay, well it's important to know who Jesus is because while many people in our culture think they know who Jesus is Sometimes their perceptions of who Jesus really is are really off the mark I've sort of did a little bit of a look through some of the perceptions of Jesus that's around us kind of in our culture A little bit. I'm indebted to you. I put this on our additional reading. I'm indebted to this book For that this book is called vintage Jesus by pastor named Mark Driscoll It's pastor up in Seattle and he does a really good Systematic look at who Jesus is it's a book on what we call Christology the study of who who Christ is and he helped compile a list and I sort of looked around and sort of said Who do people around us? Who do our neighbors? Who do the people that produce our television shows and our films? That create culture who who do they think that Jesus is? Well for some Jesus is a pop culture figure recurring character on a reverent shows like the Simpsons here. It is there South Park. He appears there all the time For others Jesus is a fashion statement and you can't read that. That's a t-shirt Was popular a number of years ago. It says Jesus is my homeboy Um It's sort of it's sort of like Jesus is my co-pilot but for young people Who wear really loose pants? Yeah, I'm making a cultural translation for you see I I write a check to my school every month just so I can do that um For some Jesus is a pitchman for spirit for products like spiritual water. You can purchase spiritual water
Roughly a hundred films have been made about Jesus Some have stayed relatively close to the Bible story of what happened with Jesus in his life yet The passion of the Christ The greatest story ever told You're ever anyone grew up with the greatest story ever told Oh, man to this day. I I love that movie, but I can't read the the part where the centurion says truly this man was the son of God without hearing Hearing the Duke Truly this man was the son of so it's kind of ruined that passage of scripture for me. Thanks, John Wayne
Others have shaped portrayals of Christ that were based on heretical texts false impressions of who Jesus is denying his Deity is humanity or some combination of the above You have the last temptation of Christ which came out in the 80s that was a blasphemous film about the life of Christ The Da Vinci code which draws on some Heretical Gospels to construct this picture of who Christ is in the church This is when I included only because Tim is coming back from the dentist So I figured he will not remember this if they gave him enough gas But perhaps the most bizarre movie about Jesus I think ever made I'm gonna go out on a limb say this is quite possibly the most bizarre film And I'm using that word very loosely about Jesus ever made is a Canadian kung fu horror musical comedy Called Jesus Christ vampire hunter And in the movie Jesus teams up with famed Mexican wrestler El Santos to battle an army of vampires who could walk in the daylight again strange Interestingly many other religions have Opinions and views about who Jesus is you won't find Jesus simply within Christianity You'll find him appearing in various other religions who sort of weighed in on who he is In Buddhism Jesus isn't a god, but he's an enlightened man like the Buddha In Islam Jesus was a prophet who was inferior to Muhammad and definitely not god In Hinduism we have this quote from Mahatma Gandhi He said I cannot ascribe exclusive dominion to Jesus. He is as divine as Krishna or Rama or Muhammad So again, you see that sort of universalist view of who Jesus is In Mormonism I pictured two prominent Mormons here Glend back and Harry Reid Who probably only share wholly underwear and common with one another um In Mormonism Jesus was a man who Became god as all Mormons will one day become gods and Jesus is also the half brother of Lucifer to Mormons It's an interesting twist They don't put that on the brochure In the new age Faith or faith traditions of the new age faith deprock depock Chopra who's a famous new age type of guy said on Larry King fittingly enough on Christmas Eve of 2004 great guy that depock Said I see Christ as a state of consciousness that we can all aspire to again He's not necessarily a unique historical figure as we would say in Christianity. He's certainly not god He's sort of a an example of someone who we can find enlightenment as he did that sort of thing. Okay When asked do you know who Jesus is here's how the famous and infamous have answered that question I've narrowed it down to a couple that I thought were interesting President Thomas Jefferson said Jesus did not mean to impose himself on mankind as the son of god
And boxer Mike Tyson said all praise to Allah. I'll fight any man any animal and if Jesus were here I'd fight him too Interesting take isn't it from the somewhat unbalanced man, but nevertheless that's his view Now what about our kids? Now do you think our kids did they know who Jesus is Well, you'd be surprised 40% of teenagers who claim to be born again and 52% of teens who attend a Protestant church believe that Jesus committed sins while on earth And about 60% agree that enough good works will earn them a place in heaven These are our kids And their views of who Jesus is so maybe while it does seem initially like it's a very very basic thing to ask Who is Jesus what what is he all about? I contend that is a question that we need to every generation Ask and communicate because a proper understanding of who Jesus is is key to everything else that we do and are As people Okay, and this this is from a study if you're interested By a sociologist at Notre Dame named Christian Smith who's done a lot of work on spirituality of American teenagers Okay, the point of all this. What is the point of all this? To be worshippers disciples and missionaries We need to know who Jesus really is and what he came to do Now we won't cover that exhaustively tonight. It's a huge subject many many volumes You can find written on who Jesus is and what he came to do But as per the name of the course we'll touch on some of the basics here tonight Okay, now the first thing that you need to know about Jesus if someone were to say who is Jesus? The first thing that you need to know is that Jesus is a mediator Now we get this word right from the scriptures. This is from first Timothy two verse five Which reads where there is one God and there is one mediator between God and men The man Christ Jesus Okay, so what is a mediator? I found this helpful definition from Robert Shaw who wrote this book which is also on the additional reading tonight Really interesting book from 1845 reprinted in 2008 It's an exposition of the Westminster confession of faith very very good Sort of is going to touch on a lot of the themes we've gone through in this series But very good. I recommend it to you And that's in the additional reading too if you're interested and he wrote a mediator is one who interposes Between two parties at variance To procure a reconciliation Okay, does that make sense? I'll read it one more time you can think about it mediator is one who interposes between two parties at variance to procure a reconciliation And we still have these today you'll find mediation firms I believe Here's judge Barker isn't he a mediator now? Is that right somebody? No, okay, so mediation it's a it's a way to subtle dispute between two parties to come to a common reconciliation
Now if Jesus is a mediator there are several implications of this if Jesus is a mediator Then we know that God is just What do I mean? One of the implications of the statement that Jesus is a mediator is that we have offended God Romans 323 all have sinned and full short of the glory of God And so we need someone to act as our mediator if we had no sin we'd have no need of a mediator We could go directly Unmediated to God Because there would be nothing that would stand in the way of that There are many expressions of our sin, but the Bible teaches us that all of our sins Have their root in the first sin committed by Adam and Eve, which was idolatry Like our first parents we try to be like God that's from Genesis 35 And the results are disastrous we were made to be in a loving relationship with God our sins separated us from God And now we are at odds with God will not let sin go unpunished Because he's perfectly just he's just as the man's that payment be made for sin There's a helpful analogy that we went through When we were looking at the peacemaker material We went through that as a small group for the church a couple years back And one of the the points that they made in that good illustration is If I back my car up in your mailbox and knock that thing down Some payment needs to be made for that act Now either I'm going to buy you a new mailbox and I'm going to absorb the cost Or you're going to buy yourself a new mailbox and you're going to absorb the cost Or you're never going to get mail again and you're going to absorb that cost But somehow a cost will be paid when sin is committed There is a cost that must be paid and because God is just and because he's ordered the universe in a particular way Payment must be made for our sin We read this in Psalm 5 verse 5 the boastful shall not stand before your eyes You hate all evil doers And in Hebrews 927 it is appointed for man to die once and after that comes the judgment
If Jesus is a mediator Another implication is not only that he is just He's also God is also merciful What do I mean? Jesus is a mediator Because God the father appointed him to be a mediator for us before the foundation of the world Since separated us from God but God provided his own son To be the person to bring us back into a right relationship with himself You see that the fact that we have a mediator the fact that that mediator was provided by God himself and is God himself Proves that not only is God just he's also merciful He demands payment for sin but he also provides a means through which we can receive mercy from the hand of time I noted here that God's grace is eternal We read this in 1 John 4 9 through 10 in this the love of God was made manifest among us That God sent his only son into the world so that we might live through him In this is love not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his son To be the propitiation who are sins now that word propitiation refers to you The turning aside of God's wrath When Jesus Christ died on the cross his wrath which was on us because of our sin because we had rebelled against him Rejected him God's wrath because of sin fell not on us But upon his own son Jesus Christ And this appointment that God would send his son Jesus to be a mediator Was mercifully given to us before the foundation of the earth Before time itself began God sent his son and appointed his son to be our mediator to die on the cross for us And this is echoed in John 6 38 through 39 For I have come this is Jesus speaking Jesus says For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will But the will of him who sent me And this is the will of him who sent me that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me But raise it up on the last day you see the eternal grace of God that he would appoint Jesus Christ to be our mediator A couple of the verses there that I didn't print but you can also look if you're interested in this Proverbs 8 23 first Peter 1 verses 19 and 20 Now if Jesus is a mediator It assumes not only that God is just not only that God is merciful But it also assumes Mediation between two parties Pretty basic stuff, right? You can't have a mediator Between an offended party And no one in particular there has to be two parties involved in a mediation So how does Jesus mediate between God and particular people Does Jesus's mediation actually accomplish something Well, let's look at what the scripture says The the consistent teaching of scripture is that God does in fact mediate between two parties God and specific sinful people The clearest expression of this is in John 17 the high priestly prayer of Jesus where we where we read Jesus praying I have manifested your name to the people who you gave me out of the world Yours they were and you gave them to me and they have kept your word I'm praying for them And this is a remarkable statement. He says I am not praying for the world, but for those whom you have given me For the air yours So when Jesus Christ comes to be the mediator he comes to mediate between An aggrieved God and specific people whom he calls his flock His cheat his sheep the church and it is in this high priestly prayer that he prays for them Now the good news is that if you have faith in Jesus Christ He is your mediator He doesn't simply hold out the possibility that you may be saved But his death on the cross actually accomplishes something for you And so when we doubt when we have weaknesses when we stumble and are wrestling with with God and our place and and assurance with him We can say with assurance That Jesus Christ is our mediator and if we put our faith in him if we trust in him He has died for us Our name is written in the book of life and so we have great hope and assurance and this is all implications of Jesus being a mediator Further information on that Isaiah 55 First Corinthians 130 and John 6 which really gets into this a lot. Okay
As a mediator Jesus has two natures now We've talked a little bit about the fact that he is a mediator what that applies about implies about us what it implies about God But it also implies something about Jesus Jesus has two natures divine and human This is important because it qualifies Jesus to be a mediator between God and man Because he is fully God and fully man he can represent both parties who are odds with one another and make Restitution between both of those parties Just a note here. This is why because of the two natures of Christ and I canography Jesus is oftentimes depicted with two raised fingers I don't know if you can see that in the picture He's got three of his fingers down and two of his fingers up. That's for the two natures of Christ all of these paintings told a story that way So that's just an interesting picture if you ever see icons and you say that's the two natures of Christ Okay, the first part of that Jesus is fully God. He is pre-existent According to the Bible Jesus existed before John the Baptist We read that in John one He existed before Abraham you remember that that famous passage where he says before I tell you the truth before Abraham was I am Jesus existed before Noah and the flood we read that in 1 Peter 3 Jesus existed before the foundation of the world John 17 Jesus existed before He himself had a human nature That's John 315 and 662 so before Jesus was born of the virgin Mary He existed before he had a human nature there was a time where Jesus did not have a human nature Once he took a took on a human nature He has it still When Jesus died and rose again, he has a new body or resurrected body, but he still has a human nature That's why when he went to Thomas the famous doubting Thomas story he could say Thomas touch my hands Thomas touch my side And there was actually a human body to touch He still has a human nature. He is eternally and ever-lasting. We be God man
Jesus didn't pre-exist as a created being like an angel But as God again the Bible is clear about this Philippians 2.6 Who though he was in the form of God did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped So Jesus was not a lower created being he existed forever as God And in John 1.1 this famous passage in the beginning was the word referring to Jesus And the word was with God and the word was God
These were not after the fact claims made by the disciples Sometimes you'll read literature or encounter people who say well essentially Jesus was a really good guy, a really dynamic teacher He gathered large crowds around him Somehow everything went off track He was crucified and his believers His disciples were so upset that he had been crucified They sort of concocted this idea Well then maybe he was God and they sort of invented the resurrection They invented these different things to sort of explain that after the fact. Well That's just not in the Bible I mean with all do respect to anyone who has that view It's just a matter of reading comprehension. I mean it's right there. It's in the in the text You don't have to believe it But it's in the Bible. Jesus claimed to be God John 5.17-18 But Jesus answered them My father is working until now and I am working This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him Because not only was he breaking the Sabbath But he was even calling God his own father Making himself equal with God And one of the more clear statements in all of scriptures John 10, 30 and 31 Jesus says I and the father are one The Jews, understanding his meaning, picked up stones again to stone him
And the Bible is also equally unambiguous in inserting in userting that Jesus had a human nature So the Bible says Jesus had a divine nature He also had a human nature John 114 And the word the eternal Son of God became flesh and dwelt among us Relations 4-4 when the fullness of time had come God sent forth his Son Born of a woman Born under the law and then Hebrews 2.14 Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood He himself, Jesus, likewise, partook of the same things flesh and blood That through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death That is the devil
Christ's humanity also extends to the fact that he had a human soul Mark 14 verse 34 And Jesus said to them My soul is very sorrowful even the death Remain here and watch And then in Luke 23 Jesus calling out with a loud voice said Father Into your hands I commit my spirit And having said this he breathed his last Now I simply point that out because I have noticed in recent years I've encountered a number of Christians from other countries particularly Brothers who I love deeply from China for example who Have a strong tradition that says that Jesus Did not have a human soul or human spirit But that at his baptism he was filled with the Holy Spirit And so I'm trying to think of a way that's not crass to explain this Jesus was like a human being who was sort of externally human But really the engine underneath the hood was God You see that so he's really God he just sort of appears like a human being Right that teaching is that's actually being debated right now In one of our presbyteries in Los Angeles Between two Chinese Christians who were brothers in Christ were really kind of battling it out And all of us who didn't encounter that Teaching and are kind of looking at them saying Wait you're arguing about what now? Because it's something that we in the western church haven't really dealt with a long time But I thought I'd bring that up just in case you hear that or that encounters You he had a human soul he had a human spirit
Why is this important I talked about that here There have been a number of heresies throughout the history of the church that have denied either christ's human nature or as divine nature Talked about that to There's these things are kind of cropping up again. So we need to talk about them. It's not a big problem, but it exists We'll do a little spotlight on ancient heresies here mostly for Jerry because he's our church history guy One of these that they were addressing in this is Dostatism from the Greek word dokeo or to seam This heresy taught that Jesus was fully God but only seemed to have a human being I think the best way I can think about this is that he was kind of like Ben Kenobi after he was killed in Star Wars episode four you remember that Darth Vader hits him with the lightsaber his coat falls to the ground Hey, and then here he is it's old Ben Kenobi again, but you can kind of see through him now He has a body, but but not really you know he's a spirit That's an ancient heresy That was put aside this is a great quote. I want to just highlight this one I came across this from Shaw's book I pointed up earlier he says this Besides some ancient heretics Certain anabaptists who appeared in England around the time of the Reformation a sort of that Christ brought down his human nature from heaven And that it only passed through Mary as the beams of the sun through glass When I die I want something to write that quote down and like just stick it in my suit pocket Because when Jesus comes again, and I'm raised I want to show that quote to Mary I mean wouldn't that be great? Hey, look at these guys taught in the 1500s They said that Jesus passed through you like sunlight through through glass Um, I don't know if G if there's laughing in heaven or if Mary as the the mother of Jesus would be allowed to punch people in heaven Um, but it just was sort of a funny quote Uh, Jesus was a real human being He was fully God The Holy Spirit came upon Mary and and his human nature was born, but he was born like a baby Um, sort of romanticized this. I know I hate to ruin the song, but you know the little Lord Jesus no crying. He makes Not true. He cried. It was a real baby. He wasn't like a you know this you know weird Um, you know Subhuman or I don't know humanoid baby he cried he was born to born. I mean, I don't know about you I imagine what would happen if I laid down my kids in a baila straw He cried Maybe we could change it to little Lord Jesus some crying he makes anyway
Now the summary on this section is that Jesus our our mediator has two distinct natures Human and divine These are and I quoted the Westminster Confession on this because I think they say it really well These are inseparably joined together in one person without conversion composition or confusion Now those uh, hit on three specific heresies that they were dealing with and I won't really get into it But essentially Jesus has two divine natures. They are distinct um and but they are exist Within him as the god man. That's the the teaching. It's a mystery how that is we can't quite explain how that is Uh, but scripture teaches it and so we believe Um, this is a luke 135 speaks to this and the angel answered her that is the virgin Mary The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the most high will overshadow you Therefore the child to be born will be called holy the son of god You see that from is um even from the moment the Holy Spirit overshadowed her and Jesus was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit This baby Jesus Christ was fully God the son of god But also it was a baby Born uh with a real mother Who was really pregnant and who really gave birth to her Not like son going through glass, but in the normal painful way See also a closions to nine Romans nine first Peter 3 18 all these are on your sheet I didn't print them all out, but they're all kind of echoing that same same thing Now having established that the Bible teaches Jesus is our mediator Jesus is able to function as our mediator because Being the eternal son of god he became man and so was and continue with to be Both god and man and two distinct natures and one person forever. That's from the catechism great And I wasn't intending to quote that. I just was thinking about it And I thought how would I explain the two natures in a just in a succinct way and just kind of came up So teach your kids a catechism. It's it's helpful. I'll remember things like that Um, how does Jesus accomplish his work? How does Jesus reconcile us to god?
First thing we'll talk talk about the active obedience of Christ Jesus obeyed the law perfectly on our behalf What we failed to do he did While the first Adam disobeyed god Jesus was the second Adam Will obeyed god perfectly Romans 5, 1 Corinthians 15, or all Expositions about what this means that Jesus is the second Adam In his life, Jesus was poor in spirit. He says on the Sermon on the Mount blessed are the poor in spirit That is he did not rely on his own resources but walked by the spirit When he was tempted what did he do? He quoted scripture When he was making an important decision we often read that Jesus went off on his own to pray And in so doing he fulfilled the law Jesus was actively obedient fulfilling the law of Christ perfectly And also Jesus accomplishes his meditorial work through the passive obedience of Christ now when we talk about passive We don't mean the way we normally use it in English which is to say You know if I have a 13-year-old kid Who doesn't want to hear a lecture about Christ and would rather play NBA jam on PlayStation or something He's going to sit there passively kind of like this zoned out Jesus didn't obey passively in the sense that he wasn't involved in it This is passive in the sense of the work passion you're the passion of the Christ. This was refers to his death Jesus being perfect was able to substitute for imperfect human beings According to the Bible Jesus is the spotless lamb of God who died in our place That's first people one night when Jesus died on the cross the wrath of God against all of our sin was poured out on Jesus God the offended party Took our place and became the offender but as Corinthians teaches us not in a way that made him sinful Jesus did not become sinful He became sin for us Do you see the distinction? And he could become sin for us Be precisely because he was not a sinner Because he was perfectly holy he was the spotless lamb of God Who could substitute for us the perfect for the imperfect second second Corinthians 521 Which I just I just referenced for our sake god the father made him to be sin who knew no sin So that in Jesus we might become the righteousness of God Do you see that that's that great exchange Jesus our mediator takes our sin off of us Tim noted this in the sermon. I think last week or the week before He takes our sin off of us and he gives us the full righteousness of Christ Which is remarkable remarkable
Jesus's perfect life and sacrificial death are imputed or given to us and received by faith This is what we call in a technical language Penal substitutionary atonement Bye had a nickel for how many times I said that today. We become one with God Substituted because Jesus died as our substitute paying the penalty for sin. You see that? Penal Substitutionary atonement One with God atonement Because Jesus died as our substitute substitutionary Penal because he's paying the penalty for sin and then I noted this real quickly This is communicated frequently in the Bible much more smoothly than I just did When Jesus is described as dying on the cross for us So for example first Peter 318 for Christ also suffered once Four sins the righteous For the unrighteous that he might bring us to God being put to death in the flesh but being made alive in the spirit Now it's important to stress that because this view of Christ's Penal substitutionary atonement or substitutionary atonement is is not held by all who claim to be Christians You really would be surprised but there's sort of an undercurrent and Debates rising in many younger evangelical authors Whose books you will find right alongside really great solid theological writers Who are denying this very pointedly? For example Brennan Manning who wrote a book called the Ragamuffin gospel He wrote this book called above all which is Indoor by Michael W Smith He writes in this quoting a Roman Catholic mystic He writes the God who extracts the last drop of blood from his son So that his just anger evoked by sin may be appeased Does not exist. You see that
This is an interview with William Young who wrote the book The Shack Again, I was not cherry picking these guys. I'm not trying to pick on these guys. This is serious She need to know this because there's some of these books right alongside really good stuff And you and there might be good stuff in there I'm not making a blanket statement. I'm not saying everything this guy wrote is garbage Just note. This is what he's teaching. Here's an interview that he did with Kendall Adams who's a Baptist pastor In 2009 The interviewer asked him so you do believe that Christ was punished then for our sin Young who wrote the shak says I believe that that Christ became sin for us And so so far we say good good William Young You're on the team But then he's then the interview Interviewer based on some previous ambiguity says I mean that he was a sacrifice that he was punished that he took Young says By who interview the father he's punished by the father Why would the father punish his son do you see that This absolutely essential doctrine to what it means to be a Christian is denied That Jesus died on the cross here's here's one from the Pope Well, he didn't write this in fairness. It was written many years before him But this is from the council of Trent Canon 12 part 2 The quote is if anyone shall say that justifying faith Is nothing else than confidence in the divine mercy pardoning sins for Christ's sake Or that it is that confidence alone by which we are justified Let him be accursed He looks so happy for a guy who's accrucing us all to hell But that's out there you should know that This is an important doctrine not affirmed by all And it's one that we need to hold fast to you
This is mainline Catholicism now Roman Catholicism is a very broad tent And now they they're I'm sure you could find Roman Catholics We just found a Roman Catholic mystic who said something way more wacky than this or as equally wacky as this Some would deny it. Some would affirm it. In fact is the Pope can strike this anytime None of them have there's there have been people who have said We would like to have greater fellowship with you, greater union with you You know even jelicles and Catholics together and kind of join forces as much as we can Would you revisit this would you strike this the answer from this Pope the previous Pope the Pope before that is no
Yes, well, yeah, well what what he's what the official position of the Roman Catholic Church is To believe that Jesus is our mediator Who as fully God and fully man died on the cross four hour sins So that Jesus as a mediator Accomplishes something on the cross by which we have forgiveness and that that is all we need for salvation We need to simply put our faith in Jesus Christ who is our mediator apart from any works that we would do apart from any rituals that we would perform Apart from anything else that we are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone That is officially condemned as anathema by the Roman Catholic Church and so We are excommunicated which for them I guess means we go to purgatory hell You know something along those lines and that exists now again I'm not telling you to go knock on your Roman Catholic neighbors door and throw this in his face and start arguing with them I'm just saying that this is there's a long history of denying this within the Christian community and so we need to be aware We often times for the sake of wanting to get along Accept very vague definitions and very vague wording And if I say I love Jesus and you say you love Jesus. Hey, we're all good But we may not know that this person who's talking to us doesn't know who Jesus is And so we need to tell them about Jesus and we need to ask what do you mean by you believe in Jesus? What do you mean by the fact that Jesus died for our sins what what do you mean by that um Tell me about it. Why does that make you happy and so We can we can talk to one another and that's not to be right or to whack them But it's because if they don't know Jesus they really need to know him And this could be a person that's been let us stray Uh With all good intentions go into a church talking to Christian people that have let him The wrong way so Just need to be aware of that. Yes. Well, there are the question is if he didn't die in the cross for our sins Then what is he accomplishing? There are those that would say he died on the cross as an example This is how much God loves you That he would send Jesus To die on the cross and incur a great deal of pain So Since God loves you that much Then you should really love him a lot too And then through your loving him He'll reciprocate that and then you'll be right with him You see that it's it's soft works It's not the old hard fundamentalist Works righteousness. It's sort of a newer Dr. Phil version You know, but it still works righteousness It's it's it's it looks nicer. It's wearing a sweater But it's still do this Love God enough And he will love you back But the gospel is While we were still sinners Christ died for us. That's good news not good news for me to tell you If you just muster up enough Gumpshin in your gut to really love Jesus a lot and be a really good person Then maybe probably you'll be saved. That's not good news If you think it is may I humbly suggest You have an overinflated view of yourself and your own abilities And frankly not a biblical view of yourself So That's that's what Jesus is and that's what he came to do And so we need to again it may sound basic to you But unfortunately it's not not basic to some people. Maybe it's not basic to you But you really need to know this because this is really the core and the heart of what it means to be a Christian Okay, let's let's move on How do we know that God accepts Jesus's sacrifice on our behalf Jesus having fully satisfied the justice of God the Father And we read that all throughout scripture you can look those up if you'd like Jesus having fully satisfied the justice of God the Father purchased not only reconciliation But an everlasting inheritance in the kingdom of heaven. This is Ephesians 1 versus 11 through 12 In him in Christ We have obtained an inheritance Having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things According to the counsel of his will So that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be the praise of his glory And also he brews nine 12 and 15 Jesus entered once for all Into the holy places not by means of blood of the blood of goats and calves By the means of his own blood Thus securing an eternal redemption Therefore he is the mediator Of a new covenant So that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance Since a death has occurred That that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant. That's a lot of the themes Jesus is our mediator He is the one through whom we have access to God the Father We have access because he being fully God and fully man took our place died on the cross for us Satisfying the righteous requirements of the law For those of us who transgress the law who disobeyed who fell short of the glory of God through our sin And because he is God's son Appointed to this task before the foundation of the world He secures for us not only a reconciliation with God But an eternal and heavenly home A place where we will be with God forever. That's he is our God He's our Redeemer. He's our Savior Right any kind of questions. I noted here these books that I've held up another one that I didn't talk about Is Don Carson DA Carson wrote a book that I read this year called scandalous the cross and resurrection of Jesus I highly recommend it. It's a very short very short book relatively speaking 168 pages Very accessible but good Don Carson is a really great writer So if you want to read a little bit more about the cross and resurrection of Jesus Or if you just want to start reading the book grab this thing. I'll let you borrow mine or I'll buy a copy or whatever and read it It's good any questions any other thoughts kind of as we hit the Home stretch here. Yeah, see it's used this ad is the word advocate the same as mediator It's not exactly the same But it's a sort of similar function that Jesus That Jesus performs for us Jesus is our advocate with God in the sense that he pleads our case to God And he can plead our case because of his identity as the mediator Because he's fully God He can stand in the presence of God and plead for us because he's a man He can take the penalty that we deserved To make that reconciliation possible He can not only advocate and say I advocate for you But he can also say And the penalty that which stands between You or God and can a can It's gone. I have paid it because I like can a and I died as a human being and I rose again Because I'm the son of God. I believe I am not sure These new ones here are brand new they this one came out in 2009 or let's see 2007 this one came out in 2010. I'd be surprised that we have this one. We may have this one And I do believe we have the Shaw book of which one of this one I'll read I'll read all of them to you. I'll back it up one Yeah, it's on the back. It's written down there vintage Jesus by a marked risk school and Gary brochures He's a pastor in Seattle. It's basically If you've ever heard of a systematic theology we've talked a little bit about systematic theology Kind of if you just chopped out the chapter on Jesus from a systematic theology. That's what this would be It sort of looks through all the Bible and says what does the Bible say about Jesus and it kind of looks at it in kind of category Rather than then then the Bible which unfolds it over history then the story of God's redemption and then This one again scandalous the cross and resurrection of Jesus. This has a lot about that But I was talking about substitutionary atonement What does it mean that Jesus died for us? And it really gets into that a lot and then this is An exposition of the Westminster confession of faith Robert Shaw 1800s Kind of 1800s-ish language sometimes very thorough Man, it's amazing what kind of good books we could read before we had TV Or right, you know what I mean? It's like nobody writes like that. That's a guy that wrote with a lamp And early what they call it is the
Example theory of the atonement. I maybe I'm not quite saying that right. There's a way to say Tim, do you know with what is that? It's the exemplary theory of the atonement That yeah, sort of more sentimental than actually efficacious. It doesn't actually accomplish something It is sort of is just a demonstration of God's love Which I just have to say is very offensive to me that that that View is is not only incorrect. It's offensive. I do not worship a God who would have his son Executed in the manner that he was executed Simply to demonstrate But I do believe in a God who sacrificed his own son For us because that was the only way anyways that God can show his love for us That would not have involved His son. Well, it's essentially it. I think it's a I think it's a I can't I'm not a psychologist. I can't get in their head But I think it's a misplaced pacifism A lot of them come from They're sort of disciples of a guy named Yoda who was a pacifist theologian And so the idea They come in with the a priori assumption that violence is is bad God cannot commit commit violence the cross is violent so there must be a God cannot require violence as a means by which we're reconciled in God Now that's that's not it's not biblical But it's what they bring to the scriptures in order to try to understand who who God is and what's happening there And as always what happens is it starts out as a whisper kind of Becomes two guys whispering to each other and then it becomes a group of guys talking about it on the web And then it becomes a guy who sort of floats it in a book Because there's all they're all congregationalists. So really only their church could be mad at them So only if their church doesn't kick them out Then they kind of get a little bit bolder and then But it's out there. Look there's a church right down the street That had one of these guys another guy who didn't quote Brian McLaren came to came to their church spoke to their kids Brian McLaren doesn't believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross To pay the penalty of our sin he just doesn't he ever read that in Ten of his books you it really is. It's true. Oh, yeah doctor doctor right Tom right well Tom right is is another guy Tom right's a little bit better than these guys NT right he's asking about a writer named NT right is a bishop of Durham He's a little bit better. He's really solid on some things like the resurrection some other things Well, he it's it's complicated, but essentially Tom right believes that And you may encounter him because he really is I don't want to throw this guy to the bus He's very good on a lot of things. Do you want to hear about some really good arguments for the resurrection read NT right stuff It's really solid, but where he goes a little bit off kilter is He essentially says that Justification is not so much about our individual salvation or individual forgiveness or sins But it's about becoming part of the body of believers He again, this is maybe getting a little bit confusing. It's really hard to sort of say it in a succinct way But essentially what he says is that what God really wants for us Is to become part of the community of faith and to walk the path that Jesus walked You'll hear that phrase a lot walking in the steps of Jesus Following Jesus. Hey, I don't want to be a Christian. I want to be a Jesus follower And that sounds really good. I want you to be a Jesus follower But I want more than anything else your sins to be forgiven Because you can't be a Jesus follower unless you have the Holy Spirit You can't have the Holy Spirit unless Jesus died on the cross for you and you put your faith in him I mean you can follow Jesus, you know, all day long Hey, I don't think you're gonna do very good job Be it an in meaning thing So that's where Tom Wright gets a little bit off of kilter but again, you know It's one of those things if you have a guy who doesn't believe in the resurrection Hand him a Tom Wright book. You have a very faithful Christian person There are a lot better books to give them than Tom and T. Wright His name is D goes by Tom but Because that's because we're buddies and we hang out right whenever I'm in England. I have T and crumpets at his house It'll good old bishop of Durham Anyway, well, we're kind of at the time now We're gonna call it let's go get your kids if you need them Go hang out if you want to Yeah, if you need them if you need ours go take them seriously No, I'm just kidding just overnight. You could take them overnight um Go get your kids hang out talk with one another if you want to follow up with me if any of this is sort of obtuse I'm happy to hear from you. Let's pray All Lord Jesus we thank you that you're a mediator and thank you that you died for us lord god When I think about my own son and how far away
In myself who who I in my sinful nature It's overwhelming that you would die in the cross for me. I thank you that you've died on the cross for All many most of the people that are here All of whom who have put their faith in you they they are yours and you are their mediator. I thank you for it I thank you for the comfort that is and I pray Lord God that we would um That all of this Information about you and who you are Would really drive us to prayer and worship and that you would just light a fire in a glorify you and all these things Father We acknowledge that you are far greater than we are your thoughts are above our thoughts and your ways are above our ways But thank you for condescending to us and speaking to us in Jesus It is in his name we pray. See you next week