Jesus: Who Was He Really?
Once when Jesus was praying in private and his disciples were with him, he asked them, “Who do the crowds say I am?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, that one of the prophets of long ago has come back to life.” “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
-Luke 9:18-20
The most important question that you will ever be asked. The most important answer that you will ever give, is to that very question. Who do you say that Jesus is….?
Do you believe that Jesus is God? yes/no
About 4 billion in our world do not.
Those people are wrong, and I want to give a few reasons why I feel that way.
I. What Other People Said About Jesus
1) Isaiah
The Lord himself will choose the sign. Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel--`God is with us.' - Is 7:14
For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. And the government will rest on his shoulders. These will be his royal titles: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. – Is 9:6 (NLT)
2) John The Baptist
I was there and saw the Spirit come down on him like a dove from heaven. And the Spirit stayed on him. 33Before this I didn't know who he was. But the one who sent me to baptize with water had told me, "You will see the Spirit come down and stay on someone. Then you will know that he is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit." I saw this happen, and I tell you that he is the Son of God… - John 1:29-34
3) Paul
For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority. – Col 2:9,10
4) John
From the very first day, we were there, taking it all in--we heard it with our own ears, saw it with our own eyes, verified it with our own hands. The Word of Life appeared right before our eyes; we saw it happen! And now we're telling you in most sober prose that what we witnessed was, incredibly, this: The infinite Life of God himself took shape before us. We saw it, we heard it, and now we're telling you so you can experience it along with us, this experience of communion with the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ. -1 John 1:1-3 (Msg)
And we know that the Son of God has come, and he has given us understanding so that we can know the true God. And now we are in God because we are in his Son, Jesus Christ. He is the only true God, and he is eternal life. – 1 John 5:20
5) Thomas
Thomas replied, "You are my Lord and my God!"
6) Paul
Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ have received a faith as precious as ours: - 2 Peter 1:1
The Centurion
When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, “Surely he was the Son of God!” - Mt 27:54
II. What Jesus Said About Himself
Jesus Said, “I came down from Heaven ” (John 6:38)
Jesus Said, “I and the father are One (John 10:30, John 14:9)
Jesus Said, “I am much more than just a good man (Mark 10:17,18)
Jesus Said, “I Am The Son Of Man” (Matthew 8:19-21)
• Jesus uses this title for Himself more than any other title (80 times)
"In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed. – Daniel 7:13,14
Jesus said, “I am doing things that only God can do (John 10:36-39)
• Blasphemy – when a human claims to be God
Jesus said, “I AM God”
• Mark 14:61-64
• John 8:58
God said to Moses, "I am who I am . This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I AM has sent me to you.' " - Exodus 3:14
• John 10:32,33
Jesus said, “I am Sinless” (John 8:46)
Jesus said, “I can forgive sin” (Luke 7:48,49)
The son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.' - Luke 15:21
Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge. – Psalm 51:4
• Ultimately all sin is against God. Therefore only He can forgive
But he continued, "You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am the one I claim to be, you will indeed die in your sins."
- John 8:23,24
Jesus said, “Pray to me as God” (John 14:12-14)
Jesus said, “I am the Judge of all people” (John 5:24-27)
Jesus said, “I am the only way to Heaven” (John 14:6)
Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. – John 14:6
Jesus said, “I have authority over all people” (Mt 28:18-20)
• Jesus has authority over…
I know that Jesus is God, because of what other people said about Him and because of what He said about himself… And as people are faced with these claims about Jesus there are only four possibilities.
• Liar
• Legend
• Lunatic
• Lord
"I am trying to prevent anyone from 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 be either 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 a 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 him being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. (C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity)
III. What Jesus Did…
Now I need to hit these pretty quick… But Jesus did some pretty huge things!
1) Accepted Worship
Jesus said to him, "Away from me, Satan! For it is written: 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.'" - Matthew 4:10
Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, "Truly you are the Son of God." – Mt 14:33
2) Performed Miracles
Controlling nature, multiplying food, healing the sick, raising the dead… Most of the time these miracles were done right in front of skeptics. And interestingly no one ever denied that Jesus did miracles, they just tried to say that the power to do it, did not come from God.
3) Fulfilled Prophecy
There are over 100 prophecies in the OT about Jesus. Prophecies about his birth, his ministry, his teachings and his death… And because of the Dead Sea Scrolls we now have manuscripts of these prophecies that date 100 or more years before Christ birth…
In his book, Science Speaks, Peter Stoner applies the modern science of probability to just eight prophecies regarding Jesus. He says, "The chance that any man might have .fulfilled all eight prophecies is one in 10 to the 17th. That would be 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000." (one hundred quadrillion)… OKAY – that’s a big number… let’s try to get our mind around it…
• 10 to the 17th silver dollars would cover the entire state of Texas 2 feet deep
• If we marked one coin and then blindfolded a guy and told Him he had one chance to picked the marked coin
• That is the same odds as any 8 prophecies come true in the life of one man… (unless something supernatural was going on).
HEY - do you know what the odds are of 48 prophecies coming true in the life of one man? 1 in 10 to the 157th. NOW – that’s an even bigger number… a number with 157 zeros behind it. Do you know how big that number is…it’s huge. Let me put it this way there are less atoms in the universe then that number (and it takes about a million atoms to equal the width of one human hair).
AND - lets say we take one of these atoms – spray paint pink or something… Question - what do you think the odds are of someone in a spaceship (even given as much time as they wanted) reaching out from their space craft and picking out that one atom on the first try… Same odds of someone fulfilling 48 prophecies by chance…
4) Rose From The Dead
Many theories have been proposed over the years as to why the tomb is empty, all of which are weak and far fetched. And each one requires that the disciples be part of a cover up as they promoted and preached a lie.
We’ll hit this in more depth next week…
5) Spoke words like no one else in history ever has…
• Love your neighbor as yourself
• Do unto others as you would have them do to you
• Love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you
• Come unto me all who are weary and heavy burden and I w ill give you rest
6) He Changed history
Every time you write a check… every time hallmark prints a calendar… every time the AJC prints a newspaper… every time the ball drops in Times Square… People are testifying to the person and life of Jesus Christ. Think about it all time revolves around Jesus (BC/AD)…
If God ever came to earth wouldn’t you expect to live the most amazing life? Wouldn’t you expect Him to stand out among the billions of people who have ever lived…? Is there such a man?
Historian Philip Schaff described the overwhelming influence which Jesus had on both history and the world:
“This Jesus of Nazareth, without money and arms, conquered more millions than Alexander, Caesar, Mohammed, and Napoleon; without science…he shed more light on things human and divine than all philosophers and scholars combined; without the eloquence of schools, he spoke such words of life as were never spoken before or since, and produced effects which lie beyond the reach of orator or poet; without writing a single line, he set more pens in motion and furnished themes for more sermons, orations, discussions, learned volumes, works of art, and songs of praise than the whole army of great men of ancient and modern times.”
