12/28 Sunday Worship / When Did Jesus Exist?

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We believe in Jesus in order to enter heaven.

True faith that saves one’s life is knowing who Jesus truly is.

Jesus came in the New Testament era.

However, the entire Bible speaks about Jesus.

Even the Old Testament, written before Jesus came into the world, speaks solely about Him.

The Old Testament foretells the coming of Jesus and the words He would later speak, like a shadow.

A shadow is not clear, but the substance is clear.

John 5:46–47

“For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me.

But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?”

The Pentateuch is the foundation of the Old Testament.

All prophets of the Old Testament taught the people based on the Law of Moses.

The Ten Commandments foreshadowed the words Jesus would later speak,

and the sacrificial system of the Old Testament symbolized the blood of Jesus.

Everything was focused on the coming Jesus.

Deuteronomy 18:15

“The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers. You must listen to Him.”

After Moses, many prophets continued throughout the Old Testament era.

However, Moses set aside all other prophets and pointed to one specific Prophet.

Moses said that those who listen to that Prophet will live.

Who is that Prophet? It is Jesus Christ.

The Jews regarded Moses as the greatest prophet.

They considered him second only to God.

Yet they could not abandon greed, desire, and pride, and they lived without repentance.

Their faith eventually became merely formal.

The evidence of this is that they hated and opposed Jesus.

If they had truly believed in God, they should have welcomed and believed Jesus, who faithfully proclaimed God’s will.

Seeing that there was no true faith in their hearts, the Lord was grieved.

“If you had believed Moses, you would have believed Me.

Since you do not believe what Moses wrote about Me, how can you believe Me?”

From Genesis to Malachi, the entire Old Testament proclaims that God would come into the world in the name of Jesus.

Yet ignoring this core truth and merely reading and meditating on Scripture in a formal way results in false faith.

Formal faith cannot save anyone.

God came into the world in human flesh at His appointed time.

Jesus Christ came to save all humanity.

Though the Jews valued Scripture greatly and read it extensively, they did not truly believe it.

Therefore, they envied and rejected Jesus who came according to Scripture.

God’s Word is not difficult—salvation comes by believing it as it is.

But when people interpret it according to human desire, the way of salvation disappears.

Those who oppose the only Savior cannot be saved.

We also must discover Jesus through the Old Testament.

When we believe both the Old and New Testaments together, Jesus Christ is revealed more clearly and true faith is formed.

Believers who do not believe Scripture but instead follow visible gifts and powers lose their foundation of faith and cannot withstand the storms of the world.

Human doctrines deny God’s truth.

When a flood comes, everything collapses because there is no foundation of faith.

Those who abandon repentance and obedience cannot receive the help of the Holy Spirit.

Faith without the Holy Spirit collapses under Satan’s indiscriminate attacks.

John 5:39

“You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that testify about Me.”

The Old Testament records the promise that Jesus would come,

and the New Testament records that Jesus came, accomplished salvation, and spoke His words.

Salvation comes by believing through both Testaments that God came as Jesus,

and by repenting, forgiving one another, and loving according to Jesus’ words.

Those who distort Scripture cannot walk the path of salvation no matter how much they pray or meditate.

Falsehood follows Satan.

Human doctrines that contradict Scripture are lies.

Those who follow such doctrines become like the Jews who perished by following falsehood.

John 1:15

“John testified about Him and cried out, saying, ‘This was He of whom I said, He who comes after me ranks before me, because He was before me.’”

John the Baptist was born six months before Jesus, yet he confessed:

“Jesus was born after me, yet He existed before me.”

Jesus is God who has existed from the beginning, incomparable to any human.

John 8:57–58

The Jews said to Him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?”

Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.”

By human standards, Jesus was not yet fifty years old.

Yet Jesus declared, “Before Abraham existed, I existed.”

Jesus existed before Abraham, who lived 4,000 years earlier.

Jesus is the Creator God.

When we hear these words, we must realize and understand that Jesus is the Creator.

The blood that Jesus shed is the blood shed by the Creator Himself.

Human blood can never atone for human sin.

John 1:1–3

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

He was with God in the beginning.

Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made.”

When Scripture says that the Word was with God, in our human language it may sound as if the Word and God were separate.

That is absolutely not the case.

The Bible clearly declares, “The Word was God.”

This means that in the beginning there was God who spoke.

Even when a human speaks, the person and his words are one.

For example, when a swindler commits fraud, it is not the fraudulent words that go to prison;

it is the person who spoke the lies who goes to prison.

The word and the person are one, not two.

In the same way, God and His Word are one.

When the great God spoke, the heavens and the earth were created.

The Word of God is the power of God.

That the Word became flesh means that the spiritual God took on human flesh.

Jesus is God who has existed from the beginning.

John 1:14

“The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us.

We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

The Word became flesh; the spiritual God took on human form.

Because Jesus is God, God’s glory, grace, and truth flow from Him.

Romans 9:5

“Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ,

who is God over all, forever praised! Amen.”

From a human perspective, Jesus is a descendant of the Jews.

But in His essence, He is the one and only God who has existed from the beginning,

who created all things, rules all things, and removes all things.

God came as Jesus; therefore, Jesus is God.

Do not divide the one God into two.

If you cannot believe that Jesus is God, you cannot be saved.

If you regard Jesus as a created being, then the blood of a created being cannot atone for the sins of humanity.

Titus 2:13–14

“While we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ,

who gave Himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for Himself a people that are His very own, eager to do what is good.”

The great God came into the world as Jesus Christ.

Jesus died in our place for our sins.

And what was His purpose?

To redeem us from sin, to cleanse us, and to make us God’s own people who are eager to do good works.

This passage is the foundation of theology.

God the Father, who created heaven and earth, came into the world in the name of the Son.

That name is Jesus Christ.

Jesus’ death on the cross was God Himself dying in place of humanity’s sins.

Therefore, anyone who believes in the blood of Jesus and repents is forgiven and enters heaven.

God brings dead sinners back to life and enables them to live a good life.

Living a good life fulfills the purpose of salvation.

Those who live according to God’s Word become God’s own people.

Those redeemed from sin by the blood of Jesus now have the obligation to live a righteous life.

However, many people confess Jesus as Lord once and then live however they please, claiming they are already saved.

As a result, countless churchgoers attend church and yet go to hell.

False human doctrines destroy the people whom God purchased with His blood.

Before believing in Jesus, people live according to the desires of the flesh because they do not know God.

After believing in Jesus, they must live according to His will.

Forgiving one another and doing good is the mission of Christians.

This is not optional.

We must live righteously and repent whenever we fall short.

If we lose this direction, it leads to corruption and destruction.

The Lord does not demand a perfect life from us.

Even if we are imperfect, He asks us to come toward His direction with all our strength.

A life that does its best is a life of repentance and obedience.

No matter how kind or admirable someone appears in human eyes,

if they do not believe in Jesus, they are evil in the Lord’s eyes and belong to Satan.

Simply attending church does not guarantee entrance into heaven.

On the last day, all Christians will stand before the judgment seat.

The wheat will enter heaven, and the chaff will go to hell.

Those who have lived a life of repentance and obedience will be recognized as wheat.

John 10:30

“I and the Father are one.”

Again the Jews picked up stones to stone Him,

but Jesus said to them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these do you stone Me?”

“We are not stoning You for any good work,” they replied, “but for blasphemy, because You, a mere man, claim to be God.”

When Jesus said, “I and the Father are one,” meaning “I am God,”

the Jews tried to stone Him.

“You are only a man. How can You claim to be God?”

This was the reason for their anger.

They rejected Jesus, but analyze their words carefully:

they were furious because they could not accept that Jesus openly declared Himself to be God.

We must believe Jesus’ words as they are.

Jesus is God.

John 14:9

“Jesus answered: ‘Don’t you know Me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time?

Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father.

How can you say, “Show us the Father”?’”

God, who existed as Spirit and Word, came into the world by taking on human flesh.

Whoever has seen Jesus has seen God.

Philip asked Jesus to show him God the Father because he could not fully believe Jesus’ words.

It is astonishing that he asked to see God again, even though he was already looking at God.

“Philip, if you have seen Me, you have seen the Father. Why then do you ask to see the Father?”

These words express Jesus’ deep frustration.

Micah 5:2

“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah,

out of you will come for Me one who will be ruler over Israel,

whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.”

The Old Testament declares that a king who will rule Israel will come from Bethlehem.

This is because Jesus was to be born in Bethlehem.

And that Jesus is the God who has existed from the beginning.

The life of Jesus did not begin when He was born into this world.

He is God who existed by Himself even before creation.

Isaiah 9:6

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given,

and the government will be on His shoulders.

And He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

A child would be born, and He would be the Mighty God and the Everlasting Father.

The Old Testament foretold in advance that God Himself would be born into the world as Jesus.

Yet humans have divided God into two or three persons.

Human doctrines do not agree with Scripture.

A created being cannot save another created being.

The Creator alone creates and saves.

Human beings cannot resolve their own sin.

If one is not forgiven by the blood of Jesus, all sin will be judged.

Those who do not know the truth of Scripture recklessly claim they can save others—this is absurd.

Believers who set aside God’s Word and follow false doctrines will perish together with false prophets.

Many Christians are deceived by Satan’s false prophecies and gifts, abandoning the Word of life and following human teachings.

Acts 4:12

“Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”

There is no other name for salvation except Jesus.

No human doctrine can replace the words of Jesus.

When a pastor preaches what is not found in Scripture, believers must leave that place.

In this age, many pastors treat the Bible as if it were an obsolete relic

and instead teach human doctrines—this is the path to destruction.

Until the end of the world, we must believe only in the name of Jesus and follow only His words.

The Creator God alone created the world, and He alone will bring it to an end.

John 17:3

“Now this is eternal life: that they know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent.”

The way to obtain eternal life is to believe in the one true Creator God and to believe in Jesus Christ.

The beautiful world created by the Creator was destroyed by human sin.

To forgive and restore sinful humanity, the Creator God came as Jesus and died on the cross.

Without the blood of Jesus, dead lives cannot be brought back to life.

Therefore, we must believe in the Creator and believe in Jesus.

The Creator and Jesus are not two—they are one God.