Who Is Jesus to You?

00:00:05.000 | Well, who is Jesus?

00:00:07.000 | It is a perennial question, and there must be as many diverse answers to that question as there are about any other person who ever walked on this planet.

00:00:16.000 | Even during his life on earth, Christ's very presence was a point of remarkable debate and contention.

00:00:23.000 | Some said Jesus was God, and others said he was demon-possessed.

00:00:28.000 | Some said Jesus was a good teacher, and others called him a liar.

00:00:32.000 | Some said he was brilliant, and others labeled him insane.

00:00:35.000 | Jesus was applauded as a prophet, and he was dismissed as a babbling blasphemer.

00:00:41.000 | So who is this Jesus?

00:00:44.000 | In the words of Hebrews 1, verse 3, we are told that Jesus is "the radiance of the glory of God, and the exact imprint of his nature."

00:00:54.000 | In a 1996 sermon, John Piper answered this age-old question, "Who is Jesus?"

00:01:01.000 | Who is it that sat down at the right hand?

00:01:04.000 | Who is it that went to the cross?

00:01:06.000 | Who is it that was buried and rose again?

00:01:08.000 | Who is it that upholds all things by the word of his power?

00:01:11.000 | Who is Jesus Christ?

00:01:13.000 | He is the exact representation of the divine nature, or of God's nature.

00:01:19.000 | What does that mean?

00:01:21.000 | Jesus said, "If you've seen me, you've seen the Father."

00:01:24.000 | Paul said, "He is the image of the invisible God."

00:01:28.000 | But you know what?

00:01:30.000 | You could say that sentence, "He is the exact representation of the nature of God,"

00:01:35.000 | and be absolutely wrong in the way you think about it.

00:01:39.000 | For example, you could say, "Jesus is the representation of God the Father,

00:01:46.000 | the way a painting represents a person."

00:01:51.000 | And you'd be wrong.

00:01:53.000 | You could say, "Jesus represents the nature of God

00:01:58.000 | the way an authorized letter from a king represents the king."

00:02:03.000 | And you'd be wrong.

00:02:05.000 | Or you could say, "Jesus Christ, the Son of God,

00:02:10.000 | is the exact representation of God the Father in that a wax mold has an impress,

00:02:21.000 | and it perfectly represents the ring."

00:02:25.000 | And you'd be wrong.

00:02:27.000 | And the reason we know that would be utterly inadequate to talk that way

00:02:31.000 | is because the first phrase tells us how he is a representation,

00:02:37.000 | and it isn't any of those.

00:02:39.000 | He is an exact representation of the Father in that he is the radiance of his glory.

00:02:49.000 | He represents the glory of God the way radiance represents glory.

00:02:57.000 | That's very different than a painting representing a person,

00:03:02.000 | a letter, a king, a wax mold, and a ring.

00:03:06.000 | Radiance coming out from a light, streaming down from the sun,

00:03:13.000 | is not another thing.

00:03:17.000 | It's not a different essence than the thing.

00:03:22.000 | The radiance of glory is the glory radiating.

00:03:28.000 | That's the profound thing to get a handle on here.

00:03:32.000 | Christ is not other than God, representing God.

00:03:37.000 | He is God representing God.

00:03:40.000 | He is the Father streaming out in glory,

00:03:44.000 | standing forth in another person whose essence is the same divine essence.

00:03:51.000 | We're talking mystery here, I realize.

00:03:53.000 | We won't begin to exhaust this or end it, but we can see a little bit.

00:03:58.000 | The window can be cracked enough so that we can worship aright

00:04:02.000 | and not make heretical statements about the sun being a creature or a mere prophet.

00:04:09.000 | There is no time, let's compare him with the sun, the sun radiating out its beams.

00:04:15.000 | There is no time when the sun exists that its radiant light does not exist.

00:04:22.000 | They are so much a part of each other that when the sun exists, the radiance of the sun exists.

00:04:31.000 | When God the Father exists, the sun exists.

00:04:34.000 | They are co-eternal.

00:04:36.000 | The Father did not exist and they say, "I think I shall bring into being a sun."

00:04:40.000 | That is not the way it happened.

00:04:42.000 | He is eternally begotten, eternally streaming out.

00:04:47.000 | Where there is light, there are rays.

00:04:50.000 | Where there is God, there is the Son of God.

00:04:53.000 | This radiance is the glory radiating out.

00:04:57.000 | It is not essentially different.

00:04:59.000 | The Son of God is God.

00:05:02.000 | He is not by nature another being.

00:05:07.000 | He is not created or made.

00:05:10.000 | Compare this with a solar calculator.

00:05:13.000 | I think of this because I was using one the other night getting my tech stuff ready.

00:05:18.000 | I asked Barnabas, "Where is the off switch here?"

00:05:21.000 | I was pushing the on switch.

00:05:23.000 | He said, "It is a solar calculator."

00:05:25.000 | I said, "Oh, just put it back in the cover. It goes off."

00:05:28.000 | What that means is that when the sun or the light in my dining room shines on this little window,

00:05:35.000 | a little black number appears.

00:05:38.000 | It would be fair to say that the light created that or made it, produced it in some way.

00:05:45.000 | And that number is not the light.

00:05:48.000 | So don't ever think of the Son of God like the numbers on a solar calculator.

00:05:53.000 | That God made the sun.

00:05:55.000 | He brought the sun into being like that.

00:05:58.000 | The sun is the light shining on the world and making the world.

00:06:04.000 | He is begotten, not made, the old creeds say.

00:06:09.000 | The point being that you beget light.

00:06:11.000 | Humans beget humans, dogs beget puppies, cats beget kittens, and God begets God.

00:06:18.000 | Lastly, it is by means of the rays of the light that we see light.

00:06:25.000 | In the first service at this point, the sun came out and a big beam just landed on about 40 people right there.

00:06:33.000 | It was unbelievable.

00:06:34.000 | It was great.

00:06:36.000 | I said, "Now, you know what?

00:06:38.000 | If you try to look up through that window in the sun, first of all, it will blind you.

00:06:41.000 | Don't do that."

00:06:42.000 | And that's just a little reflection of God.

00:06:44.000 | God would blind you too.

00:06:46.000 | You have to have a means to see God.

00:06:48.000 | You have to have a mediator.

00:06:49.000 | The mediator is the Son of God and the Son of God is the radiance of the glory of God.

00:06:54.000 | And I said, "You know what?

00:06:55.000 | The light that is on your face right now arrived there eight minutes after it left the sun.

00:07:01.000 | About eight minutes ago while I was preaching, it left the sun.

00:07:04.000 | These beams went out and they landed right on our face.

00:07:08.000 | Now, if you look at those rays, you can actually see, if you put on the right glasses, you see a ball.

00:07:13.000 | Or at sunrise and sundown when it's safe, you can see a ball.

00:07:18.000 | Are you seeing the sun?

00:07:21.000 | Yeah, you're seeing the sun.

00:07:22.000 | But actually you're seeing eight minutes later what the means of the sun's rays give to you to see.

00:07:31.000 | Right?

00:07:32.000 | We're together.

00:07:33.000 | This is the 20th century.

00:07:35.000 | What we're seeing is a ball that's eight minutes old being mediated to us by light streaming over 93 million miles from the sun.

00:07:45.000 | But we're seeing the sun, folks.

00:07:47.000 | That's the sun.

00:07:49.000 | And when you look at Jesus Christ, you are seeing God.

00:07:54.000 | That is so good.

00:07:56.000 | This clip was pulled from John Piper's sermon preached on April 7th, 1996, entitled "He Sat Down at the Right Hand of Majesty."

00:08:05.000 | This clip was sent in by Jacob Hall.

00:08:07.000 | Thank you, Jacob, for this clip.

00:08:09.000 | The entire sermon can be found at DesiringGod.org.

00:08:12.000 | And if you have a great sermon clip, send it in to us via e-mail.

00:08:15.000 | Send us clips, even your own personal questions.

00:08:17.000 | We want those.

00:08:18.000 | Go to DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn and there you will find a little button to e-mail your question or your clip to us.

00:08:27.000 | So, Jesus is the radiance of God.

00:08:31.000 | You can't ignore him.

00:08:33.000 | And he is still dividing opinions and dividing people to this day.

00:08:37.000 | So how do we as Christians humbly wield the offense of the cross among multi-religious and pluralistic societies like those that we live in today?

00:08:47.000 | It's a question from a listener in Singapore, and I will pose it to John Piper tomorrow.

00:08:52.000 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke.

00:08:54.000 | Thanks for listening to the Ask Pastor John podcast.

00:08:56.000 | [end]

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