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Who Does Jesus Say He Is?
Who Does the Father Say Jesus Is?
Lyall Johnston—June 29, 2024
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This is God's Holy Sabbath Day, and we just rejoice with great joy that we are able to come into His presence to worship Him, to have a relationship with Him as a part of His Family as His children, but also, where possible, with one another.
We're looking at the 4th in this series: Who Do You Say Jesus Is? Now, it's very interesting because we've looked at that from the perspective of who people say Jesus is, but what we're looking at now is:
- Who Does Jesus Say He Is?
- Who does God the Father say that Jesus is?
- What are some of the things that we have learned about Who Jesus is?
We already looked at one of these, and that was that Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath Day! That's the seventh day of the week; not the first day, but the Sabbath, Saturday in the language that we use today.
The Bible calls it right from the beginning the seventh day of the week, the day that God made Holy, God blessed, and God sanctified. For the past 6,000 years that day has remained Holy, sanctified, and blessed by none other than Jesus Christ who is the Creator!
So let's have another look as to Who God and Who Christ says that He is.
John 1:1—This predates Gen. 1:1, and I'm sure many of you understand that.
- Who then does Jesus say He is?
- Who, in fact, does God the Father say that Jesus is?
That's important because it doesn't really matter what you or I say, or any other human being says, because we can be easily deceived IF we're not walking closely day-by-day with God the Father and Jesus Christ.
We know, generally speaking, that the Christianity of the Lord Jesus Christ is the world has rejected as a generality, the Old Testament. They will accept what parts they think or believe happens to be convenient, or it suits them to believe it. But when it comes down to the Law of God, the vast majority believe that has been done away and we now live by love and faith!
How is that working out? Well, it's not, because those who have rejected the Old Testament—the Law, the Prophets and the Writings as Jesus declared them to be—Jesus Himself put the stamp, His approval, His stamp mark on the three divisions of the Old Testament by His Word!
So, are you going to believe God's Word or not? The Law, the Prophets and the Writings! As we know, The Holy Bible in Its Original Order. A Faithful Version has been developed or has been established on that which Christ has said: the Law, the Prophets and the Writings. That's the way it was canonized under Ezra, under the inspiration of Christ Himself as the Lord God of the Old Testament.
We know that Jesus was the God of the Old Testament. What about the Father? Today we know that Jesus is Son of God! Well, the answer to that one is that Jesus said He came to reveal the Father, because Israel and the Jews did not know the Father.
- What does that tell us?
- Does that not tell us that Jesus is the God of the Old Testament?
Just have to think about that and you can't really come up with any other conclusion IF you want to believe what Jesus said. If you don't, you're on your own; that's the way it goes.
This is so familiar to us, but Jesus—through the writings of John—reveals to us Who He really was, is and will continue to be!
Now it's interesting that John is the one whom Christ also gave the book of Revelation to, toward the end of the first century.
John 1:1: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
So here we have this terminology, what does it really mean? John is showing this 'Word is a person,' but Word also means the One Who spoke, the Spokesman of what we know today as the Godhead!
Verse 2: "He was in the beginning with God."
Verse 3 is talking about the creation, not just of the Earth, this is talking about the creation of all things, the vastness of the universe, including planet earth:
Verse 3: "All things came into being through Him, and not even one thing that was created came into being without Him."
So, here Jesus Christ is called the Creator of all things, and as we know from other Scriptures that He was creating it by the authority of His Father, the One Who later became His Father when Jesus became a man, under that power and authority.
Together as the Godhead, the Father and the Son, the US of Gen. 1, had planned everything together. The plan included what we understand when we have a knowledge of God's Plan for mankind through the Sabbath and the Holy Days!
We have a book which you may have read—God's Plan for Mankind Revealed Through His Sabbath and Holy Days—which gives us the whole story of what God is doing through His Holy Day plan beginning with the Sabbath Day.
If we don't start there, we do not have a valid starting point; that's where everything begins. So again:
Verse 3: "All things came into being through Him, and not even one thing that was created came into being without Him. In Him was life, and the Life was the Light of men" (vs 3-4).
John again is on a subject here that is identifying the role of Jesus Christ.
Verse 5: "And the Light shines in the darkness… [and it did] …but the darkness does not comprehend it."
When Jesus came to shine the Lightness of the Kingdom of God, the Jews couldn't see it, they were blinded by their traditions, blinded by their commandments! But one day they will know, they will understand as a people.
God is going to bring them in, and they will have a very important role in the coming Kingdom of God, along with all the saints today that come from all the nations of the world.
Verse 10: "He was in the world, and the world came into being through Him, but the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him" (vs 10-11).
Who were His own? The ten northern tribes were in captivity. They had gone into the other nations, moving toward Europe, the British Isles, America, and the rest of the world, scattered because they rejected the Law of God, they rejected the Sabbath, they lost knowledge of who the true God is!
Today, they're worshipping 'the god of the sun': Satan the devil. What does Jesus say about him?
John 14:30—Jesus said: "I will not speak with you much longer, because the ruler of this world is coming… [after Christ at that stage] …but he does not have a single thing in Me."
The ruler of this world is coming! We know he came after Christ. After Christ's death, who did Satan come after? The Church that Jesus Christ was building!
- persecuting
- putting to death
- killing
Sidebar: it's interesting, in a book by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut—he makes a statement about the Church, that at the end of the first century, there was a period of darkness or shadows on the Church that Jesus Christ began to build in that first century.
He said that when that curtain or that shadow rose, the Church that was visible was entirely different from the one Jesus Christ was building, and His disciples, the last of them being John—was a different Church altogether.
And we know 400 or so years later, so many changes have been made to the Scriptures that the Church was not recognizable as the Church of God, as the Church of Jesus Christ.
Important factor, that change was subtle. Satan managed to deceive even many who were within the Church that Christ Himself was building, and they departed, they left. Where are we today? Nothing has changed!
God continually is testing us, like shaking a tree. If we're not firmly attached to that tree or to the vine, as Jesus talks about in John 14, then we can be shaken loose. But only if you or I allow it! That is your decision, that is my decision.
Now, today we know what's happening in the world, that Satan is coming after those who are:
- the brethren
- the saints
- the children of God
in the true Church
That's one of the proofs of Who Jesus is. When you understand the Church that He is continuing to build is not the large denominations claiming to be Christian!
You can claim to know Jesus, but that has got very little to do with the facts. 'Yes, I know Jesus,' but:
- What did Jesus say?
- What do His disciples, now His apostles, say? That in order to know Jesus, we must be keeping His Law!
Jesus was the Lawgiver right back beginning with the Sabbath Day.(Gen. 2:1-3). He is the Lawgiver! That's who He says He is. Right now we're looking at Who does Jesus say He was? Since Jesus is the Author of the Bible—both the Old Testament and the New Testament—what we read here is Jesus telling us Who He is.
The Word that we read about in John 1:1 is now identified, exposed or perhaps there's a better word. But His status, Who He is proclaimed! Who Jesus Christ is, the Word, Who the Word is, is declared—the Word became flesh.
The Word Who created the entirety of the universe under the government and the authority of His Father or the approval of His Father as They had worked together.
John 1:14: "And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us… [came now amongst the people of planet earth] …(and we ourselves…"
Here is the witness of the apostles of Jesus Christ the 12 apostles were called to witness to the life, the teaching, the crucifixion, the death, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. How that the rest of mankind can have that same opportunity of entering into immortality, to eternal life, living into the ages of eternity.
But there are conditions, which God outlines and the so-called Christian Churches of today reject. They've rejected the way of God into His Kingdom, into the Family of God.
There is only one Church and Paul calls that the Body of Christ. What does it require? It requires God calling an individual!
God is the One Who promotes His Gospel, the Gospel of the coming Kingdom. God wants every human being to be a part of the Gospel. God wants every human being in that Kingdom. So, God promotes it.
God calls and then the decision comes down to those who are calling. God is not calling everyone today. That's a time in the future which is part of the mystery and the secret of God, which you can find out about in our book if you haven't read it: God's Plan for Mankind Revealed Through His Sabbath and Holy Days
Such an important book to open your mind like no other book. But again, we can claim to know Christ. But if we are not keeping His commandments, and what are the commandments? The commandments based on the Ten Commandments of Exo. 20, which include the Sabbath Day.
- Why do people want to change what God has set in His Spirit by His power as the day of rest?
- Did Jesus come along and change what the Father had set in the Old Testament? No!
Christ and the Father are one; the Sabbath Day was set from the very beginning, Never changed! Those who claim it was changed are liars, thieves and cheats. God puts them in the same category as all those in ancient Israel who rejected His Sabbath Day.
- What happened to Israel?
- What happened to the nation?
- What happened to the tribe of Judah?
God sent them all into captivity! The northern ten tribes never returned. The Jews did, and for a time they were obedient. But that didn't last for long; just as it never lasted long for ancient Israel.
Every time they had a return to faith, very soon they went back to their old pagan ways. They were worshipping the gods of the Canaanites, which really, when you get right down to it, were none other than the god of Babylon, who was none other than Satan the devil.
John 1:14: "And the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us (and we ourselves beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten with the Father), full of Grace and Truth."
Jesus Christ was begotten by the seed of the Spirit, and was placed in the womb of His mother (Mary). No human being has been begotten again like that and born in the flesh as was Jesus Christ. So, here was Jesus Christ and God the Father showing us that he became flesh and brought among us; the only begotten of the Father.
Yes, we are begotten now, but the way we are begotten is:
- through the calling to the message of the Gospel
- repentance, which the message of the Gospel of the Kingdom brings us
- baptism
- the laying out of hands
- receiving of the Holy Spirit
- walking in the way of Jesus Christ, which is keeping all His commandments
Especially the one that identifies us to Him, of which the Christianity of today has discarded. The day in which we can identify Who God the Father and Jesus Christ is.
What does that tell us? That the Christianity of today, IF we are a part of it, we've got to come out of it! It's leading a path to death!
- we've got to come out
- we've got to repent
- we've got to turn to God
- we've got to start obeying and following God
"(…the only begotten with the Father), full of Grace and Truth" (v 14).
Jesus was the only begotten of the Father in that very, very special way, and born of a woman.
We are begotten by God planting His seed, the seed of His Holy Spirit, directly into our mind. That of course, includes our heart; that includes all of us. His Spirit then comes and dwells within us. What does that tell us? God Himself is dwelling within us! So, there we have it, the Word of God, the One Who speaks for the Family of God.
Genesis 1:1—I believe the Hebrew begins with 'God in the beginning…' The English version translation is:
"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."
There are so many Scriptures that show that Jesus Christ was the One Who created all things. We look up at the universe and we see what: One, two, three, four percent of what is already out there, even if we can see that. He's created everything that we can see and everything that we can't see. He created the physical from that which is invisible, a mystery that the scientists of this world are trying to discover.
They keep floundering around. Floundering around under the water, in the sand, blind to what's taking place outside in the rest of the world, in just the planet Earth.
So, there are so many of these scientists today. But there are more and more as they look at the universe coming to conviction that indeed there has to be a God. Astounded! But some will not believe it; not until they come face-to-face with Jesus Christ in:
- all His power
- all His glory
- all his might
They can do nothing other than fall in the dust, or—the alternative—reject Him. They'll have the opportunity of repenting and entering into life, or rejecting Him and being cast into the Lake of Fire where they will just simply be burned up.
They will no longer be able to disobey God. They will not enter His Kingdom as the Scriptures show the type of people that will not be in the Kingdom of God.
That's one of the things that we need to be examining to make sure that we don't fit into that category. But the category we fit into is the one outlined and sealed by the prophets of the Old Testament, and the apostles of the New Testament, set in the mighty power of God's Spirit that we can trust.
We can trust our lives on the Word of God! That's how great it is.
Genesis 1:1: In the beginning God…"—and that God we've learned is the Word who spoke and was all created was Jesus Christ. So, this is Who Jesus Christ says He is. This is Who God the Father says Jesus Christ is.
Verse 26: "And God said, 'Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness…'"
Jesus Christ formed us from the dust of the ground.
- Was the Father there?
- Was the Father looking on as Jesus Christ did this?
I'm absolutely sure that He was, because They're one, always together, always in that constant relationship, spirit to spirit, completely of:
- one mind
- one thought
- one spirit
creating human beings!
Here we are, you and me, flesh, blood, bone. God loves us! God not only created all things, but He created you and He created me. That's who Jesus Christ is. That's another one of Who Jesus Christ says He is: the Creator of the heavens and the earth.
Well, there are many others. God of the Old Testament, the Lord God of the Sabbath Day, the Savior of mankind. And that's another subject. Each one of these is another subject. The Head of the Church He is building. That is just one Church, many parts, but scattered around the world.
Revelation 1:1: "The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to Him… [the Father gave the revelation to Jesus Christ] …to show to His servants the things that are ordained tocome to pass shortly; and He [Christ]made it known, having sent it by His angel to His servant John."
So the Father gives the Word to Jesus. Jesus takes the Word and sends the Word as the Word (John 1:1) by His angel to His servant John.
Verse 7[transcriber's correction]: "Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye shall see Him, and those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth shall wail because of Him. Even so, Amen."
Now here is Jesus, the Word, the Creator, the Son of the living God, Savior of mankind, Who He declares, and this is Who He declares He is; declaring, absolutely, totally declaring, proclaiming Who He is.
Verse 8: "'I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the Ending,' says the Lord…"
The beginning of the creation and the ending of the creation and all things, which only the Father and Christ know about. They've only revealed to us what we need to know for this life.
"…the Beginning and the Ending,' says the Lord…"—and that is Jesus Christ! This is His declaration.
"…'Who is, and Who was, and Who is to come—the Almighty'" (v 8).
Let's listen to that now, set the music, as we have that recording. Such a powerful witness, God, through Christ, declaring Who are the US, Who they are!
Let's just think about the words as we watch this video, which we may have watched times before. Really powerful, inspiring, can help to bring us closer to God the Creator Who created all things, and yet, He's mindful of you and me, because He's offering us immortality, life and eternity, into the ages of eternity. {music best listened to and watched on the video}
Scriptural References:
- John 1:1-5, 10-11
- John 14:30
- John 1:14
- Genesis 1:1, 26
- Revelation 1:1, 7-8
Scriptures referenced, not quoted:
- Genesis 2:1-3
- Exodus 20
Also referenced: Book {truthofGod.org}
God's Plan for Mankind Revealed by His Sabbath and Holy Days by Fred R. Coulter
LJ:bo/po
Transcribed: 7/4/24
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