Jesus: Son Of God by Apostle Emmanuel Iren: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

The Need to Defend the Deity of Christ

The average Pentecostal approach to evangelism is simply "come to our church." But if you can't defend the deity of Christ, what then do you believe? What is your faith based on?

Muslims believe Jesus is great — a great prophet. Jehovah's Witnesses believe he's great. Hindus believe he's a great teacher, a great sage with much spiritual power. What do you believe about him? Who is he? The same question he asked two thousand years ago is still being asked: "Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? Who do you say that I am?"

You've been in church too long not to know what you believe. Your diet must change. How will you teach your children the word of God if you don't know it? Have you prepared them for the questions their friends will ask them?

Slow of Heart to Believe

In Luke 24:25-26, two disciples were walking the road to Emmaus, grieving the death of Jesus, unaware he had risen. Jesus himself drew near and walked with them — unrecognized. As they complained bitterly about what had happened, Jesus responded not with comfort but with rebuke:

"O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken."

The realm of the spirit is not primarily emotional. There are emotions in the spirit, but one must function from the knowledge and consciousness of the word of God, not from mere emotion alone.

This applies to all who have grieved over a loved one who died faithfully in Christ. There is enough justification for sadness — but it is presumptuous to assume that those who have gone to heaven will want to return. To depart and be with Christ is far better. To live is Christ and to die is gain. You are allowed to mourn — but not as those who have no hope.

The rebuke stands: you've sung it in songs, heard it in sermons, but it stayed as theory. It has not been truly believed or practiced. Practice that conviction by responding the biblical way when a loved one goes to be with the Lord.

Jesus meant: if you had been studious in the scriptures, you would have known that what happened was meant to happen — that the death of Jesus was not the finality of his earthly mission. Luke 24:27 says, "Beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself."

Christ Is the Key to Reading the Old Testament

Many people read the Old Testament for moral instructions, for its stories — David and Goliath, Esther in the palace. But the crux of the Old Testament is deeper. David is quoted over sixty times in the New Testament, and the story of David and Goliath is not among the references — because there is a different lens through which the Old Testament must be read: the prophetic, Christological lens.

If you don't see Christ in the Old Testament, Jesus calls you a fool.

The story of Jesus does not begin in Matthew. The Old Testament is replete with prophetic intimations about Christ — and literal demonstrations of Christ.

In the Beginning Was the Word

Genesis 1:1 says, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." Any student of the New Testament should immediately see the correlation with another book — John.

John 1:1-3 begins with the exact same words as the Septuagint rendering of Genesis 1:1. "In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God. The Word was God." And then: "All things were made through him, and without him was nothing made that was made."

So behind the scenes of Genesis 1, God the Father created the world through his Son. What seems from a surface reading to be God the Father alone creating the world is revealed in John 1 as creation through the Son. Every physical thing that was made, was made in and by him.

How did God create the world? By his Son. When God said "Let there be light," it was the light that was in the Son — the effulgence of that divine light — that provoked the spiritual reaction leading to all physical creation. This explains the light of Genesis 1 before the sun was created on day four. That light was Christ.

John 1:4-5 says, "In him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness."

Just as there was physical darkness in Genesis 1:2 and God said "Let there be light," there is spiritual darkness — and God sent light into the world. John 3:19 says: "This is the condemnation, that light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil."

2 Corinthians 4:6 confirms it: "For it is God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." What God did in physical creation, he has done in the human spirit.

• Ephesians 6:12 — We wrestle against the rulers of darkness in this world.
• Colossians 1:13 — He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of his Son.

The gospel is transport business — conveying people from darkness to light.

No One Has Seen God — The Two Yahwehs

John 1:18 says: "No one has seen God at any time. But the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, has declared him."

This seems like a contradiction. Exodus 33:11 says the Lord spoke to Moses "face to face, as a man speaks to his friend." How then has no one seen God?

In biblical language there is a distinction between seeing God face to face and seeing God's face. Moses saw God face to face from time to time but never saw God's face — because seeing God face to face refers to mediated encounters, while seeing God's face refers to direct, unmediated encounter with the fullness of his divine being.

In the Old Testament, God was in heaven — but on the earth, from time to time, there was another Yahweh. Even Jewish scholars grapple with this. There were manifestations on earth of a certain person who was also called Yahweh — God, but a distinct person.

• When three men passed Abraham's house, one of them was Yahweh himself and the two others were angels. Yahweh stayed and negotiated with Abraham while the two angels entered Sodom. It was that Yahweh who said, "I will rain fire from Yahweh on high" — two Yahwehs.
• When Joshua encountered the man with the drawn sword who identified himself as "the captain of the Lord's host" and told Joshua to remove his shoes, that was not a normal angel. A normal angel does not sanctify the ground with his presence. Joshua fell down and worshipped — and it was not blasphemy.
• Jacob wrestled through the night with a man. By morning he named the place Peniel — "because I saw the face of God."

The Word of the Lord Was a Person

In 2026, when someone says "the word of the Lord came to me," the assumption is something auditory — hearing God. In the Old Testament it was deeper than that.

Genesis 15:1 says: "After these things, the word of the Lord came to Abraham in a vision, saying, 'Do not be afraid, Abraham. I am your shield and your exceeding great reward.'" Then: "He brought him outside." The word of the Lord wasn't just something Abraham was hearing — it was a person he was encountering. He brought him outside.

1 Samuel 3:1 says, "The word of the Lord was rare in those days." This was not about people not hearing from God — it meant that the Yahweh they saw from time to time was no longer appearing. Verse 7: "Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, nor was the word of the Lord revealed to him." This is not about knowing God's teachings — it's about knowing a person.

Verse 10: "The Lord came and stood." The word of the Lord was a person.

That same person took Abraham outside in the cool of the day to count the stars and said, "That's the number of children I will give you." Fast-forward millennia later, Jesus says, "Abraham rejoiced to see my day." They objected: "You're in your 30s — you claim to have seen Abraham?" He said: "Before Abraham was, I am." He was not speaking metaphorically.

So the word of the Lord that appeared to Abraham, to Samuel, to Jeremiah — that same word of the Lord became flesh. "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us." In the Old Testament he manifested variously — in the flame, the burning bush, as the angel of the Lord, as a visible person. From time to time he had a body he used in the Old Testament but he was not a man until the incarnation.

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given. The child was born — but the son was given. He was the eternal son who one day became a man.

Isaiah 9:6 — His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father. He had an origin in his humanity but he is the everlasting Father — no beginning and no end.

Understanding the Phrase "Son of God"

When it comes to the subject of the sonship and deity of Christ, people ask: if he is God, how then is he also the Son of God? The problem is reading biblical phrases through a 21st-century Western lens.

The Bible was not written to us — it was written for us. To understand it, one must enter the original context and understand the usage of its words. In German, the word gift means poison. The same word means entirely different things in different contexts. Do not assume you know what the Bible means when it says "son of God." In our own language, when someone is called a "son of the soil," it doesn't mean the soil gave birth to him. When someone is called "son of peace," it doesn't mean peace gave birth to him.

When the Bible calls Jesus the begotten Son, it is communicating several distinct things:

1. The Virgin Birth Sonship — Luke 1:35

   The angel told Mary: "The Holy Spirit will overshadow you. The power of the Highest will come upon you. Therefore, that holy thing which shall be born of you shall be called the Son of God." Why? Because no human male was part of his procreation. The same was said of Adam in Luke 3:38 — the genealogy ends with "son of Seth, son of Adam, son of God." In biblical language, if no human being was responsible for your procreation, you are the son of God.

2. The Davidic/Royal Sonship — 1 Chronicles 28:6, Luke 1:32-33

   In 1 Chronicles 28:6, God told David about Solomon: "It is your son Solomon who will build my house. For I have chosen him to be my son, and I will be his father." Every Jew was already a child of God — God told Moses to tell Pharaoh, "Israel is my firstborn." But God ordained that there would never lack someone from the lineage of David on the throne forever — a promise that is ultimately fulfilled in Christ, whose reign will never end.

   Solomon was already a son of God as a Jew, but God summoned him into a royal sonship — a different kind of sonship that comes when one from David's line ascends the throne. The same is true of Jesus. The angel declared in Luke 1:32-33: "He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest. The Lord God shall give him the throne of his father David. He shall reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end."

   Even though Jesus was always the eternal Son, he could not be son in this Davidic-royal context until he was born into the lineage of David. Romans 1:4 says he was declared to be the Son of God with power by the spirit of holiness and by the resurrection from the dead.

3. The Eternal Sonship — Eternally Generated from the Father

   He did not become the Son at the incarnation. He has always been the Son of God — eternally existing and eternally generated from the Father. This is not a doctrine invented at the Council of Nicaea. It is established in the Old Testament itself.

   This matters because critics argue that the Trinity is a later invention and that references to Christ's deity in John were doctored because John was written sixty years after Christ. But the deity of Christ can be proved from the Old Testament — and the appearances of the pre-incarnate Word of God interacting with people is proof enough.

The Deity of Christ in the Old Testament

Proverbs 30:4 asks: "Who has ascended into heaven or descended? Who has gathered the wind in his fists? Who has bound the waters in his garment? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is his name — and what is his Son's name, if you know?" Whoever this God is who does these divine acts — he has a Son.

Daniel 7:9, 13-14 shows Daniel watching thrones — plural — being set in place. The Ancient of Days is seated. Then: "One like the Son of Man came in the clouds of heaven. He came to the Ancient of Days and was brought near before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and his kingdom the one that shall not be destroyed."

This is a second Yahweh — one coming on the clouds to the Ancient of Days and receiving universal worship and an everlasting kingdom. Only God receives that.

One claim often made is that Jesus never said he was God. That is a lie.

When Jesus stood before the high priest and was asked, "Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?" — in Mark 14:62 he replied: "I am. And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of power and coming in the clouds of heaven." He was quoting Daniel 7 directly. The court knew exactly what he was claiming. They tore their clothes and said, "We don't need any more evidence." They had thought the proceedings would be long, that it would take time to build a case. That one statement ended it.

Jesus didn't merely claim to be great — he claimed to be God. That is literally why they killed him.

Hebrews 1:5-6 addresses those who say Jesus is just an angel: "To which of the angels did God ever say, 'You are my Son, today I have begotten you'? And again, 'I will be to him a Father and he shall be to me a Son.'" Then verse 6: "When he again brings his firstborn into the world, he says, 'Let all the angels worship him.'" He is not an angel. Angels worship him.

1 Timothy 3:16 — "Great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen by angels, preached among the Gentiles, believed on in the world, and received up into glory."

Jesus is not just a man. He is God. Not just a baby — but the Lion of Judah, Savior and Ruler. Some call him prophet. Some call him teacher or sage. Some merely call him healer. But we know who he is. We worship him for who he is. We adore him. We acknowledge him. We will serve him all our lives and herald him in our world.