Who Is Jesus? Series

If we allow a progressive view of our faith in Christ to take over our thinking and infiltrate the church, we will lose confidence in Christ and the inerrancy and veracity of His Word. This brings me to the third point:

3. Where does it lead?

At the turn of the 20th century, William Booth, the founder of Salvation Army made this observation:(SL11)

The chief danger confronting the coming century is - religion without the Holy Spirit, Christianity without Christ, forgiveness without repentance, salvation without regeneration, politics without God, and heaven without hell.

This was the danger that confronted Christianity over 100 years ago and is the danger that relentlessly confronts the church today. These false gospels are in a sense, “dumbing down” God’s people, causing us to follow the wrong Jesus, and taking others to hell - that is not the good news for anyone.

Here is my question for you. What concept of Christ are you following and how do you know it is the right one? Is it based on some hand picked verses taken out of context, your favorite promises, the pastor’s point of view, on what the majority believes? Or is your understanding of Jesus Christ based on the whole counsel of God? (Act 20:27). Jesus wants us to experience the fullness of His Grace and truth, He wants us to have a precise picture, a precise understanding of the One we truly follow. In v. 18 it says:

No one has seen God at any time; God the only Son, who is in the arms of the Father, He has explained Him (John 1:18).

“In verse 18 the word “explained” is from the root word for “exegesis” which is only used six times in Scripture— carries the idea that the whole story about God has now been precisely revealed by Jesus. Jesus came to share the whole story of God and his perfect plan of redemption. This is not a new story, but in Jesus this wonderful story of grace is perfectly and fully explained.” The whole story of redemption is How Jesus is leading us back into a right relationship with God. As the unique Son of God, the only incarnation of God, he is the only way, the truth, and the life. If you know Jesus according to the Word, you will not be easily led astray by progressive ideology, neo orthodoxy and other false teachings.

This is why we preach the Scriptures exegetically and expositionally. Expositionally means that we unpack the Word, systematically, book by book, to reveal or unfold God’s Truth studying the whole counsel of God. Exegesis means to properly interpret the Bible based solely on what it says, to unpack the word according to the original language, word meaning, form, structure and context addressing both the historical and theological context. Ultimately, we teach the Bible expositionally and exegetically so that the Word is made plain and intelligible pointing people back to the Jesus of the scriptures. That is why we come to church, it’s not for the music, or the programs,(which are important) we come to church and hear the preaching of the word because we want to see Jesus and we want to experience His fulness in the body of Christ.