Scripture: Topics: Jesus is God
All right, let's get started tonight. Jesus is God according to Holy Scriptures, part three, and this will be our last section on the deity crisis. Much more we could cover, but I think three will cover the subject well enough.
You are at The Door. I am Michael Pearl, and we're located in Lobelville, Tennessee. This is No Greater Joy Ministries. At nogreaterjoy.org you can find us.
Jesus is God, creator of heaven and earth. This is a subject that's going to be a lot of fun tonight.
John 5:39 "Search the scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me." Jesus preached himself by referencing the Bible, and he said, "Search it."
Now, when he said "scripture," he is referring just to the Old Testament because that's all that existed at that time. He said the Old Testament was scripture testifying of him. Many, many, many, many prophecies in the Old Testament of Jesus Christ, over 200 of them were fulfilled, 200, 250 during his lifetime that we can find in the scriptures. Now, there's about 100 passages over 500 verses on the deity of Jesus Christ and maybe more than that, but that's what I accumulated.
When asked his name, Jehovah God said, "My name is I Am." That's what he identified himself as, "I Am."
Exodus 3:14"And God said unto Moses, 'I AM THAT I AM:'" That's His name. Strange name, huh? I Am that I Am. “And He said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, 'I AM hath sent me unto you.'" So the name God gave Moses to relate to the children of Israel, because they came from a land of many, many gods, and so there's just one God, He declares, He is it. And Moses said, "What name shall I give them?" Of all the different gods, "What name shall I give them?"
Now, that's a name that no god has ever had before. He said, "Tell them 'I Am' because the others are not." He's the only one that Am, I Am has sent you.
Exodus 3:15 "And God said moreover unto Moses, 'Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, "The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob has sent me unto you." This is my name forever, and this is my memorial unto all generations.'" Now this is an important foundational passage. He said, "This is my name forever. I AM." That's His name, no one else's name but His, Jehovah God.
Now Jesus assumes the name of I Am when he comes to the earth in human flesh. Now, how could he assume it unless he is claiming to be that God who is forever?
Look at this, John 8:28. There's more passages than I'm revealing to you here on this subject. This one, there are many like it.
John 8:28-30 "Then said Jesus unto them, 'When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then shall you know that I am he.'" Now, notice the word “he” is in italics. The reason being, in the King James Bible, the only honest translation in the English language, when it adds a word that is not in the original Greek text, a word that's maybe implied or a word that's needed to bridge the thought completely, it always puts it in italics. No other translation does that. So when you read it, you know that that word he was not in the original text.
This is the way it would've read, "'Then shall you know that I Am,”
“and that I do nothing of myself, but as my Father has taught me, I speak these things, and He that has sent me is with me. The Father has not left me alone, for I do always those things that please him.' As he spake these words, many believed on Him." Many believed that he was the I Am that spoke to Moses.
Again, John 8:51-53, "'Verily, verily I said to you, if a man keep my saying, he shall never see death.' Then said the Jews unto him, 'Now we know thou hast a devil. Abraham's dead, and the prophets, and thou sayest, 'If a man keep my sayings he shall never see death.'" In other words, they say all these Old Testament patriarchs, they were faithful men of God and they died. "Art thou greater than our father Abraham, which is dead? And the prophets are dead? Whom makest thou thyself?" What are you making yourself out to be? Who are you professing to be? What do you claim to be here?
Jesus answered, John 8:54-56 "If I honor myself, my honor is nothing." That's according to the law. A man's testimony about himself didn't count. It took two others. Jesus answered, "If I honor myself, my honor is nothing. It is my Father that honors me of whom you say that He is your God. Yet, ye have not known Him. But I know Him and if I should say I know Him not, I shall be a liar like unto you. But I know Him and I keep His sayings. Your father, Abraham," which was about 2,000 years earlier, "rejoiced to see my day and he saw it and was glad." Now, I don't know if he's referring to the appearances of God to Abraham 2,000 years earlier, which probably he is, or he could be referring to Abraham down in Abraham's bosom, seeing him now in his state.
John 8:57-59 "Then said the Jews unto him, 'Thou are not yet 50 years old, and has thou seen Abraham?'" In other words, it seems to be a ridiculous statement he's made. "Jesus said unto them, 'Verily, verily I say unto you, before Abraham was, I am.'" That's good right there. Now he didn't say "I'm he." He just said "I am."
Now you can tell by their response that he meant it just like it reads. "'Before Abraham was, I am.' Then took they up stones to cast at him but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple going through the midst of them and so passed by." He used a little special stuff there.
John 10:28-31 "'And I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish, neither any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. I and the Father are one.' Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him." And they're stoning him for saying, "I and the Father are one."
John 10:32-33"Jesus answered them, 'Many good works have I showed you by my Father. For which of these works do you stone me?' The Jews answered him saying, 'For a good work we stone thee not, but for blasphemy, because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God.'" So we don't need to interpret this 2,000 years later. We can go back and find out, how did his hearers interpret what he was saying? When He said, "Before Abraham was, I Am. I and the Father are one," he was not saying "We have one spirit. We're one in unison. We're one in fellowship." That's not what he was saying. Because they said, "You being a man are making yourself God by claiming to be the I Am that existed before Abraham 2,000 years ago." "Thou being a man makest thyself God."
John 8:24, "I said therefore unto you that you shall die in your sins, for if you believe not that I Am, he" notice the italics he, "ye shall die in your sins."
John 13:19, "I tell you before it come that when it's come to pass, you may believe that I am he." And there are quite a few of those found in the New Testament.
Now, he's the Alpha and Omega, that in English would be A to Z, first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, Alpha and Omega, first and last.
In the Old Testament, Isaiah 44:6, God says, "Thus saith the LORD..." notice again the capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D. That is Jehovah. Again, the King James Bible is revealing it's transparent in its use of the word Lord in capital letters, which means Jehovah in the Hebrew.
"Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel, and his redeemer the LORD of hosts;" Notice the comma. There's two personalities there. It's not king and redeemer. It's the Lord the King of Israel comma, and in addition to that, his Redeemer the Lord of hosts. So, we have actually two personalities here. He said, "I am the first. I am the last," God says, "and beside me there is no God." So this is the title God reserves for himself, first and last, and beside me, there's no god.
Yet Jesus assumes the name of Jehovah, the first and the last.
Revelation 1 There's quite a few of these. I'm just going to give you a sampling.
Revelation 1:17-18 "And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead and he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, "Fear not, I am the first and the last." This is Jesus, Revelation chapter 1. Read the context. Very clear, straightforward. "I am He that liveth and was dead, and behold I'm alive forevermore." That's clearly Jesus Christ. He was alive. He died, now he's alive again. "I have the keys of hell and of death." He's the first and the last.
Revelation 2:8 "Unto the angel of the church in Smyrna, write, 'These things saith the first and the last, which was dead and is alive again.'" Several times you find that passage.
Revelation 22:12-13 "And behold, I come quickly and my reward is with me to give every man according to his work shall be. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last." So here he says "Alpha and Omega," the first alphabet, last letter and everything in between. He is the alphabet. He's the Word of God, the alphabet, the beginning and the end. He started everything. He'll be there in the end. There is nothing outside of beginning to end. He is encompassing all in all, the first and the last. He is everything.
Now, Jehovah is King of kings and Lord of lords.
Deuteronomy 10:17, "For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty and terrible, which rewardeth not persons nor taketh reward:" So the Lord your God is Lord of lords.
Again, Psalm 136:1-3 "O give thanks unto LORD; for he is good: his mercy endureth forever. O give thanks to the Lord, the God of gods," notice the capital G and the little G, "for His mercy endureth forever. O give thanks unto the Lord of lords." So He's God of gods and Lord of lords, for His mercy endureth forever.
Yet Jesus assumes the title of King of kings and Lord of lords
Yet Jesus assumes the title of King of kings and Lord of Lords throughout scripture.
1 Timothy 6:13-15, "I give thee charge in the sight of God who quickens all things, and before Jesus Christ, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession. That thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukable until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which in his times he shall show who is the blessed and only potentate, the King of kings and the Lord of lords." So he calls Jesus Christ that title that God reserved for himself, King of kings and Lord of lords.
Revelation 17:14, "These shall make war with the Lamb and shall overcome them, for he is Lord of lords and King of kings." This is reference to Jesus Christ, "and they that are with him are called and chosen and faithful." So he's Lord of lords, King of kings, the title of Jesus Christ.
You see, no one who was familiar with the Old Testament could read the New Testament and doubt that it is declaring Jesus to be the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the God of Genesis chapter 1 who created all things. I mean, unless you're just totally dishonest or otherwise very ignorant, there's no way you could doubt that the scriptures teach that Jesus is God.
Revelation 19:11-13, "I saw heaven opened and behold, a white horse, and he that sat upon him what's called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns. And he had a name written that no man knew, but he himself." This is Jesus Christ on the white horse, "and he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God." John Chapter 1, Jesus is the Word of God. "And the armies which were with him in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword that with it he should smite the nations, and he shall rule them with the rod of iron. And he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness of God Almighty. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.”
I think there's a song written that uses that phrase quite a bit called the Hallelujah chorus, probably the most magnificent piece of work ever written and probably the most sung of anything. And King of kings, and I wish I could sing, boy, I'd be singing that right now, band playing and everything. King of kings and Lord of Lords.
So Jehovah is Savior, and Jesus is Savior.
Isaiah 43:11 "I, even I, am the LORD, and beside me there is no saviour." Now you may notice the difference in the spelling of Savior as we spell S-A-V-I-O-R and that King James, S-A-V-I-O-U-R.
And some people say, "Well, see, that's that's archaic." Yeah, it's so archaic that if you go to Britain, that's exactly how they spell it right now. It's not archaic. We just have backward language and backward spelling here and we have degenerated English. Many of the words we think are archaic are still very popular and used in Britain today. We're just kind of backward people here with a lot of other languages mixed in and some adulteration of it. And so we don't ... not able to say things as clearly. Try spelling Savior without putting a O-U-R in it. S-A-V-I-O-U-R, that's Savior, and we don't spell it correctly. You'd have a hard time pronouncing it otherwise.
Isaiah 43:11 "I am the Lord and beside me there is no Savior." So God holds the title of Savior for himself.
He said again, Isaiah 49:26 "I will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh, and they shall be drunken with their own blood as with sweet wine: and all the flesh shall know that I the LORD am the Savior and thy Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob." So this Jehovah God is ... See the capital L-O-R-D? He is Savior, he's Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob.
Hosea 13:4, "Yet I am the LORD thy God from the land of Egypt, and thou shall know no god but me, for there is no Savior beside me."
Now, there's passages in addition of these, but I don't have time to show you all of them, and it would stretch your patience.
Luke 2:11 "For unto you is born this day," in the New Testament, "the city of David, a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord." So the declaration, the little Christmas declaration, was that a Savior is born, that Savior promised in the Old Testament.
Ephesians 5:23 "For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, and he is the savior of the body,”
2 Timothy 1:10 “But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who's abolished death."
Titus 1:4 "To Titus, my own son after the common faith. Grace, mercy, and peace be from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour."
There are Many, many of these passages.
1 John 4:14 "And we've seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world."
2 Peter 1:1 "Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Savior, Jesus Christ." He's God and our Savior, Jesus Christ.
Now, God declares that He shares His glory with no one else.
Isaiah 42:81 "I am the LORD: That is my name and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images." So God will not share His glory with another, and yet Jesus receives the glory due to God alone.
John 17:24 "Father, I will that they also, whom thou has given me, may be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory, which thou has given me, for thou lovedst me from before the foundation of the world." So, Jesus recognizes his glory as the glory of the Father.
2 Peter 3:18 "But grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. To him be glory, both now and forever. Amen." If he were not God, it would be blasphemy to offer that glory due to God alone to Jesus Christ.
God alone is to be worshiped.
Exodus 34:14 "For thou shall worship no other god: for the Lord, whose name is jealous, is a jealous God." His name is jealous. Well, I thought it was wrong to be jealous. Well, no, it's not. There are plenty of reasons one can be jealous and it be a proper jealousy. God is jealous if His children go out after other gods, if something else has their heart other than Him.
"For thou shall worship no other god, for the Lord whose name is jealous is a jealous God." So, only one God to be worshiped.
Acts 10:25-26 "And as Peter was coming in, Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet." Cornelius is a Roman centurion, a Roman soldier who worships many gods, and he's not very taught. He's not taught at all in Old Testament scriptures. And so, Peter comes to see him and he fell down at his feet and worshiped him. So, he's used to worshiping Caesar. He's used to offering incense to the gods of Rome, men, humans. "But Peter took him up saying, 'Stand up. I myself also am a man.'" Peter did not receive worship. As exalted and high as he was in the church, he refused worship.
Revelation 19:9-10 "And He saith unto me, 'Write, "Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And He saith unto them, 'These are the true sayings of God.' And I fell at his feet to worship him, and he said unto me, 'See thou do it not.'" So here is John falling down at the feet of an angel, to worship this angel. "See thou do it not. I am thy fellowservant of that brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy."
Yet Jesus receives worship due to God alone.
Matthew 2, there's a lot of these. I've just picked a few.
Matthew 2:1-2 "Now, when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of Herod the king, behold there came wise men from the east of Jerusalem saying, 'Where is he that's born King of the Jews? For we've seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.'" Now, these wise men were probably from over around the Babylonian area, maybe further in the east to Persia, as far as Persia way. But they were people who studied the stars, who collected literature from all over the world, and they doubtless had Old Testament scriptures.
They'd studied the scriptures and knew that there would be a Messiah coming to Israel, and they knew it would be marked by a star. And they saw that unusual star that they couldn't account for that didn't previously exist because they observed the heavens. And so, they came to where they saw that star, that new star, believing it to be the star marking the coming of the Messiah. And so they said, "We've come to worship him."
Matthew 9:18 "And while he spake all these things, then behold, there came a certain ruler and worshiped him saying, 'My daughter is even now dead, but come and lay thy hand up on her and she shall live.'" You saw how the disciples responded, how the angels responded when there was an attempt at worship. Yet when Jesus is worshiped, he receives it as due.
Matthew 14:32-33 "And when they were come onto the ship, the wind ceased." Disciples are out there, the sea is boisterous. He walks on the waters. "Then they that were in the ship came and worshiped him saying, 'Of a truth, thou art the Son of God.'" And he receives that worship as due to him, when the Bible says, "Worship the Lord thy God and Him only shalt thou serve."
Matthew 28:16-19, "Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, unto a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. And when they saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, 'All power is given unto me in heaven and earth. Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things, whatsoever I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.'" He amened himself. ‘
So here we see that Jesus received worship, and he said, "I have all power, all power in heaven and earth." Only God has all power in heaven and earth. He said "Therefore," and he gives them a commandment to "go and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son," he's the Son, "and the Holy Ghost."
John 9:35-38, "Jesus heard that they had cast him out." This is a man whom he had healed, a blind man. "And when he'd found him, he said unto him, 'Dost thou believe on the Son of God?' He answered and said, 'Who is he, Lord, that I might believe in him?' And Jesus said unto him, ‘Thou has both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee.' And he said, 'Lord, I believe,' and he worshiped him." So he'd been healed by Jesus, and now he worships him. And Jesus said, "For judgment, I am come into this world that they which see might not see, and they which see might be made blind." He said, "I come into this world." Jesus existed before he came here for a purpose, and he receives worship. He never rebuked anyone for worshiping him.
Revelation 4:10-11 "And the four and twenty elders fell down before him that sat on the throne, and worshiped him," this is a heavenly scene, "worshiped him that liveth forever and ever, and cast their thrones before the throne, saying, 'Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for thou has created all things, and for thy pleasure, they are and were created.'" Now, this is our final in summary passage. I want you to see what it says clearly.
This is Jesus Christ seated on the throne. When you read the Book of Revelation, the culmination of all things, and God is worshiped, God is seen, God is in command, God is judging, that God is Jesus Christ in all cases. Jesus Christ is the beginner and he is the finisher in the Book of Revelation. So, they worshiped him that liveth forever and ever. That means they had no beginning. Jesus was not created. He had a birth as a man, but he preexisted that birth. "And cast their crowns before the throne saying, 'Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for thou,'" Lord Jesus, "'has created all things.'"
Remember in that first lesson, John 1:1, "In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God. The Word was God. All things were made by him. Without him was not anything made that was made." Nothing was ever created except that Jesus Christ created it.
Revelation 4:11 "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and and power, for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure," the pleasure of Jesus Christ, "they are and were created." So Jesus is the creator. He's doing it for his own pleasure.
Now, you may have questions about the Godhead, the Godhead, which is for want of a better term, called Trinity.
"There are three that bear record," it says in 1 John 5:7, "the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one." So God is Jesus, Jesus is God. Jesus is the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost is God. The three are one.
Now, there's been a hundred ways that people have invented to explain that and none of them are adequate or work. We're not going to go into that here and now, and I'm just letting you know that I recognize that it is a difficult thing to understand. But that's what causes me to have great confidence in it, knowing that what we're attempting to do is define the Godhead, which would be an impossibility, because there's nothing in the temporal world that we can compare the eternal God to in His nature. So however it is, there is God, the Father, and Son, communion and the Holy Spirit of love between them, and They/He has existed for all eternity. God cannot be numbered. He's not one, three, a hundred, or a million. He is infinite in every way, and there's no way we can limit Him and reduce Him down to a definition using mechanical terms.
Okay, that is the end of our study on the deity of Jesus Christ. You have been at The Door, or you can find many, many more messages online, and YouTube by me at The Door, so tune in. We've got lots more coming too next week. See you.
