[0:00] Well, let me just encourage Stephen for bringing us into prayer.
[0:16] ! I think it was almost just for that moment of prayer that we started to hear all the racket and ruckus from the back. And then it stopped when you stopped, so that just gave me a reminder that I need to look at getting a new door for that.
[0:30] But thank you, Stephen. Well done. This morning, throughout December, we're taking a little break from Mark's gospel.
[0:43] And this morning, I'm going to be looking at a subject called the pre-existence of Christ. And so I will be in selected scriptures, and perhaps you can have a thumb in John chapter 1.
[0:57] But I'm going to be darting about the scriptures. And apologies ahead of time. It might be a longer sermon, but I didn't have enough time to write a shorter one.
[1:13] It takes longer to do that. Would you believe it? Heavenly Father, as we open your word at various verses and consider such great things as your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, please would you help us to shake off any preconceived notions and views that we might have that are too small for your Son.
[1:57] Please help us by your Spirit, who would glorify Jesus, and that you would be glorified through Jesus.
[2:07] Jesus, as we consider this now, may you teach us. May you stir within us and raise our minds and our hearts to greater levels that we might have a very rich and high view of Jesus, your Son.
[2:31] We ask these things for His sake, for His glory, and for our own good. Amen. Let me ask a question.
[2:43] What is your earliest memory? Have a wee think. This is a memory test now. What's the earliest memory that you have of your own life?
[2:53] I wonder what kind of age you're reaching. Maybe it was just last week.
[3:08] When I was a boy, I told my family that I remembered having a previous life. I gave them various details.
[3:20] Funnily enough, the whole story was in black and white. And my grandpa told everyone in the pub. And I can't remember how long this went on for, but I know that one day I said to my family that I was just making it up.
[3:37] And they were not pleased. Especially my grandpa. And I don't know if he ever confessed to his friends in the pub that his grandson was making it up.
[3:49] But they weren't pleased. I think for many people there's this desire, this intrigue, even a hope to see that this world isn't all there is.
[4:03] People jump at those kind of things. some sense of spirituality and meaning in life. Why are we here? One of the questions of my childhood genuinely was, why am I me?
[4:21] Why am I me and not you? Why are we here? Now, in terms of your memory, I wonder what your earliest memories were. Anyone have a memory of being a toddler?
[4:37] Yeah. Good memory. Sometimes, I mean, usually it's probably around the age of three years old.
[4:49] It's believed that the hippocampus plays a major part, I don't know what side it's on, somewhere in there. The hippocampus part of your brain plays a major role in forming memories.
[5:01] However, in babies and infants, the hippocampus is still underdeveloped. And it's adding new neurons every single day. And as such, the earliest memories people generally have are from about the ages of two or three or above.
[5:17] Sometimes it differs depending on the culture how much we place an importance on memories. It tends to be in Eastern cultures, they don't place a lot of importance on why a child should remember something.
[5:32] However, so it varies. But we simply don't have the tools to form lasting memories before our infanthood. Now, there are a very few cases of very simple memories earlier in the few people who have a rare condition called H-SAM.
[5:54] You can look that up later. They have memories of every single day of their lives. It's unbelievable. And some of them even go as far back as being a baby.
[6:06] There's a woman who claims to have a memory of the womb. Very simplistic memory. However, it's related to this condition called H-SAM. Now, we can often think that we have a memory because we've seen pictures or been told stories.
[6:24] But I'm guessing that for most of us your earliest memory wasn't before you started walking and talking. No matter how good our memory is, we don't have memories of a time before we had a hippocampus.
[6:40] Does that make sense? Before we had a brain, we don't have memories of a time before we had a brain. Contrary to the stories that a child, a little fibbing child like me, can tell, we cannot actually remember a time before we existed.
[6:59] Yet the amazing thing about the Christ of Christmas is that He pre-existed before His birth. As we approach Christmas and we ponder the birth of Jesus, we often think about the fulfillment of a promise.
[7:14] How this period in history and this place in geography and this parentage in genealogy all point toward this baby being the Messiah. He's the one Israel has been waiting for.
[7:27] We get the picture that His birth is significant. This child is special, a new king, the true king. The Christ has been born. We read of Simeon, the devout man in the temple, holding the baby Jesus in His arms and saying, My eyes have seen your salvation.
[7:49] Yet as we think about this moment in history, we must remember that the story of Jesus does not begin with a birth. The story of Jesus does not even begin with an ancient prophecy or a celestial sign in the sky.
[8:04] Rather, the story begins with a person who already was and who always was and who always will be. the eternal Son of God. Unlike us, His birth is not His origin.
[8:19] It is His advent, His arrival. Though we might have been a twinkle in our parents' eyes, our conception and birth really is the beginning of our existence.
[8:31] But the birth of Jesus is not His beginning. It's actually His becoming. The birth of Jesus isn't His beginning, it's His becoming. In His birth, one who preexisted became flesh and dwelt among us.
[8:49] Yet He was known by another name and in another form prior to that. And this is called the preexistence of Christ. Those who were there and saw Jesus dwell among them, those who heard Him and seen Him with their own eyes and touched Him with their hands, they testified as eyewitnesses that they had actually laid eyes upon that which is from the beginning.
[9:14] That's what they said. That they laid eyes on that which is from the beginning of all things. They had come face to face with the cause of all things and the origin of life itself.
[9:26] And when they came face to face with the origin of life itself, they found it was a person. A person they could see and hear and touch. That's what John wrote.
[9:38] John being one of the closest friends and disciples of Jesus on this earth. In 1 John 1, the apostle writes, concerning the word of life, the life was made manifest and we have seen it and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the Father and was made manifest to us.
[10:04] Can you believe that? John probably spent more time with Jesus than almost anyone else as Jesus was preaching and performing mighty works. And from what John heard and saw and felt, he concluded that he had come into the contact, he had come into contact with the first cause of all that exists.
[10:25] The creator of all things. The very essence of life itself. And it was a person. the Son of God incarnate. Now, not everyone believes that about Jesus.
[10:39] Not everybody wants to believe that about Jesus. And not everyone who saw Jesus wanted to conclude that either. But this is the claim of his chosen witnesses.
[10:53] The New Testament teaches thoroughly the preexistence of Christ. The first to bear witness about Christ and his preexistence was perhaps you could say John the Baptist.
[11:08] In John chapter 1 verse 15, if you have it there, have a wee look. John chapter 1 verse 15, it says, John bore witness about him and cried out, this was he of whom I said, he who is coming after me has come before me for he was before me.
[11:33] Now, you might have a different translation in there, but the idea is the one who is coming after me is actually before me because he was before me. And then again in verse 30, John is testifying, after me comes a man who comes before me because he was before me.
[11:55] Or as other translations put it, after me comes a man who comes before me because he existed before me. And this is what the Greek is saying here.
[12:07] Jesus appeared publicly, chronologically after John, and we know that he was born chronologically after John, yet he ranks before John.
[12:18] He is superior to John because he was chronologically prior to John. He preexisted John. It's the same in the Greek as our translations that there's a statement of chronology, there's a statement of rank, and then there's a statement of chronology.
[12:38] John was born before Jesus, yet he claims that Jesus not only outranks him, but he predates him. And contextually, the apostle mentions this twice.
[12:50] Just notice what John the apostle is doing by including this twice in chapter 1. The apostle mentions it twice, the first of which comes immediately after he writes that the Word became flesh, which his prologue is all about the Word pre-existing before becoming flesh.
[13:08] So it's no mistake to think that the testimony of John the Baptist is talking about the pre-existence of Christ, because that's one of the big points in the beginning of this gospel.
[13:21] Now, John the apostle opens his gospel telling us more about the pre-existence of Jesus than he tells us about his birth or his early life. He spends a lot of time ensuring that when he mentions the name Jesus, we have a thorough understanding that this Jesus existed long before he appeared in the flesh and dwelt in this world.
[13:45] Like his first letter, he speaks of Jesus as the source of all life and the creator of all that exists. John 1.1 says, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
[14:05] Remember 1 John 1, he refers to the Word of life, and the life, and the eternal life that was made manifest, the origin of life and all that exists.
[14:15] That's what's meant here when John says the Word. When John says, In the beginning was the Word, he's talking about the Word of life, the eternal life, the origin of life, and the source of all that exists.
[14:31] He is the first cause and origin of all that exists, and we will see in the next verses that John says as much. But notice, as I read these verses in John 1, that John wants us to know that the source of all life and all that exists is a person.
[14:55] He wants us to know that it's a person and not just some kind of power or thing, because he keeps on saying he, he, him. He personifies the Word.
[15:07] The Word is a person. So, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Verse 2, He, He was in the beginning with God.
[15:20] The source of all life and all that exists is a person. Now, let me pause for a moment and just make a wee statement here because I used to be a non-believer.
[15:30] I used to be an atheist. I used to say there is no God and all that we see is all that there is. But let me just say that in order to be an atheist, you need to believe certain miracles.
[15:42] You actually do. There's at least six miracles you need to believe to be an atheist because we observe these things in our world. So, let me show you what we observe in our world.
[15:53] We observe in our world that there is existence. would you agree? We know that things exist. We also observe that there is order.
[16:04] If there wasn't order, life, you know, planets would be flying into one another and all that. There's incredible order. We also observe that there is life. It might not seem like it sometimes.
[16:16] There is life. We observe that there is reason. We are not like animals. We are thinking creatures. We observe that there is morality. No matter what you believe, you have this written code of conduct in your heart called morality and we observe that there is personality.
[16:35] Why am I me and not you? We are persons. We share a nature, but I'm a person and you're a person. Now, in order to be an atheist, you need to believe that existence came from non-existence or that order came from chaos or that life came from non-life or that reason came from non-reason or that morality came from matter or that personality came from the non-personal.
[17:07] Except I can tell you that these things do not happen, they have never happened, and they will never happen. But that's what you need to believe if you're an atheist.
[17:18] These things don't happen. They've never happened. They never will happen. All of these things we observe in our world and in our very being, and it points us toward the fact that there is an original cause of all of these things, and it's not only a something, but it's a someone.
[17:34] Someone who has always existed, a being of order, the fountain of all life, the source of reason, the origin of morality, and a personal being who is before all and above all and the creator of all that exists.
[17:52] Our experience tells us that. Now, that's what John is telling us about in these verses. He was in the beginning with God, all things were made through Him.
[18:04] All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.
[18:16] He was in the world, and the world was made through Him yet the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own people did not receive Him, but to all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He has a name, He gave the right to become children of God.
[18:39] And then He says, and the Word, this Word that we've been talking about, became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we have seen not its glory, but His glory.
[18:50] Glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. And then in verse 17, He connects the dots, and He gives us a name. You see, John wants to build the anticipation and the wonder so that the reader is thinking, well, who is He?
[19:06] This Word that you've been waxing lyrical about has become flesh. Who is He? And what is His name? And when John says the Word became flesh and was full of grace and truth, then he says grace and truth came through Jesus.
[19:26] And then we get this verse 29 and 30 when John the Baptist points to Jesus as the one that John has introduced us to as the pre-existing Word who always was.
[19:38] Now, John believes in the pre-existence of Christ. Paul, who was first an enemy of Jesus until he encountered Jesus in His risen form, Paul wrote in Philippians chapter 2 that Jesus was in the form of God.
[19:56] Yet He took the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form. Not only did Paul see the glorious risen Jesus after the crucifixion, but he believed that Jesus pre-existed before His incarnation.
[20:13] Not only that He pre-existed, but that He was God. And like John said in his Gospel, Paul also believed that Jesus was the source of all life and the creator of all that exists.
[20:25] Because he says in Colossians chapter 1, He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, for by Jesus all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities.
[20:42] All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. And Paul also writes in 1 Corinthians 8, 6, There is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.
[21:08] Now, Paul, if you remember, was an intensely zealous and legalistic Jew. It would have been highly blasphemous and unthinkable for Paul to speak in this way about Jesus if it were not true.
[21:24] And that's actually why he persecuted the church in the first place, because he thought they were highly blasphemous about the way they spoke about Jesus. Yet he says these things now against his own prejudice because he knows them to be true now.
[21:41] Hebrews 1 also says of Jesus, Right now, this very moment, Jesus upholds the universe by the word of his power.
[22:10] Hebrews also says in chapter 7 that Melchizedek points to the pre-existing and eternal nature of Jesus. It says, Melchizedek is without father or mother or genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God, he continues a priest forever.
[22:31] Basically, the writer of Hebrews is saying that Jesus, likewise, has no beginning of days nor end of life. And this is what we find in the Old Testament in Micah 5.2.
[22:44] You know that famous verse about Bethlehem and the king being born in Bethlehem? Well, it also says of the Messiah that his coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.
[22:55] This shows us that the Old Testament is talking about the pre-existence of Christ as well. Just like in Micah 5, also in Isaiah 9, like we sang, that a child would be born who would be called Mighty God and Everlasting Father.
[23:13] Now, what is this business about Jesus being called Everlasting Father? Does that not confuse the Trinity? Is Isaiah getting mixed up by the Father and the Son here? Isaiah isn't confusing the Father and the Son and the Trinity.
[23:28] In fact, in that respect, Jesus will always be the Son of God. He will always be the Son in respect to his Father, but in respect to us, he is like a wonderful counselor.
[23:40] He is to us a mighty God, an everlasting Father, and a Prince of Peace. Unto us a child is born. Unto us a Son is given.
[23:51] Unto us he is a wonderful counselor. Unto us he is mighty God. Unto us he is everlasting Father. And unto us he is Prince of Peace.
[24:02] Just as Jesus himself said to Philip in John 14, 9, he said, Whoever's seen me has seen the Father.
[24:14] Now, while Micah and Isaiah speak about the Messiah in ways that preexist and transcend his human nature, we see many moments in the Old Testament where God in some form interacts with people.
[24:29] Whether it's the angel of the Lord possessing divine qualities, or whether it's the fourth man in the furnace, or whether it's the burning bush or the pillar of cloud and fire, or when the Lord visits Abraham in some human form with two angels, or the Lord walks in the garden with Adam and Eve, are we seeing some kind of pre-existing Christophany?
[24:57] How are we to understand these things? Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10, 4, he says that the Israelites in the Exodus all ate the same spiritual food and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ.
[25:17] That's what Paul says about the Exodus, that the rock that they were following and drinking from was Christ. Similarly, Jude, the brother of Jesus, in verse 5 of his letter, says, Now, I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.
[25:43] Interesting, isn't it? Jude speaks about his own brother like the one who rescued Israel out of Egypt, because he knows something about Jesus. He pre-exists his earthly human life.
[25:58] Not only do they believe that Jesus pre-existed, but that in some pre-existing form, he's always been God to his people. Now, we might hear people excusing these things as fanciful tales from deluded disciples.
[26:15] Remember, not everyone wants to see Jesus as anything more than a carpenter and the son of Mary. That's what the folks in Nazareth, that's all they could accept.
[26:27] And in our world today, there are plenty of people who don't want Jesus to be anything more than a carpenter, the son of Mary, maybe even a good teacher, maybe even a holy man, maybe even a prophet, but nothing more.
[26:45] So, you might get people saying, yeah, these stories are fascinating, but Jesus didn't say that. Jesus never claimed to be God.
[26:56] Have you ever heard anyone say that? People will say, Jesus never claimed to be God. So, the final consideration is, what did Jesus say? Well, let's take a look at some of the things that Jesus said.
[27:11] John chapter 8, the Pharisees said to Jesus, I'll turn there if you want.
[27:31] The Pharisees said to Jesus, Abraham is our father.
[27:55] Verse 39, do you see that? They answered him, Abraham is our father. And Jesus said to them, if you were Abraham's children, you would be doing the works of Abraham that he did.
[28:10] And then Jesus goes on to say, you're doing the works your father did. And he's going to say that their father is the devil.
[28:23] But notice this. They bring up this scandal of Jesus' birth. They said to him, we were not born of sexual immorality.
[28:34] We have one father, even God. Do you see the dig that they are making against Jesus who had a scandalous birth because of the virgin birth?
[28:45] They are saying, hey, Jesus, we know who our father is and you don't. That's what they're saying to Jesus. And they've elevated themselves. Okay, maybe Abraham.
[28:56] But how about this, Jesus? We have one father, even God. And so Jesus said, if God were your father, you would love me.
[29:07] For I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me. And then he went on to say, your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day.
[29:18] And he saw it and was glad. And then the Jews said to him, you're not yet 50 years old and have you seen Abraham?
[29:29] And Jesus said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am. Now, people might say, well, Jesus wasn't really claiming this or that.
[29:41] The Jews knew what he was claiming, which is why they picked up stones to stone him. Because he was claiming the name of Yahweh, I am.
[29:54] They knew what he was saying, which is why they wanted to kill him. Now, Jesus is saying that he pre-existed Abraham and he's using the divine name and he isn't merely saying he existed sometime before Abraham, but he is saying that he has always existed.
[30:10] I am that I am. He simply is. He is a present, eternal reality. that we need to deal with. Now, John chapter 3, when Jesus is talking to Nicodemus, Jesus is talking about being born again.
[30:29] You cannot see the kingdom of God unless you are born again. And Nicodemus says, how can a man be born again when he's old? Can he enter a second time into his mother womb and be born?
[30:40] And Jesus goes on to talk about born of water and the Spirit. That which is born of flesh is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit.
[30:52] Now, Jesus says this, verse 10, Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony.
[31:11] If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? Now, there's only a couple of ways that Jesus can tell Nicodemus heavenly things.
[31:25] Either he has been given knowledge about heavenly things, or, as Jesus already said, we bear witness, we speak of what we know and bear witness to what we have seen.
[31:37] So, either Jesus has had some knowledge downloaded about heaven, or he came from heaven and so, therefore, he can tell Nicodemus about heaven.
[31:49] And he goes on to say as much when he says, no one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. Isn't that incredible?
[32:02] Jesus is saying, no one can go up there and find out about heaven except him who came down from heaven, the Son of Man, standing right in front of you, Nicodemus. If someone wants to push back and say, well, Jesus isn't talking about himself, it says, in verse 17, that God sent his Son into the world.
[32:22] Or if you flip over to chapter 6, we've already heard this, chapter 6, verse 38, Jesus says, for I have come down from heaven.
[32:36] I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. And then you can see in verse 42, well, verse 41, he says it again, they grumbled about him because he said, I am the bread that came down from heaven.
[32:56] And he said, is this not Jesus, the Son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know, how does he now say, I have come down from heaven? How can Jesus say that? Maybe it's because he came down from heaven.
[33:09] Maybe that's why. And he goes on, verse 42, they took issue at him, and multiple times throughout chapter 6, he says that he is the bread that came down from heaven.
[33:26] Verse 51, I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Come on, people, how many times can he say it? In John chapter 16, if you flip over there, he is in the upper room with his disciples.
[33:47] And this is a long and final conversation. Jesus is telling his disciples that he is going to leave them.
[34:03] And why is he going to leave them? Well, John 16, verse 28, Jesus says, I came from the Father and have come into the world and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father.
[34:24] Can Jesus be any clearer that he pre-exists his eternal, his earthly life? He came from the Father and came into the world and now he is leaving the world and going to the Father.
[34:38] And then he prays in John 17 and in verse 5 he says, Now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.
[34:52] Jesus had glory with the Father before the world existed. Did Jesus never claim to be God? These are his own words. And then in chapter 18 when Jesus is speaking to Pontius Pilate, Jesus says, My kingdom is not of this world.
[35:10] So he has a kingdom and it's not of this world. It must be of some other world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting that I might not be delivered over to the Jews, but my kingdom is not from the world.
[35:26] And Pilate says, So you are a king? And Jesus says, Well, you say that I am a king? For this purpose I was born, and for this purpose I have come into the world to bear witness to the truth.
[35:40] So Jesus himself definitely said in many ways that he pre-exists his earthly life. He came from heaven. He shared glory with God his Father in the beginning before the world existed.
[35:53] Pilate even recognized from Jesus' own words that Jesus claimed to have a kingdom, and Jesus himself claimed to have come down from heaven, and we see that prior to his incarnation, Jesus was always active from heaven.
[36:08] John 12 says that Isaiah saw the glory of Jesus and spoke of him. Now, when did Isaiah see the glory of Jesus?
[36:23] Well, perhaps it was when he was taken into the heavenly temple, and he saw the Lord on the throne, and the train of his robe filled the entire temple. Jesus is the King of Heaven from all eternity.
[36:38] He said of himself in Revelation chapter 1, I am the first and the last and the living one. He said in Revelation 22, I am the Alpha and Omega.
[36:50] That's what these symbols up here mean. Remember, one of the first times that I was in this church, I looked up there, and I thought, oh, jings, they've got it round the wrong way, until I realized it's for the people on the outside.
[37:06] I am the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. So, as we wrap up here, I want you to think, just for a moment, of Jesus in Heaven in pre-incarnate glory and majesty.
[37:23] just as Isaiah saw Him, Jesus came from Heaven. His birth is not just the beginning of a baby who was born to be King.
[37:34] It is the arrival of one who already is King. He is the King of Heaven. Jesus is not just a King. He's not just the King.
[37:46] He is the King of all Kings. He's the name above all names. He's the Lord of all Lords. He's the Alpha and Omega, the one who was and is and always will be.
[38:00] Jesus existed for the entire human history and far greater glory and majesty than all of history's emperors and rulers combined.
[38:12] What a thought. Just imagine you were one of His angels in Heaven and you saw Him leaving His place of glory to come down here and become a helpless babe.
[38:30] What a thought for Heaven to see its glorious eternal King descend to the dirt of earth and take up residence in the womb as a baby. We don't quite realize how great a contrast that is.
[38:44] For Heaven's great King to descend to us mere mortals and to do so without the fanfare that He is absolutely worthy of. There's a song by Cast and Crowns called While You Were Sleeping and it talks about the King of Heaven coming and Bethlehem is sleeping and they don't even know who has landed on their doorstep.
[39:09] And so let me just bring this to a close with a few implications of His pre-existence and this will be quick.
[39:22] Firstly Jesus' pre-existence means that this world is not all there is. You see Jesus wasn't just some revolutionary that rocked the boat. He wasn't just some sage or boy genius.
[39:35] He was already the King of Heaven before He came to earth and He has a kingdom separate from earth in another kind of dimension with myriads of myriads of angels who serve Him who are far more powerful than anyone on earth.
[39:49] This is not all there is. Secondly the original state and first cause of all things was a person who is life. So all of this life didn't come from lifeless nothingness.
[40:05] We came from Christ. He not only pre-exists creation, He is the cause of everything else that exists. Number three, nothing compares to Jesus.
[40:17] Nothing. Who else was the King of Heaven and the Creator of all things? For the history of the universe, not only has He been rightfully the ruler above all things and the subject of all worship, but He Himself upholds the universe by the word of His power.
[40:36] Number four, Jesus has the authority to come here. When He came from Heaven down to earth, He had the authority to do that. Interestingly, we ought to realize that earth is not His only interest.
[40:53] Sometimes we think the earth is Jesus' only interest, but He created all things. Now, I'm not saying that He isn't interested in earth and He isn't interested in us.
[41:04] Of course He is. He died for us. He took on flesh forever. But this is simply to say we need to be less man-centric in our view of Christ and we need to be more Christocentric in our view of all of creation.
[41:21] Jesus wasn't just waiting around backstage nothing until it was his time to come down to earth and occupy a manger. He's always been involved in earth's affairs but he has also always been heaven's king and the ruler of the cosmos.
[41:40] Every planet, every star, as well as every angelic being is subject to his every command. We belittle Jesus to think that he has only been given an interest in humanity.
[41:54] When we realize the true nature of his being and the scale of his work in creation, it's an even greater wonder that he should be mindful of us, which should lead us to praise and adoration.
[42:08] He has all authority in heaven and on earth, and so he had the authority to descend to earth just as he was sent by his father. And number five, Jesus chose to come down and become flesh.
[42:22] And let that, not escape us, that he chose to do that. Wonder of wonders that such a glorious king and divine being should put on flesh and dwell among people who would not recognize him or give him the worship due to him, but rather would scoff and mock and beat him and crucify him.
[42:43] What a wonder that heaven's king should come down to us. Why did he choose to come to come here?
[42:54] Because it was not fitting to the glory of his person and goodness to let his good creation go to ruin because it would suggest that he wasn't good or that he wasn't powerful or that he creates with no purpose or that he has no control or care over what he created.
[43:12] Yet he is good and he is powerful and he does create with purpose and he does have control and care over the things that he has made. That's why he came. Remember his birth is not his beginning but his becoming.
[43:26] He came down from heaven and became flesh to redeem us and to reveal God to us and to unite all things in heaven and on earth. To unite all things in himself.
[43:39] Now there's no doubt many other implications and I would encourage you to both consider and share them with one another. Try to think about other things other implications.
[43:50] He ascended because he first descended and now he is going where he came from or he returned to glory because he came from glory. He returned to the father because he came from the father.
[44:02] Have a wee think about all the implications of his preexistence. However! Let me finish on this line and that's us. Let us endeavor to keep a true and very grand view of who Jesus is and what an incredible thing it is that he would come down from heaven to earth for his glory and for our good.
[44:24] Let me pray. Lord, we thank you so much for these unmistakable truths in your word.
[44:40] At the very least, no one can say that you didn't call yourself divine, pre-existing, with glory, with God.
[44:56] Lord, we thank you not only for these words inspired by your spirit, the word of God. We thank you for your own words recorded. We thank you that these words have been tested and tried and as many as I would have wanted to destroy these words and put them away throughout history.
[45:20] It has never happened. Time and time again, they only prove to be reliable and true. Lord, lead us to praise and adoration for you alone are worthy and you are worthy.
[45:36] You are the King of all creation and so we pray and give thanks in your holy name. Amen.