You're listening to the Vice Chancellor's Hour, a ministry of Radio ABC 993 FM on the campus of African Bible University. I'm Jeremiah Pitts, a professor and administrator here at the African Bible University in Uganda. The purpose of Vice Chancellor's Hour is to provide biblical and theological teachings that are an extension of the ministry of the university. Well, happy to have another episode of the VC Hour. Really appreciate you guys joining with us again. And we're starting out a new series this time on who is Jesus? Who is Jesus? Now a lot of people think, I don't know who Jesus is. But I think if you study the Gospels and do a bit of reading, you'll see there's a lot about Jesus you actually may not have heard before. And it's very important for us to know if Jesus is who we are to believe in. It's very, very important for us to know who exactly he is. And I think maybe that's one of the reasons why Christians often take it for granted that they do know who Jesus is. And certainly, all Christians know some things about Jesus, but do you know everything? Well, I'm hoping with this study, I can at least help you and all of our listeners to know a little bit more, because it never is the case where we know too much about God or too much about Jesus. This first episode is going to focus on names and titles of Jesus, and I think you'll hear some that you certainly recognize, some that you've read in the scripture, and you probably thought, I know exactly what that means. But then also, there'll be some surprises in there for you as well, some things in there that you hadn't heard before and didn't know. And so it's really important, I think, for us to be sure that we hear the whole episode. You can catch it, of course, if you're listening on the radio, Radio ABC 993 FM, 530 in the evenings on Sunday evening, or you can catch it online anytime, vchour.buzzsprout.com. Or you could just Google VC Hour. We're the first thing that pops up. And you can find us anywhere you listen to podcasts, as well as on Sermon Audio. So if you don't catch the whole episode for some reason, feel free to come back later and catch the rest. Or if you're hearing something in the middle, you've never heard this before, and you think, man, I could use a bit more of that. There's lots of episodes. I think we're well over 100 now, maybe 120 something at this point. And you can catch them all. We'd love that. Names of Jesus. Well, obviously you have the name Jesus itself. I think it's a great example of why we really ought to do this series because we have the name Jesus and it becomes so common for us that really we just assume that we know what that means, what it's talking about. When in actuality, well, there's a lot more to it than what you know on the surface. So you have the name Jesus, but did you know Jesus is how we pronounce it in English? in a handful of other languages, but when his mom and dad called him, they wouldn't have said the name Jesus. They would have said something else. The name Jesus that we pronounce comes from a Greek form of a name that already existed, and you might know that this other name that existed is a name that should be very familiar to you. It's the name It's a bit more complicated than that. There are various forms of that name throughout the Old Testament as you have the progression of history. There are a number of people who are named that name, but at the heart of it is this name, Joshua. Now, if you've listened to episodes before, especially if you listened to the episode about Rahab, and what she did by faith, we find that in Hebrews chapter 11 from the previous series, then you've heard the name Joshua before. But in case you haven't, just to help you out a bit, Joshua is the leader over the people of Israel right after Moses. In fact, he was very close to Moses, he watched Moses and Moses' actions, and he was involved in a number of helpful ways along the pathway that Israel took. But ultimately, he becomes the leader, and he's the one who leads the children of Israel into the Promised Land. In fact, he has a divine messenger, the captain of the Lord's army, who he interacts with, he receives instructions from, he executes those instructions, and they are able to capture almost all of the Promised Land and subdue almost all of the people of the Promised Land through their efforts. Joshua, a very, very important figure, and so it's a somewhat common name then. throughout the Old Testament. His name most probably means Yahweh, that's got the name of God, God saves. And it certainly is related to the idea of salvation, and I think all of that makes a bit of sense, doesn't it? Joshua, of course, helps to save the people, not just in the sense that he saved them from enemies, but also in delivering them into the promised land. Very, very important role there. So too with Jesus. Jesus obviously saves his people from their sin and saves them from misery and death as well. So Jesus obviously is example of God saving his people in the exact same way that we see Joshua saving the people of That's a beautiful story for us. And you may ask yourself, how is it that the name Joshua ends up sounding like the name Jesus? And I can just tell you, I've been to a lot of countries and all over the world. My name's Jeremiah. It's a somewhat distinctive name. There's a fair number in the English-speaking world. with some form of the name Jeremiah, but if I go interculturally, especially interlinguistically, I find that my name is pronounced different ways when I go to different places. One of the sort of more humorous things about being in Uganda is Ugandans, by and large, have no problem with the name Jeremiah, which is the name that trips up most people. But my other name, which is Pitts, actually does cause a bit of a problem sometimes. But, you know, we take all these things in stride. We often say, hey, listen, you know, I kind of mess up some names sometimes and you mess up my name. It's OK. It's no big deal. I don't get worked up about it. But the same name may be pronounced different ways in different languages. And that's basically what's happening here. The name Joshua had various forms throughout the Hebrew people's time, the Hebrew language. And in Jesus' time also, when the Greek picked it up, they both spelled it and pronounced it slightly differently, and that's where we get the name Jesus from. Now, one thing that may be lost a bit in translation is Jesus most likely didn't speak Hebrew or Greek at home. Most likely he spoke Aramaic. That was the language of the area at the time as best we understand it, and it's very likely that he had an Aramaic version of the name Joshua. Thankfully, Aramaic is one of the Semitic languages, just as Hebrew is a Semitic language, and so it would have sounded something very similar to Joshua or Yeshua. as well. But that's the name of Jesus. Did you know his name was Joshua? I hope that was some added value for you there. There are several other prominent Joshua's throughout history of the Israelite people. You find stories of them in Of course, the book of Deuteronomy and Numbers, as we have the primary Joshua that's there, but also we have some Joshua's appearing as priests and other things throughout the historical books as well, such as in Ezra chapter 2 verse 2. So that's the name of Jesus. What's the other name most commonly associated with Jesus? I mean, in fact, so much so that a lot of people think it's actually just part of his name, and that is, of course, the word Christ. Christ, that's a word I think every Christian has to be familiar with. I think it's a bit obvious that you have to be familiar with it, because there it is in the name Christian. We're called Christians because of our association with Jesus Christ. Now, we often say the name Jesus Christ, and in fact, You have Christ Jesus and Jesus Christ throughout the New Testament, and I think a lot of people just assume that that's a name. Like, I have two names. That's Jeremiah Pitts. One of those is my personal name. The other one would be my family name. And maybe you have something similar. Some people even have three names, four names. Of course, all that's very, very possible. But Jesus Christ is not like that, and Christ Jesus is not like that. Jesus is, of course, the personal name of Jesus. That's, I think, a bit obvious, and we just covered that. But Christ is actually not a name at all. It's actually more of a title. It's associated with a particular person and a particular office, for sure, but it's actually a bit of a title more than it is as actually a name. Now, you may wonder, where did that come from? Where does this title, Christ, come from, and what does it mean? And for that, you do have to go back again to the Old Testament. You see, Jesus didn't appear out of nowhere. There's a long history and an understanding, and so if you really want to know about Jesus, and you want to know about the New Testament, of course you can read the New Testament, and they make allusions to this. They point this out, but it's also very helpful to go back to the Old Testament, and you'll see how closely connected the person and the work of Jesus and the New Testament is. to the work in the Old Testament as well. New Testament and Christianity don't just drop out of nowhere, but instead are built on the foundations of the Old Testament. In fact, they are the fulfillment of the Old Testament. That's exactly why Jesus said he didn't come to do away with the law, but to fulfill it. He came to fulfill the law. Well, Jesus is called the Christ because in the Old Testament there is a Hebrew word which means to anoint, and it became associated with people and offices which required anointing. The two primary offices in the Bible which require anointing are kings and priests. So when you had kings or you had priests, you would find that as they entered into the office, they were often anointed with oil. That means they would take a bit of oil, they would actually pour the oil on them, and in the pouring of the oil on them, Of course, this is a demonstration of the blessing of God on the person for the work of the office, and in fact, them being equipped by God to do the office, that they didn't have the power of themselves, but had to have the power from God in order to do it. Let me give you one good example of this. You might find this in Exodus chapter 29, beginning in verse 8, you shall bring his sons and put coats on them. And he shall gird Aaron and his sons with sashes and bind caps of them, and the priests shall be their statute forever. Thus shall he shall ordain Aaron and his sons. You shall take the anointing oil and pour it on his head and anoint him." That's a beautiful set of passages there, Exodus chapter 29 verses 7 through 9. So Aaron and his sons, in fact all the priesthood as a statute forever, have to be anointed with oil. Oil put on their heads, and this of course is a sign of the work of God in their lives. and the fact that they have the blessing of God and the equipping of God to do the work. One of my favorite Psalms alludes to this, Psalm 133, which says, running down on the collar of his robes. And the allusion there, you may have heard me teach about this before, is to the work of the Holy Spirit in bringing unity through the office of the priest. Unity between God and man, as there is some reconciliation there, but also man to man as well, brothers dwelling together in unity. Because we have the same God, we have the same Spirit working through anointing. That's why later on it's called the anointing of the Holy Spirit. It's because there is a work going on of God on the blessing of the priest to equip them in order that they might be able to do the work that they're set out to do. It's a beautiful picture for us of the work, and in fact, they are anointed, so they are closely associated again with this idea of the anointing of oil. Of course, it's not just the priests, but it's also the kings as well. And for that you can see basically any time that we have the ceremony of the anointing of a king. One good example obviously would be 1 Samuel chapter 9 in verse 16. There we find the anointing of Saul or the promise of the anointing of Saul. This is what it says. Now the day before Saul came, the Lord revealed to Samuel, tomorrow about this time I will send to you a man from the land of Benjamin. and you shall anoint him to be prince over my people Israel. He shall save my people from the hand of the Philistines." You could go on and see that this is exactly the same thing that's done later on with other kings as well. And the king himself was often referred to as the anointed of Jehovah, the anointed of Yahweh. So you have these two offices, the office of king and the office of priest. And while we'll go into much greater detail about this in the future, you're going to see that these are actually two of the very offices that Jesus himself occupies. He's actually the best example. He's the head of those types of offices. So in the past, I may have talked about types and shadows. So you have the shadow and you have the reality, right? If you missed that episode, you can go back to Christ of the Feasts and Festivals. It goes into great detail about this idea. But the Bible often uses a picture of what Jesus will be before he shows up. And it is a real picture. It is something that actually happened. It's the kind of thing that only God himself could ordain. But he gives us a picture, and Jesus is the greater example of that. In the same way that your shadow somehow looks like you, but is not you, and you are the greater reality than the shadow, so too the priests and the kings, among other things, are pictures of what Jesus will be. For instance, the priest obviously is the mediator between God and men. He had a mediatorial role. He came between and did sacrifices for the people. Again, you can pick all this up in the book of Hebrews in much greater detail. So to the king. All of the kings were pointing towards the great king who was to come, who would be king righteously over everyone forever. His kingdom would know no end. And in that, I think you can see this is pointing towards a picture of Jesus as the great king. So what does this have to do with the term Christ? Well, the term that is used for the ones who are anointed is this word, Messiah. There's a Hebrew word that sounds a little bit different, but we Anglicanize it, we make it sound good in English by saying Messiah. And I think that's a word that you perhaps know better. So it just means the anointed one. That's what the word Messiah essentially means, is the anointed one. So what does it have to do with Christ? Well, in Greek, he's called Christos, and Christos just means anointed one. It's related to the word for anointed one. So you have two words in two different languages, but they mean the same thing. They point to this office of Messiah, the one who is anointed, the one upon whom the Spirit of the Lord comes. And you might say, what do you mean, the Spirit of the Lord coming upon Jesus? How could he be the Messiah? Why would he need the Holy Spirit? Well, actually, one of the things we find most regularly in the Gospels is this idea of the Holy Spirit coming. You could go, for instance, to Mark chapter 1. And you could see the baptism of Jesus, beginning in verse 9. In those days, Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. When he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove, and a voice came from heaven, You are my beloved Son, with you I am well pleased. The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. So the Spirit descending upon him like a dove and then driving him out towards his ministry, the onset of his ministry that is going to the wilderness. That's a great example of the anointing of the Holy Spirit on the work of Jesus and Jesus's ministry. There it is in the Bible, Jesus being the Christ. He is appointed for the office and he is anointed for the office and that is a seal of the work that he is to do as well. This is a regular picture we find in the Bible about the anointing of the Lord on the people of God, but especially on the Son himself. You might find it in places like Psalm chapter 2 verse 2. That is, it's not just something that the New Testament decided was important, but in fact we find it in the Old Testament. What does Psalm 2 say? Well, let's begin in verse 1. Why do the nations rage and the people's plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed. some versions say his anointed one. So you see even there, and again in verse 6 of the same chapter, Jesus being treated as being special because he is anointed. That Old Testament looks forward to a Messiah who is the special one of the Lord, and obviously Jesus is the fulfillment of precisely that. So we have his name Jesus, we have the title of Christ that is so closely associated with him, and we also have another title. If I were to ask you what is Jesus' favorite title for himself? What does he call himself more often than anything else? I'm curious what you would say. You might be surprised. Maybe you've noticed. I don't know. The words that Jesus uses most often for himself is the Son of Man. The Son of Man. Now, I think for a lot of people, it looks like, well, this is pretty straightforward, Pitts. He's just pointing towards his own humanity. Jesus is pointing at the fact that he's a man. Now, there is no question that sometimes when Jesus refers to himself as son of man, He definitely is pointing towards the fact that he is a man as we are. One of the perfect examples of that is in Matthew chapter 17. We can look there together. Jesus here is preparing for his final execution and so forth, and he's attempting to prepare his disciples for it as well. So he's giving them some final teachings that will help them to understand what's going on. In verse 22 of chapter 17 of Matthew, this is what it says, Now, let me ask you a question. Can God be arrested? I think we would all say, no, that's not one of the attributes of God. Can God be tortured or abused? Can God be killed? I think we would answer no to all of those questions. So in some sense, Jesus, through pointing out his suffering, pointing out his death, pointing out his arrest, he clearly is pointing towards some element of his humanity, the fact that he's going to undergo these sufferings They're the same types of sufferings that human beings go through. But notice also, there's a hint of something else there as well, and that is that he was going to be raised again on the third day. Certainly not definitive, because we do find others who were raised from the dead. In fact, Jesus himself raised some others from the dead. Something's going on there that's a bit more than just your average human. I think we can all agree on that. We might find something else here in Matthew 20, verses 18 and 19. See, we're going up to Jerusalem. The Son of Man will be delivered over the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death, deliver him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. He'll be raised again on the third day. So again, notice Jesus pointing out his suffering, the abuse that he will endure, the fact that he will die, all these associated with him being the Son of Man. So in some sense, clearly pointing out his humanity. But also again, notice there's something special about him, and that's he's going to be raised again on the third day. So there's no question that Jesus at times, when he refers to himself as the Son of Man, is pointing out the fact that he is really a man. I don't think there's any question about that whatsoever. But you might be surprised to find out he's not just pointing out the fact that he's a man, he's pointing out, I think, something much greater than that. You might be surprised to find out that the Son of Man actually is, in many ways, pointing towards his deity. That is the fact that he's God. You might be surprised to hear that. I mean, how could it be that Jesus is using the term son of man to point to the fact that he's God? I think if we look at one of the times that he uses it, it becomes a lot clearer. This is a hard part of the story. If you go to Mark chapter 14, at the end of the chapter, you see Jesus having been arrested, having been abused. He is in the clutches of these powerful men. chief priests, the scribes, and so forth. And these people are there in order to abuse Jesus, to bring false charges against him, and ultimately to attempt to execute him, the passage says as much. They bring false witnesses, and these false witnesses can't even agree on their story. They even don't quote Jesus correctly. They mess that up. And anyway, the whole thing, it would be funny if it weren't so terrible. That's, I think, the best way to say it. Well, and in all that, the high priest, it says, verse 60, stood up in the midst and asked Jesus, have you no answer to make? What is it that these men testify against you? but he remained silent, he made no answer. Again, the high priest asked him, are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed? Jesus said, I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power and coming with the clouds of heaven. Now, you might say to yourself, well, what in the world does that mean? What does it mean that the Son of Man would be seated at the right hand of power and coming with the clouds of heaven. Well, you see, Jesus is making an allusion, that is, he's kind of quoting from an Old Testament prophetic passage, and he's applying it to himself in that very situation. In order to see that, you're going to have to turn to the book of Daniel, chapter 7. That's where Jesus is quoting from. Daniel is having a revelation of a future event, that is, he is seeing a future event. and he's seeing it in the form of a vision. This is what it says, Daniel chapter 7 verse 9, As I looked, thrones were placed, and the Ancient of Days, that's a term for God, took his seat, and his clothing was white as snow, and the hair of his head was like pure wool. His throne was fiery flames, its wheels were burning fire. A stream of fire issued and came out from before him, and a thousand thousands served him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. and the court sat in judgment, and the books were opened. I looked, then, because of the sound of the great words the horn was speaking, and as I looked, the beast was killed and its body destroyed. It was given over to be burned with fire. As for the rest of the beasts, their dominion was taken away. Their lives were prolonged for a season and a time. I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented 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 one, that shall not be destroyed. especially look then at Daniel 7, 13 and 14, and you see this Ancient of Days, the very one who has power, cataclysmic power, the type of power that can bring about future apocalypse, that very Ancient of Days is the one that the Son of Man is with and rules with alongside of and is given a dominion and a glory and a kingdom that is above all people, all nations, all languages. They all serve him and it lasts forever and it never ever goes away. That kingdom is an eternal kingdom because the Son of Man is an eternal person. And who is eternal but God himself? He's given a rule which is forever and ever. Now, you may think to yourself, I don't know, maybe there's a couple of ways we could interpret that that are no big deal, you might say to yourself. Well, let's just ask ourselves, how did the chief priest who heard Jesus say that react? Did he react like Jesus was saying something that was no big deal? Did he react as though Jesus was just claiming some humanity for himself? The answer is clearly no. He tore his garments and said, what further witnesses do we need? You have heard his blasphemy. And as a result, they condemned him to death. Now, why would this be blasphemy? Well, Jesus is claiming for himself a position, authority, and power that is God's and God's alone, and he's doing so by claiming the name Son of Man. That's why he tore his clothes. The man would tear his clothes like this at a time of great grief and tragedy, if he perceived, especially like in this case, that some blasphemy had taken place. They're trying to accuse Jesus of violating the first table of the law. That is, they're coming after Jesus because they're saying that he's claiming for himself greater power than a man should have, greater authority than a man should have, a greater identity than a man should have. This is a violation of the first four commandments if what they're saying is true. Of course, you and I know that actually Jesus is the one who's right, and it's actually the high priest who's the one who's wrong. You see, it's only blasphemy if you're wrong, and in Jesus' case, he wasn't wrong. What he's claiming for himself was true. What is it exactly Jesus was saying? Well, picture Jesus surrounded by men who've been falsely accusing him and abusing him and so forth, and they believe that they have all of the power in the world, and that they can do with him as they wish. That's really what they seem to believe. They can capture him at will, they can try him at will, they can torture him at will, abuse him at will, even spit on him and strike him. They think that Jesus is like a mouse who's been trapped by a cat, and that he's powerless in their hands, and they can take their time and abuse him if they so choose. Jesus is saying, I am the very Son of Man from Daniel chapter 7. I'm the Messiah come in the flesh. And the next time you see me, it's not you who will be standing in judgment of me, but I will be standing in judgment of you. And not only that, but you will be forced to recognize, as I have dominion over all people everywhere, that I am the King of kings and the Lord of lords on a throne that will never end in a kingdom that is everlasting. That's why he ripped his robe, because he knew exactly what Jesus was saying. Jesus was saying, I'm God, and I stand in judgment of you. Now, we have another name, or I should say a title, really, that Jesus is called, and that is the Son of God. Now, the Son of God is interesting because, just like the term Son of Man is used in the Old Testament in a number of ways, and is also used in the New Testament a number of ways. In fact, in the Old Testament, Son of God is often just a general term that can refer specifically to the people of God. You find that in places like Exodus 4 and Jeremiah 31. It can sometimes be representatives of the people of Israel, the people who are especially like the rulers from David's line, and you might find that in places like Psalm 89 27. It actually occasionally seems to refer to the angels, like if you look at the opening of the book of Job, where the sons of God are referred to, and it's clearly interplayed with the word for angels. And then, of course, perhaps generically, It might sometimes also be just good people, people who are pious, people who do what they're supposed to do and take the things of God. very, very seriously. When it's used of Jesus, it can also be used in a number of ways. One of the ways in which it clearly is used is in the sense that Jesus is God, that Jesus is divine. As such, it often is something that is used in his human life to point out what a great and powerful redeemer the people of God truly have. Perhaps you know the story of Peter walking on the water. And yeah, I said it right. Peter did walk on water. He walked farther on water than you and I ever have and are likely ever to do so. Jesus, of course, is the preeminent example. But don't miss the fact that Peter took more steps than I ever have. So he's in a privileged position. But anyway, you may remember the story. They see Jesus out on the water and they understand that it's Jesus walking on water, Peter wishes to come out, and he says in verse 28 of Matthew chapter 14, Peter says, Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water. And he says, come. So Peter got out of the boat, he walked on the water, and he came to Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink, he cried out, Lord, save me. Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, O you of little faith, why do you doubt? When he got into the boat, the wind ceased, and those in the boat worshipped him, saying, Truly you are the Son of God." It's a very popular story, one we know very well. But notice here that he's being referred to as the Son of God, not for his general goodness, not just because he's a person from the house of Israel, but specifically because he seems to exhibit powers that are not normal human powers to be exhibited. that he has the ability himself to walk on water, he has the ability to call a person like Peter out onto the water as well, that he has the ability, having called him out, to have him also walk on the water, and as Peter himself begins to sink, Jesus has the ability to rescue him from his own distress as well. So we see Jesus here exhibiting the power of God and being recognized by the people as being of God as well. And it's not just the good guys who recognize it, but the bad guys recognize it, too. If you were to go to the book of Mark, chapter 5, you'll see the story of Jesus healing a man who's demon-possessed. He had come across the sea, and there he finds a man who's in terrible distress. Really, it might not seem like it because he's so strong. That's a power the demon gives him, the power to not be bound anymore, but actually, That unbound nature also is destroying him. He's wailing and crying out, cutting himself with stones. He's in pain constantly. And when the demons see Jesus, it says, what have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? That is, he's able to recognize who Jesus is, and the demons recognize him for who he is. And Jesus basically says, come out. come out and then drives them out. That's an amazing story, Jesus exhibiting the very power that only God can have, that is the power to control demonic possession as well, that is he can keep the demon possessed and save them from the demons. What a powerful testimony to the work of Jesus Christ. If you go to places like John chapter 10, you see Jesus claiming for himself the title of Son of God as a way of defending against the accusation of blasphemy. This is kind of an amazing thing because in this passage the people are trying, the Jews it says in general, are trying to say that he's making himself out to be God, Jesus points out that it's written, I've said you are gods, he's alluding there to Psalm 82, and he says, if he called them gods to whom the word of God came, that is, scripture cannot be broken, do not say of whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, you are blaspheming because I said I am the son of God. Basically he says look at my works whether I'm telling the truth or not. It's really interesting there because you do find in Psalm 82 this idea that the people, the council of Israel, is being treated then as being a type of council that the God has set up himself to rule over his people. And Jesus is saying if those guys can be called Elohim, the old word for gods, Then why could I not be called the Son of God when I actually come doing the work of God? That's a really powerful claim here, but not a claim to deity. He actually uses the term Son of God as a claim for his humanity in a way. That's kind of amazing. But he is there demonstrating his great power over and against the power of those to whom the law came. The fifth and final one we'll discuss today is this term Kyrios, which is the old Greek word for the name Lord. Lord is, we find it in the Old Testament in the Hebrew as a term sometimes used for a king. It sometimes is used as a term of respect for someone who's over you. You might say like, Sir or Sabo here, or it's sometimes used as a word in the place of the name of God himself. Perhaps if you've looked in your English translations in the past, you've seen sometimes that the word Lord is in lowercase, and sometimes it's all capitalized. It's all large in block letters. L-O-R-D, all of them capitalized and looks a bit different. Maybe you've never noticed that before. Every time you see it capitalized there, it is a way of replacing the name for God himself, and the covenant name of God is being used instead. Jesus often was referred to as being a Lord as well. For instance, if you go to Mark chapter 12, you see this discussion of Jesus in verse 35. You may remember this from a previous episode, but he's just quoting there from Psalm 110. David himself calls him Lord, so how is he his son? And the great throng heard him gladly. Jesus there claiming that the Messiah is greater than David. How can one that comes after be greater than one that comes before? Well, because he was before. This is very similar to the claim that Jesus makes, before Abraham was, I am. Before Abraham was, I am. Boy, that is a big claim. It would have to be someone who is greater than Abraham, someone who in this case is greater than David. There, that Lord is a greater Lord than David, the first and in many ways greatest king, the epitome of a king in many ways. So there, Jesus is pulling for himself a term, Lord, that would have been very comfortably used in the translation to replace the name of God as they translated in the Old Testament, using that term for himself quite flexibly and applying it to himself in a number of places in different ways. And in fact, the New Testament picks this up in other places, like Acts 2.36 and 1 Corinthians 12, where Jesus is spoken of as the Lord. And in fact, if you go back to our series on the Sermon on the Mount, you'll hear this discussion of Jesus taking authority for himself to declare certain things to be true, which are very difficult to understand unless Jesus has an authority where he is the Lord himself. Take, for instance, the passage in Mark where he says that he, in fact, is the Son of Man who is Lord of the Sabbath. There you see two of Jesus' titles combined together in a very, very interesting sense. The Son of Man, if it just means man, actually doesn't make much sense in that passage. Lord of the Sabbath clearly means the one who has authority over the Sabbath. And who ordained the Sabbath? Well, it's the Lord. When was it ordained? The answer is at creation, not a thing a man can do. And how could he be the Lord of it? Well, he would have to be the Lord to be the Lord of the Sabbath. And there the Son of Man title is clearly pointing towards his divinity. And in fact, if you combine this with John chapter 1, we see that it is in fact the Son who is doing creation. And so that whole thing makes a whole lot more sense when you read that it is the Son of Man. That is, Jesus Christ, in his divinity, is the Lord of the Sabbath because he created the Sabbath, and God made man in a way that a Sabbath is a benefit to him. That's why he says he made Sabbath for man, not man for the Sabbath. It is God himself who created the Sabbath in creation, and Jesus says that the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. So there's no doubt that sometimes it's just used as an honorific, meaning it's just used as a term where you're just saying nice things about him. There's no question about that. And sometimes it's used as an emblem of his authority, but sometimes it is specifically of his power that only God himself could ever possibly have. So you can see it there then associated with those issues related to divinity. Jesus, the Christ, the Son of Man, the Son of God, and the Lord. There are a number of other places that Jesus is referred to. They typically don't show up nearly as many times, but they are also certainly there. For instance, Jesus refers to himself as the bread of life. There's no question there that he's pointing towards the symbolism that we find in the Old Testament of the manna, the bread being given to the people. And Johnny also refers to himself as a good shepherd, as I've mentioned before, clearly pointing to the idea that the shepherd is the one who cares for the sheep. You can go back and listen to my Christmas episode from this year, O Light That Knew No Dawn, and we talk in great length about how God seems to love herdsmen. And God is often referred to himself as a shepherd, and he also sent a shepherd who gives his life for the sheep. And we also talked about the fact that 1 Peter makes reference to this as being the one who is the shepherd of his people, and the reason why those he is given are called pastors. We have an episode about where the word pastor comes from as well. There's a lot of other pictures that are used. He's referred to as the Way, the Truth, and the Life. I've quoted that many times here. John the Baptist loves to refer to him as the Lamb of God, and of course he is a mediator of a better covenant. There's a lot of other names there. If you have some that you're concerned about, certainly more than we have time to go over together, I would just ask you to go ahead and send me a link to your question, or you can send me the question yourself. You can contact me on social media or anywhere else you like, and I'll be happy to answer those questions, and I'll give you some credit if you want it online. I hope this has been a beneficial episode to you and for you. Who is Jesus? Well, Jesus is God who saves. He is, in fact, the one who came for us, the Messiah anointed for God's people. He is the Son of Man and the Son of God. And it is great to hear more and more people understanding that this Great One is the very one who comes to save us. He is the Lord of all, the Redeemer of God's elect, that last, that final Adam and whose image we were made, and who is the perfection of us as God's people. Praise be to God. You've been listening to the Vice Chancellor's Hour, a ministry of Radio ABC 993 FM on the campus of African Bible University. We hope this has been beneficial to your Christian walk and understanding. If it has, you can support the ministry of Radio ABC by going to AfricanBibleColleges.com and clicking on the donate button. Don't forget to let them know it's going to the Uganda station. If you have questions about this or any other episode, please feel free to contact us at vcourofficial at gmail.com. We're also available through Instagram and Twitter as vcourofficial. We may answer your question on a future episode. Until next time, may the peace of God and the fellowship of God's people encourage your hearts.