The Messiah's Secret - Jesus God's Son
Luke 9: 28-36. Colossians 1: 9-26.

Theme series: The Existence of God - God the Father - Jesus the Son of God - God the Holy Spirit

Last week Rev Chris Casey spoke on the doctrine of God the Father. He gave us three headings: care, compassion and commitment.

We encounter a God who cares, a Father who sees his children from both as a mother and a father. He pointed to the scriptures that captures the maternal side of God. “As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you, you shall be comforted in Jerusalem “ Isaiah 66: 13.

The compassion of God in a Father’s love sent His Son into the world to die in order to save us and bring us home like the forgiveness in Jesus’ parable ‘The Prodigal Son and thirdly God’s commitment to us, in His love, like the love of a Father that disciplines His child to keep them on the right path.

This week we are looking at the doctrine of Jesus the Son of God

Jesus the second person of the Trinity and of one substance with the Father.

The Second  of the 39 Articles of Religion Doctrines of Church of England

The Son which is the Word of the Father, begotten from everlasting of the Father, the very and eternal God, and one of substance with the Father, took man’s nature in the womb of the blessed virgin, of her substance, so that two whole and perfect natures, that is to say, the Godhead and manhood, were joined together in the one person, never to be divided, whereof is one Christ, very God, and very man; who truly suffered, was crucified, dead, and buried, to reconcile his Father to us, and to be a sacrifice, not only for original guilt, but also for all actual sins of men.

The Son the Word of the Father

John the apostle identified Jesus as the Word. John wrote in his gospel Chapter 1: 1 “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” the Word  brought forth life

 It’s no co-incidence in Genesis Moses wrote, “And God said ‘Let there be light’ and there was light. And God said, ‘Let there be a vault between the waters and let it separate the waters from the waters. And so, 'God said'  at the beginning of each day,His Word brought forth life.  Genesis 1: 3 -31.

The writer of Hebrews 1: 5.”God’s Son upholding the universe by the power of his Word.” The universe has natural laws: it takes the earth a year to travel around the sun and a month for the moon to travel around the earth, they are in a fixed orbit and so proving the existence of a supreme deity, God.

John also wrote that his followers had handled the ‘Word of Life.’

1 John 1: 2 

So therefore, Jesus is God’s Word clothed in the flesh

At his word Jesus commanded the storm to cease, the elements responded to his command and at his word he recreated the flesh of the lepers and other miracles and healing.

God gave the people evidence at the Transfiguration that Jesus is His Son,

The presence of Moses’ would confirm that it was God’s audible voice they heard.  We read in Exodus 19: 9,

 “And Moses reported the words of the people to the Lord. And the Lord said to Moses, “Lo, I am coming to you in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with you, and may also believe you for ever.” What they heard, verse 19 “the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and God answered him in a voice.” NIV Bible

Elijah’s presence at the Transfiguration

Jesus in conversation with Elijah and Moses was heard to speak of his departure at Jerusalem, his death, resurrection and his ascension into heaven. Elijah was translated into heaven on a whirlwind,

 When the disciples made it known what they had seen and heard  God speaking in an audible voice, "This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to Him," combined with Moses’ and Elijah’s  presence would bring many to believe that Jesus is God’s Son.

Jesus Word in us is one of our great strengths, we find in his Word, wisdom and understanding that touches our everyday life. We should speak his words into all our situations, whether it’s illness, tensions, accusations or when we are full of Joy. Be still and know that I am God.” “Do not be afraid,” When your in a fix turn to Philippians 4: 6 “Have no anxiety about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” “All things are possible to them that believe.”

Godhood and manhood joined together in the one person

The Son of God being born of a woman, Mary the mother of Jesus giving him his human nature, her substance.

But life is in the blood and I believe that Jesus’ genes that produced his blood came from God His Father. Leviticus 17: 11 Jesus’  blood had no imperfections 

It took the perfect blood of God’s Son Jesus to satisfy the legal requirements of the law.

Hebrews 9: 14 “How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!”

Just as God acts upon Jesus’ words he also acts upon his blood, His life laid down to be the final sacrifice under Jewish Law for the forgiveness of sin.

The parallel between the function of our blood in our body and the blood of Jesus saving us from sin, is  amazing. Our blood circulates around our bodies sustaining life in us.

A single red cell collects oxygen from the lungs and offloads it to a single tissue  giving energy and heat to the tissue, the red cell then  takes from the tissue waste and disposes of it through the lungs.

Through faith in the blood of Jesus, the love of God powerfully transforms our nature and takes away our sin, like the waste from the tissue.

The Article speaks of being one substance

Jesus prayer ²⁰ “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, ²¹ that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” John 17: 20, 21.

VISUAL AID  The 3-IN-ONE 

The love of the Father lubricates the soul and transforms it.

The Son cleanses and removes the stains of guilt and sin and reconciles us to His Father.

The Holy Spirit  by enabling us to overcome temptations, therefore, prevents sin.

When the soul has been transformed, its' nature changes. The will and the mind conform to the new nature. Under law the soul is trained to comply to God's laws. Under grace the soul feels how God feels about sin, the law is written in the heart.

"When a (Christian) Gentiles who have not the law do by nature what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show what the law requires is written upon their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or perhaps excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus. Romans 2: 4-16.                                            

At the transfiguration Jesus’ countenance changed.

In our reading Luke records that the disciples Peter, James and John saw a change in the person of Jesus, The appearance of his countenance was altered.

They also witnessed a change in Jesus countenance after his resurrection.

I’ve witnessed many times seeing in ordinary Christians their countenance change when they shared with me their faith.

When a person comes to faith in Jesus their countenance changes: a brightness appears on the face which brightens up their whole appearance. A radiant smile that speaks of a transformed heart God’s Son presence within having been translated into His kingdom. The disciples had a glimpse into God’s dimension at the Transfiguration.

And so it’s by simple faith that we believe that Jesus is God’s Son, and God will confirm this truth to us 

The Messiah’s Secret – The Existence of God

Earth is part of the bigger picture of the universe.

We notice that the sun, moon and the earth have fixed orbits, it takes the earth a year to orbit around the sun and it takes a month for the moon to orbit the earth.

On the left the orbits of the earth, sun and moon

Do we know why this important to us - Life on earth depends on this for its seasons to grow crops.

It is not by chance scientist have discovered how these natural laws work governing the universe

 It took the Rosetta spaceship 10 years to reach the meteor, the achievement was described as like ‘a fly landing on a speeding bullet’.

The nuclear energy being used enabled it to increase its speed so as not to be pulled by gravity into the orbit of a planet. (nuclear energy only used in long distance space exploration.)

The spaceship was named after the Rosetta stone, because archaeologists discovered how to translate the meaning of hieroglyphs; on the stone the same words written in three languages: Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs, Demotic scrip and Ancient Greek.

Scientist make discoveries about the things that have been created by a supreme deity. In our reading this morning verse 20 “Ever since the creation of the world, his invisible nature, namely his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made.”

When Einstein split the atom he discovered nuclear energy.

Eric Sauer, in his book, “The King of the Earth” page 42 “What an abundance of energy is hidden in every gram of matter, in every fragment of stone, in every piece of wood.” The atoms when dematerialised into fuel, nuclear energy, a single gram in a car could travel 400 times around the world.

“Two hundred truck loads of coal have the same calorific value as one gram of dematerialised matter.”

We use nuclear fuel in our power stations and in defence as a nuclear deterrent.

If we look at the picture on the left we can see the different layers that surround the earth.

The Troposphere – where we live

The Stratosphere – this is the ozone layer which is a naturally occurring gas that filters the sun's ultraviolet radiation. 

The Mesosphere – where meteors and obsolete satellites burn up.  Travelling at speed, the friction causes the air in front of the object to compress and heat up rapidly, in some cases to temperatures can reach more than 3,000°F!

The Thermosphere – where the International Space Station and satellites orbit the earth. The Aurora Borealis refers to the Northern Lights.

The Exosphere a thin outer layer that is the beginning of outer space

.It’s not by chance that these layers are in this particular order they have been fixed in position by God.
 Moses wrote, “In the beginning God made heaven and the earth”. Moses had his encounter with God in the burning bush and like Moses when we meet God we come to know the existence God

Chorus -  Indescribable God on DVD  ( Music Leader)

From the highest of heights to the depths of the sea
Creation's revealing your majesty
From the colours of fall to the fragrance of spring
Every creature unique in the song that it sings
All exclaiming

Chorus
Indescribable, uncontainable
You placed the stars in the sky and you know them by name
You are amazing God
All powerful, untameable
Awestruck we fall to our knees as we humbly proclaim
You are amazing God

6 months ago Tim Peake and Tim Kopra left earth on a Soviet Rocket to join the International Space Station that is orbiting the earth.

Once the astronauts left the atmosphere of the earth they enter into a different world, its environment having no gravity, causing weightlessness so their bodies floated, and space is very cold.

The Station has all the facilities air and food etc. When they went outside the space station they wore their spacesuit to protect them from the harmful effects of radiation in space. 

A young boy wore a spacesuit.

The return to earth

The Module enters the Mesosphere

On their return to earth in the Soyuz Module was protected by the metal that can withstand these high temperatures. I wonder how hot they were inside the module.

A parachute opened to slow down their decent to the earth.

 It took a few days for their bodies to recover from being in that different world.

This breaking through the heat barrier reminds us of how Jesus broke through the barrier of death that separated us from God. And how we discover the God of all creation, I remember making that discovery and feeling part of the wider creation.

In Jesus we see the existence of God.

In Paul’s letter to Titus Paul interchanges the references to God as Saviour and our Great God and Saviour Jesus Christ. Titus 1: 10, 13.

We can understand that God embraces the whole of the universe

Scientist Eric Sauer wrote, “All creation radiates in its own fullness of life and yet at the same time living and moving in God.

In a harmonious rhythm of degrees and ranks, in an organic unity of acons and spheres, the whole cosmos is a great symphony of indescribable beauty and eternal harmony.

 A mighty organism of the most differing worlds bound together in all its parts by the same creative concept.

The whole universe is a ceaseless song of praise, a psalm of creation displaying millions of variations, yet bound together by the same basic theme. “For of Him and through Him and unto Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.” Romans 11: 16