(Various texts)
Over the years I have heard many opinions about Jesus expressed by people who, at least in my presence and to my knowledge, have demonstrated no desire to put forth any effort to find out what is said or known – or can be known – about Him in any context outside of that opinion they hold to and give expression to.
There are those who, when the name of Jesus is put before them in any context other than a cuss word, will quickly put up a hand and say something along the lines of ‘I don’t want to hear it’. They simply do not want to know. If I were to presume to know their thoughts, which I cannot know, I would have to guess that they think of the name of Jesus as being connected to religion in general and they are generally against religion, so they won’t go there. Or perhaps they’ve had someone in their past who was so obnoxious with their attempts to bring that person around to their way of thinking about Jesus that now when they hear the name that is enough to make their blood pressure rise slightly and they don’t want to go there.
I suppose there could be any number of reasons people just ‘don’t want to hear it’. As I said, since they don’t want to talk, their motives can only be presumed unless they themselves want to offer further explanation. In any case, I can’t help those people.
In one of his songs, Ray Stevens said ‘there is none so blind as he who will not see’. He probably wasn’t the first to say that, but he was correct.
Then, at least in my own experience, there are the people – and I think this covers a very large percentage of unchurched, unbelieving folks at least in Western society today – who are loathe to offend but want to keep their distance, so they have adopted the politically correct posture that Jesus was a good man, some of them will go on to say ‘good teacher’ or ‘great teacher’, and some will even go so far as to elevate him to ‘one of the greatest people who ever lived’, but that is the extent of who or what Jesus was, in their opinion.
I was honored to have some quality discussion time over a brief period of several months a few years ago, with a woman who is Jewish by descent and practices her faith in her home and to the extent and degree that she can, as a person living in an area with a very small Jewish population and no access to a Synagogue.
In one of our discussions I asked her what or who she thought Jesus was. She said that as a young girl she was allowed to watch the TV mini series, “Jesus of Nazareth” in the 1970s. When she asked her mother what she was supposed to think of Jesus, being a Jewish girl, her mother told her that Jesus was a good man and a good Rabbi, and that is the opinion she has held to since.
As I said, I think this has risen like cream to the most popular of non-religious (or other religious) positions and opinions about Jesus in our time. I think the reason for this is that it usually gets someone out of having to talk further on the subject since very many Christians are also afraid of being offensive and will not want to pursue the topic to an uncomfortable level with a relative stranger.
Another reason is intuitive, I think; that if a person is self-convinced that Jesus was a good man and no more, then they have not unfairly judged someone else’s hero, and at the same time they have no more obligation to investigate or pursue him further than they would any other great historical figure who came, made his particular mark, then went the way of all flesh.
Any one of us can appear very open-minded and noble in revering Martin Luther King Jr. for who he was and all he accomplished, and we can do so in the safety and comfort of an air conditioned coffee shop, not having to fear that the police are going to knock us down with water from fire hoses or beat us with night-sticks or let their K9s chew on our calf muscles.
Now granted, there were those who were committed to the cause back in the 1960s who marched with King and paid the price. But there were a lot more who wished that black guy would go home and shut up, and obviously there were some who wanted him shut up forever.
So it was with Jesus. He had many followers while they thought He was who and what they expected Him to be. He had multitudes marching at His heels while He was healing them and miraculously feeding them.
But at the same time there were many who wished He’d shut up and go home, and there were a few who wanted Him shut up forever.
Then one day He started saying things about Himself that were uncomfortable for them to hear, and it seemed that He was calling for unlimited and unwavering commitment to Him so most of them went home. Then those who wanted to kill Jesus thought they got their way. I’m going to talk more about this before we’re done.
For now, let’s go to the various places recorded for us in the Gospels where Jesus talked about Himself. Let’s look at the claims He made about who and what He was, and as we go I think you will understand why people wanted Him dead. They didn’t want Him dead because He was a good man and a good moral teacher. There were many revered Rabbis in Israel in Jesus’ day and no one was advocating putting them on crosses because of their teaching.
I think you’re going to see that people wanted Jesus dead precisely because He was (and is) who and what He claimed to be. By the time we’re done – by the time you’re done hearing or reading this – if you have never before considered the claims of Christ and/or never come to Him in the obedience of faith and belief in who He really is, you’re either going to desire to believe, or you’re going to reject Him. You might even find yourself hating and despising Him. But I have to warn you now that you will not be able to ignore Him. One way or another, you will make a decision. I lay these things out for your consideration today because my heart’s desire is that you will end this day as you have never ended a day in your life – having been given new life that comes from above, provided to you in the very death and resurrection of the One whose claims we go now to consider.
Let’s go… and as we do remember that these are things Jesus said about Himself.
FULFILLMENT OF O.T. PROPHECY
First let’s look at what Jesus said of Himself concerning the fulfillment of Israel’s prophets.
I did not want to go back and sift through reference books just to come up with a number that may or may not impress you, but I do remember reading many years ago that there are hundreds of Old Testament prophecies that directly relate to the coming of the Messiah. The Hebrew word ‘Messiah’, which has its Greek counterpart in the word ‘Christ’ (or Christos), means Anointed One.
Ever since Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden and God promised that One who would be born of a woman would come and defeat the evil one we know of as the Devil (Gen 4:15), God’s people have believed in and looked for the coming of this Promised One – this One who would be anointed of God and sent into the world for the purpose of redeeming mankind back to right relationship with God.
Of those many Old Testament prophetic references to this Anointed One, some 35 of them were fulfilled in the person of Jesus of Nazareth on the day He was arrested, tried and crucified; none of which could have been controlled or choreographed by a mere man whose circumstances matched those of Jesus on that day. I want to list just a few of the Old Testament prophecies directly relating to the Messiah which were fulfilled in the life of Jesus, then see a couple of New Testament passages where Jesus made open claim to being the One of whom the Old Testament prophets spoke.
The Scripture references will be listed in your outline.
The Messiah would be:
Descended from Abraham Gen 12:2 Matthew 1:1
Of the line of Judah Gen 49:10 Matthew 1:2
Of the line of King David 2 Sam 7:12-16 Matthew 1:1
Virgin born Isaiah 7:14 Matthew 1:23
Born in Bethlehem Micah 5:2 Matthew 2:6
Have a ministry of miracles Isaiah 35:5-6 Matthew 9:35
Sold for 30 Shekels Zechariah 11:12 Matthew 26:15
Pierced hands and feet Psalm 22:16 John 21:25
Disfigured Isaiah 52:14 John 19:1
Buried in a rich man’s tomb Isaiah 53:9 Matthew 27:57-60
Resurrected Psalm 16:10 Matthew 26:6
I have not begun to do justice to the list; this is just a smattering.
Now we go to John 5:39-40 where Jesus is in one of His many confrontations with the religious leaders of Israel, the Pharisees. Ironically, what has incurred their wrath is that Jesus has just miraculously healed a man who had been an invalid for 38 years. He had told the man simply to rise up and pick of the pallet which had been his sick bed for almost 4 decades, and go home. The Pharisees, in their ultra-strict adherence to the Law of Moses and their tradition of doing nothing that could be construed as work on the Sabbath, were angry with Jesus for inciting the man to ‘work’ on the Sabbath by picking up his mat. They had no concern whatsoever for a man who had been made whole and well.
So in the course of this confrontation we come to these two verses of John 5 and hear Jesus making this claim to these unbelieving religious fanatics:
“You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is these that bear witness of Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me, that you may have life”
Now remember that when Jesus said ‘Scriptures’ He was talking about what we now call the Old Testament. These people spent their days diligently filling their minds, pouring over the Scriptures in search of the magic words that would ensure them a place in Heaven, but they entirely missed the fact that it was their very text book that spoke over and over again of Him.
Now let’s go to Luke 24:25-27 and see what Jesus says to His own disciples who believed in Him, but who misunderstood His mission and were downhearted and distressed over His crucifixion, thinking all their hopes had been dashed to pieces. They are walking on the road to a town located about 7 miles from Jerusalem and talking sadly among themselves. The now risen Jesus has approached them and kept them from recognizing who He was, and He has asked them what it is they are discussing. The two have sadly recounted the events of the past several days in Jerusalem and moaned that they thought this Jesus would be the one who would free their nation and become their king, and now He was dead. So Jesus says….
“O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?” Then Luke the Gospel author adds, “And beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.”
So that is the first claim of Christ we look at today. He clearly and openly claimed to be the very One who was promised in the Garden of Eden, and who the people of God had earnestly searched for ever since – of whom the prophets spoke, first in vague terms, then finally in very pointed references such as His place of birth, the nature of His ministry and His method of death and His resurrection.
If you go later and read the remainder of the 24th chapter of Luke you will see the final reaction of these two disciples and others on that day as one by one and two by two they came to know that Jesus was indeed risen from the dead.
For now, we must move on to the next claim of Jesus:
REDEEMER GIVEN BY GOD
Jesus claimed to be the gift of God to the world in that He was sent to the world to bring salvation to all who would believe.
Remember the earlier reference to the promise of God in the Garden, when He said that the seed of the woman would crush the head of the Serpent. This was received by the first couple as a promise that God would actually be the One giving this gift to the world, as is indicated in following Scripture as their actions demonstrate belief in that promise.
For a more specific reference to the common acceptance that the Promised One would be a gift from God, we go briefly to Luke chapter 2.
Jesus has been born, and 30 days later the parents have brought Him to the Temple for a simple ceremony wherein the priests would declare the mother and baby now ceremonially clean for worship in the Temple.
Luke records the following for us in chapter 2 verses 25-32
“And there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; and this man was righteous and devout, looking for the consolation of Israel; and the Holy Spirit was upon him. 26 And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. 27 And he came in the Spirit into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to carry out for Him the custom of the Law, 28 then he took Him into his arms, and blessed God, and said, 29 “Now Lord, You are releasing Your bond-servant to depart in peace, According to Your word; 30 For my eyes have seen Your salvation, 31 Which You have prepared in the presence of all peoples, 32 A LIGHT OF REVELATION TO THE GENTILES, And the glory of Your people Israel.”
So it was understood that the Messiah would be a Man who would come from God to save His people from their sins. Now we can go to a couple of passages and hear what claim Jesus made concerning Himself.
John 6:29 and verses 32 and 33
This is following Jesus having miraculously fed 5000 people on a country hillside in Galilee near the Sea of Galilee. It is the next day, and the multitudes have followed Him around to the other side of the sea looking for more food. Jesus has warned them to strive for the better ‘food’, speaking symbolically, and referring to Himself as the Bread of Life that comes down from the Father.
In other words, they want what is temporary to fill their bellies, and He is telling them to search rather for that which spiritually fills for eternity.
Here is what Jesus said in these verses, and remember that what we are presently looking for is a claim from Jesus that He has come down as a gift to the world from the Father.
“Jesus answered and said to them, ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent’.” Then in verses 32-33…
“Truly, truly I say to you it is not Moses who has given you the bread out of heaven, but it is My Father who gives you the true bread out of heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world.”
One more reference is in John 3:16-17, possibly the most well-known verses of the Bible; but in them we find the claim we are presently considering.
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. 17 “For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.”
I will leave that without further commentary; just keep in mind that Jesus was talking about Himself and He was making the personal claim that He was given to the world, that the giver was His Father in Heaven, and that He was sent for a purpose – that the world might be saved through Him.
Next:
HIS ETERNALITY/DEITY
Jesus claimed to be God. Jesus claimed all the attributes of eternal deity.
Before we go to look at the passages that support this claim I want to take just a short side trail. Just in case anyone is noticing that many of the Scripture references I’m taking you to today come from the Gospel of John, there is a reason for that. John’s stated purpose in writing his Gospel, which was written years after the other three Gospels were circulated widely throughout the churches, was to show that Jesus was God. John demonstrates over and over from the first chapter to the last that Jesus was fully God and fully Man, and therefore the nature of our study today naturally takes us to this Gospel because that is where so many direct references and personal claims of Christ are found.
So we go to John 5 once more, and read verses 14-18
“Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “Behold, you have become well; do not sin anymore, so that nothing worse happens to you.” 15 The man went away, and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. 16 For this reason the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because He was doing these things on the Sabbath. 17 But He answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working.” 18 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.”
We have come back to the account of the healing of the invalid by the pool of Bethesda at the Temple grounds in Jerusalem. Previously we focused on Jesus’ reference to the Scriptures being all about Him. Here our focus is on His claim to Deity.
First of all we cannot ignore the miracle itself. Who could simply speak a command and cause a man whose body had been in a state of atrophe for 38 years to get up completely well and walk away? No one but God. But just in case you are unwilling at this point to believe the miracle, that’s ok for now since our focus is on the claims of Christ. Just keep in mind that the confrontation He has here with the Pharisees is a direct result of a man carrying his pallet away from an area where the Bible tells us multitudes of people who were sick and lame and withered and crippled were deposited.
Then when Jesus meets the man later in the Temple He warns the man to cease sinning so that something worse does not befall him. That is very interesting. Do you realize that at this point Jesus Himself was somewhere around 32 years old? Yet He appears to have knowledge that the reason this man has been an invalid for 38 years is because of sin in his life. How could Jesus have had personal knowledge of that? And who but God could warn that something worse would befall the man if he picked up where he left off?
Then in verse 17 Jesus tells the Pharisees, “My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working”, and in response to this statement they are so angry with Him that they redouble their efforts to find an excuse to kill Jesus, because He, ‘…was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God’.
Now we could turn this into a series of sermons just to adequately cover this portion of this discourse alone. Just let me briefly explain a couple of points that directly relate to Jesus’ claim to Deity.
He said, “My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working”. This is said in response to their complaint that He worked on the Sabbath. The Sabbath day was given for man as a day of rest from his labors. It was not ever to be taken as a day in which God needed to rest.
If you are thinking now of the Creation account you may be thinking, ‘but Genesis says that God rested on the seventh day’. That is true. It says that He rested from His creative work on the seventh day, and He did so as a lesson for man that he should take a rest from his labors. Later, when God gave the ten commandments to Moses, He said to remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy. It was to be a day of worship and remembrance of God who is always the Provider of all things.
But Jesus made it clear that the Sabbath was made for man, not the other way around. God’s intent was never that man should become a slave to the Sabbath.
So when He said ‘My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working’, the point we should take away from that is that God does not cease to work for His creation. He holds it together by the power of His word. He doesn’t rest from that. He loves us everlastingly and unceasingly. He doesn’t rest from that. He is always attentive to prayer and ready to respond to the prayer of a righteous person. He doesn’t rest from that.
What was Jesus saying? God works on the Sabbath and since I am equal with God being the Son of God, I work too. If you condemn me for working on the Sabbath, then you also condemn the Father who works on the Sabbath, and that makes you the blasphemer, not Me.
Listen to John 14:6-9. Jesus is with His chosen disciples just before His arrest and crucifixion and saying some very important ‘last things’ to them before they all get separated for the events to come. In verse 6 Jesus is responding to a question Thomas has asked in his confusion about where Jesus is going that they cannot follow.
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. 7 “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him.” 8 Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
If that is not a very clear claim to eternality and deity I don’t know how it could be made plainer. We must move on…
LIFE AND THE GIVER OF LIFE
Jesus said, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day. 45 “It is written in the prophets, ‘AND THEY SHALL ALL BE TAUGHT OF GOD.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father, comes to Me. 46 “Not that anyone has seen the Father, except the One who is from God; He has seen the Father. 47 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life. 48 “I am the bread of life.” John 6:44-48
Did you hear the claim? Listen to the phrases: “I will raise him up on the last day”. “He who believes has eternal life” “I am the bread of life”.
A minute ago we read John 14:6 where Jesus declared Himself to be ‘the Way and the Truth and the Life’. He meant that apart from Him there is no life. Life itself is in Him.
As the Apostle Paul preached to the philosophers on Mars Hill in Athens, recorded in Acts 17, “He Himself gives to all life and breath and all things”.
These are pretty amazing claims for a man to be making of Himself, are they not? Who could stand in public forum today and say them and not be laughed off as a lunatic? Listen to more claims:
John 5:24
“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.”
Then we go to the tomb of Jesus’ friend Lazarus. Lazarus has died and Jesus has deliberately delayed coming until the fourth day. Lazarus has been in the grave for four days. He is decomposing now. His own sister said, “By now there will be a stench” (Jn 11:39). So there is no doubt; Lazarus is dead.
Listen to the claim of Jesus as He speaks to Martha, sister of Lazarus, in John 11:24-26
“Martha said to Him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”
My friend, I have to stop right here and say something to you, because we’re coming to the final claim that we’ll look at today and it may be the claim that at this point most directly relates to you.
Jesus has just made a claim, recorded by faithful witnesses, that in the next few moments would prove Him to be a pathetic nutcase needing to be put away for His own safety, or to be exactly who He claimed to be; the giver of life, the fulfillment of all prophecy, the eternal Deity equal with the Father, and the Redeemer of sinful men.
What are you going to do with this information? You need to decide, because immediately after making this claim He gave instructions to have the stone rolled away from the tomb of His friend, and He called a man four-days dead back to vibrant life. You don’t believe this? Disbelieve to your own peril, because it was the final act that made the Pharisees decide that no matter what He had to die and they even plotted to kill Lazarus and destroy the evidence. You can read it all in verses 47 – 53 of John 11, and chapter 12 verses 9-11.
I said earlier that I was going to come back to the point where the religious leaders wanted Jesus dead and they thought they got their way. At the end of this week wherein Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, demonstrating His power over death and the grave, Jesus Himself was arrested, tried falsely and crucified.
They thought they got their way. They didn’t know it was in His plan; that it was what He came to do. He had told His disciples that no one was taking His life from Him, but that He had authority to lay it down and to take it up again by His own power and initiative, and that is precisely what Jesus did.
They thought they got their way. But God was in absolute control.
Jesus was raised up from the earth in crucifixion, and in the shedding of His own sinless blood He became the substitutionary sacrifice for sin for all who believe. That includes those who physically put Him on the cross, and it includes everyone else, because it was for our sin that He went there.
JUDGE OF ALL
If a Man can truthfully claim to be the one spoken of and searched for through four thousand years of history, the fulfillment of all those prophecies taking place in his birth, life, death and resurrection from the dead, and if he can with a calm spirit and level head claim to be the One who by His own death would Redeem men back to right relationship with God, and assert that in Him and Him only is life eternal, then it stands to reason that this One is the only One who could claim the right to be the Judge of all mankind, making absolutely righteous judgments in every case for every person; judgments that would stand all the tests of the Holiness and Righteousness and Justice and Mercy of Heaven, as the One who sits on the Throne of Heaven itself.
This is what Jesus was telling His accusers at His false trial before the High Priest and the Sanhedrin who wrongfully judged Him in the middle of the night for fear of the people. Hear Matthew 26:62-64
“The high priest stood up and said to Him, “Do You not answer? What is it that these men are testifying against You?” 63 But Jesus kept silent. And the high priest said to Him, “I adjure You by the living God, that You tell us whether You are the Christ, the Son of God.” 64 Jesus said to him, “You have said it yourself; nevertheless I tell you, hereafter you will see THE SON OF MAN SITTING AT THE RIGHT HAND OF POWER, and COMING ON THE CLOUDS OF HEAVEN.”
By saying that they would see Him sitting at the right hand of Power, Jesus was in essence saying, I stand before your judgment seat now, but you will stand before My Judgment Seat later. And by the way, in saying that He was quoting one of those many Old Testament prophecies concerning Himself.
Hear John 5:26-29
“For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself; 27 and He gave Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man. 28 “Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, 29 and will come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.”
What has Jesus said here? What claim has He made? He has made the claim that He will be the final Judge of all things and of all mankind. He has claimed that in the end every person who has ever been born and died in all the history of the human race will be resurrected from the dead.
Can He do that? Well, if He is God, then of course He can. If in the beginning He called all things that had not previously existed into being, then why not? If He could commit an act of creation in reaching repeatedly into a basket big enough to hold a couple of small fish and several small cakes of bread and come up with enough food to feed 5000 people with leftovers, why not? If He could stand in the bow of a fishing boat on a sea tossed by a raging storm and calm nature with a two-word command, why not?
Do I actually believe He did all these things? With every fiber of my being. Why? Because He changed my hardened heart and He healed my stupid mind and if He can do that He can do anything.
Every person ever born will stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ. Those who have gone there as believers in Him, born from above in the spirit by the Spirit of God will inherit eternal life. Those who have been brought there as unbelievers who rejected Christ and hated God and demanded their own way will get their own way. They will be Judged guilty for their sin and they will enter into an eternity apart from God, apart from Christ, with only themselves and the lusts and addictions they nurtured while they were here, carrying those things with them for eternity but absolutely unfulfilled, alone, continuing for eternity to become more and more the demonic entity they began to fashion themselves into while they were here.
Listen to Jesus speaking as Judge, in the authority of the Judge of all:
Matthew 11:20-24
“Then He began to denounce the cities in which most of His miracles were done, because they did not repent. 21 “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles had occurred in Tyre and Sidon which occurred in you, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. 22 “Nevertheless I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you. 23 “And you, Capernaum, will not be exalted to heaven, will you? You will descend to Hades; for if the miracles had occurred in Sodom which occurred in you, it would have remained to this day. 24 “Nevertheless I say to you that it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for you.”
No, Jesus was no milksop. He was no pacifist and He was no raving lunatic. He spoke as One having authority and even His enemies were compelled to say in astonishment, “No man ever spoke the way this Man speaks”
There is a day on God’s calendar, a fixed and certain day, when all who have ever lived will stand before the Judgment Seat of the One who in the beginning said “Let there be light” and there was light – the One who came into this world with a plan and a mission and accomplished both perfectly and then in His glorified, resurrected body ascended bodily back into Heaven, having promised to return and gather to Himself all who have believed.
John 14:1-3
“Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. 2 “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. 3 “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.”
That is what the Judge of all has to say to His friends. Amazing claims, huh?
In bringing this to a close I want to take you all the way back up to the top; to the title of this sermon. “Consider the Claims of Christ”
If you were on your toes you may have caught this in the very beginning.
The fundamental claim that Jesus made of Himself, upon which all His other claims were framed, was that he was the Christ.
Remember that I told you early on that Messiah and Christ were the Hebrew and Greek terms meaning the same thing; Anointed One?
The name Jesus speaks of His humanity. Jesus was born of a woman, born under law, coming into this world in the same way as every other baby ever born (aside from being conceived by the Holy Spirit in a virgin).
The name Christ is a title – a designation. It might be more accurate to refer to Him as Jesus the Christ. Christ speaks of His Divinity; His Heavenly origin.
In considering the claims of Christ, really the first claim you must consider is that He claimed to be the One promised in the Garden of Eden, sought by the prophets, sent to the world out of the Father’s love, who alone gives eternal life to all who believe.
These are the claims of the Christ in the Person of Jesus of Nazareth. He made them all out of His own mouth and His faithful ones recorded them for us along with all His acts and His death, resurrection and ascension.
What is your verdict?
“You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him. 39 “We are witnesses of all the things He did both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They also put Him to death by hanging Him on a cross. 40 “God raised Him up on the third day and granted that He become visible, 41 not to all the people, but to witnesses who were chosen beforehand by God, that is, to us who ate and drank with Him after He arose from the dead. 42 “And He ordered us to preach to the people, and solemnly to testify that this is the One who has been appointed by God as Judge of the living and the dead. 43 “Of Him all the prophets bear witness that through His name everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins.” Acts 10:38-43
When I began working on this sermon I told myself that I was going to get through it without resorting to a quote by C.S. Lewis which has been used so much in recent years that it is nearing the point of being over-used. But as I come to a conclusion I find that I simply cannot avoid repeating the words that have said this truth about Jesus more succinctly and powerfully than any other statement outside of Scripture I’ve ever seen. Here it is:
“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic - on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg - or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God; or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”
In the end, my friends, we are left to either commit our lives to the One to whom we owe everything, or coldly reject Him and pay the price for that rejection. The one thing we cannot do is ignore Him.
What is your verdict?
FULFILLMENT OF O.T. PROPHECY
Gen 3:15 Gen 12:2 Gen 49:10 2 Sam 7:12-16 Isa 7:14 Micah 5:2 Isa 35:5-6 Zechariah 11:12 Ps 22:16 Isa 52:14 Isa 53:9 Ps 16:10 Jn 5:39-40 Luke 24:25-27
REDEEMER GIVEN BY GOD
Lk 2:25-32 Jn 6:29, 32-33 Jn 3:16-17
HIS ETERNALITY/DEITY
Jn 5:14-18 Jn 14:6-9 Jn 6:44-48 Jn 5:24 Jn 11:24-26, 47-53 12:9-11
JUDGE OF ALL
Matthew 26:62-64 Jn 5:26-27 Matt 11:20-24 Jn 14:1-3 Acts 10:38-43
