Sermon Transcript — September 10, 2005
I'd like to introduce my sermon this afternoon by sharing with you a letter that was written by Danny Dutton, aged 8. He's from Chila Vista , California , and his third grade teacher gave him a homework assignment to explain God. In fact, the whole class had this assignment. Here's what Danny wrote:
"One of God's main jobs is making people. He makes them to replace the ones that die so there will be enough people to take care of things on earth. He doesn't make grown ups, just babies. I think because they are smaller and easier to make that way he doesn't have to take up his valuable time teaching them to walk and talk; he can just leave that mother's and father's. God's second most important job is listening to prayers. An awful lots of this goes on said some people like preachers and things pray at times besides bedtime. God does have time to listen the radio or TV because of this, because he hears everything there must be a terrible lot of noise in his ears unless he has thought of a way to tune them out. God sees everything and hears everything and is everywhere which keeps him pretty busy. So you shouldn't go wasting his time by going over your mom and dad's head asking for something they said you couldn't have. Atheists are people who don't believe in God. I don't think there are any in Chila Vista, at least there aren't any who come to my church. Jesus is God's Son.
He used to do all the hard work like walking on water and performing miracles and trying to keep the people who didn't want to learn about God. They finally got tired of him preaching to them and they crucified him, but he was good and kind like his father and he told his father that they didn't know what they were doing and to forgive them and God said, okay. His dad, God, appreciated everything that he had done and all his hard-work on earth, so he told him he didn't have to go out on the road any more. He could stay in heaven, so he did. And now he helps his Dad out by seeing things which are important for God to take care of and which ones he can take care of himself without having to bother God. Like a secretary only more important.
You should always go to church because it makes God happy and if there's anybody you want to make happy, it's God. Don't skip church to do something you think will be more fun like going to the beach, that's wrong and besides, the sun doesn't come out at the beach until noon anyway. If you don't believe in God besides being an Atheist you will be very, very lonely because your parents can't go everywhere with you, like to camp, but God can. It is good to know he's around when you are scared in the dark or when you can't swim very good and you get thrown into the deep end of the pool by the big kids, but you shouldn't just think of what God can do for you. I figure, God put me here, and he can take me back anytime he pleases and that's why I believe in God."
Now that was a cute letter which will serve for my introduction today on the subject of what in the world is Jesus Christ doing now? I think many of us know what he did and I think many of us as we think about Trumpets and Atonement and the Feast of Tabernacles know what Christ will be doing, but what is he doing now? Let's begin where we began two weeks ago when I talked about the role of God the Father and the jobs that he has now by going back to John 1:1. I want to read a little further in the context of the book of John. By seeing this overview and the more I looked into it the more I realize that Jesus Christ has done, is doing and will do many jobs. As this begins to unfold here in chapter one we will see that Christ as the God of the Old Testament is one role that he played. Christ in his earthly ministry and his appearance on earth was another role that he played. There's a role that he's playing now and that's what I want to address today. What in the world is Christ doing now, is he just like a secretary as little Danny Dutton felt? Now and what Christ will be doing in the future, so really there could be four sermons on this topic, but I have selected today to narrow it down to one, but let's go through the first part of John 1 to give us an overview.
John 1:1. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
And we went through that two weeks ago and I explained that in some detail.
Verse 2-9. "He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light."
It's interesting to me that John had a certain humility about him and even in the gospel written by he talks of himself in the third person. He was the one who was sent to write about this special side of Christ and we know that apostle John writes about the human side of Christ rather than the side of Christ that was more divine, but there's some comparisons going on here between the divine and the human as we will see.
Verse 9-11. " That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him."
Speaking of mankind, and in particular the Jews, but as many as received him in verse 12 to them he gave the right to become the children of God to those who believe in his name who were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God and he explains that it's God the Father's process of calling. We went through that two weeks ago and giving of the Holy Spirit that brings the disciples of Christ along.
Verse 14. "And the Word became flesh..."
So now we go from one of the roles that Christ played as the God of the Old
Testament now to the role that he played when he came to the earth.
Verse 14. "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John bore witness..."
He's talking about John the Baptist now.
Verse 14-15. "...of Him and cried out, saying, "This was He of whom I said, 'He who comes after me is preferred before me, for He was before me.' "
Speaking of again the nature of Christ and his preexistence.
Verse 16. "And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ."
Today I have selected once again twelve responsibilities that Jesus Christ performs now. I chose this number not because it's an exhaustive number, but simply because I think parallels the twelve jobs or responsibilities that I pointed out for God the Father last time I spoke on this subject. I do not intend to eat unclean things, but I think I have a frog in my throat, so bear with me please.
What I'd like to do is begin with the first two jobs that Christ performs by examining his name: Jesus Christ. Jesus means "Saviour." Sometimes pronounced Jesus. In the Hebrew Yashua. It means literally "Saviour." Christ means anointed. I think it's important to begin here because these two names that Christ takes on describe two distinct characteristics of his job and his responsibility. The first being "savior" of the world. Now when Christ came to this earth, he qualified to be the savior of the world by living a perfect life and being a perfect sacrifice, we know that.
Again it's not my intent to talk about the jobs he did while he was on earth because there were many and that would be another sermon, but I'd like to indicate and show to all of us through the scriptures that the saving process continues on. Christ qualified to be our savior when he was on the earth some two thousand years ago, but because more human beings have come along, including ourselves, through those two thousand years, the saving power of Jesus Christ needs to be extended and is working today, so Christ continues to be our savior. Let's go to John 4:40. I think it's important for us to begin here because this links the work that he did while he was on the earth to the work that he continues to do now. Christ through his sacrifice because he was the perfect sacrifice and we don't need a new sacrifice for every generation that comes along, one sacrificed sufficed and we'll get to the book of Hebrews which explains that in some little detail later, but I think we'll all understand it. Notice here in John 4:40...
John 4:40-42. "So when the Samaritans were come unto him, they besought him that he would tarry with them: and he abode there two days. 41 And many more believed because of his own word."
Verse 42 now, talking about Christ visiting with these Samaritans.
Verse 42. "And said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world."
You see all the Messianic prophesies or at least many of them indicated that one of the roles that Christ would fill would be the Savior of the world, the one who came to save or rescue. We know that to be a spiritual saving or rescuing. One of the roles that we'll discuss a little later that there is a physical saving or rescuing that occurs when Christ returns the second time , but suffice it for now I want to talk about one of his primary roles as Savior of the world, number one, of these twelve points is his job as savior of the world. Let's go back to I John, I John now, not John, but I John. I know it's back here somewhere. It was here earlier in the day, chapter 4. One of these reduced capsulizing scriptures I like to find.
I John 4:14. "And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world."
A very clear statement. The Father sent the Son; one of his jobs was to become the Saviour of the world and that saving process continues on through today. At least it better otherwise you and I are not saved in a spiritual sense. In other words, our sins have not been washed away and I'm using this not in the same sense that we may hear in the Christian community and world, but we have been saved from our past sinful ways by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ who is presented as our Saviour; this is his primary role; Saviour of the world.
The second one is closely associated and that is the second part of his name "Christ," which means anointed. He is the anointed one, so job number two is anointed. My question first of all would be why is Christ anointed and why were people anointed in the Old Testament, what was the purpose of anointing? The purpose of anointing was clearly to designate one for a specific job. One of the first that we find anointed in the Old Testament is Aaron. Aaron was anointed to be the high priest. There were people who came along who challenged that anointing; we know the story, but God supported those who he anointed. It meant very clearly that God would be with those who were anointed or ordained or designated apart. Let's go to Acts 10. I'd like us to take note of verse 36.
Acts 10:36-37. "The word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ: (he is Lord of all:) That word, I say , ye know, which was published throughout all Judea , and began from Galilee , after the baptism which John preached."
Now notice verse 38; this is the key verse.
Verse 38. "How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit..."
David was anointed by Samuel; Saul was anointed by Samuel. Typically, the high priest anointed the next high priest, which was normally his son. The judges were anointed and the judges anointed the kings. This anointing is very important and the one who did the anointing was important to the line of responsibility or job description that was passed along. Here we find very clearly in scripture that God was the one who anointed. He was the one who make him the Christ. God anointed his Son with the holy spirit and with power as it says in verse 38 who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil for God was with him and that's anointing designated that God would be with this person or this individual who has anointed, so one of Christ's jobs very clearly is to be the anointed one.
Now what was he anointed as? As I mentioned early, anointing occurred for priests, judges and kings. Very clearly Christ was anointed as all three, as a priest, as a judge, as a king, as the Messiah. He was going to fill all three of those roles in the future and that's the fourth sermon that will come some other day, but one of the things that Christ does now is to fulfill the terms of that anointing in various capacities, which I'd like to get into now. So number one is the Saviour of the world; the job that he does and continues to do and we are very thankful for that and number two is he is the anointed one, the supreme anointed one; and number three he was anointed to be a prince. Christ serves now as a prince. Let's go back to Acts 5, back just a few pages. I would like us to think about this concept of a prince for just a second. Now this is the reason why about a month ago I used the example of Kind Faud and Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia because in my mind that pictured a very close example to what I imagine the relationship to be between God the Father and Jesus Christ.
In King Faud's case, King Faud had a stroke and he was disabled to some degree, not totally, but to some degree and he had relinquished the power of the kingship to the crown Prince, crown Prince Abdullah. The crown Prince was given the authority to carry out many of the functions of the kingship by the King. The crown Prince understood his position in relationship to the King. He didn't think he was the King; he thought he would some day be the King, but during those ten years, from 1995-2005 he served as the crown prince even though basically he was functioning as the King in many ways. He still wasn't the King, he was the crown Prince.
Notice here in Acts 5:30.
Acts 5:30 . "The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree. 31 Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour..."
And that Saviour role will allow repentance to come to Israel and forgiveness of sins; we've talked about that already. What I want to focus on at the particular juncture is the face that God exalted him to be the Prince. Now what does a Prince do? Well as I explained, the Prince can carry out the authority of the King when that authority is delegated to him. One of the very important elements of this whole relationship between God the Father and Jesus Christ is that God the Father has delegated certain responsibilities to Christ and in that way sometimes what they do overlaps, but many of the things that the do, do not overlap. The role of Prince I think is important to understand. Christ is called Prince in several places in The Bible; I don't have time to go there, but I'll share some of them with you.
In Isaiah 9:6, he's called the Prince of Peace. In Acts 3:15, he's called the Prince of Life. In Revelation 1:5, he's called the Prince of the Kings of the Earth. Christ, if you will, is in waiting for his Kingship. Now I want to amplify on that a little bit later because we know he will be King of Kings and Lord of Lords by reading Revelation 19:13-16 and we went through that in the Bible Study not too long ago. Revelation 19. That Christ will come as King of Kings and Lord of Lords means that he'll be the supreme authority and the supreme Lord when he returns, but he has not come as King of Kings yet, has he? He's still a Prince. It's interesting to me, what does a Prince do? Well, a prince generally prepares himself to be a King.
Let me give you another example. Prince Charles from the day of his birth in England was told and taught that he someday would be the King of England. Now as it turns out he may have disqualified himself because of the divorce that I'm sure that you all I'm sure are aware of, but he still was taught from a child that he was going to be King someday and every part of his education, every part of his training, every part of his experience was leading to that job and he was preparing to be a King. He knew that. He was cognizant of that; he was aware of it. Jesus Christ of course is very aware of that. I can only imagine how much Christ wants the Feast of Trumpets to literally get here so that he can be crowned King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
It's interesting to me that Hebrews tells us that Christ learned from the things that he suffered. I don't for a moment believe that God knows and can never learn something, knows it all. Now compared to us; he knows everything as we just heard in the Sermonette. He knows how to create from spirit, from nothing. He knows how to created an incredible, intelligent design that we can barely measure, so compared to us, he knows all, but I don't that excludes the fact that God can learn or that Jesus Christ as the Prince can learn. You know we look at two thousand years and we say, well, you can learn a lot in two thousand years, but of course, God's perspective is a thousand years is as a day, so it's just a couple of days on one hand and yet it's still enough time to still learn.
I believe that Christ is still learning as a prince to be the King of Kings; he's still preparing as he says in John 15 jobs and responsibilities for us in his kingdom, which will be part of the kingdom over which he is the King of Kings, so part of the job that he's doing now is serving as Prince in preparation to be King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
Job number four relates very strongly and let's go back to I Timothy 6:13. Job number four that he's doing now is not only is the prince preparing as King of Kings, but Jesus Christ is our King. I want you to think about that for minute. Jesus Christ is our King. Let me explain by reading the scripture first.
I Timothy 6:13. "I give thee charge in the sight of God, who quickeneth all things, and before Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession."
In other words, Christ did his job while he was on the earth.
Verse 14. "That thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukeable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. Which in his times he shall shew, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords."
Now it's interesting that Timothy speaks of him in the present tense as being a King. He hasn't returned to this earth; he has not established kingdom yet. We know that it's a future event; we read that in Revelation; we celebrated every year when we meet for the Feast of Trumpets. Whose King is he now? Who is our sovereign?
We know the scriptures about the fact that we are ambassadors. We know about the scriptures that tell us that our citizenship is no longer of this world, but is in the world to come. We are reminded in Hebrews 11 that all of those patriarchs gave up their citizenship in their countries, in a spiritual sense, and became a part of that same spiritual entity that we are apart of. We are reminded constantly that we are first-of-all disciples of Christ and secondarily citizens of our country. In other words, our primary sovereign is the King Jesus Christ to us. He is our King; he is our sovereign; he is the Potentate; the only Potentate as it says here in verse 15.
He is our King and he serves that role now even as he prepares by serving in the role of prince for the unveiling of the King of Kings at his return. So number one we have seen that Christ is the Saviour to the world; he is the anointed one; he is the prince and he is the King of us now and he will be the King of Kings.
Number five, job number five. He is at the right hand of God. Now what does that mean? He is at the right hand of God . Let's go to I Peter 3, back just a few pages. I Peter 3:22. About four weeks ago when I was talking about this relationship between Jesus Christ and God the Father I read from Mark 16 which talked about after Christ's resurrection that he was sat down at the right hand of God. And I told you then that that is a symbol of authority.
You may recall when I went back and I read the example of Joseph in comparison to Pharaoh and when Joseph was recruited by Pharaoh and exhaulted or promoted in Ancient Egypt, he was promoted, it said to the right hand of the Pharaoh. He was the number two man in all of Egypt . That's what it symbolized was the delegation of responsibility or power. Now notice here in I Peter 3:22, talking about Christ...
I Peter 3:22. "Who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God..."
And this expression is used many times; it's an interesting study by the way.
Verse 22. "...is at the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him."
Romans 8:33-35. "Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?"
Job number six and one of the most important jobs that Christ does for us is the job as intercessor for us. He intercedes; he runs interference, if you will. When we pray to the Father, Christ can empathize with us and our sufferings, our weaknesses, our yearnings our needs and I think he can tell the Father, yes, it is a difficult experience to a human being. Yes, it is difficult when they go through those physical, emotional trials. Look over in verse 26, 27.
Verse 26 . "Likewise the Spirit..."
This is the spirit that comes from God and Christ.
Verse 26. "...also helpeth our infirmities..."
It intercedes for us because that's the spirit that comes from Christ.
Verse 26. "For we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered."
Christ functions as the intercessor; the one that makes those utterings for us and on our behalf.
Verse 27. "And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God."
And we can be confident that Christ would only support those requests that we make according to this will of God, that are according to the will of God and therefore he can intercede for us. I think that's pretty obvious, so one of the most important jobs that is performed by Jesus Christ is that of intercessor on our behalf.
It's kind of interesting, I won't turn there, but I John 2:1 calls this intercessor The Advocate, that Christ has become an Advocate for us. It's the same general expression except Advocate is more like Attorney. Christ is like the Lawyer who appears before the Judge and explains and defends our case and reminds the judge that we have had the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and we therefore if we go through the repentance process are innocent because our sins have been taken away.
The next job is discussed here in Hebrew 7. Hebrews 7. So we're half-way through the sermon and I've got seven minutes left, but I think these last few job descriptions can be handled fairly quickly. Remember we've described Christ as Saviour of the world, the Anointed One, the Prince, the King who is at the right hand of God, who has authority over the spirit world. The intercessor and now the High Priest. The High Priest, which is closely associated to Intercessor and Advocate, but let's noticed here in Hebrew 7:1 which talks about Melchizedek and we know that Melchizedek was God come to earth in the time of the patriarchs. Jesus Christ the God of the Old Testament who interfaced directly tit-a-tat, face-to-face with the patriarchs. Notice in Hebrews 7:1.
Hebrews 7:1. "For this Melchisedec, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him; To whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all; first being by interpretation King of righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which is, King of peace .
We've already defined Christ as the Prince of Peace; Hebrews goes on to described that this Melchizedek is in fact now Jesus Christ at the right hand of God who also serves as our High Priest. The sacrifice that this High Priest administers is himself it says we read in chapter 8:1-2 and 6. Again, I could let you study this on your own. He has become the sacrifice as it says in Hebrews 9:24-28, for our salvation. This priest, again, works on our behalf.
Job number eight that Christ performs is the Captain of our salvation. The Captain of our salvation. He was the one who lead, he was the first one who went through the process. This is found in Hebrews 2:10.
Hebrews 2:10. "For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings."
Christ serves now as our Captain in the army of God, if you will and Paul refers to the church being an army in many occasions. A Captain is one who literally is in the fox hole with the troops and who says "charge" and jumps our himself. He's not the paper pusher or the General in the back office who gives orders. He ‘s the one who is actually involved on the front lines with the troops and Christ serves this purpose for the church; he's the captain of our salvation.
Number nine, job number nine. He is the betrothed husband and the head of the church.
The betrothed husband and the head of the church and this is described in some detail in Ephesians 5, which I believe we are all very familiar with; we use it in our wedding ceremony. It talks about husbands and wives should relate to one another and then Paul says towards the end of that chapter, I'm talking about the relationship that Christ has with the church. That's what Ephesians 5 is all about.
Revelation 19:7-9 tells us that the bride has made herself ready for her marriage to the lamb, to Christ. So Christ now serves as our betrothed husband and the head of the church. In Revelation 1:13, it says that Christ is the head of the church. He is the one who directs the operations of the church.
Job number ten is found in John 5. We read this a couple of weeks ago, but I'd like to read it again. John 5.
John 5:22. "For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son..."
Job number ten that Christ has is Judge. Now we discussed earlier that the Advocate was Christ, the Intercessor is Christ, our High Priest is Christ who paid the penalty, and the Judge is Christ. That's the kind of court I want to be in, how about you? That's a winning game as they say. They also say it's who you know, right? If you know the advocate, you know the Lawyer, you know the Judge, you know they one who paid the ransom or the price for your sin, you're in pretty good shape spiritually when we repent and give our lives to God. Christ serves as judge. Let's continue reading here.
Verse 23-24. "That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life."
Because Christ serves now in this role as judge.
Verse 25-26. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live. For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself."
This is a very important job that Christ has; Christ is the one who judges and job number eleven is the one who resurrects. Christ is the one who resurrects. We can turn to I Corinthians, in fact let's do, let's end here. I Corinthians 15:20.
I Corinthians 15:20-22. "But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead."
In other words, the resurrection of the dead is going to come through Jesus Christ. He is the Advocate, he is the Intercessor, he is the High Priest, he is the Judge, and he's the one who resurrects and gives eternal life. He is the one who is going to resurrect the two witnesses. He is the one who is going to resurrect you and me or change our bodies on the Day of Trumpets because God the Father has delegated those responsibilities of judging and resurrecting to the Son.
Let's drop down to verse 24 because I'd like to share with you the twelfth job that Christ does.
Verse 24-26. "Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. 25 For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death."
Job number twelve that Christ does is he conquers all enemies, he conquers all enemies, the last enemy will be death that he will conquer.
I'd like to quickly review the twelve jobs that I have summarized in the role that Christ now plays. Christ is the Saviour of the world; he is the Anointed One; thirdly, he is the Prince; fourth, he's the king; five, he is at the right hand of God and controls all spiritual powers; sixth, he is the intercessor for us; seven he is our High Priest; eight he is the captain of our salvation; nine he is the betrothed husband and the head of the church; then he's the ultimate judge; eleven he is the one who resurrects; and twelve, he is the one who will conquer all enemies small now and great in the future by finally conquering the dead.
I know we've gone through this rather quickly; I've given you lots of scriptures over the last two sermons about this subject, but I thought it was important for us to understand the distinction between the roles that God the Father plays and the roles that Jesus Christ plays. They're closely related; they do overlap in some areas, but there is a distinction between these two individuals who make up the God-head today. I hope this helps us in that process of understanding, and hopefully, we can look forward to the Feast of Trumpets understanding how much Jesus Christ is looking forward to that day and its fulfillment when he will become King of Kings and Lord of Lords over all of the earth.