The Deity Of Christ: In The New Testament Series

FROM MATTHEW, MARK, and LUKE

MATTHEW

52. Lord of the Sabbath

In Genesis 2:1-3, the God of creation ends His initial work, “and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it...”

4,000 years later, a Man stood upon the earth and proclaimed to the Pharisees and anyone else who wanted to hear, “The Son of man is Lord even of the Sabbath day.” (Matthew 12:8)

Again we must say, the Man is either very presumptuous, or He is God.

53. Speaker of Imperishable Words

In the midst of speaking to His disciples one day, Jesus makes this strong statement: (24:35) “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away.”

Mere mortals don’t talk this way. He must be the same God referred to by David in Psalm 119:89, “Forever, O Lord, Thy word is settled in heaven.”

54. Omnipotent One

“Omnipotent” means, “having all power.” We think of God Almighty in Heaven as this One. Well we should. But see His Son make this statement, and you will enter once more into the mystery of Godliness: (28:18) “All power is given unto Me in Heaven and in Earth.” That's a lot of power. That's infinite power.

Truly He emptied Himself when He became a man. Here we see Him re-filled with the glory He had with the Father from all eternity. Not just a resuscitated corpse, this resurrected Jesus. God in all His power and might.

MARK

55. “The Lord”

Jesus needs a colt. He is about to ride into Jerusalem, fulfilling prophecy. His instruction to His disciples:(11:3) “...ye shall find a colt tied, whereon never man sat: loose him, and bring him. And if any man say unto you, Why do ye this? say ye that the Lord hath need of him...”

As the Yahweh of old, Jesus was known as “the Lord” to His followers. They seemed to accept that pretty well.

LUKE

56. “God”

Here Jesus has cast out devils from one possessed. He is being asked to leave by the residents of the area. But a lone figure positions himself next to Jesus, wanting to go with Him. It is the one formerly possessed. Jesus tells him, 8:39, to “Return to thine own house, and show how great things God hath done unto thee.”

The man knew it was Jesus who had delivered him. Jesus here equates Himself with God.

FROM JOHN

57. Formerly Unseen God

“No man hath seen God at any time.” (1:18) A simple enough statement. But can God ever be seen? Oh yes, the verse continues: “the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.”

Here the Father and the Son are seen as one entity, partially seen, partially unseen, all Mystery! But the meaning is clear: we can see God by seeing Jesus!

Philip (chapter 14) said that if Jesus could just give the disciples a glimpse of the Father, they would all be satisfied. The startling response: "I've been with you all this time, and you have not known Me, Philip? Philip, He that has seen Me has seen the Father!"

58. “Equal to God”

5:18. Here the Jews get a piece of the puzzle. Jesus had been working on the Sabbath. When challenged by the Jews, Jesus simply answered, (5:17) “ My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.”

That did it. “Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill Him, because He not only had broken the Sabbath, but said also that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God.”

They began to see a glimmer of truth. When they realized just how equal He believed Himself to be, they would put Him on a cross!

Interesting to me in this passage is the fact that the mere connection of a father to a son implies equality. Jesus was not saying He is the Father. He simply called Himself a son, and immediately the Pharisees knew what the conclusion was. If you have someone's DNA, you are equal in substance to that person.

59. Knowable as the Father

The Pharisees want to know where Jesus’ “Father” is. His reply, 8:19, “Ye neither know Me, nor My Father: if ye had known Me, ye should have known My Father also.”

Stirrings. Search for stones. But they can’t kill Him now, “for His hour was not yet come.” And why so angry? Once more He had just called Himself God! He had just suggested that to know One (the Son) is to know the Other (the Father)! He repeats this declaration to His disciples (14:7).

60. Glorified One

13:31 “Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in Him.” Whenever Jesus is glorified, God is glorified. Can this be said of any other human?