Communion With the Son ~ 20151108 ~ Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org
11/08 Communion With The Son; Audio available at: http://www.ephraimbible.org/Sermons/20151108_communion-with-son.mp3
We are taking some time to look at who God is as he reveals himself to us in his word. Our desire is to know God, to enjoy God, to worship God as he really is. We have seen the clear teaching of scripture is that there is only one true God, and that the Father is God, the Son is God and the Spirit is God. We have seen that we are invited in to relationship, to fellowship, to communion with each of the persons of the one triune God.
1 John 1:3 ...and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. 4 And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.
Last time we looked specifically at the Father, why he is called 'Father', and we looked just briefly at what our unique relationship or fellowship with the Father is to be. Today we will look specifically at the Son, why he is called 'Son' and what it means to have communion with the Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Son of The Father
We have seen in John 1 that Jesus, the Word was with the Father in the beginning. He was God, fully divine, but he was with his Father as a distinct someone from the Father, who can refer to himself as 'I' and to the Father as 'you'. He has always existed in relationship with his Father. Just as we saw last time that the Father is called 'Father' primarily because of his relationship with his Son, so also the Son is called 'Son' because of his relationship with his Father.
Jesus frequently described his relationship to his Father. Jesus spoke of his relationship with his Father in at least four main ways, as a relationship of union, communion, obedience and receiving.
Union
Jesus said 'I and the Father are one' (Jn.10:30); the Jews understood him to be 'making himself God' (Jn.10:33). In Jesus calling God his own 'Father' they understood him to be 'making himself equal with God' (Jn.5:18). Jesus said:
John 14:7 If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” 8 Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.
Jesus communicates that to know him is to know the Father. Whoever has seen him has seen the Father. Jesus is in the Father and the Father is in Jesus. The Father dwells in Jesus and does his works in Jesus.
In Psalm 45, quoted in Hebrews 1, the Messiah who is anointed by God is referred to as God.
Hebrews 1:8 But of the Son he says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom. 9 You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.”
Jesus is God, and his rule is eternal. Philippians 2 speaks of Jesus:
Philippians 2:6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,
Jesus in his very essence is divine. He is equal with the Father. There is perfect unity and identity between the Father and the Son, such that Jesus can say “I and the Father are one”.
Notice that Jesus never said 'I am the Father'. He did say “I am in the Father and the Father is in me”.
Communion
Jesus' relationship with his Father is one of union and also of communion. Simply read through the gospels and pay attention to how many times Jesus prayed to his Father. Jesus was in constant communion with his Father.
Mark 1:35 And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.
Luke 5:16 But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray.
Luke 6:12 In these days he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God.
In John 11, at the tomb of Lazarus
John 11:41 ...And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.”
Obedience
Jesus' relation to his Father was characterized by union, communion, and obedience. In John 8, Jesus said: “I honor my father' (Jn.8:49); we could say Jesus has eternally kept the fifth commandment. Jesus' relationship with his Father was the ideal father – son relationship.
John 5:17 But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”
...19 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. 20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. …
My Father is working and I am working. I only do what I see the Father doing.
John 5:30 “I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.
John 5:36 ... For the works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me.
I seek the will of the Father. I do the works the Father gave me to accomplish.
John 8:29 And he who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him.”
“I always do the things that are pleasing to him.”
John 18:11 So Jesus said to Peter, “Put your sword into its sheath; shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me?”
Receiving
The Son's relationship to the Father is one of obedience. It is also one of receiving gifts. Jesus described the relationship of a father to son as one of giving good gifts.
Matthew 7:11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!
In Luke 1, it is promised of Jesus:
Luke 1:32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”
John 3 says:
John 3:35 The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand.
The Father gives all authority to Jesus.
John 6:37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.
John 10:27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. 30 I and the Father are one.”
The Father gives sheep, people, to Jesus.
Jesus prays in John 17:
John 17:24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.
The Father gives his love to Jesus. The Father gives glory to the Son.
John 5:20 ...And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel. 21 For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. 22 The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, 23 that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.
The Father has given all judgment to the Son. The Father has given to the Son to give life. The Father gives to the Son so that the Son will be honored just as they honor the Father.
Eternal Generation
John 5 continues:
John 5:24 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. 25 “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. 26 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. 27 And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man.
This is a staggering passage. Not only is it given to the Son to give life to whom he will, but it is given by the Father to the Son to have life in himself. Earlier in our exploration of who God is we saw that God has aseity or self-existence. He is not dependent on anything outside himself; he has life in himself. Here we see that just as the Father has life in himself, he has given aseity or self-existence to the Son. But lest we think that this was a gift given at a point in time, before which the Son did not possess self-existence or life in himself, we need only to turn back to the first chapter of John's gospel. Speaking of the Divine Word who was in the beginning with God, he says:
John 1:4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
The Son has always had life in himself. Self-existence would not be self-existence if there was a time he received it from someone else. That would be dependent self-existence. But that seems to be exactly what John says here in chapter 5. Notice, however, the self-existence of the Son is exactly the same as the self-existence of the Father. Just as the Father's self existence is eternal, so the self-existence of the Son is eternal and had no beginning, yet in some sense it is given by the Father to the Son. We are helped to understand this by the language of begottenness. The King James calls Jesus the 'only begotten Son of the Father.' C.S. Lewis writes:
“We don't use the words begetting or begotten much in modern English, but everyone still knows what they mean. To beget is to become the father of: to create is to make. And the difference is this. When you beget, you beget something of the same kind as yourself. A man begets human babies, a beaver begets little beavers and a bird begets eggs which turn into little birds. But when you make, you make something of a different kind from yourself. A bird makes a nest, a beaver builds a dam, a man makes a wireless set...
Now that is the first thing to get clear. What God begets is God; just as what man begets is man. What God creates is not God, just as what man creates is not man.” [C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity]
The Nicene creed puts it this way:
“We believe ...in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made.” [Nicene Creed, 325]
Jesus is begotten not made; he is not begotten in time but eternally begotten; he is God of God, of one substance with the Father. The relationship between the Father and the Son is not a relationship that came about in time; it is essential to the nature of God. God eternally exists as Father, Son and Spirit. The Son is eternally begotten of the Father. The Son always relates to the Father as Father.
The Father is greater than I
This helps us to understand Jesus' statement that 'the Father is greater than I'.
John 14:28 You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.
Jesus is delighted to return to the Father, having accomplished all that the Father sent him to do. The Father is greater than Jesus in the way that a father is greater than his son. A human father is not more human than his son, and God the Father is not more God than Jesus. Jesus and his Father are equal in essence (I and the Father are one); but Jesus is subordinate to his Father in relationship. A human father is greater than his son in that he has authority over his son. God the Father is greater in that his authority is essential to his role as Father. Jesus as Son is subordinate in relationship. Yet the Father gives all authority into his hand. It is a given authority. It is characteristic of a son to receive gifts from his father.
Communion with The Son
We have spent some time looking at the relation of the only-begotten Son to his Father. If “our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ,” what is our unique relationship with the Son?
If we look back at the benediction in 2 Corinthians, we see:
2 Corinthians 13:14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
Grace, undeserved favor and kindness, is ascribed particularly to our Lord Jesus. We see in John 1:
John 1:16 For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.
Jesus is the one through whom we experience grace. The Father did not die on the cross for our sins. God so loved the world that he gave his Son. The Father is our loving Creator. Jesus is our gracious Redeemer.
1 Peter 3:18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God...
1 Timothy 2:5 For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,
Jesus is the only begotten God at the Father's side, who makes him known. Jesus is the Word who communicates with us what the invisible God is like. Jesus is the only way to the Father. But other than going through Jesus to get to the Father, do we have any direct relation to Jesus?
Come To Me / Believe in Me
Jesus invites us:
Matthew 11:28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
John 5:39 ...the Scriptures ... bear witness about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.
John 6:35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.
...37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. .
John 7:37 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’”
John 8:24 I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins.”
John 14:1 “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.
We must come to Jesus, believe in Jesus, believe that he is the I AM or we will die in our sins.
Pray to Me
Jesus invites us to pray to him.
John 14:13 Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.
Be With Me
Jesus says:
John 10:14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.
We are to know Jesus with the same intimacy that exists between the Father and the Son. Jesus is eager for a relationship with us. He says:
John 14:2 In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.
Jesus wants us to be with him.
John 14:18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. 21 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” ... 23 Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.
Jesus will make himself known to us. He, together with the Father, will make his home in us.
Abide in Me
In John 15, Jesus uses the metaphor of a vine.
John 15:4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. ... 9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. 11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.
We are to abide in Jesus, to remain connected to Jesus, in intimate fellowship with him, enjoying his love.
Be Friends of Me
Jesus says to us
John 15:15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.
We are friends of Jesus. We are chosen and appointed by Jesus
Worship Me
We are to worship Jesus.
John 5:22 The Father ...has given all judgment to the Son,23 that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.
The Father intends for us to honor the Son just as we honor the Father. Jesus prayed:
John 17:24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.
Jesus desires that we be with him so that we can behold his eternal glory. Observe the scene in heaven around the throne giving worship to Jesus the Lamb.
Revelation 5:8 ...the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. 9 And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, 10 and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.” 11 Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, 12 saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” 13 And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!” 14 And the four living creatures said, “Amen!” and the elders fell down and worshiped.
Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org