The Apostle John says that if one was to attempt to write down everything Jesus said and did, “that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written” (John 21:25). Jesus, as a member of the Trinity, was active long before He came to earth in the form of man. As the eternal Son, Jesus was the force behind creation (John 1:3, Col 1:16) and is actively holding creation together (Col 1:17). Prior to the earthly life of God the Son, the majority of conservative biblical scholars believe that He appeared as the Angel of Yahweh, who was seen a number of times in the Old Testament (Gen 16, 22; Num 22; Judg 2, 6, 13; 1 Kgs 19; etc). At the incarnation, the Son actually took upon Himself a human nature (Phil 2:5-8; Gal 4:4). The divine person joined with the human nature, creating one person in two natures. He is called “the Word,” the “Son of Man,” and the “Son of God” in the Gospels. He was born to the Virgin Mary in Bethlehem and grew up in Nazareth, was baptized by John the Baptist, and ministered to all of Israel. While on earth, Jesus’ ministry consisted of preaching the Kingdom of God, calling people to faith, healing, forgiving sins, creating disciples and preaching about the Kingdom of Heaven (Matt 11:5; Mark 3:13-19; Matt 4:7). Through His death and resurrection He gave humans full access to God and became a surety of God’s best (Rom 10:9; Heb 4:16, 7:22; Eph 1:5). Since His resurrection, He has been building a room in the Father’s house for each believer, where they will join Him as His Bride (John 14:2-3; Eph 5:23-27) at the rapture. Jesus is our advocate and defender before the Father God (Rom 8:34; Heb 7:25; 1 John 2:1). He will come again for His own (John 14:3), and again as the commander of the armies of the Lord who will defeat Satan and his minions, and inaugurate the eternal Kingdom of God.
Jesus
Word Study
| Steve Stanley • Hershel Wayne House
ἸησοῦςIēsoûs·Strong's G2424
The name “Jesus” finds its origin in the Hebrew word יֵשׁוּעַ (Yeshua), a later form of the word יְהֹושׁוּעַ (Yehoshua), “Joshua”—Jesus and Joshua share the same name in the Greek NT (cf. Luke 3:29; Acts 7:45; Heb 4:8). The English word “Jesus” comes from the Greek transliteration of the Hebrew Yeshua. The Hebrew meaning of the name is “Yahweh is salvation,” most appropriate for Jesus. Matthew 1:21 shows that God makes a deliberate connection between the naming of Jesus and His role as Savior. Jesus is Savior. This name was common among Jews, apparently naming their sons after Joshua. The connection of Jesus and Joshua by name in the Bible is not coincidental either, as Joshua in his role in the conquest of the Promised Land serves as a type, or foreshadowing of Jesus and His role in providing believers salvation and access to heaven.
The Hebrew word Yeshua is transliterated as Iesous in Greek and Jesus in English, as the chart reveals.
This is the word from which we get our English word “logic,” but to read that meaning from English back into the first century use of this Greek word would be anachronistic and inappropriate. This word, λόγος (logos), is used over three hundred times in the NT. In one category of uses, it refers to 1) an expression of the mind, 2) a statement or discussion, 3) a “word,” or a matter or thing under discussion and 4) extending of the previous meaning, simply a “thing.” In another category, it is used for a “mathematical computation,” “reckoning” or “settlement of an account.” Finally, it is used for the second person of the Trinity as the “expression” or “revelation” of God. Jesus is by choice and destiny Savior; He is by nature the revelation of God. In the progress of revelation from Job and Genesis forward, the “Word,” the incarnate Jesus, is the best and most complete revelation of God to date. The next progression or improvement in revelation will be at the revelation of Jesus Christ when He comes again. In John 1, the apostle does not specifically identify that the subject of his writing is Jesus until 1:17. John refers to his subject at first only as the word, then creator, then light, then the one who came, then the word become flesh, then finally as Jesus Christ. Most foundationally, the “Word” is the second person of the Trinity. He is the express revelation of God in the most personal and intimate way, since He reveals God, while being God. John’s grammar in 1:1 asserts first the eternality of the Word (at the beginning [of time and creation], the Word already was), secondly the interrelatedness of the first and second persons of the Trinity (the Word was in a face-to-face relationship with God) and thirdly the divinity of the “Word” (and the Word was divine). The Word is Jesus, the personal expression of divinity, God’s best revelation yet.
The prophet Isaiah, when speaking to King Ahaz of Yahweh's deliverance for Judah, prophesied that a future virgin would give birth to a son, and that this son's name was Immanuel, God is with us. The apostle Matthew, when seeking to identify Jesus as the fulfillment of that Isaianic prophecy quotes that text regarding the virgin Mary's boy Jesus, that he would save His people from their sins. When Isaiah told Ahaz that the king could ask God for a sign of his deliverance from the kings Rezin of Aram and Pekah of Israel, no matter how magnificent the request. After Ahaz refused to do so, Isaiah spoke of a future deliverance as well that would be given by God of His ultimate deliverance, that of Immanuel being with His people.
Christ (Messiah)
Word Study
| Steve P Sullivan
ΧριστόςChristós·Strong's G5547
Christ is one of the most familiar names for Jesus and these two names occur together in the NT almost 500 times. It is the Greek word transliterated from the Hebrew משיח, (mashiach, Messiah in English) and means anointed one, king or messiah. Biblical scholars generally acknowledge that Christ, or Messiah, is not a name per se in the New Testament but the title for Jesus—Jesus the Messiah. He is the promised Messiah of God, the offered King of Israel and, ultimately, the king over all of God’s kingdom. This term harkens back to the anointed kings of Israel, who were all types, foreshadowing Jesus as the Christ, the high king of Israel and the supreme ruler of the universe, who currently sits at the right hand of the Father. As Lord over the church, Jesus is our King (Rom 5:21), the promised Messiah who reigns over the church in the “times of the Gentiles” and over the whole earth, when He reigns as David's Son.
1Then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to his disciples, 2saying, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat. 3All things therefore whatever they tell you to observe, observe and do, but don’t do their works; for they say, and don’t do. 4For they bind heavy burdens that are grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not lift a finger to help them. 5But they do all their works to be seen by men. They make their phylacteriesbroad and enlarge the fringesof their garments, 6and love the place of honor at feasts, the best seats in the synagogues, 7the salutations in the marketplaces, and to be called ‘Rabbi, Rabbi’by men. 8But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi’, for one is your teacher, the Christ, and all of you are brothers. 9Call no man on the earth your father, for one is your Father, he who is in heaven. 10Neither be called masters, for one is your master, the Christ. 11But he who is greatest among you will be your servant. 12Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
13“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows’ houses, and as a pretense you make long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater condemnation.
14“But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against men; for you don’t enter in yourselves, neither do you allow those who are entering in to enter.15Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel around by sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of Gehennaas yourselves.
16“Woe to you, you blind guides, who say, ‘Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obligated.’ 17You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold? 18And, ‘Whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gift that is on it, he is obligated.’ 19You blind fools! For which is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifies the gift? 20He therefore who swears by the altar, swears by it and by everything on it. 21He who swears by the temple, swears by it and by him who has been livingin it. 22He who swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God and by him who sits on it.
23“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cumin,and have left undone the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy, and faith. But you ought to have done these, and not to have left the other undone. 24You blind guides, who strain out a gnat, and swallow a camel!
25“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and unrighteousness.26You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the platter, that its outside may become clean also.
27“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitened tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but inwardly are full of dead men’s bones and of all uncleanness. 28Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
29“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the tombs of the righteous, 30and say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we wouldn’t have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.’ 31Therefore you testify to yourselves that you are children of those who killed the prophets. 32Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers. 33You serpents, you offspring of vipers, how will you escape the judgment of Gehenna?34Therefore, behold, I send to you prophets, wise men, and scribes. Some of them you will kill and crucify; and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, 35that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zachariah son of Barachiah, whom you killed between the sanctuary and the altar. 36Most certainly I tell you, all these things will come upon this generation.
37“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I would have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not! 38Behold, your house is left to you desolate. 39For I tell you, you will not see me from now on, until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’”