Series: iAm
Names of Jesus: iGod
(As soon as I go on stage, put this slide up)
Video (That’s my king, sermon spice)
This week we start a new series called iAm. We will be looking at the names of Jesus and really asking the Lord to show us the truth about who He is in our lives.
The itune, iphone, ipod generation is pretty amazing. Apple has taken the technology world by storm over the past couple of years with their cutting edge products and exciting new gadgets.
Wouldn’t it be great if Christianity and the Love of Christ would do the same!!
Today we are looking at iGod.
One name for Jesus was the Word which we will find out is God.
We are going to look at John 1:1-2 today and hopefully we will have a new awareness of Christ in our lives.
1:1
In the beginning was the Word; and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
1:2
He was with God in the beginning.
We are going to look at 3 key things from this scripture.
The statements made in verse one are amazing. They are so far out there that I don’t know if anyone can fully understand them.
In the beginning was word. Jesus is the Word
Now one of the amazing things here is the word beginning. Beginning is used for 3 different times in the Bible.
The beginning in Genesis goes back to the creation. A specific point in time but no one knows when that specific time was.
Ussher says in his chronology of creation that the world is about 5000 years old. I don’t think he is right and quite frankly I don’t think the latest thoughts are right either.
Now they say, Ok, we have a bone that carbon dates a million years old so the earth must be a million years old.
I’m not convinced that is right either.
I have a feeling that drama was playing out on this world billions or gazillions of years ago. Imagine that, it may not all revolve around us.
Who knows how long this old earth has been around.
What we do know is that Jesus was there when it began and before it began.
It says in the beginning was the word. It doesn’t say is the word but was the word.
In other words, the word was there already when the beginning began.
It’s hard to wrap our minds around but
1. Jesus always was!
Our God is an eternal God. Not just going forward but also going back into history
We are so limited by time but God is not limited by time.
Jesus was in the beginning…and before the beginning, don’t you find that amazing to think about?
In Greek grammar, was is known as a durative imperfect and it means “continuous past action”
There isn’t a point that we can put our finger on that was when Jesus came into being..
When creation happened, that wasn’t the beginning of Jesus, he was there already. He was there for millions of years before creation, he always was!
2. Jesus was with God
Now this means he was separate from God because He was “with” God.
This is a great argument for someone who doesn’t want to believe that Jesus is God.
But the argument only holds water if it is taken out of context…look at the next verse
3. Jesus was God
He clears this up here and there is no arguing that the Word was God. They are one in the same. The diety of Christ is confirmed in this verse and the validity of the trinity is confirmed in this verse.
For those who say Jesus was just a man or a prophet or whatever, that is pure hogwash, Jesus was and is God.
This is critical for us to understand. Jesus is the God Man. He was God in the flesh. He was fully God and fully man.
Why is this important?
It is important because when we realize that Jesus was fully man, we realize that Jesus experienced all of the trials, temptations and frustrations that we experience.
Teenagers, Jesus had a mom and dad just like you do. Jesus had friends just like you do.
And yet, he never sinned. He never disrespected his parents.
He never got in the middle of the gossip with the kids around the neighborhood
Oh but David, you don’t understand what I’m going through.
Some of us adults would say, being a teen is one thing but he didn’t have to deal with the pressure to succeed and provide etc etc.
Are you kidding?
The temptation to succeed and be successful but have been enormous.
Even Satan recognized it when he tempted Jesus. He appealed to his human side when he said, I can give you all of this kingdom to rule.
How tempting would that be for us?
You can save a lot on your taxes if you just cheat a little
You can leave early and come in late because no one is watching
On and on, Jesus had the same temptation and he said, Get thee behind me
He had been fasting for 40 days and what’s the first thing satan does? He tempts him with FOOD!!!
Now, if Jesus were not fully human, as some suggest, this would not have been an issue but because he was human…this was a huge issue.
He understands our struggles Heb. 4:15
This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same temptations we do, yet he did not sin
Jesus turned Satan away again!
So we see why it is important that HE be fully human but why is it important that He is fully God.
PHIL. 2:6-8
Though he was God, he did not demand and cling to his rights as God. He mad himself nothing; he took the humble position of a slave and appeared in human form. And in human form he obediently humbled himself even further by dying a criminal’s death on a cross
It is important for us to realize that He chose to give up His position for us and He chose again to go to the cross.
Jesus is God. He wants to be our God.
If Jesus lives inside of you, you have all of Him you will ever need to do all that He has called you to do.
What is God calling you to do today? The God of all creation lives inside, what will you do with it?
Or, maybe, God isn’t you Savior and that is what you need to settle today.
