Jesus Is the

Christ the Son

of God
 Resource by 
John Piper
 
 Scripture: Acts 9:19–22    Topic: The Deity of Christ

For several days he [Saul/Paul] was with the disciples at

Damascus. And in the synagogues immediately he proclaimed
Jesus, saying, "He is the Son of God." And all who heard him
were amazed, and said, "Is not this the man who made havoc
in Jerusalem of those who called on this name? And he has
come here for this purpose, to bring them bound before the
chief priests." But Saul increased all the more in strength, and
confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that
Jesus was the Christ.

In preaching through the book of Acts last year I arrived at the

story of Paul's conversion in chapter 9. Then came the
summer and our move to the new sanctuary and all the
special focuses we have had since last spring. Now I feel very
strongly led to pick up the series again.

Resuming the Series on Acts 

The more I thought and prayed about it, the more convinced I
became that to preach from the book of Acts during the last
year in our old sanctuary and the first year in our new
sanctuary would drive home the point of last week's message,
namely, that the authenticity of worship in these buildings
must prove itself in how we spread the praise of God outside
these buildings.
And the book of Acts is the inspired story of how the praise of
God was spreading in the first century. So it is a great model
and a great incentive for what worship should move us to do.
It's true that worship is the ultimate aim of all the universe
and all our ministry as a church. But it's also true that as long
as there is sin and pain and lostness in the world, worship will
not only be the goal but also the fuel of ministry and missions.

So if God uses the book of Acts in worship to ignite the fires of

ministry and missions, then our worship will be vindicated,
and the memory of our old sanctuary will be honored, and the
purpose of our new sanctuary will be realized.

The Conversion of Saul of Tarsus 

You recall that Saul was a Pharisee utterly devoted to
stamping out the new Christian movement. But Jesus
sovereignly intervened in his life and utterly shocked and
stunned him with a bright light on the Damascus road. Paul
was blinded and didn't eat or drink for three days as he
watched his whole world turn upside down.
The Jesus that he thought was dead was not dead. And not
only was he not dead, but he was the living Lord of the
universe. Jesus was able to make light shine into the world,
and speak audibly to humans on earth, and strike a man
blind, and give visions in prayer, and send a man named
Ananias with the word that Saul was Jesus' chosen instrument
to spread praise to the nations. So Paul's whole worldview
collapsed in Damascus. And was rebuilt with the great,
unshakable, stone pillars of truth about Jesus.

The Heart of Saul's New Worldview 

For several days he spends time with the disciples in
Damascus (v. 19) and then, incredibly, he starts to preach and
debate in the synagogues. And Luke tells us in two crisp
statements what was at the heart of Saul's new worldview.
Jesus, the hated, rejected, crucified criminal, is the Son of God
and the long hoped-for Messiah. Verse 20: "And in the
synagogue immediately he proclaimed Jesus, saying, 'He is
the Son of God.'" And verse 22: "But Saul increased all the
more in strength, and confounded the Jews who lived in
Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ [which means
Messiah, the anointed one, the fulfiller of all God's promises to
Israel]."

Isn't it amazing that the last words we hear coming out of

Saul's mouth before his conversion are, "Who are you, Lord"
(v. 5); and the first words we hear coming out of his mouth
after his conversion are, "Jesus is the Son of God" (v. 20)?
Surely Luke wants us to see that this is foundational to being
a Christian and foundational to the rest of Paul's life as the
greatest missionary who ever lived. "Jesus is the Son of God."

What I am praying will happen now in this message is that

God will reveal his Son to you in new ways so you can enjoy
fellowship and life in him.

What Does It Mean That Jesus Is the

Son of God?
1. Jesus Is God
It means that he is God.

Paul said in Colossians 2:9, "In him the whole fullness of deity
dwells bodily" (cf. 1:13, 19). He said in Philippians 2:6,
"Though he was in the form of God he did not count equality
with God a thing to be grasped but emptied himself." Hebrews
1:2–3 says, "In these last days God has spoken to us by a Son,
whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also
he created the world. He is the radiance of [God's] glory and
the very stamp of his nature, upholding the universe by his
word of power." Hebrews 1:8–9 says, "Of the Son [God] he
says, "Your throne, O God, is for ever and ever." And John
writes, "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with
God and the Word was God . . . and the Word became flesh
and dwelt among us full of grace and truth" (John 1:1, 14).
When Paul said that Jesus is the Son of God, we understand
him to mean that Jesus is God. He is not a mere man or a
high-ranking angel in human form. He is truly man and truly
God.

When we call him Son of God, we mean that he is of the same

nature as God. Fathers create things unlike themselves, but
they beget sons like themselves. C. S. Lewis puts it like this:

When you beget, you beget something of the same kind as

yourself. A man begets human babies, a beaver begets little
beavers, and a bird begets eggs which turn into little birds.
But when you make (or create), you make something of a
different kind from yourself. A bird makes a nest, a beaver
builds a dam, and man makes a wireless set (or a
computer) . . .

So when we say that Jesus is the Son of God, we mean that

God has begotten his Son in his very same divine nature,
nothing less, from all eternity. Begetting is a metaphor, a
picture, that tries to hold two truths together: (1) God the
Father is not God the Son and God the Son is not God the
Father; they are distinct persons, distinct centers of
consciousness, and can relate to each other. But (2) the
Father and the Son are one God not two Gods, one essence,
one divine nature. From all eternity, without any beginning,
the Father has always had a perfect image of himself and a
divine reflection or radiance equal to himself, namely, the
Son.

So the first thing we mean when we say, "Jesus is the Son of

God," is that he is God.
2. God Has a Unique Love for Jesus
The second thing it means is that God has a unique love for
Jesus as his Son.

In Colossians Paul describes Jesus as the Son of God's love,

implying that the love for his divine Son is utterly unique from
the love God has for all his human children by adoption. "God
has delivered us from the dominion of darkness and
transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of his love."

And two times in the earthly life of Jesus—once at Jesus'

baptism and once on the mount of transfiguration—God the
Father broke in and said, "This is my beloved Son." And
in Ephesians 1:6 Jesus is simply called God's "loved one."
So when we call Jesus the Son of God, we should have in our
minds the truth that he is God and that there is a relationship
of infinite love between God the Father and God the Son that
is different from all other loves.

Why Is This the First Thing Saul

Proclaims? 
But let's ask why this was so crucial for Saul and for Luke that
they put it right at the front of the ministry. The first thing
Saul proclaims is, "Jesus is the Son of God." Why?

Consider these four truths about the Son of God and see if you
don't think the truth of Jesus' Sonship deserves first place.
1. 1 John 5:12 says, "God has given us eternal life, and this
life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who has not
the Son of God has not life."
2. 1 John 2:23 says, "No one who denies the Son has the
Father. He who confesses the Son has the Father also." So to
have a relationship with God the Father and to have eternal
life you have to confess Jesus as the Son of God and "have"
Jesus as the Son of God—that is, be in fellowship with him
(1:3; 1 Corinthians 1:9).
3. Galatians 4:4–5 gives the foundation of all this hope:
"When the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son . . . to
redeem those who were under the law, so that we might
receive adoption as sons." The Father sent his one and only
divine Son so that he might have many human sons by
adoption. "We were reconciled to God by the death of his Son"
(Romans 5:10).
4. Finally, Galatians 2:20 says that we "live by faith in the
Son of God who loved us and gave himself for us."
So it was the coming and the dying of the Son that gave us
the gift of adoption. So if you confess the Son, you have the
Father also—have him as Father. And if you have the Son and
the Father, then you have everlasting life. And not only for the
ages to come, but right now the Son of God works for us so
that our lives should be described as living by faith in the Son
of God.

So it is not surprising that Saul and Luke would put this truth
at the very beginning of Paul's missionary preaching: "Jesus is
the Son of God."
It Must Be at the Front End of Our
Lives Too 
It needs to be right at the front end of our Christian lives too.
It needs to be one of the central pillars in our understanding
of reality. Jesus is the Son of God.

I want you all to know the Son of God and to have personal,
intimate, hour-by-hour, trustful, saving fellowship with him;
and to have the Father with him; and to have life in them; and
to enjoy the exalted place of adoption through the Spirit of
the Son; and the gift of redemption and reconciliation and
conformity to the Son; and the power of victory over the devil.
"The Son of God appeared to destroy the works of the devil"
(1 John 3:8).

How Do You Come to Know the

Son? 
I want all this for you. So how do you come to know and have
the Son like that? Jesus said in Matthew 11:27, "No one knows
the Son except the Father." So how will I ever come to know
him? Then in Matthew 16:15 Jesus asks the disciples, "Who do
you say that I am?" Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the
Son of the living God."
Do you remember how Jesus responded? "Blessed are you,
Simon Bar-Jona! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to
you, but my Father who is in heaven." Knowing Jesus as the
Son of God is not something that happens by the mere mental
and emotional powers resident in human nature. There must
be a divine work of grace beyond flesh and blood, so that in
and through and behind the Bible and the preaching and the
miracles we see the glory of the Son. We taste the divine
reality and know him supernaturally.

Is it an accident that Paul describes his conversion like this

in Galatians 1:16, "When God was pleased to reveal his Son to
me ["reveal"! the same word Jesus used to describe Peter's
experience], in order that I might preach him among the
Gentiles, I did not confer with flesh and blood . . . but I went
away into Arabia"? Just like Jesus said to Peter: "Flesh and
blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven."
So how do you come to know Jesus as the Son of God and to
have fellowship with the Son and walk by faith in the Son and
have life in the Son?

There does have to be intelligible preaching or teaching or

witnessing about the biblical story of Jesus. Our text says
(Acts 9:22) that Saul "confounded the Jews who lived in
Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ." An
intelligible, valid presentation of Jesus is essential. But
persuasive words alone do not open the eyes of the heart.
They tried to kill Paul in Damascus. "Flesh and blood has not
revealed this to you, Simon, but my Father who is in heaven."
"The God who said, Let light shine out of darkness, has shone
in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of
God in the face of Christ" (2 Corinthians 4:6).
How then do you come to know and to have and to fellowship
with the Son of God? You listen to his Word, his story (Luke
9:35). And you pray for the revelation of the Father—the eyes
to see the glory (Mark 9:24). And by grace you believe and
triumph. "Who is it that overcomes the world but he who
believes that Jesus is the Son of God?" (1 John 5:5).