 Okay. The recording is on. Welcome everyone to BC 106 course on interpreting scripture. We are now in the last lesson of this course and we will, we should be finishing soon. Then we'll do a full review of the course so that we can put everything together. Let's take a moment to pray and we'll start. Let's pray together. Father we thank you for this day. Thank you for another opportunity to get together and study your word and receive your word. Thank you Lord that you open our hearts and minds by your spirit to your truth that you give us wisdom and understanding God and you teach us your ways and you show us Lord how to correctly handle your word so that we could apply it correctly in our own lives and also as we minister to others that we can strengthen them and lead them right. Thank you Father. Thank you for the covering of your Holy Spirit upon us in Jesus name. Amen. All right. So today we start off our last topic. It's just called difficult topics. So I just picked, you know, I'd rather put together a collection of topics that generally people have questions with in which I thought was useful but it's not everything. Of course there are a lot more topics, a lot more questions that might be of interest to us but it's not necessarily here in these notes that I've shared. So what we're going to do is I'm going to go through some of these topics, explain them and then if you have any additional questions just feel free to ask you can write them on a piece of paper and give it to me and I will keep adding to this list or you can just ask in class. The plan is that by April 11th, sorry April 4th, that is next week we'll finish this. April 11th will be our last class. We'll do a full review of everything then you'll have the next two weeks to do your assignments. Okay, so I'll put the assignment up shortly after by April 15th then you'll have two weeks to do it. Basically you have to go through the whole notes one more time, study it together, study it and then you answer the questions. Okay, so hopefully if everything goes well as planned April 11th we should finish everything. I mean if you need to we can always have another class but I think by April 11th we'll finish everything and then you'll have time to do your final assignment. Just one assignment, it'll cover the whole thing. Okay, it'll be open book, open Bible so you don't have to memorize something but you have to understand. You need to know where to go and look. Right, so that's why you have to study. It doesn't mean you can't study, you have to study and the exam will be online on Google Classroom so you just finish your exam there. I just have to work independently. Right, so let's begin with some of these questions. First one the question is, is Jesus God and it's important for us to know this because even within the Christian when I say Christian I would of course these would be referred to as cults that means they're not true to the main Christian faith. For example Jehovah's Witness. Okay, they call themselves Christians. They have the name Jehovah with Jehovah's Witness but they will come and say Jesus is not God and they'll be carrying a big Bible with them. So you think what is this? They're carrying Bible, opening the Bible, reading it. They have all these books but they're saying Jesus is not God. Right and they'll try to convince us Jesus is not God and then of course you have people from other faiths who will also say show me where Jesus said he is God or why do you say Jesus God? He's only a prophet. He's only a good man. He's only a teacher. Just another human being and they would equate Jesus to another religious leader. Right, so we need to be very convinced. And so there are three things to this. One is that the Lord Jesus himself said he is God and I've given you the scriptures. In John 8 58 Jesus said before Abraham was I am. See, clear statement. I was saying before Abraham that is almost 2000 years before and then he uses the title of God. I am. That's very big. Did Jesus say he's God? Yeah, one example. Another example is in John chapter 10 verses 32 33. Jesus said he's talking about the Father. He's talking about himself and he says I and the Father are one. I and the Father are one. Then immediately the Jews take up stones and they're ready to stone him. Then he asks why are you going to stone him? I mean what wrong did I do? Then they say because you're blaspheming, because you made yourself equal with God. So the statement I and the Father are one in the mind of the Jewish people, his audience. He said same as saying I am equal with God. That's how they understood it and they were ready to stone him. So did Jesus say he is equal with God? Yeah, I and the Father are one. Then when you go in John 17 verse 5, when Jesus is praying high priestly prayer, he prays to the Father and he says Father glorify me with the glory which I had with you before the world was. So he's praying to the Father and he said Father the glory I had with you before even creation. The same glory I shared with you with the Father. Give it to me. And so John 75 shows he was co-equal with the Father. He shared the same glory even before creation. Revelation 1.8 Jesus refers to himself as Almighty. I am the first the last and he says I am the Almighty. Not small mighty, Almighty. That Almighty is the title of God. You're not second or third, but he's Almighty. So did he say he's God? Yeah. Then another thing is the phrase Alpha and Omega first and last. That phrase is only used by Almighty God. So in the Old Testament in Isaiah many times God says I am God. I am the first and the last. That means I'm there at the beginning. I'm there at the end. God is outside time. He's first and last. So he's seeing the beginning and the end at the same time. He has no time or he doesn't dwell in time. He dwells outside of time. So God says I am first and last. New Testament Revelation, many times Jesus says I am Alpha and Omega and the first and the last. Jesus is using that same phrase. I am the first and same phrase which Almighty God, God the Father used. So we can put all this together and say, many times Jesus said that he is God. Then in the Old Testament, at least in two places, it's clearly referring to Jesus as God. Isaiah 9.6 is referred to as Mighty God. Mighty God. In Micah 5.2 about Jesus it says he is the one who was from everlasting. Out of Bethlehem will come someone who's going to be ruler. He has been there from everlasting. That means he's been there from before time. Micah 5.2. New Testament, we know many scriptures. John chapter 1, the word was with God. The word was what was God. Romans 9 verse 5 Paul writes, he refers to Jesus as God. Philippians 2.6, we know, though he was in the form of God or he was by nature God, he emptied himself and became became a man. 1st Timothy 3.16, God was manifested in the flesh. So there's a Bible called Jesus God. Yeah, all these scriptures. Okay, so from the scriptures, we can show that the Lord Jesus, Jesus is God. He said it, Old Testament says it, New Testament says it. So no doubt. Any questions? Next, what a challenging thing is the God of the Bible is a triune God, one God in three persons. So this is again, challenging, is difficult to understand. Not easy to understand, I should say, but in many places, right from Genesis to Revelation, but the Bible is still talking to us about God. We see that's what God, Almighty God, God the Father, we see God the Son, we see the Holy Spirits, the triune God. And we have the phrase in Romans 1 and verse 20, the Godhead, the Godhead, referring to God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, the Godhead. So we say, when we say Godhead, we mean God, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. So one God, three persons. And we see pictures of this or we see this throughout the Bible. I've mentioned some references in Daniel chapter 7 verses 9 through 14. Daniel has a vision of heaven. He sees the ancient of days seated on the throne. So we sing the song ancient of days. So that's God the Father, ancient of days seated on the throne. And then he sees the Son of man. He comes before the Father. And to him, all the kingdoms, all the dominions, all the authorities given. So the phrase Son of Man is actually taken from the book of Daniel. So when Jesus referred to himself as the Son of Man, he was referring to Daniel chapter 7, the vision of Daniel. And of course, in Daniel chapter 2 also, never goodness, he says, I see one like the Son of Man, the fourth man in the fire. The fourth man. But this title, Son of Man is from Daniel. And Jesus uses it for himself, the Son of Man. Acts 7, 55 to 56, when Stephen is being stoned, the Bible says Stephen was full of the Holy Spirit. He saw into heaven, he saw the Father, and he saw Jesus, the Son of Man standing at the right hand of the Father. So you see the Holy Spirit, God the Father, the Son of Man, all three persons of the Trinity in that, in those two verses. Book of Revelation, you see, when the when the when the logists start speaking to John, Revelation 14 and 5, he says, this is from the one who was the first and the last, that's God the Father, and from the Lord Jesus, from the one who was slain, and from the Holy Spirit. You see the Father, the Holy Spirit, and Jesus in the book of Revelation. The Holy Spirit is often referred to as the seven spirits of God, seven spirits. Okay, that doesn't mean there are seven different spirits, one Holy Spirit, but referred to as the seven spirit or the seven-fold spirit. The word, the number seven means perfection. So it's talking about his perfection, seven spirits. So in the book of Revelation, God is speaking through pictures and images. And so the Holy Spirit is referred to as the seven spirits or the lamp, which has a seven limb, so seven spirits or seven lamps. So that way the Holy Spirit is represented. So you see in the book of Revelation also, Revelation chapter one, Revelation four and five, the Father, the Spirit, and the Lamb of God, the Lion of the Tribal Children. What we must know about the Trinity is this, they are co-equal. The Father is God, Jesus is God, and Holy Spirit is God. They co-equal. Understanding that means the Father is fully God, and he fully represents the Godhead. Similarly, Jesus or the eternal Word is fully God, and he fully represents the Father and the spirits. Similarly, the Holy Spirit is fully God, and he fully represents Jesus and the Father. The Holy Spirit is referred to as the Spirit of the Father or the Holy Spirit is referred to as the Spirit of Christ. Why? Because the Holy Spirit fully represents the Godhead. So each person of the Godhead can fully represent the Godhead. So the Holy Spirit is not one-third God. Jesus is not one-third God. Right? See, many times we make a mistake when we say the first person of the Trinity, second person of the Trinity, third person of the Trinity, we say like that. But actually that's not right. Father, Son, Holy Spirit are co-equal. It sometimes gives us the idea Jesus is half God, Holy Spirit is one-third God, because you're third person of the Trinity. We shouldn't actually, you know, that's not biblical. It's just language that people use. But he must understand that each person of the Godhead can fully represent the Godheads. So Jesus said, who is he? If you've seen me, you've seen the Father. Okay? And so when we worship one person of the Godhead, you're worshiping the Godhead. If you say, Jesus, I love you, it means you're saying, Father, I love you, Holy Spirit, I love you. Okay, so don't be like, oh, I always have to say, Father, I love you, Jesus, I love you, Holy Spirit, I love you. Or if I say, Holy Spirit, I love you, Jesus will get jealous. Or if I say, Jesus, I love you, or Father will get jealous, not like that. You worship one person of the Godhead, you're worshiping the Godheads. Triune, they're co-equal there together. So they work in unison. They do everything together. But it's one God, three persons. And we need to understand that. Now, sometimes people use some examples from earth to try to explain the Trinity. It is okay, but I don't think there's anything that can fully explain the Trinity. Now, usually people use the example of water, right? They say ice, water, water vapor, you know. So they say one God, it's the same compound, it's water. But it's in three states, solid, liquid, gas. So gas, Holy Spirit, liquid, Jesus, solid. I don't think that's a good example, actually, because it's not communicating the fact that there are three persons, distinct persons. It's just talking about different forms. And it doesn't mean God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit are in different forms. No, they are God, they have the same glory, they have the same nature. So this analogy of water and ice and vapor and liquid is not a good analogy. But you'll find that written in many theological books and all that. But I don't think it's a nice analogy. It's not a good analogy. So don't even use it. Just explain, this is God. In that analogy, it doesn't even describe a little bit about the triune God. This is one God, co-equal, having the same essence, same glory. They are not in different forms. They are in the same form. But they do things. Jesus, you know, God the Father sent the Son. The Son came to be a redeemer. The Holy Spirit comes to empower us and work in our lives. So they're doing different functions, but it's one God working together. So this analogy of water is not a good analogy, but some people use it. Okay, so while it understand eternity is challenging, yet I think we can be very clear about it. Like I'm clear in my mind, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, one God, three persons. It's clear for me. Because you see it in scripture, throughout scripture. There's no confusion about it. But sometimes people find it difficult to understand, but if you think about it, it's clear. One God, three persons. Okay, let me see. I think maybe there's a question on the chat. Okay, any questions from those online? Feel free to ask any time. So having explained a little bit about the Trinity, the triune God, the incarnation, and then that will lead us into the titles for Jesus Christ. So what happened in the incarnation? So imagine this, the Godhead, the triune God, God the Father, the eternal Word, and the Holy Spirit, one God, three persons. There was complete unity, okay, and there is complete fellowship, and there is complete love in the triune, in the Godhead. And so God, when we say God, we're talking about this triune God, in his mind, he decides to create, bring things into existence. So at some point he created angels, and there's heaven, there's all of the intelligent beings. And this God decided to create the universe, the world as we know it, the universe as we know it. And in his mind, he planned to create everything. He planned to create man. In his mind, he knew man will sin. In his mind, he also worked out the plan of salvation. At that time, you can imagine, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, you're going to create man, but he's going to disobey. He had to redeem him, and the only way he can redeem him is through Jesus going in there. So he created angels, at some point there was rebellion, and then there was the whole creation of man. We have to go redeem him. Are you ready? Is something going to do it? Yes, we can. Then we will have new heavens and new earth, everything. So Hebrews chapter 4 verse 3 says, that God finished his works before he began. Prince, what does it mean? God finished his works before he began. What does it mean? Hebrews 4-3. He finished his works before he began. How you can finish before you start, right? How did God finish his works before he began? In his mind, everything was done. He saw the end from the beginning in his mind. He saw everything. That's why the Bible says Jesus was the Lamb of God slain from before the foundation of the, even before he could start creation, Jesus was already slain. That means in the mind of God, it was already done. The book of life was written before the foundation of the world. What does it mean? Even before he started creating, in the mind of God, everything was done. Your name was there. Bimal, Prince, Ren, Francis, every book of life was written before the foundation of the world, before he started. God saw you, Nikhil, before he started creating Adam. Before he created Adam, he saw you. Think about it. Before the foundation of the world, he finished his works before he started. So when Adam sinned, God didn't go, what do we do now? He didn't do that. He knew what to do because the Lamb of God was slain before the foundation of the world. The book of life was written before the foundation of the world. The kingdom of God was prepared for you and me before the foundation of the world. God knew I'll keep a kingdom and these are the people that have come, they'll be part of my kingdom. He knew that. You're understanding now? So then time began, time began. That means creation and creation started, talking about the universe that God created. Time began as we know it is. But for God time means he compressed everything one second or one millisecond, whatever that took. He created everything. That means what we think will take billions of years took less than a millisecond. He created everything and then came Adam and then came all of these things happened. But everything happened in time. But in the mind of God, it was already done. It was already finished. So let's talk about the incarnation. In the incarnation, the eternal work, Jesus Christ, part of the Godhead, he became a man. He became a man. He laid aside the glory of the deity because he was in by nature God. He was omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient. He laid that aside and he came as a man, born as a human, walked from the earth. So that we call as incarnation, God becoming a man. And to this man are given titles, names, the son of God, good shepherd, bread of life, light of this world. A lot of titles describe different things. So in the same way, there are some titles that are a little difficult to understand. Like first born, only begotten of the father, first born of the father, first born from the dead, the beginning of creation. So these titles, and I just put them here and these are the four main things that are sometimes confusing. The beginning of creation, the first born of creation, the only begotten of the father, the first born from the dead. I've given you all the references, but I just want to explain that. So to this one, Jesus, he's referred to as the beginning of creation. Now that doesn't mean he was the first person to be created. It means all of creation began in him. Got it? Because Jehovah's Witness, they will take Revelation 3.14. They say, look, Bible is saying he's the beginning of creation. That means he was the first person to be created, not like that. Beginning of creation means creation began in him, through him, for him, by him. He got it? So they turn it around the other way and say, hey, he's the first person to be created. No, no, no, no. It means all of creation began in him and that is consistent with other scriptures. John 1, all things were made by him. All things were made by him. So when Jesus was born and when he walked on the earth, and Jesus refers to himself as beginning of creation, all creation started in me, in Jesus. When he's referred to as the only begotten of the father or the first born of creation, it does not mean that he did not have life before that. He was eternally God. But because in the incarnation, he took upon himself the form of a man. This man is referred to as the only begotten of the only one who came from the father. That's what it means. Adam was created. Jesus was not created. But he came from the father. So he's the only be called. He's given the title only begotten of the, doesn't mean when he was born on the earth, that was the time he was created. No, he was always there before. So similarly, we understand the title first born of creation. So people, again, these Jehovah's Witnesses and others will use that title. Ah, see, Jesus was created. No, no, no. In all of creation, in all of created things, creation means created things. This was the only one who came from the father. So it's the same understanding as only begotten of the father. Same understanding, first born of creation, meaning it all created things. This was the only one who came from the first born. That's why he's called first born. So in the Bible, first born means first child who's born, the family, they call first born. So in that sense, he's the only one in creation who came from the father. Everything else was created by him. So we shouldn't use this title or these titles to imply that Jesus was created or had a beginning. No, it's a title given because of the incarnation or what happened in the incarnation. Similarly, there is a title given to Jesus because of the resurrection. He's referred to as first born from the dead. So because of the incarnation, there are certain titles that are given only begotten of the father, beginning of creation or first born of creation. Because of the resurrection, there's another title given to Jesus, first born from the dead. That means he is the first one to be raised from the dead who's going to live eternally, he will live eternally after that. First one to come with this glorified spiritual, glorified body, first human. So from that context, he's given this title, first born from the dead. Doesn't mean he's a human being that excludes the fact that he was always God before that. In his humanity, he died on our behalf, he was buried, he rose up again, he's given this title, first born from the dead. So understand that these are titles given because of the incarnation and because of the resurrects. Okay, so be very clear in your mind about this. Now I've put all the scriptures here. You know, we obviously don't have time to go look up all these, but wherever these titles are mentioned, I've put down these scriptures so you know these are the places. But I've tried to, you know, in a very brief and concise way explain to you what are these main titles, what does this mean in the light of the incarnation and resurrection? Okay, are you all with me so far? Is it getting difficult? It's okay. Follow me. Okay, so in the incarnation and in the resurrection, certain titles are given to Jesus, but we must not misinterpret the titles because everything has to be interpreted in the light of the rest of scripture. What else does the Bible say about Jesus? The Bible says he was always there. He was eternally God. He was from everlasting. He was always there with God. So we cannot take these titles to mean he was created by God. No. Okay, so now we will change our focus a little bit. So these first three points were about God, about Jesus, about the incarnation. Now I just pick up a few examples about what are seemingly contradictory stories in the gospels. Right? That means Matthew, Mark and Luke, they record the incidents, but they seem to tell the story a little differently. How do we explain that? Right? So example, if you look at and we look at a couple of examples. And so people say, hey, look, look, look, this cannot be inspired by the Holy Spirit because, see, these stories are different. So Matthew, so here's a particular incident where the Lord Jesus is going across a lake into a region called Gurgazines. And there he meets two demon-possessed people, men. So Matthew 8 records two demon-possessed men. Mark 5 records one, Mark 5. Mark says there was a man. Luke 8 says there were two men. So this is Luke 8, 26. Sorry, Luke also says one man. Okay? The rest of the story is very similar. So Matthew says two, Mark says one, Luke says one. The location is the same. How Jesus goes there? He goes there across the boat, he gets there, this man is by and he's in the tombs and all of that. So everything about this, everything else about the story is the same. Six thousand demons go into the pigs, pigs jump off all of the water they die. But the problem is Matthew says two, Mark says one, Luke says one. How can you say this is inspired by the Holy Spirit? So how should we explain that? Everything else about the story is the same. This is the problem. Were there two men or was there one man? And why is there this difference? Now, we can explain it like this and this happens in our everyday life. Suppose there are, suppose there's a football match. We like BFC playing, some other, okay. It's a two teams of play. There are three reporters watching the game, right? And suppose one forward, he comes, he passes the ball and the person shoots the goal. There are three reporters reporting how that goal was scored. One person says so and so he dribbled past everything he came and he set the whole thing up and he passed it and then this person kicked it in the net. So he's explaining it like that. The other two are saying, wow, how wonderful. He kicked it inside the net and they're only saying person B kicked it in the nets. They're not talking about person A who actually passed the ball. So next morning newspaper, one newspaper says person A did an amazing job and he set it up and to help score the goal. Other two newspaper, person B kicked the ball in on the floor. Who's right? All three are tolerate. But one newspaper, one reporter is focusing on what person A did, the brilliant work he did to get the ball all the way there and pass it. The other two reporters are focusing on the fact that person B kicked it in. So all three are correct, but the focus shifts depending on how that whole incident is presented. So how do we resolve this? Very simple. It's very likely there were two people as Matthew reports, but Mark and Luke focus on the reaction and the interaction of Jesus with one of them. That doesn't mean another person could not have been there. Could have been. There's nothing wrong with that. But Mark and Luke are focusing on the interaction that Jesus had with one of them and they're reporting that. This is what happened. But in reality, there were two men and both got the limits at that moment in a similar way, which is what Matthew's reported. And that is nothing wrong with that because it happens in our everyday life. And we don't see it as contradictory. We just see it as perspective, how it is being narrated, how it is being communicated. That's all. There's nothing contradictory in these three stories. Other than Matthew says two, Mark and Luke says one. But they were all delivered the same way. Everything else happened the same way. So if people bring something up like this, say, look, I can explain it. No worry. You give an example. It's very common. Another one, Matthew chapter eight and John chapter four. Can you look at both these passages and then can you tell me are these the same or are these two different incidents? Matthew chapter eight, five to 13 and John four, 46 to 54. Are these the same incidents or are these different incidents being reported? We'd like to hear from you. Those of you in the online class as well. Okay. All right. I see one question from Nina, the scripture to show that he finished everything. So we refer to Hebrews chapter four, verse three, Nina, Hebrews chapter four, verse three, where it says the works were finished from the foundation of the world or from before the foundation of the world, Hebrews four, three. And as God finished the works, even before the foundation started, Hebrews four, verse three. And then we look at other things, other scriptures where, you know, Jesus is the Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world. The book of life was written from before the foundation of the world. The kingdom was prepared for us before the foundation of the world. So we look at all of these scriptures and we can include that God planned everything before the foundation of the world. Okay. All right. So please look at these two passages, Matthew chapter eight and John chapter four. And please tell me, are these the same incidents or are these different incidents? So you have to look at it very carefully and compare where did these incidents happen? First, where did Matthew chapter eight happen? Which city was Jesus in? Capernaum. John chapter four, where which city was Jesus in? Kena. John four, what is six? He came to Kena of Galilee. Cities are different. John eight, who's the man? Sanctuary. Sorry, Matthew eight, I'm saying John eight, Matthew eight. John four, who's the man? Noble man. Matthew eight, he came on behalf of a servant. John four, he came on behalf of his son. So city is different. The person who came is different and whom they came for was different. Also, the Sancturian came with faith. He said, speak the word only. The noble man said, please you come to my house before the sun, my son. Then the response of Jesus to the Sancturian is, as you have believed, that it will be done. I've not seen so great faith. To the noble man, he says, unless you see signs, you won't believe. But he says, I want you to believe, go your way, your son lives. So he challenges him to believe. The Sancturian came with great faith. Noble man didn't seem to have great faith, but Jesus challenged him to have faith. And so we can say very clearly, these are two different incidents. Now, what might be confusing is if you compare Matthew chapter eight and Luke, where this is in eight, where Luke also records this. And, okay, I'm sorry, I'm the kind of can't get this. Okay, one minute, Luke seven. Because in Luke, yeah, yeah, correct, correct. So Luke seven, right? Luke seven versus one to 10. Luke records this as saying, the Sancturian didn't come himself. He sent some servants to Jesus. So how Luke records this story compared to Matthew eight, Luke seven, so he's a little different in Luke seven versus one to ten. It's about the same Sancturian, but he says, the Sancturian sent some servants to Jesus. So how will we explain that? And I'll just quickly mention it. I know the time is up. The way we will understand it is there's nothing wrong because many times, at least in those cultural contexts, sending a representative is as good as that person coming. So if I send somebody to, you know, hey, go, can you go and get this done for me? And if that person says, Ashish requested that I do this for him, it is true. Now I may have sent somebody to remake that request on my behalf, but I am the one who's made, who has made that request. So if that person says, Ashish requested me to do this, it is correct. But I've done it through somebody representing me. There's nothing wrong with that. So Matthew eight, Luke seven, Luke says he sent some of his servants to Jesus. Nothing wrong with that. The request was coming from the Sancturian and it was the Sancturian's faith that Jesus commends. He says, I've not seen such great faith in all of Israel because he says, Lord, you don't have to come just speak the word. My servant will be fine. So let's take a break and let's get back in 10 minutes. We'll go look at other incidents. Thank you.