-Transcript-
00:34 Amen. Glory to God. Welcome back to KJV Cafe.
00:41 I say welcome back because maybe you’ve listened before. If not, then welcome for the first time. Here we are today looking at a very important scriptural principle in the Bible, and that is that Jesus and God are one.
00:55 Jesus and God are one. Yeah, maybe you knew that, but do you often think of it as you read about Jesus?
01:04 Think about it. We see God in the Old Testament, amen, pictured in a cloud, in fire, through angels, through series of angels, all kinds of things.
01:17 Animals talk. There’s a lot going on in the Old Testament when it comes to God speaking, right? The supernatural is normal. And then in the New Testament, we see God often pictured through Christ, amen, because He is God, amen.
01:35 And now you can kind of flip it on its head and say that that’s all a picture of Christ in the Old Testament because we know the entire Bible points to Jesus Christ.
01:45 And so we’re going to look at that a little bit and help us understand just who Christ is and who Father God is, and then by virtue of that, who the Holy Spirit is.
01:54 John 12:44-45, Jesus cried and said, he that believeth on me, believeth not on me, but on him that sent me.
02:03 And he that seeth me, seeth him that sent me. All right, what a very simple, succinct passage of scripture here. So Jesus cried.
02:16 I imagine he screamed it loud in front of a crowd here in John 12. This is after he’d rode in on the donkey, amen, would be kind of that Palm Sunday approach, getting ready for his passion.
02:35 This is around the time of that final Passover before Jesus Christ gives himself willingly on the cross, dies for the sins of humanity, for sins of you, mine, all of our sins, amen.
02:46 And as he’s preparing for this, he’s giving out last bits of information that we can take and use to understand who he is and why he did this.
02:57 In this very chapter, he mentions that it’s not something he wants to do, but it’s the whole reason that he came. And so we’re getting to the climax, the conclusion of Jesus Christ’s earthly ministry.
03:10 And we see in John 12 that Jesus cried, he yelled out and said, in front of this crowd of Pharisees, of disciples, all of mixed multitude, I imagine, he that believeth on me, believeth not on me, but on him that sent me.
03:22 Who sent him? That’d be Father God sent him, right? And he that seeth me, seeth him that sent me. So if we see Jesus, we’re not seeing Jesus, we’re seeing Father God, right?
03:36 And so what we see here is we have God, the Father, God, the Son, God, the Holy Ghost, that’s the Trinity.
03:48 And the first part of the Trinity, God, the Father is the one that sent Jesus. But beyond just sending Jesus, what Jesus is saying is that he embodies Jesus, that he is God, amen. We understand that Jesus was from the beginning.
04:02 A lot of people look at Jesus through the scope, I believe, I’m just, maybe I’m guessing this, I won’t say a lot of people, but I’m guessing or assuming a lot of people look at Jesus as one that lived on through his earthly ministry,
04:23 and then was raised, resurrected, but they’re not looking to the beginning. And Jesus actually was there way before his earthly ministry. He was there.
04:23 In fact, the Pharisees were furious about this one. Scribes and the Pharisees are accusing Jesus, and he says, you know, he was greater than Abraham. And they said, well, you’re not even 50.
04:35 How could you know Abraham? And he was saying before Abraham, I am as he was. John 1:1-3 explains this. In the beginning was the Word, capital W, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
04:47 The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made. This scripture is incredibly powerful.
04:58 I thank God for the book of John. Amen. It is an incredible book.
05:04 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Well, who is the Word? Well, that’s Jesus. And you say, well, I thought the Word is my Bible.
05:14 You’re correct. And what is the Word all about in the Bible? It’s all about Jesus. And so the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, okay?
05:23 So you have two people here, right? People, okay, two spirits, amen? Two spirits, but they are the same.
05:31 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. You know, I prayed about this. I said, Lord, please help me differentiate between God the Father and Jesus the Son.
05:44 I kind of laugh, because I believe the Lord is sitting up there saying, you can’t. Jesus was the human embodiment of God, but he is God, amen.
05:49 And throughout scripture, throughout earthly ministry, Jesus is proclaiming, I am God. I do what God calls me to do.
06:04 I’m obedient to God. I’m not going to judge you, right? The Word is going to judge you, amen. Matter of fact, John 46 through 50 gets into that. I come a light into the world that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness.
06:39 If any man hear my words and believe not, I judge him not, for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. He that rejecteth me receiveth not my words. Hath one that judges him the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.
06:44 So you have this synergy between God the Father, God the Son, the embodiment of them in the Word, amen, who is Christ, amen.
06:49 And then you have the Holy Spirit, which we get later on after Christ completes his passion, and he says, no longer I’m going to be here with you, you know, in the earthly sense, so I’ll send one to you, the Comforter, amen.
07:02 And so that’s how we get the Holy Spirit. But we have to understand that Jesus and God, they’re one, that Jesus is doing the will of the Father. And we see that in the beginning, Jesus was with God.
07:16 So what does that mean? Did Jesus create the earth? Yes. Did Jesus, did he create everything that we see today? Yes. Was he involved in all the things that happened, the wind, the snow, all the natural elements, all the creation, all the animals, all of these things? Yes.
07:42 All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made, you see? So it’s fascinating in a way that the depth of this, I feel like I could explain this to my young children, you know, four or five years old, and say, okay,
07:59 and we try to, you know, and then my son will say, two gods. I’ll say, no, three gods, but one, you know, three in one. And so they’re getting it.
08:11 They understand that Jesus is God, and then they understand that God is in heaven. And so we’re learning this for the kids. And so it’s simple enough.
08:18 Kids can understand it, but it’s so complex. I feel like I could spend a lifetime trying to explain it or even researching it and not fully understand it, amen.
08:31 And to this day, we know that Christ will come again, amen? And that when he comes again, we will be, those that are saved, amen, we’ll be with him, called up with him, amen, in the rapture.
08:40 If we have not passed away, if we’ve not died, and we will, if we’ve died, then, you know, the dead in Christ shall rise first.
08:47 So what we called up anyways, we’ll get up there and be with the Lord, and we can ask him, you know, and get that full take from him. But it is so fascinating.
08:57 And the reason why I wanted to bring this up is, if we look at Jesus Christ, and we look at, if we’re spending a lot of time in the New Testament, as many Christians do, are we looking at every word and every action as that of God?
09:12 Or are we reading it as a character in the Bible, right? And so when Jesus explains, for example, what mercy is, and I preached on that Sunday morning about the idea of showing that mercy and that love towards another that could do nothing for you, right?
09:32 When Jesus explains that parable to that lawyer that was tempting him, do we look at that parable and say, okay, this is God instructing us on how we are to show mercy to others?
09:44 Or do we look at it as this is just scripture that would be good for a postcard, or good for a devotional, and that’s it, and leave it on the shelf? You know, I think we need to start looking at Jesus Christ as God and start looking at the words, that red letter text in our Bible, in a new light to start understanding that these are the words of God, amen.
10:07 And I know, as a student of the Bible, that our doctrine, we get that from the Pauline epistles, amen? And that it’s by grace alone, through faith alone, and Jesus Christ alone.
10:19 And that during Jesus’ earthly ministry, he was ministering to who? The Jews, amen? And the time of the Gentiles came, that’s when Paul became the apostle to the Gentiles.
10:30 But guess who Paul met on the road to Damascus? Jesus, amen? And Jesus counseled him and showed him what he had to do, amen.
10:35 And Jesus presumably walked with Paul through the working of the Holy Spirit, through all of those epistles. So even the Pauline doctrine is all inspired by Jesus Christ and is all meant to point us to Jesus Christ.
10:51 And as we understand the deity of Jesus Christ, we can better understand what God is calling us to do. You know, bringing it from a theological level, like we’re trying to learn what this says, to a practical level, as in how do we apply it?
11:04 What do we do with this information? You know, what does it say for all that we see Jesus do and say in the Bible? You know, what does it say to us in terms of how we live?
11:16 If God chose Jesus to save us and to die for us so we can live, you know, how can we take that and move forward with it? You know, how does our behavior toward Christ show God the Father our love?
11:34 You know, because the Bible says that there is only—it’s only by Jesus that we are to come to the Father, that that sheepfold has one door, and that if we don’t go through the door, which is Jesus, we’re trying to climb up the wall, then we are doing it like a thief.
11:49 We’re inappropriately trying to enter, amen? And that’s going to end really badly.
11:54 And so I think that we must understand that the best thing we can do to please Father God is to love the Son, Jesus, and to take Him at His word and say that they are one and the same.
12:06 And then that says, well, what does God care about? You know, what does God want us to do with this information? Well, He cares about souls, amen? He wants souls saved.
12:17 That brings glory and honor to God because you were taking that gospel message, which means good news, and you were giving it to others, and you were winning others to Him through that word, amen, and through maybe your testimony and what God’s done for you.
12:33 And so understanding that, yes, we can call Jesus God, and He is our Savior, and there is a God the Father, amen.
12:38 And there is also the Holy Spirit working within us, and that is the three-in-one Godhead, that Holy Trinity. And what we can do is we can tell others about God and explain to others how we can maybe not differentiate between God the Father, God the Son, because we’re saying they’re different,
12:57 but what we can do is say, okay, God the Father sent God the Son as His only begotten, and then God the Son, when He died on the cross for our sins, and we accept that death and that resurrection, amen,
13:12 we accept that as us dying on the cross, as our sins dying on the cross, and us being miraculously resurrected as a new creature in Christ, and we accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, now we have the Holy Ghost living within us. We have that Comforter.
13:26 And now we have the Trinity, the full picture, where we can pray by the working of the Holy Ghost. You know, the Bible says that the Holy Spirit can utter or does utter things that we can’t even explain, amen, things that we can’t utter, the Holy Ghost will pray to God about, okay?
13:42 So we pray by the working of the Holy Ghost through the Mediator, that’s Jesus Christ, to God the Father. And I think it’s very important to understand those roles.
13:54 And as we understand what Christ has done for us, and who He is, we should praise Him all the more, and realize He is truly God. He is the Christ. We love Him.
14:04 We serve Him today. Please tell everyone you know about Jesus. Explain it the best you can, and He will reward us for being faithful one day.
14:12 Thank you so much. Take care. God bless. Amen.