 Welcome back. Welcome back after the break. Just before we went for our break, we were looking at the pre-existence of Jesus Christ. We're trying to prove that Christ is God and how do we prove that he is God? We prove that he was pre-existent. That means there was not a time when he did not exist or cease to exist. He always was. He always is. He will always be and that is why he is God. We are just proving from Scripture that he is pre-existence. By proving that Christ is pre-existent, we're proving that he is God and also trying to prove that there was not a time when he was born into this world. That was a time when he was born as a human being when God became man, but he was fully God, fully man. He is God. To prove that he is God, we are proving that he is pre-existent. We're looking at some Scripture passages. We're looking at John chapter 1 verses 1 to 4. We also looked at John chapter 1 verse 14 and Revelation chapter 19 verse 13. We are trying to understand why the Apostle John is introducing Jesus as the Logos and trying to say that the Logos is God and that he was with God. Why can't he just say that in the beginning was Jesus Christ? Why does he introduce Jesus Christ as the Logos? We saw that in the historical Jewish setting, this word Logos had a very rich meaning. The Jewish readers who are going to read John's writing would understand this word Logos because they also knew the Logos was somebody who was this power, this creative word of God that brought things into existence, which they know from the Old Testament. It was this powerful creative word of God in the Old Testament by which the heavens and the earth were created. Psalms chapter 33 verse 6 and also they understood this Logos as someone who was an organizing or a unifying principle of the universe who held things together and hence when John is trying to introduce Jesus as the Logos in terms that the Jewish readers in their own understanding, their own mindset of what this word Logos was and the rich meaning that it had, he's introducing Jesus as the Logos so that it made sense to them both to the Jews and to the Greek thinking and their mindset. With this Jewish background, we now gain an insight into the significance of why the Apostle John introduced Jesus as the Logos because Logos at the time when he was writing seemed to have this huge enormous significance attached to it. So this word Logos was something that was a huge enormous significance that was attached to it and hence he introduces Jesus as the Logos. But even as Apostle John introduces Jesus as the Logos, he makes it clear that this Logos is not just a guiding reason or a principle of the mind or someone who is an intermediary between God and the human race or God and the universe or God and his creation but he's introducing the Logos as God. So he's saying yes, maybe you have this understanding of the Logos who is a guiding reason or a principle in the mind or an intermediary between God and the human race but the Logos is not just that he is God. So he's introducing this Logos with and ascribing four important attributes. The first thing we read in John chapter one verse one was the Logos was in the beginning. The word was in the beginning which indicates that Jesus Christ existed not only when he came into this world or he was born into this world but he existed even before time began or he existed before all time. He was not just in the beginning but also he was not just from the beginning but he was also in the beginning. So when we say that Jesus was from the beginning that means there was a time when he began to exist but when we say that he was also in the beginning which means that he existed even before the beginning and he was there in the beginning. So he was not just from the beginning but he was also in the beginning and he had his being before the beginning he had his being before time began and hence we can say that there was never a time when he was not there will never be a time when he will cease to exist he always was and he always is and will always be he will he never began there was never a time when he began and therefore he is forever he is everlasting. So that is the meaning of that phrase. The first attribute that John is declaring of the Logos by proving that hey he is God he is not just an intermediary between God a man and God he's not just a principal or a guiding reason but he is God because he was there you know also in the beginning okay and the second attribute that John is introducing the Logos as who he refers to as Jesus Christ is said the word was with God that means Jesus was ever with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit please turn to John chapter one verse 18 can one of you please read John chapter one verse 18 please anyone John chapter one verse 18 no one has ever seen God but God the one and only who is that the Father said has made him known thank you so here in the NKJB version it says no one has ever seen God at any time the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father he has declared him so no one knows the Father but who has revealed it to us it is the Son who is revealed to us and the Son is was in the bosom of the Father which the the word bosom here refers to somebody who is very intimate or one so you know or one with that person you know a child when the child is born child is very young and small the mother's always holding the child in its bosom okay it is a very intimate close connect relationship so here it means that he was intimately one with the Father that's perfect unity and oneness with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit so the word was with God and the third attribute that Apostle John is introducing the slogos to his readers is the word was God so the word was in the beginning okay the word was with God and then he's coming to say that this word the slogos Jesus Christ is God so here we see that Jesus was God he possessed the essence basically the essence and the substance of everything that made God God or who God is when we're talking about essence we mean essence means the nature or the characteristics so Jesus Christ had the essence of God means he had the nature the characteristics so then what is the nature of God anyone knows what's the nature of God what is God's nature what is the nature that makes God God he's holy okay he's the beginning and the end okay thank you Jack in he's the basic nature the characteristic of what makes God God is like princess omnipresent omniscient omnipotent eternal and sovereign these are the basic core nature of God that makes him God that he is omnipotent omnipresent omniscient eternal and a sovereign okay so so Jesus had the essence which means the nature or the characteristic of God which also means that he had you know his being his very life form his his person who he is as an individual you know is that of God had the nature the characteristics of God and the word substance you know is the Greek word homo homo euseos which is which means is the same as being or same in essence so the word essence and substance the Greek word homo euseos is basically talking about essence the nature the characteristic the same in being as God you know God has a specific being he's a the same being Jesus Christ had so when we talk about essence and substance these are synonyms now which we can use interrelated words so you know Jesus had the same essence of the same substance that made God God so this logos was not an intermediary creature between God and man but he the logos is God himself he's not somebody who's a mediator somebody who is a lesser being a lower being intermediary being but this logos is God him self if you look at Psalms chapter 90 was two can one of you please read Psalms chapter 90 90 was two please it just highlights an important attribute of God before the mountains were born before you gave birth to the earth in the world from the beginning to the end to end you are God thank you it says you know before the mountains were brought for the ever or ever you had formed the earth and the world even from everlasting to everlasting you are God so God is everlasting he is always there he will always be he's everlasting God and you know same with Jesus because he's God he's pre-existent and you know he existed even before time began so God is God from everlasting to everlasting he transcends time you know therefore when we say that the word was God we understand that God was from everlasting which means he was from eternity past and will be to everlasting when we say everlasting to everlasting so to everlasting means eternity future okay so he was from eternity past and he is he will be there or he will continue to exist in eternity future okay so Jesus is God he is from everlasting to everlasting which means the low boss was from everlasting eternity past and will be to everlasting which means will be to eternity future and the last attribute that Apostle John or one of the attributes in verse one the fourth one that he introduces the low boss as he says in him was life okay in him was life now if you look at this the Greek word for this word life the Greek word is a Zoe and you know it's it's it's talking about and this word when it's used in the New Testament is referring to spiritual life and especially when you're talking about spiritual life it's referring to eternal life that comes from God to faith in Jesus Christ so when we look at this word Zoe it also means you know it means spiritual life especially eternal life but it also is referring to the life that God has in himself or it's talking about the life that God is giving to us the fullness of life the God kind of life that he is giving to us so we will receive an insight about what this Zoe is let's look at John chapter five verse 26 so can you please turn in your bibles to John chapter five verse 26 it gives us an insight into what Zoe is can one of you read that please whereas the father has life in himself so he has granted the son also to have life in himself thank you Anand so if you read this in the Greek he said it will say for as the father has Zoe in himself so he has granted the son to have Zoe in himself so it's the Zoe is the life that God has in himself which means it's talking about you know that the the life that God has in himself is self-existent life it's a self-sustained life it's an eternal life self-existent means he does not depend on anything else for his existence self-sustained you know he does not need to depend on anything you know he life is just sustained in himself and it is self-sustaining self-existent and it is eternal the life that God has in himself so here we see that the father has the Zoe life and he has granted the son to have life in himself so he's granted the son to have the Zoe life so the Zoe life is the God the God kind of life or the life that God has in himself God is self-existent he does not depend on anything else no outward source for his continuity for his life but we are you know we are dependent we are not self-existent we depend on the atmosphere we depend on oxygen we depend on air we depend on the sunlight and other things that you know is required for our existence and so Zoe is you know the self-existent self-sustaining and eternal life of God so therefore you know when he says that in in him was life in him was Zoe the Lobos was had Zoe in himself you know he's saying that the Lobos Jesus Christ is self-existent is self-sustaining and is eternal which means he is from eternity past to eternity future because he has the Zoe in him he has the life of God in in him and hence he is God so and it also scripture also reveals to us that you know that Jesus does not just have the Zoe in himself but in fact he is Zoe okay John chapter 14 verse 6 a very famous scripture can anyone read that please John chapter 14 verse 6 Jesus answered okay thank you so John chapter 14 verse 6 yes read it read it I am the way the truth and the life no one comes to the Father except you so here we see that Jesus did not just have this zoe in himself but in fact he is zoe that means he is life how do we know this because Jesus himself made this declaration of him of who he is he says I am the way the truth and the life so if you read this in look at this verse in in in in in Greek this the life there the English word life there is talking about is the word is soe so Jesus has you know this zoe life in in him and he is life okay so these are the four important attributes whom John declares and by declaring this he's basically defining to his audience the Jewish readers or the even the people the Greek or the Gentiles readers who this logos is and who he is presenting this logos as he's presenting this logos as Jesus um and this Jesus he says this word was from in the beginning the word was with God the word was God and he has a life in himself and he is zoe he is life okay so before we move on anyone has any questions any questions okay so we look at how this pre-existent Christ you know what is his nature and attributes we look at the nature and the attributes of the pre-existent Christ so we look at Philippians chapter 2 verses 5 to 7 can one of you read this please very important passage of scripture Philippians chapter 2 verses 5 to 7 let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus who being in the form of God did not consider it robbery to be equal with God but made himself of no reputation taking the form of a bond servant and coming in likeness of men thank you so this is a very important passage of scripture regarding Jesus his humanity his deity you know and there are few important facts that we can draw out from this passage concerning the pre-existence of Christ and we'll be looking at this in detail even as we study the humanity of Jesus Christ but here we're going to be basically looking at Christ pre-existence what we can you know draw some important facts from this scripture passage that Jesus was in the form two things that we can draw from these passage or two important facts from this passage is that Jesus was in the form of God and he was equal with God okay so two important things Jesus was in the form of God and equal with God so the Greek word for form is more faith which means nature so Jesus had the nature of God in him self we we looked at what is the meaning of what nature God has okay so Jesus had the nature of God and he was equal with God okay so two things he had the nature of God of the form of God and he was equal with God if you look at if you read this passage Philippians chapter 2 verse 6 the first part of it from the amplified Bible it says who although being essentially one with God and in the form of God that is possessing the fullness of the attributes which make God God which means that Jesus had the full he possessed he had the full attributes which make God God if you look at this same passage Philippians chapter 2 verse 6 the first part of it the new international version he says who being in very nature God okay that's not use the word form but it says who being in the very nature God that means he had the very being the nature of God the fullness of the attributes that make God God you know Jesus possessed in him self but we should not mistake this word form that we read you know who being in the form of God when we're talking about form you're not just talking about a form in terms of an outward appearance but when we're talking about form the Greek word has a deeper and a more richer meaning to it we're basically talking about his essence you know when we're talking about essence we're talking about his nature his attributes his characteristic so Jesus had you know he possessed the full fullness of the attributes which make God God he had the very nature of God him self and also we see that Jesus eternally you know existed as God and was equal with God the Father Jesus possessed the fullness of the divine qualities which make God God which also implies to us or proves to us his pre existed so if anyone asks you you know how can you say how can you prove that Jesus is God you can talk about John chapter one versus one to four John chapter one verse 14 and also you can you know talk about or show them refer them to Philippians chapter two verses five to seven we talks about Jesus having the form of God or the nature of God and also he was equal with God okay Colossians is another passage of scripture that we can look at Colossians chapter one verse 17 can one of you please read Colossians chapter one verse 17 please and he's before all things and in him all things consist okay thank you he was before all things and in and all things consist or exist which all which proves to us that he was before all things means he was always there he always existed and he is self existent he is self-existent and even Jesus you know tells us that he is or proves to us or gives us a hint that you know he was pre-existent he existed before all things in John chapter 8 verse 58 or in John chapter 8 we read that you know you know Jesus telling his Jewish opponents can we just turn to John chapter 8 please all of us John chapter 8 okay John chapter 8 verse 58 in some one of you read that Jesus said to them most assuredly I say to you before Abraham was I am okay thank you so here we see that you know Jesus saying in verse 56 your father Abraham rejoiced to see mighty and he saw it and was glad so he's he's talking here about my is you know Jesus referring to himself because a capital M and then the Jews said to him was 57 you are not yet 50 years old and have you seen Abraham okay so Jesus is trying to tell them that even before Abraham was you know came into existence or during Abraham's days and time he was there so he they say are you you are not 50 years old and have you seen Abraham okay so here is a sufficient response to prove that Jesus eternity you know that he was pre-existent that he existed from everlasting to everlasting and then he goes on to make this very bold statement in John chapter 8 verse 58 he says truly truly I say to you before Abraham was I am okay now you know the Jews knew this this this phrase I am and you know remember where this word I am comes in the Bible when Moses yes thank you in Exodus chapter 3 verses 13 to 14 you know when God asked Moses to go to Egypt and to deliver his people you know and he says when you go to the children of Israel you have to tell them that the God of your fathers has sent me to you and they and when they ask him you know so Moses says okay when they ask me what is your name what shall I say to them and God tells Moses I am who I am so here you know this this this title I am who I am or this title I am you see here is also written in cap in capital letters I am it was for the Jewish readers the Jewish people they attributed this this title of I am only to Yahweh only to God and and here when Jesus you know is saying that before Abraham was I am he's repeating the very words that God used to identify himself to Moses as I am who I am. Exodus 3 verse 14 so Jesus is also claiming for himself this title I am by which you know God is basically revealing himself or designating himself as the eternal one who is self-existent who self-sustained the all-powerful one when he reveals his name as I am who I am and Jesus also ascribing or using or claiming this title for himself as the I am so this word I am was something that was you know in Jewish heritage was attributed only to God himself to Yahweh himself so by using this title Jesus God was telling Moses you know you know there is no beginning to me you know I am eternal I'm self-existent one the God who is the source of his own existence and who always has been and always will be so when the Jews heard this you know from the mouth of Jesus it was something which was very unusual for them to hear it by saying Jesus saying that I am you know you know using this title or introducing himself or ascribing himself or claiming himself to be God and this was something that was a very solemn statement for or solemn statement for the Jewish people because it was ascribed only to God and here was Jesus claiming himself to be God and we know what was the reaction of the people John chapter 8 was 59 you know they took up stones toward at Jesus but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple so we see that Jesus himself by making the statement before Abraham was I am he was declaring himself as God declaring equality with God himself okay a few more scripture passages that talks about Jesus as the pre-existent one the pre-existent God 1st Corinthians chapter 10 verses 1 to 4 can one of you please read that brethren I do not want you to be unaware that all of our fathers were under a cloud all passed through the sea all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea all ate the same spiritual food and all drank the same spiritual drink for they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them and that the rock was Christ thank you so here Paul writing to the church at Corinth you know he's giving reference to to what is it in Exodus you know where God let the people of Israel out of Egypt into the desert to the promised land you know he let them through the Red Sea he parted the waters for them Exodus chapter 14 he was a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night so that you know people have shade during the day and you know they're able to see things to the night and just receive warmth from that fire he also you know fed them mana from heaven Exodus chapter 16 he provided them in two occasions you know water from the rock Exodus chapter 17 numbers chapter 20 so here you know Paul is saying in 1st Corinthians chapter 10 that that rock was Christ the rock from which they drank that water was Christ which means that Jesus himself was with the people as they passed through the wilderness God's presence very presence was with them as they you know as they were led from Egypt to the promised land God was with them and it was Jesus who himself was with his people as they passed through the wilderness so it again points out to the pre-existence of Christ that it was not only at his birth that you know that he had his beginning in this in this world or he had a beginning in time it was simply his incarnation where it was God taking on human form when he was born into this world but you know he is pre-existent he was pre-existent he existed even before time even began and he also we look at two more passages which talks about his origins from Daedalus eternity Micah chapter five verse two can one of you read that please Micah chapter five verse two talking about the prophecy concerning the birth of the Messiah birth of Jesus Christ Micah chapter five verse two reads but you Bethlehem Ephrata though you are little among the thousands of Judah yet out of you shall come forth to me the one to be ruler in Israel whose goings forth are from of old from everlasting thank you so here is the prophecy concerning the Messiah and it's talking about the one whose goings forth are from old from everlasting which means that you know the origin of the Messiah is of old from eternity past so it shows that Jesus always existed in eternity eternal past and he was pre-existent he was he is everlasting from eternity past to eternity future another scripture passage which is talking about the pre-existence of Jesus Christ Micah chapter two verses one to six can one of you please read that now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judah in the days of Herod the king before wise men from the east came to Jerusalem saying where is he who has been born king of the Jews for we have seen his star in the east and have come to worship him when Herod the king here this he was troubled and all Jerusalem between and when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born so they said to him in Bethlehem of Judea who does it is written by the prophet but you Bethlehem in the land of Judah are not the least among the ruler of Judah but out of you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people thank you so here we see that you know the the wise men they come searching for Jesus and you know they don't know where to go they come to the palace thinking he's you know the king will be born in a palace and you know when they they reveal this to Herod that you know there is a king that is born because they've seen a star they've come to worship him Herod was troubled and he calls all the chief priests and the scribes and inquire where this Christ was to be born and you know based on the scrolls that they had the Old Testament prophecies that they had you know they were able to say where he was born he was born he's going to be born in Bethlehem and we see that the prophecies that were revealed long time ago you know many many thousands of years back we see that exactly coming into fulfillment and Jesus was born in Bethlehem so you know it was not just that his beginning of you know of him being born on this earth of God becoming man was something that was you know something that was that came in the heart of the mind of God you know all of a sudden but something that was preplanned even before the foundations of the world even before you know God created the world even before he created Adam and Eve even before Adam and Eve sinned Jesus had God had in his mind the plan of redemption and he also has seen it was a completed done thing the plan of redemption was also completed done thing in the mind and in the heart of God even before the foundations of the world were created or the world was created or even before he laid the foundations of the world it the the work of redemption was already a completed done thing in the heart and mind of God so here we see that you know Jesus had his origins from dateless eternity from eternity past and he exists to eternity future okay so this is very briefly about looking at a few scripture passages that talk about the pre-existence of Jesus Christ any questions anyone has any doubts any anything that you like to say anything you want me to you know again explain to your no questions well understood everything okay these are very important scripture passages so I would like you all to you know it's a very short chapter as well I would like you all to just take it which is hardly take you an hour or half an hour to just you know go back and look at these because this is very foundation to our faith to our belief it's also as students of theology it's important for you to know these scripture scriptures to be able to explain it to people of different faith when they ask you to you know it was Jesus is Jesus God or to also people in the church you know have a doubt is Jesus God you know these scripture passages are very important so it's important for you to just go through John chapter 1 was 1 to 4 John chapter 1 was 14 and also Philippians chapter 2 versus 5 to 7 and Colossians 1 17 and you know Jesus himself is ascribing himself as God attributing the name of I am in John chapter 8 was 58 important to look at all of these scripture passages just kind of get a hold of what it says so that you are able to understand yourself and you know you'll be able to explain it to others okay so there are no questions and we'll move on to chapter 2 we move on to chapter 2 or we just have yeah could I could I make a comment there yes please I'm I'm I'm really grateful for for this course because on Sunday we we have a family worship here and my daughter who's 14 said we were sharing some scriptures and I showed how um God God is is king Jesus is king servant man and God and and and this like this overlaps like this this confirms what we were sharing and in my when we were looking at scriptures my my daughter said mom I I did realize that Jesus was in the Old Testament and in the New Testament and I'm like now you understand and we'll we'll see more of that you know in the following week this week and so this this is like um what will I say this is God speaking to me that what I'm teaching my children um is helping us and helping my children as well as as young teenagers and they're learning to be mission-minded to to be able to explain this and this is the reason why I I enroll for for this because there is clarity and I can teach it's right teaching and right believing that um Jesus is God and us in the beginning and if we can show them scriptures you know to you know to prove that or to explain that to others who ask them uh this will give big confidence to our children you know to stand up for for Jesus because they can point to scriptures so I'm really grateful I'm really truly grateful thank you thank you Maggie thank you for sharing and it's a joy to have you back in our class yes I am too and I look to everyone I'm from Papua New Guinea out in the Pacific yes Maggie was a student uh I think two years back she joined uh when I was teaching them in the first years and uh yeah she was not able to continue but has now joined back so it's good to have you Maggie anyone else so okay yes nice to see you Maggie yeah anyone else has any questions anything you'd like to share yeah even I too was wondering about the course as to what we are going to study but then even the first um session was something uh lot of learning especially that Jesus was with the people as they pass through wilderness that I've never seen that from that perspective so it is it is so much of a learn and it's something new thank you thank you Jacken anyone else you explain it so well um thank you yes it's uh oh for me it's like it's really very like I'm out of words because till now only one scripture that I know like to uh like to tell that Jesus is there even in the before is like only John 1 1 but it's like very eye-opening uh when we are studying all the scriptures and how they are pointing to God pointing to Jesus that he is the God from the beginning it's like really new learning for me thank you thank you Prince anyone else has uh any any questions anyone else has no questions okay yeah I think we'll end class if there are no questions okay and uh I'll see you all uh next week thank you for joining class have a blessed day and a blessed week ahead thank you everyone thank you good bless thank you