Who Do You Say that I Am? Pastor Jonathan Scheffrahn Summary: Who is the Jesus we read about in the Gospels? Is He God? Is He man? What is the difference between Jesus and God the Father? Who is the Holy Spirit? Do we all worship the same God and simply call him by different names? In Mark 12:29-30 Jesus affirms that the Old Testament is true and also that God is one. This concept of one God put Israel at odds with all of their neighbors. Think of it, the Babylonians, the Persians, Greeks, the Romans all worshiped many gods. Jesus also affirmed the Old Testament Law in Matt 5:17. Paul affirms the oneness of God as well in 1 Cor 8:4. Truth #1 - We believe that there is one Living and True God This is where many Jews who only recognize the Old Testament stop. However, even just looking in the Old Testament there are hints to a second truth that we see explicitly revealed in the New Testament, especially in the person of Jesus. Matt 28:19-20, Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Who is the Father? Who is the Son? Who is the Holy Spirit? These names can be found all throughout the New Testament and it is important to know who they are. 1
The Father is God. John 6:27, Gal 1:1 What about the Son? There are two different names for Jesus that are common in the New Testament both containing the term son: Son of God - Over 40 times He is identified as the Son of God Son of Man - Over 80 times He is identified as the Son of Man Matt 16:13-17, John 10:30-31, Mark 2 - Jesus clearly claims to be God. Jesus never meant to give us the option of just saying He was a gifted teacher or a good man. He is either really God or a liar or a complete loony bin. There are no other options left to us. The term Son of God emphasizes that Jesus is God. The term son of Man emphasizes that at the very same time Jesus uniquely also is fully man. Paul explains what this looks like in Phil 2:5-11. By simultaneously accepting the names son of God and son of man, Jesus is affirming that He is both fully God and fully man and worthy of our worship. The Father is God. The Son is God. What about the Holy Spirit? Acts 5:3-4, 1 Cor 12:4-6 - The Holy Spirit is God. Grace University - Course for the Holy Spirit - http://gracearlington.com/ resources/sermons-media/sermons/holy-spirit-class-graceuniversity-2015/ Truth #1 - We believe that there is one Living and True God Truth #2 - God eternally exists in three Persons: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, equal in power and glory, and that this triune God created all, upholds all and governs all. (From the Grace Community Church Doctrinal Statement) 2
These truths together we call the doctrine of the trinity. Here is how C.S. Lewis described the trinity in Mere Christianity: All sorts of people are fond of repeating the Christian statement that God is love. But they seem not to notice that the words God is love have no real meaning unless God contains at least two Persons. Love is something that one person has for another person. If God was a single person, then before the world was made, He was not love. Of course, what these people mean when they say that God is love is often something quite different: they really mean Love is God. They really mean that our feelings of love, however and wherever they arise, and whatever results they produce, are to be treated with great respect. Perhaps they are: but that is something quite different from what Christians mean by the statement God is love. They believe that the living, dynamic activity of love has been going on in God forever and has created everything else. And that, by the way, is perhaps the most important difference between Christianity and all other religions: that in Christianity God is not a static thing not even a person but a dynamic, pulsating activity, a life, almost a kind of drama. Almost, if you will not think me irreverent, a kind of dance. C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity When we pray: Pray to the Father In the name of the Son By the power of the Holy Spirit. When we bless on another: The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all. 2 Cor 13:14 Alternative Views: For example in the book the Shack there is this unhelpful quote: When we three spoke ourselves into human existence as the Son of God, we became fully human. We chose to embrace all the limitations this entailed. Even though we have always been present in this created universe, we now became flesh and blood. (cf. p. 165, 201) This is called modalism and is wrong. 3
The Bible clearly teaches that God the Father and The Holy Spirit never took on flesh and dwelled as humans on the earth. God the Father never died on the cross for your sins and does not bear the marks of the nails. Links to learn more about the Shack: Tim Keller s concerns about The Shack - https:// www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/the-shack-impressions Albert Mohler s concerns about The Shack - http://www.albertmohler.com/ 2010/01/27/the-shack-the-missing-art-of-evangelical-discernment/? utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=feed%3a+a lbertmohlersblog+%28albert+mohler%27s+blog%29 Response by the authors of the Shack: Part 1 - http://theshackbook.com/is-the-shack-heresy-part-1/ Part 2 - http://theshackbook.com/is-the-shack-heresy-part-2/ Well what happens if you accept that God is three persons but you ignore the first truth that God is one essence? Watchman Fellowship Profile of Mormons - http://www.watchman.org/ profiles/pdf/ldsprofile.pdf Latter-day Saints believe that the simplest reading of the New Testament text produces the simplest conclusion that the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost are separate and distinct personages, that They are one in purpose. - http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/what-mormonsbelieve-about-jesus-christ The problem with tritheism is what? It forgets Truth #1. there is one God. Remember Jesus affirmed the Old Testament and also the oneness of God. Watchman Fellowship Profile of Mormons of Jehovah s Witnesses - http:// www.watchman.org/profiles/pdf/watchtowerprofile.pdf Discussion Questions: 4
How would you describe the Trinity to someone who does not know God? What illustrations would you use and which might you avoid? Why? What are the two main truths that combine to form the trinity? What happens when you over emphasize the oneness of God? What happens when you over emphasize the three persons of the Godhead? 5
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Jesus answered, The foremost is, Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. Mark 12:29-30 NAS 3
Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. Matt 5:17 4
You shall have no other gods before Me. Ex 20:3 5
You shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is on the earth beneath or that is in the water below. You shall not bow down to them or serve them Ex 20:4 6
Therefore concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that there is no such thing as an idol in the world, and that there is no God but one. 1 Cor 8:4 7
Truth #1 - We believe that there is one Living and True God 8
Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Matt 28:19-20 9
Who is the Father? Who is the Son? Who is the Holy Spirit? 10
"Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you, for on Him the Father, God, has set His seal. John 6:27 11
Paul, an apostle (not sent from men nor through the agency of man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised Him from the dead), Gal 1:1 12
The Father is God. Who is the Son? Who is the Holy Spirit? 13
Son of God - Over 40 times, Jesus is identified as the Son of God Son of Man - Over 80 times, Jesus is identified as the Son of Man 14
When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, Who do people say the Son of Man is? They replied, Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets. Matt 16:13-14 15
But what about you? he asked. Who do you say I am? Simon Peter answered, You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God. Matt 16:15-16 16
Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. Matt 16:17 17
Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. Matt 16:17 18
I and the Father are one. (ἕν ἐσμεν) The Jews picked up stones again to stone Him. John 10:30-31 19
Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, Phil 2:5-6 20
but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bondservant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Phil 2:7-8 21
For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Phil 2:9-11 22
The Father is God. The Son is God. What about the Holy Spirit? 23
But Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back some of the price of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not under your control? Why is it that you have conceived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God. Acts 5:3-4 24
Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord. There are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons. 1 Cor 12:4-6 25
The Father is God. The Son is God. The Holy Spirit is God. 26
Truth #1 - We believe that there is one Living and True God Truth #2 - God eternally exists in three Persons: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, equal in power and glory, and that this triune God created all, upholds all and governs all. 27
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All sorts of people are fond of repeating the Christian statement that God is love. But they seem not to notice that the words God is love have no real meaning unless God contains at least two Persons. Love is something that one person has for another person. If God was a single person, then before the world was made, He was not love. C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity 29
Of course, what these people mean when they say that God is love is often something quite different: they really mean Love is God. They really mean that our feelings of love, however and wherever they arise, and whatever results they produce, are to be treated with great respect. Perhaps they are: but that is something quite different from what Christians mean by the statement God is love. C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity 30
They believe that the living, dynamic activity of love has been going on in God forever and has created everything else. And that, by the way, is perhaps the most important difference between Christianity and all other religions: that in Christianity God is not a static thing not even a person but a dynamic, pulsating activity, a life, almost a kind of drama. Almost, if you will not think me irreverent, a kind of dance. C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity 31
When we pray: Pray to the Father, In the name of the Son, By the power of the Holy Spirit. 32
When we bless one another: (2 Cor 13:14) The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all. 33
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When we three spoke ourselves into human existence as the Son of God, we became fully human. We chose to embrace all the limitations this entailed. Even though we have always been present in this created universe, we now became flesh and blood. William Young - The Shack 35
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Latter-day Saints believe that the simplest reading of the New Testament text produces the simplest conclusion that the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost are separate and distinct personages, that They are one in purpose. http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/what-mormons-believeabout-jesus-christ 39
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It seems to me that there is only one thing to do, and that is to acknowledge that we stand before the mystery which is revealed in the Bible. We cannot hope to understand it. We cannot hope to grasp it with our minds; it is entirely beyond us and above us. We are simply meant to look at it with wonder, with awe and with worship, and be amazed at it. Martin Lloyd Jones 42
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