Seven Titles Of Christ Series

Seven Titles of Jesus Christ

Welcome:

Introduction: Who: The apostle John, the beloved disciple, the one who was closest to Jesus, the only man standing at Jesus’ cross when He died. When: AD 90-100 Where Written from Ephesus. Why: But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. John 20:31

The Christian scholar Francis Junius, tells how he was all messed up in his youth, but by the grace of God was wonderfully recovered by accidentally reading the first 4 verses of John in a bible which his father put in his way. “I saw such a divinity in the argument, such an authority and majesty in the style, that my flesh trembled, and I was struck with such amazement that for a whole day I scarcely knew where I was or what I did”; he dates the beginning of his Christian experience to the reading of John 1:1-4.

Let’s open our Bibles to John chapter 1.

As you’re turning to John 1, let me ask a question: “How can we come to know the living God?” Probably no question is more important because it relates to life after death. In the past 50 years a movement came into being that proclaimed “God is Dead”. And then Shirley McClain came along and stood on the beach, raised her hands in worship of herself, and proclaimed, “I am God.” Jesus said, “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only True God, and Jesus Christ Whom You have sent.” Both the philosophies “God is dead”, and “I am God” don’t help us to know God, but today’s study will show us exactly how to know the Living God.

Let’s pray:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of men. John 1:1-4

Let’s notice the first verse.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John 1:1

“In the beginning…” What does it mean, “in the Beginning?” This “beginning” comes before the “all things were made” in verse 3, so John is talking about the beginning of creation, the beginning of time. In the beginning, before creation, was the Word.

If the Word was before creation, which He was, because all things were made by Him, if He was “in the beginning” then He, Himself had no beginning, which is just another way of saying that the Word is eternal. John 17:5 confirms this truth:

And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began. John 17:5

Now we must understand something here: since only God is eternal, the absolute Deity of Jesus Christ is affirmed here. God will not share His glory with another, and yet Jesus Christ had the glory of God before the world began. He was wrapped in the glory of God. Jesus is eternal. Jesus is God.

“In the beginning was the Word.” Notice John 1:15:

John testifies concerning him. He cries out, saying, "This was he of whom I said, ’He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’" John 1:15 Christ was born 6 months after John, but existed before John.

John 8:58 says “before Abraham was born I am” (eimi, timeless existence). Jesus, as the eternal God, existed before Abraham. He is eternal.

He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. Colossians 1:17

So what is brought out here is the pre-existence of Jesus Christ. He was before John the Baptist, He was before Abraham; He was “before all things.”

And now we come to the first title of Jesus Christ in this passage. There are five titles of Christ in these five verses and this is the first title - “The Word” What is the exact meaning of this title, The Word? Three passages of Scripture which will help us understand, I will read them for you:

1 In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. Hebrews 1:1-2

Here we learn that Christ is the final spokesman of God, His final communication to the world. All that God wants to say to us He says in Christ, the Word.

Next, look at Revelation 1:8, this is the Savior’s title: