Christ In Eternity - A

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Host (Jack Hibbs): Christ was before all things. That's our first point this morning. When we say before time, we're meaning this, that Jesus Christ existed before the physical creation. That before the observable universe was ever brought into being, the Bible teaches Jesus was.
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Host (David Jay): Welcome to Real Life Radio with Pastor Jack Hibbs. I'm David Jay, thanking you for joining us today as we listen, learn, and are challenged by God's word, the Bible.
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Announcer: On today's edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack begins a new series called The Life and Times of Jesus Christ, and a message titled Christ and Eternity. This is a series about who Jesus really is, not the Jesus of popular opinion, but the Jesus of the Bible. God himself, who was sent into our world, and we'll begin where he began, before time itself ever was. We live in a generation that prides itself on knowing more, more than anybody in the past. Yet, we have less and less of the truth coming to light. The world is uninformed about who Jesus really is, and sadly, so much of the church is too. But knowing him changes everything. So today, Pastor Jack teaches us that Jesus existed before all things, before the universe, even before the spiritual realm. The Bible calls Jesus the Word who was with God and who was God, the eternal I Am with no beginning and no end. Before we get into the message, I had a chance to sit down with Pastor Jack and talk about it with him. So, let's get into that.
Host (David Jay): I love it when we start a new series because I get to drag Pastor Jack into the booth with me. How are you doing, my friend?
Host (Jack Hibbs): I'm doing good.
Host (David Jay): Hey, we're coming out of The Disciplines of Life series and going into this new series. I love it. The Life and Times of Jesus Christ. Sounds like like a documentary kind of thing, doesn't it?
Host (Jack Hibbs): Yeah, it does sound like. I tell you what, it's a good title for a book, isn't it? But
Host (David Jay): Yeah, it is.
Host (Jack Hibbs): Yeah, this comes around because, you know, here, we teach verse by verse, chapter by chapter, book by book. But I had somebody come up and say to me, "Why why are we teaching that Jesus is God?" And I was shocked to realize, well, first of all, he is God and why didn't she know that? And so, you know, we can make assumptions that everybody just by osmosis knows what we know. Well, it's a deep dive into the person of who Jesus Christ is. That's why we're going to do this series. It's going to be exciting. I encourage everybody to dive in and take notes and and to be with us because, you know, I think it's A.W. Tozer that said, "What you think about God is the most important thought that you have." And Jesus made it very clear that no man comes to the Father but through me. So Christ is that key to the lock that opens the door to the presence of the Father. So we begin with Jesus, his deity, his person. What does prophecy say about him? What did he say about himself? What did others say about him? So, it's going to be exciting.
Host (David Jay): And today's message, Christ and Eternity. Let's jump in. Thanks, Pastor Jack.
Host (Jack Hibbs): We're going to be learning this morning about Christ and eternity, and that is specifically about the preexistence of Jesus Christ. What brought on this study? And I must tell you upfront, what caused us to go rather to a book at this time, we diverted and went to this series is because a couple months ago, a woman came up to me after service and said, "You know, you referred to Jesus Christ today as God." "And I want to know why you did that." And I was dumbfounded. I was shocked. I assumed all of you knew what the Bible has to say. That the Bible says that Jesus Christ is God, the second person of the Holy Trinity. That God came among us in the form, in the person of Jesus Christ, and that he bore flesh that we might know him. And so when we say Christ and eternity, we're going to be speaking many times of his deity. The Bible says that he is God. When we say Christ in eternity or Christ is from eternity, it's so vitally important that we define what we mean by that. It's so so very important. As humans, we begin to pride ourselves that we know everything. I mean, my goodness, we can log on the internet and you can get more information in 20 minutes than what used to take maybe a week or a month to get in the comfort of your own home. You can get everything you need on how to build a soap box derby car, to a race car, to a cake, to sad to say a bomb. You can get it on the internet. You can find out too much on the internet. As many people are finding out. But we are a generation that prides itself on knowing more and more. And yet I believe personally, I have to agree with Vance Havner. If you ever want to buy any great reading, buy any book by Vance Havner. Vance Havner said, "We are a generation with more illumination than any other generation before us, but with less light." Think about it. We have Las Vegas, but it only speaks of the little amount of light that we have in our hearts and lives. We have skyrockets and great firework displays, but we have very little light. We have TVs illuminating our living rooms 24 hours a day almost, but we increasingly have little light. The only light that we can really have that's going to account for anything is as many of the collegiate and universities of the nation of America display in their icons. There, they have the Bible open wide and it speaks about the light. "Let the light of knowledge be upon us." It's a cry to God. You go to UCLA and their original logo was not that little fat bear that's on the, you know, hat or the pennant, but it is the Bible open. And it says in the original UCLA logo, "Let there be light." And many of the universities, Harvard included, had this thing about knowledge. "Let there be light." And yet the technological advancements that we have have led, I think, to more superficial knowledge than true knowledge. Well, in this series, we're going to be going through, we're going to be talking about the light of knowing Jesus Christ. Very, very important. The world today, listen, this is so bizarre to say. The world today, we can understand, is ignorant about who Jesus is, but the church is predominantly ignorant about who Jesus Christ is. Isn't it strange? But let me tell you something. I don't know if you've gone outside this area. You know you and I live in an incredibly blessed area. Do you know that? Yes, I know it's Babylon. I mean, we really live in Babylon. We can fulfill any pleasure we want here. But, have you noticed there are an incredible great plethora of churches in Southern California unlike any place else on the face of the Earth. Did you know that? If this place gets too big for you, you can go somewhere else. It's wonderful. We can turn on Christian radio here and listen to excellent Christian broadcasting 24 hours a day. That is rare. Have you been east of the San Bernardino Mountain Range? Just go east of those mountains that are just a few moments from here. And there is a wilderness and a dearth for God's word and God's teaching. In sporadic cities, yes, you get to the East Coast and it's a little bit more, but you have to drive so many miles for a church that is committed to the word of God. We have churches today in the world that do not exalt the Lord Jesus Christ. You would think that that would be an impossible thing, but it's it's very true. Regarding the person, the mission, the life of Jesus, the world today is by and large uninformed and willfully ignorant about who he really is, and to me that's amazing to even consider. And so for the next, listen to this, 16 weeks. Yeah, 16 weeks we're going to be going through a very detailed study concerning the life and times of Jesus Christ. So we're going to be looking, looking at some of those things even now this morning as we go through our study together. I'm going to ask you to make note of these things. The first week today, we're going to be looking at the wonderful news about Christ and eternity. And the second week, we'll be looking at Christ and his first coming, that is him to Jerusalem, to Israel. The third week, Christ, the word made flesh, we're going to study the very person of Jesus's incarnation. That's going to be great, great knowledge to have. The fourth week we'll see Christ and his mission, why did Jesus come? Why did he have to come? And then we'll see Christ and his earthly work, what did he accomplish when he came? The sixth week we'll see that Christ and his creation is something that is a wonderful study and that he is responsible for creation. We'll talk a little bit about that this morning. And the seventh week, we'll see that Christ and his place in the Godhead, that is, the Bible teaches that the Lord is one, but the Bible also teaches that there's the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And that these three are God, and we'll see a little bit on that this morning as well. We'll see Christ and his redemptive work. We'll see also in the ninth week Christ and the sinners, that's us, his relationship to the lost and sinful world, very important. The tenth week we'll see Christ, the son of God. We'll touch again a little bit on that this morning because this is kind of an introductory morning. The 11th week we'll see Christ and the church. Christ and the angels the 12th week. The 13th week Christ and the rapture. The 14th week we'll be talking about Christ and the tribulation period. The 15th week Christ and his second coming, and then finally we'll wrap it up with Christ and the Millennium Age. And so that is something that we're going to be very, very excited to look to. But right now, why don't we look at our first, very first point this morning, and that is Christ and eternity. And the theme, and I want you to jot this down, the theme of our study through all of these weeks is going to be Colossians chapter 2, verse 9. This is one of the most fun and exciting verses in the Bible. Colossians chapter 2, verse 9, where it says right there, "For in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead in bodily form," speaking about Jesus Christ. That's a great statement. So we're talking about Christ and eternity, and Paul speaks to the church at Colossae, "For in Christ all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in bodily form." What a great, great declaration that is. So if you have your notes, let's get ready and we're going to start off right now. We're going to look at three points this morning, but we're going to look at them carefully and slowly. So the first one we're going to ask you to look at, and that is this: we're going to be looking at Christ and that he was before time. So look at that, if you would. Christ was before all things. And so if you jot that down, we're going to look at that. Christ was before all things. That's our first point this morning. When we say before time, we're meaning this, that Jesus Christ existed before the physical creation. That before the observable universe was ever brought into being, the Bible teaches Jesus was. In John chapter 1, verse 1, I know you know this verse. Don't say, "Well, you know, I know, I'm not going to write it down." Write it down. This is great stuff because, you know what? You're going to be prepared for every occultic and cultic and lunatic person that knocks at your door, or maybe, you know, summer's about halfway done. We're going to be heading into the holidays. Get your homework ready and you're going to be learning some things that's really going to help you. Listen, Christ was before all things. And when we say that, we talk about John chapter 1, verse 1. Very, very important. He says there, "In the beginning," that is, at the moment of physical creation, "in the beginning," John 1, verse 1, "in the beginning," that is, at the moment of physical creation "was the Word." "And the Word was with God, and the Word was God." So we know right away that Jesus Christ, from John chapter 1, verse 14, jot that down now, where it says there, "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us." Listen, friend, if you're a skeptic, if you're a doubter, listen to what the Bible says. The Bible says that the Word "was with God." You got that, everybody? You're going to need to respond and keep me awake this morning. You're going to need to help me. I could fall asleep right in midstream here. That the Word was with God, "and the Word was God." And that Word, which was what? God, became flesh and dwelt among us. Who in all history has dwelt among mankind, whose title is "the Word who is claimed to be God"? Jesus. Absolutely Jesus Christ.
Announcer: You're listening to Real Life with Pastor Jack Hibbs. To learn more about this ministry or to catch up on some previous episodes, go to jackhibbs.com. That's jackhibbs.com. And now, let's get back to today's message. Once again, here's Pastor Jack.
Host (Jack Hibbs): Before anything was physically, there was the Word of God, who's Jesus, who John chapter 1 says is God. The doctrine of preexistence is what we're talking about, that Jesus Christ existed before the physical universe was ever created. We're going to see how much so a little bit later from now, but not only was he present before the physical creation, but we're going to argue this morning. Listen carefully, it's going to cause an eyebrow to go up. He even existed before the spiritual realm was created. Oh yeah, we'll talk about that in a minute. But this doctrine of preexistence, it is something that the Bible teaches that is solely, solely attributed to God and God alone. The Bible says in the book of Isaiah chapters 40, 41, 42, 43 and 44, that God is specifically the one who has dwelt from all eternity, that is, timelessness. He has preexisted before anything ever was. That is God. But the Bible also says in no uncertain terms that Jesus Christ also has existed before all things and has existed from eternity, that is from the eons or the eternal moment, where God dwells in what is called the eternal now. Sounds funny, huh, to say that. But see, right now our clocks are ticking. It's about 28 minutes after the hour where you and I live. And it's funny, as you travel around the world in every hour time zone, it's 28 minutes after the hour in each time zone. 24-hour time zones around the world. But interesting, God begins to play with us a little bit. If you begin to launch a rocket out into space, we have found out that when you strap somebody in a rocket with a wristwatch, an atomic clock, and they go and come back, that the atomic clock that that astronaut had on his wrist is different from the atomic clock at Houston Space Center. Isn't that interesting? God begins to flirt with us. That as you go away from Earth, time changes. Now that's in the physical realm. But in the spiritual realm, there is no time. We think of God as somebody being one who has a lot of time. Now, I told you before, I love big watches. I love, the bigger the better. I think they're fun, and I collect them. So we think, you know, God's a man, or God is God, and he's got a huge watch. No, he doesn't have a huge watch. He doesn't have a watch. He doesn't live where time exists. You cannot have time unless you have physical matter. Where there is no physical matter, there you have no time. Time is a physical attribute of this created universe. And it is also, as we've said, this timelessness unique to Jesus. In John chapter 17, verse 5. John 17:5, Jesus says, "Oh now, oh Father, glorify me together with yourself, with the glory which I had with you before the world ever was." John 17:5. And Micah chapter 5, verse 2. The Bible says, "But you, oh Bethlehem, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to me the one who's to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from of old, even from everlasting." Well, whoever was born in Bethlehem by Mary, stepfather Joseph, his goings forth have been eternal. That's the great incarnation of Christ. More next week on that. John chapter 8, verse 56. This is all introductory, so hang on to your seats, okay? You think I'm going to miss it? I'm not going to miss it. This is all introductory. John 8:56. Jesus responded to the Pharisees and he said, "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day." What a radical statement. "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day," "and he saw it and was glad." And then the Jews said to him, "You're not yet even 50 years old." "How is it that you said you've seen Abraham?" And Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am." Oh, listen. Abraham rejoiced to see his day. Come on, think for a moment. When did Abraham see the day of Jesus Christ? How did Abraham see Jesus? Well, at least on one occasion, remember when Abraham was sitting on the side of the hill and his nephew Lot was living down in Sodom and Gomorrah down there near the end of the Dead Sea. And Abraham was there and two angels and the Lord came walking up. And Abraham perceived that this one was the Lord. And as the two angels, it's kind of eerie. The two angels peeled off and went down into Sodom and Gomorrah because they had work to do. You know the story. And it says that the Lord sat there with Abraham, and Abraham, you know, had Sarah make them dinner and all, and as they're talking, Abraham says, "Lord, will you destroy Sodom and Gomorrah if there's 50 people?" And the Lord says, "No, I'm not going to destroy it if there's 50 people righteous." "No, I won't do it." So Abraham, being the good father of the Jews that he is, he says, "How about 45?" "How about 45?" And the Lord says, "No, I won't destroy the city and the place for 45 righteous people that are there." "Lord, don't be angry with me, but how about, you know, 30?" "No, I won't destroy the place even if there's 30 righteous." And Abraham says, "Well, how about 20?" And he just begins to whittle the Lord down, trying to figure out where. And it's interesting, if you read the story carefully there in Genesis, it stops at 10. "Will you destroy the city for 10?" Now, 10's the number for a synagogue for a place of worship. 10 is also the amount of people if you count them, who made the exit with Lot. Interesting. Abraham must have known that Lot had 10 relatives in that city, and he was interceding for them. Very, very important. And so, Jesus says to the Pharisees, "Abraham saw my day and he was glad." It could also make or be a reference to Abraham's encounter with Melchizedek, which is a theophany, is a preincarnate appearance of Jesus Christ. But Jesus is the one in that portion of John chapter 8 that says, "I am." Listen, you and I don't get what that means. It would be equivalent today for someone to stand up and say, "I am God." Now, I saw a man on TV utter a heretical declaration. I thought God was going to kill him on the spot. And I am not kidding. This man very well known. I hope none of you watch him. But he's very well known on TV. He has a ministry that's titled by his name, the blankety blank ministries, with the big logo behind his head. He's about 5 feet tall, little tiny guy, real squinty little eyes together. He's got perfectly combed hair. His wife is often on the program. He has a daily teaching program. And he stood up there and he said, "I am God." Just as Jesus is, "I am." And I thought my TV was going to blow up. That's blasphemy. He invoked the word, the name "ego eimi" in Greek, which is a title reserved for God alone. Only God is the ego eimi. Jesus is, "I am." "Ego eimi," which is this: I am the only one, I am the self-existing one, I am the cause, I am the originator. I have, when he says I am, no beginning. I have no end. I am preexistent. I am before all things. When somebody spouts off "I am" like Shirley MacLaine says "I am," people better know what they're talking about because that is the ultimate form of blasphemy. I am the self-contained existing one. Before anything was, I was there. And I have been, I am the creator, sustainer, orchestrator of it all. Jesus said that. People say, "Well, Jesus never claimed to be God." He certainly did. People who don't know their Bible just don't know that when he says, "I am," he invoked the name that was found in Exodus chapter 3, verse 14, when Moses said, "When I go back to the children of Israel, whom shall I say sent me?" And God said to Moses, "You go back and tell them that I Am sent you." "You tell them, I Am has sent you." And in Hebrew, it is not the Greek word ego eimi. Of course not, it's in Hebrew. It's the word "haya," and it means to always have been existing, to be the one who orchestrates, the one who supplies all of your needs, the beacon, the source, the truth, the strength, the one. You go back, Moses, and you tell them, the I Am sent you. Jesus, in Israel, nearly 2000 years ago, told those religious hierarchies, he said, "Listen, I am." And if you doubt if they understood what he said, it said there that they picked up stones to kill him. They knew exactly what he was saying. And it was for that reason, by the way, that they got their gears going to plan his death.
Announcer: Pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs, here on Real Life Radio, and his message called Christ and Eternity. Thanks for being with us today. You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack's new series called The Life and Times of Jesus Christ. It's a series about the real Jesus of the Bible, God in the flesh, and why knowing him more deeply changes everything. And we'll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio.
Announcer: America's founding wasn't just political, it was biblical. In the American story, The Beginnings, Tim and David Barton uncover the scripture anchored principles that shaped this nation from day one. It's the history they don't teach anymore, and the history every American needs. Give a gift to Real Life and receive the book, plus a free kids' guide for America's 250th birthday, and check out our Faith and Freedom collection, bold apparel to wear in celebration of America. Visit jackhibbs.com or call 877-777-2346.
Host (David Jay): Hey, thank you again so much for listening. And if you'd like to hear or see more of what we do here, you can always go to jackhibbs.com for all the latest on what's going on with this ministry. And please, if you're ever in the Southern California area, come see us at Calvary Chapel Chino Hills. We'd love to see you there in person. It has been so good to be with you today, and I pray you find yourself in the grace and mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ. See you on the next episode. This program is made possible by the generous contributions of you, our listeners. Visit us at jackhibbs.com, that's jackhibbs.com. Until next time, Pastor Jack Hibbs and all of us here at Real Life Radio wish for you solid and steady growth in Christ and in his word. We'll see you next time here on Real Life Radio.