God the Son: Begotten Not Made

Lead Vocalist (Joel)

Welcome & Announcements (Sterling)

Good morning family!

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Now please take a moment of silence to prepare your heart for worship.

Call to Worship (Psalm 2:1-7)

Prayer of Praise (Bonnie Jackson)

O Come All Ye Faithful

Ancient of Days

Prayer of Confession (Doubting God), ______________

Assurance of Pardon (John 3:16 (NKJV))

Missionary Partner Video (Howells)

Come Behold the Wondrous Mystery

Nicene Creed Reading

Pastoral Prayer (Sterling)

Prayer for PBC—Biblical understanding of conversion & evangelism

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Pray for the sermon

SERMON

START TIMER!!!

Music is a powerful thing.

It has the ability to stir emotions, shape culture, and even ignite revolutions. Throughout history, songs have been more than entertainment—they have been weapons, banners, and rallying cries.

Take, for example, the Beatles. In the 1960s, their music didn’t just dominate radio stations; it transformed an entire generation. Young people flocked to their concerts, emulated their style, and absorbed their ideas. But with their growing fame came growing controversy. As their influence spread across the world, John Lennon famously claimed the Beatles were more popular than Jesus. It was a moment of turmoil. Churches held public burnings of Beatles records. Parents were outraged. Some young people were torn between their faith and their fandom.

But the Beatles weren't the first musicians to cause a public outcry by claiming that someone or something was bigger than Jesus.

Long before John Lennon, there was a 4th century pastor named Arius.

Arius also understood the power of a song.

He wrote simple, catchy tunes that were sung by sailors, millers, and travelers—everyday people in the ancient world.

Unlike John Lennon and the Beatles, Arius didn’t claim that he was bigger than Jesus.

Blatant statements like that rarely, if ever, deceive Christians.

False teaching is usually far more sneaky.

Arius taught that Jesus was God. He taught that Jesus was worthy of worship. But He also taught that the Father was bigger than Jesus.

If Arius had written his songs in English, they might’ve sounded something like this...

There was a time when He was not,

Before the ages had been wrought;

From nothingness the Son was born,

Not equal to the Father's form;

So praise the One, the only True,

Who made the Son, and all else too! [1]

According to one ancient historian, Arius “seduced the minds of the unlearned by the attractiveness of his songs.” [2]

Perhaps you hear that and wonder, “What’s the big deal? Does it really matter if someone thinks that God the Father is more important than God the Son? Isn’t that an acceptable belief?”

According to our forefathers in the faith, this is a very big deal.

In 325 AD, a group of 318 pastors gathered in a small town called Nicaea (today it’s called Iznik, Turkey)...

SHOW NICAEA MAP

… to address the things Arius was teaching and writing about in his songs.

Their conclusion, which we’ll be studying today, is that Jesus—God the Son—is not a lesser deity to God the Father.

Jesus is truly and fully God, which means there is nothing and no one bigger than Jesus.

That’s Big idea I hope to communicate with God’s help this morning.

Turn to Hebrews 1

If you don’t have a Bible, you’ll find it on page 1187 of the black Bibles underneath your seat. And if you don’t own a Bible, please take that copy of God’s Word home with you. We want you to have a Bible of your own.

About 250 years before the council of Nicaea, this letter was written to convince Jewish Christians of the supremacy of King Jesus.

He is better than the prophets, angels, Moses, and Abraham.

He is a better High Priest than Aaron, offers a better rest than the Sabbath, and gives us better promises than the Old Covenant.

In other words, there is nothing and no one bigger than Jesus.

Hebrews 1:1–5—Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. For to which of the angels did God ever say, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you”? Or again, “I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son”?”

From these verses (and from article 2 of the Nicene Creed), I want to show you THREE MASSIVE TRUTHS that demonstrate why there is nothing and no one bigger than Jesus.

First, Jesus is BEGOTTEN.

Second, Jesus is ETERNAL.

And third, Jesus is GOD.

Let’s begin with our first massive truth...

1) Jesus is BEGOTTEN.

Hopefully you’ve already picked up on this word, “begotten” at some point in our service.

Perhaps you heard it when our call to worship was read, or during the assurance of pardon.

Or perhaps, when we sung “O Come All Ye Faithful” you noticed the verse that said “Son of the Father, begotten not created”

Or, you may have noticed it when we recited the creed earlier...

“We believe. . . in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God...”

Hopefully you heard it when I read Hebrews 1:5 a moment ago...

Hebrews 1:5a—For to which of the angels did God ever say, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you”

This idea, that Jesus is the begotten Son of God the Father, is not something we talk about very often.

It’s a bit of an archaic word.

Chances are, most of you haven’t used the word “begotten” in a sentence recently.

Because it’s an uncommon word, most of the newer translations of the Bible rarely use the word “begotten.”

And yet, if you go to an older translation like the KJV or NKJV, you’ll see it regularly...

John 1:14—And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

John 1:18—No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.

John 3:16— For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

John 3:18—He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

1 John 4:9—In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.

Now before we move on, I don’t want you to feel like you can’t trust a translation that doesn’t use the word “begotten” in those verses.

The word in the original language is monogenes.

SHOW MONOGENES SLIDE

Mono means “only” or “unique,” and genes means “offspring.”

To protect us from thinking that Jesus is a created being, many modern translations replaced the term “only begotten son” with something like “only son” or “one and only son.”

I am not saying you shouldn’t trust your modern translations. But I do think that most of them were a bit too hasty when they ditched the word “begotten” in those verses.

Why is this such a big deal? What does it mean to be begotten?

Again, if you grew up using the KJV or the NKJV, you might remember the word...

From Genesis 5, where it says Adam begat Seth… Seth begat Enos… Enos begat Cainan...

Or from Matthew 1 where it says Abraham begat Isaac; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat Judah and his brethren.

Simply put, to be begotten is to be fathered.

Thirty years after the Council of Nicaea, a man named Augustine was born. He eventually became one of the most influential Christian thinkers in the entire history of Christianity.

Augustine wrote this: “When we say begotten we mean the same as when we say ‘son.’ Being son is a consequence of being begotten, and being begotten is implied by being son.” [3]

So when the Bible and the Nicene Creed says Jesus is begotten, we mean that He is a Son of His Father.

But if that’s all we say about Jesus, we’re in trouble.

Because, a man like Arius would have said, “Aha! See?!? Jesus is begotten. He’s a son! And since every father exists before his son, God the Father must have existed before God the Son!”

Arius used verses like this to argue that the Father was bigger and better than the Son.

But we believe there is nothing and no one bigger than Jesus.

So it’s not enough to say that Jesus is begotten.

We must also agree that...

2) Jesus is ETERNAL.

The authors of the Nicene Creed touched on this when they wrote that Jesus was “begotten of his Father before all worlds.”

Don’t think of “all worlds” as referring to something like a multi-verse.

The English word “world” used to mean “age.”

So some translations of the Nicene Creed say that the Son is “begotten of his Father before all ages.”

In other words, He is ETERNALLY BEGOTTEN.

This idea, that Jesus is eternal, did not originate with the writers of the Nicene Creed. It’s all over the New Testament!

The Apostle John writes this about Jesus…

John 1:1–3—In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.

You can divide everything in the universe into two categories: stuff that was made and the Maker. These verses clearly put Jesus in the second category. He wasn’t made, He is the Maker of all things.

Therefore, Jesus is eternal.

Jesus says to the Pharisees in…

John 8:58b—… “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.”

Notice Jesus doesn’t say “before Abraham was, I was.” That would simply suggest that Jesus was really old.

He says “before Abraham was, I am” because there never was a time when Jesus was not.

Because Jesus is eternal!

The Apostle Paul says this about Jesus…

Colossians 1:17—And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.

Again, you can put everything into two categories. All things that were created, and God.

The Apostle Paul clearly puts Jesus in the second category.

Therefore, Jesus is eternal.

The Apostle Peter writes this about Jesus…

1 Peter 1:20—He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you.

Yes, Jesus was revealed to us in the flesh 2000 years ago.

But long before that, before everything, Jesus was known by the Father.

Because Jesus is eternal.

And Jesus says of Himself in…

Revelation 22:13—I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.

Jesus cannot be these things unless He is eternal.

I could go on, but hopefully you get the point.

The problem with Arius’ teaching is that he tried to explain the Trinity with human logic.

Yes, it’s true that fathers come before their sons.

But there is a Father who did not come before His Son. There is a Son who is eternally begotten.

But what about that word “today” in our text?

Hebrews 1:5—“You are my Son, today I have begotten you”

Some have argued that there was a time in history when the man Jesus became the Son of God.

Some said he became the Son of God at his birth.

Others said he became the Son at his baptism.

Still others argued he became the son at his resurrection.

But this ancient heresy, called adoptionism, cannot be what the author of Hebrews is teaching here.

He’s actually quoting Psalm 2:7, which we read earlier.

In that Psalm, written about 1000 years before Hebrews, David is getting a glimpse into eternity past.

Bible teachers like Augustine, Martin Luther, and others argued that because there is no time in eternity it is always “today.”

Think of time like this pencil.

SHOW PENCIL IMAGE

The pink eraser represents all the history recorded in the Old Testament, beginning with creation. The gold band represents all the history recorded in the New Testament. The lead tip represents the return of Jesus. And the yellow barrel represents all the time between the first and second coming of Jesus.

You and I exist somewhere on this thing we call time. We experience one day at a time.

But God exists outside of time. He can see all of time at once.

Which is why Augustine called God the “eternal present.”

If this is right, and I think it is, some scholars suggest we could paraphrase Hebrews 1 and Psalms 2 as saying “You are my Son; forever I have begotten you.” [4]

Or, as we read in...

Hebrews 13:8—Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

Alright let’s zoom out for just a moment and put our two massive truths about Jesus together.

Jesus is begotten + Jesus is eternal = Jesus is eternally begotten.

When the Bible talks about Jesus being begotten, it is using the word “begotten” similarly to how we use it, but not in exactly the same way.

When a father begets a son, he does so in time. He does so with the help of a mother. He brings new life into the world.

But none of those things are true of the eternally begotten Son of God! He was begotten before time. He was not begotten with the help of a mother. And He is not new life, because there never was a time when the Son was not.

If you’re looking for an illustration, perhaps the best we can do comes from C.S. Lewis...

He invites us to imagine three books in a stack, one on top of the other. Each book owes its position to the other books. The books wouldn’t be bottom, top, or middle without the others. Now, imagine this as an eternal relationship. There never was a time when the top book was not where it was, never a time when the middle and bottom books were alone. This is something like what we mean when we say the Father eternally begets the Son. [5]

If you’re looking for a single verse that communicates this teaching, perhaps the best we have is...

John 5:26— For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son also to have life in Himself.

Here’s what Augustine says about this verse...

“The life which the Father gave the Son by begetting Him is co-eternal with the life of the Father who gave it.” [6]

In other words, there is nothing and no one bigger than Jesus.

The Father is not greater than the Son because the Father communicates His divine essence co-equally and co-eternally to the Son.

In other words...

3) Jesus is GOD.

Some said that Arius and his followers were snickering as the first few lines in the creed about Jesus were written.

“We believe in one Lord Jesus Christ?” Sure, we can go along with that.

“The only begotten Son of God?” Yes, we agree that Jesus was begotten by the Father.

“Begotten of the Father before all worlds?” This one was a bit more difficult. But even here they had a little bit of wiggle room. After all, they would just say that Jesus began existing before everything else.

But then came the next few lines in the creed, lines which Arius and his followers could not accept...

“God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father; by whom all things were made.”

“God of God” means Jesus is God in the same way that the Father is God.

“Light of Light” is making the exact same point the author of Hebrews is making in...

Hebrews 1:3a—He is the radiance of the glory of God…

Just like the sun in our sky always has the light that radiates from it, so God the Father is never without His Son. [7]

“Very God of very God” can seem confusing at first.

The word “very” comes the Latin word veritas, meaning truth.

Jesus is truly God, in the same way that the Father is truly God.

"Begotten, not made,” addresses Arius’ claim that Jesus was the first created being.

“Of one substance with the Father” is perhaps the single most important phrase in the creed. [8]

Here, the wording makes it clear that Jesus is not smaller than the Father.

As our text says...

Hebrews 1:3b—He is … the exact imprint of his nature,…

“By whom all things were made” makes it clear again that Jesus is in the category of Creator, not creation.

As our text says...

Hebrews 1:2b—… through whom also he created the world.

Let’s zoom out one more time and put these three massive truths together.

Here’s the way Kevin DeYoung puts it in his book on the creed...

“The Son is equal with the Father because he was eternally begotten of the Father. The Son is also distinct from the Father because he was eternally begotten from the Father.” [9]

Again, perhaps an illustration will help.

Adam, Eve, and Cain were the first three humans. Each of them had a real human nature. And yet, each of them received their human nature in a different way. [10]

Adam received his human nature when God breathed life into the dust.

Eve received her human nature when God made her out of one of Adam’s ribs.

And Cain received his human nature when he was conceived.

Similarly, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit each share in the divine nature. And yet, each of them has their divine nature in a different way.

The Father is eternally unbegotten, the Son is eternally begotten, and the Spirit is eternally breathed out from the Father and the Son.

And if you’re still confused, rejoice that you worship a God who is bigger than you and bigger than me!

Yes, the Father and the Spirit are DIFFERENT from the Son. But neither is BIGGER than the Son.

Because there is nothing and no one bigger than Jesus.

In the book, The Da Vinci Code, one of the characters says “Jesus' establishment as 'the Son of God' was officially proposed and voted on by the Council of Nicaea. . . . A relatively close vote at that." [11]

Nothing could be further from the truth.

250 miles south of Alexandria, Egypt (where Arius pastored) lies the ruins of the city of Oxyrhynchus, Egypt. [12]

In 1918, archaeologists uncovered half a million scraps of papyri from the 3rd century B.C. to 7th century A.D.

Included among those scraps of papyri was an ancient hymn from the 3rd century.

Although we have some hymns in the Bible, including one we’ll study next week, this is the first Christian hymn ever discovered with musical notation.

The song was written in a musical style that you would’ve heard in an ancient Greek pub.

Like Arius’ music, this was intended to be a song that every Christian could sing.

And listen to these words...

Let all be silent

Shining stars not sound

As we sing our hymn

To the Father, Son and Holy Spirit

The only giver of all good gifts

Amen

Here’s the thing: this hymn was written 100 years BEFORE Arius.

Christians in the second century didn’t sing to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit because some council told them to. They sang to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit because the Bible is clear: God exists eternally in three equal persons.

We’re going to join the saints of old in just a moment and sing that song. And then we’re going to do something that Christians have been doing for 2000 years: celebrating that nothing and no one is bigger than Jesus by celebrating communion together.

Prayer of Thanksgiving

In just a moment we’re going to sing a song, and after that we’re going to take the Lord’s Supper together.

Let me remind, you the Lord’s Supper is a special meal for Christians to remember the body and blood of Jesus.

If you are not a follower of Jesus, we invite you to repent and believe in Him today!

If you have not made your faith public by following Jesus in believer’s baptism, we invite you to talk with us about that today.

Pastor Jason is in the lobby ready and waiting to talk with anyone about any of these things. You can make your way to him in a moment when we stand to sing.

If you’ve not repented of your sin and followed Jesus in baptism as a believer we would ask you not to take communion with us in a few moments.

That’s not because we think we’re better than you or anything like that.

But because we want you to receive Jesus Himself, not merely the symbol that reminds us of Jesus.

Because we believe the Bible teaches baptism is the first step of obedience as a follower of Jesus, we shouldn’t take later steps until after we’ve taken that first step.

So if that’s you this morning, you’re welcome to remain in your seat when your row is dismissed to take communion in a few minutes.

Or, if you prefer, you’re free to leave the service when we stand in just a moment.

If you choose to leave, nobody is going to be staring at you or judging you because there will also be a bunch of parents getting up to collect their kids from the nursery while we’re singing so that all our volunteers can join us for communion.

Now let’s stand and sing together...

The First Hymn

LORD’S SUPPER

Doxology

Benediction (1 John 4:9 (NKJV))