Artwork

Inhoud geleverd door Rodney Zedicher. Alle podcastinhoud, inclusief afleveringen, afbeeldingen en podcastbeschrijvingen, wordt rechtstreeks geüpload en geleverd door Rodney Zedicher of hun podcastplatformpartner. Als u denkt dat iemand uw auteursrechtelijk beschermde werk zonder uw toestemming gebruikt, kunt u het hier beschreven proces https://nl.player.fm/legal volgen.
Player FM - Podcast-app
Ga offline met de app Player FM !

Christmas in the Creeds; Chalcedon

 
Delen
 

Manage episode 457969371 series 2528008
Inhoud geleverd door Rodney Zedicher. Alle podcastinhoud, inclusief afleveringen, afbeeldingen en podcastbeschrijvingen, wordt rechtstreeks geüpload en geleverd door Rodney Zedicher of hun podcastplatformpartner. Als u denkt dat iemand uw auteursrechtelijk beschermde werk zonder uw toestemming gebruikt, kunt u het hier beschreven proces https://nl.player.fm/legal volgen.

12/22 4th Christmas in the Creeds; Chalcedon [one person two natures]; Audio available at: http://www.ephraimbible.org/Sermons/20241222_chalcedon.mp3

We are looking at Christmas in the Creeds; what ancient creeds tell us about the incarnation, about who Jesus is. Remember, these ancient statements of faith are not our ultimate authority; only the Bible is. Creeds are man-made and therefore fallible. We must evaluate any belief in light of the God-breathed and without error Scriptures. But keep in mind that false teachers used (and still use) the Scriptures to teach and defend their false teachings. Creeds were developed in response to false teaching, so we ignore the creeds to our own harm. If we find ourselves believing contrary to what the creeds teach, we ought with caution and humility to check ourselves against the whole teaching of the Bible.

So far, we have looked at the Apostles’ Creed, which affirms what the Bible says about the virgin birth and the conception of Jesus by the Holy Spirit. We looked at the Nicene creed, which defends Jesus’ own claims to be the I AM, eternal YHWH God of the Old Testament, one in essence or nature with his Father; fully God; against the false teaching that Jesus was created and there was a time when he was not. The Athanasian creed expands and clarifies how Nicea understood the teaching throughout the Bible that there is only one God, and that the Father claims to be God, Jesus claims to be God, and the Spirit is clearly portrayed as God, and that the Father, Son and Spirit are distinct personalities who communicate with one another. The triune God is the one God that exists eternally in the persons of Father, Son and Spirit, who eternally enjoy relationship with one another.

Who and What is God?

It may be helpful to clarify that when we talk about God, there is one ‘what’, and three ‘who’s’. If we ask ‘what is God’, we could answer that God is the only sovereign, omnipotent, eternal, unequaled being in all the universe. If we ask ‘who is God’, we answer that God has revealed himself in the persons of Father, Son and Spirit, in eternal relationship with one another. One ‘what’, three ‘who’s’. And the wonder of the incarnation is that Jesus became human in order to adopt us into this love relationship.

1 John 1:1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— 2 the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us— 3 that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.

John on the Incarnation

Today we are going to look at and be amazed by another wonder of the incarnation.

In 1 John, John talks about seeing the Word of Life, being an eye-witness of the eternal Life that was from the beginning, that was with the Father (and thus distinct from the Father); the Word that was made manifest, became see-able, touch-able. This Life is eternal; it was from the beginning (and thus it had no beginning). The Word is personal; capable of being with the Father in relationship, as a Son has fellowship with his Father.

This echoes how John starts his gospel: (spoiler alert – he’s talking about Jesus!)

John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God.

The Word already existed in the beginning. The Word was distinct from God, in relationship with God; both God and the Word are personal, capable of being with one another. These ‘with’ phrases answer the question ‘who’; who is the Word? The Word is a ‘him’; personal, existing in relationship with God; in this phrase ‘God’ also answers the question ‘who’; God and the Word are both ‘who’s’, who can be said to be with one another.

And, the Word was God. This answers the question ‘what’; what is the Word? The Word is God; the nature of the Word is divine; his characteristics and attributes are that of the one true God.

John’s ‘in the beginning’ language echoes Genesis 1, where God created by his Spirit and through his Word. God spoke, and John tells us that the Word of God is personal. Word is a he, not an it. John’s Gospel and 1 John both name this eternal Word of Life as ‘his Son Jesus Christ’ in fellowship with the Father.

So we can’t misunderstand, John clarifies his own role as that of the one who would prepare the way for the coming of the Lord.

John 1:23 He said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.”

John is referring to Isaiah 40:3

Isaiah 40:3 A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

Isaiah is pointing to the coming of YHWH, the God of the Old Testament. John was sent to prepare the way for the coming of Jesus. Jesus is clearly understood to be YHWH God.

What is God? The infinite, eternal, unchanging, all seeing, all knowing, unlimited, perfect, holy, righteous, good, just, gracious being. Who is God? God is Father, Son, Spirit, in the eternal overflowing joy of relationship, loving and serving and delighting in one another.

God is one what and three who’s.

The Person of Jesus

But how do we understand Jesus? What happened at the incarnation? Here’s what John’s gospel says about that:

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.

The Word became. The Word already was. What was the Word? The Word was God. What did the Word become? The Word became flesh. The Word dwelt (literally ‘tabernacled’; set up his tent) among us. The Word was what he always was, and the Word became something he had never been before.

Does this mean that the the divine Word changed?

Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

Malachi 3:6 “For I the LORD do not change…

False Teaching; Apollinarianism; Monophysitism/Eutychianism

The church has always been forced to clarify and more carefully articulate what we believe when confronted with false teaching.

Apollinaris, bishop of Laodicea, taught that in the incarnation, the divine mind or spirit took on a human body. According to this false teaching, the immaterial part of Jesus was God, and the material part of Jesus was human. But that would mean that Jesus is neither fully God nor truly man.

Eutyches, leader of a monastery in Constantinople, taught that the human nature of Jesus was absorbed into the divine nature, so that Jesus became a third kind of nature, again neither fully God or truly man. But 1 Timothy 2 says:

1 Timothy 2:5 For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.

For Jesus to be a proper mediator, he must have become truly human. Hebrews puts it this way:

Hebrews 2:14 Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. 16 For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. 17 Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.

This has everything to do with our salvation. For Jesus to legitimately give himself in our place, he had to become authentically human. He became like us in every respect, yet without sin. Jesus was not an angel, and he did not become an angel to rescue the angels who sinned. He became human to make propitiation for our sins by the sacrifice of himself. For Jesus to mediate between God and man and bridge the infinite chasm our sin created, for his sacrifice to be of infinite worth, he must be infinite God.

The eternal Word did not cease to be God. But he became what he had not been before. He became truly human.

Chalcedon, 451

The Council of Chalcedon was the largest council to date, with over 520 bishops or their representatives in attendance to respond to false teachings about Jesus. They affirmed the Nicene Creed from 325, and the additions made at Constantinople in 381 as an accurate summary of the Christian teaching, and they formed what is known as the ‘Chalcedonian definition’ which articulates what the Bible teaches about Jesus.

Following, then, the holy fathers, we all unanimously teach

that our Lord Jesus Christ is to us one and the same Son,

the self-same perfect in Godhead, the self-same perfect in manhood;

truly God and truly man; the self-same of a rational soul and body;

co-essential with the Father according to the Godhead,

the self-same co-essential with us according to the manhood;

like us in all things, sin apart;

before the ages begotten of the Father as to the Godhead,

but in the last days, the self-same, for us and for our salvation

(born) of Mary the Virgin Theotokos as to the manhood;

one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, only-begotten;

acknowledged in two natures

unconfusedly,

unchangeably,

indivisibly,

inseparably;

the difference of the natures being in no way removed

because of the union,

but rather the properties of each nature being preserved,

and (both) concurring into one person and one hypostasis;

not as though He were parted or divided into two persons,

but one and the self-same Son

and only-begotten God, Word, Lord, Jesus Christ;

even as from the beginning the prophets have taught concerning Him,

and as the Lord Jesus Christ Himself hath taught us,

and as the symbol of the fathers hath handed down to us.

Chalcedon helps us put together the biblical data that Jesus is eternally fully God, and that he became truly human at his incarnation, and these two natures, human and divine were not changed or diluted or confused by their union in one person, and yet these two natures were united in the person of Jesus at the incarnation in such a way that they are now indivisible and inseparable; Jesus is one person. The incarnation means that God became man in such a way that ‘remaining what he was, he became what he was not’.

Philippians 2 describes the incarnation this way:

Philippians 2:5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Jesus was eternally in the form of God, equal to his Father. But he emptied himself by taking. His emptying was not a matter of subtraction but of addition. Unchangeably God, he took to himself the additional form of a servant. He was born in the likeness of men, he is found human form, now fully God and fully man. One person with two distinct natures, unconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably.

Augustine wonders at the mystery of the incarnation:

“The Maker of man became Man that He, Ruler of the stars, might be nourished at the breast; that He, the Bread, might be hungry; that He, the Fountain, might thirst; that He, the Light, might sleep; that He, the Way, might be wearied by the journey; that He, the Truth, might be accused by false witnesses; that He, the Judge of the living and the dead, might be brought to trial by a mortal judge; that He, Justice, might be condemned by the unjust; that He, Discipline, might be scourged with whips; …that He, the Foundation, might be suspended upon a cross; that Courage might be weakened; that Security might be wounded; that Life might die.” [Augustine, sermon 191]

The Word became flesh so that the immaterial could be nailed to a cross, so the immortal God could die for my sins.

Consider this; Jesus humbled himself by taking to himself our human nature. He was born as a human, lived a human life, died an excruciating human death, rose again as truly human, and ascended to the right hand of his Father. There is a man, the God-man, seated on the throne of glory, who always lives to make intercession for us (Heb.7:25).

***

Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org

  continue reading

10 afleveringen

Artwork
iconDelen
 
Manage episode 457969371 series 2528008
Inhoud geleverd door Rodney Zedicher. Alle podcastinhoud, inclusief afleveringen, afbeeldingen en podcastbeschrijvingen, wordt rechtstreeks geüpload en geleverd door Rodney Zedicher of hun podcastplatformpartner. Als u denkt dat iemand uw auteursrechtelijk beschermde werk zonder uw toestemming gebruikt, kunt u het hier beschreven proces https://nl.player.fm/legal volgen.

12/22 4th Christmas in the Creeds; Chalcedon [one person two natures]; Audio available at: http://www.ephraimbible.org/Sermons/20241222_chalcedon.mp3

We are looking at Christmas in the Creeds; what ancient creeds tell us about the incarnation, about who Jesus is. Remember, these ancient statements of faith are not our ultimate authority; only the Bible is. Creeds are man-made and therefore fallible. We must evaluate any belief in light of the God-breathed and without error Scriptures. But keep in mind that false teachers used (and still use) the Scriptures to teach and defend their false teachings. Creeds were developed in response to false teaching, so we ignore the creeds to our own harm. If we find ourselves believing contrary to what the creeds teach, we ought with caution and humility to check ourselves against the whole teaching of the Bible.

So far, we have looked at the Apostles’ Creed, which affirms what the Bible says about the virgin birth and the conception of Jesus by the Holy Spirit. We looked at the Nicene creed, which defends Jesus’ own claims to be the I AM, eternal YHWH God of the Old Testament, one in essence or nature with his Father; fully God; against the false teaching that Jesus was created and there was a time when he was not. The Athanasian creed expands and clarifies how Nicea understood the teaching throughout the Bible that there is only one God, and that the Father claims to be God, Jesus claims to be God, and the Spirit is clearly portrayed as God, and that the Father, Son and Spirit are distinct personalities who communicate with one another. The triune God is the one God that exists eternally in the persons of Father, Son and Spirit, who eternally enjoy relationship with one another.

Who and What is God?

It may be helpful to clarify that when we talk about God, there is one ‘what’, and three ‘who’s’. If we ask ‘what is God’, we could answer that God is the only sovereign, omnipotent, eternal, unequaled being in all the universe. If we ask ‘who is God’, we answer that God has revealed himself in the persons of Father, Son and Spirit, in eternal relationship with one another. One ‘what’, three ‘who’s’. And the wonder of the incarnation is that Jesus became human in order to adopt us into this love relationship.

1 John 1:1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— 2 the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us— 3 that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.

John on the Incarnation

Today we are going to look at and be amazed by another wonder of the incarnation.

In 1 John, John talks about seeing the Word of Life, being an eye-witness of the eternal Life that was from the beginning, that was with the Father (and thus distinct from the Father); the Word that was made manifest, became see-able, touch-able. This Life is eternal; it was from the beginning (and thus it had no beginning). The Word is personal; capable of being with the Father in relationship, as a Son has fellowship with his Father.

This echoes how John starts his gospel: (spoiler alert – he’s talking about Jesus!)

John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God.

The Word already existed in the beginning. The Word was distinct from God, in relationship with God; both God and the Word are personal, capable of being with one another. These ‘with’ phrases answer the question ‘who’; who is the Word? The Word is a ‘him’; personal, existing in relationship with God; in this phrase ‘God’ also answers the question ‘who’; God and the Word are both ‘who’s’, who can be said to be with one another.

And, the Word was God. This answers the question ‘what’; what is the Word? The Word is God; the nature of the Word is divine; his characteristics and attributes are that of the one true God.

John’s ‘in the beginning’ language echoes Genesis 1, where God created by his Spirit and through his Word. God spoke, and John tells us that the Word of God is personal. Word is a he, not an it. John’s Gospel and 1 John both name this eternal Word of Life as ‘his Son Jesus Christ’ in fellowship with the Father.

So we can’t misunderstand, John clarifies his own role as that of the one who would prepare the way for the coming of the Lord.

John 1:23 He said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.”

John is referring to Isaiah 40:3

Isaiah 40:3 A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

Isaiah is pointing to the coming of YHWH, the God of the Old Testament. John was sent to prepare the way for the coming of Jesus. Jesus is clearly understood to be YHWH God.

What is God? The infinite, eternal, unchanging, all seeing, all knowing, unlimited, perfect, holy, righteous, good, just, gracious being. Who is God? God is Father, Son, Spirit, in the eternal overflowing joy of relationship, loving and serving and delighting in one another.

God is one what and three who’s.

The Person of Jesus

But how do we understand Jesus? What happened at the incarnation? Here’s what John’s gospel says about that:

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.

The Word became. The Word already was. What was the Word? The Word was God. What did the Word become? The Word became flesh. The Word dwelt (literally ‘tabernacled’; set up his tent) among us. The Word was what he always was, and the Word became something he had never been before.

Does this mean that the the divine Word changed?

Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

Malachi 3:6 “For I the LORD do not change…

False Teaching; Apollinarianism; Monophysitism/Eutychianism

The church has always been forced to clarify and more carefully articulate what we believe when confronted with false teaching.

Apollinaris, bishop of Laodicea, taught that in the incarnation, the divine mind or spirit took on a human body. According to this false teaching, the immaterial part of Jesus was God, and the material part of Jesus was human. But that would mean that Jesus is neither fully God nor truly man.

Eutyches, leader of a monastery in Constantinople, taught that the human nature of Jesus was absorbed into the divine nature, so that Jesus became a third kind of nature, again neither fully God or truly man. But 1 Timothy 2 says:

1 Timothy 2:5 For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.

For Jesus to be a proper mediator, he must have become truly human. Hebrews puts it this way:

Hebrews 2:14 Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. 16 For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. 17 Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.

This has everything to do with our salvation. For Jesus to legitimately give himself in our place, he had to become authentically human. He became like us in every respect, yet without sin. Jesus was not an angel, and he did not become an angel to rescue the angels who sinned. He became human to make propitiation for our sins by the sacrifice of himself. For Jesus to mediate between God and man and bridge the infinite chasm our sin created, for his sacrifice to be of infinite worth, he must be infinite God.

The eternal Word did not cease to be God. But he became what he had not been before. He became truly human.

Chalcedon, 451

The Council of Chalcedon was the largest council to date, with over 520 bishops or their representatives in attendance to respond to false teachings about Jesus. They affirmed the Nicene Creed from 325, and the additions made at Constantinople in 381 as an accurate summary of the Christian teaching, and they formed what is known as the ‘Chalcedonian definition’ which articulates what the Bible teaches about Jesus.

Following, then, the holy fathers, we all unanimously teach

that our Lord Jesus Christ is to us one and the same Son,

the self-same perfect in Godhead, the self-same perfect in manhood;

truly God and truly man; the self-same of a rational soul and body;

co-essential with the Father according to the Godhead,

the self-same co-essential with us according to the manhood;

like us in all things, sin apart;

before the ages begotten of the Father as to the Godhead,

but in the last days, the self-same, for us and for our salvation

(born) of Mary the Virgin Theotokos as to the manhood;

one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, only-begotten;

acknowledged in two natures

unconfusedly,

unchangeably,

indivisibly,

inseparably;

the difference of the natures being in no way removed

because of the union,

but rather the properties of each nature being preserved,

and (both) concurring into one person and one hypostasis;

not as though He were parted or divided into two persons,

but one and the self-same Son

and only-begotten God, Word, Lord, Jesus Christ;

even as from the beginning the prophets have taught concerning Him,

and as the Lord Jesus Christ Himself hath taught us,

and as the symbol of the fathers hath handed down to us.

Chalcedon helps us put together the biblical data that Jesus is eternally fully God, and that he became truly human at his incarnation, and these two natures, human and divine were not changed or diluted or confused by their union in one person, and yet these two natures were united in the person of Jesus at the incarnation in such a way that they are now indivisible and inseparable; Jesus is one person. The incarnation means that God became man in such a way that ‘remaining what he was, he became what he was not’.

Philippians 2 describes the incarnation this way:

Philippians 2:5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Jesus was eternally in the form of God, equal to his Father. But he emptied himself by taking. His emptying was not a matter of subtraction but of addition. Unchangeably God, he took to himself the additional form of a servant. He was born in the likeness of men, he is found human form, now fully God and fully man. One person with two distinct natures, unconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably.

Augustine wonders at the mystery of the incarnation:

“The Maker of man became Man that He, Ruler of the stars, might be nourished at the breast; that He, the Bread, might be hungry; that He, the Fountain, might thirst; that He, the Light, might sleep; that He, the Way, might be wearied by the journey; that He, the Truth, might be accused by false witnesses; that He, the Judge of the living and the dead, might be brought to trial by a mortal judge; that He, Justice, might be condemned by the unjust; that He, Discipline, might be scourged with whips; …that He, the Foundation, might be suspended upon a cross; that Courage might be weakened; that Security might be wounded; that Life might die.” [Augustine, sermon 191]

The Word became flesh so that the immaterial could be nailed to a cross, so the immortal God could die for my sins.

Consider this; Jesus humbled himself by taking to himself our human nature. He was born as a human, lived a human life, died an excruciating human death, rose again as truly human, and ascended to the right hand of his Father. There is a man, the God-man, seated on the throne of glory, who always lives to make intercession for us (Heb.7:25).

***

Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org

  continue reading

10 afleveringen

Alle afleveringen

×
 
Loading …

Welkom op Player FM!

Player FM scant het web op podcasts van hoge kwaliteit waarvan u nu kunt genieten. Het is de beste podcast-app en werkt op Android, iPhone en internet. Aanmelden om abonnementen op verschillende apparaten te synchroniseren.

 

Korte handleiding