Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20050529.htm

JOHN: TRUSTING IN JESUS AS MESSIAH AND GOD
Part V: Trusting In Jesus As Eternal God Versus Opposing Views
(John 1:1, 17-18)

Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

Several people have asked me about the implications taught in Dan Brown's book, The Da Vinci Code, a work that has become a bestseller in 150 nations in the two years it has been on the market. According to a June 2005 circular from Mart De Haan of the Radio Bible Class out of Grand Rapids, Michigan, this book implies Christianity is a grand hoax!

Brown's book promotes the belief that Jesus Christ was not considered to be God until the fourth century Roman Emperor, Constantine, felt it was in his political interests to give "Jesus 'an impenetrable cloak of divinity'" ( The Da Vinci Code, p. 233 as cited in the Radio Bible Class circular, "Been Thinking About," by Mart De Haan, June 2005, p. 2). Accordingly, Brown's book implies that a huge cover-up occurred to form modern Christianity that holds Jesus to be God where the true Jesus was but a mere man who sired a daughter by Mary Magdalene. This secret was allegedly held by a society of famous people including men like the great artist, Leonardo Da Vinci!

That leaves The Da Vinci Code implying Jesus is not fully God as do Christian Science and Freemasonry that deny He is the Eternal God, or Islam that holds Jesus was a mere prophet who was superseded in authority and ministry by a later and greater prophet in Mohammed, or Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons who claim Jesus was not initially God, but was elevated to that position after His creation by God, cf. Gary L. Wall, "A catalogue of the cults: Where they stand on the deity of Christ," Moody Monthly , July-Aug. 1979.

However, IF Jesus Christ is NOT the Eternal God, He is not God's SON as the Apostle JOHN claimed Him to be in John 20:31, an identity that made Him coequal and co-eternal with God the Father in view of John 5:17-18.

If Jesus is not the Son of God, then the Gospel of salvation by faith in Him that John promoted in John 3:16 ERRS, and we have no hope of salvation in what the Bible teaches on salvation!

Thus, we must establish on what GROUNDS we at Nepaug Church can ADHERE to our belief that Jesus is the Eternal God, and do so in view of the opposing beliefs of these other religions and what is promoted in Dan Brown's book, The Da Vinci Code!



(We turn to the sermon "Need" section . . . )

Need: "The Da Vinci Code implies the belief that Jesus is God arose in the FOURTH century A. D. when Rome's Constantine felt it was in his best political interests to give Jesus "an impenetrable cloak of divinity" (Ibid., p. 233)! This implication sides with views by other main religions that Jesus is NOT the Eternal God. Yet, Nepaug Church holds He IS the Eternal God! Since holding to His CREDIBILITY as Eternal God is KEY to our faith according to John 20:31, on what BASIS may we say Jesus is the Eternal God?!"
  1. In view of the external and internal evidence on John 1:1, 17-18, the BELIEF that Christ is Eternal God is VERY EARLY and STRONG:
    1. John's Gospel has been shown by scientists to be a first century work:
      1. A fragment of John 18:31-32 (the Rylands fragment) was found in Egypt and dated A. D. 100-150 by the "competent paleographers" C. H. Roberts, H. I. Bell, A. Deissmann, W. H. P. Hatch and F. G. Kenyon (Merrill F. Unger, Archaeology and the N. T., p. 21).
      2. Marchant King notes this fragment bears an EXACT Alexandrian text type reading, so it was at least a copy of a complete copy of John's Gospel. (cf. Bibliotheca Sacra [1973] 130:517, p. 35-40)
      3. This fragment came from Egypt's "hinterlands," so decades were needed for John's complete Gospel to travel from its author to that area, meaning John wrote this Gospel no later than 90 A. D., Ibid.
    2. Well, this first century work strongly claims Jesus IS Eternal God:
      1. John 1:18 CONTRASTS the superiority of Jesus' Person and work to that of Judaism's Moses in John 1:17, cf. Henry Alford, The Greek Testament: Volume I, The Four Gospels, (1854) p. 622.
      2. John meant Moses could not give man God's fulness of grace and truth as "he had no immediate sight of God, and no man can have: there is but One who can [exegete Him]" (Ibid.) (brackets ours)
      3. Then, in vast superiority to Moses, John stated Jesus as the Eternal God came from God and fully revealed Him , 1:1, 17-18:
        1. Unlike Judaism's great prophet, Moses who had no "intuitive and infallible knowledge" of God the Father, John wrote Jesus in superior CONTRAST had such insight, 1:17, 18, Ibid.
        2. This truth rises from the fact that, in contrast to Moses, Jesus was the unique and ONLY GOD Who came from the "bosom" of "intimate union" with the Father as coequal, co-eternal GOD, John 1:1, 18b, Ibid.: (a) The earliest, most credible manuscripts at v. 18 read "only begotten God" where others read "only begotten Son", "only begotten Son of God" or "only Begotten" (Bruce M. Metzger, A Text. Com. on the Grk. N. T., p. 198). (b) As saying Jesus was God's Son in John's day made Jesus equal with the Father (John 5:17-18), any reading chosen makes Jesus co-eternal and coequal GOD with the Father!
      4. John claimed the revelation of the Father by Jesus Who is the Eternal God was thus infinitely superior to that of Moses:
        1. John wrote Jesus "had declared" the Father (John 1:18c KJV).
        2. This verb is exeygesato, from which our word, "exegeted" comes, Bible Know. Com., N. T., p. 273; thus, Jesus has fully expounded Who and What God the Father is and does!
  2. These facts UNDERMINE claims by religions and the implication of The Da Vinci Code that Jesus is NOT the Eternal God:
    1. Disciples of Christian Science and Freemasonry claim Jesus is only a man (Gary L. Wall, "A catalogue of the cults: Where they stand on the deity of Christ," Moody Monthly, July-Aug., 1979), but the first century A. D. claim of John 1:1, 18b holds He IS the Eternal God.
    2. Those who heed Islam say Jesus was a prophet who was superseded in teaching and authority by Mohammed (Ibid.), but the first century A. D. claim of John 1:18b,c,d makes Jesus the co-eternal, coequal God with the Father Who, unlike the man Mohammed, has full intuitive and infallible insight of God since He has been eternally in perfect union with Him; Jesus then fully expounded God to man so that no one else, be it Mohammed or any other, can supersede Jesus.
    3. Both Jehovah Witness and Mormon religions assert Jesus was a created being who became God (Ibid.), but the early witness of John 1:1, 18b reveals He is the coequal, co-eternal God with the Father.
    4. Dan Brown's book, The Da Vinci Code implies Jesus was not viewed as God until the fourth century A. D., but as we established in section "I,A" above, STRONG claims as to Christ's FULL ETERNAL DEITY were made by John's Gospel in the FIRST century A. D. in keeping with the evidence of the Rylands fragment!
Application: As John STRONGLY asserted in the FIRST century that Jesus is the Eternal God Who came in the flesh and has fully revealed the Father, may we trust in Him for eternal life opposite claims by The Da Vinci Code and views to the contrary, John 3:16.

Lesson: In INFINITE SUPERIORITY to God's prophet in Moses, and so in CONTRAST to views by OTHER RELIGIONS to the CONTRARY, John's Gospel in the FIRST century A. D. STRONGLY claimed Jesus is co-eternal, coequal GOD with the Father Who fully revealed the Father.

Conclusion: (To illustrate the sermon lesson . . . )

 The implication by The Da Vinci Code that it was Constantine who first introduced the belief that Jesus was God is itself an incredible idea in light of the history of the persecution of the Christian Church!

The Roman official, Pliny the Younger, wrote to Emperor Trajan who ruled A. D. 98-117 over 180 years before the reign of Constantine, and, in that letter told of the test he gave to determine if a person charged with being a Christian was to be executed as one!

We here cite Pliny's words: "I have asked the accused themselves if they were Christians; if they said 'Yes,' I asked them a second and third time, warning them of the penalty; if they persisted I ordered them to be led off to execution . . . Some . . . denied that they were Christians . . . at my dictation they invoked the gods and did reverence with incense and wine to your image . . . they also cursed Christ; and as I am informed that people who are really Christians cannot possibly be made to do any of those things , I considered that the people who did them should be discharged [from being executed]." (brackets ours) (F. F. Bruce, Jesus and Christian Origins Outside the New Testament, p. 24-26)

Well, the extensive persecution of Christians that occurred BEFORE the era of Constantine of which we have much physical evidence in the form of catacombs and by way of secular record arose because Christians REFUSED to WORSHIP the PAGAN GODS in deference to worshiping CHRIST as GOD!

So, for Dan Brown's book, The Da Vinci Code to imply Christians did not consider Jesus to be God until Constantine's era LOGICALLY CONTRADICTS the REASON for all the millions of Christian martyrdoms that occurred for the Christian VIEW that Jesus was GOD in the 180 years BEFORE the time of Constantine!



So, in obedience to the TRUE GOD of the BIBLE, we hold that Christ is the coequal, co-eternal God with God the Father!

May we then RESIST adopting ideas by RELIGIONS or IMPLICATIONS by authors that Jesus is NOT fully God. THEN can we be ASSURED of believing the TRUTH to be TRULY SAVED by the TRUE ETERNAL SALVATION unto the TRUE God's TRUE HEAVEN.