Grace OPC Sewickley PA

Sermon Series: Foundations of Faith

  • Foundations of Faith: He Ascended into Heaven

    Foundations of Faith: He Ascended into Heaven

    About this sermon

    1. Notice that our Lord’s accession into heaven was an historical event seen by multiple witnesses (v. 9).
    2. Understand that Christ’s ascension marked His heavenly exhalation, coronation, and enthronement at the right hand of God the Father (vv. 10-11).
    3. Take to heart that the manner in which our Lord ascended indicates the manner in which He will return (v. 11).

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    Sermon transcript

    Well please remain standing for the reading of God’s Word. We continue our Foundations of Faith series, a series which is being guided by that great classical Bible-based creed of the church, the Apostles’ Creed. And this morning we consider the doctrine of Christ’s ascension into heaven. And what better place to consider this doctrine than Acts 1. Verses nine through 11, I’m gonna read the first 12 verses of Acts chapter one to fill out the context a bit. But let us hear God’s holy word from Acts chapter one. In the first book of Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach. until the day when he was taken up after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during 40 days and speaking about the kingdom of God.

    And while staying with them, he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which he said, you heard from me. For John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit, not many days from now. So when they had come together, they asked him, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? He said to them, it is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth. And when He had said these things, as they were looking on, He was lifted up, and a cloud took Him out of their sight.

    And while they were gazing into heaven, as He went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes and said, Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who has taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw Him go into heaven. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever. Once again, please join me in prayer as we ask for the Lord’s blessing. upon the preaching of his word. Our gracious God, heavenly Father, we thank you that you have revealed yourself and your truth to us. We thank you that in the holy scriptures you grant us this treasure of saving truth. We pray that by your spirit we would be edified and strengthened and built up in our faith through what we consider today.

    Open our minds and our hearts to behold wondrous things from your word. And once again, Lord, we beseech you to set a guard over my lips, that I, your unworthy servant, may speak only that which is faithful to the word, edifying to your people and glorifying to your holy name. We pray these things in Jesus’ name and all of God’s people said. Amen. You may be seated. For the children this morning, there’s quite a few key words that you can be listening for, or that you can select to listen for, as you’ll see in your sermon outline. The title of my sermon this morning, Foundations of Faith, He Ascended into Heaven. Well, dear ones, if you were asked to come up with a short list of things that Jesus did in order to secure your eternal salvation, what do you think that you would include on that list?

    I imagine there’s many things that you might include on such a list, but my guess is that you would probably include as important items on that list the truth that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins, and that on the third day he rose again from the dead so that all who trust in him might not perish but have everlasting life. And you know, you would be correct. You would be correct to include those items on your list. For friends, the atoning death and the glorious resurrection of the Lord Jesus are indeed foundational, central truths to the gospel message. However, friends, there is another very important thing that our Lord Jesus did in order to secure our eternal salvation, but which many Christians seem to either ignore or neglect in terms of giving it the attention that it is due.

    And that is the truth that our Lord Jesus Christ ascended into heaven, as we confess in the words of the Apostles’ Creed. It’s a vital truth. This truth of the ascension of Christ is a vital gospel truth. He ascended into heaven and it is to that truth that I would have us turn our attention on this Lord’s Day morning as we consider a passage from God’s Word which records this event of our Lord’s ascension into heaven. We have Luke’s record of this amazing historical event. Now, as we turn our attention to our passage for this morning, I would point out to you that this passage from God’s Word reveals not only the historical event of our Lord Jesus being lifted up into heaven, the glorious event of our Lord’s ascension, but this passage also points to why this supernatural event is so important. in Christ’s completion of the work that God the Father had given him to do.

    Christ had completed his saving mission and the crowning proof of that was not only his resurrection but also his ascension into heaven. But this event recorded by Luke also points to why this supernatural event is so important in Christ’s completion of that work. Dear ones, the truth of our Lord’s glorious ascension into heaven is an absolutely essential doctrine of the basic gospel message. It’s just as essential to the biblical gospel as is the truths of our Lord’s incarnation, of His death on the cross as a substitutionary atonement for our sins, and His bodily resurrection from the dead on the third day. Our Lord’s ascension into heaven was essential for the confirmation and securing of our eternal salvation, and therefore it is also vital for our comfort and our encouragement as weary pilgrims of Christ, especially as we make our journey through this valley of tears to our eternal home where Christ has gone before us to prepare a place for us.

    Now when it comes to our passage for today, let’s consider the context here. Luke was the human author of both the Gospel of Luke as well as the Book of Acts. In fact, the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts should really be viewed as two volumes of one historical work. Volume 1 being the history of what Jesus began to do and teach during his time on earth, as recorded in Luke’s Gospel. And Volume 2 being what Jesus continues to do through his church in his resurrected estate of exaltation, as recorded here in Luke. in the Book of Acts. In fact, many have suggested, you know, the Book of Acts is titled the Acts of the Apostles. Some have suggested, and I think rightly so, that it would be better entitled the Acts of the Holy Spirit or the Acts of the resurrected Jesus through the Holy Spirit in and through his church.

    But that would get to be a little bit of a long title there. Well, anyways, the fact that Luke wrote both Luke and the Book of Acts, this being the case, here at the beginning of the Book of Acts, Luke starts off with events that happened after Jesus had risen from the dead. And so if you look at verse one, let me briefly cover verses one to three. Luke says, in the first book, O Theophilus, this is how we know that the author of Acts is the same author as the author of the Gospel of Luke, because in the Gospel of Luke, at the beginning of that Gospel, he also addresses that work to Theophilus. In the first book, O Theophilus, that would be the Gospel of Luke, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when he was taken up.” In other words, until the day of his ascension.

    After he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles, the apostles being Christ’s appointed spokespersons, his spokesmen, after he had presented himself and given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. And then verse three, he presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs. Jesus had appeared to multiple eyewitnesses after he rose from the dead. And you remember, the gospel accounts record numerous occasions where Jesus did so. Remember, for example, doubting Thomas, He said, I’m not gonna believe he rose unless I can see his nail prints and put my fingers in the spear wound in his side. And Jesus shows up the next week and basically says to Thomas, here I am, put your fingers here in my nail prints in my side. And Thomas fell on his feet and said, my Lord and my God.

    And so Jesus presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs appearing to them during 40 days and speaking about the kingdom of God. And then after presenting himself to his apostles, Jesus gives his disciples some final teachings and instructions, and you can read about those from verses four through eight of this passage. But then after that, we are told in verse nine that our Lord ascended up into heaven in the sight of his apostles, as it says in verse nine. And when he had said these things, as they were what? As they were looking on. as they were looking on, he was lifted up and a cloud took him out of their sight. Well, this brings me to my first point today, brothers and sisters. I want you to notice that our Lord’s ascension into heaven was an historical event seen by multiple eyewitnesses.

    Our Lord’s ascension into heaven was an historical event seen, witnessed by multiple eyewitnesses. says again, verse nine, when they, when he, rather, had said these things, as they were looking on, who’s the they? In the context here, that’s his surviving apostles, the 11 apostles, all of the apostles minus, of course, Judas Iscariot, who tragically had committed suicide. So all of the apostles witnessed this, and what do they see? It says, as they were looking on, he was lifted up Let’s focus first of all on what it says here that they were looking on. Christ’s ascension was seen with their very own eyes. His ascension was a visible historical event seen by numerous eyewitnesses, namely his apostles. And this is important because many today would read a text like this and try to make it into a metaphor or a myth or a fable or perhaps an edifying spiritual story that conveys a visionary experience or what have you, but it’s important to understand this was not a subjective vision experienced by some isolated mystic, nor was it a hallucination brought on by wishful thinking.

    Remember the disciples before his resurrection, Jesus’ disciples weren’t expecting him to rise from the dead, and they were surprised after he rose from the dead to see him. But so, no, this was not a hallucination, this was not some subjective vision, this was not a fable made up by the later church and read back into the history of the early church as some more liberal theologians would suggest. No, friends, this is presented by Luke who is a careful historian, is presented by the inspired writer Luke as a public historical event observed by numerous individuals. At least 11 individuals saw him ascend into heaven. And what does it mean when it says he was lifted up? It means that Jesus defied gravity, that he literally was raised from off the earth and taken into the glory realm of heaven.

    Now, Let me just make a few comments about this term heaven and how the Bible uses that term. Just like in the English language, our own language, that term heaven can mean different things depending upon the context in which it is used. If you’re in a conversation with a scientist who’s an astronomer and he’s talking about heaven or the heavens, you know he’s talking about the physical heavens. He’s talking about the cosmos. But when you’re talking about a loved one, a fellow believer, a loved one or a friend who’s passed away, you say, well, that person has gone to be with the Lord in heaven. Well, the Bible uses this term heaven likewise in different ways depending on the context. The Bible often uses heaven not only to speak of the physical sky above and the habitation of the stars, but also that term is sometimes used to refer to the unseen spiritual heavenly realm, the realm where God’s direct presence shines in luminescent divine glory, the place where the Almighty is attended by the multitude of the heavenly hosts, angels and archangels, and departed saints.

    And it is not that the spiritual realm, that this spiritual realm of heaven is literally physically, quote, up there. See, in recording this event of our Lord’s ascension, where Jesus is lifted up into the realm of heaven, Luke is not trying to give us a lesson in cosmic geography or the structure of the universe. Instead, this supernatural event of our Lord’s physical bodily lifting up into heaven is a fitting picture of Christ’s exaltation into that higher spiritual realm of heaven. And it is a fitting picture of his return into God the Father’s direct, glorious, kingly presence. And this is indicated by the phenomenon that attends our Lord’s physical levitation, his being lifted up physically from the ground into the glory realm of heaven. What does it say? It says, and a cloud took him out of their sight.

    Now we look up in the sky and we often, especially here in Pittsburgh, we often see clouds, right? But, brothers and sisters, I would suggest to you that this is no ordinary cloud. You see, in Scripture, clouds were often symbols of God’s glory. And sometimes the clouds that show up in Scripture are not the natural phenomenon of clouds that we see. Sometimes they are what the theologians call theophanies. I believe, brothers and sisters, that there’s good reason to understand this cloud here as being no ordinary cloud. Rather, this appears to have been what some call the glory cloud, that glory cloud that so often shows up in Scripture. It may have even been the very Shekinah glory of God himself, the glory that had dwelt in the Old Testament temple. And that would make sense, after all, since Jesus himself is revealed in Scripture to be the living temple who fulfilled the symbolism of the Old Covenant temple.

    Jesus is the Word made flesh who came to do what? To tabernacle, to make his tent his dwelling amongst us. And if you, just as a plug for this evening’s sermon, as we’ve been making our way through 1 Peter in the evening, we’ve been considering a passage in 1 Peter 2 where Christ himself is described as a living stone in this living temple. He himself is the divine living temple and we as the church are a living temple in spiritual and saving union with him. I would suggest to you, beloved, that there is good reason to believe that this cloud here was the same glorious supernatural cloud that had descended upon Mount Sinai when God had revealed his law to his redeemed people. That cloud was basically an indication that the glory realm of heaven was touching the earth.

    That God was, as it were, pulling back the veil that separates the earthly realm from the glory realm of heaven. And that realm was shrouded, though, behind this supernatural theophanic cloud. I believe there’s good reason to understand this cloud as the same cloud that had led the Israelites through the wilderness, you know, the cloud which had hovered above the tabernacle in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, leading God’s people through the wilderness. I believe it was the same cloud that had filled Solomon’s temple at the temple’s dedication when the glory of God, the glory cloud of God, the presence of the holy God was present in the temple in such a thick manifestation of glory that the priests could not even stand up and they had to depart from the temple for a time.

    It was the same cloud that had overshadowed the three disciples who had witnessed our Lord’s transfiguration on the holy mountain of transfiguration. And I believe it is the same cloud that will attend our Lord Jesus when he returns at his glorious second advent at the end of this age. It was It was, I believe, a supernatural theophany, a supernatural visible sign of God’s holy, glorious, kingly, and covenantal presence. This cloud that we see throughout Scripture, you can trace it, you can tie it all together from the Scriptures. This is pointing to a higher realm, a heavenly realm. And Christ has gone before us into that realm to prepare a place for us. How appropriate that this glory cloud should engulf our resurrected Savior as He ascended in victory back to the Father who had sent Him, having completed the work that the Father had given Him to do, and accompanying Him for His coronation at the Father’s right hand as King of kings and Lord of lords.

    Now what do we learn from this amazing event here and from what we read about this event? Well, dear ones, this teaches us, among other things, among many other things, this teaches us that our Christian faith is based on the facts of history. It is based upon God’s mighty deeds and words of redemption performed in real space-time history. It’s based upon real events like our Savior’s virgin birth, His atoning death by crucifixion under Pontius Pilate, His glorious physical bodily resurrection from the dead, and yes, His bodily ascension into the glory realm of heaven to be our great high priest to represent us before the Father. Our faith is not based upon fantasy or upon myth or upon metaphor or mere wishful thinking. Our faith is based on God’s acts in history. And again, I know I say this often, but remember history is what?

    His story. He is working out his sovereign plan throughout human history. Let us as a church faithfully confess to the world the historical truth of our precious faith. But next, beloved, as we go on in our passage, understand next that Christ’s ascension marked His heavenly exaltation, coronation, and enthronement at the right hand of God the Father. Christ’s ascension marked His heavenly exaltation, coronation, and enthronement at the right hand of God the Father as King of kings and Lord of lords. It says this in verse 10. And while they, while the disciples were gazing into heaven as he went up, and what a sight that must have been. Behold, that means pay attention, means this is important. Behold, two men stood by them in white robes. All of a sudden, these two men in white robes show up, and what does that indicate?

    The white robes points to the fact that these were no ordinary men. This was what, again, to use a fancy term, this is what the theologians would call an angelophany. It was the angels manifesting themselves in human form to convey a message from the Lord. And so these two men, and you know, every fact in scripture is attested by two or more witnesses, right? And so there’s two men, there’s two angelic beings that stood by these disciples. And what did they say to them? Look at verse 11. They said, men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? To which I’m tempted to say, duh. That’s, don’t you see? But again, they ask a question to make a point here, to get them thinking. Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven?

    This Jesus, this one that you’re looking at, this resurrected Lord Jesus Christ, the one who was crucified, the one whom you thought had been defeated, this Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven, he’s going back up to heaven, back into the glory realm. Here’s the good news. He will come in the same way as you saw Him go into heaven. More on that in just a few minutes. But friends, our Savior’s being lifted up in the presence of His disciples and being received into the glory cloud, as we’re told in verse 9, these were visible indicators of the fact that Christ’s ascension indeed marked His heavenly exaltation, coronation, and enthronement at the right hand of God the Father. It’s also affirmed by the fact that these two angelic beings, these two men in white robes, announced to the disciples that Christ has indeed gone into heaven.

    So they are bearing witness to the fact that Christ has been victorious. He has conquered sin and death and hell and he’s going into the glory realm of heaven, going back to be with his Father and to reign over all as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. You know, this passage, I believe, contains what are likely echoes of Daniel 7, verse 13, and I believe that this passage is a fulfillment, this event of our Lord’s ascension is a fulfillment of the prophecy contained in Daniel 7, verse 13. 13 and 14, I’d invite you to turn there. I just want to, again, read that very briefly and make a few comments on it. In Daniel 7, verse 13, We read of this mysterious Son of Man figure. And this, by the way, is one of the reasons why I believe Jesus’ favorite self-designation was not Son of God, but Son of Man.

    Because in this passage, the Son of Man is a divine messianic figure. It says this in verse 13, I saw in the night vision. So Daniel is seeing a vision. The context makes that clear. And behold, with the clouds of heaven, there are those clouds again, with the clouds of heaven, there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days. So here is a picture of this messianic royal figure, this messianic son of man coming to the Ancient of Days, to God the Father. and was presented before him and to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all peoples, nations and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed. This is speaking of Christ ascending into heaven, ascending to the ancient of days and taking up his kingly reign in glory.

    And so again, this underscores the truth that our Lord’s ascension marked His exaltation, coronation, and enthronement at the right hand of God the Father. And the right hand of God the Father is the place of ultimate power, honor, and authority. The right hand of a king in the ancient world, if you were invited to sit at the right hand of an ancient king, that was the place of highest honor, the place of highest authority. Jesus, the God-man, Our Redeemer is exalted at the right hand of God the Father. Now what, how does this connect with our lives today? Well, in many ways, but let me just give you a few takeaways from this, a few lessons we can learn from this. My friends, the ascension and exaltation of Christ teaches us that Jesus reigns over all creation for the sake of His church, as the Apostle Paul writes in Ephesians 1, verse 22.

    What does that mean? That means that Jesus Christ is King. He is Lord. And you might expect me to ask you the question, well, is Jesus your king? But I’m not gonna ask exactly that question, because guess what? Jesus Christ is your king, whether you acknowledge him as such or not. He is King of kings and Lord of lords. His authority, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him by the Father, as Jesus said in the Great Commission, in Matthew 28, verse 19. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me, the Lord Jesus says. He is King, but in the gospel, He calls you and me and all people to acknowledge His Lordship, acknowledge His saving kingship. Have you, dear listener, bowed to Jesus in your heart by faith and received Him as your King, your Lord, your Savior from sin?

    He has conquered sin and death and hell. He has ascended to the Father’s right hand. He reigns as King of kings and Lord of lords, and He calls you and me to repent and believe in him. He is the king. What will you do with your king? Will you reject him or will you by grace through faith receive him? The ascension and exaltation of Christ also confirms the truth that Christ is victorious over all of his and our enemies, including our greatest enemies. What are our greatest enemies? Some might say our greatest enemy is the government, or our greatest enemy is crime, or our greatest enemy is discontent or depression. And certainly all of those things can be viewed in a certain way, at least as enemies. Although God uses all things for the good of his people, but our greatest enemies, beloved, are sin, death, hell, and the devil.

    But by grace through faith, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. We are victors and overcomers in Christ. His kingship, as attested by his ascension, guarantees our ultimate victory. As our shorter catechism states in answer to question 26, Christ executed the office of a king in subduing us to himself, in ruling and defending us, and in restraining and conquering all his and our enemies. Without our Lord’s ascension, this kingly victory of Christ would not be possible, but because Jesus has ascended to the Father and reigns over all, he is able to subdue your stubborn will and mine. He is able to subdue us to himself, to rule us and defend us, and to conquer and restrain all of his and our enemies. How comforting that is, beloved. And friends, since we believers are united to Christ as signified and sealed in our baptism as Romans 6 teaches, since we are united to Christ by grace through faith, Christ’s ascension and exaltation indicates the advancing of our human nature.

    You say, well, how is that the case? Well, Christ’s ascension represents the advancing of our nation because Jesus Christ was the God-man, true God, true man in one divine person. The Word made flesh, Emmanuel, God with us. In his incarnation, Christ took upon himself our humanity, body and soul. And so, Jesus is the Theanthropos, the God-man. And when he was exalted, lifted up into heaven, his human nature, too, was lifted up into glory. And since we are united to Christ in his death, resurrection, and ascension, We, beloved, are seated with Him at the Father’s right hand. We have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, as Paul tells us in Ephesians 1, verse 3. And our ultimate vindication, exaltation, and glorification in Christ are guaranteed by what He has done.

    I think the Heidelberg Catechism does an excellent job of summarizing this. I invite you, if you’d like to follow along, to turn to page 880 in the back of your Psalter hymnal, page 880. To Heidelberg Catechism, question and answer 49, page 880. Question 49 of the Heidelberg Catechism asks, how does Christ’s ascension to heaven benefit us? Well, the Bible-based answer to that question is this. First, He is our advocate in heaven in the presence of His Father. Second, we have our own flesh in heaven as a sure pledge that Christ our Head will also take us, His members, up to Himself. Third, He sends His Spirit to us on earth as a corresponding pledge. By the Spirit’s power, we seek not earthly things, but the things above where Christ is, sitting at God’s right hand.

    Christian, Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father. And because you, believer, are united to Christ, you are seated with Him in the heavenly realm, seated with Him in glory. We only perceive that by faith, not by sight, but a time will come When you go to be with the Lord or when the Lord returns to take you to be with himself, the veil that separates the earthly from the heavenly realm will be torn away and you will see and be in the presence of these heavenly realities. Praise be to God that Christ has ascended into heaven. But this brings me to my final point in your outline, based on verse 11. Take to heart, beloved, that the manner in which our Lord ascended indicates the manner in which he will return. The manner in which our Lord Jesus ascended indicates the manner in which he will return.

    This is the clear meaning of what the angels say to the apostles here in verse 11. They said, men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? and then they give this wonderful promise. This Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven. How will he come back? In the same way you saw him go up. And again, this was a visible, glorious event. His ascension into heaven was a visible, glorious event. In His ascension, our Lord Jesus Christ ascended visibly, physically, gloriously, and publicly. As the angels assure the disciples, when our Lord returns on that final day, His return will not be in secret. The first time He came, He came to this earth in relative obscurity and secrecy. Relatively few people knew of the birth of our Savior.

    But when Jesus returns, no one’s gonna miss it. You won’t miss the news. It’ll be obvious for all to see. It will be a worldwide, glorious, visible event. The return of Christ will not merely be a private, subjective, mystical event experienced in the hearts of believers alone. No, beloved, it will be an open, public, visible, glorious event. It will be an event of cosmic significance, cosmic upheaval. It will be as supernatural as was the initial creation, the original Big Bang, when God spoke and bang, it came to be, right? God spoke the universe into existence at the beginning and he will speak the new creation into being when Jesus returns in glory. The historical event of our Lord’s ascension into heaven guarantees it. And it also confirms it. This is also, truth is also confirmed in numerous places elsewhere in the word of God.

    And as we close our time in the word today for this service, I’d like to turn to 1 Thessalonians 4 and read verses 13 through 18. And friends, remember as I read these verses, there’s great comfort here. This life is full of pain and suffering and difficulty and challenges. Yes, it’s filled with blessings and good things as well, but this is not heaven. God doesn’t want us to get too comfortable here, but there’s something better coming for those who know Christ as their Savior. We read these words in 1 Thessalonians 4, beginning at verse 13. Paul writes, and he’s writing to comfort the Thessalonians, some of whom had lost loved ones. He says, but we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, which is a euphemism for death. that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.

    For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. It’s going to be a loud event. No one’s going to miss it. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord.

    And what’s the moral of it all? Verse 18, therefore, encourage one another with these words. Are you encouraged, brother or sister, by these words? As Jesus departed in that physical, glorious way, so in like manner he will return. And the good news, Christian, do you ever long to see Jesus face to face? You ever long for that time when you’ll get to go before the Lord Jesus and just stand in awe of Him, see His glory face to face? That time is coming. One day you will get to run into the arms of your Savior and He will embrace you. Be comforted by that, be comforted. Let us encourage one another with these truths, and may the Holy Spirit, through the Word, encourage our hearts today through what we have heard. Let us pray. Our Lord and Father in heaven.

    We thank you that Jesus has ascended back into the glory realm to represent us before you. We thank you that he intercedes for us as our great high priest. We thank you that even now he is preparing a place for us believers. And we thank you, Lord, that he will come again to take us to be with himself forever. We pray that these truths would bring comfort to our hearts. And we pray, Lord, also that if any are here today or any are listening through the internet who have not come to trust in Christ as their Savior, we pray that by your Spirit you would open their hearts to Jesus, that they might receive him as their Savior from sin and their Lord, that they too might share in this comfort and hope. We pray these things, Heavenly Father, in Jesus’ name and all of God’s people said, amen.

    Let’s respond to what we’ve heard by rising and singing our closing hymn, number 370, a hymn of glory. Let us sing, 370.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • Foundations of Faith: He Rose Again!

    Foundations of Faith: He Rose Again!

    About this sermon

    1. Take to heart God’s universal demand for repentance (v. 30).
    2. Behold, the Day of Judgement is coming (v. 31)!
    3. The resurrection of Christ certifies Him as the agent of God’s judgment on Judgment Day (v. 31).

    More sermons from Acts · Browse all sermons

    Sermon transcript

    Please remain standing, my friends, for the reading of God’s Word. My sermon text this morning, as we continue our Foundations of Faith series, my sermon text is taken from a passage in the book of Acts, Acts 17, verses 30 through 34, will be the focus of my sermon today. I’m gonna begin reading at verse 15 to kind of fill out the context a bit. So we’ll begin reading at verse 15. You’ll find this passage on page 1,102 in your Pew Bible. Let’s hear God’s holy word, Acts chapter 17, beginning at verse 15. And this takes place in the midst of the Apostle Paul’s second missionary journey. Those who conducted Paul brought him as far as Athens, and after receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they departed.

    Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols. So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. And someone said, What does this babbler wish to say? Others said, He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities, because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus saying, may we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? For you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know therefore what these things mean. Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new.

    So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said, Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, To the unknown God. what therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God and perhaps feel their way toward Him and find Him.

    Yet He is actually not far from each one of us, for in Him we live and move and have our being, as even some of your own poets have said, for we are indeed His offspring. Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now He commands all people everywhere to repent. because He has fixed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom He has appointed. And of this He has given assurance to all by raising Him from the dead.” Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, but others said, we will hear you again about this.

    So Paul went out from their midst, but some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the Word of our God endures forever. Let’s pray for God to bless the preaching of His Word. Our gracious Lord and Father in heaven, we thank you that we serve a resurrected, victorious Lord. We thank you that our Savior has conquered sin and death, and hell, by his death and glorious resurrection. We pray that by your Spirit, as we consider this portion of Holy Scripture, that your Spirit would open our minds and our hearts to behold wondrous things from your Word, so that we might indeed take these truths to heart. And we ask that your Spirit would implant these truths upon our souls that we might grow spiritually from what we hear today.

    We ask that you would set a guard over my lips and that you would open our ears and our minds. We ask these things in Jesus’ name and all of God’s people said, amen. You may be seated. The title of my sermon today is Foundations of Faith, He Rose Again. And there are four key words for the children to be listening for today. Very important words, the words resurrection, revelation, repentance, and judgment. Well, dear friends, on this Lord’s Day morning, as we continue our study of the biblical foundations of our holy Christian faith, as those foundational truths are summarized for us in that great classical creed of the faith, the Apostles’ Creed, we come to an affirmation in the creed that is at the heart and center of our faith. Indeed, it is an affirmation that is at the heart and center of the very gospel message itself.

    That affirmation is found in the second credo, the second I believe section of the creed, the section which is about the person and work of Jesus Christ, God’s only begotten son. And this affirmation that we consider this morning is the confession which affirms that the third day he rose again from the dead. Now, if you’ve grown up in the church or being that we are all familiar with the claims of Christ and of the gospel to one degree or another, it’s sort of like, yeah, Jesus rose from the dead. But friends, think about how radical this truth is. Many religions throughout the history of humanity have made exalted claims about the founders of their religion. For example, some religions claim that their founders were especially enlightened or had particular spiritual insight. Others claim that their founders were superlatively holy or were even divinely inspired and prophets of God.

    But of all the religions in the world, only biblical historic Christianity claims that its founder, Jesus of Nazareth, actually rose from the dead. Physically, bodily, supernaturally rose from the dead. And not only that, but that Jesus, after his resurrection, stuck around for a while, for about a period 40 days and actually appeared during that period of time to multiple eyewitnesses in his resurrected body. Friends, these are radical claims, but they are claims which are true. Claims that are grounded in the teaching and truth of God’s infallible Word. Claims that are attested to by overwhelming historical evidence. Again, dear ones, our Lord’s physical bodily resurrection from the dead is indeed at the heart and center of our faith, of the faith that we believe, embrace, and confess to others. Jesus our Lord did indeed rise from the dead on the third day following his death by crucifixion.

    This is indeed a radical claim and a radical truth. But in addition to being a radical truth, which indeed it is, It is also a truth that has radical implications for our lives as the professed people of God. And it also has radical implications for the world outside of the church. And so friends, what I wanna have us focus on in today’s sermon is what our Lord’s resurrection means for the world and not just for us as the church. What does the historical fact of Christ’s physical bodily resurrection tell the world of humanity, both within and outside of the church? Well, among other things, the resurrection of Jesus confirms the Bible’s teaching on sinful humanity’s universal obligation to repent of sin. It also confirms the Bible’s teaching on the reality of the coming eschatological day of judgment and the Bible’s teaching as well on the fact that God the Father has appointed His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to be the judge of the world and to judge the world in righteousness on that coming judgment day.

    An appropriate passage of God’s word upon which these truths are based and which highlights these truths in connection with our Lord’s resurrection is our passage for this Lord’s Day morning. Our passage for this Lord’s Day morning records for us St. Paul the Apostle’s famous address to the philosophers at the Areopagus, Mars Hill as it is sometimes called, in that famous ancient city of Athens, and as recorded by Luke here, in Acts chapter 17. Now let me remind you again of the setting and context of this passage. As I mentioned before reading this passage of Scripture, this records for us events that happened within the context of Paul’s second missionary journey. And we read of Paul heading to Athens. Well, why does he head to Athens? Did he have a planned missionary A missionary, a trip to Athens?

    Well, no. Athens was not on his travel itinerary, but it was God’s providence, of course, that he end up in Athens. Paul heads to Athens in order to escape persecution that he was facing in the region of Macedonia. And so Paul had had no previous plans, at least not at this point in time, to do missionary work in the city of Athens. And so our passage finds Paul waiting in Athens for his missionary companions Silas and Timothy to come to him. If you look at verse 15, it says in verse 15 of this chapter, Those who conducted Paul brought him as far as Athens, and after receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they departed.” So Paul is here in the city waiting for Silas and Timothy to come.

    But in God’s providence, Paul is not sitting around twiddling his thumbs, looking at his watch, waiting for Silas and Timothy to come. We learn that Paul is provoked in his spirit by the overwhelming presence of pagan idolatry in Athens. And this prevalence of idolatry compels Paul to speak out for the gospel of Jesus Christ. Look at verses 16 and 17. It says, Now, while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols. His spirit was provoked It bothered him that this great city of Athens, known for its tremendous art, known as a high cultural center, a center for philosophy and culture and amazing artwork, an intellectual center, a city that prided itself on that intellectual history, and yet this city was saturated with idolatry.

    I forget who said it, but someone once said that it was easier to find an idol in the city of Athens than it was to run across another human being. It was so filled with idolatry. And so his spirit is provoked. And what does he do about it? Well, verse 17. So he reasoned in the synagogue. There was apparently a synagogue in the city of Athens. And as was Paul’s custom, he takes the gospel to the Jew first and then to the Greek. So he starts off in the synagogue proclaiming Jesus as the Messiah in the synagogue. It says, so he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons. and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. He spreads the seed of the word far and wide.

    He seeks to make the gospel known far and wide. Well, that brings me, friends, to the first point I want to make based on our passage for today. Let us, first of all, beloved, take to heart God’s universal demand for repentance. This is the first point in your sermon outline, take to heart God’s universal demand for repentance. Now we’ll briefly go through this passage and the content of what Paul preaches, but let me have you focus right now, skip ahead to verse 30, at the end of Paul’s sermon. Paul’s address to the Athenian philosophers there at the Areopagus. He says in verse 30, the times of ignorance God overlooked, speaking of times before the coming of Christ, when God allowed the nations, the Gentile nations, as it were, to kind of go their own way and did not bring the severity of his judgment upon them to the degree that they deserved.

    These times of ignorance God overlooked, but now, Now that Christ has come, now that God has sent out apostles and preachers like the Apostle Paul to proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord who rose from the dead, now he commands all people everywhere to repent. This is a universal obligation. Each and every human being on the face of planet Earth when confronted with the gospel, when confronted with the truth of our Lord’s resurrection from the dead, is summoned by God through the gospel to repent. And as we will see, the historical fact of Christ’s resurrection underscores this urgency, the urgency of this universal demand for repentance. Now let’s go back and review what happens beginning at verse 16 here. It says that Paul was provoked in his spirit and then he reasons in the synagogues. He proclaims the gospel in the marketplaces where Gentiles will hear his message as well.

    And then we’re told this in verse 18. Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. He was willing to talk to whoever came across his path. He was so filled with zeal for the gospel message. And he runs across some sophisticated philosophers, Epicurean and Stoic philosophers, and they conversed with him. And it says, and some said, what does this babbler wish to say? Others said, he seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities because he was preaching Jesus and The word for resurrection is in the feminine, and some of the Gentile hearers might have accidentally thought that resurrection was a goddess that he was proclaiming. In any case, he’s getting into conversations with these philosophers, the Epicureans and the Stoics. Well, what was Epicureanism and Stoicism, very briefly? Well, these were schools of Greek philosophy.

    And to kind of simplify it, Epicureanism was a philosophy that taught basically that pleasure was the ultimate purpose in life. The Epicureans, to put it simplistically, the Epicureans kind of held to the philosophy that says, hey, life is short, pass the beer. Live it up. On the other hand, Stoicism taught its followers to live in harmony with nature, and to depend on reason, and not to just give in to your desires, but to control your desires. The Stoic philosophy was more of a stiff upper lip approach to life. And so these are the kinds of philosophers that Paul is having conversations with. And how is Paul described by some who hear him? Well, verse 18 says that some reacted by saying, what does this babbler wish to say? Now, the term babbler is an interesting term in the Greek.

    According to Dr. Richard Longnecker, in the Greek, this is a word originally used of birds picking up grain, then of scrap collectors searching for junk, then extended to those who snapped up ideas of others and peddled them as their own without really understanding them, and finally, to any ne’er do well. So by calling him a babbler, they weren’t being complimentary towards him. They’re basically saying, this sounds like one of those folks that was probably very common in the first century city of Athens, you know, folks who would attend various philosophy lectures and pick up a little bit of philosophy here and a little bit of logic there and kind of mash it all together and spew it out like sound bites and talking points to try to sound intellectual when they really didn’t fully grasp it, what they were saying.

    In any case, Paul’s getting a reaction here. He’s getting noticed. And so what do they do? It says in verse 19, they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, or Mars Hill, saying, may we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting. For you bring some strange things to our ears. And oh, friends, the gospel of Jesus Christ is a strange message to the natural man. The natural man, the unregenerate fallen man, the unconverted man or woman, boy or girl, gets the law, they understand the law, but they don’t understand grace. Grace is a strange message to the ears of the children of Adam. In any case, they say, you’re bringing some strange things to our ears, we wanna know more. And then we have this. Luke kind of adding this editorial insult about the Athenians in verse 21.

    Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new. When I read that today, I think, wow, there’s nothing new under the sun, right? There’s a lot of folks today who spend a lot of time just wanting to hear new ideas and talk about things without really understanding them in their depth. So Paul is taken and brought to the Areopagus. What is the Areopagus? Well, this was, at that time, this was the city council in Athens that had jurisdiction over, not over civil matters as such, but matters pertaining to religion, education, and public morals. It appears that one of its functions at this particular time was to examine and to license public lectures. That’s why Paul is being asked to come before them, because he is lecturing without a license, if you will.

    And this is likely why Paul was asked to come before this esteemed council or court. Approval by this council or court would mean that Paul would have the legal freedom to preach the gospel in Athens, but their disapproval would mean that he would be legally prohibited from preaching there. So anyways, Paul is brought before the council and then he begins to preach to them. We read of Paul’s address or preaching in verses 22 through 29. where Paul addresses the council. And the first thing that Paul does here is he seeks to establish a point of contact with them. He says in verse 22, so Paul standing in the midst of the Areopagus said, men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. Now let’s pause there. It sounds like he’s complimenting them, doesn’t it?

    I perceive that you are very religious, but some have pointed out that this term, which some translations translate as religious, could also legitimately be translated as superstitious. It’s kind of an ambiguous term. It’s not clear from the outset whether Paul is sort of subtly insulting them or whether he’s complimenting them. Now my personal view is that I think Paul’s intention here is not to provoke animosity in his audience, but to make a point of connection with them and to point out to them, yes, you have a religious sense you’re very religious, you know that there is a higher reality. And so he seeks to point to that and address that. And then he gives an example of what he means by this. In verse 23, for as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, to the unknown God.

    You know, the Athenians apparently were afraid that, you know, well, what if we forgot a particular God and that God gets angry with us? So as a way to appease any unknown God, they had an altar to an unknown God, lest they offend any unknown deity. And then Paul says, what therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.” How masterful that Paul is able to go in and make a connection with them. They come from totally different worlds in terms of their worldviews. But Paul makes a connection, and he’s able to make this connection, brothers and sisters, because all people everywhere have a religious sense, a sense of the divine. The reason for that is because all human beings have been created in God’s image. And though our fall in Adam has warped and distorted and besmirched that imago Dei, that image of God, we still have, all human beings still know in their heart of hearts that the true God is and that they are accountable to him.

    Though, as Paul tells us elsewhere in Romans 1, the fall in human hearts suppresses that truth in unrighteousness. But this is actually very encouraging to us because, you know, you don’t have to be a sophisticated philosopher to talk about the Lord with an unbeliever because you have a point of connection with that unbeliever. That point of connection is that both of you were created in the image of God and that unbeliever still knows that God is because they have the sense of the divine. They have that imago Dei. They still, in some sense, retain the imago Dei. In any case, Paul addresses them. He seeks to establish a point of contact with them. And what’s the first thing he does? Well, as verses 24 through 28 point out, Paul proclaims God as creator of all and as providential Lord over all of the nations of humanity.

    As it says, beginning in verse 24, Paul says, the God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man. So from the outset, right out of the gate, He attacks, he does so respectfully, but he attacks the very foundation of idolatry. And he proclaims to them the true and living God. He says, nor is he served by human hands. God is sovereign, he doesn’t need us. He doesn’t need us to feed him like the pagan deities needed their sacrifices in order to be fed. He doesn’t need anything, he’s not served by human hands. Why? Since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man, he’s talking there about Adam, he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and boundaries of their dwelling place.

    God is sovereign over the boundaries of the nations. God providentially rules over all nations of mankind. And then he goes on to seek to expose the folly of their idolatry. He says that God has done this by created and he has set the boundaries why that they should seek God, verse 27, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us. And then he quotes some of their own poets because they didn’t know the scriptures. Or if they did know about the scriptures, they didn’t know the scriptures or believe the scriptures were authoritative. So he, again, he’s seeking to make a point of contact with them. He quotes from their own poets, showing that even they had a sense of the divine reality. In him we live and move and have our being, as even some of your own poets have said. for we are indeed his offspring.

    Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. Again, friends, because he is addressing a pagan audience who is either unfamiliar with the Holy Scriptures or which does not view the Scriptures as authoritative, Paul focuses on the truths of general revelation, God’s revelation in creation and human conscience. And he quotes from some of their own poets, not because those poets are equal to Scripture in any way, that’s not the point Paul is making. He quotes their poets to make this point of contact with his listeners. and also to show them that even their pagan poets showed that they had some understanding of the divine nature. I believe John Calvin called this glimmerings of natural light.

    Even the most hardened atheist has glimmerings of natural light. They know in their heart of hearts that the true God is. They suppress that truth and unrighteousness, but they know, brothers and sisters, they know. And this gives us confidence in addressing them. But then Paul goes on to say in verse 30, the times of ignorance God overlooked. Now what does this mean? Well, Paul has been focusing on the doctrines of God’s independence and self-sufficiency. He has been focusing on God’s works of creation and providence, his provision for man’s needs, and man’s responsibility to seek after God. Now Paul brings out the implications of these truths by pointing out how patient God has been toward the Gentile nations because of their ignorance of his word. One Bible commentator says this, This commentator writes, until the coming of Jesus Christ, God’s special redemptive revelation was addressed almost exclusively to Israel, leaving the pagan nations largely in ignorance, except for the general revelation throughout the cosmos that left them without excuse, Romans 1, 18 through 25.

    God did not impose on Gentiles the judgment they deserved, and now he has sent Paul to proclaim his truth to all people everywhere, calling them to repentance. What do we learn from all of this, friends? many things, but we learn among other things that all people at all times of human history have been morally obligated to worship and to serve the true and living creator God who is revealed in the natural order and in human conscience. We learn this, for example, in what Paul wrote in Romans chapter one and two. But friends, with the coming of Jesus Christ and the publication of the Good News, the Good News of Christ’s death and resurrection for the salvation of sinners, the Gospel places upon all people everywhere who hear it, all people without exception, an even greater obligation, the obligation to repent of their false religions and philosophies and their idolatrous ways, the obligation to turn in faith to the Lord Jesus Christ who is offered to them in the gospel.

    Dear listener, the resurrection of Jesus Christ is divine proof that God requires you and me to repent and turn in trust to the Lord Jesus Christ. Have you repented? The word repentance means a change of mind that leads to a change in direction in your life. It’s like a paradigm shift. Before you repent, you see yourself as basically good. You see yourself as capable of working your way into heaven or appeasing God or the gods as you perceive the divine. But when you hear the gospel and when the Spirit works in your heart and brings you to repentance, you see yourself as the hopeless, helpless sinner that you are, that you have missed the mark, you’ve fallen short of the glory of God, and that you have no hope of salvation in yourself, in your own works or ways or merits. and you turn from your self-righteousness and self-will to Christ, receiving and resting upon him and him alone for salvation from your sins.

    Have you repented? In the gospel, Jesus commands all people everywhere to repent and to turn to him. And that brings me to my next point. As Paul has addressed these Athenian philosophers, he has presented the truth about the true and living God to them. He has presented to them the truth about the falsehood of idolatry and the futility of idolatry. He has called them to repentance. And this brings me to my next point. Behold, the day of judgment is coming. The resurrection of Jesus Christ proves to us, proves to all humanity that the judgment day is coming. As it says in verse 31, God now commands all people everywhere to repent. Why? Because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed. And of this, he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.

    The Judgment Day, when the Bible speaks about the Judgment Day, this is not a symbol or a metaphor. There will be a day of judgment. The scriptures teach us that one day Jesus our Lord will return in glory, raise the dead, and he will judge all of humanity before ushering in the new heavens and the new earth wherein righteousness dwell. Now imagine how this message would have come across to these sophisticated philosophers in Athens. This would have been a totally foreign concept to the Athenian philosophers and leaders of the Areopagus, but it was a truth that they needed to hear. And brothers and sisters, this is a truth that the lost in our lives need to hear. They need to hear that a judgment day is coming. They need to hear that God commands all people everywhere, including them, to repent.

    For God has fixed a day on which he will judge all of humanity through the man, the God-man, whom he’s raised from the dead, the Lord Jesus Christ. Again, the resurrection of Christ underscores this truth about the judgment day. And friends, we learn that because Christ was raised, we will also be raised from the dead on judgment day. As we compare Scripture with Scripture, this is the uniform teaching of God’s Word. And let me just, as we compare briefly Scripture with Scripture, let me take you to two passages that underscore this truth about the Judgment Day. Let’s go to John 5, and let me just read John 5, verses 25 to 30. John 5, verses 25 to 30. This is the Lord Jesus speaking. And he says, truly, truly, in other words, amen, amen. In other words, this is really important.

    This is most certainly true. Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son also to have life in Himself. And He has given Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear His voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment. I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will, but the will of Him who sent me.” The resurrection and final judgment is coming.

    Jesus himself taught that it would. And then also Paul elsewhere teaches in that well-known passage in 1 Corinthians 15. Let me just read verses 20 through 28 of 1 Corinthians chapter 15. This chapter on the resurrection of Christ and Paul writes this. He says, he’s addressing the issue of the general resurrection of the dead at the end of this age. He says, but in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep, which is a euphemism for death. For as by a man came death, that would be Adam, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead, that would be Christ. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order, Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming, those who belong to Christ, then comes the end. when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power.

    That destruction of every anti-Christ rule and authority and power implies a judgment. And then he goes on to say, for He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy to be defeated is death, for God has put all things in subjection under His feet. But when it says all things are put in subjection, it is plain that He is accepted who put all things in subjection under Him. When all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subjected to Him who put all things in subjection under Him, that God may be all in all. Judgment Day is coming. Are you ready for the Judgment Day? You say, well, how do I know I’ll be ready for the Judgment Day? The only way you and I can be ready for that day is if we have already been judged in Christ. if you are in Christ by faith, if you’ve trusted Him as your very own Lord and Savior.

    Not only does God through Christ cleanse you from all of your sin through the blood of Christ, He also clothes you in His perfect everlasting righteousness. So when we as believers stand before Jesus, King Jesus on Judgment Day, we won’t be standing there with terror, oh boy, am I gonna get in or not? No. We will stand upright because we stand in Christ. But if you are outside of Christ, if you’ve not repented and trusted him as your savior from sin, then there is good reason to fear the judgment day. Won’t you turn to Christ today and trust in, rest in him that you might face the judgment day with confidence. The final point I wanna make as we close our time in the word this day, We note here that the resurrection of Christ certifies him as the agent of God’s judgment on judgment day.

    This is the point that Paul makes in verse 31. The resurrection of Christ certifies him as the agent of God’s judgment on judgment day. Paul says in verse 31 that God has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed. And how do we know who this man is or what is it that credentials this man to do such a thing? Well, it says, and of this, he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead, which as we will see in a moment, that was a shocker to these sophisticated philosophers. As the Son of God, the divine Son of God, Jesus Christ was the divine agent of creation. The Bible makes that clear. All things were made through Him and without Him was not anything made that was made, as we’re told in John 1.

    And as the God-man, Jesus Christ is the one mediator between God and man. He is the mediator of our redemption. So he is the mediator of creation. He is the mediator of redemption. But he is also revealed in scripture to be the divine agent of divine judgment. He is the agent of divine judgment. Dr. F.F. Bruce in his commentary says that Paul quote, assures his audience, God has furnished firm proof that this is the man by whom He is going to judge the world because this is the man whom He has raised from the dead. Now what was the reaction among these at the Areopagus after Paul mentions the resurrection of the dead? It says in verse 32, now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. And in Greek thought, the idea of a resurrection was ridiculous.

    In much of Greek philosophy, the idea was that the material world is inferior. You know, we want to escape our bodies. They believed in the immortality of the soul, but not the resurrection of the body. So some reacted with mockery, but others reacted with curiosity. It says, others said, we will hear you again about this. Now it’s possible that this was just a pretentious curiosity. It’s possible they were just trying to be polite. But if it was genuine curiosity, it was a curiosity without commitment. So there’s mockery, there’s curiosity without commitment. But here’s the amazing thing. Even in the Areopagus, even in this sophisticated ruling council, in this esteemed ancient pagan city of Greece, some were converted. We learn this in verse 33. It says, so Paul went out from their midst, but some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.

    Some have suggested that Paul’s address to the philosophers in Areopagus that this was a failure, but it wasn’t a failure. because God had his elect, God had his people whom he called even from amongst these sophisticated elite philosophers to himself. So another response was conversion. There was mockery, there was curiosity without commitment, and there was conversion. And the gospel of Jesus Christ and the message of Christ’s resurrection tends to gain the same response today. May God in His grace grant that you and I may respond to the good news that Christ rose again from the dead with true conversion and faith. Amen. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you and praise you that Christ indeed rose again on the third day. And we thank you, Lord, that he reigns in righteousness and that he will one day come again to right all wrongs, to raise the dead, and to judge humanity, ushering in the new heavens and the new earth.

    Lord, we ask that you would grant us the grace to live lives of ongoing repentance and faith, and may we proclaim to others as we have opportunity that God commands all people everywhere to repent. We pray these things in Jesus’ name and all of God’s people said. Amen. As we close our time today, let’s rise and we’ll close our worship service with the singing of hymn 369, Worship Christ the Risen King, 369.

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  • Foundations of Faith: He Descended into Hell

    Foundations of Faith: He Descended into Hell

    About this sermon

    1. The parallel between the prophet Jonah in the belly of the great fish, and the Lord Jesus Christ in the state of death (v. 40).
    2. Christ’s burial and continuation in the state of death for a time anticipated His resurrection (v 40).
    3. Our Lord’s resurrection from the state of death ought to lead sinners to repentance (vv. 41-42).

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    Sermon transcript

    Congregation, please remain standing for the reading of God’s Word. As we continue our Foundations of Faith series, this morning we consider a passage from Matthew’s Gospel. My focus will especially be on Matthew 12 verse 40, but I’m going to read, but we’ll focus as well on the broader section, Matthew 12, 38 to 42, but let me begin reading at verse 33. So Matthew chapter 12, beginning at verse 33 and reading through verse 42. Dear friends, let us hear with reverence and awe the Word of our God. The Lord Jesus says this, Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit. You brood of vipers, how can you speak good when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.

    The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil. I tell you on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned. Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him saying, Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you. But he answered them, an evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the Prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it.

    For they repent at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it. For she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here. Your friends, the grass-withers, the flower-fades, that the word of our God endures forever. Let’s seek the Lord’s blessing upon the preaching of His Word. Our Lord and Father in heaven, sovereign and eternal God, we thank you that you have spoken to us, that you have given to us a trustworthy divine revelation in the Holy Scriptures. We thank you for your God-breathed, inerrant, infallible, authoritative word. It is indeed a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. We ask that by your spirit, you would open our minds and hearts to understand this portion of your Word and its relevance to us today.

    We would ask that you would be gracious unto me, your unworthy servant, that I might speak forth only that which is faithful in your sight in accordance with your Word. So set a guard over my lips, Lord God, and set a guard over our hearts that we might receive your Word in truth and faith. We pray these things in Jesus’ name and all of God’s people said. Amen. You may be seated. The title of my sermon this morning is Foundations of Faith. He descended into hell. And if you have your sermon outlined, there are a number of keywords that the children can be listening for in my sermon today. Well, dear ones, as we return to our Foundations of Faith series, a series which is being guided by that Bible-based creed of the church known as the Apostles Creed, we come this morning to an affirmation in the creed that has been disputed by many, rejected by some, and interpreted in a number of different ways throughout church history.

    Namely, the affirmation found in the second cradle, the second section, the second I believe section of the Apostles Creed. This affirmation that we’re considering today is that our Lord Jesus Christ descended into hell. This affirmation that our Lord descended into hell comes right after the affirmation in the creed that says that Christ was crucified, dead, and buried. And so in the structure of the Apostles Creed, it would seem that this affirmation that he descended into hell envisions something that happened to Christ after his death. Now, it’s been pointed out that the English term hell is sometimes used in certain English translations of the Bible, not only to refer specifically to the place of eternal punishment for the unrepentant wicked, though the Bible does indeed teach that there is such a place of punishment, and it is rightly described by the word hell.

    But friends, sometimes in certain English translations, the English word hell is also used to refer more generically to the state or abode of the dead, whether those dead, those departed souls be the souls of the wicked or the souls of the redeemed. For example, the English word for hell is sometimes used to translate the Hebrew word shayol. And shayol is the Hebrew word for the abode of the dead, and doesn’t necessarily speak to whether those dead are the wicked dead or the redeemed dead. Now friends, at this point, let me reassure you about something. Let me reassure you that it’s not my intention this morning to bore you with a lengthy lecture on the various ways that this affirmation that he descended into hell has been understood throughout church history. But I do want to mention briefly three major interpretations that have been held in church history about this affirmation of the creed.

    One very popular and very common view held by influential theologians such as St. Thomas Aquinas could be labeled as the nether world view. The great reformer John Calvin describes this view in his institutes in the following words. Calvin writes that according to this view, quote, Christ descended to the souls of the patriarchs who had died under the law to announce redemption as accomplished and to free them from the prison they were where they were confined. Now this view seeks to address that mysterious question of well what happened to the souls of Old Testament saints? What happened to the souls of true believers who lived before the coming of Christ? Did they go to paradise? Did they were they kind of in a state of limbo? And this nether world view is the idea that they went to this kind of shadowy existence, this kind of limbo awaiting the announcement of the coming of the Messiah and his accomplishment of redemption.

    So according to this view, after Christ died he went and announced to the souls of the redeemed in Shae’ol that that indeed he had accomplished their redemption and he released their souls to go with him into paradise. Another major view is that the phrase he descended into hell is to be understood as a confession of the truth that our Lord Jesus Christ suffered the penalty of hell on the cross of Calvary as he bore the father’s wrath against our sins. So we might call this the hell on the cross view. This was the view held by John Calvin himself and this understanding is also reflected in the great reformed catechism, the Heidelberg catechism and it’s answered a question 44. And friends certainly the word of God does indeed teach that our Lord Jesus Christ took upon himself the hellish wrath and curse of God when he died on the cross as our sin bearer, our substitute as he paid the penalty for our sins.

    However, another way to understand this phrase that he descended into hell is what we might call the state of the dead view. This is the view reflected in our own Westminster larger catechism in answer to question number 50. If you’d like to refer to that, it’s found in the back of your sultar hymnal on page 945 in the back of your sultar hymnal, the larger catechism. The question is this, wherein consisted Christ’s humiliation after his death. Again, that question has in view our Lord’s estate of humiliation and that that estate of humiliation continued after his death. Where in consisted Christ’s humiliation after his death? The Bible based answer to that question is this, Christ’s humiliation after his death consisted in his being buried and continuing in the state of the dead and under the power of death till the third day, which has been otherwise expressed in these words, he descended into hell.

    This state of the dead view highlights our Lord’s continuing in a state of death for a time as the final stage of our Lord’s estate of humiliation, which would be followed on the third day, of course, by his glorious triumphant resurrection from the dead, the resurrection of Christ being the first stage in our Lord’s estate of exaltation. Now, the significance of this particular view, and there’s truth in all of these different approaches or understandings of the phrase he descended into hell, but this particular state of the dead view underscores the fact that our Lord’s continuing in the state of the dead for a time, was an important part of his saving work for us. And thus, Jesus remaining in an intermediate state during that time of his entombment was vital to our eternal hope, comfort, and salvation.

    One of the proof texts supporting the answer to this large catechism question is verse 40 of our text for this Lord’s day morning. And so friends, it is to this passage of God’s word that I would now have us turn our attention. And as we turn our attention to Matthew chapter 12, verse 40, I want you to notice the parallel between the prophet Jonah in the belly of the great fish, on the one hand, and the Lord Jesus Christ in the state of death. This is the first point, first major point on your sermon outline. Consider friends, the parallel between the prophet Jonah in the belly of the great fish and the Lord Jesus Christ in the state of death. It says in verse 40, for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

    Friends, Jonah’s experience of being swallowed up by a great fish, and by the way, as an aside, the Bible never says it’s a whale. It may have been a whale, some have thought it, and well, maybe it was a whale shark, or perhaps even a great white shark. We don’t know, it doesn’t say, but it was a big fish. So Jonah’s experience of being swallowed up by a great fish and remaining in the belly of that fish four time was a type and a picture of our Lord Jesus being swallowed up in death, in being buried, and in continuing, remaining under the power of death four times, just as Jonah remained and was miraculously preserved by God in the belly of that fish for a time. You know, it’s interesting that in Jonah chapter 2 verse 2, Jonah records as part of his prayer to the Lord from the belly of the fish the following words.

    Jonah chapter 2 verse 2, record Jonah as saying this, I called out to the Lord out of my distress and he answered me, out of the belly of Shaeol I cried and you heard my voice. Oh, wait a minute, he’s crying out to the Lord from the belly of this great fish, but actually as he describes it poetically in this prayer, he says out of the belly of Shaeol, Shaeol the abode of the dead I cried out to the Lord. Jonah’s experience in the the belly of the fish was a type, a picture of Shaeol the state of the dead. After all, without God’s miraculous preservation of his life in the fish and without the Lord eventually inducing the fish to vomit Jonah up onto the dry land, Jonah would have been as good as dead.

    But we see the parallel there between the prophet Jonah in the belly of the great fish and the Lord Jesus Christ in the state of death. Now let’s back up just a bit and seek to understand our passage for this morning in its context. Our passage for this Lord’s day morning occurs within a larger section of Matthew’s gospel where our Lord Jesus is encountering conflict and opposition from various Jewish religious leaders and devotees of his day such as the Pharisees. And this was very common in the gospel accounts. Jesus often butted heads with the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the scribes and so forth of his day. Now earlier in this chapter Matthew had recorded our Lord’s teaching on blasphemy against the Holy Spirit as Jesus responds to the Pharisees accusation that he casts out demons by bellsable, the Prince of Demons.

    In other words by Satan, bellsable was just another name for Satan rather than casting out demons by the power of the Spirit of God. If you go back to verse 24 of this chapter it says, but when the Pharisees heard it, when they heard of Jesus casting out demons showing power over the demonic realm as the conquering Messiah, it says, but when the Pharise heard it, they said, it is only by bellsable the Prince of Demons that this man casts out demons and then follows this blasphemous accusation against Jesus. Our Lord’s reply, his response to that and thus his teaching on the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. And then friends in this section immediately preceding our passage for today, a section that I also included in the scripture reading for this morning, Jesus is recorded to have given teaching on the fruit of our speech, probably still thinking of the speech that led to such blasphemy in claiming that he cast out demons by the power of bellsable.

    And Jesus uses the illustration of trees and the quality of their fruit to illustrate the truth as recorded in verse 34 that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. And what Jesus seems to be implying here in this teaching is that his enemies made their blasphemous claims against him because their hearts were hardened and set in evil. This may be the reason why verse 38 tells us that the scribes and the Pharisees pressed him to perform an authenticating sign for them. I mean Jesus had already done many miracles in in front of multiple eyewitnesses. Why then do they come to him and ask for him to perform a sign? Well, it may very well be that they were quite offended by what Jesus had been saying about the evil fruit of their lips and that they wanted to try to trap him in his words.

    And so that leads us to verse 38. It says then some of the scribes remember the scribes were basically the Bible scholars of that time. Some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him saying teacher that they address him with this respectful term. They at least pretend respect and civility as they approach him. They say teacher, we wish to see a sign from you. Again, while these scribes and Pharisees pretend to address Jesus respectfully by addressing him as teacher, it seems quite clear in the context here that they’re not making their request in good faith or because they are sincerely seeking the truth. Even though Jesus had performed many miraculous works in the presence of multiple eyewitnesses, as I said, it appears once again that they are seeking a miraculous sign from our Lord because they want to use that somehow to discredit him.

    Dr. D. A. Carson in his commentary on Matthew points out and I quote him, he says a quote sign was usually some miraculous token to be quickly fulfilled or fulfilled quickly or at once to confirm a prophecy. The Jews were not asking for just another miracle since they had already persuaded themselves that at least some of those Jesus had performed were of demonic agency. They were asking for a quote sign performed on command to remove what seemed to them to be the ambiguity of Jesus’s miracles. In other words, they wanted to dictate to Jesus the terms by which they would accept his claims. And of course, our Lord Jesus refused. We are the clay. God is the potter. We as the clay have no right to sit in judgment over our divine potter or to say, well, you’ve got to prove yourself to me.

    By my standards, no, God doesn’t do that. And of course, the Lord Jesus again, he refused their request for Jesus did not do miracles on demand. Jesus would often heal when folks would come to him with a humble request for healing. But they, these scribes and Pharisees were in essence demanding Jesus prove himself, authenticate himself according to their standards and Jesus refuses. Indeed, he rebukes them as an evil and adulterous generation. As it says in verse 39, Jesus responds to their pretended request in verse 38 by saying, an evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to you except the sign of the prophet Jonah. And that will segue into our main text for today, verse 40. And by the way, when Jesus calls them an adulterous generation, it’s interesting if you’re familiar with the Old Testament prophets, oftentimes in the Old Testament prophetic books, when God through the prophet is rebuking the unfaithfulness and apostasy and covenant breaking of his people, he will often describe that unfaithfulness and apostasy as adultery.

    It’s a spiritual adultery. It is an unfaithfulness to the Lord, a covenant breaking against the Lord. And so it is in this sense that Jesus rebukes his generation as an evil and adulterous generation seeking for a sign. Jesus goes on to say in verse 40, he’s just mentioned the sign of the prophet Jonah. And Jonah himself was the sign as he came out from the fish. And I often wonder what Jonah must have looked like after having been in the fish for that time. I imagine he didn’t look or smell very good. That would have been quite a sign as he goes into Nineveh and proclaims repentance to them. Jonah himself was the sign as Jesus in his resurrected glory would likewise be a sign. And it says this in verse 40, for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man.

    That’s a messianic title. Jesus’ favorite self designation. So will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Now some would say wait a minute pastor put on the breaks here. Jesus says that he would be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Well wait a minute Jesus died on Friday, good Friday afternoon and then was buried by the evening in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea. So he died partway through the day on Friday. He was all day in the tomb. Well he was in the tomb part of Friday, all day Saturday and part of the day on Sunday morning. So how can he say that he’s going to be in the tomb three days and three nights. But friends this is what we call idiomatic language here.

    This is not to be understood in an overly literalistic way as if Jesus was saying that he was going to be in the tomb for a full literal 72 hours. You see in Jewish reckoning a part of the day was reckoned as the whole. And so this expression seems to have been as one Bible commentator puts it, a Semitic idiom and need not be supposed to contradict the resurrection on the third day. It’s an idiomatic saying that he’s going to be three days in the heart of the earth. Not necessarily a full 72 hours but by Jewish reckoning he was in the tomb for three days. Part of Friday, all day Saturday and the early part of Sunday morning prior to his resurrection from the dead. Well dear ones, the point of all of this up to this point, our Lord not only lived for us by his active obedience praise God he did that for us, marinating a righteousness which we could never merit for ourselves.

    Jesus not only died for us though praise God he did. He took the wrath and curse of God upon himself on the cross as he paid the penalty for our sin. Jesus however not only lived for us and died for us and rose for us that we might be raised to newness of life in union with him. Jesus was also buried for us and Jesus continued for a time in the state of the dead for us and for our salvation. Christ continuing under the state of death Christ descending into hell in the sense of descending into the state of the dead and remaining in that state for a time gives us hope as we face the intermediate state between our death and the future resurrection from the dead. This gives us gospel hope beloved. We were united to him not only in his life and his death and resurrection.

    We were united to him in his state of death. This gives us gospel hope because as and now we’re moving on to the second main point in your sermon outline. This gives us gospel hope because Christ’s burial and continuation in the state of death for a time anticipated his resurrection. Christ’s burial and continuation in the state of death for a time anticipated his resurrection. This is implied in verse 40 where Jesus says for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish so will the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. But what happens after that time in the heart of the earth? We know the story up from the grave he arose victorious over sin and death and hell.

    The prophet Jonah’s time in the belly of the great fish was a prelude to his safe re-emergence onto dry land. As the great fish could not hold Jonah down but instead by Yahweh’s command we’re told in Jonah 2 verse 10 the great fish vomited Jonah out upon the dry land. That was like a resurrection from the dead for Jonah metaphorically speaking. So likewise the grave could not keep our Lord Jesus in the state of death into which he had descended but in instead he burst forth from the tomb on the third day. Though our Lord had indeed descended into hell descended into the state of death for a time. As Saint Peter the Apostle had proclaimed in his Pentecost sermon in Acts chapter 2 24. Peter says God raised him up. God the Father raised him up loosing the pangs of death because it was not possible for him to be held by it.

    Jesus voluntarily submitted to the power of death for a time but it was not possible for the eternal divine son of God incarnate the word made flesh to remain under the power of death for he rose from the dead and his entombment during that brief time between Good Friday and Easter Sunday morning that brief time in the tomb anticipated his bursting forth in glorious day the day of his resurrection. My friends Christ’s continuance in the state of death for a time between his death and resurrection is a pledge and assurance to those of us who are united to him by faith. It’s a pledge and assurance to us that should our Lord Terry before we die should Jesus not return before we see physical death. We need not fear the intermediate state. We need not fear death for just as Christ’s body emerged from his intermediate state into resurrection victory so our bodies will be raised in incorruptible resurrection glory on that final day when our Lord Jesus returns in glory.

    But this is only the case for those who by faith are united to Christ. Dear listener are you united to Christ spiritually and savingly by faith? You say well what does that mean? That means this are you trusting in Jesus who is crucified for sinners like me and you crucified for the forgiveness of our sins and raised from the dead for our justification and that whoever believes in him might not perish but have everlasting life. Are you trusting Christ as your Savior from sin only by the call of the word and spirit of God are you able to rest in him embrace him trust him for your salvation from sin and if you are trusting in him you can be assured that you need not for your death. If you’re not trusting in him God in the gospel calls you this day to repent to turn around from your sin to Christ and receive and rest upon him and him alone as your Lord and Savior and if you do the Bible says you will be saved.

    Believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. But this leads me to my final point briefly based on verses 41 and 42. Friends our Lord’s resurrection from the state of death ought to lead sinners to repentance. Our Lord’s resurrection from the state of death ought to lead sinners to repentance. Since Jesus has been talking about Jonah and the men of Nineveh that he preached to he says in verse 41 the men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment meaning the judgment day with this generation and condemn it for they were pendant at the preaching of Jonah and behold that means pay attention something greater than Jonah is here. Jonah was a prophet of God but something greater than a prophet was with that generation. Earlier in the chapter at the beginning of the chapter Jesus had talked in his dispute with the Pharisees over the issue of the Sabbath.

    Jesus says in chapter 12 verse 6 I tell you something greater than the temple is here. So Jesus is greater than the temple in his pre and its priesthood. Why? Because Jesus is our great high priest. Jesus is greater than the prophet Jonah because Jesus is the ultimate prophet with a capital P the messianic prophet and then verse 42 he gives another illustration using Solomon he says the queen of the south will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. Remember that great old covenant king Solomon king Solomon she came to hear the wisdom of Solomon and behold something greater than Solomon is here. Just as Jonah’s re-emergence from the great fish led to the repentance of the Ninevites so Jesus is Emergence his resurrection from the state of death on the third day ought to lead us to Repentance, you know in their preaching of the gospel of the resurrected Christ the apostles often stressed this connection Between the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the gospel call to repentance for example Just briefly in Acts chapter 17 verses 30 and 31 As Paul is the apostle is preaching to the philosophers At Athens at the area of pagus as g as Paul is preaching The gospel to them and and calling them to repentance.

    He says this in verse 30 Acts 17 30 the times of ignorance God overlooked but now he commands all people everywhere. That’s all inclusive He commands all people everywhere to repent why verse 31 because he has fixed a day on Which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed and of this he has given assurance to all by doing What by raising him from the dead? the call to repentance Naturally flows out of the historical event of our Lord’s resurrection Dear ones the Lord Jesus Christ is much greater than the Prophet Jonah or the great King Solomon Much greater than even the temple and its priesthood itself in Contrast to these Old Testament Persons and figures and types Jesus is the great Messianic prophet priest and king predicted and foreshadowed in the Old Testament scriptures in light of this Let us brothers and sisters as a church Let us press home upon the consciences of the lost the claims of Jesus Christ Christ who while he had Descended into hell descended into the state of the dead nevertheless He emerged victorious over the grave by his resurrection from the dead and let us call them to repentance and faith Reminding them that our resurrected Lord will one day be the judge of the living and the dead His resurrection the historical event of his resurrection demonstrates it But it finally let us also make sure that we ourselves Have repented and embraced the risen Lord Jesus as our very own Lord and Savior May God in his sovereign mercy and grace call you dear sinner to faith in Christ today May you rest in him and may you know that eternal hope that This passage calls us to amen let us pray Our Lord and Father in heaven We thank you that Jesus though he descended into hell descended into the state of the dead for us Has emerged victorious as the resurrected Glorified Lord and we thank you that through faith in him we can look forward to one day being resurrected Into bodies incorruptible we pray that you would help us to live faithful lives in light of these glorious gospel truths We pray these things through Christ our Lord and all of God’s people said amen as We respond to what we’ve heard from the preached word.

    Let’s rise and sing together him 367 up from the grave he arose 367

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  • Foundations of Faith: The Burial of Jesus

    Foundations of Faith: The Burial of Jesus

    About this sermon

    1. Behold, a burial fit for a King!
    2. A new tomb and an incorruptible hope.
    3. Two lives transformed by our Lord’s saving death.

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    Sermon transcript

    Dear brothers and sisters, for the reading of God’s holy word as we continue our Foundations of Faith study. With the Apostles’ Creed guiding our study today, we consider the burial of Jesus and the importance of that event in redemptive history, and we consider the Apostle John’s record of our Lord’s burial, found in John 19, verses 38 to 42, which is my sermon text for today. John 19, verses 38 to 42. Find that on page 1077 in your Pew Bible. Let us hear God’s holy word. After these things, Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus. And Pilate gave him permission. So he came and took away his body. Nicodemus also, who earlier had come to Jesus by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about 75 pounds in weight.

    So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. Now in the place where he was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. So because of the Jewish day of preparation, since the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there. Dear friends, the grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever. Let’s pray for the Lord’s blessing upon the preaching of his word. Almighty God, our gracious heavenly Father, we thank you for the truth of your word. It is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. And we pray that by your spirit you would help us to see the importance, the significance, and the relevance of this portion of your God-breathed, inerrant, infallible word.

    We ask, Lord, that you would open our minds and our hearts to behold wondrous things from your law. And we pray that by your spirit you would set a guard over my lips that I might speak only that which is faithful to your word. We ask these things, heavenly Father, in Jesus’ name. And all of God’s people said, Amen. Dear ones, you may be seated. I’d encourage the children to listen for the key words of my sermon today. Those are listed as the following, death, grave, fear, king, faith, hope, and salvation. Well, dear listeners, let me ask you a question, and don’t answer out loud, of course, but let me ask you a question. Are you afraid of death? Do you dread the grave? Would you view the grim reaper as an unwelcome guest? Well, friends, for those of us who are blessed with reasonably good health and who have reasonably good prospects of longevity, of living a normal, lifespan, it might be easy to boldly declare, well, no, I’m not really afraid of death.

    I don’t spend too much time worrying or thinking about death. And in our younger years, we tend to feel like death is a long ways off. There is the phenomenon of the sense of immortality among our youth. Reminds me of a line in one of Rush’s songs which says, we’re only immortal for a limited time. But friend, if you have ever had a close call or a close brush with death, you know that the prospect of death and the grave ordinarily terrify the human spirit. And even in the case of those of us who shouldn’t be afraid of death or of dying or of the grave, even in the case of those of us who know Jesus as our Savior and who therefore have the assurance that we have received the gift of eternal life, if we’re being honest with ourselves, we’ll have to admit that yes, death in the grave can still be frightening prospects to face.

    While the annals of church history record many examples of faithful and godly and courageous believers, Christian martyrs who chose to face the fangs of the lion or the flames of the stake rather than to renounce their Savior in order for their lives to be spared. While the history records many such brave souls, the truth is, sadly, not every Christian stood strong and faithful and courageously for their Lord when faced with the threat of torture or death. When faced with the choice either renounce your Lord or offer that pinch of incense to Caesar or be killed, perhaps in a violent and painful way, not all stood strong. Some stood firm to the end and we praise God for that. Many others caved and compromised in order to avoid the threat of death. We all have a strong drive for survival and a strong drive to avoid death at any cost.

    Dear ones, the truth is that we fear death because death is a fearful thing. You know, there’s a popular view out there in the secular world that says that, hey, death is just a natural part of life. I remember many years ago, attending, I believe it was a funeral service, and there was a particular unbelieving individual that I was having a conversation with after this service, who made this comment, who said, you know, this is sad, you know, death is always a hard thing, but we just have to learn to accept that death is a natural part of life, she said. But beloved, from a biblical point of view, that is just not true. Death is not a natural part of life. Instead, God’s Word describes death as an enemy, as the greatest enemy. Death is presented in Scripture as a foe, an intruder, even a curse.

    The undying eternal God did not create us in his image in order that we might die. Instead, as we learn in well-known passages such as Romans 6, verse 23, for the wages of sin is death. The reason that we human beings die is because of sin. Death is punishment for sin. And as the Lord tells us through the prophet Ezekiel, in Ezekiel 18, verse four, the soul who sins shall die. Physical death in the grave are signs of God’s wrath and curse upon a sinful, rebellious humanity. It is not a natural part of life. I remember the first funeral I remember attending as a young person It was an open casket funeral. I think I’ve shared this story before. There was a dear older couple that lived across the street from us, a wonderful family.

    They invited my brother and me anytime we wanted to go over and swim in their swimming pool during the summer months. But we got the word one evening, I believe it was the fall or close to the winter, maybe October or November, we got the word that they were suddenly killed in a tragic car accident. snuffed out unexpectedly, tragically. And I remember attending their funeral service, and it was a creepy experience. It was an open casket funeral. And though the morticians had done their best to make this couple look as natural as possible, to look like they were just taking a nap, in my heart of hearts, I felt and I knew, this is not right. This is creepy, this is not natural. Friends, it is precisely because the prospect of death in the grave are such naturally terrifying prospects for us sinners that our Lord’s burial in Joseph of Arimathea’s new tomb can be such a comforting truth.

    Have you ever before thought of or considered the burial of Jesus as a truth that should bring gospel comfort? Well, I’m here to tell you, brothers and sisters, this morning that not only does the death of Jesus and the resurrection of Jesus and the ascension of Jesus give us gospel comfort, but even the burial of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, offers us gospel comfort. And I hope to make that clear in my sermon today. Isn’t it interesting that the Holy Spirit inspired all four gospel authors, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, to record this historical event of our Lord’s burial by Joseph of Arimathea? And the details in the various gospel accounts differ slightly with one another. They’re not contradictory to one another, but in order to get the full picture of the events surrounding our Lord’s burial, it’s good to compare all of the gospel accounts.

    And it’s interesting that John’s gospel is the only one that records Nicodemus as assisting Joseph in the burial of our Lord. Friends, this repetition and multiple attestation of the burial of Jesus emphasizes the vital importance of our Lord’s burial as a central part of the good news about Jesus. which is why the historic church has always confessed in the creed that our Lord Jesus Christ was crucified, dead, and buried. You see, friends, Jesus not only died on the cross for our sins, praise God He did that, Jesus not only rose from the dead to win for us the gift of eternal life, He was also placed in the grave for us so that we who trust in Him as Savior can be assured that the grave is not our final destination. There is hope beyond the grave.

    The grave does not have the final say. Though Jesus our Lord was indeed buried, though He was laid in the tomb, the grave did not have the final power over Him. Indeed, he conquered the grave. And likewise, because we who are believers are united to Jesus Christ by faith, the grave will not have the final say for us either. And this is where we get our gospel truth, our gospel comfort from this truth of our Lord’s burial. As the late Dr. William Hendrickson wrote of our Lord’s burial in his commentary on John, he writes, the burial of Jesus was a necessary element in his humiliation. By means of it, he sanctified the grave for all his followers. So friends, let’s now turn our attention to some of the truths that we can learn from St.

    John’s inspired record of our Lord’s burial. And the first thing I would have us to consider is what would have happened to Jesus’s body if his friends did not intervene to get the body from Pilate? Well, we have here a burial fit for a king. This is the first point in your sermon outline. Brothers and sisters, behold, a burial fit for a king. Dr. Merrill C. Tenney points out that burial in the Middle East usually takes place within 24 hours after death. In this case, the body of Jesus would probably have been flung into a common pit with the bodies of the two other victims had not his friends intervened. So praise God that he moved in the hearts of Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus to intervene and to prepare Jesus’ body for a proper burial.

    But it wasn’t just a proper burial. It was a burial fit for a king. Let’s look at verses 38 and 39. It says, after these things, the things that John had recorded previously, the things having to do with our Lord’s death on the cross, after these things, Joseph of Arimathea Joseph is introduced by John here. And who is Joseph? Well, John tells us who he is. He was a disciple of Jesus, a follower of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews. Asks Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus. And Pilate gave him permission. We’ll consider the boldness and courage that Pilate required to go before, excuse me, that Joseph required to go before Pilate to request the body of Jesus in a little bit. But notice who he was, a secret disciple who finally comes out in the open and he asks Pilate for the body of Jesus.

    And Pilate, after he checks and makes sure that Jesus is truly dead, I believe Matthew’s gospel points out Pilate granted Joseph the body of Jesus. And then it goes on to say in verse 39, Nicodemus also, who earlier had come to Jesus by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about 75 pounds in weight. 75 pounds by our measurement of pounds. Now, both Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, as aristocratic members of the Jewish ruling council, these were men of means and wealth. And in God’s sovereign providence, they are the ones who plan for and arrange our Lord’s burial. Now, if you’re following along in a different translation, such as the New American Standard Version and not the ESV, you might have noticed in verse 39 that it says that this mixture of myrrh and aloes was 100 pounds in weight, whereas the English Standard Version says it is 75 pounds in weight.

    Is there a contradiction there? Is there tension there in the text? Well, the answer to that question is no. Instead, versions like the ESV are giving the weight in standard English pounds, whereas versions like the New American Standard Version are giving the weight in Roman pounds. In fact, in the Greek, it literally reads 100 litras, a litra being a Roman pound. But 100 litras, 100 Roman pounds amounts to about 75 of our pounds, so that’s the reason for the slight difference in some of your Bible translations. In any case, I wanted to point that out in case any of you were wondering about that. But notice, regarding this mixture, 75 pounds of spices and aloes, wow, that’s a lot. What does Nicodemus do? He brings a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about 75 pounds. Dr.

    Tenney points out that the mixture of spices that Nicodemus provided was a very large quantity. Spices were generally imported and were very expensive. Myrrh is a gum exuded by a tree that grows in Arabia and is prized for its perfume. It was one of the gifts of the wise men to Jesus, as you can see back in Matthew 2, verse 11. Alloses derived from the pulp of the leaves of a plant that belongs to the lily family. The spice is fragrant and bitter to the taste. Used with myrrh, it acts as a drying agent, and the fragrance would counteract the odor of decaying flesh. The quantity was 100 Roman pounds, or 75 pounds of our pounds, reveals both Nicodemus’ wealth and his appreciation of Jesus. In God’s sovereign providence, the men who were responsible for burying Jesus were men of means, who provided the Lord Jesus with a burial fit for a king.

    Now let’s go on to verse 40. It says in verse 40, so they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as is the burial custom of the Jews. These are Jewish religious leaders, and they are following the burial customs of the Jews. Though our Lord’s body was not embalmed after the Egyptian fashion, obviously, that would have involved removal of his entrails and brain and so forth. Nevertheless, there was some similarity to the embalming process here. The Jewish burial custom of the time would have resulted in our Lord’s body being bound up in these linens. And why is that important? Well, because it demonstrates that Jesus was really dead. It also stands as a witness against any skeptical theory that would claim that, well, Jesus wasn’t really dead, the cool airs of the tomb just kind of revived him, and that’s where the church got this silly idea that Jesus rose from the dead.

    This is the so-called swoon theory. Sometimes atheists and skeptics like to bring up this theory to explain away the bodily resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. But when you think about it, the swoon theory is ridiculous. Here was Jesus. bound up with these heavy spices put into, wrapped around with these linen cloths, placed in a rock-hewn tomb with probably a one-ton rock put at the mouth of the tomb. And Jesus is supposed to get revived by the cool airs of the tomb and somehow break out of his linen cloths that he’s bound up with and somehow roll away that stone and then present himself as the Lord of Life, Such a theory is obviously ridiculous. So the way that our Lord was buried bears testimony to the reality of his death, that he did indeed, he was really dead.

    He was not merely in a comatose state. And then where was he laid? Verse 41 says, now in the place where he was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden, a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. Matthew’s gospel in Matthew 27, verse 60 indicates that the tomb belonged to Joseph himself. Friends, the fact that Joseph of Arimathea owned this new tomb, this rock-hewn tomb, also points to his wealth. since these kinds of rock-hewn tombs could only be afforded by the wealthy. Now, what do we learn from all of this? Well, first of all, beloved, all of this is in fulfillment of Bible prophecy. The Bible predicted that the Messiah, the suffering servant, would indeed be with the rich in his death. In Isaiah 53, verse nine, the chapter predicting the Messiah to be the suffering servant of God, in that verse, Isaiah 53, verse nine, it says, and they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death.

    This clear fulfillment of Messianic Bible prophecy, dear ones, should help to strengthen our faith and confidence in the divine inspiration and the inerrant truth. of God’s holy word, the Bible. But another thing I would have you to consider, I’ve been talking about how our Lord was given a burial that is fit for a king. What was on the placard above our Lord’s head on the cross? In the inscription that was placed above our Lord’s head on the cross and which advertised the crime that he was alleged to have committed, the inscription read, according to chapter 19, verse 19 of John’s gospel, the inscription read, Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. Our Lord was crucified under the false charge that he was aspiring to be a political king, a king in competition with Caesar.

    But while our Lord was crucified as a messianic pretender and a competitor to the throne of Caesar, In reality, Jesus was the true messianic king. He was and is the true spiritual and divine king of the Jews. Indeed, he is the king of kings and the Lord of lords. How fitting then that in God’s sovereign plan and providence, our Lord should be given a burial fit for a king. Dear listener, let me ask you, is King Jesus your King and Messiah? He is in fact, objectively speaking, but have you bowed to his kingship? Have you trusted in him as Lord and Savior? He received a burial fit for a king because he is the king. And he was raised victorious from the dead. And his kingship and lordship is now being proclaimed through the gospel to all the earth.

    Bow to his lordship. Trust him as your savior and lord. But next, I want us to consider from this passage a new tomb and an incorruptible hope. A new tomb and an incorruptible hope. Why is it that John emphasizes the fact that Jesus was placed in a new tomb, as it says in verse 41? In this verse, we’re told that our Lord was buried, quote, in a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. Why is that an important detail? What is the significance of the fact that our Lord was buried in a new tomb? Why in God’s sovereign plan and purpose for our salvation was it necessary for our Lord Jesus to be laid in a new tomb? Again, I think Dr. William Hendrickson states it well in his commentary when he writes the following.

    He says, although the entombment is an element in Christ’s humiliation, nevertheless it affords a foreglimpse of his exaltation. It is a new tomb. Decay has never entered it. The body of Jesus did not suffer corruption. God took care of that. The tomb belonged to a rich man. It was a tomb fit for a king. Here, everything points to exaltation. Beloved, the new tomb that was used by Jesus underscores our Lord’s purity and his incorruption. In fact, the scriptures had predicted that the Messiah would not face corruption or decomposition in the tomb. Let’s read what the Apostle Peter says about that in his sermon on the Day of Pentecost. Let’s turn to Acts 2 and let me just read very briefly verses 25 to 31 of Acts chapter 2. As Peter is preaching the gospel to the gathering there on the day of Pentecost, that miraculous day when the Holy Spirit had been poured out upon the church and the disciples were enabled to speak in foreign tongues, proclaiming the glories of God in many different languages, we read these words beginning at verse 25.

    Peter says, for David, that’s King David, says concerning him, concerning Jesus, and here he quotes, From Psalm 16, which we sang earlier in the service, I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken. Therefore my heart was glad and my tongue rejoiced. My flesh also will dwell in hope, for you will not abandon my soul to Hades, that is a prophecy, a prediction of the resurrection, or let your Holy One see corruption. You have made known to me the paths of life, you will make me full of gladness with your presence. He goes on to say, brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David, that he both died and was buried and his tomb is with us to this day.

    Being therefore a prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. Jesus himself did not experience corruption or decay in the grave. And why is that important? It’s important because it points to our Lord’s power to deliver us from final corruption and decay. Should our Lord tarry, each and every one of us will one day die and our bodies will decompose in the grave. But that’s not the end of the story. If we are united to Christ, if Christ is our Lord and Savior, that which is corruptible will give way to incorruption. When Jesus returns at the end of this age in glory, he will raise us up in glory.

    He will raise us up incorruptible. And also, as Dr. Hendrickson had pointed out, our Lord’s burial in a new tomb also pointed to His exaltation. It was a foreglimpse, as he puts it, to His resurrection, ascension, and exaltation at the Father’s right hand. Friends, our Lord’s estate of humiliation, which culminated in His crucifixion, His death, His burial, and in His continuing in a state of death until the third day, this estate of humiliation would be eclipsed by His estate of exaltation. And He would rise from the dead and ascend into heaven for His heavenly coronation. And in order to reign at the Father’s right hand as King of kings and Lord of lords, the one who will one day consummate the promised kingdom. Since we believers are united to Christ, not only in his death and burial, but also in his resurrection, we can be assured that one day we will be raised incorruptible to live forever with our Savior in the new heavens and the new earth.

    And knowing these truths, brothers and sisters, we need not live our lives in fear of death and the grave. because we serve the one who has conquered death and the grave and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. We’re going to recite this together this evening at our worship service, but all of this causes me to think of that wonderful catechism question and answer from the Heidelberg Catechism. If you want to turn there, it’s on page 872, the back of your Psalter hymnal. The very first question of the Heidelberg Catechism is this, what is your only comfort in life and in death? The Bible-based answer to that question is this, that I am not my own. but belong body and soul in life and in death to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ. He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood and has delivered me from the tyranny of the devil.

    He also watches over me in such a way that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven. In fact, all things must work together for my salvation. Because I belong to Him, Christ, by His Holy Spirit, also assures me of eternal life and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for Him. Dear listener, do you have this comfort? Do you belong to Jesus Christ as your faithful Savior? Receive and rest upon Him today. But finally, beloved, I want us briefly to consider two lives that were transformed by our Lord’s saving death, two lives that were transformed by our Lord’s saving death, and we focus in closing on verses 38 and 39. In this passage, as was already mentioned, we read of two prominent men. two men of wealth and means who were aristocrats as well as leaders, religious leaders among the Jews.

    Now of course we’re familiar with Nicodemus and his conversation with the Lord Jesus as recorded back in John chapter three, that’s the passage where Jesus told Nicodemus that if he would see or even enter the kingdom of God, he must be born again. You cannot enter the kingdom of God, you cannot even see the kingdom of God without the gift of the new birth. And of course, all four gospel accounts mention this man, Joseph of Arimathea. And Joseph is variously described in the different gospel accounts. He is described in one gospel account as a good and righteous man, as a man who had not consented to the plot to kill Jesus, as a man who was looking for the kingdom of God. So there were many positive qualities that by the grace of God, Joseph exhibited.

    However, friends, but as Nicodemus was apparently slow to understand the truth about the new birth, so we are led to understand that Joseph was slow to find the courage to openly identify as a follower of Jesus. For John tells us that he was a secret disciple. Look at verse 12. Trying to find the verse here. Yeah, verse 38. After these things, Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, you know, he was a Jewish religious leader. He was afraid, apparently. He dealt with a sinful fear of being too open about his allegiance to Jesus, lest he lose his position and prominence in the Jewish community. But what is so interesting? I mean, think about these guys, Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea. They were Jewish religious leaders here in the first century.

    And what was the common Jewish view in the first century about the Messiah? Well, the Jews were expecting a political Messiah. They weren’t expecting a suffering Messiah, a Messiah that would be killed. They were expecting a Messiah who would conquer, who would conquer the dreaded Romans. and set up an earthly kingdom ruled from Jerusalem and would sit on the throne as the new Davidic king in a political kingdom. You would think that with this mindset, with this understanding of the Messiah, that these two men, Nicodemus and Joseph, after Jesus was crucified and died, that these men might have said to themselves, oh, well, I guess he wasn’t the one. After all, he died. The Messiah is not supposed to die. But what’s so amazing here is though we might expect Joseph and Nicodemus to come to the conclusion that Jesus was not the Messiah and to thus distance themselves from him and show no more loyalty towards him, after Jesus’ death, they are both actually emboldened, emboldened in their allegiance to Jesus, emboldened in their courage.

    Think about the courage that Joseph had to exhibit in order to come before Pontius Pilate to ask for the body of Jesus. In those days, the friends of crucifixion victims could request the bodies of their friends or loved ones who were victims of crucifixion. However, the risk here is that Jesus was identified, falsely so, but identified as sort of an insurrectionist, as someone who was in competition with the Caesar. So by coming before Pilate, Joseph puts himself in a vulnerable position. He puts himself in danger of being viewed as sympathetic towards insurrection against Rome. And yet he did it anyways. And not only that, By coming before Pilate and requesting the body of Jesus, it’s very likely that Joseph and his friend Nicodemus would have been cast out of or rejected by the Sanhedrin, perhaps even excommunicated from the synagogue.

    And to be excommunicated from the synagogue was to be cut off from your community, cut off from your family, cut off from your friends, socially ostracized. And yet here, after Jesus dies, these men are emboldened and empowered. And while John does not directly say it in our passage for today, I believe that we are to understand here that it was the saving death of Jesus that resulted in the effects of our Lord’s saving death, which infused into these men a deepened loyalty to the Lord Jesus and courage to finally and openly confess their allegiance to the Lord Jesus Christ. All of this points to the power of Jesus’s death. Jesus’s death was a propitiation, a satisfaction, atoning for our sins. In his death, Jesus conquered sin and death and hell. In his death, Jesus also conquered the devil.

    And the effects of our Lord’s death are such that those whom God has chosen for salvation will be emboldened by grace to identify with Him and confess Him. And so we see two lives transformed by our Lord’s saving death. Now Joseph and Nicodemus no doubt did not fully understand everything that was going on here, but we see that Christ had touched their lives and had changed their lives. Has your life been transformed and changed by the saving death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ? May God, in his mercy, grant that we would be transformed by the saving work of Christ, our Lord and Savior, our only hope in life and in death. Amen. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, once again, we thank you and praise you and bless you. for all that Jesus did for us, and that he was willing not only to go to the cross, but also to go to the grave in our place, in our stead, that we might be raised to newness of life, raised incorruptible in union with him.

    Lord, we ask that you would help us to find comfort in these truths, and we ask that you would give us courage, that we need not live in fear of death, but instead may live with bold confidence and joy and hope. We pray these things in Jesus’ name and all of God’s people said, amen. Let’s close our time of worship by rising and we’ll sing together number 479, Jesus, I am resting, resting, 479.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • Foundations of Faith: Crucified, Dead, and Buried

    Foundations of Faith: Crucified, Dead, and Buried

    About this sermon

    1. Consider the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ as first-order gospel truths (vv. 3-4a).
    2. The Old Testament Scriptures anticipated the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ (vv. 3-4).
    3. The central importance of our Lord’s crucifixion, death, and resurrection (vv. 3-4).

    More sermons from 1 Corinthians · Browse all sermons

    Sermon transcript

    of God’s Word. Today my sermon text is 1 Corinthians 15, verses three and four. I’m gonna read the first 11 chapters, not the 11 chapters, the first 11. Boy, we’d be here a long time. The first 11 verses to put this passage in its larger context. 1 Corinthians 15, verses 1-11. Hear God’s holy word. Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the 12.

    Then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God, I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we preach, and so you believed. Dear friends, the grass withers and the flower fades, but the Word of our God endures forever.

    Please join me in your hearts in prayer. Our Lord and Father in heaven, we do pray that by your spirit you would once again open our minds and our hearts to behold wondrous things from your word. Make us eager to learn that which the spirit is speaking to us in this portion of your God-breathed, inerrant, infallible word. And we pray that you would once again set a guard over my lips that I might speak only that which is faithful in your sight and edifying to your people. We pray all these things, Heavenly Father, through Christ our Lord and all of God’s people said. Amen. You may be seated. As we continue the Foundations of Faith series, we consider today the statement in the second credo, the second, I believe, statement of the Apostles’ Creed, that Christ our Savior was crucified, dead, and buried.

    And the key words to be listening for in my sermon today, I’d encourage the children to listen for these words, the words faith, creed, scripture, doctrine, death, burial, and gospel. Well, my dear friends in Christ, as followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, it is important for us to have a basic idea of what we believe and of why we believe it. And towards that goal, it is helpful for us periodically to review the foundations of our faith. And that is what we’ve been seeking to do in this Foundations of Faith sermon series, a series which is, of course, being guided by that classic summary of Christian belief known as the Apostles’ Creed. Friends, as we continue our study of these foundational beliefs, this Lord’s Day morning we consider the biblical truths that are summarized, as I said, in the second credo, the second, I believe, statement of the Creed, namely that Christ, God’s only begotten Son, was crucified, dead, and buried, that is the focus of our consideration this morning.

    And as a biblical foundation in support of this creedal affirmation, we turn this morning to Saint Paul the Apostle’s summary of the gospel that he preached, as we find that summary recorded for us in this very significant and central passage, 1 Corinthians chapter 15. And we will focus, as I said, especially on verses three and four of this chapter. Now, let me put this chapter and, indeed, briefly put the entire letter of 1 Corinthians in its context. If you study, if you’ve read 1 Corinthians, if you’ve read it carefully and not just skimmed over the surface, well, even in a certain sense, even if you have skimmed over the surface, one of the things that you will notice is that, wow, these Corinthian Christians, they had a lot of problems. They had a lot of issues.

    The first century church in Corinth was indeed a deeply troubled congregation. I believe the modern terminology would be that they were a deeply dysfunctional church community. And so there were many pastoral problems and issues in that congregation that needed to be addressed. In his first letter to the church in Corinth, Paul addresses these problems and issues head on, and he also answers some of the questions that the Corinthian believers had addressed to him in a letter that they had apparently sent to him. Back in 1 Corinthians 7, verse one, Paul seems to refer to this letter. He says in that verse, now concerning the matters about which you wrote, and then he proceeds to answer the questions that they had written to him and were asking him for guidance on. Well, one of the major issues, and there were many issues in the church.

    I mean, they were having problems with divisiveness and factionalism and schism. Some of the members of the Corinthian church were continuing to attend idol feasts, and there was immorality in the church. People were getting drunk at the Lord’s Supper. There were all kinds of practical pastoral issues that needed to be addressed, but there was also a very significant doctrinal issue. that needed to be addressed in the Corinthian congregation. One of the major doctrinal issues in the Corinthian congregation was that apparently some of the members of the church were either questioning or were outright denying the doctrine of the future general resurrection of the dead at the end of this age. In chapter 15, the Apostle Paul now turns his attention to addressing this particular doctrinal issue. And in laying the groundwork for his defense of the future general resurrection of the body, Paul begins his argument for the future resurrection of the dead by defending the physical bodily resurrection of Christ from the dead.

    After all, Christ’s bodily resurrection was and is the divine pledge and guarantee of our bodily resurrection from the dead at the end of this present age when Jesus returns in glory and ushers in the new heavens and the new earth. In the course of defending Christ’s resurrection, Paul reviews the basics of the gospel message which he had preached to them. And here he introduces this discussion in verses 1 and 2 of chapter 15. where he is shifting attention, he has been speaking about the spiritual gifts in the church in chapters 12 through 14, but now he indicates that he’s gonna change subjects and deal with this matter of the resurrection of the dead. He says in chapter 15, verses one and two, now I would remind you, brothers, there might be a little bit of subtle sarcasm here, I’m reminding you of what you should already know.

    I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, I mean, you should understand this gospel, you’ve already received it and confessed it, in which you stand, this gospel in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. Well, friends, this brings us to our passage for this morning. And if you’re following along in your sermon outline, this is the first main point that I want us to consider from verses three and the first part of verse four. Beloved, first of all, let us consider the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ as first order gospel truths. Let me repeat that. Let us consider the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ as first order gospel truths.

    Paul writes again in verses 3 and 4, for I delivered to you as of what? As of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that He was buried and so forth. Of first importance. This is what I’m getting at when I use this terminology of first order. And actually, Dr. Albert Mohler, who I believe was, if I think he might still be, the president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, we have some differences with him as a since he’s a Baptist and we’re not, but he, I believe, leans Calvinistic or Reformed in his understanding of the Gospel, and so we share many of his beliefs. A number of years ago, he wrote an article in which he distinguishes First Order, Second Order, and third order doctrines.

    What he means by first order doctrines, first order doctrines are doctrines which are so central and so fundamental to Christianity that the denial of them represents the immediate or at least the eventual denial of Christianity itself. First-order doctrines are doctrines that you cannot deny or cannot be unclear about without putting yourself outside of the Christian fold. Second-order doctrines are doctrines about which Bible-believing Christians may disagree, but they create significant boundaries between believers, whether as distinct congregations or as denominations. and there’s many examples of those second-order types of doctrines. Third-order doctrines are doctrines upon which Christians may disagree and yet still remain in close fellowship even within local congregations. By the way, as a quick aside, an example of a third-order doctrine within the Orthodox Presbyterian Church would be the issue of are you two office or three office in your view of church office.

    In other words, does the New Testament reveal only two offices, the offices of elder and deacon, and within the eldership there are teaching elders and ruling elders, that’s the two office view. And then there’s the correct view, which is the three office view. the view that there are actually three offices, the office of minister of the word, the pastoral office, as well as the office of church governor or ruling elder and then the office of deacon. Now within the OPC, we have folks in the OPC including ministers and elders who hold to the two office view and those who hold to the correct view, the three office view. But nevertheless, we still fellowship together and we work together as brothers in the Lord. In any case. in this scheme of different orders of doctrine, based on the kind of definition of the various levels of orders of doctrine that Dr.

    Moeller describes. It is clear, my friends, from Paul’s language here in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, that he viewed belief in our Lord’s death by crucifixion, our Lord’s burial, and of course our Lord’s resurrection from the dead. Paul viewed these doctrines to be first order doctrines. To disbelieve in or deny our Lord’s death by crucifixion, his burial or his resurrection from the dead is to disbelieve in and to deny the Christian faith at least in any meaningful biblical or historic sense of that term. And thus to place oneself outside of the Christian fold. And this, by the way, was one of the reasons why Dr. J. Gresham Machen was correct in his famous book, Christianity and Liberalism. He made the case in that book that theological liberalism, or modernism as it’s been called, theological liberalism, which tends to view doctrines like the virgin birth, the deity of Christ, Christ’s bodily resurrection as optional, if not mythological and metaphorical, Machen made the case that liberalism, though it uses Christian terminology, is actually an altogether different religion.

    It’s not Christianity at all. And he is correct, according to the standard, at least, of the Apostle Paul, the standard of God’s word. So let’s dive into our text. In verse three, Paul begins by saying this, for I delivered to you. He’s reminding them of the gospel, the good news about Jesus that he had preached to them, and he had delivered this gospel to them. I deliver to you as of first importance what I also received. In other words, he’s saying to them, brothers, sisters, this gospel message that I preached to you, which includes the message of Jesus’s death for our sins, his burial, and his resurrection from the dead, this message, I didn’t make it up. It doesn’t originate from me. I received it. Ultimately, he received it from the resurrected Lord Jesus himself, as well as receiving it from the other apostles.

    It had been passed on to him and he was passing it on to them. Through this language, by this language, Paul handed on to them, as by tradition, a body of doctrine which they had received from him. One Bible commentator in commenting on this received and delivered language found in the first four verses of chapter 15 writes this, The commentator says, Paul is using commonly recognized language for handing on intact a body of information that one has received from others. And by the way, this is one of the reasons why we in the OPC and at Grace Church stress the importance of scripture and catechism memory work. Not because that’s a magical practice, but because these are some of the vehicles that are well tested and tried for passing on the faith from one generation to another generation.

    These are time-tested vehicles for passing the faith along to the next generation. And so Paul had received the faith once for all delivered to the saints. He received it from the Lord Jesus and from the other apostles, and he was passing it on to them. And in doing so, he reminds them of the doctrines that he especially stressed in his preaching of the gospel to them. And he uses this terminology. He says, for I deliver to you as of what? As of first importance. Here he is laying before us first order doctrines. He says, what did he deliver to them? That Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures. We’re gonna consider the significance of that phrase, in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scripture.

    Now in the English Standard Version, as well as the New American Standard Version, this phrase, the Greek term, the Greek words are en protois, en protois, as of first importance, or some translations like the New King James Version translate it as first of all. Dr. W. Harold Mayer says of this phrase, some have understood the words translated of first importance in the temporal sense of at the first. But that seems redundant because at all times Paul’s preaching identified the death and resurrection of Christ with the gospel. The stress is on the centrality of these doctrines to the gospel message. In other words, friends, the context of this passage by describing doctrinal truths such as Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection as being of first importance. Through that language, the context of this passage indicates that Paul is stressing these doctrines as first order doctrines.

    Truths that are absolutely non-negotiable. Truths that are absolutely, undeniably, irrefutably, unquestionably, and unavoidably essential to the very gospel message itself. And so to deny these truths is to deny the good news, the gospel, and to put yourself outside of the Christian fold. Now, I wanna make a couple points of application. Some of you may feel uncomfortable with this language of first-order doctrines versus second-order and third-order doctrines. And you might be saying, well, wait a minute, Pastor. All of the Bible is God’s word. Aren’t all of the truths of the Bible important? Isn’t this whole book of first order truth? Well friends, let me just say and make it clear, it is indeed true that all Bible truths are important. All Bible truths are important because God has revealed them and he has caused them to be incorporated, inscripturated in his written word, the Bible.

    You and I are not at liberty to take a sort of a cafeteria pick and choose approach to the Scriptures. If the Bible clearly teaches something, you and I as followers of Christ are obligated to believe the Word of God because it is the final authority. It is the Word of the true and living God. But at the same time, While all Bible truths are important, some Bible truths are of first importance with respect to the gospel message. Some are first order doctrines that are essential to the gospel message itself and therefore essential to our salvation. As our confession of faith states in chapter one, section seven, which is the chapter on the scriptures, the holy scriptures, in that section, and you can follow along if you’d like, it’s on page 920 in your Psalter hymnal, Westminster Confession of Faith, chapter one, section seven, seems to assume this kind of hierarchy of doctrinal truths when it writes, when the Westminster divines say the following. they write in that section of the Confession.

    In other words, there are some passages of the Bible that are easier to understand than others. All things in Scripture are not alike plain in themselves, nor alike clear unto all. Yet, those things which are necessary to be known, believed, and observed for salvation are so clearly propounded and opened in some place of Scripture or other. that not only the learned but the unlearned in a due use of the ordinary means may attain unto a sufficient understanding of them. When it comes to saving truth, The saving truth of the Bible is clear for those who are willing to put the time and effort into reading the scriptures and understanding them. And another comforting aspect of that section of our confessional standards is it’s basically saying you don’t have to be a Bible scholar or a theologian to understand the gospel.

    Through a due use of the ordinary means, even the unlearned, may attain to a sufficient understanding of the good news of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. But again, to clarify, this does not mean that Christians are free to take a pick-and-choose, cafeteria-style approach to the Bible, accepting those things which we like, but rejecting those things which we dislike or find untasteful. Instead, it is a recognition, beloved, that some parts of the Bible are easier to understand than others. And also that sincere Bible-believing Christians, Christians who love the Lord, who are devoted to His Word, and who desire to believe and live in accordance with the Word of God, even such sincere Bible-believing Christians at times come to different conclusions about how to understand and interpret certain passages of the Bible. And I mentioned as a third order debate within sort of an in-house debate within the OPC, the two office, three office debate, but there are other debates.

    For example, think about the different interpretations of Revelation chapter 20 that are out there. That’s the chapter which speaks about the thousand year millennial reign of Christ. Is that to be understood in a literalistic sense? Is Christ at his return going to set up an earthly throne in Jerusalem and reign from Jerusalem as many of our brothers and sisters of a dispensational bent believe? Or is that symbolic of the church age? Which is the correct view, again. But again, There are Bible-believing Christians who come to different conclusions about the millennium and how to interpret it. That’s not to endorse theological relativism or to say that they’re both true in their own way, no. But it is to say that some things are easier in the scriptures to understand than other things. And so let’s keep that in mind.

    All Bible truths are important, because they are part of God’s word, but some Bible truths are of first importance. In particular, the truths that are central to the gospel message. Another point of application I want to make, beloved, let us, beloved, seek to avoid theological hobby horses. And instead, let us always seek to keep Christ and the gospel central to our church’s life and doctrine. And again, don’t misunderstand. This is not to say that there’s no place for our church’s distinctives or to stressing our Presbyterian and Reformed distinctives. But all of these things are in service to the gospel. We need to keep Christ and his gospel always front and center and not be known as, well, that’s that church over there that has this hobby horse or that hobby horse. A number of years ago, I think in the late 90s and early 2000s, there was a movement known as the Family Integrated Church Movement.

    And a lot of churches identified themselves and advertised themselves as, we’re a family-integrated churches. And what did they mean by that? Well, these were churches that were committed to rejecting the practice of having age-segregated Christian education classes. So they didn’t have age-segregated worship. They didn’t have a children’s church, for example, which I think I actually agree that we shouldn’t do that. Children should be welcomed. in the worship service from as early as possible. But then they also said, you know, we don’t think it’s right to segregate the children of the church away from the adults. And so family integrated church. Now here, brothers and sisters, I’m not here to say that that’s necessarily wrong. Some churches use that model in their Christian education program. We at Grace Church, we have an age segregated practice in our Christian education program.

    But that’s not how we advertise ourselves. We don’t advertise ourselves as, well, we’re not a family-integrated church. We’re an age-segregated church. No, that’s not what we’re about. We’re about Jesus. We’re about the gospel. We have certain practices when it comes to Christian education, but we need to be careful that we don’t get onto hobby horses and emphasize those at the expense of emphasizing the gospel. Again, Paul says, I deliver to you as of first importance what I also received. And that brings me to my next point, and that is, beloved, The Old Testament scriptures anticipated the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. The Old Testament scriptures anticipated the death by crucifixion, the burial, and the resurrection of Christ. And this is the thrust of Paul’s language here where he talks about these things being in accordance with the scriptures.

    What scriptures is he talking about? At the time of his writing of 1 Corinthians, the New Testament scriptures were still in the process of being written. When he writes in accordance with the scriptures, he has in mind in particular the Old Testament scriptures. And so he says in verse three, for I deliver to you as of first importance what I also received that Christ died for our sins. He died for our sins, what? In accordance with The scriptures, the Greek is katatas grafas. What do we learn from this language and Paul’s expression here? We learn, beloved, that Christ is at the heart and center of all of the Bible, including the Old Testament Scriptures. The Old Testament Scriptures anticipate, they point forward to, and they even predict the person and saving work of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

    And many examples could be given. But this is not what Paul means here. He’s not simply saying that, well, there are certain messianic prophecies which predict isolated predictions of Jesus’ sufferings, death, burial, resurrection, and so forth. No, the whole tenor of this Old Testament Scriptures points forward to and anticipates the Lord Jesus Christ and his saving work. For example, consider the sin and guilt offerings of the sacrificial and ceremonial law. You know those quote boring sections of and kind of gory sections of the book of Leviticus? You read through the book of Leviticus, and it’s kind of tedious to read, and it’s got all this stuff about the various kinds of sacrifices that the Israelites were to offer before God on the altar, and instructions for the priests, well, make sure to cut out the entrails, and wash the entrails, and offer the fatty lobe, and all of that stuff.

    And you read that, and you’re like, what is this getting at? It’s pointing to Jesus. It is instructing the people of God that, hey, sin is so serious that it needs death to atone for it. You need a substitute. You need the shedding of blood. And all of this points forward to Jesus, the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world. There are also passages in the Old Testament that directly predict the sufferings of Christ. One of those prominent passages, of course, is Psalm 22. And let me just read a couple verses from Psalm 22 to illustrate this. In Psalm 22, verse one, here are some familiar words. The psalmist who is David here says, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Where have you heard those words before? My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

    Jesus spoke those words on the cross. This anticipates the sufferings of Christ, where he was abandoned by the Father on the cross as he bore our sins. And then skip down to verses six through eight, David writes under the Spirit’s inspiration, he says, but I am a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by the people. All who see me mock me and they make mouths at me, they wag their heads. He trusts in the Lord, let him deliver him. Let him rescue him, for he delights in him. You read the gospel accounts and Jesus endured this type of mockery while he hung on the cross. And then skip down to verses 12. through 18, many bulls encompass me, strong bulls of Bashan surround me. They open wide their mouths at me like a ravening and roaring lion.

    I am poured out like water and all my bones are out of joint. That’s what crucifixion does. It yanks your bones out of joint. My heart is like wax, it is melted within my breast. My strength is dried up like a pot shirt and my tongue sticks to my jaws. You lay me in the dust of death. For dogs encompass me, a company of evildoers encircle me. And they have what? Pierced my hands and feet. I can count all my bones. They state, They stare and gloat over me. They divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots. Read the gospel accounts of Christ’s crucifixion. These things happened. These are direct predictions of our Lord’s suffering and death by crucifixion. And then, of course, there is the famous suffering servant passage of Isaiah chapter 53.

    And I could go on. Well, dear ones, As we approach the Bible, we need to realize that as God’s word, it points us to Jesus. Christ is at the heart and center of scripture. Dear ones, we read the Bible, we approach and read the Bible wrongly when we read it, for example, as a book of moral stories and lessons, sort of like a divinely inspired Aesop’s fable. Or when we read it like a collection of inspirational tales for self-improvement, sort of like a divinely inspired chicken soup for the soul. Or when we read it like a blueprint or a manual for improving society or for creating a Christianized nation and culture. or if we read it as a psychological drama, a psychological drama which reveals social and psychological archetypes that help us to understand the human psyche and human society.

    Or even, and this may speak more directly to our reformed situation, even when we read it like a systematic theology textbook. The Bible’s full of theology, but it is not a systematic theology textbook. Beloved, the Bible is none of these things that I’ve mentioned. Instead, the Bible is the true story. It is God’s story, the story of God’s great plan to redeem and save a lost and dying world through sending His Son to be a crucified, risen Savior for sinners. While the Bible certainly does contain moral and ethical guidance through the law of God and certainly reveals a system of theological truth, it is fundamentally a book about redemption. It is a book about God’s mighty acts of redemption which culminate and climax in the person and saving work of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, especially the good news of Christ’s death by crucifixion, his burial, and his resurrection for us and for our salvation.

    In other words, friends, the whole Bible, including the Old Testament, leads to and centers upon Jesus Christ and his saving work for us sinners. The good news of Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection is in accordance with the scriptures. And as we close off our consideration of this passage today, I would have us briefly consider the central importance of our Lord’s crucifixion, death, and resurrection. The central importance of our Lord’s crucifixion, death, and resurrection. Again, Paul writes, for I deliver to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died Paul doesn’t say directly that he died by crucifixion, but that’s implied. Paul mentions the cross elsewhere in his writings. Christ died by crucifixion for our sins in accordance with the scriptures and that he was buried and so forth. Again, why is it that Paul lists as of first importance our Lord’s death and burial as being first order essential gospel truths?

    Why couldn’t the Savior have died by strangulation or by dying? Why couldn’t our Savior have been put to death in any number of other ways? Why did it have to be by crucifixion? The reason it had to be by crucifixion, my friends, is the Old Testament law indicates that anyone who is hung on a tree is cursed. Turn to Deuteronomy 21, and let me read Deuteronomy 21, verses 22 and 23. Deuteronomy 21, verse 22 and 23. Moses writes there, and if a man has committed a crime punishable by death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God. You shall not defile your land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance.

    Why is that so significant? Death by crucifixion is a cursed death. This is significant, my friends, for by dying and a cursed death on the cross, Christ took the curse of our sins upon himself in order that we might receive the blessings of eternal salvation. This is what Paul emphasizes elsewhere in his letter to the Galatians. In Galatians chapter 3 verses 12 and 14 Paul writes, but the law is not of faith rather the one who does them shall live by them. Christ redeemed us from the what? From the curse of the law. How? By becoming a curse for us for it is written Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree, so that in Christ Jesus, the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised spirit through faith.

    Beloved, Jesus had to die on the cross. a cursed death on the cross that the curse we deserve for our sins might be laid upon him so that we through him might receive the blessings of God. And it was necessary that Christ die for our sin. We’re told in verse three of our passage that Christ died for our sins. In other words, he died a penal substitutionary atoning death. He took our penalty upon himself. He died in our place, in our stead. Now friends, think about it. To the Jewish mind in the first century and to the Jewish mind of today, the idea of a Messiah who would die and accursed death by crucifixion was an offense. It was a stumbling block. After all, The Jews were expecting a messianic king who would wield political power and who would defeat their political oppressors, in that case, the hated Romans at that time, and would set up an earthly political kingdom, gaining political independence for Israel and bringing in an age of earthly and material prosperity and blessing.

    The Jews of the first century were expecting sort of a health and wealth political Jesus. They were expecting a political messiah. And yet, sadly, they had grossly misinterpreted their own scriptures. For the Old Testament taught not only that the messiah would conquer the nations by his grace and rule the nations, but that he would also be a suffering servant who would die for the sins of his people in accordance with the scriptures. Christ’s death proves that the Father’s wrath against our sins has been exhausted, that the curse has been overcome in our Lord’s penal substitutionary atonement. But what about the burial of Christ as a first-order doctrine? Not only does Paul say, as of first importance, the truth that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures and that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, but that He was buried How is the burial of Christ a first order doctrine?

    How is it that the burial of Christ is according to the scriptures? Well, the truth of our Lord’s burial proves that our Lord was indeed dead. The Old Testament lays stress on the importance of a proper burial. Christ was properly buried in the tomb of a rich man. and his burial proves that he was actually dead, and not that he had merely swooned or merely appeared to be dead. There’s a ridiculous skeptical theory out there called the swoon theory, the idea that Jesus didn’t really die on the cross, he only seemed to be dead, and the Roman soldiers didn’t recognize that he was actually dead. as if these Roman soldiers who knew how to distinguish a live person from a dead person would mistake that. But anyways, they say Jesus still had a little life in him.

    He just kind of swooned. He was sort of in a comatose state. They took him down from the cross and they laid him in the tomb and the cool airs of the tomb revived him. Nonsense or hogwash. I could use stronger language, but I won’t. That’s nonsense, my friends. Jesus was practically mummified. He’s wrapped up and he’s put in this tomb with a heavy stone rolled in front of it. And he’s going to get up and somehow move that stone up here to his disciples and say, hey, I’m the risen Lord. And they’re going to believe that. No, he would be in great need of medical attention. The burial of Christ proves that he was actually dead, and the death of Christ proves that he has fully, perfectly atoned for human sin. The Son of God incarnate actually died on the cross, his burial proving it, and in doing so, all our sins, brothers and sisters, were buried with him.

    Have your sins been nailed to the cross of Christ and buried in his tomb? You can know that they have been, as by grace you repent and turn to Christ, trusting him and him alone as your very own Lord and Savior. Believe and repent today and you shall be saved. Again, I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preach to you, Paul says. that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures. Let us believe and embrace these truths of the gospel. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you and praise you for the finished work of Christ and for your presence with us this day. We pray that these truths would find a lodging place in our souls and that by your spirit you would cause these truths to bear much spiritual fruit in our lives.

    We pray these things in Jesus’ name and all of God’s people said, amen. Let’s rise and we’ll sing as our closing hymn, How Deep the Father’s Love for Us, hymn 351, How Deep the Father’s Love for Us.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • Foundations of Faith: Suffered under Pontius Pilate

    Foundations of Faith: Suffered under Pontius Pilate

    About this sermon

    The Apostles’ Creed confesses that Christ ‘suffered under Pontius Pilate,’ and those words anchor the gospel in real history, unlike religions that could survive without their founders. The words also affirm that the Son of God truly suffered in a real human body. Pilate declares Jesus innocent again and again, yet under pressure from the Jewish leaders he has him scourged and hands him over to be crucified, as the chief priests cry, ‘We have no king but Caesar.’ The just one suffered for the unjust so that sinners could be freely justified.

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    Sermon transcript

    friends, please remain standing for the reading of God’s Word. We return this morning to our Foundations of Faith series, and the passage today, my sermon text today, is John 19, verses 1 through 16. John chapter 19, verses 1 through 16. Here is John’s account of of our Lord’s trial and in particular the stage of the trial in which Jesus is sentenced to die by crucifixion. Let us hear God’s holy word. Then Pilate took Jesus and flogged him. And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head and arrayed him in a purple robe. They came up to him saying, hail, king of the Jews, and struck him with their hands. Pilate went out again and said to them, see, I am bringing him out to you that you may know that I find no guilt in him.

    So Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, behold the man. When the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out, crucify him, crucify him. Pilate said to them, Take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no guilt in him. The Jews answered him, We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die, because he has made himself the Son of God. When Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid. He entered his headquarters again and said to Jesus, Where are you from? but Jesus gave him no answer. So Pilate said to him, you will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you? Jesus answered him, you would have no authority over me at all, unless it had been given you from above.

    Therefore, he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin. From then on Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out, if you release this man, you are not Caesar’s friend. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar. So when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called the Stone Pavement, and in Aramaic, Gabbatha. Now, it was the day of preparation of the Passover. It was about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, Behold your king! They cried out, Away with him! Away with him! Crucify him! Pilate said to them, Shall I crucify your king? The chief priests answered, we have no king but Caesar. So he delivered him over to them to be crucified. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever.

    Please join me in your hearts as we ask the Lord’s blessing in prayer upon the preaching of his word. O Lord and Father in heaven, as we come to this sobering portion of Your Word. We pray that by Your Spirit, You would once again open our minds and our hearts to behold wondrous things from Your Word. Grant us the grace to be attentive. Grant us the grace to receive this Word as Your Word. And we pray that by Your Spirit, Your Word would find a lodging place in our souls and bear much spiritual fruit in our lives. Lord, grant unto me, your unworthy servant, the grace to declare and speak forth your word with clarity and power and with the assistance of your spirit for the glory of the name of Jesus Christ, the edification of your saints and the salvation of sinners.

    We pray these things, heavenly father, in Jesus name and all of God’s people said, amen. You may be seated. Dear friends, as you see in your sermon outline and in your bulletin, the title of my sermon this morning is Foundations of Faith Suffered Under Pontius Pilate. And there’s a number of key words you can listen for that the children can listen for, especially if they find that helpful in following along. The words history, humiliation, suffering, authority, and king. Well, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ, as followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, it is important for us to have a clear understanding of what we believe, of why we believe it, and of how to faithfully confess and bear testimony to our faith before others. This Foundations of Faith series that I’ve been preaching recently is intended to help us in doing those very things.

    And so, beloved, on this First Lord’s Day of the new year, we return to our Foundations of Faith series, which is a biblically-based series in which we are reviewing some of the foundational truths of our holy Christian faith. And we’re using the Apostles’ Creed as our guide. not because the Apostles’ Creed is inspired, but rather because the Apostles’ Creed summarizes some very central foundational biblical truths that we as Christians confess and believe. On this Lord’s Day morning, we resume our consideration of the second credo, the second, I believe, statement of the Apostles’ Creed, and we focus today on the affirmation of that second credo, that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ suffered under Pontius Pilate. Now dear friends, there are many important truths that are highlighted in this section of the creed, but two important truths stand out in this second credo.

    First of all, the second credo of the Apostles’ Creed highlights the fact that the Christian gospel is grounded in genuine history and in real historical events, not in mythology or in mythological stories that are disconnected from objective history. You see, friends, our God, the God of the Bible, is a God of history and providence. He is a God who has sovereignly decreed all of creation and is sovereignly working out his plan and purpose within history. And Jesus Christ, in his incarnation, entered into real space-time history in the historical person of Jesus of Nazareth, and he did so in order to redeem us from our sins. So that’s one very important aspect of our faith that we need to always keep in mind. This is one of the things, for example, that makes biblical Christianity different from religions like Buddhism.

    Now Buddhism is a religious philosophical system and of course Buddhism derives its name from the Buddha, but even if the Buddha was a mythological figure and not a real historical figure, the religion of Buddhism could continue because Buddhism does not depend upon historical events. But Christianity is different. Biblical Christianity is rooted in God’s actions of mercy and judgment that take place within history for the redemption and salvation of his people. Now, a second important truth that the second credo of the Apostles’ Creed highlights is that Jesus, though fully divine, nevertheless experienced real suffering. And he experienced real suffering because he was also a real flesh and blood human being. And therefore the Apostles’ Creed, especially in its second credo, stands as a witness against all heresies which would deny the full flesh and blood humanity of our Lord.

    Heresies such as Gnosticism and Docetism and every other heresy that would deny our Lord’s full human nature. This statement of the creed in which we confess that our Lord suffered under Pontius Pilate underscores these and similar important truths. This statement from the creed is based on passages from the gospels such as the one that we are considering this morning from the Gospel of John. And so let’s now turn our attention to this passage of God’s Word, John chapter 19. Now in our passage for this Lord’s Day morning we have John’s account of part of our Lord’s trial. And you know when we compare the gospel accounts in the New Testament we observe that our Lord’s trial took place in a number of different phases. For example, there was an initial Jewish religious phase of our Lord’s trial, which took place before the high priest Caiaphas and the Jewish ruling council, which was called the Sanhedrin.

    And then there was an initial interrogation of the Lord Jesus before Pontius Pilate, which, and that of course, represented the civil or secular phase of our Lord’s trial. Now Luke’s gospel tells us that at some point in this process, Pilate had tried to pass Jesus off to Herod, since as a Galilean, Jesus belonged to Herod’s jurisdiction. But of course, Herod ended up sending Jesus right back to Pilate. So Pilate couldn’t extricate himself from having to deal with this man, Jesus of Nazareth, who was brought before him. for trial. And finally, there was the sentencing phase when Pilate finally caved to the pressure from the Jewish religious authorities and unjustly sentenced our Lord Jesus to die an awful, painful, shameful death by crucifixion. Crucifixion being one of the most horrible forms of torture ever invented by the twisted, sick mind of sinful, fallen humanity.

    As we approach our passage for this morning, the Jewish phase of our Lord’s trial has already happened, and his initial interrogation by Pontius Pilate has already taken place. Our passage for this morning is John’s record of the sentencing phase of our Lord’s trial. And this passage for this morning indeed underscores the truth that we confess in the creed that Jesus suffered under Pontius Pilate. passage for today bearing clear testimony to that. So let’s dive into the details of our passage, and if you’re following along in your sermon outline, this is the first point, first main point in my sermon outline. Beloved, behold the man. Let us consider the humiliation and innocence of the Son of God. Behold the man. as we consider the humiliation and the innocence of the Son of God. We’ll focus on the first seven verses of our passage first of all.

    Now this section of our passage showcases the depth of utter humiliation and utter shame that our Lord Jesus endured for us in his state of humiliation as Jesus begins his steep descent into the black hole of the outer darkness that he would endure on the cross where he would bear our sins. Notice verse one, it says this, then Pilate, then meaning after the things recorded at the end of chapter 18, then Pilate took Jesus and did what? Flogged him. Now again, remember, Jesus has been initially interrogated by Pilate, but no sentencing has taken place yet. And yet Pilate orders Jesus to be flogged. Now, it appears that our Lord was flogged twice, both before and after His sentencing, enduring a somewhat lighter beating prior to His sentencing, and then enduring the dreaded and often deadly scourging after He was sentenced and immediately before His crucifixion.

    It’s likely that the flogging, which John writes about here, was what the Romans called the fustigatio, which, according to one scholar, is the lightest form of flogging administered for minor crimes, and not the more brutal and severe form of scourging, which was called the verbaratio, and which our Lord received after Pilate had pronounced the death sentence. as we shall see, perhaps this initial lighter beating was intended by Pilate to kind of batter and bruise our Lord just enough to hopefully draw forth sympathy from our Lord’s enemies, the Jewish religious authorities, and hopefully in Pilate’s mind, hopefully perhaps to convince them to back off on their insistence that Pilate sentenced Jesus to death by crucifixion. But whatever the case may be, whatever Pilate’s intentions in subjecting Jesus to this initial lighter form of beating before bringing him out before the Jews, whatever the case may be, the pain and the indignities that our Lord Jesus endured as the suffering servant of the Lord predicted by Isaiah 53 had already begun in earnest.

    Goes on to say in verse two, and the soldiers twisted together a crown, but what kind of crown? A crown of thorns, and put it on his head, and arrayed him in a purple robe. They came up to him saying, hail, king of the Jews, and struck him with their hands. The soldiers ridiculed. and torment our Lord by clothing Jesus in mock royal apparel, pressing down upon his brow a mock crown of thorns which would have gone deeply into his brow and created quite a flow of blood over his face, and then arraying him in a mock royal robe of purple, purple being an imperial color, and then displaying their contemptuous disdain for him by addressing him with a mock royal acclamation, hail, king of the Jews, an acclamation which was similar to the way that Roman soldiers would acclaim the Caesar.

    Little did these soldiers know that the very one whom they were mocking and ridiculing and scorning and disdaining as a false king, that this pitiful looking man in such a state of humiliation in their presence that this pitiful looking Jew was actually their sovereign lord and king, indeed the creator incarnate. One wonders how they would have reacted if it had been revealed to them who they were actually mocking and ridiculing. In any case, it goes on to say in verse four, Pilate went out again and said to them, see, I am bringing him out to you that you may know that I find no guilt in him. Now this is very, very significant friends. Once again Pilate declares, this isn’t the first time that Pilate has declared our Lord’s innocence in the process of our Lord’s trial.

    Here once again, Pilate declares Jesus to be innocent. In his eyes as a Roman governing official, in the eyes of the Roman law, Jesus has done nothing wrong, nothing worthy, certainly nothing worthy of death. And this is an important theme in John’s gospel, for it highlights the legal innocence of Jesus, and therefore emphasizes the truth that John the Baptist had proclaimed about Jesus earlier in the gospel, namely, the truth that Jesus is the sinless, spotless Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, as John the Baptist had testified of Jesus back in chapter one, verse 21. Jesus was indeed the innocent one. He was the spotless, sinless lamb of God. Even his earthly judge pronounced him to be free of guilt and to be innocent. And so what happens next? We go on to verse five.

    It says, so Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. And what a pitiful spectacle that must have been. Jesus, this bruised and battered man, with a crown of thorns and blood from his brow, robed in a purple robe to mock him. He comes out, and what does Pilate say? Pilate said to them, behold the man, behold the man. Now what did Pilate mean by this statement, behold the man? We’re not told, we can only speculate, but a good guess is that perhaps by making this statement, Pilate was in effect saying, now you folks, you Jewish authorities, look at this fellow, look at this poor fellow. Certainly he can’t be guilty of any crime deserving death. Certainly you don’t want me to crucify this fellow. But whatever Pilate intended by these words, behold the man.

    It is likely that the Apostle John, who writes under the inspiration of the Spirit, intends for us, his readers, to see a deeper meaning in these words. throughout the process of our Lord’s trial before Pilate. Pilate says a number of statements, makes a number of statements that are profound and deep and statements that Pilate himself may not have, certainly did not understand the significance of what he was saying. He says here, behold the man. It’s likely that John intends for us as readers to see a deeper meaning in these words of Pilate. Think about it, my friends. Jesus Christ is indeed not just a man, he is the man. He is the ideal, perfect man. He is the last Adam, the one who as man represents his people and dies as their sin bearer, their substitute on the cross of Calvary.

    If this is the case, if this is the case that John intends for us to see this meaning behind these words, then John’s record of Pilate’s words stress the irony of this situation. Pilate makes this saying, statement, behold the man, trying to apparently get pity from his adversary so that they won’t continue to insist that Jesus be crucified, but in making this statement, behold the man, He makes a statement that is truer and deeper than he can possibly conceive. Jesus is the man, he is indeed the God-man, the Word made flesh, Emmanuel, God with us. But how did they react as Pilate brings Jesus, Jesus having suffered an initial beating, having been humiliated with the crown of thorns and the mock acclamations and the purple robe? How did the crowds, the Jewish crowds respond? Look at verse six.

    When the chief priests and the officers saw him, saw Jesus, they cried out, crucify him, crucify him. And how does Pilate respond? Pilate said to them, take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no guilt in him. You can tell that Pilate’s kind of had it up to here with these Jewish leaders. And there were great tensions between the Romans and the Jews at that time. And that’s kind of accentuated in our passage for today. If Pilate had thought that presenting Jesus in this beaten, bruised, and humiliated condition would somehow soften the hearts of our Lord’s enemies, he was deeply mistaken, even as he is apparently deeply disappointed as well. Instead of responding with pity or changing their minds, they cry out to Pilate all the more insistently, all the more vehemently, all the more vitriolically, crucify him.

    Crucify him. In words that must have reflected cynical exasperation and frustration, Pilate replies, take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no guilt in him. Again, Pilate declares our Lord’s innocence. And Pilate says this even though Pilate knows that the Jewish authorities have no legal authority under Roman law to actually crucify Jesus. So Pilate’s sort of caught between a rock and a hard place. He’s under great pressure. He’s responsible to keep the Roman peace among the Jews and he’s getting political pressure from these Jewish religious authorities to crucify this man that he is convinced is innocent and who in fact is innocent. But then the Jews double down, the Jewish authorities double down in verse seven. It says, the Jews answered him, we have a law and according to that law, he ought to die because he has made himself the son of God.

    Oh, they know how to push Pilate’s buttons. Pilate was charged with maintaining the law. Dr. Donald Guthrie in his commentary says this about this verse, it says, the accusers now introduce a religious charge based on an appeal to law. It was not the charge that he made himself the son of God which perturbed Pilate, but the reference to a law for the Romans had committed themselves to maintain Jewish customs and law. Beloved, Behold the man, the Lord Jesus Christ, the man who suffered under Pontius Pilate. The man who suffered under Pontius Pilate, why? For us and for our salvation. The man Christ Jesus, who though innocent and sinless, endured such humiliation, such shame, so that we who by grace trust in him for salvation might be delivered from the everlasting shame of God’s holy judgment and might receive the gift. everlasting life.

    Dear listener, let me ask you, have you beheld the man, indeed the God-man, Jesus Christ? Have you beheld Him with the eyes of faith? Have you seen in Jesus your only hope of salvation? He is your only hope and my only hope of salvation. He is the perfect, innocent, spotless, sinless Lamb of God who died on the cross to take away the sin of the world. He is the only hope of salvation for a guilty, sinful humanity. Is He your only hope of salvation? Have you looked upon Him with the eyes of faith, trusting Him and Him alone for salvation from your sin? Oh, dear listener, repent. Turn from your sin to Christ, trust in him alone to save you from your sins. And the word of God says that you will be saved. Indeed, behold the man, the man who is more than just a man, the man who is the word made flesh, God incarnate.

    And so we see here the innocence and humiliation of the man Christ Jesus. But this passage, as we move on in our text for today, this passage also highlights and underscores God’s authority above all earthly powers, and that’s the second point on your sermon outline. Let us consider next what we learn here about God’s authority over all earthly powers. And we’re gonna focus now briefly on verses eight through 11. Now this section of our passage not only reveals Pilate’s moral weakness and his fear and his vain appeal to his own vaunted authority as a Roman governing official, but more significantly, this section reveals that Pilate is simply a servant under God’s providence to serve God’s redemptive purposes in the suffering and death of our Lord Jesus Christ. responsible for his sin in charging Jesus and sentencing him to death.

    But nevertheless, Pilate is a pawn. He is an instrument used by God to bring about the occasion of our Lord’s death by crucifixion, which was necessary in God’s plan of redemption for us and for our salvation. This section reveals Pilate’s utter and pathetic weakness both morally and politically in sharp contrast to God’s sovereign, superintending authority and power. Here Christ emphasizes that God’s authority is above all earthly powers, including the temporal powers that Pilate then enjoyed as a Roman official. So let’s dive in and let’s look at verse eight. When Pilate heard this statement, the statement that the Jews made in verse seven. When Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid. He entered his headquarters again and said to Jesus, where are you from? And there once again, Pilate asks a very profound question.

    Where is Jesus from? Very profound, though Pilate certainly did not understand the profundity of his own question. But in verse eight, Pilate’s fear is emphasized, and Pilate’s fear was likely due to his pagan viewpoint. Pilate knew that there was something unusual, perhaps something weird, about this Jesus fellow. Jesus, indeed, in his human appearance, seemed weak and pitiful, and yet there was something unusual about this man, Jesus. Perhaps Pilate just couldn’t put his finger on it, but there was something frightening. At some level, Pilate knew that in standing in the presence of Jesus, he was standing in the presence of the holy, and he was afraid. But this fear was also likely due to the warning that Matthew’s gospel said that he had received from his wife. Let’s take a look briefly at Matthew 27, verses 18 and 19.

    Again, it’s a fascinating study if you’re interested in studying the trial and sentencing of our Lord Jesus by comparing the gospel accounts, to compare Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, because as you compare these gospel accounts, they fill out the details wonderfully. In Matthew 27, verses 18 and 19, we read these words, and here Pilate is judging Jesus. He’s sitting on the judgment seat, it says, For he knew that it was out of envy that they, that the Jews, had delivered Jesus up to him. Besides, while he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent word to him, have nothing to do with that righteous man, for I have suffered much because of him today in a dream. There’s some supernatural stuff going on. Pilate’s wife had had like an omen type of dream and she sends him a message, don’t have anything to do with that righteous man.

    I’ve suffered much in a dream because of him. So these factors must have been those which contributed to Pilate’s fear as recorded in our passage for today. And so Pilate, out of fear, asks Jesus privately in the headquarters, where are you from? Of course, Jesus does not answer this question. But while Jesus does not answer this Pilate’s question directly to Pilate, here in John’s narrative, this question is likely meant to cause us as readers to reflect and to consider the question, where indeed is Jesus from? And if you read through John’s gospel, it is clear that our Lord Jesus ultimately came not from Nazareth, But he came from the Father and he was going to return to the Father after accomplishing the redemptive work that the Father had given him to accomplish. And now how does Pilate respond when Jesus doesn’t deign to answer his question?

    Where are you from? Well, look at verse 10. So Pilate said to him, you will not speak to me? Why are you not speaking to me, he’s wondering. You will not speak to me. Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you? Again, Pilate stresses his temporal authority over the Lord Jesus, but then notice what Jesus says in verse 11. Jesus says, you would have no authority over me at all, unless it had been given you from above. Therefore, he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin. Now isn’t this ironic? Here is Pilate, Jesus’s temporal judge. Pilate’s supposed to be judging Jesus, but Jesus in the way that he responds to Pilate shows that he’s the real judge, that he’s the one who’s in control, and that he’s the one confronting Pilate with Pilate’s limited authority as well as Pilate’s own sin.

    And so Jesus sets Pilate straight. He reminds Pilate that he would have no authority over Jesus unless it had been given to him from above, in other words, from God. And this highlights the truth, beloved, that all earthly power is ultimately given as a grant from God. And because of that, as Jesus says, therefore, he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin. Now, who would that be? Who was the one that delivered Jesus over to Pilate? Some might think, well, that must be Judas Iscariot. But no, that’s not true. Judas Iscariot did not deliver Jesus to Pilate. Judas Iscariot was instrumental in delivering Jesus over to Caiaphas and the Jewish ruling council. And so the answer to the question, who is it that delivered Jesus over to Pilate was Caiaphas, the high priest.

    However, though Pilate’s sin is lesser than that of Caiaphas, nonetheless, our Lord’s statement here still confronts Pilate with his sin and by implication with Pilate’s need for repentance from that sin. Jesus was not afraid to speak truth to power, even to one who had temporal authority at least to sentence Jesus to death by crucifixion. He was not afraid to speak truth to power. For even men of high position like Pilate need to know that they are sinners who are accountable to their creator and who must answer for their sins. My friends, the takeaway from this, the lessons we can learn from this are many, but let me suggest to you by way of application, we learn here, beloved, that God is indeed sovereign over all nations and over all men of whatever high position or low position.

    God is sovereign and Jesus Christ is Lord of all. He is King of kings and Lord of lords. God’s authority is above all earthly powers and authorities. Let us recognize and submit to His divine authority and let us praise Him that He has carried out His perfect plan of redemption under His sovereign authority and for our ultimate good. But the final section of our passage for today as we wrap things up. In our final section, in verses 12 to 16, we see the unjust sentencing of Jesus, the Messianic King. The unjust sentencing of Jesus, the Messianic King. Verse 12, goes on to say, from then on Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out. And by the way, when John speaks of the Jews, he’s not being anti-Semitic. He’s simply saying, he’s speaking here of the Jewish religious authorities, the unbelieving Jews who had rejected their Messiah.

    From then on, Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out, if you release this man, you are not Caesar’s friend. Now it’s important to understand that Caesar’s friend may actually be an official title. He’s not just saying, well, you’re not being loyal to Caesar if you let this man go. Caesar’s friend may be an official title indicating that the one who was regarded as Caesar’s friend had Caesar as his patron and that Pilate was a benefactor of Caesar. That may very well be the case. And the significance of these words here is that here the Jewish authorities are implicitly threatening to report Pilate to the emperor for tolerating a rival claimant to the throne. That was a no-no in the Roman Empire, and therefore if Pilate had chosen to release Jesus, he would almost certainly have lost, his political career would have been over, and it’s also quite possible that his life would be over as well, because you simply don’t tolerate a rival claimant to the throne, and that’s what Jesus was being accused of being.

    This man says he’s a king, he’s a rival to Caesar, And so Pilate is being put here in a very difficult spot, and this difficult spot exposes his own compromise and weakness and sin and lack of a spine, if you will. And it goes on to say, Verse 13, so when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called the Stone Pavement and in Aramaic, Gabbatha. Now it was the day of preparation of the Passover. It was about the sixth hour. Now some scholars have pointed out, some have pointed out that Mark’s gospel says it was the third hour and there are a number of different explanations for this apparent discrepancy. One suggestion is that here John may be using the Roman reckoning of time and in Roman reckoning the first hour began at 12 midnight. whereas in Jewish reckoning, the first hour began at basically 6 a.m., and so all of this may have taken place early in the morning, but the point is, all of this, that Jesus was crucified sometime towards the middle of the day on this particular day, and it was the day of preparation of the Passover, probably the Friday in preparation for the Sabbath on that Passover week.

    He said to the Jews, behold your king. Before he had said behold the man, now he says behold your king. Behold your king. They cried out again, away with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate said to them, shall I crucify your king? It’s likely that this question is dripping with sarcasm. Shall I crucify your king? And what do they say? These are frightful words here at the end of our passage, end of verse 15. The chief priests answered, we have no king but Caesar. If you know the Old Testament scriptures, one of the major points of truth that is revealed in the Old Testament is that God took Israel and he was their king. By saying we have no king but Caesar, they were in effect saying we reject God’s kingship. For they indeed had rejected God’s king, God’s messianic king, the Lord Jesus Christ.

    This represented their ultimate apostasy. And so what does Pilate do? Verse 16 says very succinctly, very briefly, So he delivered him over to them to be crucified. And as we learn when comparing the gospel accounts before Jesus is crucified, he is subjected to the more brutal scourging, which basically shredded the skin off of your back and buttocks area before you were actually crucified. And that form of scourging was often deadly. And so, friends, we see here that Christ suffered unjustly. We see the unjust sentencing of Jesus, the Messianic King. But this unjust sentencing, beloved, is our salvation. For Christ our Lord, the innocent, sinless, spotless Lamb of God, He suffered unjustly under Pontius Pilate. Why? To justify us. the just one suffered in the place of those of us who are unjust, that we by the grace of God may be freely justified before the Father and receive the gift of eternal life.

    Beloved, We believe that our Lord Jesus Christ suffered under Pontius Pilate. He did so for us and for our salvation. Let us praise him for his amazing grace and let us proclaim the good news of our Lord’s death followed by his resurrection to a lost and dying world. Let us pray. Gracious heavenly Father, sovereign and eternal God, we praise you and we thank you for all that Jesus, our Savior, has done for us. We thank you, Lord Jesus, that you were willing to suffer so as the suffering servant in order to redeem us from our sins and reconcile us to the Father. We pray, Lord, that we would take these truths to heart and that by your Spirit you would empower us to bear faithful testimony to these glorious gospel truths. We pray these things in Jesus’ name and all of God’s people said, amen.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • Foundations of Faith: Born of the Virgin Mary

    Foundations of Faith: Born of the Virgin Mary

    About this sermon

    1. All details of history are made to fulfill the sovereign-will and plan of God — even the will of pagan rulers (vv. 1-5)!
    2. Observe how little welcome the world gave to its’ virgin-born Savior (vv. 6-7).
    3. Notice that the first Gospel was preached by an angel (vv 8-20).

    More sermons from Luke · Browse all sermons

    Sermon transcript

    Continuing for the reading of God’s Word, we continue the Foundations of Faith sermon series, a series which is being guided by the Apostles’ Creed. Not that we believe the Apostles’ Creed to be inspired, but it is a summary of very important and significant Bible truth. And today we consider Luke 2, verses 1-20, a very familiar passage, especially this time of year. as we consider the truth that we confess that Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary. The key stress today is on the word born. So let us hear God’s word, Luke’s account of our Lord’s birth and the reaction to it. In those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be registered, each to his own town.

    And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, fear not. For behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.

    For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you. You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased. When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to us. And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the baby lying in a manger. And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child.

    And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen as it had been told them. Dear friends, the grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever. Let’s pray for the Lord to bless the proclamation of his word. Our Lord and Father in heaven, as we approach this text of Holy Scripture, we are, as it were, standing on holy ground. We are here today to contemplate and consider the significance of these awesome divine mysteries, the mystery of the incarnation and birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, We would ask, Heavenly Father, that these truths, though we are familiar with them and though we have heard this message for many years, in the case of many of us, that we pray that you would grant us the grace to hear these truths with fresh ears and that you would help us, Lord, to have a deepened sense of awe and reverence and praise for the sending of your Son, Jesus our Lord.

    For it is in his name that we pray and all of God’s people said, Amen. You may be seated. Well, friends, as you can see, the title of my sermon this morning is Foundations of Faith, Born of the Virgin Mary, and there are about six words, key words, that I’d encourage the children to listen for, the word incarnation, birth, will, welcome, savior, and gospel. Well, dear friends, let me ask you a rhetorical question. What is it that makes biblical Christianity, historic biblical Christianity different from every other religion, every other belief system in the world? Well, I’m sure that there are many answers that could be given to that question. And while there are many things that set apart biblical Christianity from other world religions and other belief systems, I would assert to you, dear brothers and sisters, that the central truth that sets apart our holy Christian faith from every other system of belief, from every other religion in the world is this.

    Biblical historic Christianity claims that the almighty God, the God who created the universe and who therefore is transcendent over the world and sovereign over all of creation and all of history, that this God actually entered into human history by becoming a man in the person of our incarnate Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Christianity, biblical, non-revisionist, biblical, historic Christianity proclaims that the only begotten Son of God, the second person of the divine trinity, took upon himself a full human nature. He took upon himself a human body and a human soul, yet without sin, in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. God in Christ came down to our level in order to redeem us from our sins, restore us back into friendship and fellowship with God, and raise us up to the heavenly realm. God came down to us to raise us back up to himself.

    Friends, when you think about it, these are astonishing claims. If you’ve been raised in the church or if you’ve been a Christian for any period of time, these are claims that are very familiar. But I want you to consider these claims from the perspective of someone who’s outside of the Christian faith. Imagine that you’re not a believer, that you’re not familiar with the Bible, you’re not familiar with the claims of Christ, and you hear these claims. They are truly astonishing claims, truly profound. See, no other religion in the world makes such profound and exalted claims about its founder. Christianity claims that the founder of our religion is God in the flesh. No other religion proclaims that. The divine mystery of our Lord’s incarnation, of His enfleshment in the person of Jesus, was of course made possible by the supernatural action of God, the action of God that the church confesses in the second credo of the Apostles’ Creed, where we confess that our Lord Jesus Christ was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary.

    Now friends, on the last Lord’s Day, we focused on the truth that our Lord was conceived by the Holy Spirit. In other words, we focused on the last Lord’s Day on the truth of the miraculous conception of our Lord Jesus by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary. And I sought to point out that that is an essential truth of the Christian faith. And we consider this truth based on Luke’s record of the angel Gabriel’s announcement to Mary that she would conceive and bear the promised Messiah. And so I would just, by way of review, take us back to chapter 1 and let me read the angel’s words to Mary and her response. In chapter 1, verses 30 to 35, it says, And the angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.

    And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end. Mary’s reaction, it says in verse 34, Mary said to the angel, how will this be since I am a virgin? And the angel answered her, the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will over, excuse me, will overshadow you. Therefore, the child to be born will be called Holy, the Son of God. Well friends, today we focus on the truth that our Lord was born of the Virgin Mary.

    And we do so based on Luke’s record of our Lord’s historic birth in Bethlehem. And dear ones, we ought not to underestimate the significance and the importance of this event of redemptive history of the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The importance of this subject of Jesus’ historic birth is of course highlighted by the fact that without the historic birth of Jesus, God’s plan of salvation could not have gone forward. And just to be kept in obvious for a moment, Jesus our Lord could not have died for our sins if he had not first become incarnate and been born for us. Jesus could not die for you if he was not first born for you and if he had not lived for you. So all of this ties together. Without Bethlehem there would have been no Calvary. no empty tomb, and thus no hope for a lost, sin-cursed world.

    And hence the importance of our subject for this Lord’s Day morning. Now before we dive into our text, and I know this is a long passage, I want to assure you that what I’m going to present this morning is just sort of an overview of this passage. We would be here a very long time if if we went verse by verse and if I sought to turn over every rock and dig for every gem in this precious passage of God’s Word. But nonetheless, I do want to say that a major source, I want to give credit where credit is due, a major source for my sermon outline and for some of the basic contents of this sermon is taken from a resource known as the Pulpit Commentary. Well friends, in chapter one, Luke tells us of the circumstances surrounding the birth of Jesus’ forerunner, John the Baptist, the son of the godly priest, Zechariah, and his wife, Elizabeth.

    The birth of John the Baptist, of course, was a very significant event, and John the Baptist himself was a very significant figure in redemptive history. He was the one who had been predicted by the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 40, verse 3, as the voice crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. But here, friends, in chapter two, we pass from the person of the forerunner to that of his great successor. The priest’s son was indeed great, but the virgin’s son was greater. So let us now turn our attention to Luke’s detailing of the historical circumstances surrounding the birth of our Lord Jesus, who was indeed born of the Virgin Mary. And let’s first of all focus on the first five verses of chapter two.

    And there’s many things that could be said about this passage, many things we could learn from this passage. But one thing I wanna point out, a lesson that we can glean from this passage of God’s word, is that all details of history are made to fulfill the sovereign will of God, even the will of pagan rulers. Let me say that again, all details of human history are made to fulfill the sovereign will and plan of God and this includes even the decisions and choices of pagan rulers such as the mighty Caesar Augustus. Let me read these verses again, it says, in those days, again, Luke is a master historian and he roots these events in the history of the time. In those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world, meaning all of the known world, the Roman world, that all the world should be registered.

    This was the first registration. He identifies when this took place. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. and all went to be registered each to his own town. And Joseph also went up from Galilee from the town of Nazareth to Judea to the city of David. Now, why did Joseph do that? Well, as it says, because he was of the house and lineage of David. Joseph was our Lord’s legal father, obviously not his biological father, but his legal father. And so therefore, as a son of David, the Messiah was predicted to be the son of David, and as the son of Joseph, Jesus was indeed a son of David. a descendant of King David. And so Joseph went up to be registered, and it says in verse 5, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.

    And the details of that were explained in the previous verse. Now, how does this illustrate God’s sovereign will and his providential orchestration of historical events? Well, this is a general truth which is powerfully underscored by this passage of God’s word. Friends, we see here how God, in his sovereign overruling providence, uses the will of Caesar Augustus to fulfill his own sovereign will. Well, how does he do that, Pastor? Well, God did this by moving Augustus to decree for the Roman world to be registered at this particular time. Why is that significant? Well, you see, friends, the prophet Micah, the Old Testament prophet Micah, in that familiar passage of Micah 5, verse 2, reveals that it was God’s sovereign plan that the promised Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem. Let me have you just turn there briefly to Micah 5, verse 2.

    And I know this is a familiar passage, Micah, towards the end of the Old Testament. A very significant messianic prophecy. Micah writes in chapter 5, verse 2, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days, which, by the way, hints at the eternality and preexistence and deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. But this is speaking about a ruler, a promised ruler. This is speaking of the promised Messiah. And where was the promised Messiah to be born? In David’s city, Bethlehem. But here’s the issue. Up until a very short time before our Lord’s birth from the Virgin Mary, it appeared that Jesus was going to be born, not in Bethlehem, but in Nazareth, where Joseph and Mary resided. If Jesus had been born in Nazareth, then God’s sovereign plan for the Messiah to be born in Bethlehem, David’s city, would have not been carried through.

    So how is it that God orchestrates events to get Mary to Bethlehem in time for Jesus to be born in Bethlehem? Well, lo and behold, Augustus, the pagan emperor of Rome, issues a decree and a census that a census must be taken of the Roman world. Now these registrations, these censuses took place periodically at that time in history. There was a very unpopular census that took place in AD 6 that was very disruptive. This is obviously referring to an earlier census that had been called, but in any case, the timing of it is under God’s providential plan. One of the implications of this decree that the Caesar issued was that Jewish families needed to go to their tribal cities in order to be registered. In verse four, Luke explains that Joseph, who was of the house and lineage of King David, had to go to Bethlehem, which was the city of David.

    It was God’s sovereign plan that the Messiah, great David’s greater son, was to be born in the city of David, his prototype. Verse 5 informs us that Joseph took with him Mary in order to be registered with her. Now, what was the purpose of such registration? Well, there’s basically two purposes that were served by these periodic censuses that were taken. One was to register men for military service in the Roman Empire. Another purpose was for the purpose of taxation. Or it could be a registration, a census that was taken for both purposes. Here the purpose, at least in Joseph’s case, was was likely for purposes of taxation. After all, at the time, Jewish men were exempted from military service in the Roman Empire. This simple circumstance of the calling of this census was used by our sovereign God to bring Mary to Bethlehem, the divinely appointed place of the Messiah’s birth, just in time for her to give birth to our Lord Jesus.

    Among other truths, this shows that God exercises full command, even over the wills of men, even over the wills of those who are not his worshippers, such as the pagan emperor, Caesar Augustus. God is sovereign over all people, whether or not they know it, whether or not they like it. This doesn’t mean that our choices don’t matter. This doesn’t mean that we are puppets on a string. But in God’s mysterious overruling providence, his providence ultimately controls and guides all actions and all decisions and all details of his creation and of human history. And this is even the case with the mighty emperor Caesar Augustus. Now beloved, how should this encourage and comfort us? How should this truth encourage and comfort us? Well dear ones, this truth should give us confidence and hope, especially as we live in this fallen world where dictators and tyrants and other evil men so often seem to hold sway.

    For it assures us that they can do nothing outside of God’s sovereign and permissive will. God is greater than even the greatest among men. God is more powerful than even the most powerful among men. And God is able to overrule evil for his ultimate good and the ultimate good of his, for his ultimate glory, I should say, and for the ultimate good of his church. The coming of the virgin-born Prince of Peace into a hostile, unwelcoming world assures us that God’s good plan of salvation cannot be defeated. Praise be to God. God’s sovereign plan for your life and mine, brothers and sisters, cannot be defeated, for all things are made to fulfill His sovereign will. But speaking of the Savior’s welcome into the world. This brings me to my next point, which we’ll focus on verses six and seven for this next point.

    Observe, dear friends, observe how little welcome the world gave to its virgin-born Savior. Observe how little welcome the world gave to its virgin-born Savior. It says in verse six, and while they were there, while Mary and Joseph were there in Bethlehem, the time came for her to give birth. The fullness of time had come, as we’re told in Galatians 4. When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law. The time had come for Mary to give birth to the Savior of the world. And it says in verse 7, Luke is very straightforward and unadorned in his record of the birth of our Savior, but he indicates some interesting things about our Lord’s birth. It says, That was a custom back then to keep little ones warm, as strips of cloth would be strung around the little baby’s body, wrapped up almost like a mummy in that sense, but it kept the child warm.

    And then it says that she laid him in a manger. What is a manger? It’s a feeding trough for animals. That’s where we get all of the customs and of the Christmas crash, the manger scene and so forth. The assumption is that Jesus was born among the animals, where animals were kept. Why? It says because there was no place for them in the inn. Friends, our Lord’s birth in Bethlehem was the most important birth which had ever or will ever take place in all of human history. Most important birth ever. Had the world truly appreciated the advent of the Christ child, it would have spread the news from shore to shore. Caesar would have sent out couriers, messengers to proclaim the news throughout the empire. The high priest in Jerusalem and the Jewish Sanhedrin would have proclaimed it among God’s people if they’d understood it and recognized it.

    But there was so little true wisdom in the world that the precious Christ child had to steal into the world, if you will, and he had to be born in a stable and among the cattle. It was humiliating enough for the eternal divine Son of God to be born, period. It would have been humiliating for the eternal Son of God to be born even in a king’s palace. But what an utter act of voluntary humiliation that our Lord was willing to be born in what was likely a common cattle pen, or perhaps a cave that was being used for that purpose, all because there was no lodging place left for Mary. Now some of you might say, wait a minute, cave? Actually, there was a strong early Christian tradition that says Jesus was actually born in a cave that was being used to house animals, and that’s certainly is a possibility.

    There’s a lot of, sometimes there’s a lot of sentimental speculations about certain events that are connected with the birth of our Savior. But in any case, Jesus was born in humble circumstances. By being born in such circumstances of more than ordinary abasement, to draw on the language of our confessional standards. In doing so, our Lord identified himself with the poorest among us. Indeed, he identified himself with us poor, wretched sinners. He came down to our level that he might redeem us and raise us back into friendship and fellowship with God. A couple points of application I want to make, friends. Our Lord humbled himself in his incarnation and birth so that we who trust in him might be exalted with the blessings of eternal salvation. Dear listener, let me ask you, do you trust in Jesus as your very own Savior, as your very own Lord?

    If not, God in the gospel calls you Repent and believe. Believe the glad tidings of great joy. Believe the good news that the Savior has been born, that he has lived for you, that he has died for you, and he has been raised for sinners just like you and just like me. Believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation from your sins, and you shall be saved. and you shall know the real reason for the joy that is celebrated here at the historic birth of our Savior. But how does this impact our lives as Christians? Well, beloved, if our Savior was willing to humble himself to such a great depth in order to identify with us and to save us from our sins, then we who claim to be his followers should seek to be characterized by the virtue of humility.

    I’m reminded of what the Apostle Paul writes in Philippians 2 on this matter. He writes the following in Philippians 2, beginning at verse 1. He says, so if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, Any affection and sympathy complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Easier said than done, right? Only by the grace of God and through the power of the Spirit can we do this. But then he goes on to say, do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Verse four, let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

    Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, one of the clearest statements of our Lord’s full deity here, Though he was in the form of God, he 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. It doesn’t mean he stopped being God. It means that he humbled himself by taking upon himself our humanity, being born in the form of a servant. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 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.

    This is what we are called to, brothers and sisters, to have this same mind among ourselves. Obviously, we’re not God, we cannot humble ourselves in the same manner that our Lord Jesus did, but on a creaturely level, we are to humble ourselves to serve one another. Our Lord was willing to humble himself to serve us and save us. Let us serve one another in love and in humility. But finally, beloved, I want you to notice, as we move on to the next section of our passage, notice that the first gospel was preached by an angel. What I mean is the first gospel proclamation after the birth of Jesus, the first announcement of the good news of our Savior’s birth was preached by an angel. Let’s go to verses eight through 20. Now, what we have in this passage is our virgin-born Savior’s birth announcement.

    And we could certainly spend a lot of time in this wonderful passage, but I just want to highlight a few important truths that we can glean from this passage. As I mentioned in my last point, even though the importance of our Lord’s birth in Bethlehem was unrecognized by most of humanity, the angels in heaven understood its vital importance and significance, for the heavenly hosts of angels cannot be silent about it. Excuse me, look at verse eight. And in the same region, the region around Bethlehem, there were shepherds out in the field keeping watch over their flock by night. Let me tell you something about how most people viewed shepherds in the first century. They were not viewed with respect. They were kind of looked down upon, and especially among the Jews. The shepherds engaged in activities and because of the nature of their work, they were often ceremonially unclean by the standard of God’s ceremonial law in the Old Testament.

    And so they were often unclean and set apart from the religious life of Israel. They were looked down upon as a general rule. It says that the angel announces this to shepherds. There were shepherds in the field keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord, this is a supernatural angelic being, a messenger from the Lord, appeared to them. And the glory of the Lord shone around them. And they were filled with great fear. Perhaps this was the Shekinah glory of God shining around them. Imagine being in their sandals, being out in the field, keeping watch over your flock by night, and you see this amazing revelation of the glory of God shining around you. And it says they were filled with great fear. That’s the usual reaction to angels in the Bible.

    Angels were not those, you know how sometimes in artwork around Christmas time, you see cards and little figures of angels, little chubby cherubs, not very scary beings, are they? When the angels show up in scripture, they’re terrifying. They’re holy beings. They’re terrifying beings. And so what does the angel say? The angel said to them, fear not, for behold, that means pay attention, I bring you not the message of God’s judgment and wrath. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people, meaning all the people of God. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you. You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a palace. No, lying in a manger.

    And then what happens? Heaven explodes with praise. Suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased. Now I want you to notice a couple of things. Consider first the audience to which the angel announces this good news of great joy. As I mentioned, these are humble shepherds who were likely despised as shepherds have often been throughout the ages. The angel appears not to Caesar Augustus in Rome or to the high priest or the Sanhedrin, the Jewish ruling council in Jerusalem, or to other influential or powerful men, but he appears to humble, despised shepherds. In this event, we see that kingdom principle where the first shall be last and the last shall be first.

    We see that principle playing itself out even here in the events of our Lord’s birth. And what is the message of the angel? Well, the message of the angel that we read about in verses 10 through 12 is the glad tidings of our Savior’s birth, a gospel which is intended for all the people of God. And then we notice the angelic choir in verses 13 and 14. What was the response to the angel’s announcement of this good news? Again, heaven exploded with praise. The earth was by and large ignorant of what had happened, but heaven knew what was going on. Praise and worship is the appropriate response. to the good news of our Savior’s birth. This shows us, by the way, friends, that an appropriate response to the preaching of the gospel is the singing of praise.

    Let us, brothers and sisters, respond to the preaching of the gospel by singing out and celebrating the gospel, the good news of our virgin-born Savior. And how do the shepherds respond? We’ll notice finally the shepherd’s witness to the good news of the Savior’s birth. It says this in verse 15, when the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, boy, that was weird. Wow. Did we just see a hallucination? No, they don’t say that. It says, the shepherds said to one another, let us go over to Bethlehem. They believe the good news. They believe the announcement. Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us. They recognize the authority and the divine origin of this good news. And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the baby lying in a manger.

    And when they saw it, what did they do? They witnessed, they preached, if you will. These shepherds had become proclaimers, preachers of the good news. They made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. And all who heard it, all who heard it, that implies not just Mary and Joseph heard this, all who heard it. They’re so excited they can’t keep this message to themselves. All who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them, but Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart and so forth. When the angels departed from the shepherds, these shepherds immediately went to Bethlehem in search of the Christ child. Apparently they had taken the angel’s announcement in verse 12 as an implied command to go in search for the child, a command which they obeyed.

    They came with haste to Mary and they gazed with rapture upon her virgin-born child. They see and believe. They are ready to accept this little child as the savior of the world. A little child was leading them. Next we find them becoming, as I mentioned, his faithful witnesses as they spread the good news of what the angel had told them. Having found the Savior, these humble shepherds cannot help but proclaim him to others. One person who listened to their story was none other than Mary, the mother of Jesus herself. For again, we’re told in verse 13 that she pondered these sayings in her heart. And brothers and sisters, we would do well to imitate Mary’s example and ponder these things in our hearts, for these are the deep things of God. This powerful passage ends on a note of high praise in verse 20 where it says, the shepherds returned, they returned to their sheep.

    They had trusted God’s providence to watch over their sheep, or perhaps they had hired others to temporarily watch over them, but in any case, they returned to their vocation, but they returned glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen as it had been told them. Dear ones, Christ was indeed born of the Virgin Mary. He was born in humility. and yet exalted with heaven’s praise. During this season, let us join with the shepherds in proclaiming the good news of great joy, and let us join our voices with the voices of the angels, saying glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased. Amen, let us pray. Our Lord and Father in heaven, we do praise you that the Savior has come that the Savior has been born, that he has died for us and accomplished our redemption, that he has been raised and ascended for us, and that he reigns at your right hand. and we look forward to his second advent at the end of this age.

    Oh Lord, as we ponder, like Mary, these deep things, we pray that your spirit would build us up and strengthen us, deepen our love for you, our reverence for you, and our obedience to you. We pray these things in Jesus’ name, and all of God’s people said, amen. We close our time of worship today by rising and singing 299. Joy to the world, the Lord is come. 299.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • Foundations of Faith: Conceived by the Holy Spirit

    Foundations of Faith: Conceived by the Holy Spirit

    About this sermon

    1. The historicity of Our Lord’s Virginal Conception.
    2. The significance of Our Lord’s Virginal Conception.
    3. The Majestic mystery of our Lord’s Virginal Conception.

    Exodus 40:34-38
    Genesis 1:2 overshadow

    More sermons from Luke · Browse all sermons

    Sermon transcript

    friends, please remain standing for the reading of God’s Word. We continue our Foundations of Faith series, a series that is being guided by that classic creed of the Church, the Apostles’ Creed. It was actually a baptismal creed. And we are on the second credo, or I believe, of that creed. I believe that Christ as the Son of God was conceived by the Holy Spirit. My sermon text this morning is Luke 1, verses 26 through 38, a passage of scripture that is often labeled the Annunciation, as the angel Gabriel announces the promised birth of Jesus to the Virgin Mary. So let us hear God’s holy word, Luke 1, verses 26 through 38. In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David.

    And the virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you. But she was greatly troubled at the saying and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever. And of his kingdom there will be no end. And Mary said to the angel, How will this be, since I am a virgin?

    And the angel answered her, 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. And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son. And this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For nothing will be impossible with God. And Mary said, behold, I am the servant of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your word. And the angel departed from her. Dear friends, the grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever. Let’s pray for the Lord to bless the preaching of his word. Gracious Lord, Heavenly Father, we thank You for this powerful passage of the Holy Scriptures. We ask that by Your Spirit You would help us to understand that which the Spirit is speaking to us in this portion of Your Word.

    We pray that our hearts might be encouraged that our spirits might be lifted up, that we might be edified in our faith, that we might be challenged to more and more put away our sin and follow after Christ. Bless the proclamation of your word this morning. Set a guard over my lips, Lord God, that I might speak only that which is faithful to your word and cause your word to bear much spiritual fruit in our lives. We pray these things through Christ our Lord and all of God’s people said. Amen. Congregation, you may be seated. Well, dear ones, as you can tell, I’m on the tail end of a bit of a cold, so if my voice gets a little crackly or strained, please pardon me for that. The title of my sermon this morning is Conceived by the Holy Spirit, and as you can see in your sermon outline, if you’d like to follow along with the key words, there’s five key words to be listening for that I’d encourage you to listen for in my sermon today.

    Well dear ones, as we continue to review and to explore the implications of the foundations of our holy Christian faith, using the statements from the Apostles’ Creed as a guide to our study, this Lord’s Day morning we consider a vital Bible doctrine, a doctrine which over the last century or so, has become the favorite target for Bible critics and skeptics, blasphemers and scoffers to shoot at with the arrows of their pointed criticisms and dripping mockery. Namely, the doctrine of the miraculous conception of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary. This biblical doctrine that we in all adherence of Christianity affirm in the second credo of the creed where we confess that Christ our Lord was conceived by the Holy Spirit is again that which we are specifically considering on this Lord’s Day morning.

    Skeptics raise doubts and objections about the historicity of our Lord’s miraculous virginal conception and birth. Scoffers delight to ridicule and mock it as a silly Christian superstition. And even many who would identify themselves as professing Christians, and especially those in Many of the so-called mainline churches either have doubts about this doctrine or they reinterpret it as an edifying myth or perhaps a metaphor that was invented by the early Christians in order to express how special they felt Jesus to be. But friends, in my sermon for this Lord’s Day morning, based on this passage from the Gospel of Luke, which Again, as I pointed out, this passage, which is often called the Annunciation, because in it the angel Gabriel announces to Mary that she will be the mother of Jesus. In this passage, beloved, I hope to be an instrument in God’s hand to bolster our confidence in the truthfulness of this precious doctrine.

    And I also hope to show the vital importance and the relevance of the truth that our Lord Jesus Christ was indeed conceived by the Holy Spirit. and born of the Virgin Mary. This is not just an ivory tower doctrine. This is not just something that the theologians would find interest in. This is something that ought to impact our lives as followers of Jesus Christ. But as we seek to lay the groundwork for what we are considering today, and this is the first point in your sermon outline if you’re following along, let’s first of all consider, beloved, the historicity of our Lord’s virginal conception. The historicity of our Lord’s virginal conception. Friends, contrary to modernists, Bible skeptics, and scoffers who deny the supernatural virginal conception of our Lord Jesus Christ in the womb of the Virgin Mary and by the power of the Holy Spirit, and who regard the virginal conception and birth of our Lord to be an unhistorical Christian myth, a myth invented by the early church, contrary to that view, the Word of God makes it very clear, beloved, in places such as our passage for this morning, that the virginal conception and birth of our Lord Jesus Christ is to be understood as a real event of history, a real occurrence that took place in genuine space-time history.

    And there’s a number of reasons for that. Of course we believe it because that is how it is presented in the word of God. That is the ultimate reason why we should believe in that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. Because the Bible tells us so. And the Bible is God’s word and is trustworthy. But as some points of evidence that bolster our faith in the word. I first of all point out that the human author of the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts, which is basically like a two-volume work from the same author, the human author of both Luke and Acts shows himself throughout his writings to be a carefully researched historian, a carefully researched historian with an eye for detail. In fact, many Bible commentators have been impressed by Luke’s care and the details that he gives in the Gospel of Luke and in the Book of Acts.

    Now, who was the human author of this Gospel? We know who the divine author was. Like all of scripture, Luke and Acts were breathed out by the Holy Spirit, theopneustos, inspired by God. But as you know, God chose to use human authors to record his holy, inerrant, infallible word. And so who is this human author? The gospel of Luke, like the other gospels, is technically anonymous. However, the human author of this gospel has traditionally been regarded as Luke the physician, who was a missionary traveling companion with the Apostle Paul. And there is no good reason, beloved, to reject this traditional understanding of the authorship of Luke’s gospel. There are many good reasons to accept that the early churches and the church father’s testimony to Luke being the human author through whom the Holy Spirit recorded Luke and Acts.

    And Luke was probably written, the Gospel of Luke was probably written sometime between 60 and 70 AD. My own personal conviction is that it was probably written early on. So just a few decades after the events. surrounding Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. Now in chapter one, verses one through four of Luke’s gospel, these verses indicate that Luke consulted many reliable sources for his gospel account, including eyewitnesses. So again, he was a carefully researched historian. Let me just read Luke chapter one, verses one through four to the opening to Luke’s gospel. Luke writes, When Luke wrote this, at that point, many had sought to write about the life of Jesus, the life and teachings, the death and resurrection of Jesus. And he goes on to say, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, that you may have certainty concerning the things that you have been taught.

    These are not the words of someone who is intent upon making up stories out of thin air and inventing myths, edifying myths. These are the words of someone who is committed to careful research. And notice also that it points out, Luke points out, that he consulted not just ministers or servants of the word, but he even consulted eyewitnesses. And the Holy Spirit, of course, was overseeing and superintending this process. And so indeed, it’s interesting, it’s quite possible that Luke got his information on the events recorded in our passage for today from none less than Mary, the mother of our Lord herself. That is a real possibility. But you know, some skeptics and biblical scholars of a more theologically modernist bent will point out that the account of the birth of Jesus, the supernatural virginal conception of Jesus, only occurs a couple of times in the scriptures.

    We read a lot in the New Testament about the resurrection of Jesus, the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, but we only read in a few places about the events surrounding his conception and birth. And so some have made the point that, well, look, it’s only recorded in a couple places, so it’s not really that important. It’s sort of an optional doctrine or what have you, and the fact that that it’s only mentioned a few times in the New Testament means that it’s not really a historical event, it was sort of invented later on. But friends, the fact that the New Testament only mentions the virginal conception and birth of Jesus a few times is not a valid objection against the historicity of our Lord’s virginal conception and birth. Dr. I. Howard Marshall, in his commentary on Luke, puts it well, he says, And I quote him, the fact that the virgin birth is scarcely mentioned is not a strong objection to its historicity, for the story, if true, can have come only from the family of Jesus and was not one to be publicly proclaimed.

    But one of the biggest objections that is often raised by skeptics and liberal scholars and so forth against the virginal conception and birth of Jesus is the fact that allegedly there are parallels to the virgin birth in pagan stories. But friends, alleged parallels to the virgin birth in pagan stories do not prove the theory that the early church borrowed from pagan myths and therefore they too are not valid objections against the historicity of our Lord’s virginal conception. Yes, there are some superficial similarities at one level between some pagan stories and the Christian story of the virginal conception and birth of Jesus. But when you look at the differences, the differences are striking. Again, to quote from Dr. Marshall, he says, It has therefore been argued that the story of the virgin birth represents an admixture of Jewish and Hellenistic myth into the Christian faith in an attempt to express poetically or mythologically the divine origin of Jesus.

    But there is a world of difference, Dr. Marshall says, there is a world of difference between the atmosphere of the pagan stories and that of Luke 1 and 2. And a precise parallel to the Christian story can be gained only by some elaborate and highly speculative jigsaw work on the sources. Now friends, I belabor this point because if you get on the internet and you look at what’s being said by skeptics and atheists on social media about Christianity and their critiques of Christianity, this is one of the favorites that they like to raise. Well, the early Christians just borrowed the idea of the virgin birth from the pagans, from pagan stories of virgin births. Now, I’ll address this common objection to the virginal conception of Jesus a bit later in my sermon when we consider verse 35, but in the meantime, let me assure you, brothers and sisters, that alleged parallels with pagan stories are spurious at best.

    And comparing the biblical account, the dignified biblical account of our Lord’s virginal conception, comparing that to pagan mythology is like comparing apples to oranges. In fact, I would suggest it’s more like comparing apples to Brussels sprouts. There’s no comparison. And friends, we also need to remember that Christianity arose out of a staunchly monotheistic Jewish setting. Jesus was a Jew, the apostles were Jews, the earliest Christians were Jews, and so certainly the earliest Christians would have no interest whatsoever in borrowing from pagan mythology. in their telling of the Jesus story. So friends, don’t be intimidated by the objections that are raised by skeptics. When you really look beneath the surface, their objections don’t hold water under careful examination. But with all of this in mind, let’s dive in and consider next the significance of our Lord’s virginal conception as recorded here in Luke’s gospel.

    We’re gonna go through this passage verse by verse. And the first thing that I would say regarding the significance of our Lord’s virginal conception and why it’s an important Bible truth to embrace is that the virginal conception of our Lord Jesus Christ bears powerful witness to Jesus as the promised messianic king. Now let’s dive in. It says in verse 26, in the sixth month, Now that should raise the question, the sixth month of what? In other words, the sixth month after Elizabeth, John the Baptist’s mother and Mary’s relative, had conceived John the Baptist. Verse 26 follows immediately after verses 24 and 25, which if you I’ll just read those verses. It says, after these days, his wife, Zechariah’s wife, Elizabeth, conceived, and for five months she kept herself hidden, saying, thus the Lord has done for me in the days when he looked on me to take away my reproach among people.

    And then it says in verse 26, in the sixth month, meaning the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy. This is also confirmed if you skip down to verse 36, where Gabriel tells Mary, and behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. Now then it says in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel, and let me just pause there. This would indicate to us that the angelic realm, again, is a real realm. There are real angels, just as there are fallen angels, which are known as demons. The Bible makes that very clear. The angels are not simply symbols or myths. They are real spirit creatures. And they have names. This particular angel is named Gabriel. This specific angel was sent as a messenger angel from God.

    And it says he was sent to a city of Galilee named Nazareth. Jesus is from Nazareth. And he was sent to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph. Again, betrothal, as I pointed out in a recent sermon, betrothal was much more legally binding than a modern day engagement. It was actually regarded as an unconsummated marriage. You would get betrothed And you would wait usually about a year and then finally the marriage would be consummated. But in order to break off a betrothal you had to get a divorce. So it was a very serious commitment. It was a legal commitment. And it says that Mary was betrothed to a man named Joseph of the house of David. Now that’s significant. Why does Luke point out that Joseph was of the house of David?

    Well, Joseph was obviously not Jesus’ biological father, but Joseph was Jesus’ legal father. And therefore, Jesus was legally regarded as a descendant of King David. And that’s significant because the Old Testament prophesied, predicted, that the Messiah would indeed be a descendant of King David. Also in verse 32, we read throughout this passage of the angel Gabriel. speaking of the fact that this child that Mary would bear would be of David. Verse 32 refers to the throne of his father, David. And verse 33 refers to his reign. It says, and he will reign over the house of Jacob. That’s messianic language. He is the promised messianic king. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever and of his kingdom. there will be no end, the messianic kingdom. And so again, all of this confirms the fact and bears witness to the fact that Jesus is the promised messianic king.

    So the conception, the virginal conception of our Lord Jesus bears witness to him as the promised messianic king. But that may raise the question, what does the virginal conception have to do directly with the messiahship of Jesus? Well friends, the answer to that is Isaiah 7.14. Isaiah 7.14 indicates that the messianic son of David would be conceived by a virgin. that the virginal conception was a fulfillment of the messianic prophecy is also confirmed in Matthew’s gospel. Let’s turn to Matthew chapter one and look at verses 20 to 23. Matthew chapter one, verses 20 through 23, Matthew’s account of the conception and birth of our Lord. In verse 20, we read about when Joseph learns that that Mary has betrothed is pregnant, he makes the natural assumption that, well, she must have been unfaithful to me, and he is considering divorcing her.

    It says in verse 20 of Matthew chapter one, but as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, which means the Lord is salvation. Yeshua, Joshua, the Lord is salvation. Why? For he will save his people from their sins. And then notice verses 22 and 23. In verse 23, Matthew quotes from Isaiah 7, verse 14. It says, 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.

    So one reason why it’s very important to embrace the biblical teaching on the virginal conception of Christ is because it bears witness to his messiahship. But also it bears witness to the incarnate deity of our Lord Jesus Christ, and that is brought out by the reference to Jesus as the Son of God or the Son of the Most High. The angel Gabriel goes on, it says, Greetings, O favored one, verse 28. Greetings, O favored one. Sometimes that’s mistakenly, I believe, translated Mary full of grace. The word for favored one there in the Greek is a word that includes charis, it includes grace, and it presents Mary as one who needed grace. She’s the recipient of God’s grace, not a dispenser of God’s grace. But in any case, he says, greetings, O favored one. The Lord is with you.

    And she’s confused. She’s frightened and confused. Why is this angel addressing me in this way? Verse 29, she was greatly troubled at the saying and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. God’s grace, his undeserved, unmerited favor given to Mary, Mary who was a sinner like all of us. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will call his name Jesus. And then notice verse 32. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever. and of His kingdom there will be no end.

    So in verse 32, this child is going to be called the Son of the Most High, and this is confirmed going down to verse 35 after, as the angel is seeking to answer Mary’s question, how is this gonna be since I’m a virgin? Verse 35, the angel said to her, the Holy Spirit, that’s the third person of the Holy Trinity, will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Excuse me. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. Now, it’s important to understand, beloved, that the terminology, the title, Son of God, is used in the New Testament of Jesus in several different senses. The late Reformed theologian Louis Burkhoff points out that the New Testament uses the title Son of God in a number of different senses, at least three different senses, such as what he labels the official or messianic sense, the Trinitarian sense, and the nativistic sense, having to do with his nativity, his birth.

    As Professor Birkhoff explains in his Summary of Christian Doctrine, he says Christ is called the Son of God in more than one sense. He is so called because He is the second person of the Trinity and therefore Himself God. He references Matthew 11, 27. But also because he is the appointed Messiah and because he owes his birth to the supernatural activity of the Holy Spirit. But friends, these different senses in which Jesus is called the Son of God that we find in the New Testament do not oppose each other. They don’t contradict each other. They work together to give us a fuller picture of the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now the context of our passage for this morning clearly points, clearly seeks to emphasize that Jesus is son of God because of his conception by the Holy Spirit, what Burkoff calls the nativistic sense, and also because of his messiahship, the messianic son.

    However, again, the supernaturalness of this event of our Lord’s conception by the Holy Spirit also bears powerful testimony to His divine Sonship as the second person of the Trinity. Again, these different senses in which the New Testament speaks of Jesus as the Son of God imply and assume one another. Dear friends, again, remember that the Messiah, our Redeemer, had to be both true God and true man in order to be our Redeemer, our Savior. And Christ’s virginal conception was the miraculous means of our Lord’s incarnation. If he was not conceived by the Holy Spirit, then he is not really the God-man, and thus not able to save us from our sin. Another reason why embracing this doctrine of the virginal conception is important is because it was the miraculous means by which our Lord’s human nature was preserved from the stain of original sin.

    Now this point is a little more of a good and necessary inference from the biblical data, but friends, think about it. If our Lord Jesus had been born in the ordinary natural manner that the rest of us are, then he would have inherited a sin nature from Adam just as the rest of us do. And if Jesus had been born with the stain of original sin, he would not be qualified to serve as our sinless savior, as the spotless lamb of God who takes away our sin. In fact, Jesus would have been a sinner just like us and thus himself would have needed to be saved. He himself would have needed a Savior. But the fact that He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, underscores the truth that He is the perfect, sinless Savior, the Savior of sinners like me and like you.

    But again, Mary is confused by the angel’s message. She wants clarification. It says in verse 34, Mary said to the angel, how will this be since I am a virgin? Now the commentators like to point out the contrast between Mary’s question and the question of Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist. Remember when Zechariah questioned the message of the angel Zechariah ended up being disciplined and not being able to speak because he asked his question in unbelief. But Mary is not asking this question in unbelief, but she seeks clarification. She has a submissive, faith-filled response to the angel. But she says, how can this be since I am a virgin? The angel answers in verse 35, The angel answered her, 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.

    Being conceived by the overshadowing power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus himself would be holy from his conception. Now, I’ll get into that in a little more detail in just a minute as we wrap things up, but dear ones, Let me again press upon your conscience that only a Savior who is not only true God and true man, but also Himself without sin is qualified to serve as our Savior. Jesus is the sinless, spotless Lamb of God who takes away the sins of all those who by grace come to trust in Him and Him alone as their Lord and Savior. Dear listener, do you trust in Christ as your sinless Savior? believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ, the Word of God says, and you will be saved. But the virginal conception is also important because it demonstrates the truth that nothing is impossible for God.

    This is another significance, if you will, of our Lord’s virginal conception. As the angel goes on to explain to Mary and answer her question, he says, and behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age, in other words, Elizabeth was naturally past childbearing age, but the Lord opened up her womb, enabled her to bear John the Baptist. Behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son. And this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. And then verse 37, for nothing will be impossible with God. Praise be to God. Nothing is impossible with our God, not even a virgin birth. You know, one of the things that I’ve found interesting, I recall in college, I was a religious studies major, and I recall reading a Christian history book. I took a class in Christian history, and there was a particular history book written by, you know, a scholar who was probably what we would call Bardian or Neo-Orthodox in his view of theology, for those of you who are in the know about that.

    But in any case, what was interesting to me in this particular theology book, as I recall, this particular author seemed to affirm the physical bodily resurrection of Jesus. He had no problems with the idea that God raised Jesus from the dead, but he seemed to question the virgin birth. And I just kind of like, do a double take and I think, wait a minute, if God has the power to raise a dead person to life again, certainly God has the power to cause a child to be conceived without the help of a man. Nothing is impossible for God, and that is a great comfort to you and to me, dear brother. and sister in Christ for whatever challenges or obstacles we face in our discipleship to the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord is greater than that challenge.

    Nothing is impossible with our God. And Mary’s faith-filled response to this message is not to object or further question, but to say in verse 38, behold, I am the servant of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your word. and the angel departed from her. And so we’ve considered the historicity of our Lord’s virginal conception. We’ve considered some of the significance of this important Bible doctrine. But in closing, friends, let us consider the majestic mystery of our Lord’s virginal conception, the majestic mystery of our Lord’s virginal conception. And as we close off our time, let’s focus especially on verse 35, the angel Gabriel’s answer to Mary’s question. He answers her by saying, 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.

    Again, in verse 34. We are told that Mary had responded to the angel Gabriel’s prediction of the conception and birth of Jesus with the following question. She asks, how will this be since I am a virgin? Now, some have said, well, wait a minute. She wouldn’t ask that question. She’s betrothed to Joseph. So, you know, wouldn’t she have understood the angel’s promise to mean that, you know, you will bear a child once you get married to Joseph? But again, this question that Mary asks, how will this be since I am a virgin? This question shows that Mary understood Gabriel to be predicting an immediate miraculous conception and not that she would conceive Jesus by the help of Joseph after they got married. And so Gabriel answers her with the majestic and mysterious words of verse 35.

    And I want us to just chew on these words for a few minutes. The Holy Spirit will come upon you. The Holy Spirit will come upon you. The power of the Most High will overshadow you. These are significant images and words that are being used here in this passage. But I want you to notice, Gabriel does not answer Mary in a way that explains the intricate biological mechanics of how the virginal conception of Jesus would take place. In fact, the mechanics of how the Holy Spirit is in coming upon and overshadowing Mary would produce the conception of our Lord Jesus Christ was and remains a divine mystery. A child might ask, well, how is it that the Holy Spirit caused Jesus to be conceived without the help of a man? And the answer is, the Holy Spirit did it somehow, some way, we don’t know.

    It’s a divine mystery, but God knows. and we can trust God. But what Gabriel’s words here highlight is the supernatural and miraculous nature of our Lord’s conception in the womb of the Virgin Mary. And he uses this term overshadow. It’s a very significant term. See, this language of the power of the Most High overshadowing Mary harkens back to Exodus chapter 40, verse 35. Let me just have you turn there very briefly. Exodus chapter… I’m going to read verses 34 to 38. This is the very last section of the book of Exodus. As Exodus closes off, I’m going to begin reading in verse 34. This was after the Israelites had been rescued from their slavery in Egypt. They’re in the wilderness. They’ve received the Ten Commandments, and they’ve received instructions for the construction of the tabernacle.

    And it says this, Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And notice especially verse 35, And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. The tabernacle was depicted the presence and reign of God in the midst of his people. It says in verse 35, throughout all their journeys, whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the people of Israel would set out. But if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not set out till the day that it was taken up. For the cloud of the Lord was on the tabernacle by day, and fire was in it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their journeys.

    As one commentator points out, the Greek word here for overshadow that is used in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament in Exodus 40, verse 35, it is used in that passage to describe God’s presence in the tabernacle. He alludes back also to Genesis 1, verse 2, where the Spirit hovered over the waters at the beginning of creation. According to, he goes on to say, accordingly, Gabriel’s announcement implies that through Mary’s pregnancy, God will be present among his people in a more wonderful way. Brothers and sisters, God is present with us in a more significant way than he was present with his people under the old covenant. Another commentator points out that the language of the Spirit’s coming upon Mary and overshadowing her echoes the descriptive account of the Holy Spirit’s work in the original creation of the world.

    It reveals that this baby will be a special creation with his Father being God himself. Now, important clarification to make there, beloved. Jesus is a special creation only with respect to his human nature. which he took upon himself in his incarnation. With respect to his divine nature as eternal son of God, he was uncreated. But with respect to his humanity, when he became incarnate in the womb of the Virgin Mary, he took upon himself our humanity minus sin. Now what do we learn from all of this? Well it’s interesting, not too long ago I was on Facebook, probably spent a little more time on there than I should at times, but sometimes Facebook likes to suggest certain memes or pictures for you to look at or what have you and there was a particular meme that popped up, it was from an atheist organization, it was basically mocking the virgin birth, it depicted God as, it was a cartoon depicting God as an old man who was on a psychologist’s couch and in language that I cannot repeat to you was talking about how he had intimate relations with Mary and produced Jesus out of wedlock.

    And that is how this atheist organization was trying to depict what Christians believe about the birth of Jesus. However, friends, such crass, crude, sexualized mischaracterizations of our Lord’s conception by the Holy Spirit find no support in the dignified language of this passage. Those who make such mischaracterizations are either ignorant of the biblical data or they simply are scoffers intent upon mocking our holy Christian faith. And therefore their opinions about such matters don’t deserve to be taken seriously since they themselves are unserious persons. You don’t have the obligation to engage in gospel witness to someone who is clearly not serious about the gospel. You can pray for them, love our enemies, seek their good, but Jesus says don’t cast your pearls before swine. And so, brothers and sisters, don’t be intimidated by the mocking and raging of such blasphemers.

    But what do we learn in the angel’s answer here? Well, think about it, beloved. God’s glory presence, which dwelt in the Old Testament tabernacle and temple, anticipated and typified our Lord’s incarnation. In the incarnation, the eternal living word became flesh and dwelt among us. God was with his people in old covenant times in a glory cloud that dwelt in a portable tent and later on in a stone temple. But now with the coming of Christ, our incarnate Lord, God is with us in the flesh and blood person of the Messiah, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. His supernatural conception by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary made it all possible. Let us rejoice, brothers and sisters, for in His grace, God is indeed with us in Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

    Let us pray. Our Lord and Father in heaven, We thank you for Jesus, our Emmanuel, the one who is God with us. And we thank you, Lord, for the truth that he was indeed supernaturally, miraculously conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary. Help us, Lord, to see the relevance and the importance and the significance of this important doctrine, and not just to hold it as a lifeless doctrine, but a doctrine that fills us with joy inexpressible and filled with glory, for it means that you, O God, in the person of Christ, have come to dwell in our midst. We thank you that you continue to dwell with us by your Spirit sent from you, O Father, and your Son, the Lord Jesus. Be with us now, Lord, and help us to take these truths to heart, we ask in Jesus’ name and all of God’s people said.

    Amen. As we close our time of worship, let’s rise and we’ll sing hymn 268 of the Father’s love begotten, 268.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • Foundations of Faith: Our Lord

    Foundations of Faith: Our Lord

    About this sermon

    The basic Christian confession is ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and the Apostles’ Creed calls him ‘our Lord.’ Paul writes to a troubled church at Corinth and first reminds them that they are sanctified in Christ and call on the name of the Lord Jesus with all his people everywhere. Calling on his name means worshiping him as God, as the church did from the start, long before Nicaea. Confessing Christ as Lord means living under his rule, standing for the truth, and speaking it in love.

    More sermons from 1 Corinthians · Browse all sermons

    Sermon transcript

    In standing for the reading of God’s Word, we continue our consideration of foundations of faith, this Bible-based series that has been guided by the Apostles’ Creed. The title of my sermon this morning is Our Lord, and our sermon text is 1 Corinthians 1, verses 1 and 2. I’m going to read through verse 3 to fill out the context of this opening section of Paul’s epistle to the Corinthians, his first epistle to the Corinthians. But let us hear God’s holy word. 1 Corinthians 1, verses 1 and 2. called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus and our brother Sosthenes, to the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours.

    Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Dear friends, the grass withers and the flower fades, but the Word of our God endures forever. Let’s pray for God to bless the preaching of His Word. Our Lord and Father in heaven, we thank you and praise you that you have given us a sure and certain word. You have communicated your revealed will to us in the holy scriptures, your God-breathed, inerrant, infallible, authoritative word. We thank you for your word for indeed, Lord God, again, it is a lamp unto our feet, a light unto our path. It is a guide to our way. We ask that by your spirit, you would open our minds and hearts to behold wondrous things from your word. We pray that your word would find a lodging place in our souls this day and we pray that by your spirit you would bless the proclamation of your word.

    Oh Lord, set a guard over my lips that I, your unworthy servant, might declare your word with clarity and power and with the assistance and grace of your spirit. We pray these things in Jesus’ name and all of God’s people said. Amen. You may be seated. like to encourage especially the children but also the adults to follow along in your sermon outline. And children, the key words you can be listening for in my sermon today are the words Lord and Lordship, Unity, Holiness, Apostle, Worship, Obedience, and Trust. Well dear friends, the basic New Testament creed, the basic Christian confession can be summarized in three simple English words. The words, Jesus is Lord. Lord, Jesus is Lord. Friends, when we truly confess that Jesus is Lord, sincerely from our hearts and in accordance with the word of God, then we are expressing true saving faith in Christ.

    It is because confessing the Lordship of Christ is an expression of true saving faith in Christ that it is, in this sense, necessary for salvation. That very familiar passage I quoted often, and you can turn there if you’d like, but that very familiar passage in Romans 10, verse nine, the Apostle Paul, if you recall, says the following. He says that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Paul there, he’s not denying the truth of justification by faith alone because true faith expresses itself by mouth confession, heart belief and mouth confession ordinarily at least go hand in hand. Indeed, my friends, confessing the Lordship of Jesus Christ is one of the marks that sets apart a Christian from a pagan.

    The Apostle Paul makes this clear in 1 Corinthians 12, verses 2 and 3. And I’ll just read that briefly to you in these verses. Paul, as he’s discussing the matter of the spiritual gifts in the early apostolic church, Paul writes, I do not want you to be uninformed. You know, again he’s addressing these Christians who had been converted to Christ from a pagan background. He says, you know that when you were pagans, you were led astray to mute idols however you were led. Therefore, I want you to understand that no one speaking in the spirit of God ever says Jesus is accursed and no one can say Jesus is Lord except in the Holy Spirit. Well, dear ones, the historic Christian church, both in its liturgy and worship, as well as in its corporate life together as a covenant community, has commonly referred to Jesus Christ not merely as the Lord, but as our Lord.

    We find this kind of corporate communal language, confessing Jesus Christ as our Lord, being used in that ancient Bible-based creed of the historic church that is known to us today as the Apostles’ Creed, that creed which is guiding our series, our Bible-based series in the foundations of the faith. In the Apostles’ Creed, in the second credo, or I believe statement of the creed, we confess together with the universal church, I believe in Jesus Christ, his only begotten son, and what comes next, our Lord, our Lord. This creedal language is used in our passage for this Lord’s Day morning, as the Apostle Paul refers in verse two, to all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours. This statement will be the main focus of my sermon for this Lord’s Day morning.

    But in order to appreciate the depth of what is being said here in this portion of God’s Word, it’s important to understand this passage in its historical context. It’s important to understand why Paul wrote 1 Corinthians. When did Paul write it? And who wrote it? Well, we know that Paul wrote it. It claims to be written by Paul and no scholar, even the liberal and skeptical scholars, agree that this is a genuine Pauline epistle. The apostle Paul wrote 1 Corinthians probably sometime between 53 and 55 AD. The scholars differ upon the exact year, but probably sometime around 53, 54, 55 AD. And he wrote this epistle to the church in the ancient city of Corinth. Now what do we know about the ancient city of Corinth? Corinth was quite a center for trade and commerce.

    As one commentator puts it, Corinth sat on the isthmus connecting the Greek mainland with the Peloponnesian Peninsula. This location made it a flourishing crossroads for sea traffic between the Aegean region and the Western Mediterranean. It was a place where many cultures and religions mingled. But friends, not only was Corinth a center of trade and commerce and business in the ancient Roman Empire, Corinth was also a center for pagan religions, and it contained at least 12 idol temples. Its most infamous temple, of course, being dedicated to Aphrodite, the goddess of love, whose worshipers practiced religious prostitution, and which at one time was served by a thousand sacred prostitutes. Corinth was a city that was absolutely, utterly saturated with paganism and idolatry. Pagan idolatry was part of the warp and wolf of everyday life. It was inextricably connected to business life.

    It was connected to family life, culture life. Everything was centered around and saturated with and influenced by pagan idolatry. So it was a very challenging environment in which to be a Christian. Many of the believers in the Corinthian church were Gentiles who had been converted to Christ from a background of pagan idolatry. Now friends, given the ungodly environment of the city of Corinth and given the pagan background of many of the members of the church in Corinth, it really shouldn’t surprise us that some of the Christians in the Corinthian church struggled to put away their old idolatrous ways and their immoral practices from their pagan past. And many of them struggled to live out consistently and in a mature way the implications of Christ’s lordship in their lives. It should also not surprise us that the church in Corinth was a highly dysfunctional church.

    It’s a church that had many pastoral issues that the Apostle Paul needed to address and which he does address in 1 Corinthians as well as 2 Corinthians. If you read the Corinthian letters and read it in depth and with a sensitive eye to discerning the original setting, you’ll realize, wow, this is a messed up church and yet it is Christ’s church. Its membership includes those whom Paul describes in verse two of our passage as those sanctified, set apart, consecrated as holy in union with Christ Jesus, in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, holy ones, set apart ones. These issues that Paul has to address in 1 Corinthians would include such things as spiritual immaturity in the church, divisiveness, immorality, idolatrous practices. Some of the Corinthian believers continue to engage in various idolatrous activities and sought to rationalize that.

    There were cases of conscience, there were marital issues, and there was doctrinal error. Here in his epistolary introduction to this letter, Paul anticipates some of the major themes of this apostolic letter to this troubled, dysfunctional church. To quote from one commentator, Paul’s apostleship and the Corinthians’ sanctity and unity are among the letter’s most important themes because those were amongst the biggest issues that this church faced. So let’s dive into our text for today, and let me just briefly explain the first couple verses. As I mentioned before, we’re gonna focus especially on the end of verse two, but let’s start off with verse one. How does Paul begin this letter, this epistle? Well, he begins, as was customary in the Greek custom of letter writing, he begins by identifying himself. He says, Paul, an apostle called by the will of God to be an apostle, a commissioned messenger, an officially sent messenger and spokesman of Christ Jesus, and our brother Sosthenes, Sosthenes being an aid and assistant to Paul, to the church of God that is in Corinth.

    Again, as I mentioned, Paul follows the typical Greek custom of letter writing. which begins with identifying the author first of the letter and then identifying the audience to which he’s writing, and then there’s usually some opening greetings, and then it gets to the body of the letter, and there’s usually also a closing set of greetings at the end of such letters. But what does Paul start off doing right out of the gate? Well, he begins by asserting his apostolic authority and asserting the divine origin of his apostolic call. Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus. Why does he do this? Why does he start off by identifying himself as an apostle and by asserting his apostolic authority? Well, because there were some in the Church of Corinth who were questioning Paul’s apostolic authority.

    So right out of the gates, Paul identifies himself. He says, look, I’m an apostle of Jesus Christ. I didn’t choose myself to be an apostle. This is not a letter that I’m writing. This is not a personal letter that I’m writing from my own merely human perspective. He is writing in his capacity as an official spokesman, as an apostle of Christ Jesus. And he is an apostle. He didn’t choose himself. He didn’t raise himself up. He’s not a self-anointed, self-appointed leader in the church. He was appointed and called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus. So his words must be taken with utter seriousness because what Paul says Jesus by his spirit is saying through him. You know, some liberal scholars like to try to drive a wedge between Jesus and Paul.

    They try to say, well, you know, Paul kind of is not really speaking for the real historical Jesus. But friends, when Paul speaks as an apostle, which he does in the New Testament writings, he speaks in the name of Christ on behalf of Christ. What is said in this epistle, this is the will of Christ, this is the revelation of Christ to his church. And he addresses the church in Corinth as the church of God in Corinth. What does it mean, the church of God? Well, it means formed by God and belonging to God, not to some party. If you read on in 1 Corinthians, one of the biggest issues in the Corinthian church was a party spirit, divisiveness. There were cults of personality. There were Christians in Corinth who gravitated towards their favorite teachers.

    Some said, I am of Paul. I’m Paul’s man, he’s my man. I’m of Apollos, I’m of Cephas or Peter, I am of Christ, I’m above all of you guys, right? There was this party spirit, but Paul is reminding them that they are the church of God, not the church of Paul or of Apollos or of Cephas or what have you. thing to understand or recognize is that the word church, which is ekklesia in the Greek, means assembly. And sometimes this word was used to refer to secular or civil assemblies. And that is perhaps why Paul describes the church in Corinth as the church of God in Corinth. You are the church of God, you’re not just a secular human assembly. It is the church of God. This helps to distinguish the church from secular and civil assemblies.

    And how are they described as the church? Again, as I already pointed out, he immediately identifies them as to those sanctified in Christ Jesus. Now, again, brothers and sisters, if you read 1 Corinthians It’s clear that this is such a dysfunctional, messed up church. But Paul does not begin his letter to these believers by wagging his finger at them, by rebuking them. There’s plenty of finger wagging, if you will, and rebuking that comes later on. But Paul begins by reminding them, first of all, of their identity in Christ. Every pastoral issue in the church, every spiritual issue in our lives as Christians, must be addressed from the standpoint of our identity in Christ, because that is the only way, ultimately, that those issues are going to be addressed and resolved. And he says, they are sanctified, set apart, together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours.

    Why does he talk about those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord? Well, again, Paul here is stressing the unity of the Corinthians with the church universal. Now some commentators, like I believe Charles Hodge, think that when he speaks of all who in every place call upon the name of the Lord Jesus, that he’s reminding them that, look, you’re united in Christ with the other churches in this region. But I tend to agree with those scholars who believe that what Paul is doing here is he’s helping, he’s trying to point them to the unity of the universal church, the church Catholic or universal, that we are united with all believers everywhere. in our confession of the Lordship of Christ. So friends, all of which leads us, all of this leads us to consider some of the implications of Christ’s Lordship.

    Again, Paul says that you are called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours. What are some of the implications of the Lordship of Christ as Paul is speaking of it here in this passage? Well, first of all, beloved, confessing Christ’s Lordship highlights His deity, His Godhood, and therefore his worthiness to receive religious worship. This is the first point in your sermon outline. Confessing Christ’s lordship highlights his deity and therefore his worthiness to receive religious worship. Paul speaks here, he uses this language of calling upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. That indicates worship. I want you to think about this. If Jesus Christ is not fully God, if He is not true God even as He is true man, the God-man, if He is not fully divine, then offering him religious worship in our prayers, in our praises, in our hymnody, in our worship song, in our confessions of faith, such acts would be acts of idolatry and violations of the very first commandment, you shall have no other gods before me.

    If Jesus is not God, then every time we gather together to worship him as God, we are committing idolatry and blasphemy, high blasphemy against the God of heaven. But what’s interesting to me, brothers and sisters, In many of the mainline churches, theological liberals and modernists, many of whom reject the literal deity of Christ, many of them continue in their worship services to offer prayers in Jesus’ name and to sing praises to him in their hymnody. But again, if Jesus is not fully God, then our liberal and modernist friends who do this while rejecting the literal deity of Christ would, again, they would be guilty of high blasphemy against God. If you’re ever in a conversation with a theological liberal who questions or disagrees with the truth that Jesus is God, you might wanna bring this up.

    Well, if Jesus isn’t God, do you pray to him? Do you pray in his name? In your church services, do you sing hymns that are addressed to Jesus as a deity, as God? However, friends, passages like our sermon text for this morning highlight the truth that the church has worshiped Jesus as its divine Lord from the very beginning of its existence. For to call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that language means to invoke him in religious prayer and worship. Now, the reason I bring this up, if you, If you’re familiar with the arguments that skeptics and atheists often use, one of the biggest arguments is that they’ll say, well, the earliest Christians didn’t believe that Jesus was God. The earliest Christians didn’t worship Jesus. That was a belief that developed later on in the history of the church.

    I even, I recall watching a video clip from, some of you may be familiar with the podcaster, I think Joe Rogan, and he’s an interesting character, but he’s not a Christian. I remember watching a clip where he once, I think he said something along the lines of, oh, come on, these Christians believe ridiculous things. The belief that Jesus was God was not, that was invented at the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD, right? This is a common historical myth that’s out there, this idea that the early Christians did not believe that Jesus was God and did not worship Him as God. Friends, contrary to what you will commonly hear today from the lips of the ignorant, the misinformed, and from pseudo-intellectual Dan Brown Da Vinci Code types, it is simply not historically accurate to assert that the earliest Christians did not believe in the deity of Jesus and that the church only gradually and at a later stage of development came to believe in the divinity of Jesus and to worship Jesus as God. from a historical perspective that is historical hogwash.

    It’s simply not true. And our passage for today helps to demonstrate the falsity of those skeptical assertions. After all, as I mentioned before, the Apostle Paul wrote 1 Corinthians sometime around 54 or 55 AD. only a little over 20 years after the crucifixion and the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. And yet the language that Paul uses here in verse two about calling on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, this language indicates that the practice of calling upon the name of Jesus Christ as Lord, calling upon him as divine, in acts of prayer and worship was a well-established practice very early on in the life of the earliest apostolic church. In fact, I would suggest to you that an unbiased investigation of the evidence from the New Testament indicates clearly that the early apostolic church confessed and worshiped Jesus as divine Lord, as God, from the very beginning of the Christian movement. at least since the resurrection of Christ and his ascension into heaven and the pouring out of the spirit on the day of Pentecost.

    The church from the beginning confessed and believed in the deity, the Godhood of the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, the earliest Christian heresy, the earliest heresy in the church was not the denial of Christ’s deity. but one of the earliest heresies was the denial of his full humanity. The Gnostics denied the Lord’s full humanity, not his deity. Dear friends, this being the case, Let me ask you, dear listener, do you accept the deity, the full deity of Jesus Christ? Yes, Jesus was also a man. He’s fully God and fully man, true God and true man, united in one divine person. He is the God-man. He is the word made flesh, Emmanuel, God with us. He has two natures, yet is one person. He has a divine nature and a human nature, but we’re focusing today on the divine nature, because as Paul writes here, Christians are those who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours.

    Do you accept his deity, dear listener? Do you worship him as your Lord? And so the lordship of Christ clearly highlights his deity, but another implication of Christ’s lordship is that the lordship of Christ indicates his sovereign rule over all, and especially over the universal church. The Lordship of Christ indicates His sovereign rule over all, and especially over the universal church. Now I wanna take you, as we compare Scripture with Scripture, I wanna take you to another passage, a very familiar passage, Matthew 28, verse 18. This is after Jesus has risen from the dead, and He is speaking to His apostles before His ascension, and He is giving them the Great Commission. And what’s the first thing that Jesus says in His Great Commission? Look at verse 18. It says, And Jesus came and said to them, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

    Now let me pause there. Let me ask you, dear listeners, how much authority has been given to the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ? How much authority? Some authority? All authority. All authority where? In heaven and on earth. In other words, all authority in the entire universe has been given to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now let’s pause there. Some of you may say, now wait a minute, Pastor. If Jesus is fully God, if He’s eternally God, hasn’t He always, as God, had all authority in heaven and on earth? Well, He certainly has. But how then can Matthew speak of, have Jesus speak of authority being given to him by the Father? Well again, Jesus speaks here in Matthew 28, 18, he speaks here as the incarnate authority. word, as God incarnate, as the God-man. So as the God-man, all authority has been given to him.

    But with respect to his divinity, his deity, he has always had all authority in heaven and on earth. But this, I just highlight this because again, this underscores the truth of his sovereignty over all. Every tiny atom in the most distant galaxy is governed by the Lord Jesus Christ. He is Lord over all the universe. He is Lord over all of the nations and He is Lord over you and me, dear brother and sister in Christ. He is sovereign, and the lordship of Christ not only implies his deity, but along with his deity, it implies his absolute sovereign rule over all, and especially over his church. Dr. Charles Hodge, in commenting on the meaning of calling upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, wrote the following in his commentary. He writes, to call upon the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, is to invoke his aid as Christ the Messiah predicted by the prophets and as our almighty and sovereign possessor and ruler.

    It is in that sense Jesus is Lord. all power in heaven and earth has been committed unto him. And he died and rose again, that he might be the Lord of the dead and of the living. That is, that he might acquire that peculiar right of possession in his people, which arises from having purchased them with his blood. to call upon the name of Jesus as Lord is therefore to worship Him. It is to look to Him for that help which God only can give. And then he goes on to say, all Christians therefore are worshipers of Christ. And every sincere worshiper of Christ is a true Christian. Amen. Brother Hodge. And of course friends, the reason Christ is able to come to the aid of his church is because he is indeed the sovereign Lord over all.

    Dear ones, since Jesus Christ is Lord and since therefore we as Christians may call upon him for aid as our Lord, let us not be fretful or anxious. We face troubling times, don’t we? We face violent and uncertain times. And it’s easy for us to be anxious. It’s easy for us to fret because of the wicked and their scheming. But we need to remember, brothers and sisters, and I’m not saying that everything’s gonna be comfortable or easy. Who knows what the future holds for us? For all that we know, 2024, the year that will soon be upon us, may involve suffering for the church. It may involve persecution. It may involve trials and tribulations. But whatever happens, whether good or ill, we can rest knowing that Jesus is the sovereign Lord, that he is in control, and that he, as he has promised, causes all things to work together for our good, our ultimate good, and for his ultimate glory.

    Remember, we serve a Savior who is indeed Lord, sovereign over all things, governing us and all things for His own ultimate glory and our own ultimate good. Dear listener, do you trust Him as your sovereign Savior? Do you confess Him as your ruling Lord? Are you resting in His sovereignty? Finally, the Lordship of Christ implies His absolute right to require our unquestioning allegiance. This is the final point in your sermon outline. The Lordship of Christ implies His absolute right to require our unquestioning allegiance. What is the basic Christian confession? It is Jesus is Lord. That means, of course, as we’ve seen, that means that He is divine. He is fully 100% God. It also means that he is the sovereign Messiah King, the one who possesses the absolute right to require of us and of all people, our unquestioning, unhesitating trust, our full submission, our total allegiance, and our wholehearted obedience.

    He is indeed King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He sits on the throne of heaven, reigning over the universe. He reigns over the nations. He reigns in a special way over His church. And He has the right to reign on the throne of your heart and mine. Brothers and sisters, He is our Lord Jesus Christ, as Paul describes Him here in verse 2. And yes, He is indeed the personal Lord and Savior of every true believer at an individual level. That’s very popular language, church language, in our contemporary church culture, you know, have you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior? The Bible doesn’t exactly use that kind of language but I understand what that’s getting at and certainly we affirm the need to personally repent of sin and personally trust Christ as our very own Lord and Savior in order to be saved.

    You can’t be saved simply by belonging to a church. You have to personally, by the grace of God, you must repent. You must trust Christ as your Lord and Savior from sin, as he is offered to you in the gospel. And yet notice that Paul here in this passage, because he’s addressing a church, a covenant community, as most of the New Testament does, notice that Paul here emphasizes the corporate and communal aspects of Christ’s lordship over the church. And he describes the church how? As those called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours. And friends, this was a key truth that the Corinthians were not grasping. The believers in the Corinthian church, they were They were fighting, they were engaged in personality cults, there was division, there was conflict, there was neglect of the poor in their midst and so forth.

    There were a lot of problems. And these problems in large part stemmed from the fact that the Corinthians did not grasp the significance for the church of Christ’s lordship over his church. The Corinthian church struggled with division and with unholy behavior. Resolving these issues would require them as it requires us to recognize that confessing Christ’s Lordship requires maintaining genuine spiritual unity and pursuing holiness in heart and in life. The point being, beloved, in closing, as we wrap up our time in the word today, dear ones, true unity and sanctity under Christ’s divine lordship go hand in hand. Genuine spiritual unity in the church is a unity in the truth of the word. It is a unity in the gospel. It is a unity in God’s word. but it is also a unity that cannot exist without acknowledgement of Christ’s Lordship.

    Genuine spiritual unity cannot exist in a church that rejects Christ’s Lordship and its implications by tolerating, excusing, or celebrating sin, or by neglecting the pursuit of practical holiness and godly living. I grew up in a so-called mainline church, A church that has a wonderful, in many ways, Bible-based liturgy. I learned many scriptures from the liturgy of the church, but I didn’t hear the gospel proclaimed in that church. And like many of the mainline churches today, this church has fully embraced, this church in which I was raised, has fully embraced current cultural fads and current ideologies such as the legitimation of homosexualism, transgenderism, the LGBTQ plus ideology and so forth. In other words, the church in which I grew up has rejected the implications of Christ’s divine lordship over the church. We think more recently of the United Methodist Church, a very old mainline denomination in our land.

    It’s my understanding that this church is splitting, that the conservatives in the church are exiting, and there’s been a big church split. Oftentimes when those kinds of splits occur, the theological liberals or modernists in the church will point their fingers at the conservatives and say, you guys are being divisive. You guys are being unloving. You’re being bigoted, right? It is common for theological liberals and modernists in the church who typically reject the deity of Christ It’s common for them to accuse those of us who are theologically orthodox of being divisive and unloving. They accuse us of dividing the church. They accuse us of being schismatics because we’re not willing to kind of go along to get along. Now let me just say that sometimes we Orthodox, those of us who affirm the full authority and inerrancy of the Bible and seek to defend the Orthodox understanding, the biblical understanding of the Christian faith, sometimes we can be unkind or harsh in the way that we defend the truth.

    Sometimes we can come across as being very angry. And sometimes we have reason to be legitimately angry. I mean, I get angry. My blood boils when I witness false teachers leading the sheep of Christ astray, leading them away from Christ and towards practices and beliefs that will be spiritually harmful to them. But nevertheless, the scriptures call upon us, brothers and sisters, to speak the truth in love. We must speak the truth boldly, without compromise, but we must seek to speak the truth in love. So, point well taken. However, friends, the real schismatics and dividers in Christ’s church are those who reject his lordship, those who reject the authority and the teachings of the Bible, those who tolerate unrepentant sin in the church. In the second credo of the Apostles’ Creed, we confess together, I believe in Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son, our Lord.

    If we confess that Jesus is Lord, we must live under His Lordship. We must do the things he commands. We must believe the things that his word requires us to believe. And we must stand for the truth of the gospel and the law of God without compromise in the face of pressure and even in the face of persecution. Friends, Jesus is Lord. Is he your Lord? He is our Lord. let us submit to His Lordship and honor His Lordship by our faith and by our lives. Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, we thank You that Jesus, our Savior, is Lord, that He is God, that He is We ask that you would grant us the grace to live consistently and in a mature way under his divine Lordship, and help us to give faithful witness for the Lordship of Christ, even in the face of a hostile culture.

    Be with us now, Lord, and bless us. We ask these things in Jesus’ name, amen.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • Foundations of Faith: His Only-Begotten Son

    Foundations of Faith: His Only-Begotten Son

    About this sermon

    1. Christ is God’s unique Son (v. 16).
    2. Christ is God’s pre-existent, eternal Son (v. 16).
    3. Christ is the divine Son of God (v. 16).

    More sermons from John · Browse all sermons

    Sermon transcript

    of the Faith series. Today we’ll be considering a passage from, a familiar passage from the Gospel of John, John chapter 3 verses 13 through 18. We’ll especially focus on that very familiar verse, verse 16. So let us hear God’s Word, John chapter 3 beginning at verse 13. And as you’re turning there, just a reminder that this passage takes place in the context of our Lord’s conversation with Nicodemus. Let us hear God’s holy word. Jesus says, “‘No one has ascended into heaven except He who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.’ And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life.” For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.

    For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned. But whoever does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever. Dear friends, please remain standing. Let’s seek the Lord’s blessing upon the proclamation of his word. Our Lord and Father in heaven, your word is deep and rich and powerful. We thank you, Lord, for this word. for it is indeed sharp as a two-edged sword. We pray that your word would have its intended effect today. We pray that you would make our hearts good soil to receive the seed of your word.

    And we pray that by the power and blessing of your spirit, your word would indeed take deep root in our hearts and bear much spiritual fruit unto holiness and sanctification in our lives. We would ask that you would set a guard over my lips that I might speak only that which is faithful to your word. And we pray, Lord Jesus, that you would be present in the preaching of your word this day for our blessing and for your glory. We ask these things, Heavenly Father, in Jesus’ name and all of God’s people said. Amen. You may be seated. As you see in your bulletin, the title of my sermon today is His Only Begotten Son. And I encourage the children to keep track of the number of times I say the key words in my sermon today.

    Well, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ, once again this morning we continue our Foundations of Faith series. This is a Bible-based series in which we are reviewing some foundational truths, some foundational doctrines of our holy Christian faith. And in doing so, we are using the Apostles’ Creed as a guide for the truths that we are reviewing, not because the Apostles’ Creed is inspired or somehow equal to the Bible. It’s not. It’s a human composition. But it is a creed that lays before us some very basic and vital biblical doctrines. It summarizes Bible doctrine in a wonderful way. This morning we find ourselves in the second section, the second credo of the creed. And in this second credo, or this I believe statement of the creed, we as God’s people confess together with the historic church, we confess, I believe in Jesus Christ, his only begotten son, our Lord.

    Dear ones, This morning we’re going to turn our attention to what God’s Word, the Bible, means when it speaks of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, as the only begotten Son of God, or as it is sometimes translated, the one and only Son of God. And what better place to turn for considering this important question than to that very familiar, that much beloved Bible verse, John 3.16. John 3.16, which I’m sure many of you could recite it from memory, this verse that says, for God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. in the English Standard Version from which I’ll be preaching today. It is translated His Only Son. Translations like the King James Version and the New King James Version translated as His Only Begotten Son.

    Translations like the New International Version translated as His One and Only Son. However it is translated, all of these translations are attempting to translate the Greek term monogony, and I’ll be speaking about the significance and meaning of that term in a little bit. But dear ones, our passage for this morning, John 3.16, has rightly been described as the gospel in a nutshell. It is indeed a passage of scripture that encapsulates the good news about Jesus Christ. and it indeed is the gospel in a nutshell. John 3.16 gloriously proclaims in summary form what our holy God has done to rescue us sinners from perishing in our sins under his righteous wrath. Namely, God gave his one and only son for us. And it also declares how we may receive God’s gift of eternal life, namely by believing in His only Son.

    What this familiar passage declares is that receiving the gift of salvation, which is described here as the gift of eternal life, eternal life and salvation are two different ways of speaking about the same basic reality. Receiving this gift of eternal life is in some sense conditioned upon believing in Jesus Christ as the only begotten or the one and only Son of God. Indeed, the Apostle John makes it clear that his main purpose in penning his gospel account is to lead his readers to faith in Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, or perhaps also to confirm his readers in the faith that they already had in the Lord Jesus Christ. We see this in John’s purpose statement. I’d have you keep your finger in John chapter 3 and turn towards the end of John’s gospel to John chapter 20 and let me read verses 30 and 31 of John chapter 20, where John, as he’s wrapping up his gospel account, he’s getting towards the end of his gospel account, he finally gives us his purpose statement, why he wrote this gospel.

    And he says this, In verse 30, now Jesus did many other signs, meaning miraculous signs, miraculous signs and wonders and miracles. Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book. In other words, John has been selective in his gospel about the miracles and signs of Christ that he recorded. And he says, Jesus did many other signs that have not been written in this book. But why did John write and record the particular signs that he did in his gospel. Well, verse 31, he says, but these are written, why? So that you may believe, or as it could be translated, that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Christ, meaning the Messiah, the anointed one, God’s promised, chosen, anointed prophet, priest, and king, that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life, meaning eternal life, in his name.

    These are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. This is one of the reasons why the Gospel of John is a wonderful portion of scripture to give to unbelievers or those who are seeking to understand the Christian faith because In the Gospel of John, the good news about Jesus is so clearly demonstrated and explained in simple and yet profound ways in this glorious gospel. Now getting back to our passage for this morning, John 3.16 makes it clear that central to the gospel message, central to the good news about Jesus of Nazareth is the proclamation that God’s love for a lost, sinful, rebellious world was supremely expressed by the giving of His Son. What this means is that the identity of Jesus Christ as the Son of God is central to the gospel message, and therefore foundational to our holy Christian faith. by implication, to reject Jesus of Nazareth as the Son of God, whatever other exalted titles you may give him, to reject him as the Son of God is, in fact, to reject the Christian faith, to reject Christianity, at least in any biblical historic sense of that term.

    But what does it mean for Jesus to be the Son of God or the only begotten or one and only Son of God? Again, All of this raises that important question and other questions like it, questions like what did Jesus mean when he called himself the Son of God? If you’re familiar with the gospel accounts, if you’ve read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, you know that one of Jesus’ favorite, rather, self-designations is the title Son of Man. In fact, he more often referred to himself as the Son of Man than he did as the Son of God. We don’t have time to get into the significance of the Son of Man title. It is a messianic title. But Jesus did occasionally also refer to himself as the Son of God. What did he mean when he describes himself as the Son of God?

    And what do the biblical authors mean when they describe Jesus as the only begotten, the monogony, Son of God? What does that mean? That’s an important question because, friends, if you’ve studied church history at all, you know that in the history of the church, there were some heretics and heretical groups that arose in the church which understood Christ’s sonship to be proof that Christ is, in fact, inferior to God, they would say. They would say that the fact that the Bible describes Jesus as the Son of God clearly implies that he’s inferior to God the Father. And so, for example, an early church heresy known as Arianism, which is named after the heretic Arius, taught that the title only Son of God proved that Jesus was a created being and not divine or one with the creator.

    Now Arius certainly viewed Jesus as an exalted being, in a sense even a divinized being. But in Arius’ view, Jesus was not consubstantial with the Father. In other words, he did not share in the same being or divine essence with God the Father. And one of the scripture proofs that he liked to use to prove this or to demonstrate his view were these references in the New Testament to Jesus as the Son of God. The ancient Aryans have their modern counterparts in anti-Trinitarian cult groups like the Jehovah’s Witnesses. I imagine many of you have had a friendly neighborhood Jehovah’s Witnesses knock on your door, and they want to talk to you about God’s kingdom, and they seem to be very devout, and they like to talk about Jesus as well, but they don’t believe in the same Jesus that we, as Orthodox Bible-believing Christians, believe in.

    But again, friends, were Arius and his followers correct in their understanding of Christ as the only son of God? Does the sonship of Christ mean that he is merely a creature, though perhaps a highly exalted one, or perhaps a second-tier inferior deity? Of course, as I hope to show you, the answer to these kinds of questions is a resounding, emphatic no. The Scriptures clearly reveal that Jesus is, in the words of the Nicene Creed, God of God, light of light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance or essence with the Father by whom all things were made. Nevertheless, all of this shows how very important it is for us to have a clear understanding in our minds of what it means for Jesus of Nazareth to be identified as the only begotten Son of God.

    Eternal life depends upon understanding it correctly, biblically. And that is why we now turn our attention to what we can learn about Christ’s Sonship from our passage for today. And as we turn our attention to John 3.16, I would first of all, brothers and sisters, encourage you to see in this passage that Jesus Christ is here presented as God’s unique Son. This is the first main point in your sermon outline. Christ is God’s unique Son. For God so loved the world that he gave, who or what? His only son, or as it could be translated, his only begotten son, his one and only son, monogamne in the Greek. This term, there’s the Bible scholars and linguists debate about whether it should be translated as only begotten or one and only. but all seem to be in agreement that at the very least this term points to the uniqueness of Christ as the Son of God.

    He is the unique Son of God. Now let me set this passage in its context. It’s very important for us when dealing with popular passages like John 3.16 not to yank these passages out of their context because John 3.16 is given to us within an important context. John 3.16 is found within the context of John’s record of our Lord Jesus’ famous conversation with a Jewish religious leader named Nicodemus. It is in this famous account that Jesus declares to Nicodemus in chapter 3, verse 3, “‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.’” Now, how does Nicodemus respond to this amazing statement of our Lord Jesus? Well, this statement shocks and confuses Nicodemus, which leads our Lord to seek to explain to Nicodemus the mysterious and sovereign work of the Holy Spirit in the gift of the new birth.

    And Jesus seeks to flesh this out and explain this to Nicodemus in verses four through eight. But of course, Nicodemus still does not get it. As we see in verse 9 where Nicodemus responds to Jesus by saying, how can these things be? I don’t get it, Lord. What are you talking about? In other words, this leads the Lord Jesus to issue a gentle rebuke to Nicodemus that as teacher of Israel, not just a teacher, but the teacher of Israel, Nicodemus should have understood these things. Look at verses 9 through 12. Again, Nicodemus says in verse nine, Nicodemus said to him, how can these things be? Jesus answered him, are you the teacher of Israel? And yet you do not understand these things. Truly, truly, or amen, amen, which means he’s putting emphasis upon what he’s about to say.

    Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know. Who’s the we? Jesus and His Father. We speak of what we know and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? Now keep in mind who Nicodemus was. He’s described by Jesus as the teacher of Israel. He was a Bible scholar. He was a theologian. He was a man who was an expert, viewed as an expert in the scriptures. And yet when Jesus talks to him about the need to be born again, he’s confused. He doesn’t get it. And Jesus says, you’re the teacher of Israel and you don’t understand these things. Then in verse 13, Jesus identifies himself as the son of man who has descended from heaven.

    Look at verse 13. No one has ascended into heaven, and here he’s not just speaking of the physical heavens, he’s speaking of heaven as the spiritual realm, the realm in which God dwells in his glory. No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven. Jesus here is pointing to the fact that he was sent from the Father, that he came from heaven, he has his origin from heaven. And he describes himself as the Son of Man. Now we don’t have time again to get into great detail about the title Son of Man, but I agree with those scholars who believe that when Jesus referred to himself as the Son of Man, he wasn’t simply highlighting the fact that he has a true human nature, though certainly Jesus was truly human as well as being truly God, but he is using this Son of Man title to hearken back to the use of that title in Daniel chapter 7.

    In Daniel chapter 7, in the prophecy recorded in Daniel chapter 7, the Son of Man figure in Daniel chapter 7 was a heavenly being, indeed a divine being. a being who was ultimately identified as the Messiah. And so by calling himself the Son of Man, Jesus, by implication, is sort of, not so secretly, but in a veiled way, claiming to be the promised Messiah. In any case, He speaks of his origin from heaven, his being sent from heaven as the son of man. And then to illustrate the salvation about which he’s been speaking, Jesus uses an illustration with which Nicodemus would have been very familiar as a teacher of Israel, the teacher of Israel. An illustration that was taken from the history of Israel’s time of wandering in the wilderness prior to conquering the promised land.

    Again, Jesus says this, and as Moses, verse 14, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life. I read this account of Moses lifting up the bronze serpent in the wilderness. I read that earlier in the service. And what happened was this, if you recall from what I read. The children of Israel, as was sadly typical of them, began once again to grumble and complain in their unbelief and hardness of heart. They grumbled and complained against God, the God who had rescued them from slavery, and they grumbled against Moses, God’s servant, the mediator of the old covenant, the one who had led them out of their slavery and was leading them through the wilderness under the direction of God.

    They complain against God and Moses, they complain about the diet of the manna and what does God do? As a judgment against their sin and hardness of heart and unbelief, God sends poisonous serpents into the camp and many of the Israelites are bitten by these poisonous serpents and die. And so they acknowledge their sin, they confess to Moses their sin, and ask Moses to pray for them that they might be delivered from this curse, the curse of dying from these snakebites. And the Lord directs Moses to do something kind of strange, but interesting. He tells Moses to make a bronze serpent. A bronze serpent, a symbol of the curse that had come upon the symbol of the judgment and curse that was coming upon Israel through these poisonous snakes. And what would happen if you were an Israelite who had been guilty of grumbling and complaining against God and Moses and you get bitten by one of these snakes? you are to go and look at that bronze serpent, that symbol of the curse, but also a symbol of God’s promise to heal everyone who simply looks upon it of death, to heal them from the results of this snake bite.

    And you would be spared simply by looking at the serpent that had been lifted up. Well, what Jesus is saying here, in John 3.16, for God so loved the world. Now the temptation is to think, or the tendency rather, is to think of John 3.16 as speaking primarily about the magnitude, the immensity of God’s love. Many understand this to mean for God loved the world so much, But that’s not really what it’s saying. Certainly, the magnitude and immensity and infinitude of God’s love for a lost and dying world is highlighted in this passage. But in the Greek, it is literally for thus or in this way. The Greek is hutos gar. In this way, God loved the world. In this way that has been described in verses 14 and 15. In other words, just as God provided the Israelites with healing from the curse of the snake’s poison, as they simply looked in faith to the symbol of the curse, the bronze serpent, so God in love provided His Son, Jesus Christ, to be lifted up on the cross to bear the curse of sin upon himself so that whoever looks to him alone in faith for salvation from sin will not perish but have eternal life.

    You see how much richer and how much deeper John 3.16 is if you read it in light of its surrounding context. Now let me just mention as an aside for those of you who are theology geeks or like to read Bible commentaries, some of you may be aware of the fact that there is scholarly debate as to whether John 3.16 is a continuation of Christ’s conversation with Nicodemus or perhaps the beginning of the Apostle John’s inspired commentary on the significance of the sending of his son, God’s sending of his son. But again, we’re not gonna get into the weeds on that one, we’re not gonna get into the minutia of the scholarly debates, but the point I wanna bring up here is that whichever may be the case, whether John 3.16 was spoken by the earthly, by Jesus in his earthly estate to Nicodemus, or whether this is the apostle John giving his commentary on the words of Christ to Nicodemus, It is still God’s Word.

    It doesn’t take away from the truthfulness or authority of John 3.16. So friends, with this context in mind, we again return to the question, what does it mean for Jesus to be the only or the one and only Son of God? This can be a confusing question because the scriptures elsewhere teach that you and I as believers are children, sons and daughters of God. For example, even John himself teaches this in his gospel. Go back to chapter one and look at verses 12 and 13. In the opening prologue of John’s gospel, John writes these words. Let me start actually at verse 11. He says of Jesus, he came to his own, that would be his own people, the Jews, he came to his own and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God.

    So maybe you’re scratching your head and thinking, okay, on the one hand, John 3, 16 proclaims Jesus to be the unique, the one and only, the only begotten Son of God. And yet elsewhere in scripture, we are declared brothers and sisters to be sons and daughters of God. So is this a contradiction? Again, no, dear ones. For Jesus Christ is the monogony, the one and only or unique Son of God. This means that Jesus Christ is the Son of God in a sense that is unique, in a sense that is different from the way in which we believers are sons and daughters of God. His Sonship is unique for it is an original, it is a divine Sonship. If you will, Jesus is the natural, in other words, the divine son of God, whereas you and I are adopted creaturely children of God.

    His is a divine sonship. Ours is a creaturely redemptive sonship. Friends, the witness of God’s Word is that Jesus in His divine nature is the divine Son of God by eternal generation from the Father within the Godhead. Again, as this is expressed in the words of the Nicene Creed, Jesus Christ is God of God, light of light, very God of very God, begotten, not made. That phrase not made is a very important statement. It’s a statement against the Arians. Yes, Jesus is begotten of the Father within the divine being, but he is not created. He shares fully with the Father and the Holy Spirit in the one divine essence. So he is the unique Son of God, and we are sons and daughters of God by grace and adoption. He is the divine Son of God.

    Are you, dear listener, an adopted child of God through faith in Jesus, the one and only Son of God? Again, as John says in chapter one, verse 12, but to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. Believe in this unique Son of God as your Lord and Savior, and you too, by the grace of God, will become a child of God. But not only is Christ revealed to be the unique son of God, Christ is also revealed in this passage to be God’s preexistent eternal son. This is the second main point in your outline. Christ is presented here as God’s preexistent eternal son, meaning that Jesus existed with respect to his divine nature even before he was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary.

    The eternal pre-existence of Christ as the Son of God is clearly implied by the language of John 3.16 and many other passages of scripture. And this is an important thing to understand because there are some today, even some who are otherwise Orthodox Bible-believing preachers and teachers, who teach that Jesus only became the Son in relationship to God the Father at his incarnation. And so for example, it’s my understanding that at least at one point in time, I don’t think he teaches this today, I think he’s returned to a more orthodox understanding, but some of you are familiar with the popular preacher John MacArthur. It’s my understanding that at one point at least, John MacArthur taught that before our Lord’s incarnation, Christ existed only as the eternal word, the eternal logos. And MacArthur certainly affirms the eternal full deity of Christ and that he was preexistent and eternal and divine, but what he denied was that Christ was the Son of God before his incarnation.

    The title Son of God, in other words, in MacArthur’s view, was applied to Jesus only after Christ became incarnate. But friends, the language of John 3.16 clearly implies that MacArthur is wrong because it implies that Christ was the Son of God before the Father sent him. In other words, John 3.16 implies that Christ was the eternal, preexistent Son of God before the Father sent Him. Think about the language here. The statement, for God so loved the world that He gave, what or whom? Who did God give? His Son. That statement, for God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, would make no sense at all if the son was not the son before the father gave him. John 3.16 and passages like it do not say that God gave his eternal word, his eternal logos, who then became the son when he was conceived and born.

    That’s not what it says. It says God gave his son, his preexistent eternal son. and numerous other passages of scripture confirm the truth that Jesus Christ is the eternal, preexistent Son of God. Let me just take you to two passages as we compare scripture with scripture very quickly. Turn with me if you would to 1 John 4, and let me read verse 9. 1 John 4, verse 9. Again, this is part of the Johannine Corpus, that which is written by the Apostle John. And these words should sound familiar because they kind of mirror and reflect John 3.16. It says this in 1 John 4.9, in this the love of God was made manifest among us that God sent his only son into the world. Whom did God send into the world? His word, his logos.

    No, he sent his only son into the world. Of course, the eternal son of God was also the eternal word, the logos of God, as John chapter one makes clear. But here again, think about the implications of this language. 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. Consider also what the apostle Paul says in Galatians chapter four, verse four. Galatians chapter four, verse four. Paul writes of Jesus, he says, but when the fullness of time had come, in other words, when it was the right time in redemptive history, the old covenant had been preparing God’s people and preparing the world for the coming of the Messiah, but then came the fullness of time. When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth whom?

    God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law. Again, all of this supports the truth that Christ is God’s preexistent, eternal Son. We believe and affirm, and historic biblical orthodoxy has always affirmed the eternal Sonship of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so Christ is unique. He is the unique Son of God. He is the preexistent, eternal Son of God. And finally, beloved, Christ is God’s divine Son. Christ is the divine Son of God. For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son. Our Lord’s Jewish enemies understood that his claim that God was his father, and by implication, our Lord’s claim to be the son of God, was a claim to be equal, not inferior to, but equal with God. A claim to be fully divine. This is reflected, for example, in the dialogue between Jesus and his Jewish enemies in John 10, 31 to 39.

    Let me just read that very briefly. John chapter 10, verses 31, Through 39, John writes in verse 31, the Jews, here this means the unbelieving Jews, the Jewish leaders in particular who were hostile to Jesus, the Jews picked up stones, again, to stone him. By the way, stoning was the penalty under the old covenant for blasphemy. The Jews picked up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them, I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of them are you going to stone me? The Jews answered him, it is not for a good work that we are going to stone you, but for blasphemy. Because you being a man, make yourself God. They understood that Jesus was claiming to be God by claiming God as his father and thus claiming to be the son of God.

    Jesus answered them, is it not written in your law, I said you are gods? Here he’s arguing from the lesser to the greater. I said to you, you are gods. If he called them gods to whom the word of God came, and scripture cannot be broken, Do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, you are blaspheming because I said, I am the Son of God? If I’m not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me. But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father. Again, they sought to arrest him, but he escaped from their hands. But how is it that Christ’s sonship indicates his full deity and thus his full equality with the Father?

    How is it that this is the correct view and that the Arians and the followers of the heretic Arius were wrong in viewing the title Son of God as indicating the inferiority of Christ? Well friends, The reason being is that our Lord’s sonship to God the Father as his only begotten Son means that he shares fully in the same divine nature and attributes of God the Father. That’s what the title Son of God points to. He is the Son of God because he shares fully in the Father’s divine attributes, the Father’s divine nature. And we see this reflected on a creaturely level in terms of the relationship of human fathers to human sons. Human sons, they share the same nature and characteristics of their fathers, physically speaking, genetically speaking, and certainly oftentimes in terms of personality characteristics.

    That’s just a dim, creaturely reflection of the divine relationship between God the Father and God the Son in the unity of the Holy Spirit. Dear ones, in closing, the full deity of our Lord is one of the clearest teachings in the New Testament Scriptures. And only those who are either ignorant or confused or obtuse don’t get the message. John’s gospel is very clear on the matter of our Lord’s divine nature. In fact, John opens his gospel in the prologue with a very explicit declaration that Jesus, the eternal Logos, the divine word, is indeed God. As it says in John 1, verses 1 through 3, in the beginning was the word, reflecting the language of Genesis 1.1. In the beginning was the word, that’s the Logos, that’s Jesus, that’s Christ. 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. With respect to His divine nature, Christ was always and ever shall be almighty God. And the amazing thing, if you skip down to verse 14, it says, and the word became flesh, became incarnate, took upon himself our humanity and dwelt among us. And we have seen his glory, glory as of the only son from the father full of grace and truth. And many other passages could be brought before us to affirm and support the biblical truth of the full deity of the Messiah, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Again, as our passage for today states so simply, yet so eloquently, for God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, his unique, one-of-a-kind, preexistent, eternal, divine Son.

    What amazing love that the Father would send His beloved Son to be our Savior. As the Scottish theologian Donald MacLeod has written of this passage, and I quote Professor MacLeod, he writes, God could not have made a greater sacrifice. His love is astonishing precisely because at this point He put the world before His Son. The statement God gave the world for His Son would evoke no wonder The statement God gave his son for the world borders on the incredible. God loved the world in this way, that he gave his beloved son so that whoever believes in Him, whoever trusts in Him for salvation from sin, whoever trusts in Him as the one who was lifted up on the cross to bear the curse of God in our place and in our stead, and who three days later was raised up from the dead for our justification, whoever believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life.

    How about you, dear listener? Is Christ the only begotten, one and only Son of God? Is He your Savior from sin? Heed the promise as well as the warning in the closing verses of our passage. The wonderful promise, for God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. Christ came the first time, not to judge the world, but to save His people from their sins, to save a world of sinners. But then he goes on to say, whoever believes in him is not condemned. Take to heart that word whoever. Oh, that can’t be talking about me. I mean, I’m too far gone. No, Christ came to seek and to save the lost. He laid down his life for sinners, even sinners with lots of baggage, even sinners in erratically difficult circumstances.

    Christ came to save sinners. Again, whoever believes in Him is not condemned. What a wonderful promise. But then there’s also a warning. Whoever does not believe is condemned already. Why? Because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. Dear listener, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Trust in Him. as your Savior from sin, and the Bible says, you will be saved. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. Let us pray. Our Lord and Father in heaven, once again we praise you and we thank you for Christ, your eternal, one of a kind, preexistent divine son and for sending Christ to be our savior. We pray that our hearts might be filled to overflowing with gratitude for your amazing love given to us in Christ.

    We praise you for the magnitude and immensity of your love for us in the Lord Jesus. In his name we pray and all of God’s people said amen. As we close our time of worship today, let’s rise and we’ll sing together number 288. We come, O Christ, to you. 288.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.