We are studying the Fourth Gospel, and Lazarus' purpose, which is articulated at the end of the book, is to present the proof that Yeshua is the Messiah, the Son of God, so that you might believe and believing have eternal life in His name. His goal is evangelical, that he may bring people to faith in Christ.
We have just finished the prologue, the opening eighteen verses, which is a declaration of the deity of Christ. Last week we began to look at the body of the letter. 1:19—12:50 is the first part of the body and records Yeshua's public ministry to the multitudes in Palestine, who were primarily Judeans.
Last week we began to look at the testimony of John the Baptizer, who is the first witness brought forward by John Eleazar to give testimony as to Who Yeshua is. Let me give you a little more information on this Prophet of God, John the Baptizer. He is the first Prophet of God to Israel in over 400 years. His contemporaries see him as a Prophet who speaks for Yahweh.
John the baptizer was a hereditary priest, the only child of elderly parents: his father, Zechariah, served as a Temple priest, and his mother was from the high-priestly family, a daughter of Aaron (Luke 1:5). He had grown up in the wilderness:
And the child continued to grow and to become strong in spirit, and he lived in the deserts until the day of his public appearance to Israel. Luke 1:80 NASB
His elderly parents could have died when he was a child, and, since the son of a priest is unlikely to have grown up living rough in the wilderness, he could well have been brought up by the priestly Essene community living near Ein Gedi. He may have been raised at Qumran in a community of priests (sons of Zadok), who had separated themselves from the established priesthood in Jerusalem. The sectarian documents at Qumran indicate that the community adopted orphaned children of priests.
So John lived completely apart from the religious system of Israel. He is not only alien to the apostate system of Judaism, he is anti-apostate Judaism. He's not only separate from them, he speaks prophetically against them and warns of their judgment to come.
The idea that John's ministry was happening in the wilderness is very significant. This location was exactly where these people expected God to do great things; this was where a young Elisha saw his master, the Prophet Elijah, assumed into heaven in a fiery chariot (2 Kings 2:1-10). This is the location of the "place of the crossing" where God's holy nation crossed over the Jordan River into the land God had promised them. John is calling them back out to the same wilderness by the Jordan as a way of saying, "We have got to start over."
And all the country of Judea was going out to him, and all the people of Jerusalem; and they were being baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins. Mark 1:5 NASB
Some commentators estimate that there could have been between 200,000 and 500,000 people who participated in John's ministry in this way. Mark is not describing the appearance of a half dozen people who followed John.
It was 20 miles from Jerusalem to the Jordan, and it was a 4,000 foot drop. This mass of people was making this incredible journey because Messianic expectations were running high in Israel.
Last week I said that John's testimony of Yeshua took place over three days. And is given to three groups. Day 1—John says, "He is here." He is speaking to a hostile delegation from the Sanhedrin, the Jewish leading religious council (1:19-28). Day 2—John says, "Look at Him." Speaking to the mass of people that are there (1:29-34). Day 3—John says, "Follow Him." Speaking to his own disciples (1:35-40). So for three days, there are three messages to three different groups.
Lazarus' emphasis is on John the Baptist as a witness to Yeshua. He doesn't mention John the Baptist's call to national repentance and very little to his baptizing. Everything is focused on what he has to say about Yeshua.
Last week we looked at day 1 where a delegation sent from the Sanhedrin made up of priests, Levites, and Pharisees from Jerusalem come to question John:
The next day he saw Yeshua coming to him and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! John 1:29 NASB
"The next day"—this is day two; this is group two, which is made up of all the people that are gathered, all the crowd; and the message: "Look at Him"—"Behold!"
The words that John gives here are the words that reflect back on that interview that he had with the Lord Yeshua at the time that he baptized Him. Let's get some details from Matthew:
Then Yeshua arrived from Galilee at the Jordan coming to John, to be baptized by him. But John tried to prevent Him, saying, "I have need to be baptized by You, and do You come to me?" But Yeshua answering said to him, "Permit it at this time; for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness." Then he permitted Him. After being baptized, Yeshua came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on Him, and behold, a voice out of the heavens said, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased." Matthew 3:13-17 NASB
Yeshua's baptism isn't described in John's Gospel, but we know from the other three Gospels that it had occurred about 40 days earlier.
"He saw Yeshua coming to him"—John looked up and saw Yeshua coming toward him. Forty days earlier he had baptized Yeshua, but John hadn't seen Him again since then, because after Yeshua's baptism, the Spirit had impelled Him into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan. So John sees Yeshua coming, having just triumphed over Satan's great temptation, and John declares aloud:
"Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!"—this is not what the people wanted to hear. They wanted to hear, "Behold your King. Behold the triumphant One. Behold the majestic One. Behold the exalted One. Behold the Ruler. Behold the Anointed One." They wanted one who could kill all their enemies, and John was presenting One who would be killed by their enemies.
John is telling us "how" Yeshua will bring salvation and redemption to mankind, not as a warrior like David, but as the lamb of sacrifice for the people. The Children of Israel understood a lamb as a sacrifice, and they abhorred human sacrifice. Yahweh had forbidden the practice and now this young priest/prophet has identified this man as a sacrifice for the sins of the people and as the Messiah, the "chosen One of God." (or will in verse 34). This was not their idea of a "Chosen One."
"Lamb of God"—means: "provided by God." In other words, the Lamb of God is the lamb provided by God, "of God" in the sense that He is the origin of the gift of the lamb.
What would John's audience have thought of when John spoke of the "Lamb of God"? The answer to this may not be that simple. There are several major explanations for the symbolism of the Lamb. One of the New Testament commentators, Leon Morris, in his commentary on John, gives nine different interpretations of the expression "Lamb of God," and then himself decides for a tenth.
Let's look at some of the main interpretations and see if we can figure out what John is saying.
Apocalyptic lamb—there appears in Jewish apocalyptic literature the figure of a conquering Lamb who will destroy evil in the world. We see this in the Testament of Joseph 19:8, and Enoch 90
Enoch 90:37 And I saw that a white bull was born, with large horns and all the beasts of the field and all the 38 birds of the air feared him and made petition to him all the time. And I saw till all their generations were transformed, and they all became white bulls; and the first among them became a lamb, and that lamb became a great animal and had great black horns on its head; and the Lord of the sheep 39 rejoiced over it and over all the oxen.
So in intertestamental, apocalyptic literature the "lamb" is a victorious warrior. The sacrificial aspect is still present, but the lamb as eschatological judge is pre-eminent:
and one of the elders said to me, "Stop weeping; behold, the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has overcome so as to open the book and its seven seals." And I saw between the throne (with the four living creatures) and the elders a Lamb standing, as if slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God, sent out into all the earth. Revelation 5:5-6 NASB
In the next chapter we see this Lamb breaking the sixth seal and judging the heavenly host:
I looked when He broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood; and the stars of the sky fell to the earth, as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind. Revelation 6:12-13 NASB
Then in the 17th chapter of the Book of Revelation there is a description of the final conflict in the form of a warfare between two animals, between the wild beast and a lamb. And surprisingly the lamb overcomes the wild beast:
"These will wage war against the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, because He is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those who are with Him are the called and chosen and faithful." Revelation 17:14 NASB
All this fits well with the John the Baptist's eschatological preaching as portrayed in the Synoptics:
"His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor; and He will gather His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." Matthew 3:12 NASB
Commentators who hold the view that John is referring to an apocalyptic lamb say that John is referring to that future event when the Lamb, the Lord Yeshua, will in His final conflict with evil overcome, and He will destroy sin and thus be "the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world," meaning He will make an end of sin. That is a possible interpretation, but the term "lamb" used here in the Gospel is "amnos," and the word used in Revelation is "arnion." This term "amnos" is only used four times in the New Testament. Twice in John 1, Acts 8:32 and 1 Peter 1:19 and has more to do with sacrifice than conquering.
Tamid sacrifice Lamb—some say that when John identified Yeshua as a Lamb of God, it had to be the Tamid sacrifice. Tamid is an abbreviated form for olat tamid (daily burnt-offering); the unblemished male lamb offered as a communal sacrifice in the morning liturgical worship service and the unblemished male lamb offered in the afternoon liturgical worship service at the Jerusalem Temple. These lambs were called the Tamid lambs, and their sacrifice in a liturgical worship service was to be perpetual for as long as the Sinai Covenant endured (Ex 29:38-42):
"It shall be a continual burnt offering throughout your generations at the doorway of the tent of meeting before the LORD, where I will meet with you, to speak to you there. Exodus 29:42 NASB
We see here that this lamb was to be sacrificed as a burnt offering. The problem here is that the burnt offering wasn't to deal with sin. The burnt offering was not about forgiveness of sin. Rather, it was designed to initiate contact with Yahweh.
The offer brings a burnt offering hoping to be accepted onto sacred space. "I'm bringing my male without blemish from the herd to the entrance of the tent of meeting. And so I am standing on sacred territory. I can't go any further. I'm right where the presence of God delineates His living space. And so I bring my burnt offering, and my hope is what? Is my hope that I'll be forgiven of a sin? No. My hope is that I will be accepted 'before the Lord.'" So what does the burnt offering mean? The offer is seeking fellowship with God. "I want to have a little time with God so I'm coming to His house." [Michael S. Heiser, Naked Bible Podcast 2.0 Episode 64]
So understanding that, I don't see John as referring to the burnt offering, because he is talking about dealing with sin.
Lamb as the Suffering Servant—the Prophet Isaiah,could speak of Israel's Savior as a Lamb in Isaiah 53:
He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth. Isaiah 53:7 NASB
But the LORD was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand. Isaiah 53:10 NASB
Isaiah 53 pictures the substitutionary death of Yeshua, the Lamb of God. This text in Isaiah 53:7 is applied to Yeshua in Acts 8:
Now the passage of Scripture which he was reading was this: "HE WAS LED AS A SHEEP TO SLAUGHTER; AND AS A LAMB BEFORE ITS SHEARER IS SILENT, SO HE DOES NOT OPEN HIS MOUTH. Acts 8:32 NASB
Philip takes this verse and applies it to Christ:
Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this Scripture he preached Yeshua to him. Acts 8:35 NASB
So, the Suffering Servant of Yahweh is likened to a lamb brought to the slaughter. Where did Isaiah get that figure of the lamb brought to the slaughter? Well, it's most likely place is the Passover account in the Book of Exodus, but let's go back for a moment to the Book of Genesis when Abraham offers up Isaac as they're on their way to the top of Mount Moriah. Between the father, Abraham, and the son, Isaac, there is little conversation that takes place between the two, but Isaac speaks and says, "My father," and Abraham said, "Here am I, my son." And he said, "Behold the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?" And Abraham said:
Abraham said, "God will provide for Himself the lamb for the offering, my son." So the two of them walked on together. Genesis 22:8 NASB
Yahweh did provide the Lamb in the person of the Lord Yeshua.
Passover Lamb—Passover was one of the seven Feasts of Yahweh, which were appointed times of worship for Israel that would serve as "dress rehearsals" of prophetic events that were to happen in the future. Through these Feasts God was showing Israel what He was going to do. They were pictures of their coming Messiah.
As we think of Passover, please keep in mind that it is a type, or picture of something much greater; it pictured the redemption of God's elect through the sacrifice of the sinless Son of God, the Lord Yeshua. You'll remember that the first Passover was observed when Israel was about to be delivered from slavery in Egypt. God had spoken through Moses, demanding that Pharaoh release His people, but in spite of a series of devastating plagues, Pharaoh refused to do so. And so now, in preparation for the final and most terrible plague, the death of every first-born, God gives Moses specific instructions for how the Israelites are to be saved:
"Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, 'On the tenth of this month they are each one to take a lamb for themselves, according to their fathers' households, a lamb for each household. Exodus 12:3 NASB
The Passover lamb foreshadowed God's final Passover Lamb and suffering Servant, Yeshua the Christ, whom God would one day send to this world to be sacrificed so that His blood could be used to remove the sin of His elect. All who placed their faith in Him would be saved, not from the bondage of Egypt, but from the bondage of sin and guilt and delivered into the Kingdom of God; a Kingdom of life, joy, peace, and love.
Passover symbolism is present in the Fourth Gospel, especially in relation to the death of Yeshua: Yeshua is condemned at noon on the day before the Passover (John 19:14) at the very time the priests began to slay the lambs in the Temple. Hyssop was used to give a sponge of wine (19:29); hyssop was also used to smear blood on the doorposts in the Passover ritual (Exod 12:22). Speaking of the Passover Lamb, Yahweh said:
"It is to be eaten in a single house; you are not to bring forth any of the flesh outside of the house, nor are you to break any bone of it. Exodus 12:46 NASB
No bone of the Passover lamb was to be broken. John remembered this fact during his writings about Yeshua. In reference to the soldiers who were supervising the crucifixion, John said:
So the soldiers came, and broke the legs of the first man and of the other who was crucified with Him; but coming to Jesus, when they saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs. John 19:32-33 NASB
For these things came to pass to fulfill the Scripture, "NOT A BONE OF HIM SHALL BE BROKEN." John 19:36 NASB
The Passover lamb was to be spotless:
'Your lamb shall be an unblemished male a year old; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. Exodus 12:5 NASB
Yahweh tells the Israelites that this lamb is to be unblemished. In the New Testament we see that Christ was the unblemished Lamb:
knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. 1 Peter 1:18-19 NASB
Peter makes it very clear here that Christ is a spotless, unblemished Lamb. Paul also mentions Christ's sinlessness in 2 Corinthians 5:21: "Him who knew no sin..."
When the last Passover supper took place and the New Covenant was inaugurated, Yeshua took that wine which symbolized the blood and He said:
for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins. Matthew 26:28 NASB
That expression, "poured out for many," is an expression derived from Isaiah chapter 53. It was our Lord's way of saying, "Look I am the Passover Lamb, and also I am the One who is to do what Isaiah describes the Suffering Servant will do. That is, He will offer Himself for the sins of many."
So when John says, "Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world," he is primarily talking about the Passover Lamb and the Suffering Servant of Yahweh. He is the Lamb of God. And the Lamb of God is a reference to Him in His work as a sin bearer.
In Genesis 22:7 Isaac asks Abraham, "Where is the lamb" John answers that question as he points to Christ and says, "Behold the Lamb!"
John says that this Lamb, "takes away the sin of the world"—"takes away" signifies "atonement, and that by substitution." He is a Substitute that dies under the penalty of sin. So He's a penal substitute, a substitute who bears penalty, penalty that was due others. He died so that sinners who trust in Him will not incur God's judgment. "Takes away" is also in the present tense, signifying the ongoing sufficiency of Yeshua's sacrifice.
What sin is He taking away? Primarily sin of unbelief. Yeshua said,
"And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment; concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; John 16:8-9 NASB
That's the essence of the sin. Sin is unbelief. That's the reason Adam fell. He fell and Eve fell before they ever took of the fruit. They fell in failure to believe the word of God, and as a result of that, they reached out and took of the fruit. Sin is unbelief.
"Of the World"—does not mean that Christ paid the penalty for every sinner who has ever lived, because then all would be saved. That would be Universalism and it's the Lord Yeshua Himself who later on in this very book says of certain men:
"Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins." John 8:24 NASB
So he is not teaching Universalism. When John says, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world," he doesn't mean that every person in the world is saved. He means every person in the world—Jew or Gentile—will be saved if they believe in Yeshua. John put it like this in his First Epistle:
and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world. 1 John 2:2 NASB
Propitiation means that His death removes the wrath of God because it takes away sin. That's what propitiation means. The Lamb takes away sin and removes God's wrath, not just for Jews, but for Gentiles scattered among all nations:
And they sang a new song, saying, "Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. Revelation 5:9 NASB
Alright, we need to move on in John:
"This is He on behalf of whom I said, 'After me comes a Man who has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.' John 1:30 NASB
Let me suggest something here. Yeshua Himself may have been a disciple of John the Baptist. Dodd suggested that this was the most natural way to understand the words, "He who comes after me É." They meant: "One who follows me," in the sense of being a disciple, and the same words, opiso mou elthein, were used by Yeshua: "[Let him] take up his cross and follow me." (Mark 8.34) Thus "He who comes after me ranks before me, for He was before me." (vv. 15, 30) Which would mean: "One of my disciples is more important than I am É" Dodd concluded: "We are reaching back to a stage of tradition scarcely represented elsewhere in the Gospels É that Jesus was at one time regarded as a follower or adherent of John the Baptist. If, as the Synoptic Gospels report, He accepted baptism at his hands, how else should He be regarded?" [C. H. Dodd, Historical Tradition in the Fourth Gospel, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1963, p. 275.]
In Yeshua's day there were certain Rabbis who had semikhah. In order to have semikhah you had to have the Tanakh memorized, as well as the Mishnah, and be a gifted teacher. You also had to have two other Rabbis with semikhah who publically put their hands on your head and declare from God that you had God's authority. Over and over in the New Testament people come to Yeshua and ask Him, "Where did You get the authority to say that?" What they are asking is: "Who gave you semikhah? Who were your two Rabbis?"
There is a Jewish Rabbinic technique, that is commonly used to this day, where they would begin a debate or dialogue with a question. And the response from the group comes in the form of a question. The question that comes is first of all an answer to the first question, and it also extends it to a deeper level:
And it came about that after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them, and asking them questions. 47 And all who heard Him were amazed at His understanding and His answers. Luke 2:46-47 NASB
Yeshua was asking questions, and they were amazed at His questions. We see many times in Yeshua's teaching ministry that He will respond to a question with a question. And in His question is the answer:
And it came about on one of the days while He was teaching the people in the temple and preaching the gospel, that the chief priests and the scribes with the elders confronted Him, 2 and they spoke, saying to Him, "Tell us by what authority You are doing these things, or who is the one who gave You this authority?" Luke 20:1-2 NASB
To this Yeshua responds in the typical Rabbinic fashion with a question:
And He answered and said to them, "I shall also ask you a question, and you tell Me: 4 "Was the baptism of John from heaven or from men?" Luke 20:3-4 NASB
He is asking, Did John get his authority, his semikhah, from God or man? Now remember His question answers theirs. Their question was, "Where did you get semikhah?" And His question to them was, "Where did John get semikhah?" What did He just tell them? "I got semikhah from John." It is very possible that Yeshua was a disciple of John's.
"He existed before me"—physically, Yeshua was born 6 months after John, but the Holy Spirit had given the Baptist the knowledge of Yeshua's eternal existence. Verse 30 repeats verse 15:
"I did not recognize Him, but so that He might be manifested to Israel, I came baptizing in water." John 1:31 NASB
"I did not recognize Him"—now if Yeshua was John's disciple, how could John say this? When John says, "I did not recognize Him," (1:31, 33) he means, "I did not recognize Him as the Messiah and Lamb of God, who is to be manifested to Israel until I baptized Him."
"So that he might be manifested to Israel"—the gift of redemption must first be offered to Israel before it is offered to the "nations." Yeshua will tell His disciples in their first missionary efforts:
These twelve Yeshua sent out after instructing them: "Do not go in the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter any city of the Samaritans; but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." Matthew 10:5-6 NASB
But the Suffering Servant passages of Isaiah (chapters 53 ff) also speak of a "redemption of the nations." Israelites and Jews, however, only seemed to think in terms of personal and national redemption even though they were called by God to reveal Him as the One true God to the nations:
John testified saying, "I have seen the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and He remained upon Him. John 1:32 NASB
Luke (3:22) says that "the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in bodily form like a dove." So there was some visible manifestation of the Spirit that looked like a dove to those who saw it.
Each of the Gospel accounts includes this description of God's Spirit descending like a dove. John differs with the other Gospels only in that he does not describe the baptism itself, and in describing the descent of the Spirit, John has the phrase, "out of heaven."
Jewish interpreters considered the dove to be symbolic of the Holy Spirit. When they spoke of the Spirit of God abiding over the chaos in the beginning of the creation, they spoke of the Holy Spirit abiding as a dove over the creation. Furthermore the dove was the poor man's bird of sacrifice.
The Tanakh makes plain that the long awaited Messiah would be empowered by the Spirit of God, and that in His day, the Spirit would be poured out on all His people:
"Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold; My chosen one in whom My soul delights. I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the nations. Isaiah 42:1 NASB
This is why God said to John:
"I did not recognize Him, but He who sent me to baptize in water said to me, 'He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him, this is the One who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.' John 1:33 NASB
John the Baptist said, "My testimony about Yeshua does not come from what I know about Him naturally. It comes from God. God told me what to say about Yeshua."
Two times in John the Baptist's account he made mention of the Spirit "remaining" on Yeshua (1:32-33)."He remained upon Him," Remaining upon Him—the Greek tense here in the aorist tense is ingressive in force and means: "the Spirit remained upon Him." And it remained upon Him through His ministry for He carried out His ministry in the power of the Holy Spirit, anointed by the Holy Spirit.
The baptism of the Spirit refers to the Spirit's imparting new life at the moment of regeneration. Paul told the carnal Corinthians (1 Cor. 12:13), "For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit." So all believers have been baptized by the Spirit.
"I myself have seen, and have testified that this is the Son of God." John 1:34 NASB
"I myself have seen, and have testified"—these are both perfect active indicative, which implies past action brought to completion and then continuing.
"This is the Son of God"—this is a title that unambiguously claims deity. Son of God means: "He is God":
For this reason therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because He not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God. John 5:18 NASB
I said this last week, let me say it again. John the Baptizer identifies himself as the preparatory voice of Isaiah 40:3. They asked, "Who are you?" And he said, "The Voice." He is a voice preparing the way for who? In the text we looked at today he made it clear he is preparing the way for Yeshua! Look what Isaiah says:
A voice is calling, "Clear the way for the LORD in the wilderness; Make smooth in the desert a highway for our God. Isaiah 40:3 NASB
Here the voice is clearing the way for Yahweh, yet John says he is preparing the way for Yeshua. This is because Yeshua is Yahweh! John the Baptist testified that Yeshua was Yahweh. As the Jews said, "calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God."
In Isaiah 6:5 Isaiah says, "For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts." He is in the throne room of Yahweh. He sees Yahweh. Then in John 12 we are told that the person Isaiah saw was Christ:
These things Isaiah said because he saw His glory, and he spoke of Him. John 12:41 NASB
As you look back in the context of this chapter, you will see that Isaiah saw Yeshua, who he called "Yahweh." Yeshua is Yahweh the Son, the Second person of the Trinity.