Son of God / The Gospel of John

Son of God

Various passages April 30, 2023

I. Introduction:

A. C.S. Lewis said in his classic book, Mere Christianity, “I am trying

here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people

often say about him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral

teacher, but I do not accept his claim to be God. That is the one

thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the

sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He

would either be a lunatic – on a level with the man who says he is a

poached egg – or else he would be the devil of hell. You must

make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God; or

else a lunatic or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool,

you can spit at him and kill him as a demon, or you can fall at his

feet and call him Lord and God. But let none of us come away with

any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human

teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

B. For many when they hear that Jesus was the Son of God it conjures

up thoughts in their minds that are not accurate about who Jesus is.

1. For some it indicates that Jesus was a special man of God, like a

great prophet/teacher and moral man, but not God.

2. For some it indicates that Jesus was at some point not in

existence and he came into existence from God the Father as the

first one ever created thus he is not God

3. For others it indicates that Jesus was a god but an inferior god to

the Father

C. We have already seen that in John 20:31 that John indicated that he

wrote the Gospel of John so that by the miracles Jesus did people

would believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.

1. Let me rephrase that in the PBP translation – if you are newer to

MVC the PBP translation is the Patrick Bernard Peglow

translation.

2. So you would believe that Jesus was the promised coming

Messiah (King and Savior), God himself!

D. This morning I want to show you that Jesus as the Son of God

means that he is actually God, fully God and fully equal with God

the Father!

1. Now I trust you are reading through the Gospel of John on your

own and watching for statements and proofs in John about Jesus

as the Son of God.

2. As you do that, you will see references to this repeatedly in

different ways!

3. And as you see these references, your view and value of Jesus

can only rise and cause you to bow down and worship him as

fully God!

E. So this morning I do not want to just start at the beginning of the

book, take you to every reference in the book, and show them to

you. Instead, I want to lay out some key ideas to help us

understand what the Son of God actually means!

• Let’s start by ….

II. What the Jews understood the Son of God to be!

A. When Jesus claimed to be the Son of God, we need to understand

what that meant in the Jewish culture and language of that time to

understand what it means to be the Son of God.

1. Once that is accomplished, we will understand why the religious

leaders were so angry and wanted to kill him when he claimed

to be the Son of God.

B. The Jewish religious leaders knew that Jesus claiming to be the Son

of God was a claim to be God himself. He is not an inferior or

lesser god but fully equal with God the Father.

1. Read John 5:17-18 – the Jews understood that when Jesus was

calling God his own father – thus his son, the Jews understood

he was making himself equal with God

2. Read John 10:30-33, 36-38

a. Note in v36 that Jesus is equating them saying he is

blaspheming in v33 by making himself out to be God with

Jesus quoting them as saying he is blaspheming because he

is the Son of God

b. Simply being God and being the Son of God are

synonymous

II. Being the Christ is equated with being God

C. In John 20:30 and another key passage we will look at in a moment

we will see that grammatically, Christ and the Son of God are

connected ideas and not separate ideas.

1. Look back at John 20:30 - it does not say believe he is the

Christ and the Son of God, but rather Christ, the Son of God.

2. If and was between them it would indicate they are two different

things we are to believe – that Jesus was the Christ and that he

was the Son of God.

3. But when it is just a comma, we see that the Son of God is

further describing or explaining whom the Christ/Messiah is.

4. So he is saying here that the Christ is the Son of God.

a. I believe that this close connection is because the Messiah or

the Christ or God’s King was foretold in the Old Testament

to be God himself.

b. Read - Zechariah 9:9-10, 14:9,16

c. Various other passages teach this as well.

d. I asked an 87 year old Jewish man who grew up going to

Hebrew School and studying the Jewish religion (who came

to Christ here at MVC – Albert Richmond – some of you

remember him) if he was taught that the Messiah Israel is

waiting for was going to be God. He said, “Absolutely!”

D. Do you remember the scene when Jesus stood on trial in front of

the whole Jewish council of teachers, elders, scribes and

priests? Turn to it in your Bibles, Matthew 26

1. Get the feel for who was there – best Bible students and

teachers in all of Israel.

2. They were seeking to find some kind of false testimony against

Jesus so they could put him to death. Jesus did not speak a

word to defend himself.

3. Finally, the high priest, Caiaphas cut through the entire chase

and got to the heart of the matter as he asked Jesus to tell him

under oath if he is the Christ, the Son of God. Listen as I read

v63-67

4. Right in front of these Bible scholars Jesus quoted two OT

passages that they were very familiar with that referred to the

Messiah not only as the King but also as God.

a. “Sitting at the right hand of power” – read Psalm 110:1-

2. Just a few days before Jesus had confounded some of

these same leaders by powerfully proving with this very

passage that the Messiah was God’s Son.

1. Read Matthew 22:41-46 shows that as the Son of God he

was God himself

b. “Coming on the clouds of heaven” – listen as I read Daniel 7

where this reference comes from and get a feel for what

made them so angry.

1. Read Daniel 7:9-10, - sitting on throne aflamed =

indestructible and river of fire coming out from before

him.

2. Read Daniel 7:13-14. – Jesus walked right up through

that river of fire = indestructible and received from the

Father what only God has.

5. You can see now why these men were so angry. They knew

exactly what Jesus was saying when he claimed to be the Son of

God. Yes, I am the Messiah, God himself.

• As you read through John you will see many

IV. Other proofs in John that Jesus was fully God

A. The signs John speaks of miracles that showed that Jesus had

supernatural power that only God has

B. His existence before creation

C. Special relationship he had with the Father -

D. He had attributes that only God has.

1. He went as far as to say if you have seen me you have seen the

Father

E. His claim to be one with God

F. He claimed to do everything that God did and he did it in the exact

same way God does it!

G. The great I am statement about his existence before Abraham.

1. A claim that made them pick up stones and seek to kill him

IV. How about you!

H. Not know Jesus – read Romans 10:9

1. Confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord

2. Lord is the title for God that indicates that he exercises ultimate

and supernatural authority over everything!

3. Where do you stand today? – either you believe he is a lunatic, a

liar or Lord

4. As C.S. Lewis said, those are the only three options you can

choose from, no other is available

5. Listen as I read v11-13 from Bible

6. Would you call upon God himself – Jesus to save you right now

…

I. Do know Jesus - listen to Philippians 2:6-7, 9-11

1. Would you today bow your knee and confess that about Jesus

not only over everything but more importantly over your life?

2. And would you walk out these doors this morning living

consistently with the confession you made about Jesus as the

one who has ultimate and supernatural authority over every are

and decision in your life?