This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of “The Name of Jesus Christ” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, April 5, 1987.
About this sermon
John the Baptist’s early proclamation of Christ as the Lamb of God finds its fulfillment at the cross in John 19, where the same Christ is also mocked, truly, as King of the Jews. Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice Isaac supplies the Old Testament’s own rehearsal of a father giving up a beloved son. Lamb and Lord, sacrifice and sovereignty, collapse here into a single title rather than remaining two competing ones.
Our scripture this morning is from John’s Gospel. We are in the nineteenth chapter. We are reading from the seventeenth verse through verse thirty. And he, bearing his cross, went forth into a place called the Place of the Skull, which is called in the Hebrew, Golgotha, where they crucified him and two others with him on either side, one and Jesus in the midst. And Pilate wrote a title and put it on the cross. and the writing was Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. This title then read many of the Jews, for the place where Jesus was crucified was nigh to the city, and it was written in Hebrew and Greek and Latin. Then said the chief priests of the Jews to Pilate, write not the king of the Jews, but that he said, I am the king of the Jews. Pilate answered, What I have written, I have written.
Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments and made four parts to every soldier apart, and also his coat. Now the coat was without seam woven from the top throughout. They said, therefore, among themselves, Let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be, that the scripture might be fulfilled, which saith, They parted my raiment among them, and for my vesture they did cast lots. These things, therefore, the soldiers did.
Now they stood by the cross of Jesus, His mother and his mother’s sister, Mary, the wife of Clovis, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus, therefore, saw his mother and the disciples standing by whom he loved, he said unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son. Then said each of the disciples, Behold, thy mother. And from that hour, that disciple took her into his own home.
After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, I first. Now, there was set a vessel full of vinegar and they filled a sponge with vinegar and put it upon his head and put it to his mouth. When Jesus, therefore, had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished.
And he bowed his head and gave up the girls. By the water, in the desert, the man stands. Uncommon, this man, hardly clothed like others. He preaches out his message about the water and about cleansing. and his voice is heard in all of the territories around the people’s stream to that stream where they receive the water to his message. Repent. Repent. Be cleansed for the Kingdom of God is coming. The princes of the land send out their emissaries. They come with their question, who are you? Are you the Christ? Are you Elijah? Are you that prophet who was promised?
His response to them is, no, I am none of these. I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness. There is one greater than I. He comes after me. But truly he is important. And I am not even fit. To take off his shoes. The very next day after confrontation with these emissaries. There appears another figure. Coming towards the water stream submitting himself to a yoke. And the profits all. He appears. And this one the prophet the Baptist sees him as with the eyes of heaven. And recognizes him immediately.
Behold, behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” Those words, not repeated throughout the account in the gospel, but there nonetheless throughout the entire ministry of this one so recognized. This one then, bearing those words in himself. And now, some three years later, from pavements of judgment out beyond the city walls to Golgotha, there this one, the Lamb of God, And what a sight it is! For he now goes out having heard the sentence of the powers of this world.
The Lamb, to be sure, that one who has not as much as opened his mouth before those who assault him. He has not raised his voice against their insults, against their jibes. As a lamb before his shears is dumb, so he opened not his mouth And now, out from those pavements of judgment, beyond the city walls, to the place of the skull, there to die. For the sins of the world.
And yes, again it is said, what a strange sight it is. This land then bearing on his own shoulders upon his back the implements of his death, carrying them himself. And as that is said about him, as we behold him thus, our minds run back over the centuries. about a wandering Semite, a man come down from the north into a land in which he doesn’t even own a piece of ground, a man given promise concerning that land and the sea. And to this wandering Aramean there is born a child. and how he loves the child. But the voice out of heaven now says, Abraham, take the child whom you love and offer him to me in sacrifice. What transpires in the man’s mind, we do not know, except to say there is no record of his complaint, his objection.
He quickly sets about the task given him by the Lord. And he places upon the child the implements of the child’s death, the wood for the altar and the fire. so that that child, Isaac, goes out bearing the cross. I see, I see the supply. Father for the sacrifice, but Father, where is the sacrifice? And Abraham says, the Lord will provide. They make their way into the country designated by the law. to the territory of Mariah, and there Isaac is prepared for the sacrifice. He is laid upon the altar, and the knife is lifted, and the word comes out of heaven, Abraham, withhold your hand. Now I know that you fear me. The Lord indeed provides, for in the thicket nearby there is a ram, a lamb, and that lamb is the sacrifice.
The lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. more than, than even Isaac, more than, than all of the sheep, more than all of the livestock offered throughout Israel’s history. Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. But what a strange Lamb He is, for this Lamb is also portrayed in might. He goes forth carrying His own cross, And no one carries it for him. Overlay this message of the Lamb. Overlayed is the message also of the Lord. For this one who is the Lamb is the Lord, and his power, even in this description of his deepest humiliation, is one of glory. He is a king. He is the king. What a procession it is!
Only those with the eye of faith will perceive it. You will understand it only if God has spoken to you and opened your heart and given you new life. Then you will see in this one who goes forth as the Lamb, the Lord as well. For he carries with him his throne, and the procession It marches out through the city gates, and then comes the coronation. He is lifted up upon his throne, and he is attended by the two, one on either side. What a court! For this King, this Lord, who is a Lamb, And what about the kings of the Earth and those who have power here?
They at first mock. Why does Pilate write the inscription that he does? Yes, he does it in jest. It’s meant as a goad, both to the one crucified and to the Jews whom he despises. So, in mockery, the inscription, the title for this king is given, Jesus the Nazarene, the King of the Jews. Much true, infinitely more true than Pilate ever thought. And how, then, the kingship, the lordship of this land is proclaimed. For there, the Jews read the inscription to be sure. But the inscription is written in Hebrew, Latin and Greek for all the world to read. Regardless of time. This came so ascribed then by all the nations.
But this lamb, who is the Lord, has come to his own and his own do not receive him. And therefore, the priests of the Jews make their complaint. They raise their objection. Don’t write king of the Jews, but that he said, I am the king of the Jews and out of that confrontation, then there comes, as it were, a purgation for this Gentile Lord, Pilate, who even against his will now is constrained. A mockery aside, to acknowledge this Lamb as Lord, I have written what I have written, and so it stands for all the world to read. Never a lamb like this. And never Lord. But this lamb. Is your lamb? And this Lord. Is your Lord? The sins that he came to remove. are your sins. And the sins over which he has been victorious. They are your sins. His victory. Is yours. What a magnificent. Magnificent.
Figure. the Lamb who is the Lord, worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and light and honor and glory and blessing. Yours and every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea and all things in them, I heard saying, to him who sits on the throne and to the land, be blessing and honor and glory and power forever. And the four living creatures kept saying, Amen. And all the elders fell down and worshiped him. Never, O Lord, a lamb like this, your own son, and never a Lord like this the one you have glorified.
May we see in Him, you having opened our eyes, the wonders which He Himself bears, the glory which is His. And Father, may we count ourselves amongst those who conclude all of history with the hymn to the Lamb, worthy is the Lamb that was slain. Father, with these things in mind, impressed upon our souls, we come and partake of the supper.
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.
This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of “The Name of Jesus Christ” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, March 15, 1987.
About this sermon
How Christians view creation matters as much as how they view redemption. Colossians 1 and Hebrews 1 proclaim Christ by linking the two. Old Testament passages that describe God in specific, personal terms already point toward that link, and creation becomes fully understandable only in light of its recreation in Christ.
This morning from John chapter 1, verses 1-14. Then we’ll be looking at some verses in Colossians and finally in Hebrews. This is John chapter 1, verses 1-14. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.
All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the light that all men through him might believe. He was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of that light. That was the true light which lighted every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world And the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not.
But as many as received him, to them he gave the power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name, which were born, not of blood, not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” Then from Colossians chapter one, beginning with verse thirteen and reading through verse twenty.
God hath delivered us from the power of darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins, who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature.
For by him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible whether they be thrones, or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created by him and for him. And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the Church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in him, that in all things, he might have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell. And having made peace through the blood of his cross by him to reconcile all things unto himself, by him I say whether they be things in earth or things in heaven.” And finally from Hebrews, chapter one, first three verses.
God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past under the fathers, by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds. Who, being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the back of the on.
Today, our God, is the day of salvation. Your word goes out to the ends of the earth, especially in this day as it is proclaimed throughout the earth by your servants. And Father, they being laborers for the harvest raised up in keeping with the prayer of your people, We ask that you, the Lord of the Harvest, would bless them mightily. Father, we ask that our prayer, that our labors of love may be viewed by you as a participation in their ministry, and that we would see this harvest as that in which we have been privileged to partake.
We ask it in Jesus’ name. Amen. Jesus. We have been considering this theme for some time now. We’re getting close to the end. But this series has offered us a bit of a repeat free. In a belief beleaguered treatment of the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus then before us his person, who he is. The name he bears signifies that health, salvation, is found nowhere else. For Jesus means salvation is of Jehovah. That salvation is pointed, it is particular. You remember what is said of Jesus before he came into the world. You shall call his name, Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sin. This one, Jesus, then also called Christ.
He is the anointed one, that one to whom all other anointed ones pointed. He is the one who bears the anointing of God in the spirit beyond measure. He is extraordinary. He is the king. He is the priest for the people of God. He is the Lord’s final prophet and spokesman.
But Jesus is also the Lord himself. He is given that title, and the sweep of the Old Testament use of that name comes now to reside in this one, Jesus. And what is he as Lord? What does it mean for you to say, Jesus is Lord? It means that he is your owner, and that you are his possession. and therefore you are to glorify him in all that you do, all that you are. Jesus, the salvation of God, the anointed one, the Lord, our owner.
But this one is also the son of God. And as son, he is heir. He is the inheritor of God, and all things that belong to God. As son, however, he is unique, for just acknowledging him as heir, as inheritor, falls short of the fullness of New Testament confession. That New Testament confession measured by the statement of Thomas before the risen Christ my Lord and my God.
Therefore, beyond all sons of God spoken of in Scripture, in the Old Testament, beyond all of these that are so described, this one is the Son of God, the Son of God who is God. And as the son of God who is God, his presence in the world is overwhelmingly significant.
His presence means that the very realities of heaven have come into our world. The very realities of the future have become present to our experience. He brings heaven into our presence and our presence into heaven. He brings the future into the present and the present into the future. In response to this one, we are face-to-face then with that overwhelming decision For you see, it’s as if this One who is the Son, the Son who is God, bringing heaven into our present, the future into our present.
It’s as if we are being robbed of the world by Him. We are being robbed of this present evil age, and we are liable to cling to it even though we have been confronted with the cost of our clinging. That being one response, a clinging to this world in light of who he is and what he has done and what he has come to reveal, at the same time we might completely misunderstand what he has come to do, what he has come to reveal.
For opposite those who would cling to the world are those who would run from it, renounce any responsibility in it and for it. But a look at the sun teaches us differently. For while we cannot cling to the world, we can’t run from it either. For the sun did not run from it, but gave himself in it.
And we must do the same. Well, we’ve said all this before. You’ve been through this exercise with me. This morning, we have another word, a somewhat concluding word concerning Jesus as the son of God. Let me introduce this word to you by asking you a question. And it’s a question that is not unrelated to the remarks that we’ve just made concerning our clinging to the world and then possibly through misunderstanding our running from it. The question then. How do you view creation. How do you. Create. Whose work is it. When you think of the creation of the world how do you do it. Who is at work there. You draw a blank. Drawing back from imagining the form of God, somehow operative at the creation? What is your habit of mind when you reflect upon the creation of the world?
Is God absent, possibly, so utterly distant that if there is any contact between Him and the world, it is only at the end of his fingertips, and that with his eye, with his face turned away. Now, I know that we’ve all seen Michelangelo’s painting from the Sistine Chapel, and to be sure, the eye of God is not turned away, but the fingertips is there at least. God touching things only with his fingertips. Somehow, let me be contaminated.
I dare say that in our ruminations about creation, we are quite, quite indiscriminate, and our thoughts of God with regard to creation are also oftentimes quite indiscriminate. We are constrained by Scripture. to acknowledge that creation is a manifestation of his power, that his divinity is there revealed, and his goodness, to be sure. But in our reflections upon creation, we are liable to emphasize things so common and so nondescript that after we are done thinking about creation and the God of creation, we have nothing else but a common God. One who himself is nondescript and quite indiscriminate.
Is that what happens to us when we venture into the public sphere? We take step outside the door of the church, and all the particularities of God disappear. Somehow God becomes a general figure. I don’t know. Sort of a cross between a grandfather and a cosmic and land. who looks like George Burns. But this is the God that is called upon at public function. The God prayed to. When it’s in the interest of those present that he be anything but specific. specifically delineated and confessed. So, our habit of mind with regard to our thoughts of God at creation. Who was there? Did he appear? Did he make himself known? Was there a revelation of theophonic glory? Was God involved somehow more than just touching things with the ends of his fingers? Was God creating around him that which was made? Well, even the Old Testament will not allow us to confess out of creation our God indiscriminately, as if he were simply a common God, without any specificity whatsoever.
That there is more involved is plain. If you were to turn to Proverbs, for instance, the eighth chapter, oh, that’s a mighty chapter. Read it through this afternoon. verses twenty two through thirty, a hymn of wisdom, wisdom himself personified, speaking as if God, accompanying God, present, so says wisdom, was I at creation before I am from everlasting to everlasting. What a magnificent statement that is.
You can take stock, too, realizing that the Old Testament itself is suggesting that there is more than just what we commonly might imagine to this whole matter of creation and the presence of God at creation. Take account of the creation story itself, the mention of the presence of the Spirit, the Spirit of God, hovered above the water. Should we think specifically of the spirit somehow present like a dove hovering over the face of the waters? Some kind of visible manifestation of God present then That there is more in view is brought out by what God Himself says later on at the creation of man.
Let us make the enigmatic us in our… What is the us, the our? There have been many suggestions made. There is the matter of God’s condescension, some would say hidden. hidden beneath the surface of what is being said in Genesis 1 and 2. I don’t think it’s hidden as much as some say. God himself, subjecting himself to the succession of days, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, on the 7th he rested. Was God tired? Yes. Yes. Why? Because he subjected himself to the conditions of the world that he was making. Did God pass from day one to day two? Yes. Why? Because he subjected himself to the conditions of the creation he was making.
God’s condescension, the humbling of God in creation, But there is more than meets the eye, or more than we often confess or acknowledge. In the Old Testament, with regard to creation, is made plain by how the Old Testament uses the story of creation.
We’ve read Psalm 148 this morning, and the praise that is coming forth from every quarter of the universe, the praise of our God. But you see how that psalm ends. It ends with a statement with regard to the redemption of God’s people, His people Israel, so that you have creation and redemption brought together. It is exactly the same in all of the other Psalms that emphasize the creating work of God. Think of Psalm 8 and the words concerning the humility of the child. Think of Psalm 19.
The heavens declare the glory of God, the firmament showeth its handiwork, and it ends with a hymn of praise to the law of God, and a request of God that God Himself might search out the heart of His servant. Psalm 24, “…the earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof, the world in David’s.” Well, there is, but it ends in that magnificent picture of the One who ascends the hill of the Lord.
All of these taking the theme of creation, yes, and then utilizing that theme in relationship to the matter, the subject of redemption. They being brought together so that, yes, when we consider the subject of creation in the Old Testament, even there we are being pushed by the Old Testament itself to see more there than ordinarily meets the eye, those things that drive us beyond a simple, bare consideration of God in His power, His divinity, or His goodness. We are driven in the direction of the specificity of God in His person. All that God is, even there, not completely clear to us yet, but there nonetheless.
Well, it is the New Testament that brings to light what the more of the Old Testament was all about. It is the New Testament that brings to light that more from the Old Testament testimony. The Lord floods in upon you as you read John 1. What’s in upon you as you read Colossians 1, as you read Hebrews 1, and you realize, no, it wasn’t some common God, some nondescript God.
It was the God who is known in His Son, in the Son of God, for the Son of God was there present in the activity of God when God made the world. The fullness of God’s person, at work in creation. Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Specifically, pointedly, the Son. Right smack dab in the midst of God’s creating work. By, through, and for. Those are the prepositions that are used with regard to the sun and his activity in regard to creation. Now, your response may well be sitting where you do.
Of course, after all, I have believed that the son of God is God, that he is from all And therefore, if God is present at creation, the Son is present there, too. And truly, I am prepared to confess that this Son of God, who is God, allows for no rivals. No more than God Himself signified repeatedly in the Old Testament allowed for any rivals among His people. the establishment of idols for God. So, yes, I know in my confession is God from all eternity. Therefore, he is at work in creation and even more than that. Providing myself and my ability to see things much more clearly now, going and maturing in my faith, I am prepared on the background of Proverbs chapter eight, and what is said of Christ in 1 Corinthians chapter one, verses twenty-four and thirty, Jesus Christ is the wisdom of God. He is the embodiment of the wisdom of God.
As the Old Testament was able to affirm the presence of wisdom there, at the creation of the world, I now am able to see that the Son of God is the wisdom of God, and he is the one who is actually present. Now, having said all of that, have you said enough in grasping the significance of the New Testament affirmation of the presence of the Son at and in creation?
The fact is that the more into that in the Old Testament is even more down yet. You see, it’s not just a matter of you. That Jesus, the son of God, is God, and that as son of God, he is from all eternity, and that he is in his person the wisdom of God, that one by whom God has made the world, through whom and for whom he has made them. It is not enough for that fall short of the New Testament perspective, as glorious as that confession is.
You see, the pressure that weighs upon John, and the pressure that weighs upon Paul, and the pressure that weighs upon the writer to the Hebrews, is precisely the same. They have observed, under the pressures of God’s redemptive work, the similarities between that work of redemption and the work of creation.
As I have said, we are not to imagine the creation as a work of God indiscriminate. No! God, by His condescension, God, by a deliberate act of humbling Himself, creates the world. And now, as it was in creation, so in re-creation. As it was in the original creation, so in the new creation.
At the center of both works is the love of God and parallel condescensions on the part of God, and at the heart of both is the Son. That’s the expression of that love. In both, the great God becomes the servant. in both. The great God. He comes to serve. That is not therefore a new idea reserved for the New Testament.
You see. If what I am saying to you is true. It is the very meaning of existence. and all reality. That is the heart of it right there. It’s possible to be at war with yourself and to consider your life in the church and then out in the world. Talk of servanthood is fine here. It’s appropriate in church. When I step out the door. It’s a whole nother ballgame. The rule out there. He’s power. Power. Not service. Power. Now how far do you have to get outside the door? To your car? Sunday lunch? your children, your wife, your job the next day, school, how far do you have to get?
Well, you see, the strange It’s not just with regard to matters of redemption, that the message of servanthood pertains. It is with regard to the entirety of existence, all of life and all that you are. Give me a few more minutes. Beyond the application that I’ve already made. I’m sure that you can put it firstly, compactly. Our posture with regard to the world, our disposition within the world, no less than in the church, is that of servanthood. For we are like God. We are to be Christ. Giving of ourselves, humbling ourselves, surely as he has.
So I don’t use this pulpit as a soapbox for my. Personal love. And I haven’t spoken to you. Directly. About the Christian school. But let me say something. Do you see how significant this whole thing is becoming? You can have your battles out there in the world with regard to the public sector and whether God’s going to be admitted to the classroom or not. But what kind of God is going to be admitted? I ask you that. I’ll tell you what kind of God. A God that’s not worth having. He’s completely indiscriminate and nondescript. There’s nothing unique about him. So let them have their God and their gods.
But do you understand now what is at the heart of Christian education, what must be at the heart of a Christian school? Not some sort of general notion about God, but the specificity of God in Christ. Education, then, is not simply to be God-centered. not God indiscriminately considered, but Christ sent. For Christ is at the center of God’s creating work. It was through by and for God in Christ created. An education then that does not honor Christ is not a God honoring education.
Period. Now some of us are liable to find ourselves in impossible circumstances. But if we find ourselves in those impossible circumstances with our children, it behooves us to in every effort extend all energy to encourage them in the things that we know to be true in the face of what they’re getting hit with every day. One last thing. You can’t see the meaning and the significance of the original creation without having entered the new creation. You can’t understand the meaning and significance of creation without being recreated yourself.
And it is only with the spectacles that God can supply that you are enabled to see things as they really are and are to be I hope and trust that that is very clear to you. Let’s pray. Our Father, we would bless you that you have opened our eyes And the more that the Old Testament hinted at. We thank you. But that more has been made plain to us now. That had worked in the creation. Was your eternal son? So that all of reality bears the mark. Of the great God. Who made himself servant? In the midst of all the things he was Lord, may our life in this world be similarly marked. Now, Lord, may that mark be understood supremely in light of the cross of Christ, our great Savior, by whom we have been reconciled to you, enabled to see, so that now truly we understand the world around 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.
This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of “The Name of Jesus Christ” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, March 8, 1987.
About this sermon
John’s prologue calls Christ God, far beyond calling him God’s Son, and John 3 and Christ’s exchange with Pilate in John 18 assume the same. Christ’s parable of the seven demons in Matthew 12 warns against withdrawing from the world in place of serving in it, the pattern Christ himself set. God is never stingy in his giving.
This morning we are reading from John’s Gospel, the first chapter of that Gospel. We are reading the first fourteen verses. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made.
In him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in the darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. The same came for a witness to bear witness of the light that all men through him might believe. He was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of that light. That was the true light that lighted every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not.
But as many as received him, to them he gave power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name, which were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory.
The glory is of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” And reading from John chapter three, beginning with verse sixteen. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
For God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deed should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God. Finally, from the eighteenth chapter of John, verse thirty-three, to the first part of verse thirty-eight.
Then Pilate entered into the judgment hall again and called Jesus and said unto him, Are thou the king of the Jews? Jesus answered him. Sayest thou this thing of thyself, or did others tell it thee of me? Pilate answered, Am I a Jew? Thine own nation and the chief priests have delivered thee unto me. What hast thou done? Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight that I should not be delivered to the Jews. But now is my kingdom not from hence. Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king.
To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice. Jesus rather. Pilate saith unto him, What is truth? Our God, your word goes out in the world. You gather your own And Father, we pray on behalf of those who preach today and speak that word in truth. May full blessing rest upon them and the wonderful ministry of the Spirit. May that be at their disposal. We pray this in Christ’s name. Amen.
Jesus is the Son of God. We have been speaking about Jesus, the Son of God, and we’ve said a great number of things about him as the Son. We have said, for instance, that as Son, he is heir. He is the inheritor of those things that belong to God. And greater still, as son of God, he is heir of God himself. We have also said that as son of God, we are not to trip over that title. that is ascribed to Jesus.
For nothing less will do than that confession that is spoken by Thomas towards the end of John’s gospel. Thomas is doubted. And the risen Christ has appeared to him. The response of Thomas at that point is not Jesus, you are the son of God. But rather, my Lord and my God. Any confession that falls short of acknowledging this son of God as God. Is a confession that falls short of what God expects of us. As we would confess Jesus. Jesus then, son of God, heir of God, that son of God who is God. But we have said something else as well about this Jesus. So magnificent is he that as John portrays him in his gospel, We are face-to-face with one who brings those things which are above down into the world in which we live. The coming of the Son of God then means the appearance in this world of heavenly thanks. It also means But those things which are yet future have now come into our experience.
Do we read about eternal life, the abundant life, the glorious life of bliss in heaven? Do we think of that life as something exclusively future? The appearance of this one, who is the son of God, brings with him the future realities of glory so that if you believe now already you have eternal life and you will never die. Isn’t that magnificent? Isn’t that, at the heart of things, the gospel? We are called upon to believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and we are told, if we believe, we will have life through Him. Not just more of the same. Not just more of the trouble and the pain. but eternal life and glory. That to begin already now with our believing. But there is a problem, of course, with such a message and such a figure as Jesus is.
There is a problem with this person, If you have one into him. If you have faced him. If you have appeared as it were into his eyes and understood who he is and the demand that he made. You realize that the cost to you is the world. For as this one comes and makes plain the world that is above, as he comes and makes plain to you that that which stands beyond the grave can become a present reality for you now, as you see these things clearly, you realize that Jesus is robbing you of the present world you love. And that is the price. That is the price.
That is the consequence of him taking that world from him. And also, ill health, uncontrollable anxiety, frustration, bitterness, resentment. He takes away from me my world. This one, the son of God, robs us of the world. He tells us in his statement to Pilate, my kingdom is not of this world, it is not of this world or… It’s strange that we feel the agony of heart, the battle that goes on in our souls.
There is then that response to the promise He robs us of the world, and we can stand back them from him in simple resistance. But here, the warning that is given to us with regard to that simple resistance. We are told by the writer of this gospel, in a letter that he writes later on in his life, love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. Now, you might think that John is being particularly harsh, but those words are elched in love.
They are meant for our good. How so? Because John understands that the things of this world will pass. just as the world. He also knows that Christ and his kingdom endures forever, and that is the issue. Our sinful resistance then Recognizing the price, counting the cost, we run up against this one son of God. We see is the man. He loves the world. And we resist. Because we hang on to, we cling to the world. Jesus gives us a parable in another gospel, the Gospel of Matthew.
He’s speaking about his ministry of casting out demons. It’s a very powerful statement that he makes when he reflects upon his activity. He says, You have that one out of whom there has been driven the spirit, and that spirit, that demon, wanders about in the world.
And as he does, he gathers to himself seven demons far worse than himself. And then he decides to return to that a boat that he left. That person out of whom he had been driven and when he arrived, he finds that everything is in place. It’s as if that person is a building in a boat well kept, but utterly empty for nothing has come to fill up that a boat that person. And thus the spirit, the demon, takes the seven words and sets up house.
And Jesus says the latter state is worse than the first. Hear the warning then. You come up against Christ. You see the cost. You recognize the demand. Jesus, that one who comes forth from another world, telling you that you can be a part of that other world. And you, resisting, saying, no, I can’t give up this world.
You, having seen Jesus and understood his message, you are like that one from whom a demon has been driven. But if your abode, if your person is not filled up with the fullness of eternal life, if you yourself are not filled up with the Holy Spirit, then the demon returns. And he brings with him seven worse than himself, and the latter state is worse than the first.
Hear the warning, then, and hear the loving call of the Savior. Come to me, all of you who are weak and heavy laden. Learn of me. I will give you rest for your souls. There is then that response That simple resistance to the claim of the Son of God upon you. When you hold on to this world. Instead of letting it go. The Word of Christ is if you hold on you will lose everything. Even your soul. But if you will let go. And trust me, it will be salvation and eternal life. There is another response, though. Some might understand this as a believing response.
I might flatter myself. Having seen the Son of God through the word by the Spirit, understood him congratulating myself, but I have interpreted him a right that my soul is secure. I am still liable to misunderstand his message and how tragic that misunderstanding. For I can whistle my way through life, contending myself that my name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, and that I am set for eternity, and withdraw myself from that world that I am not to love, forgetting that God himself loved the world in such a way as to send his Son into it to die for it. So I wrap myself in my cloak of self-righteousness. I’m very pleased with myself, and I’m quite satisfied.
But do you understand? Jesus comes to us from that other world and he preaches his message, and he brings to us the realities and blessings of that other world in order that we might live in this world as a testament to him and to the realities that are above. How are you to live in this world? Are you to withdraw from it in such a way that you have no contact with it? Are you to wrap yourself up in your cloak of self-righteousness, well satisfied with yourself? Or is there something else? Is there another way of life for you?
Well, how was it with the Son of God? How was it with that one who came forth from heaven? How did he behave? He came giving himself, offering himself, a servant for the sake of others. How are you to live? As a citizen of the kingdom of heaven. In this world. What kind of life is it to be. For all those. Who would confess Jesus as son of God. It is to be a life patterned after him.
And though we may do poorly. And though our thought may far exceed our life. And our ability to conform. Still in the end. The bottom line must be that there is in us a heart comparable to his own. We not setting our minds so much upon heaven. That we are rendered useless. In this world. Withdrawing to monasteries and nunneries. Becoming permits and recluses. In the name of the kingdom of God. That isn’t the way in which the kingdom is to be manifest in the world.
The pattern is set in Christ. The word became flesh and dwelt among us. And the glory that is resident in him has become our possession. And through us now, his glory is to be manifest in the world so that the world might understand that we belong to him. That’s what it is, isn’t it? So that in the end, having met Jesus, I have to give up my world and I have to give up myself. And I do that because I love him. And I trust him.
How does it with you? The strain, the agony, the pain and suffering. A long history of bitterness, resentment. I can confess that to you this morning. And rehearsing my own life. I can go back to my teenage years and tell you about times then when it seemed as if I was in mortal conflict with my parents, bearing those resentments still in my heart to this day. My parents were forced to make a decision. They had to move from a place that I loved I felt the decision was mine. It wasn’t. It was theirs. But how hard that bitterness and resentment dies. It hangs on. Tears, rips, gnaws. So many other things.
What if? What if this had happened? Or that? Where would I be today? What would I be doing? Bearing grudges against God? Angry with Him? Resenting Him? He takes from me a world. Then it’s as if He takes from me myself. And what does He give back in return? Everything. Eternal life. In self. Rest. Peace. A life free of anxieties. Resting in him. Nothingness.
Our father, it may well be. That we in facing you have understood very plainly. Your demand. Our quest to save our life and our world. You have told us. And. In our severe disappointment. We would therefore Lord. in the power of the spirit that you supply, realize afresh, grab hold of anew that world which you have come to reveal to us, and for the sake of our God and His kingdom, we will let go of this world. Father, let us as well Let go of ourselves. If we might be patterned after and conformed to. The son of God. We thank you Lord. That you have blessed us. That you have granted us mercy. Willing hearts open ears. And Lord may we have obedient lives.
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.
This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of “The Name of Jesus Christ” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, March 1, 1987.
About this sermon
This review sermon draws the series together around one repeated movement in John: Jesus brings heaven down to earth, feeds his people with heavenly bread, and pulls the future forward into the present tense. John 4’s conversation with the Samaritan woman supplies the clearest example of that last move. What results, in each case, is real blessing and real peace already delivered, not merely promised.
Reading from a few passages in John’s Gospel this morning, we are first of all reading from the first chapter of that Gospel, verses fourteen through eighteen. And the word was made flesh, and dwelt among us. And we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John bare witness of him and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake. He that cometh after me is preferred before me, for he was before me. And of his fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. No man has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.”
From that same chapter, beginning in verse 43, the day following, Jesus would go forth into Galilee. He findeth Philip and saith unto him, Now Philip was of Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have found him of whom Moses and the law and the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.
And Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip saith unto him, Come and see. Jesus, say, saw Nathanael coming to him, and saith to him, Behold, in Israel, indeed, in whom is no God. Nathanael saith unto him, Whence knowest thou me?
Jesus answered and said unto him, Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee. Nathanael answered and said unto him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God, thou art the King of Israel. Jesus answered and said unto him, Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree, believest thou?
Thou shalt see greater things than these. And he saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. From chapter four, reading from verse Seen as the encounter between Jesus and the woman at the well in Samaria. The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, and ye say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me.
The hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father. Ye worship ye know not what. We know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father seeketh such to worship Him. God is a spirit. and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. The woman saith unto him, I know that Messiah is coming, which is called Christ. When he is come, he will tell us all things. Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he.”
Our God, this day, your word reverberates throughout the world. It is proclaimed, declared by servants of yours, called truly weak. Yet, Lord, it pleases you to take the weak and through them expound your strength. So now, Lord, under your heaven May that word sound forth and may your people be called and your saints confirmed in the knowledge of the one true God and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. We pray it in Jesus’ name. Amen. What are you looking for in Jesus? What are you looking for in Jesus? We have been talking about this central figure to our faith for a while now.
We have expounded his name, Jesus, and its significance, its relationship to the whole notion of and reality of salvation. We know that this one Jesus is called Christ. He is the anointed and we have endeavored to feel all that that signifies, truly the anointed one of God. We have said as well that he is Lord, and by saying that we have been bold to affirm that as Lord, he is our owner. Nothing less than that. Our owner. We are owned by Him. We are bond slaves of Christ. But we also confess that Jesus is Son of God. Son of God. And we have thought about that name and understood it along two lines. First, that as Son of God, Jesus is unique. Not that there aren’t others in scripture called Son of Gods.
But Jesus is unique, for in light of everyone else’s failure, Jesus has triumphed. He has succeeded. The failure of everyone else is due to sin. Regardless of how glorious they may appear on the pages of scripture, eventually that sin is unearthed, the feet of clay are revealed, and the idol tumbles. Jesus is unique. the Son of God.
And read along one line, as Son of God, we have said that He is, as any son of a father would be, heir. He is that one to whom the inheritance belongs. And in this case, the inheritance is nothing else than God Himself. Jesus, Son of God, as heir of God. He inherits God.
Is it plain to you now why Jesus can say, out of the fourteenth chapter of John, I am the way, the truth, and the life? No man cometh unto the Father but by me.” You see, as son of God, Jesus is heir of God. No one has passage to God, but by way of Christ, no one becomes an heir of God himself, but through that one who is the heir of God. So if you do not have the Son, then you do not have the Father. Because the Son is the heir of God. And if you are to have God, you must have Jesus. Son of God as heir of God. and thereby our root to God.
But there are many things that we might confess about Jesus as Son of God, and there are many feelings that may well up inside of us concerning this figure of Jesus, and we may be very quick to blurt out, yes, of course, I believe that Jesus is the Son of God.
And as we say that, we might not yet have said enough. And that is why, you see, at the end of John’s Gospel, we have that marvelous, is there any story quite as large. We have that marvelous story of the confrontation of Thomas with the risen Christ. There may have been, then, you see, an estimation of Jesus as Son of God in Thomas’s mind, despite his disbelief in Jesus’ resurrection. He may have looked upon him much the way that Nathanael did at the end of the first chapter of John, and said, truly, you are the Son of God, the King of Israel. Able to say that, even though this one has died, Thomas not yet understanding and comprehending. But what a marvel in that confrontation between Thomas and Christ. For if there’s anything lacking in his confession of his understanding of Jesus, son of God, it is remedied by that confrontation.
Jesus presents himself to Thomas and Thomas says, My Lord and my God. If, then, your confession of Jesus as the Son of God does not go on to confess with Thomas, My Lord and My God, you have fallen short of New Testament confession. Jesus is the Son of God. But He is also that Son of God who is God. The Word became flesh. Was that the Word God? The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. But what is the significance of the appearance of this one? The Son of God, called the Word, made flesh. What is the significance of this one who has come into the world?
At least as John is pressing us to consider. What indeed does he do? Well, we know all of that compact confession concerning our sin the coming of Christ to die that we might live, he taking our judgment to himself that we might be vindicated, not because of our own goodness, but because of his goodness imputed to us and received by faith alone. The catechism is handy at times, and convenient.
You recognize the language. What power grips John as he writes and paints the portrait of Christ and his significance for us? Son of God, God in the flesh come, what does it mean? What could it possibly mean? Take hold of it now. See it clearly from that fourteenth verse of the first chapter. See it clearly from the fifty-first verse of that first chapter.
Understand that in many of the comments that are made by Jesus throughout this gospel, the significance now of God having come into the world is that He brings heaven down to earth. in himself as if in him a whole new world is being unveiled before you, one that you could never see with your natural eyes.
Do you long for a different world? Do you want a world in which there is no weeping or crying, in which there is no pain or sorrow, in which people don’t hurt one another? Do you want that kind of world? You can see it in Jesus. For Jesus, the Son of God, is God, come down into the earth, and with that descent, heaven itself has descended, and you can see in Jesus. of having this life.
How slow people are to grab hold of it. How obstinate, how obstinate my heart, how hard my own heart. Do you remember the scene in John 6? Oh, what a story. Jesus has multiplied the loaves and the fishes, and then he takes off from the crowd. They pursue him. Jesus tells them the truth about themselves. He said, you’ve come after me because I filled your stomachs and gave you something to eat. Then he goes on and says, I am the true bread that comes down out of heaven. And if you eat of me, you shall never hunger. Is there hunger in heaven? None. Is anyone starving in glory? No one. No one.
But already in Christ, the spiritual reality, the realities that are made real through the Holy Spirit, have become present. Well, does Jesus simply bring heaven down to earth? We read from chapter 4 in John this morning, I have already said that Thomas and Jesus and their encounter at the end of the gospel has to be the greatest story. I’m liable to have to backtrack. All these stories are just so magnificent. The encounter between Jesus and this woman. And you know the story.
We don’t have to go over the details. Simply to zero in on the significance of this one son of God, this one who is God in the flesh, what he means now. For not only by him has heaven come down into our presence, but the future has come into the present. Heaven into our presence, the future. into the present. He tells the woman, there’s an hour coming, but he doesn’t stop there. He says, it’s already here.
The power of this One who is Son of God, God in the flesh, is to bring the future into the present. And what future might that be? why it’s the pure, unadulterated worship of God—worship in spirit and in truth, truth there meaning in the full reality of all those things that are, yes, real in the world. Son of God, God in the flesh, he brings the future into the present, and as such he becomes the true source of our comfort, our peace, our tranquility.
Why are you afraid? Are you older? Are you facing an uncertain future? Should I keep the house? Should I sell it? Should I move where I don’t know anyone? Should I stay near my family and friends? What’s going to happen to me? Am I middle-aged and out of work? What am I going to do? Am I struggling with my family? What’s going to become of my children? Will they believe? Will they love Jesus when they’re older? How am I going to pay for their college education? Am I a student? What am I going to do with my life? Why is life such a hassle anyway? Why is everybody on my case?
Don’t be afraid. This Jesus, Son of God, who is God, brings into your present experience the blessings that we have been trained to think of as belonging exclusively to the future. Not so, he says. If you believe in me, he says, you have eternal life. That’s future. You have it now. You don’t have to wait for it. It becomes a present reality for you. And with that life, there comes abundance. And in that abundance, there is peace. Yes, you’re God. You’re God in Christ.
We’ll take care of you. Why be anxious? Why fret so much about what tomorrow will bring? Will you not rely upon and rest in the only one to whom the future belongs? The only one. There’s a price you have to pay. You have to give up the world. For many it’s too steep a price. Much too steep.
The people in Jesus’ day wanted bread that they could see and eat. Fill their stomachs. That would satisfy them. Jesus would have them feast on food from heaven, spiritual bread, which alone can satisfy the soul. Won’t you rush to Him? He will bring heaven into your life. He will bring the future glory into your present experience. and you will experience unspeakable joy.
Let’s pray. Now, O Lord, we, needy that we are, have been supplied. We have been supplied by you out of heaven We have been given of those things that belong to the realm above, and that realm that we have thought could only come after this world was completed. Yet, even now, through Christ our God, those things are granted to us. And we, Lord, glory in them. We thank you, Lord, that you are blessing your people throughout the world, who, turning their back upon the world, have turned unto you, because you are their only hope. Lord, may we be satisfied fully, since we have turned from the world to serve you.
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.
This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of “The Name of Jesus Christ” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, February 22, 1987.
About this sermon
Thomas’s confession in John 20:28, ‘my Lord and my God,’ is the destination John’s whole Gospel has been building toward, and 20:30-31 makes that purpose explicit. Mary’s own clinging to the earthly, risen Christ in 20:16-17 supplies a contrasting picture, one Scripture repeats elsewhere, of grasping the wrong thing too tightly. Real reconciliation, on Paul’s terms in 2 Corinthians 5, requires letting go of exactly that instinct.
morning from the Gospel of John, and first of all we’ll be reading from the twentieth chapter, chapter twenty, beginning at verse nineteen. Then the same day at evening, Being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.
And when he had said, when he had so said, he showed unto them his hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord. Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you. As my father has sent me, even so send I you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Spirit, whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them, and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.
But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe. And after eight days again, his disciples were within, and Thomas with them.
Then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst and said, Peace be unto you. Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands, and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side, and be not faithless, but believing. And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God.
Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed. Blessed are they that have not seen me, and yet have believed. And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book, But these are written that he might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing, he might have life through his name. And then from the 21st chapter, beginning at verse 15, So when they had dined, Jesus said unto Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these?
He saith unto him, Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs. He saith unto him again a second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep. He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved, because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things.
Thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep. Verily, verily, I say unto thee, When thou wast young, thou dirtest thyself, and walkest with her thou wouldest. But when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hand, and another shall gird thee and carry thee whither thou wouldst not.
This spake he, signifying by what death he should glorify God. And when he had spoken this, he saith unto him, Follow me. Then Peter, turning about, seeth the disciple whom Jesus loved following, which also leaned on his breast at supper, and said, Lord, which is he that betrayeth thee? Peter, seeing him, saith to Jesus, Lord, and what about this man? What shall he do? Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he carry till I come, what is that to thee? Follow thou me. Then went this saying abroad among the disciples, that that disciple should not die, that Jesus saith not unto him he shall not die, but if I will that he carry till I come, what is that to thee? This is the disciple which testifies of these things and wrote these things, and we know that his testimony is true.
And there are also many other things which Jesus did, for which if they should be written, every one, I suppose, that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. And from chapter one, the first five verses, in the beginning was the word And the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made, that was made. In Him was light, and the light was the light of men. And the light shineth in the darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not.
Today our father. Because of the work of Jesus Christ and the gift of your spirit. There are those that proclaim the message of the gospel. Throughout the world. And father. We would not so much as pray for ourselves as we would for those who here today. We would pray for those who deliver your message and bring it to. Congregations of your people. That have assembled under your heaven. And father may it please you. With the fresh breeze of your spirit. to encourage many and to grant life to those who are calling. We pray these things through Christ. Amen.
I have also, I have usually thought, at least recently, that a good practice in reading scripture is to check out the ending first. I don’t know how you read novels. I don’t know whether you turn to the last chapter and find out how it’s all going to end. Before you start the book. But a good practice as you read books of the Bible.
Is to turn to the conclusion and check out the ending. And I suppose that there’s something quite fitting about this because you see. For us in our faith, it’s as if God has revealed to us how things are going to turn out in the end. It’s as if with God through his word we are turned to the end of the whole matter to see how things are going to conclude. And then, you know how it is, we live in light of the conclusion. Not only is the story of the gospel, then, written with an eye towards the end, but so is the life of each one of us.
Now, you have in front of you the gospel of John. And John, at the conclusion of his gospel, let you in, in a very compact sentence, he let you in on what he has been driving at all along. He gives you his purpose for writing. It appears there at the end of the twentieth chapter.
You know the verses thirty and thirty-one. Many other signs, therefore, Jesus performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book, but these have been written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that leaving you may have life in his name.” Now, it’s not as if this conclusion isn’t without problems. If you look at these verses carefully, the problem, the principal problem of these verses becomes clear. What might it be, as you take stock of what John says here? How would you understand his words? That you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing, he may have life in his name. Or put it this way, who exactly is John addressing here?
Some have suggested that John is speaking exclusively to those who are without faith at all. Those who are in need of the gospel, simply because they haven’t embraced it. That in the end, John here is writing what we might call an evangelistic tract. and that his gospel is intended for those who are outside of the church who have not made any kind of confession of Christ. But do we want to conclude that?
Is John’s gospel, in the end, written for those who don’t believe? Is it only useful as a missionary tool as an evangelistic tool in the work of the Church? Or is the Church herself being addressed by this gospel and these words? Now, if it is the case that we can say that the gospel is addressing the Church, not just on believers, but those who believe, if we can say that, in what sense, then, In what sense can John be instructing them to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, that believing they may have life in his name? In what sense can those who already believe, believe again? Am I here talking about some sort of second blessing? How is it that John is able to speak to these people, we assuming that, yes, this gospel is meant in some regard for the church, how can he be speaking to them as if they haven’t believed as yet? How can he talk to those who believe as if they are in need of believing.
Help for us might come from another writer in Scripture. If you look, for instance, to Paul’s writings, Second Corinthians, chapter five, a very familiar passage, but one that is ordinarily misunderstood. Look at Chapter five, beginning with verse eighteen.
Now, all things are from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. Namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and he is committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were entreating, through us, we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. Now, you see the problem.
To whom is Paul writing? He’s writing to the Church, to those who have already been reconciled. But yet, here in verse 20 of this chapter, he comes out with this imperative, be reconciled to God, as if those to whom he is writing have not been reconciled at all. And why does he write this way? Well, if you know something of Paul’s problems in Corinth, you know why he writes this way.
He’s having difficulties with the people. There is a question about his authority, his apostleship. Is he really an apostle, or is he some sort of underling, not worthy of their respect? And so the arguments go. And as the arguments have raged, you see, the people in Corinth have fallen out of fellowship with Paul.
And now he comes to them with this message about reconciliation, truly a reconciliation grounded in the work of Jesus Christ, whereby God is reconciling sinners to himself, but always taking that he’s applying it to the circumstance in court, and he’s saying to them, you know, by which he reconciled to me. And later on. In chapter six. We’ll see how he entreats the Corinthians.
Our mouth, verse 11, has spoken freely to you, O Corinthians. Our heart is open wide. You are not restrained by us, but you are restrained in your own affections. Now, in a life exchange, I speak as to children, open wide to us also. See what Paul’s doing?
Because there is not a proper fellowship between him and the Corinthians. Paul, therefore, entreats this Corinthian church, be ye reconciled to God. Namely, be ye reconciled to God’s servant, to me. And insofar as you are not reconciled with me, you are in need of being reconciled to God.
Now let’s return. Is it beginning to register on you how it is possible for John to. Lay this imperative upon the leaders. As if they don’t believe. How he is able to address this gospel to the church. and say to them, I’ve written these things, that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and believe him. You might have wife in his name. Is it not obvious then that as John writes this gospel, he’s observing things in the church that lead him to conclude that the people aren’t living up to their faith, that they are not living in their faith, that they are not acting like they believe. And so it is that you run through the gospel of John. Let’s take stock of a few things that are getting in the way that are getting in the way. Just back up to chapter twenty. In the middle of that chapter and the story of Jesus encounter with Mary Magdalene in the garden after his resurrection.
Verse sixteen, you have Jesus saying to her, Mary, she turns and says to him in Hebrew, which is translated by teacher. And then he proceeds to teach her seventeen. Jesus says to her, New American Standard is very good here. Jesus says to her, Stop clinging to me.
For I have not yet ascended to my father.” Now, why is it that Jesus must say that to Mary? Do you recognize what’s happening here? Mary wants to keep him there. And she’s holding on to him and will not release him. He says, stop clinging to me. Mary, by clinging to him, is interpreting Christ as some sort of earthly Messiah. Some Messiah intended, destined to set up a kingdom of this world. And Jesus says, no, none of that. I’m ascending. So that the focus, you see, is on heaven, on glory, on that which is above. Stop clinging to me.
Now do you see what could happen in the church? After the days of Christ’s resurrection at the church, it progressed in her history a bit. She’s undergone persecution, maybe a time of peace has come. Here they are in circumstances a bit removed from those traumatic events of Christ’s ministry, his death, resurrection, and the vision is getting a bit blurred.
We don’t see things so clearly anymore. But don’t be deceived to say, John is here speaking to the assembly, to the Church of Jesus Christ, and telling them, look, it’s not an innocent matter of your vision being blurred, it’s a matter of you not believing. That’s how serious it is. Now, what constitutes that blurred vision? You get weighted down with all of the affairs and concerns of this world and this life. You don’t see things in their proper order.
You don’t begin with a God who is from above. You don’t start with an ascended Lord. You don’t start with glory. And the warning is plain and clear and very serious. If you start with the earth, you will end with the earth. And it doesn’t matter if you’re even a good and devout Jew, you will end with the earth if you started with the earth. Jesus, the teacher, Rabboni, says, stop clinging to me as if I was some sort of administrator for an earthly kingdom here. Clear your vision. Clean up your sight. That’s what it means to believe. To have faith. Start with those things that you don’t see. Hold them fast. Be eternal. Now there are other ways to cling. There are ways to cling that are very religious. I dare say that Mary’s clinging was very religious. But as the church progresses in her history, and John writes to her, there may be, well, those amongst her members who are clinging to many things that have religious overtones and power.
For instance, as the gospel begins, you have that antithetical statement that is made in verse seventeen of the very first chapter. The law came through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. Now you see, as the church progresses, it’s liable to think that Moses is someone to hold on to as if he has value in and of himself, apart from Christ. Stop clinging to Moses, you who are tempted to do that.
A little later on, you have the disciples of John, very much worried that John’s reputation is suffering because of Jesus’ activity. You read about it at the end of the third chapter of John. They enter into an argument with their master. This one, Jesus has everybody tripping after him. And what’s going to become of your ministry?
And John responds, magnificently, he must increase, but I must decrease. In the church, there were many who loved John the Baptist, who were, in a sense, brought to faith under his ministry. But John is not the one who was to come in order to bless God’s people with life. He was a witness. There was someone greater yet to come. Stop clinging to John, the gospel says.
You take up the story of the woman at the well. Well, we could question who she was going to. I guess none of her previous five husbands. But she does cling to the traditions of the Samaritans and a point is made about the fact that the well at which she and Jesus are their congregated. Jacob. And for the Samaritans Jacob was greater than Abraham. He was greater than Moses. Stop. Stop.
Well These are the things you see that come as temptations to the church. Divert your eye from glory and from Christ. And the diversion of your eye is the loss of faith. Therefore, I write these things that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ There are many other things that you can point that will cause the diversion.
You might take stock of what happens in the twelfth chapter of John. A dramatic passage. Tremendously powerful in its effect. You have John there quoting parts of Isaiah. towards the end of that chapter, beginning with verse thirty six. But then you have inverse forty to these words. Nevertheless, many even of the rulers believe in Jesus.
But because of the Pharisees, they were not confessing him. less they should be put out of the synagogue, for they love the approval of men, rather than the approval of God. Why would it be that John would write to a Christian church, believe, believe on Jesus the Christ, the Son of God, as if they were not believing, because Many of them out of fear are failing to confess. Many out of fear, and due to their love of the approval of man, simply will not stand up for Jesus. So it’s not an innocent thing. It’s a very serious thing. to not stand up for Jesus, to love the approval of men rather than the approval of God, is to not believe.
There are so many ways in which it is possible for those who believe not to believe. For those who believe to be in need of believing. Take stock. Of Peter at the end of Chapter 21. This man. Who has at the center of his life. Himself. You have Jesus repeated statements to him questions. Do you love me? Of course, you know, I love you, Lord, will then tend my feet, but you see what Jesus is doing.
Not only is there a remedy here in these three questions to the denial that Peter is already honored before the crucifixion, a remedy for Peter’s sin, but there is a confrontation here for Peter with himself. Is he actually willing to give up all in order to be that one whom Christ has called in order to fulfill that ministry that is laid upon him? It’s no innocent thing if Peter turned from that. It’s no innocent thing if he failed to see the significance of Christ’s call. For him to fail in that regard and to give himself for the sheep, as Christ has given himself, is to be guilty of not believing. Similarly, his reactions to the beloved disciple, which concludes this story.
Well, what about him? You’ve told me that I’m going to suffer. You’ve given me this horrendous scenario about the prospects for my life. What about him? Peter, you don’t understand. And insofar as you don’t understand, you don’t believe. You’re in need of believing.
It’s a similar thing that happened on the eve before Christ’s crucifixion, when Jesus He takes the towel and puts it around himself, and goes and washes the disciples’ feet. He says, I’ve given you an example of the way in which you ought to treat one another, insofar as you’re not willing to love one another. You are not believing, and you are in need of believing. Well, the most powerful illustration and the most riveting confrontation with diversion is dished out to us in the story of Thomas. I want you to understand what’s going on here. You see, Thomas becomes a foil by which the church is instructed.
The church may well contend herself coming down to that thirty-first verse. I believe Jesus Christ I believe that Jesus is the Son of God, haven’t I said as much? And so the confession goes. Oh yes, Jesus is the Son of God. I see him up there somewhere. He’s very powerful, very important. He’s probably the most important person that ever lived. I think that there surely is none greater than Jesus. What is the church said throughout the ages? Jesus is the Son of God! Amen!
Let the power of Thomas’ confession grip you. Is the church tempted with the confession that Jesus is the Son of God to think less of Jesus than they ought? If you fall short of Thomas’s confession, you have not believed that Jesus is the Son of God. Is it registering? If you have not embraced Thomas’s confession as your own. Regardless of how many times you have said, Jesus is the son of God, you have not believed that he is the son of God. Feel the power of it? The church says, Jesus is the son of God. Thomas says, my Lord and my God. And that’s the conclusion of the Vatican, right there. That’s it. That’s it. Nothing less will do.
Is the Church tempted to make Jesus something less than God? Is the church tempted in its confusion with the eye diverted, giving in to rationalistic schemes to make of Jesus less than he is? In every age, the person of Jesus Christ has been attacked, not by those outside the church, but by those in the church, who want to say over and over again, Jesus is the Son of God, but they can’t for the life of them.
Embrace Thomas’s confession, my Lord and my God, and only then will you have true faith, the kind of faith described here for you by John. The kind of faith that grants life is for you. Jesus is my Lord and my God. Let’s pray. Our Father, we may well believe and still be in need of believing. We may be in need of believing the very basic doctrine of our faith, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. O Lord, there are so many temptations for our eyes to be diverted, but may our vision remain clear because we are helped we are directed by your spirit and therefore we see things truly first of all in terms of the invisible realities of heaven of glory and then we are able to understand the things of this life, this world. But most importantly, may we understand that this One who is the Christ, the Son of God, is our Lord and our God. And as such, Lord, may we melt before Him. 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.
This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of “The Name of Jesus Christ” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, February 8, 1987.
About this sermon
Philippians 2 and Christ’s own question about David’s son in Matthew 22 both press the same title, Son of God, further than casual religious language usually allows. In the Old Testament, a son is an heir, and the inheritance in view here is nothing less than God himself. Christ’s perfect sonship is what makes believers sons and heirs alongside him, sharing the inheritance rather than merely benefiting from it.
This morning our scripture is found in Philippians chapter 2 verses 5 through 11 and also some verses in Matthew 22. So we’ll look at Philippians 2 first. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, that made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore, God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. to the glory of God the Father. Then from Matthew twenty-two, reading from verse forty-one.
While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, saying, What think ye of Christ? Whose son is he? They say unto him, The son of David. He saith unto them, How then does David in spirit call him Lord? The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool. If David then call him Lord, how is he his son? And no man was able to answer him a word, neither durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions.
Let’s pray. Before your glory, our God, we are melted, and Lord, those that this day bring your word to your dear people, they too must be melted, perceiving your glory then stretched out before you. They to be lifted up by your hand, your hand alone, and given a message which cannot be their own, but only yours. May it be this day, therefore, that your word unto your praise may go forth from your servants. Those then who you’ve raised up begotten in humility, that as servants of yours, they may not put forth themselves, but Christ crucified. Lord, throughout the entirety of this world, under your heaven, may your word sound forth, and may there be glory and righteousness and honor and power and dominion ascribed unto you the God above all gods, through your Son whom you’ve exalted, by the Spirit whom you’ve given at the down payment of our inheritance with you forever.
Amen. We have been talking about our Savior, and we have spoken about his name, Jesus, and what that name means. Salvation is of the Lord. Salvation is of Jehovah. We have seen that there has then been attached to that name Jesus a title become name, that of Christ. Christ meaning the anointed one. And how this one, this Jesus, has been anointed by God, equipped and designated as that one to whom all those previously anointed point. He exalted. Before God. Before. Not only Jesus salvation is of the Lord Christ, the anointed one. But this one is Lord.
He is, therefore, the owner, ascribed as such in the Word in no sense less than that ascription given to God from the beginning of time. Jesus Christ is Lord, and as Lord, He is the owner of all things, be they above here or below, be they the angels, unseen principalities or powers, or what we perceive and those we know, ourselves included. Jesus is our Lord and therefore our owner and we are to live as those owned by him.
But Jesus is also the Son of God. Jesus is the Son of God. We have the confession rehearsed repeatedly by us, that confession that came forth from the lips of Peter, the son of the living God. And during his ministry, Jesus is acknowledged as nothing less than the Son of God by a host of witnesses.
We think of the inadvertent testimony of Satan, if thou be the Son of God. We think of the testimony of demons The legions of Satan himself, we think of the testimony of enemies pitted against Christ. They also inadvertently giving testimony to the fact that this one is the Son of God. We think of the centurion at the cross.
Truly, this man was the Son of God. Even before Jesus is born, we are told that that which is conceived in the womb of the Virgin is the Son of God, because He is the product of God’s direct action. There is that voice at the Jordan, out of heaven. This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. There is that voice once more on the Mount of Transfiguration. This is my beloved son. Hear ye him.
And by common acclamation from the apostles and the apostolic church, we hear the apostle Paul in Romans tell us that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, declared to be such with power. In Colossians, we are told that we who have longed after God and come to know him have been delivered out of the dominion of darkness and into the kingdom of his beloved Son.
And what of the person? Testimony of the apostle, none greater, Galatians 2, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. And what of the disposition of all those that are joined to Jesus Christ? Are they not spoken out? My extension, as Paul directs his words to the Thessalonians, he says to them, as sort of a capsule statement of the life of all the things. You fled from. Devotion to life. In order to serve God, the living God.
And to await Is there any less of a testimony from the book of Hebrews? God, in former times and in different ways and manners, revealed himself through the prophets. But in this last day, he has revealed himself, he has spoken unto us by his son. Would you know why? Ask John. To know life. Is to know God. And his son. Jesus Christ. Jesus. Is the son of God. But what does it mean? to call Jesus, the son of God.
You know how I preach these titles. In these messages, you have become accustomed to my method. I returned to the Old Testament to look at statements we find there. Reviewing those statements, those considerations, we build to the New Testament to understand better and more properly what it means to call Jesus Christ.
The Lord. The Son of God. What about. The Old Testament and its use of the title. Son of God. It might baffle you a bit to know that in the Old Testament, angels are called sons of God. Do you remember the opening chapters of Job? When all the sons of God come and present themselves before the Lord, and there in that setting, in that writing, we are pull that these sons of God, these angels are so described and so distinguished. Are you aware that in Exodus four, God calls Israel the son of God, my son?
The prophets speak similarly. Voicing the words of God, Hosea eleven verse one out of Egypt. I called my son. Referring to Israel. But not just angels, not just Israel. Do you remember Genesis chapter six, the horrible things that take place that are described there in that chapter?
We are told that the sons of God looked upon the daughters of men, and that these sons of God are described somewhat in detail. And we are impressed with the fact that these are those who have made of themselves something in the world. They are men of renown. They strut and pose and poise themselves within the world for power and position. Sons of God. And thus it was, in the ancient world, that the kings, those of might, those who were answerable to no one, became described as sons of God.
Into the midst of this comes the word of God to David, 2 Samuel 7. Those verses spoken there by God to the king who assumes the throne and to the coming descendant of David. He will be my son, says the Lord. Thou art my son. This day I have begotten thee. that against the background of the coronation, the anointing of the king within Israel. The Son of God in the Old Testament, angels, Israel, men of renown and power, and the coming Son of David.
As we reflect on these various individuals, figures described as the son of God, sons of God, we take stock of some aspects of their character and courage. We think of their nature. As sons of God, you see, we are to think of them as originating from God himself. Their nature is such that they are viewed as having originated from God. Thus it is with the angels. God is responsible for their existence, and therefore it is proper and right to call them sons of God, because their origin is from Him, no one else.
What shall we say about Israel? Is it not this that God is testifying to when he calls Israel his son? Can they ascribe their existence to some power within themselves? Not at all. They are generated by God. They originate in him. That is their nature. That is their definition. But alongside of origination from God, They are also to reflect the character of God.
There’s a perversion of it when we consider the men of renown in Genesis, Genesis, Genesis six. I’ll get it out. There is that perversion of it in Genesis six. When these men of renown become a parody of God. But you see, in their power there is that point of contact. They, in that power, though perverted, are reflecting God.
But the king that God raises up, the son of God of the tribe of Judah in the family of David, he is to reflect the character of God himself, a man truly after God’s own heart. When we consider the Son of God, then, and think about the nature of the Son of God, we think about one who originates from God, also one, ideally, who reflects the character of God. But more than nature, there is the relationship. For what would relationship suggest with regard as to the name son of God and God himself. Does it not suggest an intimacy? So that beyond the nature itself, there is also this intimacy in a relationship with God, a communion, a fellowship, a commonality that binds together God and his son. then in an embrace of a father and his son.
That relationship seen at every juncture, angels bound to God, ideally obedient messengers of his will. In fellowship in covenant bound to him married, if you will, to their God, Israel’s king so intimately bound to God. The perversity is well. Angels disobedient Israel disobedient men of renown going their own way and Israel’s kings being disobedient, rebellious. for claiming the name of their son.
But just as important as the nature of the son of God and the relationship fellowship that exists because this particular figure is the son of God as important as these things are there is yet another aspect that we must take consideration of namely the function of the son the end and goal in view, what exactly is before the eye of God and that One described as Son. The function, you see, is that this One who is Son of God bears a relationship to God that entitles Him to all that is God’s. Thus He is God’s Son, for what is the Son but the heir?
But think of it now. The sun is heir not just of things. We may well think of the sun as heir of things. All things belong to him. Do not all the kingdoms of the nations, do not all of the things that God has created, seen and unseen, belong to the sun? Things above, things below. Are they not all the sons, yet even through that, beyond it?
The power and force of this title is not so much as to bring things before your eye, but God Himself, so that when we say that Jesus is the Son of God, we have in mind that He is heir of God, that is, God is the inheritance. Son of God pertains to inheritance, and it is not simply things that the Son inherits. It is God that the Son inherits.
When we take stock then of the Old Testament testimony to the Son of God, Angels, Israel, men of renown, Israel’s king. We think of the nature of the Son of God, the relationship the Son sustains to God Himself and the function of the Son, namely as heir, an heir by exaltation. An exaltation from God in which He is installed as Son, if you will, in which He becomes Son. This day, namely, the day of coronation, this day I have begotten thee. Well, that’s the Old Testament. Now what about the New? In the New Testament, The title son of God is also diverse. Did you know that in the New Testament.
Adam is called the son of God. If you read the genealogy of Luke. Genealogy of Christ given us in the third chapter of Luke ends with Adam and Adam there is full. the son of God, and we see how that is appropriate, because, as we mentioned above, and how true this is with Adam, there is no origination for Adam apart from God, and therefore Adam is truly son of God. He originates from God. And properly, he was to reflect God’s character. He enjoyed fellowship and intimacy with God. a marvelous intimacy, and he was the appointed heir, the important and the heir of all things, the heir of God himself. Yes, Adam was the son of God.
But we know also that in the New Testament, the title, the imagery, the idea of son of God is applied to the people of them. We think of Roman faith. That great statement there concerning the adoption of the people of God, that they are sons by adoption and have rights and privileges as such. We think of how this is echoed in Galatians chapter four. We think the wonderful description that is now conferred upon us as sons of God. But we realize, you see, that to be sons, we must be adopted. And our adoption is based upon what is true concerning the son, that one who is the fulfillment of everything that was spoken about sons. Fulfillment in perfection of everything that was spoken about the son of God, the sons of God in the Old Testament, so that our focus falls upon Jesus Christ, the son of God.
And here you see, it’s not as if we can lay aside the Old Testament considerations. Even though those considerations in the Old Testament seem to pertain to creatures, to angels, to a nation, Israel, to men of renown, to Israel’s king even.
For you see, in every respect, Jesus Christ will fulfill those dimensions of sonship that were perverted and destroyed and defaced and marred by sons of God formally. Jesus will act as that one who recognizes that he has originated from God in the sense that any of us has originated from God and Jesus will fulfill perfectly that relationship that exists between God and his people and he will fulfill that function, whereby by exaltation he will enter into an inheritance that was promised to the people of God. But even though all of these things are true, and we think of Jesus Christ as Son of God on a very human level, as a creature, even undergoing adoption himself, still with regard to him When we take up the matter of his sonship, all of these things are heightened because in him, consideration of the Son of God explodes before us. We realize that human categories cannot contain him. How unfortunate, then, how unfortunate that the Church of Jesus Christ in the last two centuries could make so much out of humanity of Christ As if concentrating upon those considerations out of the Old Testament and make so little about his big deity, the fact that he is God, the fact that he first category of sonship when they are applied to men for this one is the eternal son.
How can you read Philippians 2, 5 through 11 and not be convinced that Paul sees in this person of Christ, one who proceeds out of heaven as the Son, becoming the servant that he might, by way of exaltation, become the means of salvation for others. He was equal with God. And what is the point of Jesus’ argumentation with the Pharisees in Matthew 22 if it isn’t this? Pharisees have a very human idea of the Christ.
They see him as David’s son, the one who will come by natural generation to sit upon the throne. But Jesus confounds them. with statements out of some 110 concerning the fact that this one who is called David’s son is no less than David’s Lord. He precedes David. He is above David, whose son, then, might he be? David’s son?
No, he says he’s God’s son, and he means that in the most exalted way, not like any other king that has come to Israel. But as one who proceeds truly, completely, wholly from God. In this instance, God’s Son is God. In the case of Jesus, Unlike angels, Israel, men of renown, Israel’s line of kings. In the case of Jesus, God’s son is God.
Fulfilling in us then that sonship which has been perverted, that sonship that has gone awry, in order that we might be called sons of God. Does not John tell you this, concerning your nature? Are not all those who believe in Jesus Christ described in 1 John as begotten of God, born of Him? We originate in Him and from Him, despite who our parents are. Maybe even in spite of who our parents are. We are begotten of God. We originate in and from Him. We reflect His character, and therefore, you see, John is insistent in 1 John. You must love your brother. You have to. There’s no argument. There can be no argument. You must.
You’re begotten of God. What does it mean to be begotten of God? To be begotten of God means to reflect God’s character. A son of God is like God. Does God love? Who wants to debate it? Are you to love? How can you debate it? What about intimacy with God? Relationship?
Doesn’t John in 1 John tell us that the intimacy is such that we know all things? Such is the bond between us and God as God’s sons, that we know all things, because we know all things from the point of origination. We know all things from the point of God. We know everything from above. What about this last matter of function?
Heirs, sons of God as heirs. Do I need to remind you of the greatest verse in the New Testament? There is no greater birth in the New Testament. Starting with verse 716, the Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God, sons of God, and his sons, heirs also. Hear what he says.
Heirs of God and joint heirs. with Jesus Christ, if indeed we suffer with him in order that we may be glorified with him.” There it is, the Son of God moving out of the Old Testament into the New, with the focus properly upon Jesus, He fulfilling everything in Sonship that was lacking in us. But even more, he being the eternal Son, who gave up all that he had in heaven to come here to be found in fashion as a man, in order that we might be exalted to the status of sons, declared begotten of God, born again in righteousness, reflecting God’s character, knowing all things because of our intimate bond with God, and now In conclusion, declared to be there with. Now. You see, all described things this way in Romans eight. Because he wants those Romans. To feel like airs now.
Discipline yourself for your own spiritual well-being. You are an heir of God. Do you not feel like one? Do you not think like one? If so, maybe it’s time to ask yourself some very serious questions. Do I belong to God at all? Do I belong to God at all?
Please. If you grab hold of that verse and all that is being said to you this morning concerning sonship, don’t despair, for those words of Paul come as gospel to you and encouragement. Do you understand what I’m saying? If you understand that there is a testimony within your heart that the Spirit is at work in you presently to convince you of that exact thing, namely that you are a son of God, that you are a child of God, don’t walk from that. Give yourself to it.
Don’t walk away from it. If you do, it’s death. There’s no question about it. It’s death. It is hell. It is damnation. But if you are resonating to what is being said this morning concerning sonship, grab hold of it, hold on to it for all you’re worth. It’s life. Eternal life.
And don’t dare let Turn our hearts, our Father. Consideration of sonship drives us to you and your son, Jesus Christ. May our confidence arise from you, your word and what is plain in him. May the glory that we experience at the encouragement of the apostle be full and free. Whatever the cost to ourselves, may we forsake the old life, may we put behind us all of those things that would detract us. Distract us from you. Oh, Father, may there be nothing that gets in our way as we hold fast to this confession. Jesus Christ is the son of God. And this son of God. He’s gone. Father, be pleased to grant all in this room life. And may none of us choose death.
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.
This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of “The Name of Jesus Christ” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, February 1, 1987.
About this sermon
‘Kurios,’ Lord, carries real weight behind Paul’s confession in Romans 10, weight already visible in how Christ exercises that lordship in Mark 11’s triumphal entry. The Old Testament’s own language of belonging supplies the pattern here. To confess Christ as Lord is to confess ourselves his possession, his bondslaves. Admiration alone falls short of that confession.
The first fifteen verses. Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For they, being ignorant of God’s righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, that the man which doeth those things shall live by them. But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise.
Say not in thine heart, who shall ascend into heaven? That is, to bring Christ down from above. Or who shall descend into the deep? That is, to bring up Christ again from the dead. But what sayeth it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thine heart, that is, the word of faith which we preach, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things.
Let us pray together. Before You, our God, we bow. We know that Your Lordship is exerted over us, that we, with all proper humility and submission, might render unto You that obedience that is Yours. Encourage us, Father, by Your Word. May we push away from ourselves that which would stand between us and You. And, Lord, we pray that we might have that receptiveness, therefore, to accept from you all that you would say to us for our good, through Jesus Christ. Amen.
We have been talking about the titles of Christ understanding him in terms of his name and the names that he bears those titles which the Scriptures and the church have given to him. We have spoken about the name Jesus itself. We have talked about its significance on the background of our consideration of Old Testament the fact that the New Testament name, Jesus, is the equivalent to the Old Testament name, Joshua, and that those names mean salvation is of the Lord. We have also spoken about that title, Become Named. The title, Become Named, Christ itself, which means the Anointed One. Christ being the New Testament equivalent to the Old Testament title of Messiah.
This morning, we want to think about the most basic Christian confession of all. Not so much an acknowledgment of the significance of Jesus’ name, not even a consideration of what that title become name meant, the title name Christ. Rather, this morning, we want to consider Jesus as Lord.
It is believed by many that this simple confession was the basic confession, the most fundamental confession of the early church, and that this confession was reflected in 1 Corinthians 12, verse 3. You might recall that in that verse Paul says these words, Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God says, Jesus is accursed. And no one can say, and here comes the confession, Jesus is Lord, except by the Holy Spirit. It is this confession that stands at the heart of what Paul is saying in Romans 10, that ninth verse.
And I realize that that ninth verse is most likely a passage that you have memorized at one point or other in your Christian life, that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. the focus then upon the confession that Jesus is Lord.
Nothing more basic than that. But what does it mean? What does it mean to call Jesus Lord? Or more pointedly, what does it mean for me to say, Jesus is my Lord? And we forget. the confrontation between Thomas and the Risen Christ there in John one and after the invitation by the Risen Christ, Thomas convicted it flies out my Lord and my God. The personal reference certainly unmistakable. So also for each of us. What does it mean for the church to say, Jesus is Lord? And what does it mean for you to say, Jesus is my Lord? So in understanding this title, we might think of the Greek word that We have translated the Lord from the New Testament.
That Greek word is Kyrios. You might be familiar with that word in another context. If you have listened to great works of music, if you’ve listened to Bach’s D Minor Mass, or if you have listened to some requiems, those Those pieces of music are filled full of references to the Lord under the title of the Kyrie or the Kyrie Eleison. Those words coming into the worship of the church from earliest time incorporated by the Roman Church in its liturgy and also used repeatedly in the mass. Kyrie eleison, the cross, the prayer, Lord have mercy, Lord have mercy.
But understanding this word, Kyrios, takes us into a realm different from that which we considered when we took up the title name Christos, or Christ. For the title name Christ, Christos, took us into the religious realm and brought before us the anointing that took place so that someone may well be set aside for God, be set aside through ordination, through anointing. But we pass, as it were, from the religious realm in our consideration of the term Kyrios, We pass from the religious realm, per se, into the social, political, and economic realm, now taking up this title. The term kurios, the term war, arises from a social, political, economic background.
The root idea is that of a master. If we merely take stock of some of the parables of Jesus, we think of how he often speaks of a master who has servants, and he expects certain things from these servants, and he might go away into a far country, return, and when he returns, expect payment or obedience. or reception and welcome from his servants, the master-servant relationship, that being part of what lies at the root of the idea of the Lord. Politically, the idea is expanded from the domestic realm to the national or international realm. Politically, We must see the master then, we must see him in greater and more grandiose terms, not just simply having a household, but having a palace, not simply having servants and a parcel of ground, but a large expansive domain.
The Lord is King. He rules from his throne. He rules over his dominion, and all his subjects acknowledge his rule and reign, his authority. But in each instance, whether it is the domestic or the national, whether it’s master or king, the relationship between the Lord, the master, and those over whom he rules is precisely the same.
In each instance, that relationship can be described in no other way adequately than that of an owner to those and those things that he owns. Therefore, when we think of the term Lord, our mind ought to run immediately to consider the fact that to ascribe to Jesus Christ Lordship is to ascribe to him that position of owner and ownership and all that that entails. There is a beautiful example of this towards the end of Jesus’ life. It’s an event that occurs in each of the first three Gospels. You can read about it in Mark chapter eleven.
Jesus is approaching the city of Jerusalem, and he sends his disciples into a village to make requests, or I guess he doesn’t actually make requests, does he? He sends his disciples into a village to take a donkey for his use, and he gives them instruction if anyone interrupts, if anyone asks you a question as to what you are doing, you simply say, the Lord has need of it. Well, you see, what Jesus is doing in that instance is expounding for us the significance of his Lordship. Does he really own that donkey? Yes. The Lord has need of it. as if it were his sin. They go and take the donkey as if it belongs to Jesus.
His Lordship there beautifully expounded. Now you know me well enough to realize that I will ground all of this in the Old Testament. And that’s where a great deal of the power of it comes from. You see, the background of our ascription that Jesus is Lord comes to us from the Old Testament consideration of the person of God, Jehovah, in his treatment of his people, Israel. Yes, Jehovah is Lord.
He owns everything. All things are his possession. But you see, even though that is a fact, the earth is his, the heaven is his. Still, Jehovah becomes Lord in a special sense when he delivers is people from oppression. When the people have finally arrived at Sinai, the Lord rehearses for them there what has taken place, and he places before them the consideration. Yes, I own all things, but you have become my possession. You are a nation of three so royal priesthood of people of my own possession, he said in Exodus nineteen verse five.
So even though Jehovah is the Lord, he possesses all that he is created. He becomes Israel’s Lord in a special sense when he delivers his people from their oppressors. How wonderful this affirmation, this consideration is when we pair it up with our consideration of the person of Jesus. Jesus in the Gospels, even before he accomplishes his work of redemption, is acknowledged as Lord. He is recognized to be such. He is the one who owns everything. But he becomes his people lord in a special way when he accomplishes the work given him and his people by root of that work are delivered from all of their enemies from their oppressors. This is why you see when Peter preaches his sermon in Acts chapter two to the people in Jerusalem. He is able to conclude that message in the thirty-sixth verse with these words.
Therefore, let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Jesus both Lord and Christ. This Jesus, whom you crucify. So it is. Jesus, experiencing then that same pattern that we observed in Jehovah in the Old Testament. The one who possesses all things, he being God’s equal, the same as God, this one becomes Lord in a special sense when he is exalted and he puts to flight the enemy, the oppressors of God’s people.
Yes, when we consider the Lordship of Christ, and when we confess Jesus as Lord, we are acknowledging all of this. And how short-sighted, in fact, how sinful and how obstinate it is for those to arise who fail to see the parallel between the Old Testament consideration of Jehovah and what we observe in the person of Jesus. The match is perfect, so that all that is ascribed to Jehovah in the Old Testament is now ascribed to Jesus in the New. By saying that Jesus is Lord, we are saying Jesus is God. and as God and Lord my Lord and my God Jesus is my owner he owns me and I am his possession what a marvelous marvelous thing Do you need to consider that in depth, to think about it?
That we are the possession of God? That in our confession of Jesus as Lord, we are acknowledging that we belong to Him? What power is ours in this? Does not the power of the Lord who made all things come to our aid. Are we not strengthened with the might of the One who is greater than all, the One who by but a word creates everything, establishes what we see? More than power, what of comfort?
Jesus is my Lord. He is my owner. And how wonderful an owner he is. He is no cruel taskmaster. For he has delivered me from my oppressors, that I might delight as a servant in his house. And how wonderfully he cares for me. Is there any power? Is there any threat? that assails me that is beyond him? Can there be any power, any threat directed towards me that is greater and stronger than he? No. And now, what about me, empowered by this Lord, comforted by him? What of me?
Am I not, as Paul describes himself, a bond slave? A bond slave to him. He owns me. I am his possession. His will, mine. I have no life but that which I find in his house and before his throne. Jesus is Lord, my Lord and my God. Jesus is your Lord, your Lord and your God. You belong to Him. You are His bond slaves.
In light of all of this, we live as those who give praise unto Him and acknowledge His Lordship in all that we do, in all that we say, in all that we are. Let us pray. Father, discipline us with the knowledge that you are the Lord, as we have confessed. And Father, may we be mindful of the pattern of Lordship, that though all things are yours, you also become the Lord over your people by those things which you accomplish for them. breaking the chains of oppression, setting them free from the powers of sin and death, that truly they might be free indeed. Our God, now we, your bondservants, would serve you, acknowledging your ownership of us as we delight in pleasing you, our God.
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.
This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of “The Name of Jesus Christ” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, January 25, 1987.
About this sermon
‘Christ’ is not a surname but a title: the anointed one, standing in a line of anointed prophets, priests, and kings stretching back through the Old Testament. Paul’s language of corporate anointing in 2 Corinthians 1:21 and John’s in 1 John 2:20 mean believers don’t merely admire that anointing from a distance. It binds them to Christ himself, already in heaven.
For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, even by me and Silvanus and Timothy, was not yea and nay, but in him was yea. For all the promises of God in him are yea and in him amen, unto the glory of God by us. Now, he which establishes us with you in Christ and hath anointed us is God, who hath also sealed us and given us that down payment of the Spirit in our hearts. Moreover, I call God for a record upon my soul, that to spare you I came not as yet on the court. Not for that we have dominion over your we have dominion over your faith, but our helpers of your job or by faith.
And then from first John chapter two. Beginning with. This is 1 John 2, beginning with verse 18. Little children, it is the last time. And as ye have heard that Antichrist shall come even now, there are many Antichrists whereby ye know that it is the last time. They went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us, but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us. But we have an anointing from the Holy One, and ye know all things. I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth. Who is the liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is Antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son Whosoever denieth the Son the same hath not the Father, but he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also.
Let that therefore abide in you which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that he hath promised us. even eternal life. These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you. But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you. But as the same anointed teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, And even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him. And now, little children, abide in him, that when he shall appear we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming. If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him.
Let us pray briefly. Our hearts, Lord, are melted before you. Do place before us out of your word those visions of your coming, our appearance before you, and that that appearance means that we do in fact melt. all of our pretense and show God. But though, Father, we bow before you, it is your intent that we might stand upright, and thus, Lord, by your word you beckon us and grant us assurances concerning our election in and our standing and status before you as sons and daughters of the King. This through Christ. Teach us more and more about our Savior. We would be built up through Him who is our life. Amen.
I decided this morning to take a little break. We have been plowing through Matthew 5, 17 through 20, and looking at the verses that follow there in Matthew 5, we have been plowing through that passage for some time, and it has been a difficult, arduous task. for a breather, not just for myself but for you as well, maybe something a bit simpler so that we can all catch our breath before we dare plunge in again. Just to rehearse things that we know well, things that are familiar to us in our faith, that are good and proper to keep before us, to rehearse so that our faith is kept on track.
At Christmas time, we took up some verses at the end of Matthew 1 and spoke about the naming of the child that was to be born. We concentrated on the angel’s visit to Joseph. We spoke about the name that Joseph was to give the child, and that at the direction of the angel.
You shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. Now there are few verses as magnificent as that to be sure, and I think that you have figured out in keeping with the pattern of things moving through Scripture that name have great significance, so that the name given by the angel to Joseph matches the explanation that the angel then gives of the name or of the child. Jesus means salvation is of the Lord. Salvation is of Jehovah. and it is the New Testament counterpart to the Old Testament name, Joshua.
And I think that you can recall that as we move through that message on the name, we drew the parallels and the contrast between Joshua, the Old Testament figure, and Jesus, the New Testament deliverer. But looking once more at Matthew chapter one. We will note that there is another name. And you knowing me, you’re probably thinking that he’s going to race on to verse twenty three and pick up on Isaiah seven fourteen, the quotation of that passage there and the name Emmanuel. Well, no, I’m not. I’m not going to deal with Emmanuel this morning. Rather, I’m going to focus on the name that is given in the very first verse of the opening of Matthew. Jesus Christ. That name repeated throughout that chapter. In fact, it is mentioned four times. Jesus Christ.
Now, how many of us know what the name Christ means? Well, we’ll all learn a little bit something this morning. I’m reminded of the little child who always thought that Christ was Jesus’ last name. No, it wasn’t his last name. In fact, originally, that word Christ was a title. It doesn’t appear to be that, as we have come to understand it in relationship to the figure of Jesus, but originally it was entitled. The English word Christ comes from a Greek word, Christos, and that Greek word means anointed one, the anointed one, and maybe you’re already ahead of me now, because in thinking of 2 Corinthians 1 and 1 John 2, I came to those portions of the reading where anointing is mentioned, and I expressed them for you, so there was the tip-off with regard to what we were going to be speaking about this morning. The name Christ, or the title, comes from the Greek word christos.
It means the anointed one. Now, it’s come into our vocabulary, and ways with which we are familiar. Maybe some of you have friends that are involved in what we might call the high church, and when there is a baptism and the conferring of a Christian name on a child, it’s called a christening. Well, there’s an anointing. It’s the baptism and the appointment of the name for that child going together. Anointed, or the anointed one. That’s the meaning of the word, the title, Christ.
Well, behind this, of course, there stands a tremendous amount of wealth out of the Old Testament. The Hebrew word, well, I won’t give you the Hebrew word, I’ll give you what we’ve made of the Hebrew word out of the Old Testament, the word that comes to us out of the Old Testament background that informs the New Testament word Christ. is that of Messiah. Signifying precisely the same thing in the Hebrew language, the word Messiah means precisely the same thing that in the Greek language we have derived from the word Christos or Christ. Messiah, then, means the anointed one.
And the marvelous thing is that as we see the full picture laid out for us throughout Scripture, we become aware that this one who is called the Messiah or Messiah, this one who is called the Christ, Christ, he is also the one being anointed who has the power to anoint. The anointed one. Also, the anointer.
Those passages then in second Corinthians and first John become very important for us. This, of course, picked up upon in documents here to the church, like the Heidelberg catechism, even the Westminster catechism, in which it is made plain that we become participants in the anointing that has been conferred upon Christ. become participants with him, the anointed one.
In filling out this idea of Christ, the Messiah, thinking about it as it comes to us out of the riches of the Old Testament, we can think about various figures in Old Testament times who were anointed. We think of how certain individuals within Israel assumed a position within Israel, not of their own choosing. Rather, they were chosen unto those positions and offices were conferred upon them, and they were set apart by an anointing by an ordination. And therefore, they were looked upon as set apart for certain functions and responsibilities, within the life of the people of God. Who comes to mind first with regard to anointing?
Well, if you think of 1 Samuel, you think of the actions of that prophet priest Samuel, that judge, the one who seems to have had every office in Israel. You think immediately of the figure of Saul having been anointed by Samuel for the office of king, the king then. being an anointed office within Israel, the Kings being set apart for their responsibilities and duties. We think of David, how Saul was ruined, how Saul was spoiled through his vanity and through the emptiness that arose within his heart. He even being a premonition of what was in store for Israel as a whole. He being from the least of the tribes, Benjamin, exalted to the top of the heap, and Israel being the least of the nations, exalted to the top of the heap. The story of Israel being played out in her first King Saul. Tragedy upon tragedy.
Samuel going to the house of Jesse at Bethlehem, and there anointing another David, you remember. But what was David’s attitude towards Saul? Do you recall? Here was Saul, the anointed of the Lord. He was set apart by God, ordained. And when David has opportunity to lay his hands upon Saul, to take advantage of Saul’s weakness, he instructs his men, don’t you dare lay your hand against the Lord’s anointing. Very special. The anointed ones set apart.
I might say parenthetically here Do you understand on the background of those actions by David, what is going on in Acts chapter two, when Peter takes on the Jews in Jerusalem? What is the charge that he has laid against the Jewish nation and against the rulers? They, unlike David, have extended their hand against the Lord’s anointed, and they have taken him and executed him. Could there be a more heinous crime on the face of the earth?
Well, the king had that office. He had an anointing in the Old Testament. We see it in Saul and David. We see the sanctity with which then the office is to be viewed. Were there others who had an anointing in the Old Testament? Besides the king, were there others who were going to back up in your Bible, the book of Exodus, the book of Leviticus. I know that you’re ahead of me here.
You’re thinking of the priest, the priest among God’s people. He also was anointed. In fact, the high priest there for a special title, a unique role within Israel’s life for he was described as the only thing it’s almost as if the Old Testament term for Messiah was applied to the priest in a special way. He was the Messiah priest, the anointed priest.
You can see that combination of terms used repeatedly in the book of Leviticus, fourth chapter, third verse, fifth verse, the sixteenth verse, later on in the sixth chapter, the twenty second verse. The role then of the priest. Now, thinking about the king once more, we can. Call to mind the sort of things that that officer was to fulfill, he was to. exercise amongst the people of God, he was to rule, he was to protect with regard to the priest.
What was he to do? What was his office? He was to make sacrifice. He was to mediate between God and man. He was to stand in the breach. He was to teach as well. He was to make sure that the law, the Torah was given to the people and that they had a proper and right understanding of it. With regard to the high priest, he was to Make that unique.
That unique journey year by year into the holy of holies there to place the blood of the lamb of atonement upon the altar so that the sins of the people may be removed. The king and the priest. Offices set apart by anointing. In keeping with what we have seen In relationship to that name, or were the king and the priest, the only offices within Old Testament Israel. There was the profit as well. We don’t have any special instance within Scripture of and anointing of a prophet there is reference made to the anointing of Elisha, but we are not specifically told about an anointing ceremony in which Elisha is set apart or any other problem.
It seems as if the prophetic office was one that arose out of the priesthood and arose for special purposes as the people were in need of a special message from the Lord. The prophets were called out of the priesthood at large, and then they went and declared the message of God in order to call the people back to obedience. They were, in effect, the executors of God’s lawsuit against his people. They, too, of course, were set apart, but they’re setting apart being an extension of that ordination, that anointing that was conferred upon the priest.
But judging from the Old Testament now, thinking about those who bore the anointing in the Old Testament, Saul, David, Aaron, the other priests, even the prophets, are we left as we conclude the Old Testament with an overwhelming sense of the perfection of these offices in the performance of the functions related to them by no means for the king’s stumble and fall.
The king proved unworthy. The king proved to be men filled with weakness, overcome by David himself, the greatest among them, not being an exception. And what of the priest? Will they fare any better than Aaron, who was at the head of the priestly order in Israel. You remember how Aaron fell, how he stumbled, how he led the people into sin? No. Beyond Aaron, they look for one greater.
Beyond the sons of Aaron, there must be one who will come whose priesthood is perfect without sin, one who need not make atonement for his own sin, one who is in himself. sinless. A greater king yet. One whose rule does not fail, one whose protective interest in us does not fall by the wayside. A priest and a king who is perfect, and a prophet, a prophet who teaches the fullness of the reality of God’s presence and the blessings of his kingdom. Yes, the Old Testament As the people of God are looking forward to one who will perfectly fulfill his ordination, perfectly keep his office. The one who in his anointed anointing does not disappoint the Lord, the one who is perfect king, perfect priest, perfect prophet. So it is that the stage is set for the coming of the Messiah, not a Messiah, not just another anointed one, but the Messiah. So intimately now is Jesus attached to this hope of Israel that the article, the, drops away, no longer the title, it becomes a name, for there is no other Messiah, but Jesus, none.
There is no other King. There is no other priest. There is no other profit. But Jesus. Jesus Christ. Or as Paul says often. Christ Jesus. Truly. The anointed. You can think of the story of his ordination is anointing. It’s recorded for you in Matthew three and other places in Scripture. He is baptized in the Jordan, and what an ordination it was. Grander than that of Aaron, grander than that of Saul or even David. Here you see the anointed one, the hope of Israel, the fulfillment of all their expectations, the one who is going to overcome the deficiencies that are in the past. the spirit of the devil on. The heavens break apart and the voice of this is. In whom I am well. The ordination. The ordination the anointing of Jesus. The Messiah the Christ.
But as I said, and intimated to you at the beginning, our focus was to be on 2 Corinthians 1 and 1 John 2, the fact that this one who is the anointed is the anointer, and that you have now been blessed with an anointing yourself. Think of those passages, run through them in your mind. The 1st, 2nd Corinthians 1 passage there pertains to the unity of the people of God and the integrity of the servant that Paul is as he endeavors to minister to these Corinthians. And the fact that he with them share a common anointing and there is this bond between them so that, by root of this anointing, the Apostle is not set apart from them, nor they from him, but they together are set apart by God, they sharing an anointing. Here, the unity of the people of God underscore.
Now, he who establishes us with you in Christ and anointed us is God, who has also sealed us, the inclusive pronoun. and gave us the spirit in our hearts of the pledge of down payment and earn of the inheritance that is out the commonality of this anointing that and isn’t that what is emphasized in first John two where John is so bold as to say you received an anointing and by that anointing you know all things.
We might be thinking here that this anointing in mind by John, as he speaks of it, and possibly the anointing that’s in view here in 2 Corinthians, pertains specifically to the prophetic role, that we have a knowledge of things that are hidden from the world. That is true. That is true. The focus is upon those things that are made known to us and in us, and we all have that anointing, from the least of us to the greatest of his from the smallest, the youngest to the oldest.
It is an anointing that comes upon us, given to us by God through Jesus Christ, the anointed one. We, the anointed ones as well, and by the anointing, we know all things. Primarily, we know eternal life. And by virtue of that, we become those who are able to make assessments of all things. the eternal life that has been given to us. Is life a mystery? Is life confusing? Is life a distress to you?
You will not understand it by standing on the earth and looking up. The only way that you can understand life is by standing in heaven and looking down. And it’s precisely that vantage point that your anointing gives you. You have to stand in heaven and look down. You have to begin with eternal life to understand life. This anointing, which we share in Christ, therefore gives us a vantage point in the risen, exalted Christ in heaven.
And by virtue of that, we too have become kings. Do you not know that you will judge angels? I didn’t make that up. Paul wrote that to the Corinthians. Do you not know that you will judge angels? By your anointing, you are a priest. You become an intercessor for others. There is the priesthood of all believers. You become a priest in that you are a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable under God, offering up yourself to Him, which is your proper, right, spiritual labor. And you are prophets. You are prophets as well. your life becoming a declaration of the excellence of God.
One final thought. We’ve spoken about what Christ means. Messiah. The Old Testament background, prophet, priest, and king. New Testament fulfillment in Christ. We’ve spoken about how you are Those who participate in the anointing of Christ, you have been anointed as well. But do you see now that the very thing that David said about Saul and the very thing that Peter pressed upon the people in Jerusalem with regard to Christ is pressed before the world with regard to you?
How dare the world reach forth its hand and lay its hand upon you, the Lord’s Son? How dare them? You are the apple of the Lord’s eye. How precious in the sight of the Lord are the death of his saints. Oh, woe to the world that in its presumptive pride and arrogance and utter stupidity it would reach forth its hand to do violence against the Lord’s might. Your vindication is clear and certain. Throughout the world, you can be confident of this, that the Lord’s people shall indeed be saved and vindicated because they have received the anointing and God will protect them and execute justice in their behalf.
Let us pray. Father, for us to call Jesus Christ, what does it mean for us to do that? But to acknowledge that he is the anointed one, the one supremely and specifically, especially set apart as our king, as our priest, as our prophet. And that by root of his sacrifice, by root of his ministry for us, we too have received an anointing. and an anointing father that binds us together in unity, that proclaims to us that yes, we know all things from the vantage point of eternal life, that we have become kings and priests and prophets unto you through him, and that we are secure, for not even the world can stretch forth its hand against us and think that it shall escape your righteous judgment. Father, we pray that therefore we might lie down at night in peace and security and arise in the morning with the song of deliverance upon our lips.
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.
This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of “The Name of Jesus Christ” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, December 28, 1986.
About this sermon
Joseph’s dream and the debated meaning of Isaiah 7:14 both converge on a single claim: the name Jesus is the same name as Joshua, and it means the same thing here. Isaiah’s own sign, the remnant child Shear-jashub, already anticipates a salvation that comes through apparent weakness rather than visible strength. The name itself, read this way, is already a sermon.
Isaiah chapter 7, also in Matthew chapter 1, starts with Isaiah chapter 7. Now it came about in the days of Ahaz, the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, the king of Judah, that Rezzan, king of Syria, and Pekah, the son of Ramaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but could not conquer it.
When it was reported to the house of David, saying, Syria has camped in Ephraim, His heart and the hearts of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake with the wind. Then the Lord said to Isaiah, Go out now to meet Ahaz, you and your son, Shir Jeshu, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the fuller’s field. And say to him, Take care, be calm, have no fear, and do not be fainthearted because of these two stubs of smoldering firebrands, on account of the fierce anger of Rezan and Syria and the son of Remeliah. Because Syria, with Ephraim and the son of Remeliah, has planned evil against you, saying, Let us go up against Judah and terrorize it and make for ourselves a breach in its walls and set up the son of Tabeo, as king in the midst of it.
Thus says the Lord God, it shall not stand, nor shall it come to pass. For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezan. Now within sixty-five years, Ephraim will be shattered, so that it is no longer a people. and the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is the son of Remelion.
If you will not believe, you surely shall not last. Then the Lord spoke again to Ahaz, saying, Ask a sign for yourself from the Lord your Make it as deep as Sheol, and as high as heaven. But Ahaz said, I will not ask, nor will I test the Lord. Then he said, Listen now, O house of David, is it too slight a thing for you to try the patience of men, that you will try the patience of my God as well?
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a son. Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call his name Immanuel. And he will eat curds and honey at the time he knows enough to refuse evil and choose good. For before the boy will know enough to refuse evil and choose good, the land whose two kings you dread will be forsaken.”
The Lord will bring on you, on your people, and on your father’s house such days as have never come since the day that Ephraim separated from Judah, the king of Assyria. And it will come about in that day that the Lord will whistle for the fly that is in the remotest part of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria. And they will all come. and settle on the steep ravines, on the ledges of the cliffs, on all the thorn bushes, and on all the watering places.”
And then to Matthew 1, verse 18, “…Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph before they came together, she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. And Joseph, her husband being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, desired to put her away secretly. But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, Do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for that which has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit, and she will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. For it is he who will save his people from their sins.” Now, all this took place that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet might be fulfilled, saying, The Virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel, which translated means God with us. And Joseph arose from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him, and took her as his wife, and kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a son, and he called his name Jesus.
Our Father, you have demonstrated your love for us and you have bared your might, your mighty arm before the nations. It is therefore your power by which your glory is manifest, that power constraining men before that glory that they may honor you, that they might turn from their ways of sin and embrace the truth and the fullness of righteousness that is found with you alone. O Lord, may that power unto the glory be manifest in us. And Father, we ask that we servants of yours may ascribe all strength to our God. This we pray through Christ, amen.
I’ve backed up from Isaiah 51 for this evening, basically for one reason, and that is that I preached a half a sermon this past Wednesday night? Or was it that I preached half a text? You may recall, those of you who were present, that I did preach on the opening chapter of Matthew’s gospel the latter verses of that chapter, verses 18 and following. And in that message, we took up the matter of the revelation that had come to Joseph, and we spoke about the significance of that revelation.
We talked about it along the lines that this Joseph as unpretentious as he may appear, is of the royal line. He is the son of David, and the promises that have been made to David are coming to reside in him and upon him. So he becomes the focal point for those promises made of old. But not only do we see in Joseph, then, the culmination of all of that royal power, all of that glorious splendor, again, however unpretentiously.
Nevertheless, we see in him as well the fullness of all that has preceded prophetically. the significance of the dream, that vehicle for the revelation to Joseph. You know, in those Old Testament times, the Lord, at specific periods, revealed his word, to his own through the vehicle of the dream. Thus, in the patriarchal period, at the initiation of God’s dealings with the nation of Israel, and also at its conclusion, for in the latter prophets you hear repeatedly about a prophet being carried away in the night visions so as to see the unveiling of the purpose of God. So from beginning to end, in the dream revelation to Joseph, the fullness of the prophetic word has come to rest. To what end?
Of course, to give light in the present circumstance that Joseph might know what to do concerning his predicament, that he might understand however obliquely, that he might understand the nature of this event that is taking place, and that he might bestow upon the child the proper name, the name Jesus. And you recall that as we talked about the name Jesus, we pointed out that this name, as it appears in the New Testament, is merely a transferal of an Old Testament name, namely, Joshua. A name which means salvation is of the Lord. And from that point we went on to compare the Old Testament, Joshua, and his administration with the one who now appears. You know how it goes. The administration of Moses is an incomplete and defective administration. It gives way to another. Moses cannot lead the children of Israel into the land of promise. He can only view it from afar.
And as the administration of Moses gives way to that Old Testament Joshua, so Moses and Joshua reach out beyond themselves to something greater. For the ultimate deliverance and the final inheritance are not bequeathed through either Moses or Joshua. They wait another day. The imperfection of course of that older administration, be it Moses, be it Joshua, is brought before you in the continuing administration of the temple rites and those things that take place on the altar of Israel. A continual reminder of sin. Moses and the law does not deliver you from sin. neither does Joshua and his army. Rather, salvation from sin waits a latter-day Joshua. He shall save his people from their sins.
And that is the focus of that Well, that’s half a sermon, or half a text. Because, you see, after we are told these things by Matthew, he goes on to add his own commentary, invoking a passage out of Isaiah chapter seven. to speak even more pointedly about the significance of the child who has come. You know the passage well, but as you take stock of that passage and you run back to chapter 7 in Isaiah and read verse 14 in its context, you may end up a bit confused and bewildered, not quite understanding what Matthew is doing here as he makes use of Isaiah 7 verse 14. Well, you want to look at Isaiah 7 one more time? I know that you’ve looked at it many times before.
But let’s take stock of it once again, and from that point, think on what Matthew has in mind as he makes reference to this chapter and that fourteenth verse in light of what has happened to Mary and what is going on with regard to Joseph. It can be said that Isaiah 714 is one of the most hotly debated passages in all of Scripture. And what is the nature of the debate? Well, it seems that the nature of the debate is twofold.
First of all, Does Isaiah really mean to say a virgin? Or does he merely mean to say a young man? If you have the New American Standard, you can check in the marginal notes and you will see that the New American Standard at least has suggested that there is an alternate reading for the word virgin it could well as it could well be young men for me. Problem number one. Problem number two.
Does Isaiah really have in view the birth of the Messiah? Does he have in view a coming deliverer? of the proportions that we now have before us in the figure of Jesus from Nazareth. Is the figure, therefore, one who is coming yet later on? Or is this figure one who is to appear within Israel, within Jerusalem, immediately?
Those are the problems for the passage. But in order to answer these problems, to review them, to put them in perspective, it may be well for us to take stock of the chapter as a whole. For this prophecy, it is that we can grant that much This prophecy appears in the midst of an extremely dramatic setting.
We are now beyond the days of the great King Uzziah. We are past the days of Jotham. We are now in the period of the reign of Ahaz. Judah and Jerusalem, its capital, are under siege, and they are being besieged by the ten northern tribes, believe it or not, by their countrymen, who have been joined in alliance by the Syrians, the Syrians led by Reza. Ahaz, as we have said, and does he ever?
His name. His name means possessor. And we might well think of that name positively, as that one who is the possessor of the throne of David, the one in whom there can be seen yet that pattern of promise. That one in whom there can be seen the pattern of one yet to come, who shall be the possessor of all. But Ahaz has perverted everything, including the significance of his name, for he has become a possessor in a very profane sense. Everything, he says, everything is mine, is mine. And it is mine by right. He is therefore a particularly irreligious and vain man. He believes not in God, but himself.
Nevertheless, he does sit on David’s throne, and in him you can yet see the form of the bearer of promise, and God proved to his promises and recognizing even in this profane one that pattern sends to him the prophet. The prophet comes to preach. He preaches in a number of ways. He preaches through the message of the son who walks beside him. The child’s name is Shir Yishuv, and the name means a remnant shall return, and the child then becomes the embodiment of hope. He is a walking, living, breathing prophet before the face of Israel, before the face of a king. But there comes as well the message from the prophet. of grand and glorious encouragement. Gospel, if you will. Good news is preached to Ahab. Take care. Be calm. Have no fear. Don’t be fainthearted because of these two stubs of smoldering fire.
On account of these who have come up against Their counsel shall not stand. Their plots and their devices shall not come to pass. Those who lead are but men, and their kingdoms shall be laid waste. If you will not believe, says Isaiah to Ahaz, Surely you cannot stand.” Ahaz, of course, doesn’t believe, and that is precisely what is explained in the verses that follow. For now, God sends his prophet again. And this time, the king is invited to ask a sign of God. Who has ever been invited to ask for a sign of God? The Ahaz is. He is invited to ask a sign of God that what God has promised will in fact come to pass.
But Ahaz objects, and in his objection there is the adamant rejection of this invitation extended by God extraordinarily to him. Don’t be deceived by Ahaz’s remarks. His remarks are no mark of piety. They are the testimony to unbelief. that he is an unbeliever through and through.
I am, after all, the possessor. If I ask the sign of this God and God grants it, then I am placed in his depth and the true nature of my being is made plain. I dare not have a sign from God. Besides, I am my own sign. But the Lord gives the sign anyway. Now hang with me through the sign.
The sign given here, in which a child is named, will match the significance of the child that accompanied Isaiah to begin with, that child that is mentioned back in verse 3, Shir Yishun. How are we to understand the significance of Isaiah’s son in the context here at the beginning of the chapter? Stay with me now.
You see, that child has multiple applications. There is the circumstance in which Judah now presently finds herself. It is a situation in which she is not facing exile, but rather the ten northern tribes are imminently facing that exile. And into the midst of that, there comes this child, the son of the prophet, named Shir Yishuv, as a promise of the return of a remnant, the faithfulness of God. God indeed shall accomplish His word. You can count on that. But in the current circumstance of Judah and Jerusalem, there is yet the future realization that this child signals God’s faithfulness to the end.
Beyond the experience of the deportation of the ten northern tribes, there shall be the deportation of the two southern tribes. And in that circumstance, no less than the former, there shall be a remnant that is preserved. A remnant shall return. Now, that multiple application is going to be the key that unlocks the door to the significance of the child named in verse fourteen.
For that child as well will have multiple applications. Is there then a maid in Jerusalem during the days of Ahaz who conceives, gives birth, Is there a little boy named Emmanuel running through the streets of the city? Yes. Yes. There is such a name. And there is such a boy. And that maid and that boy become the testimony to Ahaz and to Jerusalem. of God’s mighty faithfulness, and that they can trust in Him. You see what is said, and why this interpretation is correct?
If you follow on from verses 14 into verses 15 and following, We note there what is said about Emmanuel. He will eat curds and honey, that is, he will eat the food of prosperity, even though this is a time of distress, remember. He will eat the food of prosperity at the time he knows enough to refuse evil and choose good, before he even comes to what has been called the age of discretion, he shall be eating fine food, and the present distress and trauma will have passed. Current events in the day of Ahab?
You can bet on it. But go on. For before the boy, verse will know enough to refuse evil and choose good the land whose two kings you dread will be forsaken current event in the time of Ahaz you can bet on it the promise here therefore made pertains to the current situation in Jerusalem It pertains to the circumstances of the Kingdom at that time. But is that all? Is that all?
By no means, for just as was the case with Shir Yashur, so it is with Immanuel. The significance of this child as well shall reach out beyond the events of the days of to events and times yet future, when they shall receive for themselves a fulfillment that wasn’t even contemplated at the time they were given. So full will be the fulfillment that it will overflow the expectations of the people, no No little child named Emmanuel running through the streets, but literally God with us Himself comes to save us from our sins. And that’s what grips Matthew. That’s what he sees. He goes rushing back to Isaiah. His contemporaries never saw it. And those who lived in the days of Ahaz never saw it either. But now he sees it clearly.
And how appropriate. How appropriate. For you see, Ahaz was the epitome of arrogance and pride, power, flame for himself. But the shame of this vain man the Lord chooses a maiden and a child utterly powerless no strength at all and they become the sign of the kingdom of glory where will you look for God with us. Will you look for him in the corridors of power, where men grapple with one another in order to gain the advantage, where each is a possessor of his own right and for his own sake, a grasper a grabber. Lord, you perceive God with us after the pattern of that which God has made plain. A mere maid, no more. A virgin, one without power at all. How will she conceive? It is impossible! A child, what can he do?
Yet they rule. They rule. In them, though weak, the power of God is perfected. Now what about you? Surely you understand the distinctiveness of the child who has come, the uniqueness of this Emmanuel announced by Matthew. No simple latter-day Joshua, this one truly God with us. deliberately appearing to remove sin. For us, his people. But you take stock of his people, and I’m here talking about his people truly. I’m not talking about those who pretend to be his people. I’m not talking about the church that is after the order of Ahaz, the possessor. the graspers and the grabbers those who like to strut before the world and enjoy being noticed even in their good deeds forever telling their rights what their left hand is doing and making sure that CBS knows about it too I am talking about the little flock.
When it takes stock of itself, it says, what power have we? When it looks upon the condition of its life and circumstance, how can any good come from us, is its confession. We are without strength. Our weakest in our midst is our strongest. We are no stronger than the littlest child. We have no more power than… I am almost embarrassed to say this. We have no more power than the women among us.
But you see that precisely in the pattern of the child and the pattern of the woman that the power is perceived, and the glory of God is revealed. Your weak mission efforts, how can this be the testimony to Emmanuel, God with us? Our feeble efforts at church discipline, how can this be the manifestation of God within, yet we are told.”
And that pointedly, in Matthew’s Gospel, precisely in those circumstances, Emmanuel makes his presence known himself. “…where two or three are gathered together in my name.” There I am in the midst. Matthew 18, 20. Did you know that that’s a passage about church discipline, not about little two- and three-membered prayer groups? Don’t be afraid, little flock. But go. Disciple the nation. baptize them, teach them, everything that I’ve commanded, love. Emmanuel, I am with you, even to the end of the age. Well, that’s the other half of the sermon.
Or, the other half of the text. with his Emmanuel prophecy speaking of circumstances in his own day but that word reaching out beyond its own time to signify those things yet to be accomplished and accomplished in full amazingly in full in the birth of Christ and in what he now has made his people to be praise his name let’s pray Our Father, let us never find ourselves in the household of unbelief. Let us not find ourselves in the edifice of arrogance over which Ahaz and his like preside. Rather, may we be of the company that is found under the instruction of the Prophet in the company of his child, Shir Y’shuv, and also in the presence of that sign given to Jerusalem, Little Emmanuel. But more than Isaiah, more than his son, more than a little child in Jerusalem in the 8th century BC, we, our God, are those who’ve been made new, refreshed, restored, recreated, by the power of our God who in this latter day has come to us in the child Jesus by whom our sins have been removed for a greater inheritance above with you forever our father though we may be shaken may we still remember the lessons of Emmanuel. And Lord, though we be small and weak, may we remember the Virgin and the Child. We pray these things in His name, Jesus, our Emmanuel. 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.
