Theological term
Christology
34 sermons · All terms
A Trinitarian Blessing
What does it mean for a church letter full of conflict, rebuke, and difficult confrontation to close with a sweeping word of blessing? Paul's benediction in 2 Corinthians 13:14 — the most elevated Trinitarian affirmation in the New Testament — does exactly that, pronouncing grace, love, and communion upon a fractious and sinning congregation without exception. The sermon distinguishes the benediction (a word of blessing descending from heaven to God's people) from the doxology (praise ascending from earth to God), tracing how each element of the Trinitarian blessing — the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the communion of the Holy Spirit — flows downward from the triune God as spiritual reality, not mere concept. The application is pointed: whatever the believer's besetting sin, weakness of assurance, or relational difficulty, the remedy begins not with human effort but with receiving the grace, love, and fellowship that the triune God lavishes upon his people.
The Son of God and His Afflicted People
Matthew 14:22–33 presents Jesus walking on the sea as a revelation of His divine identity — the Son of God who, like Yahweh in Job 9:8 and Psalm 77:19, treads the waves. The disciples' terror, Peter's sinking faith, and the calming of the wind together drive toward the confession of verse 33: 'Truly, You are the Son of God.' The sermon draws out two complementary lessons: the people of God are not immune to prolonged trial and affliction, and the antidote to fear is not stoic resolve but the divinity of Christ — the Great I Am who sees His storm-tossed church and bids it be of good cheer.
The World's Greater Liability Before God
Jesus declares in John 15:21–25 that the world's hatred of his disciples flows from a deeper hatred of himself and the Father who sent him, making the rejection of Christ not merely a moral failure but a compounding of guilt before God. Increased revelation brings increased liability: those who witnessed Christ's word and works have no excuse for their unbelief, and their rejection of the Messiah is simultaneously a rejection of the triune God. The sermon argues that right Trinitarian theology is therefore not an academic luxury but a matter of eternal life and death, since to deny the Son is to deny the Father. Believers are called to stand fast in the word of God, rejoice in suffering as those united to Christ the master, and proclaim the exclusive claims of Jesus Christ without apology.
Ask FGBC #6 - Why is historical confessional Christianity important?
The question of why historical confessional Christianity matters is addressed by examining what Scripture itself says about the gifts Christ gives to his church. Drawing on Ephesians 4 and Matthew 28, the argument is made that creeds and confessions are the accumulated fruit of those gifts — the best doctrinal articulation the church has produced across centuries of theological controversy, from Nicaea and Chalcedon through the Second London Confession. To reject them in favor of a 'no creed but the Bible' posture is not humility but a subtle repudiation of the very ecclesiology the Bible commands, and it leaves individuals without the guardrails that preserve orthodox Christianity.
2LCF Chapter 8 - Of Christ the Mediator, Part 1
What does it mean to confess that Jesus Christ is very God and very man, and why does the precision of that confession matter for eternal life? This introductory session on 2LCF Chapter 8 surveys the doctrine of Christ the Mediator by establishing both the necessary posture and the interpretive rules required for sound Christology, then sets out seven reasons why the study of Christ stands at the center of all Christian theology. The session moves from the scope of Scripture as Christ-centered revelation, through the connection of eternal life to a right knowledge of Christ, to the comprehensiveness of all redemptive benefits being located in union with Him, calling the hearer to pursue a high Christology as the only safe and saving confession.
The Healing of a Blind Man, Part 2
John 9:13–34 records the formal interrogation of a man born blind by the Pharisees following his healing by Jesus. The passage exposes the willful unbelief of Israel's religious leadership — men who suppress plain evidence, commit perjury, and wield coercion against a helpless witness — while simultaneously tracing the healed man's growing confession of Christ, from 'he is a prophet' to 'if this man were not from God, he could do nothing.' The sermon argues that opposition to the Son of God is always opposition to the Father who sent him, and that the courage to confess Christ in the face of exclusion and shame is the mark of genuine discipleship.
The Danger of Rejecting the Son, Part 2
John 8:25–29 confronts the persistent Jewish rejection of Jesus by pressing two questions: who is he, and what does his coming death mean? The sermon expounds Christ's identity as the eternal Son sent by the Father — God from God, light from light, true God from true God — and shows that his crucifixion and resurrection will vindicate that identity before the very men who condemned him. The active obedience of Christ, summarized in his declaration that he always does what pleases the Father, grounds the imputed righteousness sinners need for justification. Hearers are called to rest in the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent, the knowledge of whom is itself the substance of eternal life.
The Lord's Assessment of John the Baptist - Matthew 11:2-15
Matthew 11:2-15 presents Christ's own assessment of John the Baptist, and this exposition works through two movements: the question John sends from prison concerning the Messiah's identity, and the Lord's threefold commendation of John as no mere reed, no court prophet, but the greatest born of women and the anti-typical Elijah. The sermon argues that John's struggle was not with who Jesus was but with the implications of the messianic reign — why the herald of judgment should languish in prison while the Messiah's full justice remained deferred — a tension the church in every age must learn to hold without abandoning confidence in God's sovereign timetable. Listeners are called to pray for and expect ministers who combine the light of sound exegesis with the heat of genuine conviction, men who, like John, neither fear nor flatter any flesh.
The Extension of Christ's Kingdom
Christ's sovereignty over persecution is the controlling theme of Acts 8:1b–4, where the martyrdom of Stephen triggers a great dispersion that advances the very mission Christ commissioned in Acts 1:8. The sermon traces the programmatic geography of Acts — Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the ends of the earth — and shows that the scattering of the disciples, far from being a setback, was the means by which Christ extended his kingdom. Particular attention is given to Saul of Tarsus as the chief persecutor whose subsequent conversion illustrates that no human opposition can thwart the sovereign purposes of Christ. Hearers are called to pray earnestly for gospel preachers to be raised up, to commit to biblical churchmanship with perseverance, and to hold fast to the confidence that Christ must reign until all his enemies are made his footstool.
The Importance of the Knowledge of Christ
The most important question ever asked — 'Who do you say that I am?' — exposes a crisis in the contemporary church: a Ligonier survey found that 78% of polled evangelical Christians answered that Jesus Christ is the highest creature of God, effectively the ancient Arian heresy. This sermon works through Matthew 16:13–20 as a launching point, pressing seven reasons why the knowledge of Christ is of supreme importance: He is the scope of Scripture, eternal life hinges on a right knowledge of His person, the gospel is about Him, He is the exclusive way of salvation, all redemptive benefits are found in Him, the church's commission is given by and about Him, and our present and future hope rests in Him alone. The practical import of Christology — rightly defined as the dignity of Christ's person and the virtue of His office — is shown to bear on worship, humility, beneficence, good works, and steadfast confession.
Warning of Antichrist
What does the term 'antichrist' in 1 John 2:18–23 actually mean, and why is the popular question 'Who is the Antichrist?' the wrong question to ask? This exposition argues that John is not pointing to a single future eschatological figure but to a multitude of false teachers who deny that Jesus is the Christ and that He came in the flesh — teachers who have already appeared in every generation of the last hour, the entire era between Christ's two Advents. The remedy against antichrist is not prophetic speculation but deep, Spirit-illumined knowledge of the true Christ: His identity as the eternal Son, His unity with the Father, and the Trinitarian relations that ground saving faith. The sermon closes with a direct call to confess Christ, study His person rigorously, and stand ready for His return.
The Anointing at Bethany
Matthew 26:6–13 records the anointing of Jesus at Bethany by Mary, sister of Lazarus, who poured a flask of costly spikenard worth a year's wages upon his head. Matthew places this account between the conspiracy of the chief priests and the betrayal by Judas for deliberate theological reasons: where the cross is associated with treachery on every side, it must also be associated with wholehearted worship and adoration. The disciples' indignant charge of 'waste' is exposed as both a direct insult to Mary and an indirect slight upon the dignity of Christ himself, while Jesus' fourfold response vindicates her act as a beautiful thing, a prophetic preparation for his burial, and a deed to be proclaimed wherever the gospel is preached. The sermon calls believers to imitate Mary's extravagant, undivided devotion to Christ, resisting the tendency to reduce Christian faithfulness to either social concern or piety alone.
The Question Concerning the Messiah
Matthew 22:41–46 records the final public controversy between Jesus and the religious leaders, in which Jesus turns from defendant to questioner and asks: 'What do you think about the Christ? Whose Son is He?' The Pharisees answer correctly but incompletely — 'the Son of David' — and Jesus presses Psalm 110:1 upon them to show that David, writing in the Spirit, calls the Messiah his Lord, which demands that the Messiah be not merely a human descendant but also the divine Son of God. The sermon traces Matthew's sustained identification of Jesus as both Son of David and Son of God, explains the Hebrew distinction between Yahweh and Adonai in Psalm 110:1, and grounds the hypostatic union in that one verse. Believers are called to love this God-man with whole-hearted devotion; unbelievers are urged to reckon with the Christ who alone could fulfill the law and bear the wrath owed to sinners.
Free Grace Baptist Church - February 14, 2016 PM
The Apostle Paul concludes his most confrontational letter with the fullest Trinitarian benediction in the New Testament — the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit (2 Corinthians 13:14). This sermon works through each phrase of that blessing, showing why Paul orders the persons of the Trinity as Son, Father, and Spirit: it is only by the grace of Christ that believers may enter into the love of the Father and receive the communion of the Spirit. The benediction is not a reward for good behaviour but a word of gospel pronounced upon an entire fractious congregation, demonstrating that the life of the church must be grounded not in moral resolve but in the being and acts of the Triune God.
An Introduction to Christology
What does it mean to study Christ, and why does it matter above every other theological discipline? This introductory Christology study, anchored in John 20:24–31, argues that the doctrine of Christ is not one branch among many but the integrating center of all Christian theology — the terminus of the Old Testament's canonical trajectory, the non-negotiable content of apostolic proclamation, the sole ground of salvation, and the pattern for the believer's practical life. Hearers are called to fill their minds with precise Christological knowledge so that their hearts may be both warmed in worship and guarded against the errors that have always threatened the church's confession of Christ's full deity, full humanity, and undivided person.
The Usefulness of Scripture
Paul's claim in 2 Timothy 3:16–17 that all Scripture is God-breathed and profitable is examined across four categories of usefulness — doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness — before turning to Scripture's specific function in completing and thoroughly equipping the man of God for every good work. The sermon challenges the anti-doctrinal sentiment prevalent in contemporary evangelicalism, arguing that indifference to biblical doctrine is indifference to God himself. Ministers in particular are shown to be completed not by leadership models or charismatic gifts but by deep saturation in the word of God. The hearer is called to approach Scripture not as a duty to discharge but as a daily feast — mining its treasures with diligence and gratitude.
The Herald and His Proclamation, Part 2
Peter's Pentecost sermon in Acts 2:22–36 rests on two pillars the preacher draws out in this evening exposition: a voracious history and a marvelous yet sobering Christology. The resurrection of Christ is not mythology but attested fact — confirmed by Lukan preambles, apostolic eyewitness statements, post-resurrection narratives, and Paul's logical argument in 1 Corinthians 15. From that historical foundation, four Christological truths press upon every hearer: Christ has been raised, exalted to God's right hand, has poured out the Holy Spirit, and has been given all authority as both Lord and Christ — each truth a marvel for the believer and a sober warning to all who remain in unbelief.
The Payment of the Temple Tax
Matthew 17:24–27 records a miracle found only in Matthew's Gospel, in which Jesus instructs Peter to pay the temple tax from a coin found in a fish's mouth. The passage is not incidental: it is anchored between Jesus's second passion announcement (vv. 22–23) and the teaching on offense in chapter 18, connecting the temple tax — rooted in the ransom and atonement language of Exodus 30 — to the atoning work Christ will accomplish at the cross. Jesus's exemption from the tax declares his unique divine sonship ('the sons are free'), while his willingness to pay nonetheless teaches a principle of self-denying deference that Paul draws on explicitly in 1 Corinthians 8–9. The sermon calls hearers to behold Christ as sovereign Lord over nature, as the fulfillment of every Old Testament ransom-type, and as the one who paid a debt he did not owe for sinners who could not pay it.
The Transfiguration of the Son
The transfiguration of Christ in Matthew 17:1–8 is a controlled revelation of the divine glory that belongs to the eternal Son, displayed before Peter, James, and John on the holy mountain. The Father's voice from the Shekinah cloud — echoing Psalm 2:7 and Isaiah 42:1–4, and repeating his declaration at Christ's baptism — publicly confirms that Jesus is the beloved Messiah who must suffer, die, and rise, vindicating the Christology the disciples had confessed in Matthew 16. Moses and Elijah appear as the law and the prophets bearing witness to the one who fulfills and supersedes them both, while their conversation with Christ about his coming death underscores that the cross and the crown are inseparable. Believers are called to behold the glory of the transfigured Son, to hear him above all other voices, and to press on through suffering in confidence that cross always precedes crown.
2LCF Chapter 8 - Of Christ the Mediator, Part 2
The deity and humanity of Jesus Christ, as confessed in 2LCF Chapter 8 paragraphs 1–3, stand as the twin foundations of orthodox Christology. This session from a series on the 1689 London Baptist Confession works through what the confession affirms — and what it denies — regarding both natures of the one Mediator, showing how its language recapitulates the early church's creedal formulations. The study demonstrates the deity of Christ from his self-identification as the divine 'I Am,' his equality with the Father, explicit New Testament declarations, Old Testament Yahweh texts applied to him in the New Testament, and divine prerogatives predicated of him. The humanity of Christ is then established from the birth narratives, apostolic declaration, and Christ's own evidential self-disclosure, preparing the ground for a subsequent session on the incarnation proper.
2LCF Chapter 8 - Of Christ the Mediator
What is Christology, why does it matter, and how does the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith frame it? This introductory session works through John 17:3, Luke 24, John 20, Acts 5, 1 Corinthians 2, Colossians 1, and related texts to establish four grounds for the importance of Christology: its relation to Scripture, to preaching, to salvation, and to practical Christian living. The confession's account of Christ as mediator — truly God, truly man, two natures inseparably united in one person without conversion, composition, or confusion — is introduced as the doctrinal framework for the series. Hearers are called to approach the study of Christ's person and work not with cold detachment but with the highest reverence and the utmost joy, because eternal life itself consists in knowing the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent.
The Riches of Christ
2 Corinthians 8:9 declares that Christ, though eternally rich as God the Son, became poor in the incarnation so that sinners might become rich through his poverty. This communion meditation works through the pre-existent glory of Christ, the hypostatic union, and the redemptive riches secured by his humiliation — justification, imputation of righteousness, adoption, sanctification, and glorification. The application presses the church to give liberally to those in need, because those who have received the infinite riches of Christ cannot rightly remain tight-fisted toward brothers and sisters who suffer lack.
The Eschatological Incentive for Discipleship
Matthew 16:27–28 presents two eschatological realities — the final judgment at the second coming of Christ and, in verse 28, the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 — as motivating incentives for Christian discipleship. The cross precedes the crown: disciples are called to self-denial, suffering, and allegiance to Christ precisely because a day of reckoning is coming in which the Son of Man will reward each person according to his works. Far from competing with justification by faith alone, that judgment according to works publicly evidences the true and lively faith of those who are hidden in Christ, whose righteousness alone enables the justified to stand before a thrice-holy God. Believers are therefore exhorted to bear the cross daily, fix their hope on the coming glory, and pursue the holiness that eschatological certainty demands.
Prayer and Witness
Colossians 4:2–6 calls the Christian to a life of earnest, watchful, and thankful prayer, and to a witness before the world that is wise in conduct and gracious in speech. Working through Paul's four marks of effective prayer — persistence, vigilance, thanksgiving, and petition — the sermon shows that prayer is normal Christian living, not the province of an elite spiritual class. The exposition then turns to the two elements of faithful witness: a walk of wisdom toward outsiders and a conversation seasoned with grace and salt, grounded in the ability to answer the unbeliever with both meekness and clarity.
Pentecostal Preaching, Part 2
Peter's sermon in Acts 2:22–36 does not rest on myth or legend but on the verified historical reality of Christ's resurrection, attested by the firsthand eyewitness accounts of the apostles and a company of more than five hundred. From that established historical fulfillment, the sermon draws three weighty Christological implications: Christ has been exalted to the right hand of God, He has poured out the Holy Spirit upon His church, and He has been made both Lord and Christ — with authority to crush His enemies and to save all who call upon His name. Hearers are urged to receive the gospel's certainty with the highest confidence and to find in the risen, reigning Christ a champion to whom no earthly rival compares.
The True Son of God
Matthew 14:21–33 culminates not in the stilling of the storm but in the disciples' confession, 'Truly, You are the Son of God' — a declaration that is the goal of Matthew's entire Gospel narrative. The passage demonstrates that Jesus acts with the prerogatives of Yahweh alone: walking on the sea, commanding the wind, and rescuing His people in ways the Old Testament attributes exclusively to God. Running alongside this high Christology are clear lessons on discipleship: Christ prays in solitude, His people are not exempt from trial, and little faith — however weak — is not the same as no faith, for it is the Savior who saves, not the strength of the believer's grip. Hearers are called to be of good cheer and to cast fear aside because the 'I Am' of Exodus and Isaiah is present with them in every storm.
Don't Be Antichrist
Philippians 2:6–11, the Carmen Christi, presents in six verses the whole point of the Bible: the person and work of Christ unto the glory of God the Father. This sermon works through that hymn under three heads — the deity and humanity of Christ in his person, the voluntary and obedient character of his work (distinguishing his preceptive and penal obedience), and the exaltation that issues in universal worship. The congregation is pressed to hold a full, undiluted Christology, warned that a defective view of either Christ's deity or his humanity places one outside saving faith, and called to bow the knee now in genuine confession rather than await the compelled confession of judgment.
Christ and the Storm
Matthew 8:23–27 presents Christ stilling the storm on the Sea of Galilee as a revelation of his divine identity and unrivaled authority over creation. The sermon traces three movements: the real danger confronting the disciples on the sea, Christ's rebuke of their little faith and his sovereign command over the wind and waves, and the disciples' resulting awe. While discipleship themes run through the passage — the inevitability of trial, the displacement of fear by faith, and the call to pray 'increase our faith' rather than simply 'make this stop' — the primary burden is Christological: Matthew is unveiling the God-man, Israel's Messiah, whose word over the sea echoes the divine prerogative of Yahweh throughout the Psalms and Prophets. The sermon closes with a direct appeal to flee to this Christ, the only one able to address the far greater crisis of sin.
The Messenger of the Covenant
Malachi 2:17–3:5 exposes what the sermon calls 'practical atheism' — the sin of those who acknowledge God's existence yet, through grumbling and discontentment, functionally deny his justice, goodness, and holiness. The oracle's divine reply is a two-part announcement: a forerunner (John the Baptist) will prepare the way, and then the Messenger of the Covenant (the Lord Jesus Christ, identified with Yahweh himself) will come — not to settle Israel's grievances against the Persians, but to refine, judge, and purify. The sermon presses the most fundamental eschatological question past all speculative curiosity: are you prepared to stand before the God of justice when he appears?
Happiness in Knowing Jesus
Peter's confession in Matthew 16:13–17 — 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God' — stands as the theological heart of Matthew's Gospel and the definitive answer to the question Christ puts to every hearer: who do you say that I am? The sermon traces the progressive disclosure of Christ's identity to the disciples, distinguishes His title of function (Christ, the promised Messiah) from His title of being (Son of the living God, co-eternal within the triune Godhead), and grounds Peter's right answer not in flesh-and-blood reasoning but in the sovereign, revelatory grace of the Father. The central application is that all true happiness belongs to those who know Christ, and that this knowledge — divinely given, not humanly achieved — is the supreme blessing of the Christian life.