He Suffered Under Pontius Pilate

He Suffered Under Pontius Pilate

Ian Thomas

Hebrews 2:10-18

Jesus’ suffering with and for humanity qualifies him as our sympathetic savior & faithful high priest.

I. The Solidarity of Jesus’ Suffering (2:10-13)

Isaiah 53:3-4, 7:

3 He was despised and rejected by men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And as one from whom men hide their faces He was despised, and we esteemed him not 4 Surely he has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted… 7  He was oppressed, and he was afflicted;

“There are many points in which Christ could not save us without suffering. He could not be a perfect Substitute unless he bore our sin and shame. He could not be a perfect Sympathizer unless he bore our suffering. This, perhaps, is the main point in which Christ is perfected; he becomes capable of entering into all the griefs that disturb the many sons whom he is to lead to glory. In our Elder Brother, the heir of all things, there is an epitome of all the sorrows of all the rest of the family.” ~ Charles Spurgeon

1 Peter 4:13: But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.

II. The Success of Jesus’ Suffering (2:14-15)

Jesus’ success in suffering:

1. He destroys the power of death itself

2. He frees us from our slavery to the fear of death

“All religions talk about death and the afterlife, but in general they proclaim that you must lead a good life in order to be ready for eternity. Yet as death approaches, we all know we have not even come close to doing our best; we have not lived as we ought. So we stay, with warrant, enslaved by the fear of death until the end. But Christianity is different. It doesn’t leave you to face death on your own, by holding up your life record & hoping it will suffice. Instead, it gives you a champion who has defeated death, who pardons you and covers you with his life. You face death “in him” and with his perfect record. To the degree we believe, know, and embrace that, we are released from the power of death.” ~ Tim Keller

III. The Sympathy of Jesus’ Suffering (2:16-18)

“Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. After all, you find out the strength of a wind by trying to walk against it, not by lying down. A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside us until we try to fight it: and Christ, because He was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means.” ~ C.S. Lewis

Who Was Conceived by the Holy Spirit & Born of the Virgin Mary

Who Was Conceived by the Holy Spirit & Born of the Virgin Mary

Ryan Whitfield

Luke 1:26-38

God’s grace is designed to meet our present faith.

I. God’s Promise of Grace

II. God’s Design of Divinity

III. God’s Perfect Plan

“He cannot be our Lord if we insist on ruling ourselves. If he is Lord, then we are servants—glad servants of God. This is how faith replies to grace. When God promises you a Savior, say, “Let me have him!” When God announces his plan for your life, say, “Amen! Let it be so! Not my will, but your will be done, God!’” - Thabiti Anybwile

Jesus Christ, His only Son, Our Lord

Jesus Christ, His Only Son, Our Lord

Ian Thomas

Colossians 1:15-20

Jesus Christ is the divine, eternal, preeminent Son who became man for us and for our salvation.

I. Jesus is the Son

1. Jesus is Creator

“It was his overflowing love for the Son that motivated the Father to create, and creation is his gift to his Son. The Father makes his Son the inheritor, the ‘heir of all things.’ And so the Son is not only the motivating origin of creation: he is its goal. The Son is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end of creation.” ~ Michael Reeves

2. Jesus is the Heir of All Things

Hebrews 1:1–3: Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.

Abraham Kuyper: “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine!”

II. Jesus is the Christ

John 1:14: And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Philippians 2:9–11: Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

III. Jesus is Our Lord

Creator of Heaven and Earth

Creator of Heaven and Earth

Pat Kappenman

Revelation 4:1-11

Main Idea: God created and sustains all things so that we, His creatures, might fully enjoy His beauty and magnificence.

Why do we (on earth) think and respond differently to God as Creator than they do in heaven?

1. When we think of God as Creator, we Him imagine more like a designer, the inventor of all that has been made. When they think of God as Creator, they regard Him as the owner, the ruler of all that has been made.

2. Because of how we tend to think about God as Creator, when we look at what has been created, we focus on its mechanics and magnitude, as if it were some vast amazing machine, a museum artifact to be studied, analyzed and explained. When they look at what has been created, they see it as the source and reason for expressing glory and honor and power to its Creator. 

3. When we think of ourselves as creatures, we tend to think both too little and too much of ourselves at the same time. When they think of themselves as creatures, they step fully into their respective roles and rejoice completely in the centrality of the Throne.

How might we remedy the situation?

Three suggestions:

1. Regularly confess and give thanks for God’s governance over your life and His world

2. Stress less about the science and superstitions behind creation skeptics and sing more about the beauty and blessedness of the Creator

3. Step fully into the reality of Jesus, the Christ, our Lord.

God the Father Almighty

God the Father Almighty

Ian Thomas

Ephesians 1:3-14

Main Idea: God is the praiseworthy, eternal, and almighty Father who brings to pass every purpose of his will.

I. The Always Father

Christians believe in a trinitarian God: 

• God the Father is the architect of redemption

• God the Son accomplishes redemption

• God the Spirit applies redemption.

John 17:24: Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

“Since God is, before all things, a Father, and not primarily a Creator or Ruler, all his ways are beautifully fatherly. It is not that this God ‘does’ being Father as his day job, only to kick back in the evenings as plain old ‘God.’ It is not that he has a nice blob of fatherly icing on top. He is Father. All the way down. Thus all that he does, he does as Father. That is who he is. He creates as a Father and he rules as a Father; and that means the way he rules over creation is most unlike the way any other God would rule over creation.” ~ Michael Reeves

II. The Adopting Father

Our adoption in Christ is:

1. Planned 

2. Plentiful

3. Powerful

4. Permanent

“What is a Christian? The question can be answered in many ways, but the richest answer I know is that a Christian is one who has God as Father… If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God’s child, and having God as his Father.” ~ J.I. Packer

III. The Almighty Father

Introduction to the Apostles' Creed

Introduction to the Apostles' Creed

Panel Discussion

THE APOSTLES’ CREED

I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.

 I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit
and born of the virgin Mary.
He suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
he descended to hell.
The third day he rose again from the dead.
He ascended to heaven
and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty.
From there he will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen.

“This is what Christians believe—what all Christians believe. The Apostles’ Creed collapses time and space, uniting all true believers in the one, holy, and apostolic faith. This creed is a summary of what the Bible teaches, a narrative of God’s redemptive love, and a concise statement of basic Christianity… All Christians believe more than is contained in the Apostles’ Creed, but none can believe less...There is such power in knowing that when we confess the Apostles’ Creed, alone or in corporate worship, we are declaring the truth of the Christian faith with the very words that gave early Christians hope, sent martyrs confidently to their deaths, and have instructed Christ’s church throughout the centuries.” ~ Al Mohler