"Jesus - Who Is He?"

“Jesus – Who is He?”

April 27, 2008

“When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?"

They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah ; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets."

"But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?"

Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ , the Son of the living God."

Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter , and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." Then he warned his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Christ.”

Matthew 16:13-20

A mother was busy doing her housework, washing dishing, clean floors, dusting and so on, when she noticed her four year old son really engrossed in making a picture with his color crayons. His tongue was over on the side of his mouth and his brow was wrinkled and he was really concentrating on what he was doing.

His mom asked him what he was drawing. He said, “I’m making a picture of God.”

“Oh, Honey,” his mom said, “Nobody has seen God. Nobody knows what God looks like.

Without looking up, the boy cheerful declares, “They will when I’m done!”

Don’t you love a child’s confidence? I wish I could be so confident about my message today, because the truth of the matter is that no one has seen God and no one is intelligent enough to completely explain who Jesus is. This morning, though, I am going to share four important things about Him that we can know. We can know these truths and be confident of them because He has revealed them to us.

Before I do that, let me share what we Nazarenes believe about Jesus. In our church manual, the second article of faith says,

2. We believe in Jesus Christ, the Second Person of the Triune Godhead; that He was eternally one with the Father; that He became incarnate by the Holy Spirit and was born of the Virgin Mary, so that two whole and perfect natures, that is to say the Godhead and manhood, are thus united in one Person very God and very man, the God-man.

We believe that Jesus Christ died for our sins, and that He truly arose from the dead and took again His body, together with all things appertaining to the perfection of man’s nature, wherewith He ascended into heaven and is there engaged in intercession for us.

I guess if you look real hard, you will find the four important things I am going to talk about in that statement – but let me simplify just a little bit. The first very important fact about Jesus that you need to know is:

1. He is God. Jesus is not just another religious icon. He isn’t another great teacher or spiritual leader. Jesus is God. I talked about this a few months ago. Do you remember the chart I shared with you? Here it is again: (Power Point)

It is only logical to believe in the deity of Jesus. Jesus very clear declares it. He says,

"You are not yet fifty years old," the Jews said to him, "and you have seen Abraham!"

"I tell you the truth," Jesus answered, "before Abraham was born, I am!" At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds.” John 8:58-59

Jesus used God’s name. Why? Because He was God. The Jews knew He was saying He was God – that’s why they were going to stone Him. How did He get away? He was God. Did He blind them? Did He become invisible? Did He confuse their thinking? We don’t know. But when you are in the middle of a crowd and they want to kill you – it would be pretty hard to slip away - unless you were God.

Why is it important to believe Jesus is God? Because God says,

"I am the LORD your God… You shall have no other gods before me. “ Exodus 20:2-3

If you don’t know that Jesus is God – you may put some other God or some other belief above God.

Also, who do you thank for all the beauty and good around us? Buddha? Allah? Mother earth? The bible says,

“Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” James 1:16-17