TITLES OF CHRIST
SON OF GOD
DR. JIM DIXON
REVELATION 2:18-29
JANUARY 15, 1989
The Son of God is a title of power and this morning as we examine this title, we will see the power of Jesus Christ. First of all, we see His power over the physical world. The physical world is, of course, that world studied by science. It is that world governed by so-called natural laws. As Son of God, Jesus Christ created this world and He established those laws. As Son of God, He transcends them. He has power over the physical world.
We see this first of all in the manner of His birth. As the angel Gabriel announced to Mary, “You will bear a son. He shall be great and shall be called the Son of the Most High God.” Mary was astounded. She said, “How can this be? Since I have no husband, I’ve never had sexual relations.” The angel said to her, “the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you and the child to be born shall be called holy, the Son of God. For with God all things are possible.” You see, Mary was astonished because this birth defied the laws of this physical world. You’re not supposed to be able to have a human baby without a human father, but this was not a normal child. This child was both human and divine, Son of Man, Son of God. This child transcends the laws of this physical world, in birth as in life, power over the physical world.
As we look at His earthly ministry, we see that power manifested time and again as we see Him change water to wine at Cana of Galilee, we see Him walk upon the sea of Galilee, we see Him rebuke the wind and calm the sea and the disciples say, “Who is this that even the wind and the sea obey him?” And the Bible answers: this is the Son of God who has power over the physical world.
A hundred years ago, an old man was riding on a train. This was in Europe, in France. There was a young man on that train with him. They did not know each other. The old man reached into his travel bag and he pulled out a Bible and he began to read it. The young man watched him, watched him closely, and after a while the young man said, “What are you reading?” The old man said, “Well, I’m reading the sixth chapter of the Gospel of Mark in the New Testament.” The young man said, “Well, what does it say?” The old man said, “Well, it’s the story of the loaves and the fishes. It tells how Jesus Christ was followed by a great multitude because they saw His miracles and His compassion. It tells how He fed that great multitude, more than 5,000 with five barley loaves and two fish.” The young man laughed and he said, “Surely, you don’t believe that, do you?” The old man said, “I certainly do.” The young man said, “Well, you have been brainwashed by silly superstition. You see, I’m a scientist and I know that everything in this world is governed by natural law. Everything in this world is governed by physical laws. Nothing transcends them and is not possible to feed 5,000 people with five barley loaves and two fish. What you’re reading there is sure fantasy. If you are a scientist, you would understand that. The old man smiled and he went on with his reading of the Bible. In a short time later, the train stopped. The young man rose. He said, “Here’s where I get off,” and said, “I’m sorry I didn’t catch your name.” The old man stood and he took hold of the young man’s hand. He shook it. He introduced himself as Dr. Louis Pasteur. Louis Pasteur was, of course, the man who gave us the vaccination. He was the man who gave us the process called pasteurization, one of the greatest scientists in the history of the world. He spent his life studying the laws of this physical world. But you see, he believed there was one, one who had power to transcend the laws of this physical world and that one was the Son of God, Jesus Christ…power even to feed 5,000 people with five barley loaves and two fish.
If you’re a Christian, if you really believe this morning that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, you agree with Louis Pasteur. You believe that Jesus Christ has power over this physical world. He has power to provide you with physical food in accordance with your need. He has power to protect you from physical harm and danger. He has power even to heal you from physical illness and disease in accordance with His will, power even over physical death. It’s no good to say that you believe in Him as Son of God, but you don’t believe in the supernatural. It’s no good to say you believe in Jesus Christ as Son of God, but you don’t believe that He has power over the physical world because if He doesn’t have power over the physical world, then ultimately He’s no good to you at all. If He doesn’t have power over physical death, then physical death is the final reality. “Dust to dust, ashes to ashes. Vanity. Vanity, all is vanity.” But you see, He is Son of God and He does have power over the physical world, even physical death.
Two weeks ago, I was kind of bored. It was my day off, a Monday, and I decided to go to a movie. I went to see “Cocoon II,” which probably wasn’t the best thing for me to do, seeing as the movie, at least to me, seemed to be boring too. The movie did, however, have some kind of touching moments in a sentimental sort of a way. The movie was dealing with the lives of some elderly people and really it was dealing with their fear of death and their effort to deal with the subject of death. The elderly people in this movie had come into contact with extraterrestrial beings and these extraterrestrials had the ability to take these elderly people to another world, a world far away, a world called Anterea: a world with a golden sky and a world with a silver city, a world where people can fly, a world where there is no disease and no illness and no poverty and a world where nobody ever grows old and a world where there is no death, and a world where if you love somebody you never have to lose them. At the end of the movie, some of these elder elderly people went to this world and to eternal life. Others of the elderly people decided to stay right here on earth because they wanted to go but they didn’t want to leave their children and they wanted to see their grandchildren grow up.
Of course, all of us would love to see our grandchildren grow up, but the plain truth is some of us will not receive that opportunity. All of us would love to go to a world where there is no death and where there is no illness, a world where there is no poverty, a world where nobody grows old, a world where nobody ever dies and if you love somebody you never have to lose them. But you see, the truth is a UFO is never going to come here and take you there.
Now the Bible says there is such a world, a world where death is no more, a world where there is neither mourning nor pain nor sorrow anymore, but it’s going to take a supernatural power to get you there and Jesus Christ says, “I am that power.” He is the Son of God and He has power even over death.
He stood outside the tomb of Lazarus. He said, “I am the resurrection and the life, he who believes in Me though he die, yet shall he live and he who lives and believes in Me will never truly die.” Do you believe this? Martha said, “Yes Lord, I believe you are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” He is Son of God with power over death. He stood outside that tomb and He gave a command. He said, “Lazarus, come forth.” Now, Lazarus was a corpse, dead. He had been dead for four days. His body had already begun to decay. But you see, Jesus is the Son of God. He has power over the physical world. He said, “Come forth” and the Bible says the dead man came forth resurrected and the people stood back in awe. Who is this? The Son of God?
Well, Lazarus rose only to die again. And of course, Christ’s true power over physical death was manifested in His own resurrection when He rose from the dead bodily, when He rose physically in a resurrection body, indestructible, not subject to decay. And if you believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, that’s exactly the body He promises to give you someday. Power over the physical world. In His birth, in His death, He transcended the laws of this physical world. He offers that power to all of you who believe in His name as you journey and pilgrimage through this world. Even as you enter the valley of the shadow of death, He has power for you.
Well, secondly, and finally, as Son of God, Jesus Christ has not only power over the physical world, but as Son of God, He has power over the spiritual world. That’s going to be difficult for some of you, perhaps even unpleasant for some of you, particularly those of you who are perhaps not studied in the Scriptures or those of you who are not so deeply rooted in the deepest things of Christ. But the Bible makes it very clear that there is an unseen world. Even as there is a world that is seen, so there is a world that is unseen.
You will recall in the 8th chapter of the Gospel of Luke Jesus crossed the Sea of Galilee. There, crossing the sea of the Galilee, He came to the region of the Gerasene’s. There He encountered a man whose name was Legion. His name was Legion because he was possessed by a multitude of demons. Now, this man was a strange man. You wouldn’t want to spend a lot of time with this guy. He went around naked all the time. He never wore any clothes. The people were afraid of him because he had supernatural strength and when they chained him, he had power to burst his chains of thunder. He did not live in a house. He lived in tombs and abandoned cemeteries, and he roamed the countryside and Jesus stood there confronting him face to face, this demon-possessed man. Suddenly, the demons within him cried out and they said, “What do you have to do with us Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment us.”
Now of course, you know how Jesus cast out those demons into a herd of swine, but what’s important to see here, what’s important to understand here, is that these demonic spirits, these fallen spiritual powers of darkness actually recognized the person and power of Jesus Christ. They recognized him as the Son of the Most High God and they acknowledged His authority over them. Perhaps they were able to look back to some time long ago prior to their own fall when they saw Christ in glory. We do not know, but we know this; they discerned His power and person. Power over the spiritual world.
Then again, you see in the first chapter of Mark’s gospel, we see Jesus Christ entering the synagogue in Capernaum. This was very early in Christ’s ministry. He had just called Peter, James, and John by the Sea of Galilee. He entered the synagogue there in Capernaum and there was a demon-possessed man inside the synagogue. So tragic was the religious state of Israel that demon-possessed people felt safe in church. Jesus Christ stood and He taught not as the Pharisees, but He taught as one who had authority. The Bible tells us that suddenly this demon-possessed man cried out and the demons within him said, “What have you to do with us? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.”
Here again, you see the fallen spiritual powers recognizing Jesus Christ as the Holy Son of God and acknowledging His powers over the spiritual world.
Each and every one of you, all of you assembled in this place, have times when you encounter the spiritual world. In fact, I would submit to you that every day you come in contact with the spiritual world because the Bible tells us that we are not simply physical beings. We are physical beings, but we are also spiritual beings. You have a physical body made for this physical world and the Bible describes that body with the Greek word “soma,” but the Bible says you also have a soul and you also have a spirit, the Greek words, “psuche” and “pneuma.” The Bible says your soul and your spirit is actually able to encounter the spiritual realm. You can encounter God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit and in some sense you can encounter the angelic realm, both holy and fallen.
Now, there are fallen angels in this world and there are demonic spirits and they operate in this world. They are at work in this world. The spiritual world has invaded the physical one and these fallen angelic powers, the demonic spirits, tempt people to sin. They afflict, they oppress. They are capable of oppressing Christians, sometimes very severely, and of course they can possess non-Christians. Sometimes when we see an individual who is in the grip of a sinful habit they cannot break, when we see a person who has some horrible addiction, we need to understand that their problem is very complex. It may involve physiological factors. It may involve psychological factors. And it may also involve spiritual factors in the demonic realm or some combination of these three. We need doctors, medical doctors. We need psychologists. We need the clergy. But most of all what we need is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. You see, Jesus Christ wants us to understand He has power over the physical world and power over the spiritual world, and He wants us to come to Him in prayer and pray for physical healing. He also wants us to come to Him in prayer and pray for spiritual healing. And when we feel like somebody is afflicted or possessed or oppressed by the demonic realm, He expects us to pray for deliverance; deliverance for somebody who is afflicted or somebody who is being tempted or somebody who is oppressed, even somebody who is possessed by evil spirits.
You see, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has given us power over the unseen world in His name. He is the Son of God. Those of us who believe in Him are told that we do not ever need to be afraid because “He who is in us, Jesus Christ, is greater and he was in the world.”
Now the Bible makes it very clear that the fallen spiritual world wants to control this fallen physical world. The fallen spiritual world wants to lead the people of this world and to ruin into perdition, into hell itself. The fallen spiritual realm, the demonic realm, would do this in part through enticement to sin. The greatest weapon the demonic world has is the weapon called sin. The Bible makes it clear that sometimes when we are tempted, we’re tempted by our own desires, but other times when we are tempted, we are tempted by this fallen spiritual realm. Jesus Christ is the Son of God and He has power over the fallen spiritual world and He manifests that power not only in His ability to cast out evil spirits, but He manifests that power in His victory over sin. He has power over sin. He manifests His power over sin in many ways. One way He manifests His power over sin is through His own sinlessness. He cannot be enticed to sin. You will recall how Satan tried to entice Him to sin and offered Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment in time…challenged him to jump off the pinnacle of the temple and give His angels charge over Him. He said, “If you are the Son of God, turn these stones to bread.” But you see, Jesus Christ has power over Satan and He has power over sin.
You will recall at His baptism as He was baptized in the Jordan River by John the Baptist, John said, “I shouldn’t be baptizing you. You ought to be baptizing me.” Jesus said “It’s necessary to fulfill all righteousness.” Now, baptism, of course, in part symbolizes righteousness, but the only righteous person who has ever been baptized was Jesus Christ. And when He was baptized, the heavens opened up and the Spirit of God descended upon him as a dove and the voice of the Father proclaimed from heaven “This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased.” He is the Son of God in every action of his life. It is pleasing to the Father. He is righteous. He is holy. He has power over sin. He cannot be enticed to sin. As the angel Gabriel said to Mary, “The child’s name shall be called holy,” the Son of God.
Now, He not only has power over sin because He is sinless, He has power of sin over sin because He is able to forgive sin. He is actually able to forgive you of sin. He is able to undo the work of the fallen spiritual world, able to undo the work of the demonic realm.
In our passage of Scripture for today, we saw how Jesus Christ addressed the church at Thyatira. He introduced Himself as the Son of God. He told them, “I know your works. I know your faith, your love, your service, your patient endurance, and how your latter works exceed even your first, but you have one problem and that one problem is sin.” He warned them He has power to punish sin, but He also exhorted them to repentance offering to forgive them of sin because He alone has power to forgive sin.
Charles Spurgeon was one of the greatest preachers the Christian world has ever known. I suppose he is somewhat or was somewhat like Apollos had been in the first century Christian world, a great orator. The Metropolitan Tabernacle in the city of London with 6,000 seats was built for Spurgeon’s audiences and he preached there every Sunday morning. One Sunday, after church, a man came up to Spurgeon and he said, “In your sermon, in your message, you explained how non-Christians are burdened, burdened by sin.” This young man said, “I want you to know I’m not a Christian and I’ll never be a Christian, and I have absolutely no burden of sin in my life. I have no guilt regarding sin. I have no remorse. What do you say to that?” Spurgeon said, “Suppose you take a 500-pound weight and you put it on a corpse. Is he going to feel the burden?” The young man laughed and he said, “Of course not. A corpse is dead.” Spurgeon said, “I tell you, the soul that feels no remorse for sin, the soul that feels no guilt for sinful activity, the soul that feels no burden for sin’s presence, that soul is dead!”
Now, I’m sure…I’m reasonably certain there’s not anybody in this sanctuary this morning that has reached the point of ultimate spiritual death. I’m sure that all of you, all of us, feel remorse at sin’s presence in our life. Even if you’re not a Christian, I’m sure you feel some guilt when you partake in sinful activity. You have some burden for sin, some sense of remorse at sin’s presence in your life, and in some measure, you want to be rid of sin. God wants you to understand there’s only one way to get rid of that guilt, only one way to get rid of that burden, only one way to be rid of sin because only one person has power over the spiritual world and that one person is the Son of God, Jesus Christ. When we come to Him and we embrace Him as Lord and Savior and we repent, He undoes the work of the fallen spiritual world in us. He alone has power to forgive. His power over sin is not only manifested in His own sinlessness and His ability to forgive sin, but it’s also manifested in His power to help you overcome specific sin.
Do you have any sin in your life you’re struggling with that you want to overcome? Maybe it’s anger, maybe it’s lust, maybe it’s greed, maybe it’s pride. Do you have any habits? Any addictions? You see, Jesus Christ has power to help you…He alone.
A man came up to Dwight L. Moody after the great evangelist had conducted a crusade, and the man said he wanted to receive Jesus Christ. He said, “I don’t think Christ will take me.” Moody said, “Well, why is that?” And the man said, “Well, because my sin is full of life.” Moody looked confused and he stared at the man for a moment. Then the man realized what he had said and he said, “No, I mean my life is full of sin.” Moody reflected on that the next day, and he decided that perhaps what the man had said in the first place was also true for all of us. Our sin is full of life. I’m sure that all of us in our better moments want to be rid of sin. We don’t want to commit sin. But you see, in our weakest moments that sin has so much life and sometimes we just can’t kill it. We don’t have the power.
Billy Sunday said, “I’m against sin.” He said, “I’m going to kick it with my feet. I’m going to fight it with my fist. I’m going to butt it with my head. I’m going to bite it with my teeth. And when I’m old and I’m footless and I’m fistless and I’m toothless, I’m going to gum it until I go home to glory and it goes home to perdition.” People don’t speak like that anymore, but that’s the attitude we need to have. But you see, even if you have that attitude and you’re against sin, there’s sometimes in your life when you are weak and that sin is so full of life and you can’t kill it, you don’t have the power, but Jesus Christ does. He’s got the power: power over the spiritual world, power over the forces of darkness, power over sin, and He wants to help you put on the armor of God that only He offers.
You see, the apostle Paul wrote to the Christians in Ephesus and he said, “Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God that you might be able to stand against all the wiles of the devil, for we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers against the world, against the rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, put on the full armor of God that you may be able to withstand in that evil day. And having done all to stand, stand therefor having girded your loins with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, having shod your feet with the equipment of the gospel of peace. Besides all this, taking the shield of faith with which you are able to quench all the flaming darts of the evil one and the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the Word of God. Pray at all times in the spirit, making prayer and supplication and to this end, be alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints.” And Paul said “Also for me.”
You see, Paul understood that we are at war. We are at war with the forces of spiritual darkness. We are at war with sin and we desperately need the full armor of God and it is only offered by the power of Christ. But you’re not going to have that armor unless truly you are consecrated to Jesus Christ every day. Consecrated to Him. You see, if you’re not consecrated to Him, you’re never going to take the time to immerse yourself in the Word and in prayer. If you’re not consecrated to Him, you’re not going to take the time to pray faithfully for your brothers and sisters in Christ, and you’re not going to have the boldness to ask them to pray for you.
Jesus said, “I am the Son of God.” He has power over the physical world and He has power over the spiritual world, and He wants to share that power with you. He says, “All authority, all power in heaven and on earth have been given to me. Go ye, therefore, lo, I am with you always, even to the close the age.” Let’s close with the word of prayer.