The eternal Son has always been the vehicle through which the Father created all things. They were created by “the word of His power,” which is the power of the Father’s word spoken through the eternal Son. This action through His eternal Son continued the development in human history of the Son taking on humanity to become the God-man. Then, in and through His humanity, the eternal Son now as the God-man did nothing of His own independent accord, but spoke and acted in perfect obedience to His heavenly Father’s will. This new movement of the Son taking on humanity to become Jesus Christ became how God and humanity was demonstrated as at work together. It gives us a model for Christian life and ministry: true spiritual authority is to be found not in our own strength, but in submitting to the authority of God the Son through us. Christ and His Word are available to be our power for ministry, that is for God Almighty through His Son Jesus Christ working powerfully through us.

Automatically Generated Transcript

[00:00:00] We’re doing a two-part series from this morning and tonight put together. And in the morning we had two Bible passages, one John chapter 1 verses 1 to 4 and Hebrews chapter 1 of Hebrews verses 1 to 4. And tonight we’re carrying over into the second of those passages what we’re talking about this morning. Now John 1, 1 to 4 is actually reminding me the scriptures follow a pattern sometimes just like it is when you’re watching football and on the weekend on the television I watched our Brisbane AFL team defeat Geelong in their home ground down in Geelong for the first time in quite some time which was a really good thing to watch. And then afterwards there’s the expert people talking about it and making the commentary and having a good time together.

[00:01:00] And we actually have here in the Gospel of John verses 1 to 4 a statement of Christ and his victory and his coming and what he’s done. And that’s what we’re talking about this morning as to who he is and how he’s come into the world. But here we also have in Hebrews chapter 1 a bit of how that has played into the great plan of God for Jesus to achieve the salvation of the world. And so we have something that’s in one sense a commentary on what we’re learning this morning in John chapter 1. Long ago at many times in many ways God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days he’s spoken to us by his Son or in his Son whom he appointed the heir of all things through whom also he created the world. He, as Jesus, is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature.

[00:02:02] And he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purifications for sins he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty and High having become as much superior to angels as the name that he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. For to whom, for to which of the angels did God ever say, You are my Son. Today I have begotten you. And by the way, one of the things we sort of elaborated on in the morning is that Jesus is begotten but not created. That is to say, he is an eternal son and that’s how John chapter 1 begins. In the beginning, the father and there’s a son and their existence forever, eternally. But there was a moment when they became operative in what is the beginning of the creation and the creation of you and me. And that idea of that being what is the beginning in the beginning

[00:03:08] is something that is not the beginning of Jesus. It’s the beginning of what he did with the father in order to create the world. And so here in the book of Hebrews we have this idea of their commentary on Jesus coming into the world and there being a new era of God revealing things and doing things through the sun. And you’ll notice that the passage in Hebrews talks about this being the fact that it’s in the last days. This is the final act. The final act is not the final second coming alone but this entire period of Jesus being in the world and Jesus achieving our salvation. It is his death on the cross for our sins where he achieved our atonement. And his being crucified was how that happened. Then he’s going, he’s being buried, and he’s rising from the dead. And after 40 days, returning to heaven

[00:04:09] and being crowned King of kings and Lord of lords, all of that is the final act of Jesus. The fact of its application to when he returns again is not going to be adding anything, but it’s outworking. It’s that which he has mightily achieved by his coming in the first place. So we have here in the book of Hebrews something that’s really very interesting, and although there’s an awful lot here that I’d love to talk about, I wanted to pick out one particular little phrase. There it says, four or five lines down, he upholds the universe by the word of his power. Some of the commentaries discuss whether that would be better worded by the power of his word, which wouldn’t be an incorrect thought, but it isn’t what God wanted to say in this phrase, the word of his power. In fact, I think the word of his power

[00:05:12] is indeed what is the truth, and we’re going to see that by turning to some spots in the Gospel of John itself. So if you’d like, please, to go to, I think it’s chapter five. Let me just see. All right. So we’re looking from the book of Hebrews and we want to go to our next steps. No, so we’ll go to John 5, 19 to 23. John 5, 19 to 23. All right. So Jesus is talking here, and a part of what we’re clarifying is whether the word of his power is that Jesus has come to exercise a tremendous, creative, powerful word, and it’s Jesus’ power. Or if you take it the other way around, the power of his word, then you’re talking about the word being the word of the Godhead coming through Jesus, yes. But it’s the power of where that word comes from. And so we’re looking here to John 5 to give us a bit more information.

[00:06:19] So Jesus said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing, all that the Father himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you will marvel. Jesus is talking about further things in his ministry that he will do, and he’s attributing the power of them to the Father, doing them through him. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel. There’s no doubt about this word, that Jesus is explaining the power of his ministry as being the fact that he’s the vehicle through whom the father is doing the father’s works. And Jesus is doing them too

[00:07:17] but he’s doing them because anointed of the spirit he’s able to do the works that are the father’s works. He often talked about the father’s works. And so Jesus is here explaining an answer to the question that that phrase in Hebrews, the power of his word it is the father’s word given to Jesus and the power of it is the power that is being there talked about for as the father raises the dead and gives them life so also the son gives life to whom he will not really telling us which he the grammar wants us to follow but I think it’s both the father and Jesus will because it is the Father’s will Jesus is doing. If you track back in the life of Jesus as to how he came into this position of doing it, it isn’t only the fact that he is a member of the Trinity.

[00:08:15] The first part of what we’re talking about in the morning is Jesus as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and they’re working together as co-equal persons in the Trinity in eternity past. But there are people nonetheless that have a consistent working together of the father being the father and the son being the son you know that the father was and this was this morning’s thing to get into the father was an everlasting father an eternal father and the only way you can do that is that you can always have a son Jesus is not an add-on so you have to correct how the Godhead is working because they’ve got another participant no, there’s always been a father and there’s always been a son. There has nonetheless come about a change and here we’re getting into the commentary of the great work that’s happened

[00:09:08] and the victory that’s been won. There’s been a change inasmuch as in the will of the father, the one that is the incarnate one and came for the purpose of his mission, keeping the law, living the perfect life, representing humanity as a person that’s sinless and taking that as a sacrifice to the cross and dying in our place to work our atonement so just as through humans that failed, the human race fell and we’ve all been failures since. Not that we don’t deserve that status of failures as though what Adam and Eve did, you know, somehow we’re having to wear the dirty clothes off. know the sins that they committed come up and wave a flag at us, through us. That’s actually what it means when it talks about original sin. It’s not just talking about how Adam and Eve fell and we have to suffer for it.

[00:10:06] But it’s talking about their sin comes out in us. We used to use the college to represent this, a picture of the ground where you could see below the soil and you could see above the soil and you’ve got some terrible plant over here and all the connections come up over here with this little lovely plant but it’s connected to the other one and then there’s that little lovely one that sins. But it’s actually the original sin that’s connected, that’s caused it. So we are sinners in actual existence and in connection and then we approve it by sinning which is what the Bible means when it says for all have sinned and have come short of the glory of God. We’re not just guilty of Adam’s sin alone that’s true enough but we make it true when those sins or that nature of sin causes us to commit our own sins.

[00:11:12] And so you see here that humanity is wretchedly damned with no hope. And what God has done to redeem us is to send his son into the world to take on humanity and become born so Jesus, although he is eternal in the pre-incarnate state he’s never had a beginning, he’s always been the son. But when he takes on humanity he becomes begotten but not created. Well, back in history some of our fathers writing up in all the big conclaves that they had used the terminology begotten but not created to try and draw that distinction that Jesus was truly begotten of the Father in his humanity, in his humanity he is begotten but that wasn’t his creation as an entity. He’s someone who never was created he’s someone who is eternally of the Father which is why the Father is the eternal Father.

[00:12:24] I hope I’m not losing you in this but Jesus comes into the world and he’s truly God’s begotten son so John 3.16 says for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. There isn’t another. He’s the only one the Father has begotten like that. The next set of sons of the Father are you and I. We come to Christ and become Christians. And in such we become sons as well. But we do so through Jesus the Son. And by our connection to him, by our hanging on to him, we get in the door. Well, so here Hebrews is saying something very particular when it talks about this, for the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. The Father is working through that will, but it is still Jesus’ will as well. For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son,

[00:13:23] that all may honour the Son just as they honour the Father. Whoever does not honour the Son does not honour the Father who sent him, and in his name he has come. That connection between the Father and the Son is what we learned this morning in John 1, verses 1 to 4 or 5. But here we have the fact that it’s now commentating on it, and the commentation is that it is the power of the Father’s word that comes through Jesus. Let’s elaborate further by another verse from the book of John, and this particular one that we need to turn to is John 12, 48 to 50. John 12, 48 to 50. And this will even make clearer what I’m trying to say, that the word of his power is the Father’s word, given from Jesus’ lips, but by the power of the Holy Spirit on Jesus, because he’s anointed of the Father,

[00:14:23] he does the work of the Father, but it is the Father’s works that he does, and the Father’s word that he gives. The one who rejects me does not receive my words as a judge. The word that I’ve spoken will judge him on the last day. Now, Jesus is talking about it being his word. For I’ve not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment, what to say and what to speak. it is the Father’s word you see on Jesus’ lips and I know that this commandment is eternal life what I say therefore as I say the Father has told me you don’t need more evidence Jesus has not become an independent authority on his own he’s come as the major the only real authority in the first instance of the Father himself and it is the Father’s word of power that Jesus speaks

[00:15:24] now there’s something very wonderful about this being set out in the scriptures for you and for me because we need to discover where we can find spiritual power and how we can be people somehow who are able to deliver the authority of heaven it’s not that we ever ourselves have the power or get to be those who have a word of power it’s Jesus who has the word of power but it’s the word of power because it is the Father’s word how did Jesus get to be in that position though he be the eternal Son of God was because of his humanity in his humanity he bowed the knee to do as the Father’s will was he as the book of Philippians tells us there was a sense that he emptied himself of his personal authority he might have had a claim to in order that he would give all the authority to the Father

[00:16:29] that he would act in the Father’s leading you’ve just seen it written there as he says as the Father has told me so he does he’s obedient and the very power of the ministry of Jesus came about because anointed of the Spirit he then went out and did the things that the Spirit led him to do. And in his so doing, he not only was achieving the power of the kingdom of God and all the wonderful things that he did, he was also giving a model of what is a real Christian way to be victorious, way to be powerful, way to have the hand of God working through, never because somehow it’s given to you to be that. There’s a sense in which other people looking on might think, boy, has that person been given some help from heaven. But never is it that the person who is the human

[00:17:24] has that as though it were his power just to do what you want. Sometimes in the gifts of the Spirit, it’s the case that we find things keep happening through us that are our things to do in the kingdom of God but it is as the Father moves, so them to do. And if you want to really discover how true that is, just stop walking with the Lord start being disobedient and see how things don’t work out because you have a gift God may do it out of grace it’s a grace gift but you will buck it up but when we walk with him and let him make us the conduit of his word make us the conduit of his power then just as with Jesus because he models it for us we also can be those who know what it is to do ministry by the word of his power, meaning God’s power. This is a lesson that nearly every Christian

[00:18:24] who’s gone missionary or preacher or Christian with other purposes God has led them to be doing finds to be the case that when you rely on you things begin to shrivel but when you rely on Christ all the power of heaven comes flooding through. It’s the secret of living a Christian life when you know it’s not I but Christ just as he who was the Christ was that very Christ by learning the same lesson to let the Father be the one who did things through him. That’s why of course all the ministry of Jesus or the miracles he did happen after his anointing. He was a perfect person. There was nothing wrong that he wouldn’t be able as the second person of the Trinity do something except that he had willingly submitted himself to come as Philippians talks and to sort of divest himself of any personal authority

[00:19:31] in order that he might do the things under the authority of the Father. The Father works until now and the Son works. He often talked along those lines that what he did was not his to do but what the Father would do through him. And the quicker we learn that lesson applies to us even more so because we’re very easily sinful again. Maybe we’re not going to do the big sins that some people have done or so the human race has done. But nonetheless, we are far from being perfect or having of ourselves any authority. We need to learn quickly our authority that we do have is that which we have through Jesus and Jesus is exercising the authority of heaven. Now that he’s returned to heaven there’s been some change as to who’s the one that’s directing the traffic. It’s Jesus who sent the Holy Spirit from heaven

[00:20:30] along with the Father, the two of them Jesus and the Father sent the Holy Spirit on the believing disciples that first happens on the day of Pentecost and as they receive the Spirit which you need to do if you’re becoming a part of the person blessed by the new covenant that’s when someone becomes a Christian that was the establishment of the church. I know the word assembly is the word in the Greek that’s used for church and in the Old Testament in the translation from the Hebrew to the Greek it will use the word the assembly of the assembly it says the gathering together of the assembly and it’s talking about the children of Israel they occupy that role back then but they are not the same as we the church because the word in the Greek when it’s used of us now

[00:21:17] is a direct word that we are the assembly of the church Jesus had said, listen to the tents that means it can be future, past or present Jesus said, I will build my church the church was not an Old Testament entity it was built by Jesus and the ministry that he had to set up the things that I’m talking about that there will be opportunity of us exercising the ministry of Christ which is the ministry of the Father and passages that speak of that is in Ephesians where it talks about Christ being under the Father it talks about the humans being under Christ and even the distinguished steps of rulership coming down in a family but nonetheless there’s a sense in which we don’t try to be of ourselves what is the power source of Christian life and the quicker you learn that

[00:22:16] the quicker you stop getting desperate and hurt the quicker you find that the cause of your falls if you took the statistics of the amount of people who get converted properly and become Christians but then they have a big flop because they become Christians and say I’m going to be a mighty Christian and do wonderful things for God, he’s got my lovely personality or whatever it is you think you have and then you have a big flop because there’s no power in your word The power is in the word of the Father That comes through Christ And his word which is the word of the Father Now coming through you And what you need to do Is get under authority In order that you might have authority And one of the applications of that Is how we read the scriptures Because the scriptures are the word of God

[00:23:09] And they are the word of God More than just being the word about God or the narrative that’s come down by God’s instigation it’s more than that, the scriptures are the power of his word if Jesus could say look at it on the screen, for I have not spoken on my own authority but the father who sent me has himself given me a commandment, what to say and what to speak the commandment’s about eternal life when you minister in the power of being under the authority of the word of God, that can mean that which the father originally said, it can mean the person of Jesus he’s the word of God, as John 1 we’re looking at this morning John 1, Jesus is the word when you speak under the authority of the word, then that authority comes through you and the power of his word is what has the impact. It’s such a simple secret

[00:24:21] that many people try and do ministry and don’t know it. Get under the authority of the word and that authority comes through you as Godhead directs it. The Father’s authority to Christ and Christ has been given to Christ now that he’s King of kings and Lord of lords. By the vehicle of the Holy Spirit coming on you, you deliver a message that’s not your own message. You know, when you’re involved in ministry, you get a lot of pressures on you to be a success of one sort or another. Some of those are just human judgments that you can ignore. But in other ways, there’s a very real necessity for your ministry to have any success if there doesn’t come out of you things that God is doing. If there’s not the fruit, it’s only God able to produce. And that creates a tremendous pressure

[00:25:23] and there’s a lot of people around Australia, around the world I guess, who are trying to be useful for God but what they do without realising that the biggest thing you can do is to get under the authority of the word and do what it tells you. That may be the understanding of the scriptures as far as doctrines is concerned. That may also be the personal leading that at times God gets through to you. Yes, I know we sometimes can misjudge what he’s saying but it doesn’t relieve us of the responsibility to seek his will. And in seeking his will, sometimes he chooses to tell you what he’s doing and that’s great. And other times he leaves you not knowing and you just rest. And maybe you’re just going to make a decision and trust that he’ll get you to where you want to be. As a matter of fact,

[00:26:17] he’ll get you to where he wants you to be. He’s God. and he knows where he wants to use you. It’s just a fact of life. If you’re a person in Christian work, you never always think you end up doing what you think you’re going to be. God steps in and circumstances change, sometimes in little ways and sometimes in dramatic, big ways. But when God has got someone who’s happy to do what is his will, who relies on him for the power of his word, just as the book of Hebrews says that Jesus did. So we follow suit. Then I don’t know what way to express it. The sky is not the limit or to say anything can come about. Whatever is God’s purpose, he’s able to do it because it’s the power of his word, not the power of yours. You know, because I worked at the college, I used to listen in to a lot of young preachers

[00:27:25] giving their sermons and somehow you discover some seem to get through and some didn’t. But very often the reason was the ones that didn’t had not discovered what I’m talking about. It’s the power of his word and the his will go back to the Father through Christ in our case, to us. And when it is his word coming through you, it hits things, it does things. One of the greatest reliefs, if you’re in the business of being a speaker, that you know you’re not the one that makes the difference. I’ve had many times when God has had to sort of give me what amounts to is a slap on the wrist to get back to understanding that it’s his word that works, not mine. You know, one of the biggest ones I had was in West Australia where they advertised me speaking at a big youth rally and one thing they forgot to do was to tell me.

[00:28:30] And I discovered some literature being advertised, picture on it and everything that I was going to be preaching. This is the same day as Saturday. And time was such that I just had to drive and get there. I didn’t know what I was going to say. And I don’t know how I got landed on it, but one verse in Jonah it says, the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time. So I sort of made up a message on the spot around that. But God did some very remarkable things and one of them was to a young man there who the Lord called him back to that position of knowing he has to become a preacher. He eventually became my associate pastor in Sydney. He’s someone who talks about that moment when he was studying another degree or something. And he had John Sweetman as the person teaching him was in Sydney at a special time

[00:29:30] and they had to say what was the thing that moved the most. He told John, John later told me that what moved him most was to hear that sermon on the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time because it sort of matched him. He’d been dodging. And the word of the Lord came to him a second time and he obeyed and went. How come I asked myself this is what I say that event was like the Lord giving me a slap on the wrist and one of the messages that had the biggest impact was the one that I didn’t make up. The one I didn’t even know I was advertised. The one I was desperate and went along and just gave it to God and out came that verse I don’t know where I noticed it. Let God be God. And he has chosen to speak through his son. He’s given us the scriptures. The best understanding of the scriptures

[00:30:42] is not all the historical developments. They’re all helpful. But the best way to understand the scriptures is as Jesus understood them. They were the word of God. I love the way that Jesus could refer to Old Testament passages as the writings of Moses but in another conversation he calls it the word of God. And when you come to the place of accepting the scriptures as the word of God even though you can’t answer all the critical questions, it becomes the powerful word of the father. The powerful word of God. And that’s what John’s gospel is teaching us. Jesus himself lived out the same lesson. Though he be the second person of the Trinity he lived out the knowledge that it wasn’t his word it was the word that the father had given him. This is an enormous message for Christians to learn and to trust in his power and to trust

[00:31:54] in the power of his word will change your life. He’ll direct you to where he wants to use you. That’s the place to be. Don’t be in the place where you think it’s best. You may be high and dry and barren. Be where he wants you to be. Tell him I’m your servant like Samuel. Speak Lord your servant is listening and when you got on the receiving end of letting God successfully get through to you nothing but powerful things come out. He does his work. It’s the secret of the Christian life I believe. Let me have a word of prayer. Heavenly Father I thank you for that little phrase the power of his word and I thank you for Jesus elaboration in John chapter 5 and chapter 12 that he’s talking about the word that the father has commanded him to speak and if Jesus your eternal son you’re one who’s come from glory you’re one who’s never had a beginning you’re one who’s

[00:33:17] come it’s the instruction of the father as the bible teaches that you humbled yourself you let go you didn’t take it as something to grasp after to have to be the one and yet the father has made you the one and we get the opportunity to benefit by what you are and what we can be in your power father we praise you for these truths may they bring this their own fruit we ask in Jesus name amen