Proclaiming Jesus Christ in an Age of Ambiguity

Welcome to Matthew 16. Who is Jesus Christ? Who is Jesus Christ? And if you'd like a title to this message, let me give that to you. It is, Proclaiming Christ in an Age of Ambiguity. Kind of a long title there, Proclaiming Christ in an Age of Ambiguity. That word, age of ambiguity, ambiguity simply means to be open for more than one interpretation or ambiguity to be uncertain or in a state of confusion. And with regards to the truth of the Bible, we can certainly acknowledge that there is great ambiguity with regards to the truths of the Bible. And in our day and age, great ambiguity with regards to Jesus Christ. With any quick poll, what you will find is that there are many different interpretations with regards to who Jesus Christ is. And when answering who Jesus Christ is, we want to delve into this understanding, this study, understanding that there's great importance to have a correct understanding and that there's incredible risk involved when we do not have a correct understanding. Because we can confidently say that if the church gets it wrong on Christ, then we're going to get it wrong on just about everything else. In other words, the truth of who Jesus Christ is, it's imperative. It's imperative. And I hope to have that revealed to us today. And in determining the answer to that question, there is no better place to turn to than that of the writings of the Apostle John. So if you have your Bibles, I invite you to open them up. And we're going to turn to the epistle of John, 1 John. And we're going to begin in chapter 2, 1 John chapter 2 and read verses 18 to 23. 1 John 2 verses 18 through 23.

And the reason we turn to this moment in Scripture is because John is now picking up his pen to write to the church, a church which was in a state of incredible ambiguity, confusion, not clear specifically on the nature of who Jesus Christ is. And so John here is going to dedicate this epistle in many ways to addressing and answering that very question. And he's going to do so in a very straightforward way. Look at this. 1 John 2, beginning in verse 18, little children speaking to God's church at that time, little children, it is the last hour.

And as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come by which we know that it is the last hour. They, the antichrists, went out from us. They were not of us. Or if they had been of us, they would have continued with us, but they went out that it might be manifest that none of them were with us. Verse 20, speaking to God's people, but you, you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things.

I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and that no lie is of the truth. Verse 22, notice this, verse 22, who is a liar, but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son. Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either. He who acknowledged the Son has the Father also. Let's stop there. Well, quite strong words by John here as he looks to provide clarity with regards to this question, who is Jesus Christ here?

And what was happening at that time is there were false teachers. They were essentially against Christ. They were anti-Christ here, and they had come into the circumstances in such a way to present a false notion, and they began to organize their thoughts in such a way that it began to cause debate even amongst God's people here, and it reached such a degree that John needed to put forth that these individuals were anti. They were against Christ here.

They were false teachers. He's not mentioning any words. The fact that they're not of us anymore, he says, that is an indication they were never part of us here. They never belonged to us. And the departure of these individuals was not on some peripheral matter. It wasn't on some debatable matter. No, the details of their departure was their heretical teachings of a false knowledge of Jesus Christ here.

And so John seeks to provide clarity and certainty to push back against any ambiguity. Anyone that was opening themselves up to, well, you know, there could have been there might be a different interpretation here. No, John says no. And he's coming to when he pulls out his canvas, he's only putting to practice the colors black and white. You know, there's no gray when he's painting this letter. There's no gray at all in this portrait. And he comes out right out of the gates with this letter. In fact, if you want to just turn back a few pages, look at 1 John chapter 1 and verse 1.

Let me show you this. 1 John 1 verse 1, very first chapter, very first verse, John is going to seek to make sure there is no ambiguity amongst God's people of who Jesus Christ is. 1 John 1 verse 1, he says, that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our own eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled concerning who? Concerning the word of life. The life was manifested, and we have seen and bear witness and declare to you that eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifest to us.

That which we have seen and heard, we declare to you that you also may have fellowship with us. And truly, our fellowship is with the Father and with the Son, Jesus Christ. And these things we write to you that your joy may be full.

Let's stop there. In case there's any question, he's saying, brethren, we saw him, we heard him, we touched him. He is alive. He is the word of life. Verse 2 again, we declare to you that eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifest to us. And our fellowship, verse 3, is with the Father and the Son. Okay, so he was from the very beginning. He came down to us. He was manifest to us. And this is who I am declaring to you, he says. So very clear. John is concerned to guard absolute truth. There is absolute truth, no ambiguity here.

And just know that this group that he was writing to, they were not that far out from when Jesus Christ did walk the earth. And already, at the time in which John pins this letter, already there's ill-defined, there's vague and even direct opposition to the truth of Jesus Christ. It's so remarkable how ambiguity can creep in in such a short period of time here. How could that be? How could it happen so quickly? Well, I don't need to tell you anything you don't know, but the truth is that in every generation, every time that absolute truth is proclaimed, it is the objective of the evil one to alter, to water down, to say, you know, I'm not so sure. Not so sure. To add confusion to any absolute truth. And so, to make this connection for you, if you don't see this in our 21st century, then you're not paying attention. What was in first century, we see very clearly in 21st century, where today, there's this whole notion that there are no absolute truths, right? Increasingly, even in the Christian circles, there's a kind of soft, malleable Christianity, where anytime something pushes against it, they reshape or they begin to soften, right? What was absolute truth. And the notion that's put forward that's really attacking our young people is, you can have your own truth. And I can have my own truth and Joe can have his own truth and Jane can have his own her own truth, you know, that notion that whatever works best for you, you see, and here is what it is. Here's what's occurring, that somehow it's the notion that every subsequent generation that comes, they believe that they have the authority to uniquely determine what is the acceptable morality for its generation. Every subsequent generation comes and they say, we have the authority to determine for our generation, what is the acceptable morality? And so you see with every generation we're moving further and further away from what was the original absolute truth. For example, why would there be so much seemingly acceptance on some of those issues that we would have not too long ago held as black and white issues, you know, sexual activity outside of marriage, matters of life and death in the abortion realm. So much of society and even professing Christians are beginning to have ambiguity enter into their professed beliefs. And it really makes sense. It makes sense because if you don't have a definable statement or belief concerning the lordship of Jesus Christ, if you do not believe that Jesus Christ has the authority to say what's in or what's out, if you do not believe that Jesus Christ is the very Son of God and what he says goes, if belief in Jesus Christ is not definable but as the absolute authority, then everything goes on a sliding scale. And that's what we're seeing today. So this is why we're asking this question today. Who is Jesus Christ? Because the answer to who is Jesus Christ speaks to the issue of morality. It speaks to the issue of homosexuality and heterosexuality. Who Jesus Christ is speaks to the defining nature of marriage. Who Jesus Christ is speaks to the nature of what it means to be a man or woman. Who Jesus Christ is speaks to every issue facing mankind today.

And so that's why it's so important. There can't be any diffidence with true followers of Jesus Christ. So I wanted to take that time to establish the foundation for the importance of what we're seeking to answer today. And again, in seeking to answer this question, who is Jesus Christ? Again, the Apostle John is the guy. He took this issue on and he championed it, not only in his epistle, but also in his gospel. So I want to endeavor to answer this question. And I want us to stay with John, but turn to his other writing, which gives us the most definable, absolute definition for Jesus Christ. And it's found in John's gospel. So again, if you're with me here, turn over to the Gospel of John, John chapter 1 verse 1. Let's turn over there. John chapter 1 verse 1. So from John's epistle to John's gospel here, and we're just going to give ourselves to the first four verses of the Gospel of John. So as riled up as the Apostle John is in his epistle, as we just read, we're going to see that John uses the Gospel, his gospel letter, just to paint it for us very clear where there's no questions whatsoever to who Jesus Christ is. So here, beginning in John chapter 1 and beginning in verse 1, I want to begin to give you five essential truths that we're going to glean from John's writing here with regards to Jesus Christ. Five essential truths, and we're going to go through them very quickly as John goes through them very quickly here. He doesn't waste any time helping us reveal the answer to this question. All right, are you ready? First essential truth regarding Jesus Christ, number one truth is Jesus's eternal existence. That is number one. Number one essential truth regarding Jesus Christ. Number one, Jesus's eternal existence. And John opens with this very first truth here, John 1 verse 1. Here it is. In the beginning was the Word. There you have it. Six words directly pointing to Jesus's eternal existence here. So the Word, the one who became Jesus Christ, he was there from the very beginning. In other words, there was never a time in which the Word did not exist. Right? And if someone existed forever, then, and we could say he's eternal, right? He's outside of time, outside of time, and therefore, he existed before creation. And therefore, he cannot be merely part of creation. Right? So he is not a created being. Very important. Jesus's eternal existence here.

Now, in delving into this letter, we want to be careful to kind of set our context here. As John establishes right here at the beginning, the Word existed from the beginning. Now, you will notice here, perhaps you noticed, John doesn't begin with, in the beginning was the Son of God. Did you notice that? Did that make you wonder a little bit? And you actually have to wait until the 14th verse before John refers to Jesus as the Word, as the begotten of the Father. So you have to wait until the 14th verse to get to the connection where John connects the Word with the begotten Son of God. Right? Why? Why? Why didn't John just come out of the gates with declaring, in the beginning was the Son of God? You know, Jesus Christ. Well, any great teacher understands when you're teaching students, teaching future disciples, you have to kind of build on truth. And it's important to bring men and women along with you so that they can build in their understanding here. And right off the bat, John chooses to use terminology that they would be familiar with, okay, by using the word, Word, which is also Logos. Logos was the original Greek word there. You know, you and I, we read John 1-1 and we think, oh yeah, the Word was there from the beginning, that's Jesus Christ. But that notion wasn't immediately available to the men and women who were being brought along by John here. So John doesn't immediately use that term, and he uses terms that they'd be familiar with, like the term Logos or words, or Word, the Greek word Logos. And by using that word, they would have been, it would have been really essentially two interpretations when John first uses this word. To the Greek listener, many of them would have heard this introductory phrase here, in the beginning was the word, and the Greeks would have said, oh yes, the word, we interpret that as the principle of the universe.

Many of the Greeks at that time would have interpreted the use of Logos as the force, as a force of the universe, or as the kind of a rational principle of the universe. So they would have given reference more to a force than to a person.

So the Greeks would have said, okay, in the beginning was the principle, the rational principle of the universe, this force. That would have been the initial interpretation for the Greek. Now, for the Jew, it would have been different. For the Jew reading or listening to this, they would have heard this in the beginning was the Logos, and they would have received it immediately and interpreted it as God's speech, and maybe even more specifically, God's wisdom. They would have heard the word Logos, and they would have been interpreted as speech or wisdom.

So they would have heard John's initial words, and they would have said, oh yes, wisdom has been by John's side from the beginning. Right? We can agree with that. John's use of the word Logos here. So in this theological discourse, John begins by saying, okay, Jews, okay, Greeks, in the beginning was the word, are you with me so far? And they would have said, yes, we're with you so far from our own perspective. Right? And what he's doing, he's easing them into the truth. There's about to be a hammer that's about to be lowered on their thinking and what they assumed here. And that hammer comes when you get to verse 14, when he says, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory. Right? So the hammer's coming, but he's easing them into and using terminology that they would have been familiar here with. So first, truth revealed Jesus's eternal existence. Number two, number two essential truth regarding Jesus Christ is number two, Jesus's distinctiveness. Okay? That's number two essential truth that John wants to put forth here. Jesus's distinctiveness.

And again, that's here in the second part of verse one. In the beginning was the word, the logos, and the word was with God. Okay? So if you're with someone, you are separate from them. Right? You're distinct from them. The word was with God in the beginning. So we could say then that eternal existence pointed to a relationship, a very close relationship between God and the logos, the word. So again, in a moment, he's about to lower that hammer. And when he lowers that hammer, what they're going to realize is that what we saw in Bethlehem, that incarnation, that was not his true beginning. Right? Because we know from John that Jesus' eternal distinct existence here. Right? And he had a relationship with the Father from all of eternity. Two distinct beings there. The word was with God. Okay. Third essential truth regarding Jesus Christ, that just should banish any ambiguity. Number three, Jesus' divinity. Okay? Very important.

There's a lot of confusion here on this third point. Jesus' divinity. And here it is at the end of verse one. The word was God. And he says, so in the beginning was the word, the logos, and the word was with God. And Jesus' divinity, the word was God. All right? So here we go. This is reaching the climax of this theological discourse here.

Jews, Greeks, coming along with me, John would have said, in the beginning was the word. Okay, fine with that. The word was with God. Okay, I can kind of get behind that a little bit. But now he says, and the word was God.

That's when their ears would have perked up. Right up ahead. Greeks, he is not some cosmic principle or some kind of force, you know? Jews, this is not merely God's wisdom or his speech. No? Rather, this is an eternal, distinct God.

And so as we read on again in verse 14, when these words come, here's the real hammer, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us. And boy, did we behold his glory, the glory as one of the only begotten of the Father. So there's not something, you know, there's not just something divine about him. No, he is divine. He is divine.

The very one, he is God, the very one we beheld, his glory in the flesh. Let me read you a quote from ucg.org. This is from our booklet, Jesus Christ, the Real Story. This is one of the sections of that help aid under the God who became a human being, the God who became a human being. Let me read you a quote from our booklet. Quote, Jesus was prophesied to be God with us. That's Matthew 1 23. For your notes, Matthew 1 23. God with us. Continuing here, quote, Jesus was a human being, and he was also God. There was never a time when he ceased to be who he always was. His identity did not change. When he was in the womb of Mary, he was God. When he was a baby boy lying in the manger, he was God. When he was a youngster growing up in Nazareth, he was God. And when he was dying, he was God. Unquote. Amazing.

So this plainly punctuates the fact of Jesus's divinity. And you see Jesus make this very claim all throughout Scripture. Just to punctuate this, I want to show you one other place where Jesus Christ Himself proclaimed this. Staying here with John, let's turn forward to John 14. If you want to keep your marker there, we'll be back. But John 14 beginning in verse 6. Even Jesus Christ Himself proclaimed His own divinity here. Divinity. And here in John 14 beginning in verse 6, we see this incredible exchange between Jesus's disciples and He boldly makes this claim of His own divinity. John 14 verse 6 here. Very painting. Jesus paints here with black and white here. No gray, no ambiguity. John 14 verse 6. And Jesus said to Him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also. And from now on, you know Him and have seen Him. Verse 8, Philip says, verse 8, Lord, show us the Father and that is sufficient for us. We'll be good. Here in Jesus answers verse 9. Jesus said to them, Have I not been with you so long? And yet you have not known Me, Philip. He who has seen Me has seen the Father. So how can you say, show us the Father? Now here is Jesus's own hammer of truth here. Verse 10 and 11. Verse 10 and 11. Here it is. Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you, I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father that dwells in Me does the works. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves. Let's stop there. That's quite remarkable. You know, this should bring your thoughts to that incredible prayer in the garden. You remember when when He kneeled and this is just before they took Him and He moved toward His crucifixion. Jesus's final prayer was to the Father and He prayed, I pray that they all He prayed that they all may be one in us. And He goes through these beautiful words where He says that they may be one just as we are one, Father. I in them, you in Me.

For your notes, we won't take the time to turn there, but that's John 17.

So in the same way that we are distinct, our distinctiveness as a son or daughter of God, Jesus prays that we would have that oneness for eternity, right, just as that oneness in eternity relationship that He's had with the Father.

Because again, the God and the Word, the Word was there from the beginning. So you see this connectivity here, this connection between the two here and what John is proclaiming and boldly proclaiming Jesus's divinity. Again, if we get this wrong, we get everything wrong. Everything hinges upon this. If we're going to say to men and women, Jesus needs to have lordship over your life and He needs to take control of your life. And you're going to have to do what He says. If we're going to make that proclamation, we better know the truth. We can't have any ambiguity about who Jesus is. And perhaps one of the climaxes of this argument of John is identifying Jesus's divinity. Is that clear? He demands, His divinity demands our subjection to His lordship.

Amazing! So that's the third truth. Turning back to John 1 again, two more essential truths to go through. We're going through these fairly quickly. I hope we can just build a foundation here and it'll reward your further study. But going back to John 1, we will notice now the fourth essential truth regarding Jesus Christ. Number four is Jesus as creator. All right? That's the fourth truth revealed by the Apostle John, Jesus as creator. And that emerges quite resoundingly from verse three. So John 1 verse 3, all things, John continues here, were made through Him, the Logos, the Word. And without Him, nothing was made that was made. This fourth truth is an important one. We are His creation, right? He is divine. The Father created all things through Him. In the eternal councils, as they established the plan of salvation, they determined that the Father would create all things through the One who would become the Son, the Logos, the Word, the One who would become Jesus Christ. So Jesus Christ is creator. And, you know, it's interesting to know the, to identify the Gospel language. Oftentimes, they'll say if they really want to state something clearly, they'll state it in the positive, and then they'll also state it in the negative, just to make a point. All things were made through Him, positive, and without Him, nothing was made that was made. That's the negative, just to punctuate this. So go back before creation, go back behind creation, no matter how far you go. In the beginning was the Word. There was never a time that He didn't exist. And there is nothing that doesn't depend on Him for their existence. All right? Nothing. And nothing stays together without Him. Right? He holds everything together. He's our Creator. He's our wonderful Creator God. And again, your thoughts might go back to even the Genesis account, you know, where we had the physical creation occur, and the description there, and creation of life, and you had the light and darkness imagery there of Genesis 1. And now John's picking up on that here as Jesus as Creator. In the beginning was physical creation.

In a sense, there was a second creation that began when Jesus Christ made Himself manifest to us, a spiritual creation whereby we are a new creation spiritually.

And so that leads us then to the fifth and final essential truth here of Jesus as our Creator. And now the fifth and final truth is Jesus as our Illuminator. Good luck on spelling that. I can't help you there. So number five truth, final truth, is Jesus as our Illuminator. He illuminates men and women, and that's verse four. That's verse four. In Him, John concludes this thought here. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. But you know, John just says he's right in this. I don't know if he, you know, got emotional at this point. I know I would if God had this kind of inspiration here. Yes, He is the physical creator, but He's bringing a different kind of life, and it's this light. Just as creation week, God's, you know, He's just in that time, He said the Creator, God said, Let there be light, you know? And that was even before the sun was created, so the light was even Himself, you know? Well, now He's bringing new life, but it's the light of men. Awesome! And so this is an eternal light. This is the eternal light of eternal life that He came to bring men and women. He first would offer this light to those to whom the Father would give Him initially. And then, but eventually He wants to offer this light, this illumination to all men and women that all would shine for all of eternity here. So again, just in these essential absolute truths of Jesus Christ, we see, and I hope we see, that the answer to who Jesus is, is the answer to all of humanity's questions.

What is this existence about? What is the answer to my life? Who am I? What am I? What's in store for me? You know, so many do not have the answers to these questions, and it's because they don't have the answer to who is Jesus Christ. That's the reason they don't have the answers to this.

As verse 5 explains, verse 5, and the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. Right? And so we see so many men and women in darkness, and they're lost in searching. They have accepted the notion that there are no absolute truths.

They have relinquished the authority of Jesus Christ from their lives. So they're out there searching, and the darkness cannot comprehend it. You will find them in all kinds of search. I mean, just down the road here, if you walk the streets there in the consumer, consumerism that is just down the road from us, you will find one, two, three palm readers. And instead of looking up into the heavens and looking for light and to be illuminated by the logos, they're looking into palms. Right? Or if they do look up, they're looking at the stars to try to to read the stars through astrology or whatever it may be. You know, why? Well, they're searching.

Pascal said it best, I believe. Pascal said, quote, There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of each man, which cannot be satisfied by any created thing, but only by God, the creator, made known through Jesus Christ. Unquote. So we have this, men and women have this God-shaped vacuum, right? And they're searching, but they will not find satisfaction until they find the true God, the creator God, the logos, the Word who came to reveal the Father. But you see, as we begin to work to a conclusion, this is where we come in. This is where we come in. You know, Jesus Christ departed, and He said, Father, perhaps this is difficult, but I ask that you leave them there. But I ask that you protect them from the evil one, right? Leave them in the world. Why? Well, the world needs us, the light-bringers, right?

And so as we finish this, this is why. This is our responsibility. We have to be absolute, certain, dogmatic with regards to truth. We have to be the light in a dark culture. Do you believe in the Jesus Christ to whom John has revealed to us today? If so, may we go out, and may we be lights in the darkness, and stand against any ambiguity. Let's stand with the Apostle John's words today. Let's shine our light and proclaim the true Jesus Christ.