Grace Church
257 Kendall Street
Burlington, WI 53105

(262) 763-3021

The Name Matthew 16:13-19 We Believe Sermon Series #6 When I was a kid, I remember singing a song called “Don’t wish me Merry X-mas.” The focus was that in the midst of the commercialism, we need to keep Christ in Christmas, that Jesus is the reason for the season. But there is a powerful new movement in Western Culture – the Tolerance Movement. The premise is that for the sake of unity, we need to eradicate our diversity, particularly any spiritual or religious diversity. Media and governmental bureaucrats are tolerant of everything and anything except Biblical Christianity, the Gospel of salvation and the Lord Jesus Christ. The bottom line is that they want to get Christ out of Christianity. In our “tolerant” society everything is tolerated but Christianity.   A classic example of that was the firestorm that erupted at the inauguration four years ago over the prayer by Franklin Graham, Billy Graham’s oldest son. The media had a feeding frenzy. What was the big deal? In his prayer Franklin Graham said, “Now, O Lord, we dedicate this Presidential Inaugural Ceremony to You. May this be the beginning of a new dawn for America.  As we humble ourselves before You, and acknowledge You alone, as our Lord, our Savior, and our Redeemer.” And then he closed his prayer with, “We pray this in the name of the Father, and of the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, And of the Holy Spirit. Amen.” What was so offensive? Franklin Graham invoked The Name, the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. A generic God is tolerated but it is politically incorrect to talk about the Lord Jesus Christ. If you pay careful attention, while you will hear a lot of talk about God and the name of God mentioned in the public arena, you will rarely hear The Name, the name of the Lord Jesus Christ today.   After one of my own public prayers, another minister questioned me as to whether I should be praying “In Jesus’ Name” at a public setting. Our age is not very interested in theological precision. "God," for most Americans, is an important person in whom to believe, but it does not seem to make much difference who He is or whether the one we worship as God is the correct one. Often it is considered dangerous for a person to die an atheist, but less concern is expressed about the eternal status of the person who, though believing in "God," has rejected Jesus Christ.   The Bible teaches that anything other than worship of the true God is idolatry. It is spiritually disastrous to worship a general "God." Biblical Christianity does not consider other religions benign or honorable. >From the Christian perspective, religion without Jesus is as dangerous as atheism. To seek to know or worship God in any way other than through the person and work of Christ is to invite God’s wrath and judgment. It is a particular God who is described for us by God Himself in Scripture and history. And Jesus Christ is the key to knowing God.   This morning we have come to this affirmation in the Apostles’ Creed, “I believe in Jesus Christ His only Son, Our Lord.” Jesus Christ is the center of the Creed. As God is the object, Jesus Christ is the content indicating what God is like. More space is given to Jesus Christ than to all other elements in the Creed. Of its 110 words, 70 of them refer directly to Jesus Christ. Without Jesus the Creed would be empty! The first and the third articles of the Apostles Creed are properly understood only in the light of the second, the Creed’s great middle section. It is only through the Lord Jesus Christ, that we truly know God as the Father and as the Holy Spirit. As we consider this phrase of the Creed, we need to ask . . . The most important question, “Who is Jesus Christ?” Of all the questions that might be posed today, none is more important than this. It is no exaggeration to say that this is the central question of history and the most important issue anyone will ever face. Who is Jesus Christ? Where did He come from? Why did He come? And what difference does His coming make in my life? In the end, every person must deal with Jesus Christ. No one can escape Him. You can avoid the question, delay it, or pretend you didn’t hear it. But sooner or later you must answer it.   It’s not a new question. It’s as old as the coming of Christ to earth. Once when Jesus took His disciples on a retreat to a place called Caesarea Philippi, He asked them, “Who do people say that I am?”  Turn to Matthew 16:13-16. Notice that they offered four responses: John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets. Even when Jesus walked on this earth, people were confused as to His true identity.   This discussion still continues today. Visit any Internet religious chat room and you’ll find a bewildering array of opinions regarding Jesus. Here are some contemporary answers to the question “Who is Jesus Christ?” “A good man... The Son of God...A Prophet...A Galilean rabbi...A good teacher...the Embodiment of God’s Love...A Reincarnated Spirit Master...The Ultimate Revolutionary...the Messiah of Israel...Savior...A first‑century wise man...a man just like any other man...a misunderstood teacher...a deluded religious leader...a fabrication of the early church.” So which answer will you give?    You see, after Jesus asked His disciples for the opinions of others, He turned to them asked for their answer: “But you, who do you say that I am?” In the end, each of us faces the same question. You can’t get away with quoting the opinions of others. You have to make up your own mind.   So who is Jesus Christ? More importantly, how does your answer stack up with the Bible? That’s a critical question because it is not enough to say, “I believe in Jesus.” Millions claim to believe in Jesus who don’t have a clue about what the Bible says about Him. Which Jesus do you believe in?   Thankfully, we don’t have to wonder who Jesus is. For 2,000 years Christians have affirmed their faith in Jesus with these words, “I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord.”    The Christian faith is all about Jesus! He is the heart and core, the touchstone of all that we believe. You can be mistaken on some secondary issues and still be a Christian, but if you are wrong about Jesus Christ, you are wrong in the worst possible place. Our faith in Jesus must be more than just an emotional experience of “having Jesus in my heart.” Our faith must rest on the revealed truth about Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord.   If we take this clause from the Creed and examine it, we can see that it really contains four statements: I believe in Jesus; I believe He is the Christ; I believe He is God’s only Son; I believe He is the Lord. Each of these statements deserves close examination. These titles were commonly used by the early church to describe their faith. Sometimes they used the familiar symbol of the fish, which in Greek is IXTHUS. Those letters were an acrostic for four of the words found in this phrase of the Creed. The letter I is the first letter of “Jesus” in Greek. The letter X is the first letter of “Christ” in Greek. The letters TH stand for the first letter of “God” in Greek. The letter U is the first letter of “Son” in Greek. The letter S is the first letter of “Savior” in Greek. The word IXTHUS (and the fish symbol) stood as shorthand for, “Jesus Christ, God’s Son, our Savior.” Who is Jesus Christ? The Apostles’ Creed gives us Four Answers. 1. He is the Savior. Scholars tell us that the name Jesus was a very common name among the Jews in the first century. There were at least ten other men named “Jesus” who lived in Judea at the same time as our Lord. There were at least five Jewish high priests who were named “Jesus.” The name itself is the Greek version of the Old Testament “Joshua.” Even in parts of Latin America today, Jesus is still a common name. If you watch boxing, you’ll find many Latin American boxers are called Jesus. It always seems strange to see somebody called Jesus beating up on somebody called Jesus. But it’s just a common name. The name Jesus, however, is full of significance.   The unique thing about the baby born of Mary in Bethlehem two thousand years ago is that His name really describes who He is. The name Jesus means “God is Savior.” Notice the emphasis on God. It points out the eternal significance of this name. When we say "Jesus," we are saying that God, the eternal one, is eternally committed to the salvation of human beings. In Matthew 1, when the baby was named, it was said, “He would be called Jesus, for He would save His people from their sins.”   Paul writes of Jesus as our Savior in Colossians 1. “For He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (vss. 13-14).   Man’s greatest problem is that he is a sinner. It’s a problem that he can not solve himself. And it is a problem that can not be solved by some worldly philosophy, a religious teacher or Guru. What we need is a Savior. Paul in these verses tells us about what Jesus does for us, as our Savior. In verses 13 and 14 we see three saving acts of Christ vividly described.   a) Jesus has rescued us. First of all Paul says that Jesus “has rescued us.” The word used here, implies to be rescued from danger. During an earthquake that hit California in the early 90’s, the news coverage showed a rescue made at an apartment complex in Reseda where a three-story apartment building, became a two-story apartment building as the 2nd and 3rd floors collapsed on to the first floor. This building was where nearly half of all the people killed in the earthquake were when the deadly event occurred. The cameras showed several rescuers pulling a man from within the debris and rubble of that apartment building, as the crowd that was gathered applauded his rescue. This man had been lying near death for over 5 hours; he was trapped inside, helpless. He needed someone to rescue him...he was powerless to help himself. There was nothing that he could do but pray and hope. And if no one came to his rescue certain death awaited him.   Paul says that Jesus has rescued us; Christ has rescued the Christian from the dominion of darkness. The aorist tense of the Greek verb indicates that this is a one-time event in the past and not a continuous action. There was a time when the Christian like the man in Reseda was trapped under a collapsing building of sin, powerless to save himself, with certain death just up a head.   There was also a time, when we responded to Christ in faith and we were then pulled out by His blood, from the ruins of sin. We needed a Savior to rescue us and Jesus Christ has. But not only has He rescued us...   b) Jesus has transported us. After the rescuers rescued the man from the crumbling building in California, what did they do with him? Leave him lying on the ground? No!! They transported him to a place where he could receive the medical treatment he needed.   In a similar way, when God rescued us from the dominion of darkness, when He freed us from the power of sin and Satan... He did not abandon us. Nor did He leave us to wander aimlessly, but rather He brought us into the kingdom of God. He brought us from darkness into light, from death into life.   Christians at the moment of their salvation are brought into the Kingdom of God. We do not have to wait until Christ comes for the establishment of His kingdom, it’s already here. As Hebrews 12 states, “We have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. We have come to thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven...” Jesus has rescued us and transported us into His kingdom...   c) Jesus has redeemed us. The word redemption means “the buying back of something that has been sold” or “the release of a prisoner by payment of ransom.”  The tragic truth is that we had sold ourselves into condemnation in order to practice sin. And we were held (and some still are held) in prison, by that same sin. But that’s not the final chapter. Praise the Lord! Jesus has bought us back, as Peter writes, “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as gold or silver that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, But with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect” (1 Pet. 1:18-19). We who know Jesus as our personal Savior owe a great debt because He has rescued us, transported us and redeemed us. 2. He is the Christ. Let’s dispense with one idea very quickly,  “Christ” is not Jesus’ last name. He didn’t grow up in the “Christ” family. Christ is not a family name; it’s a title. To be precise, we should call him “Jesus the Christ.”    When you see President Bush on TV, you know that “President” is not his first name, it’s his title, the name of the office he holds. In the same way, the term “Christ” describes one of Jesus’ divinely‑appointed titles.   The word “Christ” comes from a Greek word that itself comes from a Hebrew word that means “the anointed one.” We often translate it as “the Messiah.” In the Old Testament, prophets, priests and kings were anointed when they formally began their service for God. The anointing was a sign that God had called them to their position. To call Jesus “the Christ” means that He is the one whom God promised to send to deliver Israel and bring salvation to the world, that He is the anointed one.   At Christmastime when we sing, Come, Thou Long‑Expected Jesus, we are referring to this truth. A river of connected history flows from Genesis to Revelation, spanning thousands of years and hundreds of generations. Those who believe the Bible have long argued that although it contains 66 books written by many different people over 1,500 years, it has but one message: God’s plan to bring salvation to the world through Jesus Christ. In one way or the other, everything in the Bible fits around that great theme. The Old Testament is about Anticipation; The Gospels, the Incarnation; The book of Acts, Proclamation; The Epistles, Explanation; The book of Revelation, Consummation. The Old Testament says, “He is coming!” The Gospels say, “He is here!” The book of Acts says, “He has come!” The Epistles say, “He is Lord!” Revelation says, “He is coming again!”   The Old Testament is filled with promises of His coming: 1) He will be the “seed of the woman” – Genesis 3:15. 2) He will be a descendant of Shem – Genesis 9:26. 3) He will be a descendant of Abraham – Genesis 12:2‑3. 4) He will be a descendant of Isaac – Genesis 22:18. 5) He will be a descendant of Jacob – Genesis 28:14. 6) He will come from the tribe of Judah – Genesis 49:10. 7) He will be a descendant of David – II Samuel 7:11‑16. 8) He will be born of a virgin – Isaiah 7:14. 9) He will be born in Bethlehem – Micah 5:2.   Who would fit all those qualifications? Many people could fit the first few on the list, but only one person in history fits them all: Jesus Christ. So we say to our Jewish friends, with love and respect, “The One for whom you are waiting has already come to the earth. He came 2,000 years ago. He is your Messiah. His name is Jesus Christ.” When I say “I believe in Jesus Christ”, I am saying that I believe that He is the Messiah, God’s Anointed One. My friend, can you say, "I believe in Jesus Christ and His Messiahship?"    3. He is God’s only Son. I believe in Jesus Christ, His only son. The little word only seems superfluous, like it’s just there for padding. But it isn’t. On more than one occasion in Scripture, Jesus is described as "the only begotten." To be begotten means to be born. The other old‑fashioned word that you find in the genealogies of the Bible is begat. "So and so begat so and so, and so and so begat so and so." There was an awful lot of begetting going on in those days. And everybody who begot was begotten. The idea was that they were born of their father. When the Bible says though that Jesus is the only begotten of the Father, this has led people to say, "Well, if Jesus was begotten of the Father, he must have had a mother. And who was his mother?" Some people have then tried to put two and two together and come up with the wonderful answer that God the father had a wife called the virgin mother, and they had an infant Jesus, and together the three make up the holy trinity.   That is the fallacy that has led Islam to flatly reject Jesus as the Son of God, because they see His only begottenship as being a purely physical thing, God having sex with a virgin and producing the infant Jesus. They say, "That is repugnant, that is totally unacceptable, and we reject it."   If you talk to a Jehovah’s Witness, or more accurately, if you listen to a Jehovah’s Witness, you discover that they love to take you to these "begotten" passages. They say, "There you are; He can’t be God because He is begotten of God, He is born, He is created like anything else."   Would we agree then that understanding Christ’s begottenness is a crucial foundation of Christianity? The Greek word translated as "the only begotten" is monogenas. If you never remember another Greek word, please remember monogenas. Mono as in monologue—one person doing all the talking, as opposed to dialogue, where we have a conversation. Mono, therefore, means "one." Génas is the word from which we get genes or genetic or gender. It has to do with kind or nature. I am what I am to a certain extent because of my genetic structure. Where did I get my genetic structure from? I got my genetic structure from my parents. I am one of a kind with them. I am of the same nature as them—and like them. A child is told, “You look like your father," or “you look like your mother.” They are simply saying that the child is of a kind, of a nature, of an essence, of his/her parents. That’s what Génas means.   Monogenas means, literally, "one of a kind." When it says that Jesus is the only begotten Son, it is not talking about Him being created, as being inferior to God. It’s saying exactly the opposite. He is of the same kind, the same genes, the same nature, the same essence of God. He is God. But there’s only one of Him; He is unique. He is uniquely God demonstrated in human form.   That’s very important because it’s at this point that Christianity must take a stand. For there are many, many other people who will believe in a vague creator and maker, who believe as the Muslims do, that Jesus was virgin born, was a prophet, and that He is the Messiah, but who don’t believe that He is God himself manifest in the flesh.   The wonder of this comes through in John 3:16: "God so loved the world that He gave His monogenas Son." What does it mean that He gave Him? It means that He gave Him up to die on the cross. The foundation of the Christian faith is that Jesus Christ, the only begotten of the Father, one of a kind, God Himself died on the cross on our behalf. Some people have objected to the doctrine of the Atonement, saying that God was all holy and man was all sinful, so God looked around for some poor unsuspecting character that He could kill on the cross for people’s sins. That is absolutely not true, for when Christ died on the cross, He was one of a kind with the Father. It is God Himself Who bears our sins in His own body on the cross. 4. He is our Lord. The final title given to Jesus relates to you and me. He is “our Lord,” not just “the Lord.” The Greek word is kurios. This word occurs many times in the New Testament, and it was also common throughout the Roman Empire. Its basic meaning is “absolute ruler.” To call Jesus “Lord” means that He is sovereign over the entire universe, and He has the right of sovereign rule over you and me.   Romans 10:9 says that “if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”    Notice how simple that phrase is, “Jesus is Lord.” To confess with the mouth means more though than simply saying the words. It means to agree from the heart that you believe what you are saying.   In order to understand this properly, we need a bit of background on how the Romans ruled their vast empire. Because the empire stretched from Europe into the Middle East and across the northern coast of Africa, it encompassed many provinces and thus included many local religions. Scholars speak of the “mystery religions” that were found in many parts of the empire. Each of the various religions has its own code of conduct, its own sacred scriptures, its own pattern of worship, form of sacrifice, sacred rites, priesthood, and so on. Because these religions tended to keep people pacified, the Romans left them alone as much as possible. Rome required only that taxes be paid and that everyone be required to say, “Caesar is Lord.” That’s all—just three simple words. Say “Caesar is Lord,” and then go on about your business. Affirm that Caesar was sovereign and then follow whatever religion suited you. For many people in the Empire, that was no big burden. But Christians absolutely refused to say, “Caesar is Lord.” They simply wouldn’t say it. How could they say, “Caesar is Lord” when their faith taught them that “Jesus is Lord?” They could not and would not deny Christ. That’s why during those early days, Christians were slaughtered, murdered by the thousands, crucified, burned at the stake, run through with the sword, and thrown to the wild animals. This was the great dividing line that Christians would not cross.   Chuck Colson notes that in the 1st century, if you stood in a public gathering and cried out, “Jesus is God!” no one would be upset. But if you shouted, “Jesus is Lord!” you would start a riot. Let us be crystal‑clear about this. Rome did not persecute Christians because they believed in the deity of Christ, or that Jesus was the promised Messiah, or that Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead. Rome did not kill Christians because they said Jesus is the only way of salvation. Those religious beliefs did not threaten the state. But when Christians declared, “Jesus Christ is our Lord, and there is no other!” that was a direct attack on Caesar‑worship, and thus punishable by death.   That is why the Lordship of Christ matters so much. To call him “Lord” means that we surrender all we have to Him, and we follow Him gladly wherever He leads, whatever it costs. Nowhere does Scripture teach or allow the insidious notion that we can honor Jesus as Savior, as Messiah, or as Christ but not Jesus as our Lord. We are not permitted to accept one relationship while ignoring the other. Either Jesus is Lord of all or He is not Lord at all. Conclusion: Today it’s not popular to make such dogmatic statements. It’s not “tolerant” to pray “in The Name, Jesus’ Name.” Most people, even some Christians, prefer not to emphasize the defining issues of the Christian faith. It’s certainly not Politically Correct to talk about Jesus in these terms. “You are trying to divide people,” someone says. Well, yes, I am. Sometimes we need to be divided. It is better to divide over truth than to unite around error.   But the most important issue is not political correctness; it’s spiritual correctness. My friend, can you say from your heart, “I believe in Jesus Christ His only Son, our Lord?” The Greek word for “owner” is “kurioi.” It’s the same Greek word translated "Lord" in our New Testament. The practical application of Christ’s lordship is His ownership of our lives. If Jesus is Lord, then He must take ownership of my life. I give Him my allegiance. I believe, not only in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, but also in Jesus Christ His only Son, our Lord.   Stuart Briscoe shares this powerful story that I’ll close with this morning. He writes: “When Jill and I got married, I was a young banker and Jill was a young schoolteacher. We needed a house in Manchester, where I’d been transferred by the bank, and because they brought me in from another town, they helped me a little bit. And this is how they did it. The bank would sometimes have to repossess houses where the mortgage had been in default. Banks, in those days, hated to repossess, it was terribly embarrassing to them. But if the house was the only collateral they had, they sometimes did it most reluctantly. Then they didn’t know what to do with the houses. So they would take them and make them available to young people like me who they d transferred in from another town. They gave this house to us at the principal rent of twelve shillings and sixpence a week, which in those days was approximately two dollars a week, about what it was worth, and about what we could afford.   There was only one problem, however. Here we were, a young married couple, embarking on living happily ever after, but the previous tenant wouldn’t get out. Although the house was ours, we couldn’t take possession of it. So I talked to Jill about it, and I said, "It is very awkward, Jill, because the previous tenant won’t get out." "Well," she said, "tell him to get out." I said, "It’s a little awkward. He’s my boss." And she said, "What’s he doing in there anyway? He doesn’t need to be in cheap housing like that." I said, "He’s cheap. He’s my boss and he’s cheap. And I can’t get him out." She said, "What are we going to do?" I said, "Well, I could talk to him and see if we could move in with him." She said, "Absolutely not." She didn’t seem to think that was a very good idea, which is true of a number of my ideas. I remember her saying, "It’s just not fair." And I said, "Jill, you’re absolutely right. There’s no justice in this thing at all. That’s our house. And this person won’t get out. He is keeping possession of what isn’t his."   It’s not fair and more importantly, it’s not right that some people say "I believe in Jesus Christ. God’s only Son, my Lord," and they still keep possession of what they say is His.   My friend, to profess Jesus Christ as Lord means that He has ownership over all of my life, every last bit. And I honestly declare, "My Lord and my God." That’s what it means to believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord.