Sermon Tone Analysis

! Introduction:

A.                Evidence For the Deity of Jesus Christ

 

It is important to study the nature of Jesus Christ because basically Christianity is all about Christ!

In looking at this, the deity of Christ, one may ask “Why is it important to believe that Jesus Christ is truly God?  There’s other religious groups that seem to be good people, or seem to have good strong families, but yet they don’t believe in the “deity of Christ.”

Well, Jesus said this in John 17:3:

 

/“And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”/

/ /

·         In order to possess eternal life, in order to be in God’s eternal kingdom one must first of all know God the Father & then also know Jesus Christ the one God has sent.

And if someone believes that Jesus Christ is less than God is then they do not truly know Him, and they do not have eternal life.

So it’s not a debatable subject, it’s not something that someone can choose to believe or reject.

In order to be saved in order to possess eternal life one must fully agree that Jesus Christ is Lord that He is God, not a created being, not less than the Father but equal with the Father.

One must know Christ by experience, not just head knowledge, /Matt.

7:21-23/

Eternal life is God’s free gift to those who believe on His Son,

/John 3:15, 16, 36; 6:47; 10:28; 14:6; Acts 4:12;  Rom.

5:8; 1 Peter 3:18; Rom 10:9-10; Rev. 3:20; Eph.

2:8-9; Titus 3:5/

“Faith comes by hearing the Word of God” /Rom.

10:17/

It is not just enough to believe, /James 1:19/

/Give Example/ of “a bomb being in this room” & “a helicopter letting down a rope to a man to rescue him”

 

·         John 1:1:

Here John starts off the gospel in showing the nature and character of Jesus Christ that He has always been with God, He has eternally been with the Father, and that He is God.

Yes it is true that He is a separate person than the Father but He is the eternal God as well.

/What is the importance of Christ’ “preexistence?” //(He existed before His birth)// /

 

1.

/At Birth - /If Christ came into existence at His birth then no eternal trinity exists, Christ does not possess full deity.

2.

/Not God - /If Christ was not eternally existent then He could not be God.

God is eternal.

3.      /A Liar - /If Christ was not preexistent then He lied, because He claimed to be.

Then the question arises, “what else did He lie about?”

 

/The Evidence for Christ’ Preexistence/

/ /

1.      /His Heavenly Origin - /His heavenly origin ~*John 3:13, 31 cf.

6:38

2.      /His Works as Creator - /If Christ was involved in creating, then He had to exist before creation – (John 1:3; Col. 1:16; Heb.

1:2)

3.      /His Relationship With God – /He claimed equality of nature with God, (John 10:30), He claimed equal glory with the Father before the world began (John 17:5), and Paul also claimed that Christ had the same nature as God (Philippians 2:6).

4.      /His Relationship with John the Baptist –/ Though John was before Jesus, John acknowledged that Jesus existed before him (John 1:15, 30) – Literal translation “First of me.”

 

/The Meaning and Evidence of Christ’ Eternality /

 

·         Not only did Christ exist before His birth or even before creation but that He existed always, eternally.

/The Evidence for Christ’ Eternality/

/ /

/Hebrews 1:3 – “express image” /indicates that Christ is the exact representation of God’s nature or “essence.”

/John 3:13 cf.

John 6:38 – Bethlehem cannot of been his beginning – (John 1:3 – “all things were made through Him” cf. 1 Cor.

8:6).

/

/ /

/The Old Testament Proof for Eternality/

/ /

/Micah 5:2; Is. 9:6; John 8:58/

 

/The Extent of the Pre-incarnate Christ as Creator/

/ /

·         He was involved in the creation of all things (John 1:3; Col. 1:16; Heb.

1:2)

 

/The Purpose of It/

/ /

·         All things were created for Him (Col.

1:16)

·         He holds all things together (Col.

1:17)

 

Jehovah’s Witnesses Mistranslation of John 1:1

  

The Jehovah’s Witnesses insert the letter “a” meaning that Jesus Christ is less that the Father.

/Mante, a Greek scholor, in commenting on this “mistranslation” of the Bible, he said, “It is a grossly misleading translation of this verse.

What this verse is saying is that Jesus Christ has been, always will be, and throughout eternity, is God.”/

The NWT of John 1:1

 

The Jehovah’s Witnesses have mistranslated /verse 1 /in the last part where they say,/ “and the Word was /“a god.”

They insert the letter /“a”/ meaning that Jesus Christ is /less than the Father.

/

/ /

The Inconsistency of the NWT

Let one examine these passages where the article is not used with /theos/ and see if the rendering ‘a god’ makes sense (Matt.

5:9; 6:24; Lk. 1:35-78; 2:40; John 1:6, 12, 13, 18; 3:2, 21; 9:16, 33; Romans 1:7, 17, 18; 1 Cor.

1:30; 15:10; Phil.

2:11, 13; Titus 1:1).

·         /The New Treasury of Scripture Knowledge /points out, “translators and translations which choose to render this phrase ‘a god’ or ‘divine’ are motivated by theological, not grammatical, considerations.

/ /

·         Their translation or /“mistranslation” /of verse one of Johns gospel is a /“perversion/ /to distort”/ the true teaching about Jesus and His deity.

·         The Watchtower Society consistently misrepresents what various scholars have said about John 1:1.

Having done so, we must then emphasize that the /“polytheistic”/ teaching that there is both a “God Almighty” /and / a lesser “mighty god” goes against the clear teaching of Scripture that there is only one true God (John 17:3; 1 Timothy 2:5).

/Passages From the Old Testament/

-Deuteronomy 32:39; Isaiah 43:10; Isaiah 44:8; Isaiah 45:8

 

________/Ask . .

./_______________________________________________________

·         How do you reconcile Jehovah-God’s statement in Deuteronomy 32:39 that “there is /no god /besides me” ---- as well as His statement in Isaiah 45:5 that “besides Me there is /no God/” ---- with the Watchtower teaching that there is both a “God Almighty” /and /a “mighty god”?

 

 

 

·         John 20:28

Jesus is fully God according to the Apostle John in the first verse of his gospel, and as he get to the end of his gospel he hasn’t changed his mind as he records the words of Thomas when Thomas encounters the risen Lord.

/“Then He said to Thomas, "Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side.

Do not be unbelieving, but believing."

And Thomas answered and said to Him, "My Lord and my God!"   Jesus said to him, "Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed.

Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."

/(John 20:27-29 NKJV)

 

·         Verse 28 literally reads in the Greek “The Lord of me and the God of me.”

 

·         NWT /“oh my God”/  Thomas was making an emotional exclamation that was directed to Jehovah God

* *

*_____**/Ask . .

._________________________________________________________/*

*/ /*

·         If Thomas was just expressing surprise at seeing the risen Christ, wouldn’t his words be equivalent to taking God’s name in vain?

(Acts 14:11-15)

/Jews of the first century believed that any careless use of God’s name amounted to blasphemy.

/

 

·         If Thomas took God’s name in vain in the presence of Jesus, don’t you think Jesus would have rebuked him?

Instead, Jesus commended Thomas for finally coming to believe He was who He said He was.

·         What precisely was it that Thomas /“believed,” /according to 20:28?

The obvious answer is that Thomas had finally come to believe that Jesus was /“Lord” /and /“God.”/

·         Psalm 35:23 /“My Lord” /and /“My God”/ is used of Yahweh.

/OTHER TESTIMONIES/

·         /John the Baptist (John 1:34/

·         /Nathaneal (John 1:49)/

·         /Jesus (John 5:25; 10:36)/

·         /Peter (John 6:69)/

·         /Martha (John 11:27)/

·         /John Himself (John 20:30-31)/

/ /

/DIALOGUE BETWEEN  a “CHRISTIAN” AND  a “JEHOVAH’S WITNESS”/

/ /

/CHRISTIAN: /According to John 17:3, how many true God’s are there?

/JW:/ Only one, Jehovah Father is the /“only true God.” /

/ /

/CHRISTIAN: /Quite right.

Now would you agree that whatever is not true is false?

/JW: /I suppose so.

/CHRISTIAN: /Then if there is only one true God then all other god’s must be false god’s right?

/JW: /Yes

 

/CHRISTIAN: /Now according to John 1:1 in the New World Translation, Jesus is a god.

Do you agree with that?