What the Bible Teaches about Christ - Introduction

The doctrine of Christ is so vast, so big a study that what I want to basically do tonight, and this is all we're going to take time to do, is just introduce the various topics that we're going to cover. We'll spend a good bit of time on some of these, particularly the deity of Christ. Others will hit a little more quickly, but there are lots of different areas when you talk about the Christ, about Christ, because really there is a sense in which the whole Bible is about Christ. He is the central theme of the Word of God, at least it is possible to see it that way. All points up to, focuses on, or looks back on, the person and work of Christ as he came to be our Savior. So a lot to talk about here, tonight we're just going to basically introduce the subjects that we will cover, and you see them on that back page of your outline. First of all, we're going to cover his pre-existence. What does that mean? What is the pre-existence of Christ? What? He existed before time. I've given you just a brief snippet of Scripture that defines or describes each of these categories that we'll be talking about in the beginning was the Word, John 1-1. Remember what we've talked about before that the very first verse of the Bible chronologically is not Genesis 1-1. It is John 1-1 chronologically, because Genesis 1-1 says in the beginning, God created. It starts with the beginning of time and moves forward. John 1-1 starts with the beginning of time and looks backward. In the beginning was the Word. He was already there. He was already in existence. So Jesus existed before time. And that's a feature of his eternality. Sometimes that's what this is called. We're going to discuss it in terms of his pre-existence. He existed previous to time. And we're going to look at how that's described in the Old Testament and in the New Testament. We'll probably take a couple of studies on that. Then we will move. And what you're going to see is we're kind of moving chronologically, sequentially, logically, if you will, in our topics through the life and person and work of Christ. After his pre-existence, we're going to talk about his deity. John 1-1 and the Word was God. In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God and the Word was God. Now, we will spend a lot of time on this. In fact, you're going to think, oh, my, we're still on second topic. And we've been in this three months. We're never going to get through what the Bible teaches about Christ. Well, it won't all take that much time. But we're going to take a good bit of time on the deity of Christ. Why would we do that? Why do you think we would do that? It's pretty important, right? It's pretty important. If what I said earlier about the study of Christ, his personal work really establishes the uniqueness of the Christian faith, you can narrow that down even more to the deity of Christ. And it is the deity of Christ that separates us from every other major world religion and every cult, the deity of Christ. And because the deity of Christ is such a topic of attack for the enemy, Satan attacks it so viciously. We're going to really nail this one down in our thinking. We're going to approach it from every possible angle and see how the Bible establishes his deity from things like his names, his works, his attributes, what is said about him by others. The worship he receives from others, there'll be a number of different angles will approach this from to really nail down this doctrine because it is basic. It is key. It is one of the fundamentals of basic, basic doctrines. Okay, so pre-existence, then deity. And the next we're going to talk about his incarnation. Somebody tell me what incarnation means. You might know what that means. He became flesh, yes. And that really is the literal meaning of the word incarnation comes from two Greek words and he in carnos, which is flesh. Okay, in flesh is in flesh. God takes on flesh. God moves into flesh. Takes on a body. That's what the incarnation is. John 114 is the snippet of scripture that describes it. The word was made flesh. The word, this one who was in the beginning and was God. He was made flesh and that's the incarnation. We're going to talk about how that happened. Why it had to happen. And some of the purposes that are accomplished by Jesus taking on human body. So we'll talk about the incarnation. Then we'll move to the virgin birth. The virgin birth basically is the means by which God accomplished the incarnation. But we're going to take a careful look at why that was necessary. Why it was necessary for Jesus to be born of a virgin. And that again is a very key part of the doctrine of Christ. Matthew 121 says that this way conceived of the Holy Spirit. Jesus was conceived of the Holy Spirit or by the Holy Spirit. Did not have a human father. We'll see why that was so basic and so critical. And it may not be what you're thinking. It may not be, you know, a lot of people say, well, the sendators passed down through the father. I know you ladies would love to think that. But actually the send natures passed down from both parents. That's not the full reason, not really the key reason why Jesus had to be born of a virgin. There's another reason that's even more basic than that. And we'll get to that when we when we talk about the virgin birth. Okay, then we will talk about his humanity. And you can see we're talking about Christ pre-existing. Then the one who is God who is deity takes on human body through the virgin birth. And now he's on earth in his humanity. So we're moving progressively through these doctrines. The man Christ Jesus, the Bible calls him the man Christ Jesus in 1 Timothy 2.5. And we'll talk about his humanity. Did you know that the first attack in the early church on the doctrine of Christ was not on his deity. It was on his humanity. The book of 1 John deals with that. You know, some people have been kind of confused about the fact that John makes such a big deal. The fact that people denying that Jesus came in the flesh. And a lot of people thought, well, that's not the real problem. The real problem is that Jesus is God. That's what people deny not in the first century. They denied that he was a real man. That was the first error in the doctrine of Christ. And so we will talk about why his literal full humanity is so basic to what we believe about Christ. Along with that, and these two will kind of be coupled together, is his sinless life. Because although he was fully man, 100% man, he lived a sinless life. And Hebrews 4.15 says it this way, yet without sin, he was tempted in all points like as we are, yet apart from or without sin. So he lived a sinless life. Even though he was fully human, lived a sinless life. And the reason for that has to do with the next part of our study, his person. And when we get to his person, what we're talking about there is the fact that he is both fully God and fully man. We're going to see how both of those are true in one person. There has been a huge amount of false teaching on this throughout church history. It was one of the first things that the early church encountered was people going either too far one way or the other and define that balance between fully God, fully man existing in one person was difficult to reach that balance in the early church because the Bible teaches both. We'll talk about that. But Romans 1, 3 and 4 describe both together. He was a descendant of David according to the flesh, declared the Son of God with power and it would go on to say by his resurrection. So he's both. He's a descendant of David by the flesh, fully man, but he's also fully God, the Son of God. That's declared, made clear, seen in his resurrection. We'll talk about how the two natures of Christ, human nature, divine nature exist in one person without somehow kind of meshing into one or being completely distinct. That's a real tricky thing in Bible doctrine. Okay. Person of Christ. Then we will look at his death. Romans 5, 6 says Christ died for the ungodly. Jesus died and his death had a special purpose as we know and that really again is very central to our faith. We'll talk about how Jesus died but we'll talk mainly about what the purpose of his death was and we'll talk about the various words that describe his death like reconciliation, redemption, justification, all those kinds of terms that are used in the Bible. We're not going to necessarily talk about some other things you might think of with the death of Christ, the extent of the atonement and so forth. We'll do that when we get to the doctrine of salvation, but we will talk about the need for the death of Christ and what it accomplished. Then obviously the next thing is the resurrection and we will describe what the Bible talks about in Acts 4, 10 is whom God raised from the dead. What the resurrection was about, why it was necessary, what all happened in his resurrection. Then his ascension after the resurrection after 40 days, he ascended back into heaven. How did that happen? What was that about? What did that accomplish? What part does that play in our salvation? And then we'll finish with his present ministry. Hebrews 924, now to appear in the presence of God for us. What he is doing now. Now there are other things about the doctrine of Christ that we could study but we will not in this particular study. The teaching and works of Christ during his life, we've already covered that when we went through the life of Christ, when we went through the gospels. We will not cover that again. All of the ramifications of the death of Christ that have to do with our salvation, we won't get into all of that. Then the return of Christ, you might think, well wait a second, things don't end with the ascension and his present ministry. Isn't he going to come back again? He is but that more clearly belongs to the area of eschatology or the doctrine of prophecy or last things. So we'll get into that a few years from now probably. All right, well, seven till, and I'm done. Are you done or you have questions? Anything you want to ask about? Speak now or later, one way or the other. Have anything you want to ask about? Where we're headed with the doctrine of Christ, what the Bible teaches about Christ. Pardon me? How much older will we be by the time we finish all this? You know that remains to be seen. Some of us may not live through this. It could be quite honest. I think I would think we could get through this in a little under a year, but depends on the discussion. If we have a lot of discussion, which I love and invite and want, then it will take a year. It's kind of like I often tell, you know, our deacons, if we have a real long deacons meeting, I'm only responsible for the agenda. The discussion is what took this meeting so long. No, no, no, that was a great question. I would anticipate that it would be around 30 to 35 studies, which we could cover in a little under a year, given things that would other things that happen on Wednesday nights, but it may take a year to cover. I wouldn't be surprised. So you can pretty well market down. Most of us will be a year older when we finish this. Any other questions, comments? Okay. Write it down in your Bible. Pastor John finished five minutes early on May the 7th, 2014. History has been made. Let's pray. Thank you, Father, for how good you are to us, and giving us your word to help us understand better who you are, who your son is, and what he has done for us. Thank you so much for the richness of your word and the fact that we can never exhaust all that it has in its pages. Both for our minds and our hearts. I pray that our minds will be exercised, will grow in our understanding, but will also not be content to leave it there, that will grow in our application, and our lives, and become more like the Savior that we will study. We ask in His name, amen.