Series -- "Does It Matter What You Believe?"
Luke 1:1 Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us, KJV
"About the Savior"
John 1:1-14
John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 The same was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. KJV
Introduction: Today I'm preaching the second part of a series that asks the question, "Does it matter what you believe about the Savior?" There are more opinions about Jesus than I have time to share this morning. Last week I mentioned that he is recognized in several different religions as a prophet but not any greater than any other prophet, as human but not divine, as deity but not human, as a teacher and leader of men etc. but these teachings are not in agreement with what the Bible has to say. In our text there are two greats truths established as they relate to Jesus Christ.
I. The Divinity of the Word
First, John says that the Word:
a. Existed in eternity
Have you ever read or heard this first phrase before, "In the beginning...? If you read your Bible you find it is the first phrase in the entire Bible in the book of Genesis. It is the opening declaration of creation. Let's compare two verses:
Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word...
In both places it clearly means before creation, before the world was made, when as yet there was nothing. In our text the meaning is: that the "Word" had an existence before the world was created. That is, before anything was formed -- before God began the great work of creation, there was the Word. The Word is therefore an uncreated being who existed in eternity. That brings us to the very first thing that needs to be cleared up this morning as to the identity of the "Word" that is mentioned in our Scripture reading. We know this: this name is given to him who afterward became "flesh," or was incarnate John 1:14 - that is, to the Messiah. Whatever is meant by it, therefore, is applicable to the Lord Jesus Christ. Thus "logos" is the name that is applied to Jesus Christ. He is the living word whose name we find in the pages of the written word. What does John tell us about the Word and how does it establish the divinity of Jesus Christ? Second, John tells us that the Word (Jesus Christ) has:
b. Equality of fellowship with God
"...the Word was with God..." One commentary translates as follows: "having a conscious personal existence distinct from God (as one is from the person he is "with"), but inseparable from Him and associated with Him.
John 1:18 No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.
John 17:5 And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.
1 John 1:2 (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;)
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown
Paul makes it clear when he writes to the church at Philippi that the Word (Jesus Christ) existed in eternity and that He was equal with God.
Philippians 2:6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
So, what do we know so far? We know that the Word who we know to be Jesus Christ existed in eternity as an uncreated being (nothing having been created yet) and that He was "with God" with a separate consciousness but inseparable in fellowship and association.
Next, John states that the Word (Jesus Christ) is the:
c. Essence of divinity
The next thing we learn is that the Word (Jesus Christ), was God, not a subordinate to God but the very essence of God. God is the logos and the logos is God, not the second to God but Jehovah the absolute God! The divinity of Jesus Christ is one of the most well established doctrines in the Bible.
Jesus claimed this designation for himself and it is reinforced and repeated throughout the NT.
"He is not made a God, as he is said here after to be made flesh; nor constituted or appointed a God, or a God by office; but truly and properly God, in the highest sense of the word, as appears from the names by which he is called; as Jehovah, God, our, your, their, and my God, God with us, the mighty God, God over all, the great God, the living God, the true God, and eternal life; and from his perfections, and the whole fullness of the Godhead that dwells in him, as independence, eternity, immutability, omnipresence, omniscience, and omnipotence; and from his works of creation and providence, his miracles, the work of redemption, his forgiving sins, the resurrection of himself and others from the dead, and the administration of the last judgment; and from the worship given him, as prayer to him, faith in him, and the performance of baptism in his name..." John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible
Listen to the words of ¯ C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
Ill - "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 the 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."
Jesus is either a lunatic, a liar or He is Lord! Why is this important? It is important because for anyone to be saved they must believe that Jesus Christ is God, the son of the living God but more than that, He is God himself.
1 John 5:4 For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. 5 Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?
1 John 5:12 He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.
That's why it is important dear friend!
II. The Humanity of the Word
The second great truth about Jesus this morning is His humanity. Let's review what we have already learned about His divinity.
1. Before creation, Jesus (the Word) existed.
2. He (the Word) was with God in equal fellowship.
3. He (the Word) is God in His very essence.
John has said all this we believe to refute several false teachings about Jesus. There are many false teachers about today. We are warned that the antichrist will teach something about Jesus Christ that is false.
1 John 4:3 And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.
2 John 1:7 For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.
Now John declares that this Word (the logos) became flesh. John does not here say that the Logos entered into a man or dwelt in a man or filled a man.
John 1:14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
John is here referencing the Incarnation of Jesus Christ. When we consider this important doctrine it is critical that we understand that Jesus is absolutely unique in that we believe that he is both God and man, that he is divine and human. This dualism of nature is not found anywhere or with anyone else in the universe.
Hebrews 2:14 Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;
1 Timothy 3:16 And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.
Let's look at just a few things that we know about the humanity of Jesus:
a. The address as a man
There should be no controversy about the humanity of Christ just based on the fact that Jesus was called man:
For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 1 Timothy 2:5
But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God's grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! Romans 5:15
Jesus was called man, because he was a man, but there is even more indisputable proof for the humanity of Christ for he possessed
b. The attributes of a man
Whereas his divinity had no beginning, his humanity had a definite beginning. We see this in his birth.
Luke 1:31 And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. 32 He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David:
Galatians 4:4 But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,
Jesus of Nazareth had the common attributes of a man--he slept, got thirsty, ate food, died physically, was born of a human mother, etc. The reason why he did all of those things is because he was a man:
Without warning, a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. Matthew 8:24
Later, knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, "I am thirsty." John 19:28
The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. Mark 11:12
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c. His actions as a man
The last thing I would mention about his humanity is that Jesus died a physical death.
Jesus had the weight of the world on his shoulders. Even before the crucifixion began, he clearly had physical symptoms associated with severe stress. The night before the execution, his disciples reported seeing Jesus in "agony" on the Mount of Olives. Not only did he not sleep all night, but he seems to have been sweating profusely. So great was the stress that tiny blood vessels were rupturing in his sweat glands and emitting as great red drops that fell to the ground (see Luke 22:44). This symptom of severe stress is called hematohidrosis. (Learn more...)
Jesus was physically exhausted and in danger of going into shock unless he received fluids (which he apparently did not). This is the man that the Roman soldiers tortured. Having previously been beaten by the Jews, it was now the Romans' turn. The beatings administered by Roman soldiers are well known to be very bloody, leaving lacerations all over the body. Romans designed their whips to cut the flesh from their victim's bodies. These beatings were designed to be painful to the extreme. It would also cause a fluid buildup around his lungs. In addition, a crown of thorns was forced into his scalp which was capable of severely irritating major nerves in his head, causing increasing and excruciating pain, as the hours wore on.
In Christ's severely stressed condition, these beatings were easily enough to kill him. His body was horribly bruised, cut and bleeding. Having had no nourishment for many hours, and having lost fluids through profuse sweating and much bleeding, Jesus would have been severely dehydrated. This brutal torture would certainly be sending him into what doctors call "shock," and shock kills.
In addition, Jesus was forced to carry the wooden beam on which he would die. Imagine the effect of carrying a heavy weight if you were in that condition. Hung completely naked before the crowd, the pain and damage caused by crucifixion were designed to be so devilishly intense that one would continually long for death, but could linger for days with no relief.
According to Dr. Frederick Zugibe, piercing of the median nerve of the hands with a nail can cause pain so incredible that even morphine won't help, "severe, excruciating, burning pain, like lightning bolts traversing the arm into the spinal cord." Rupturing the foot's plantar nerve with a nail would have a similarly horrible effect.
Furthermore, the position of the body on a cross is designed to make it extremely difficult to breathe.
Frederick Farrar described the intended, torturous effect: "For indeed a death by crucifixion seems to include all that pain and death can have of horrible and ghastly--dizziness, cramp, thirst, starvation, sleeplessness, traumatic fever, tetanus, shame, publicity of shame, long continuance of torment, horror of anticipation, mortification of untended wounds--all intensified just up to the point at which they can be endured at all, but all stopping just short of the point which would give to the suffer the relief of unconsciousness."
One doctor has called it "a symphony of pain" produced by every movement, with every breath; even a slight breeze on his skin could bring screaming pain at this point.
Medical examiner, Dr. Frederick Zugibe, believes Christ died from shock due to loss of blood and fluid, plus traumatic shock from his injuries, plus cardiogenic shock causing Christ's heart to fail.
Conclusion: James Thompson believed that Jesus did not die from exhaustion, the beatings or the 3 hours of crucifixion, but that he died from agony of mind producing rupture of the heart. His evidence comes from what happened when the Roman soldier pierced Christ's left side. The spear released a sudden flow of blood and water (John 19:34). Not only does this prove that Jesus was already dead when pierced, but Thompson believes it is also evidence of cardiac rupture. Respected physiologist Samuel Houghton believed that only the combination of crucifixion and rupture of the heart could produce this result.
There is no question that it was painful beyond words.
Biblically, it is clear that Jesus chose and willed His moment of death. That moment was induced not by pain, emotional stress, heart attack, or any other, but by His will. Though fully human, He is also fully divine. As God, He could not die from external sources, but only of His own volition and will.
Near the end, a criminal beside him mocked, "If you are the Christ, save yourself and us." Little did this sinner know that the man he was speaking to hung there voluntarily? He was speaking to our Creator, capable of releasing all the power in the universe and beyond, and easily saving himself. Jesus remained in this agony and shame, not because he was powerless, but because of his incredible love for humanity. He suffered to provide the needed way of salvation for you and me. ChristianAnswers.net
Conclusion: Now we have two thoughts, two truths that are inseparable but inscrutable. The Word is the same with the Creator God Jehovah in eternity, equality and in His very essence but the Word is also human in every way with one exception. He was without sin. You say pastor how can it be?
CAN YOU EXPLAIN JESUS
G. Campbell Morgan summed up the diety of Christ when he said, "He was the God-man. Not God indwelling a man. Of such there have been many. Not a man deified. Of such there have been none save in the myths of pagan systems of thought; but God and man, combining in one personality the two natures, a perpetual enigma and mystery, baffling the possibility of explanation."
SOURCE: G. Campbell Morgan, The Crises of the Christ : The Seven Greatest Events of His Life. Kregel Publications; September 1989.
There is an excerpt from Dorothea Day's poem "My Captain":
"...Beyond this place of sin and tears
That life with Him! And His aid,
Despite the menace of the years,
Keeps, and shall keep me, unafraid.
I have no fear, though strait the gate,
He cleared from punishment the scroll.
Christ is the Master of my fate,
Christ is the Captain of my soul."
[SOURCE: http://www.pilgrim.demon.co.uk/alex/invictus.htm]
