Who is He?
John 1:1-3, 14
The movie Amistad tells the story of a group of African slaves who seize control of their slave-ship and demand to be returned to their homeland. The captain instead takes them to an American seaport where they are imprisoned. As they await the judge’s verdict, one of the men, Yamba, sits in a corner of the prison cell thumbing through the pages of a Bible. Cinque, the leader of the group, looks over and says, “You don’t have to pretend to be interested in that. Nobody’s watching but me.” Yamba looks up and says, “I’m not pretending. I’m beginning to understand it.” He cannot read English but he can make sense of the pictures. When Cinque comes over to see for himself, Yamba explains the story in their native language. “Their people have suffered more than ours” as he shows Cinque a picture of Jews being attacked by lions. He continues, “Their lives were full of suffering.” Then Yamba flips the page and points to a picture of the baby Jesus with a halo on Jesus’ head, “Then he was born and everything changed.” Cinque asks, “Who is he?” Yamba replies, “I don’t know, but everywhere he goes, he is followed by the sun.”
“Who is he?” All who encountered Jesus from the peasants of Galilee to the scribes and Pharisees of Jerusalem to the Roman soldiers were faced with the same question: Who is he? And every person through the ages when they have encountered Jesus and the Gospel have had to answer that question for themselves: Who is he? In fact according to our faith, this is the most important question you or anyone else will ever have to face? It’s important because sooner or later, whether in this world or the world to come, you will have to answer this question. Art Katz writes, “The most fundamental question concerning the Person of Christ is this— is Jesus Christ really God? Not merely, is He Divine, but, is He actually God? When I was a boy, to say you believed in the Divinity of Christ meant that you believed in the real Deity of Christ, that you believed that Jesus was actually a Divine Person, that He was God…. our question is not, is Jesus Christ Divine, but rather, is Jesus Christ God? Was that person who was born in Bethlehem 1900 years ago, and who lived 33-34 years here upon earth …, who was crucified on Calvary's cross, who rose from the dead the third day, and was exalted from earth to heaven to the right hand of the Father — was He God manifest in the flesh, was He God embodied in a human being? Was He, and is He, a Being worthy of our absolute faith and supreme love and our unhesitating obedience and our wholehearted worship, just as God the Father is…?” Who is He? How you answer that question not only determines your eternity, the quality and direction of your life but also how you live your life. If Jesus was only a man, then you can safely forget him and go on about your life without any difference or impact. But if he is the Son of God and the Savior of the world as he claimed to be, then you have nothing left to do but yield your life to him and follow and serve him in everything you do and everything you say. So who is Jesus to you?
Our readings this week include the first chapter of the Gospel of John. John has the same purpose as the other three Gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke, that is to present the earthly life, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth and identify him as the Messiah and Son of God. John writes in 20:31 “but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” The Gospels were written to help people believe in Christ and have eternal life. But each Gospel begins the story at a different point in time. Matthew begins with the birth of Jesus. Mark begins with the baptism of Jesus. Luke begins with the announcement of the angel of Jesus’ birth and the birth of John the Baptist and Jesus. But the Gospel of John goes back to the beginning of time and creation:
In the first chapter of his Gospel, John is telling us the most intimate things about Jesus that he can. First, Jesus existed before all things. This is what John means by “in the beginning.” This isn’t the only place this phrase is used. It’s used in 1 John to speak of the beginning of Christ’s ministry. It’s used in Genesis 1 to speak of the beginning of the creation and bringing the world into being. But the Gospel of John goes beyond that because John says Jesus existed even before God began creating the universe. Thus, he leads us back to the beginning of time. This means that God did not create Jesus because Jesus was a part of him from the very beginning. The Book of Revelation speaks to this when it calls Jesus “the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the Last” or the beginning and the End. This makes Jesus a co-creator of the universe as Hebrews says, it was Jesus “whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe.” So Jesus has always existed.
Second, Jesus is with God. John affirms Jesus’ separate personality and ultimately, his separate function or purpose, the one who saves. Jesus is not only with God now, he has always been with God. Thus, Jesus said, “The Father and I are one.” Third, Jesus is God. “The Word was God” or more literally, “God was the Word.” Thus, everything that can be said of God the Father can be said of the Son and vice versa. Jesus Christ was with God, and he was God. He is God, and he has a relationship with God. He is the image of God, perfectly reflecting all that God is. James Montgomery Boice writes, “In Jesus dwells all the wisdom, glory, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth of the Father. In Him, God the Father is known. In these statements, John makes clear the full divinity of Jesus. He wants us to have in our minds, fixed and clear, from the beginning of his Gospel, the eternal majesty and deity of Jesus Christ.” What we find in the other Gospel readings this week is more evidence of Jesus’ deity. God sent the angel Gabriel to Mary and said, “You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.” The virgin birth fulfilled Isaiah 7:14 and to the Romans meant that Jesus was in fact a god. Jesus is called holy and given the title the Son of God. He was born in Bethlehem and from the family of David, all pre-requisites for the Messiah according to Jews. He is called the Messiah and the Lord. A great company of the heavenly host appeared at his birth with the angel, praising God. At the Temple, Simeon, who was righteous and devout, saw Jesus as the Messiah and a prophetess named Anna gave thanks to God and spoke of Jesus as the redemption of Jerusalem. And the Scriptures say he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was on him.
Fourth, God has spoken through Jesus. The 400 years before the birth of Christ have become known as the silent years. Prior to this time, the Jews had grown accustomed to God’s continued intervention in their lives and human history. And yet from 400 years prior to the birth of Christ, there were no books of the Bible were written. Israel continued to be under foreign rule, God didn’t intervene in history and no prophets were raised up to speak on God’s behalf. But then God profoundly spoke into history and into our lives through His son, Jesus Christ as God took human form, experienced our lives, taught, ministered and healed among us and then was crucified on the cross. So John’s choice of the Greek “Logos” or the Word refers to Jesus Christ. But still we should ask, “Why did he choose to call Jesus ‘the Word?’” John calls Jesus the Word because he had come to see that God had spoken most profoundly in all of human history through his son, Jesus. Because Jesus is with God and Jesus is God, the words of Jesus are the Truth of God and the person of Jesus in his coming, and working, and teaching, and dying and rising was the final and decisive Message of God. What God had to say to us was communicated not only through the words of Jesus, but also through who Jesus was and what he did. His words and work not only clarified his identity but revealed the true nature of God: His wisdom, His glory, His power, His holiness, His love, His justice, His goodness and His truth. “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” This is why Jesus was able to say: “I am the truth,” Jesus said (John 14:6) and that he came to witness to the truth (John 18:37) and he was the truth (John 14:6). This is why He said, “If you abide in my word (in other words, follow my words and live like me), you are truly my disciples” (John 8:31), and why he called his disciples to “Abide in me” (John 15:7). Because Jesus knew if you abide in him, you will not only find life but life abundantly.
Fifth, in Jesus is God is with us. “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us…” Eugene Peterson, in his translation of the Bible, puts it this way: “The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood.” It is one thing to witness something but quite another to experience it firsthand. Take the example of the difference between watching people ride a rollercoaster and riding the rollercoaster yourself. They are two entirely different things and one is not the substitute of the other. Through Jesus becoming human, walking this journey of life experiencing all of its joys and all of its pains, God knows firsthand our life experience. Jesus came on earth to share this life with us and to let us know that we are not alone, that this God of ours is not a distant God but one who is right here with us. And even after Jesus’ death and resurrection, God’s presence is still with us through the gift of the Holy Spirit.
The deity of Jesus Christ is one of the most important doctrines of the Christian faith. It is the foundation and the basis for the gospel message and what distinguishes Christianity from all other religions in the world. No other religious or philosophical figure claimed to be God. The doctrine of the deity of Christ is unique because no other religions or philosophies speak of a god who came to earth and took on human flesh to pay the penalty of man’s debt toward God so they can be made innocent and righteous in the eyes of God. Christianity stands if Christ’s deity is true and falls if it is not. If Jesus is divine, then He is the fulfillment of Scripture. His life testifies to the trustworthiness of Scripture, the power of God, the need to worship God in spirit and in truth, and the fact that there is salvation is no other name other than Jesus (Acts 4:12). If he is God, then His death is the perfect sacrifice for our sins. Without the deity of Christ, Christianity become just another lifeless religion.
Sixth, through Jesus we come to know God. Through Jesus, God becomes your personal Savior. Bill Bright tells the story of receiving a telephone call from a friend who was working toward his doctorate in one of the most prestigious theological seminaries in America. He asked Bill if he would go with him to call on the head of the seminary, who was also one of his professors. He explained that his professor was a good man, a wonderful person, a brilliant scholar, great theologian and one of the great church historians of this century, but that he denied the deity of Christ. He had helped to train 1000’s of people to become pastors and Christian leaders. Bill agreed and when they arrived and he was introduced, the professor’s immediate response was: "Mr. Bright, when you talk to college students about becoming a Christian, what do you tell them?" Bill was skeptical of his sincerity and weighed my words carefully. But then the professor asked a second question, "Better still, what would you tell me? I would like to become a Christian?" He added that his father was a great scholar who had greatly influenced his own views but his father did not believe in the deity of Christ. He believed Jesus was a good man who had a profound influence upon the world, but was not God. About five years ago he began to reevaluate his personal beliefs and to study in earnest the writings of the church fathers and the original manuscripts concerning Jesus. The more he studied, the more convinced he became that Jesus is the Son of God." And then he asked, "Will you help me…" (and Bill said, ‘I shall never forget this phrase’) "know Him as my personal Savior?" Bill was deeply moved. He also made a profound statement: "As a result of my research," he said, "I am now convinced that no honest person who is willing to consider the overwhelming evidence proving the deity of Christ can deny that He is the Son of God. Now, will you pray for me? I want to know Jesus as my personal Savior." Bill prayed for him, my friend prayed, and he prayed. And that day a great scholar met the living Christ in the spirit of a little child. And you can too. Amen
