Sunday, March 1, 2015

God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ

Paul's familiar ascription of the Father as God and Jesus as Lord was the topic of my sermon today. I took the text from 2 Tim 1,3 and expounded this one verse over 45 minutes. I explained the use of God in reference to the Father and Lord in reference to the Son. In Indonesian or Malay, the word is Allah for the Father and Tuhan for Jesus. How does Allah relate to Tuhan? Do Christians worship two or three Gods as some allege? I spoke about the Shema in Deut 6,4 and explained the meaning of Yhwh as I am that I am or I will be what I will be. Then I explained the relationship between Father and Son and how Jesus was begotten in eternity or as Origen put it the eternal generation of the Son. I explained how the Word existed in the beginning just as the Father existed in the beginning based on John 1,1.
Then I explained how Jesus was both God and man though different from the Father based on John 20,17 and 20,27, especially of Thomas' confession "My Lord and my God." You won't find a higher Christology than that. I spoke about how Jesus Christ was man, born of Mary and the Son of God conceived by the Holy Spirit. I ended by quoting Colossians about the fulness of God dwelling in Jesus and that it pleased the Father that the fulness of the Godhead dwells bodily in Christ. Colossians also exhibits a high Christology like John's Gospel. The 150 secondary students from 3 main Secondary Schools listened attentively. There was no chatting at the back as I heard 2 weeks ago, but only a few asked for my slides after service. And also a few asked whether there was a recording and yes, a deacon recorded the sermon and members can access it online soon.

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