Dakota Community Church
October 18, 2009
Incomparable Christ - 1
Christ is Fully God
Adapted from a Sermon by C.H. Spurgeon
From “The First Sermon in the Tabernacle” - Delivered on Monday Afternoon, March 25th, 1861
Acts 5:42
Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ.
This morning we begin a new sermon series entitled “Incomparable Christ”; in which we will examine the biblical claims concerning Jesus’ divinity, his humanity, and his role as sole mediator between God and man.
Rather than calling it a series or sermon in its own right I am really laying the foundation upon which I intend to base all future sermons at Dakota Community Church.
Today and over the coming weeks I intend to give you the unrefined ore rather than the coin; the block of marble, not the completed work of art.
It appears that the one subject upon which men preached in the apostolic age was Jesus Christ.
They never stopped… proclaiming… that Jesus is the Christ.
How is it then that we so easily fall away from declaring the gospel?
A new book makes the Christian rounds and suddenly men who have been called to “never stop proclaiming that Jesus is the Christ” head off on a tangent and begin wasting pulpit time with every silly psychological wind or culturally relevant fad that comes down the pipe.
The tendency of man, if left alone, is continually to go further and further from God, and the Church of God itself is no exception to the general rule.
For the first few years, during and after the apostolic era, Christ Jesus was preached.
Romans 1:1,7,15
1Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God—
7To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints:
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
15That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are at Rome.
1 Corinthians 1:20-24
20Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. 22Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
Galatians 1:11-16
11I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preached is not something that man made up. 12I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.
13For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. 14I was advancing in Judaism beyond many Jews of my own age and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers. 15But when God, who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace, was pleased 16to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles…
Gradually; we know from the historical record, the Church departed from the central point, and began rather to preach ceremonials and church offices rather than the person of their Lord.
So it is in our time: we also fall into the same error.
How many of us have gone from preaching Christ to preaching helpful lessons which address congregants “felt needs”?
How many regularly preach personal interests and hobbies hoping to draw more of a crowd than we can muster with Christ and the horrible offense of the cross.
To the early church, Christ was not a person from the ancient past who had left only the example of his character behind, but who was himself dead.
To them he was not a set of ideas, not some creed, or an abstract theory.
He was a person. Many of them had seen Him, they had handled his physical body.
Christ was substance to them, too often he is but shadow to us.
He was a reality to their minds; too often but a myth to ours.
All too often we see Jesus as a person who was, rather than as he who was, and is, and is to come—the Almighty.
This morning I propose that the central subject of every sermon, the focus of each ministry here at Dakota Community Church, as long as we exist - shall be the person of Jesus Christ.
This morning then I will begin to describe our subject, Christ Jesus.
To preach Jesus Christ correctly we must preach him in his infinite and indisputable Godhead.
To do this is to invite an attack by philosophers, who make him no God at all, or by those who view Christ as a prophet, as a great man, or as an admirable example. When we declare that Jesus is GOD we will undoubtedly be assailed on every side by those who choose to draw their divinity from their own thoughts and feelings rather than from the simplicity of Holy Scripture; but what matter? Irregardless of human felling or opinion:
1. Christ is fully God.
If we take away the divinity of Christ from the gospel, we are left with no reasonable hope of salvation whatsoever.
John 1:1-3, 14
1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was with God in the beginning. 3Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4In him was life, and that life was the light of men.
14The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Remove the Word who was in the beginning with God, and who was God, and we are left with a leader who is nothing more than a pseudo enlightened example to follow - and one who was confused about his own make up and origins at that.
Without a divine Sav¬iour, our gospel is a rope of sand; a drifting soap bubble; some¬thing less substantial than a dream. If Christ were not God, he was the worst kind of impostor.
John 8:31-59
31To the Jews (read law keepers) who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
33They answered him, "We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?"
34Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. 35Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. (The Son has a permanent place in the family which is why he has the power to set you free.) 36So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. (The Son can set you free from the slavery that sin imposes) 37I know you are Abraham’s descendants. Yet you are ready to kill me, because you have no room for my word. 38I am telling you what I have seen in the Father’s presence, and you do what you have heard from your father."
39"Abraham is our father," they answered.
"If you were Abraham’s children," said Jesus, "then you would do the things Abraham did. (What did Abraham do?) 40As it is, you are determined to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do such things. 41You are doing the things your own father does."
"We are not illegitimate children," they protested. "The only Father we have is God himself."
42Jesus said to them, "If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and now am here. I have not come on my own; but he sent me. 43Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. 44You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. 45Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me! 46Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me? 47He who belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God."
48The Jews answered him, "Aren’t we right in saying that you are a Samaritan and demon-possessed?"
49"I am not possessed by a demon," said Jesus, "but I honor my Father and you dishonor me. 50I am not seeking glory for myself; but there is one who seeks it, and he is the judge. 51I tell you the truth, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death."
52At this the Jews exclaimed, "Now we know that you are demon-possessed! Abraham died and so did the prophets, yet you say that if anyone keeps your word, he will never taste death. 53Are you greater than our father Abraham? He died, and so did the prophets. Who do you think you are?"
54Jesus replied, "If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing. My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me. 55Though you do not know him, I know him. If I said I did not, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and keep his word. 56Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad."
57"You are not yet fifty years old," the Jews said to him, "and you have seen Abraham!"
58"I tell you the truth," Jesus answered, "before Abraham was born, I am!" 59At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds.
Did anyone here this morning come to us from the Father? Does anyone dare to publicly claim to be innocent of sin? Is there one who will claim to speak only what God speaks or to do only what God does? We may all be sons of God here this morning – but Jesus is GOD THE SON!
John 10:22-42
22Then came the Feast of Dedication at Jerusalem. It was winter, 23and Jesus was in the temple area walking in Solomon’s Colonnade. 24The Jews gathered around him, saying, "How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly."
25Jesus answered, "I did tell you, but you do not believe. The miracles I do in my Father’s name speak for me, 26but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. 27My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. 29My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. 30I and the Father are one."
31Again the Jews picked up stones to stone him, 32but Jesus said to them, "I have shown you many great miracles from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?"
33"We are not stoning you for any of these," replied the Jews, "but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God."
34Jesus answered them, "Is it not written in your Law, ’I have said you are gods’? 35If he called them ’gods,’ to whom the word of God came—and the Scripture cannot be broken— 36what about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world? Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said, ’I am God’s Son’? 37Do not believe me unless I do what my Father does. 38But if I do it, even though you do not believe me, believe the miracles, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father." 39Again they tried to seize him, but he escaped their grasp.
40Then Jesus went back across the Jordan to the place where John had been baptizing in the early days. Here he stayed 41and many people came to him. They said, "Though John never performed a miraculous sign, all that John said about this man was true." 42And in that place many believed in Jesus.
In that place many believed in Jesus!
He was either God incarnate or else he was an arch-deceiver of men, because he fooled many of them into believing that he was God, and in that claim He managed to bring the consequences of what they called blasphemy upon Himself.
What do you answer when someone asks you how you know there is a God or how you know Jesus is God?
Song: He walks with me, He talks with me… ??????
The apostles believed Jesus was God:
Titus 2:11-15
11For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. 12It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, 13while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, 14who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.
15These, then, are the things you should teach. Encourage and rebuke with all authority. Do not let anyone despise you.
Hebrews 1:1-8
1In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, 2but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. 3The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. 4So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs.
5For to which of the angels did God ever say, "You are my Son; today I have become your Father"? Or again, "I will be his Father, and he will be my Son"? 6And again, when God brings his firstborn into the world, he says, "Let all God’s angels worship him." 7In speaking of the angels he says, "He makes his angels winds, his servants flames of fire." 8But about the Son he says,
"Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever, and righteousness will be the scepter of your kingdom.
The skeptics and even many who claim membership in the church do not believe him to be God, they do not want him to be God - but God he is; and here, in this house, we must and will adore him.
PowerPoint available (Free of charge) on request dcormie@mts.net
