October 22, 2017
Morning Worship
Text: Luke 19:10
Subject; The Foundation Series Part 3
Title: Who is This Jesus and What Has He Done?
This is week 3 in our foundation series. My focus during this series is to take you through the fundamentals of the Christian faith and help you to be able to explain what you believe. In the process I hope to help you think of some things a little differently or at least approach them from a different angle.
This book is God’s word! Can we all agree on that? It was fully inspired by the Holy Spirit and there is nothing here that we have to worry about coming from some off the wall “prophet”. Holy men of God spoke as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
And this book, since it has come directly from God through willing vessels who wrote accordingly, tells us everything we need to know about who God is… God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit!
This week I want to share with you about Jesus – Who He is and what He has done.
And that is clearly stated in one simple verse from Luke 19:10 (NKJV)
10 for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost."
I believe this is God’s word…
I believe it is for me…
I accept it as mine…
I will appropriate it to my life today…
We know that He is the second Person of the Holy Trinity – the Son of God. As you read through the New Testament you see where Jesus was either called the Son of God or He himself declared that He was God’s Son.
You know that there are those who call themselves atheists who say they don’t believe in the existence of God. But rarely do people deny the existence of Jesus. They recognize Him as an actual historic figure who walked the face of the earth. The debate occurs with the discussion of who Jesus really was.
Almost every major world religion will tell us that Jesus was a great teacher or a prophet or a perfect example of godliness. Yet none of them take into consideration what the bible says about who Jesus is.
To begin with, in our defense of what we believe, we have to look at what the scriptures say about Jesus and what He himself has declared. One of the clearest passages we have that tells us of the divine nature of Jesus is John 1:1 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Verse 2 explains to us that the “Word” was a person. 2 He was in the beginning with God. And now, let’s jump down to verse 14. 14 And the Word became 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. If you take into consideration that John, who wrote this gospel, was a disciple of Christ, we easily come to the conclusion that John was talking about Jesus. So under the anointing of the Holy Spirit John says that Jesus was God who came to earth as man.
Again, we see the proclamation of another disciple, Peter in Matthew 16:16
16 And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
Did Jesus correct Peter? Did He want others to know the truth?
17 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.
It was these confessions that others made about Jesus being the Son of God that got Him into trouble with the religious leaders of His time. John 10:29-33
29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.
30 I and the Father are one.”
31 Again his Jewish opponents picked up stones to stone him,
32 but Jesus said to them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?”
33 “We are not stoning you for any good work,” they replied, “but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.”
At this point, did Jesus try to correct them? Do we ever see Jesus attempting to make others believe that He was just a good man, a great teacher, or a prophet?
Jesus Himself confessed it as true. He never claimed anything that He couldn’t back up with scripture and with His actions. John 14:11, 11 Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves.
So would you agree with me that the scriptures clearly state who Jesus is?
Ok, so we are storing up an understanding of who Jesus is according to scripture. Now let’s move to What He has done. And to do that let’s go back to our original scripture in Luke 19. 10 for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost."
Let’s break that down a little further.
1. Jesus came to seek… If you look at this in the same understanding that we have in Genesis 3 after Adam’s sin… God came down to the garden looking for Adam, but he hid himself. He knew that he was no longer able to stand in God’s presence. Jesus has come looking for sinners.
2. Jesus came to save… The word translated “save” is the Greek sozo (sode'-zo) v.
to save, i.e. deliver or protect… What did Jesus come to save? We have to look at it in the context of Adam’s sin. Jesus came to restore what was God’s original plan for mankind. To make us once again able to stand in His presence. To restore our rightful places as stewards or representatives for God here on earth. To restore the authority that was lost when Adam sinned.
3. to seek and to save that which was lost… the Greek word translated “lost” means to be fully destroyed. But Jesus came to make what was destroyed – our relationship with the Father – He came to make it new again. And He did that by taking the sin of all mankind upon Himself and becoming a sacrifice for us so that we do not have to pay the penalty for sin. 2 Corinthians 5:21
21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Not only did He restore our standing with God, Jesus also initiated the adoption process by which we now are called sons and daughters of the Most High God.
Romans 8:15-17
15 For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, "Abba, Father."
16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,
17 and if children, then heirs--heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.
I want to finish up with this:
As important as it is for us to be able to tell others about what we believe and why, if it is only head knowledge that we acquire in the process we have missed it. Let me explain… I could tell you about a roller coaster that I rode once when I was young and not so smart – Space Mountain in Disney World Orlando. I could tell you about how the inclined walk going up would give you glimpses of what you were about to experience. I could tell you about how it was all enclosed inside a building. I could tell you about how I didn’t realize that the ride was in the dark with very minimal lighting. I could tell you about how you couldn’t see the curves and the drops that were ahead of you and how it seemed like you left your stomach at the bottom of the last drop right before you dropped again. And I could tell you about how at the end of the ride when I got off my legs were so rubbery I could hardly walk. I could give you every detail of the ride and now you know everything about it… but it is never adequate for your understanding until you experience it.
Today I have told you some of the things that the bible says about the nature of Jesus. How He has always been, who He said He was, and what His purpose for coming was. But until you make up your mind to experience the Jesus of the bible your head knowledge has no value for you.
In order to experience the Christ of the bible two things have to happen – even for those who are already believers.
1) There must be repentance. I was meditating on healing the other day and I know that the bible says that Jesus healed everyone who came to Him. And that faith has a very large part to play in that. And yet not everyone is healed. And I asked myself why is that? We know that Jesus is still the healer – Jesus Christ is the same yesterday today and forever… Isn’t that right. But if I believe that and I’m not healed then the problem must be on God’s end because I “know” the way it is supposed to be. And by saying that, what I am saying is that I have sufficiently qualified for healing because of my faith. So somehow I have earned the right to be healed. But, by saying that you are saying that God is at fault, even though His Word says by His stripes you are healed. But what would happen if we would repent and say, “God, I thought I had it all figured out – that I somehow had acquired enough faith to be healed.” And the Lord is just saying, “Trust Me!” we kind of become like Job who thought he knew God, but the longer he went, the more he realized that he didn’t know as much as he thought. And it was when he repented that his health, his family, his riches were restored. Our attitudes should be this – God forgive me for thinking that I qualify to receive anything from you. I repent and ask you to do in me what you – the Healer – desire to do. I’m putting all my knowledge aside, because knowledge does not correspond to faith.
2) There must be submission. When you are saved you have to make Jesus not only your Savior, He must become LORD of your life. That means you are willing to do what He says, say what He says, go where He goes. No questions asked!
And I suppose that is the big question; Are you like Job who had a measure of faith in his relationship with God, but had more head knowledge.
Or would you be willing to just say to the Lord, “Not my will but Your will be done.”
C.S. Lewis in his book Mere Christianity writes the following: “I am trying here to prevent anyone from saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him [Jesus Christ]: '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 a 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 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 up with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that option open to us. He did not intend to.”
Revelation 5:11-14 (NKJV)
11 Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands,
12 saying with a loud voice: "Worthy is the Lamb who was slain To receive power and riches and wisdom, And strength and honor and glory and blessing!"
13 And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard saying: "Blessing and honor and glory and power Be to Him who sits on the throne, And to the Lamb, forever and ever!"
14 Then the four living creatures said, "Amen!" And the twenty-four elders fell down and worshiped Him who lives forever and ever.
Philippians 2:5-11 (NKJV)
5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,
6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God,
7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.
8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.
9 Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth,
11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
You know who Jesus is. What will your response be to Him today? Will you fall before Him in worship? Will you bow your knee to Him in submission? Will you confess that He is Lord to the glory of God the Father?
He is calling you today. How will you respond to Who He is and what He has done?
