Son Of God
I Am Jesus – part 2
Video “Who Is Jesus? (sermon spice ~3:40-6:40)
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was with God in the beginning. 3Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4In him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. – John 1:1-5
Then Jesus went from Galilee to the Jordan River to be baptized by John. 14But John didn’t want to baptize him. "I am the one who needs to be baptized by you," he said, "so why are you coming to me?" 15But Jesus said, "It must be done, because we must do everything that is right." So then John baptized him. 16After his baptism, as Jesus came up out of the water, the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and settling on him. 17And a voice from heaven said, "This is my beloved Son, and I am fully pleased with him." - Matthew 3:13-17
Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before God made anything at all and is supreme over all creation. 16Christ is the one through whom God created everything in heaven and earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see--kings, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities. Everything has been created through him and for him. 17He existed before everything else began, and he holds all creation together. - Col 1:15-17 (NLT)
Prayer…
Last week – we kicked off our message series “I am Jesus.” NOW – my goal last Sunday was pretty simple. To convince everyone here that they do not know who Jesus really is…
AND AGAIN – don’t misunderstand me… I AM NOT – saying that you don’t know anything about Jesus. AND – I am not saying that what you know about Him has not impacted and changed your life… (brought hope, peace, joy, light, direction and purpose, where there had been none)… BUT LISTEN – there is so much more to KNOWING Jesus than anyone in this room could ever imagine.
Get It?
LISTEN - though we try and may even think that we have… Jesus is not easily pinned down… NOR - is He easily placed securely in a; (nice, tidy, little box) in our minds.
One of the books on my shelf about Jesus is written by a guy named Leonard Sweet and it is called; “Jesus Drives Me Crazy…” The premise of the book is just that… THAT - Jesus drives His followers crazy… HE – is so unpredictable, so hard to pin down… JUST WHEN – you think you have Jesus figured out… OUT – of nowhere He suddenly pulls a u-turn.
I MEAN – nearly everything that Jesus taught seems to be a u-turn from conventional thinking… Jesus taught that…
• The way up is down
• The way in is out
• The way first is last
• The way of success is service
• The way of attainment is relinquishment
• The way of strength is weakness
• The way of security is vulnerability & openness
• The way of protection is forgiveness (even to 7 x 70)
• The way of life is death – death to self, society, family
• Know your strengths. Why? Because that’s the only way that you can lay them down.
• God’s power is made perfect…where? In our weakness.
• Want to get the most? Go to where the least are.
• Want to be free? Give complete control to God.
• Want to become great? Become least.
• Want to find yourself? Forget yourself.
• Want honor? Think of others more then yourself
• Want to ‘get even’ with your enemies? Bless, love and pray for them
AND NOT ONLY– were the things that He taught U-turns… BUT - so were the things that Jesus did. THE CREATOR – leaving heaven to become one of us… THE KING – coming to serve and not be served,,, ALMIGHTY GOD - dying on a cross, for a sinful people… QUESTION – how do you pin down a guy who is so unpredictable…
I MEAN – talk about unpinable…
• What good shepherd would risk the survival of 99 safe sheep to find the one sheep that was lost?
• What employer would pay last-minute workers the same wage as those who had worked all day?
• What father would throw a huge party to welcome a son who blew his entire inheritance?
• What bank would reward investors who risked their clients money in the futures market while rebuking those investors who played it safe, took no risks, but protected the money entrusted to them?
• What guest would wait until the end of the party to surprise the hosts with 180 gallons of the best wine they would ever taste?
• What kind of man would forgive & pray for men who were driving 7 inch spikes into his body…
YES – Jesus Christ is unpinnable… HE – is the master of U-turns
• ONE DAY - Jesus talks about peace… THE NEXT DAY - He tells His disciples to go buy some swords…or is making a whip and overturning tables in the temple
• ONE DAY - day miracles seem to flow from Him (sometimes without Him even knowing who was healed)… AND THE NEXT DAY – His power is blocked by the people’s lack of faith.
• ONE DAY – Jesus calls out and encourages men to follow Him… AND THE NEXT DAY - He asks men who say that they want to follow him, “Are you sure” and then proceeds to discourage them…
• ONE DAY – Jesus tells those who he healed… “shsh…don’t tell anyone, I don’t want to draw attention… AND THE NEXT DAY – He stands up in the middle of the synagogue on the Sabbath and heals a man (like William Wallace picking a fight with the British).
• ONE DAY – when the crowds want to make Him King He walked away… AND – on another day He rides right into the middle of the crowd as they shout “Hosanna,”
• ON – the way to the garden Jesus told the disciples that he was the way the truth and the life… AND – a few hours later when Pilate asked him the question, “What is truth,” Jesus says nothing.
• AND - we know Jesus does not approve of drunkenness… BUT – yet his very first miracle was to turn water into wine at a wedding …
YES – Jesus is a hard guy to pin down, a hard guy to put in a box… BUT – that doesn’t stop us, does it? I MEAN, WE STILL TRY – to define, tame, control, limit mold and shape Him into our own image. HEY – have you noticed how often Jesus seems to agree with you?
IN - the first chapter of his book, ‘Jesus Revealed,’ Mark Roberts writes;
By making Jesus fit our preconceptions, we obscure who he really was and who He really is today. We miss the point of his life and message, not to mention his death and resurrection. Moreover, if we invent a pseudo-Jesus who happens to be just like us, then we completely miss the opportunity to be transformed by the real Jesus, to become more like Him and to live the life He designed for us.
(Question – anyone know what time is it?)
I’ll tell you what time it is.. IT - is time for us (it’s time for you), to take Jesus out of the box, it is time for us to stop trying to pin down, de-claw and domesticate the Lion of Judah. It’s time to…
• move past the clichés and stereotypes about Jesus
• take Jesus off the flannel board of our current understanding (because that Jesus is flat, small & 2 dimensional)
• wipe away the gloss of 20 centuries
• move beyond the coloring of our own past experience… (what we have been taught by other people & churches; what we have believed ourselves and what we have seen lived out by those who claim to know Him
It’s time - for all of us to take a fresh look at Jesus…
It’s time - to see Him through a new pair of lenses!
It’s time - to embrace Paul’s cry as our own, “I want to know Christ!”
AND – it’s time to mediate on a promise….
You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you," declares the LORD… Jeremiah 29:13,14
YES IT’S TIME – to embrace a cry, to mediate on a promise… AND – it also time to pray a prayer… An old prayer… A prayer that was prayed over 700 years ago in a small village in southern England by Saint Richard of Chichester.
Thanks be to thee, my Lord Jesus Christ,
for all the benefits thou hast given me,
for all the pains and insults thou hast borne for me.
O most merciful redeemer, friend and brother,
may I know thee more clearly,
love thee more dearly
and follow thee more nearly,
day by day. Amen.
THIS MORNING - week 2 in “I Am Jesus,” I WANT – to kick off a series of talks under the heading of… Jesus, His Person… NOW – in these talks we will be looking at some of the major titles and names of Jesus that are found within the pages of the New Testament. What did people call Him? What did He call Himself?
UNDERSTAND - you can learn a lot about people from what they are called. IF – you want to learn more about me, for example. You could find out a bunch of stuff, by listening to my various titles… IN – any given week, I am called; “Steve” “Mr Steve” “Mr Malone” “Dad” “Teacher” “Pastor Steve” “Pastor” “baby” and “hey you.” AND – if you took the time to unpack the meaning of those names & titles, you would get a pretty good idea as to of who I am.
It’s the same way with Jesus… AND – over the next few weeks, we are going to unpack some of His names… Some you are very familiar with others you may not be… BUT LISTEN – each name or title that we unpack will help us know Him more clearly.
NOW – I am not sure of how many names we will be looking at… AND – I am not sure whether I am going to talk about them all at once or just do a few and come back to the others later on in the year… (AS – I said last week when in comes specific details about this journey to know Jesus better in 05’ I am kind of clueless)… BUT – you should be encouraged by the fact, that at least I think that I kind of know what I am talking about today.
OKAY – let’s start unpacking… THE - first name or title that we are going to look at as the top of your notes indicates is; Son of God. NOW – there are just 2 points in your notes this morning… The first is;
Jesus Was (Is) God
QUESTION - how many here believe that Jesus is God? How many believe that Jesus is 1/3 of the trinity? How many believe that there is God-the Father, God-the Spirit and God the Son?
NOW – I am not at all surprised by your response. I MEAN – for most of us the fact that Jesus is God… is a no brain-er. We know that… LIKE – the lady in the video we were taught that in Sunday School and have believed it for years.
BUT UNDERSTAND – not everyone believes that Jesus is God… IN FACT - over 4 billion people in the world don’t believe it
• Muslims don’t believe Jesus is God
• Hindu’s don’t
• Buddhists don’t
• Jews don’t
• Mormons don’t
• Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t
• Most college professors don’t
• Secular society doesn’t…
SURE – they may admit that Jesus existed and that He was basically a good guy, a nice guy and some may go as far to say that he was a great moral teacher… BUT – 2/3 of the world refuses to call Him God.
NOW – if I may be so bold… ‘those 4 billion + people are all wrong!” BECAUSE - Jesus is God… AND – let me share a few reasons why I know that He is… FIRST - because of;
What Other People Said About Him…
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)
(ISAIAH - spoke 700 years before Christ’s birth and clearly said that Jesus was God… Immanuel--`God is with us.’ Mighty God, Everlasting Father those sound like Go to me) AND - the people I am going to quote now were eyewitnesses to Jesus… They knew, saw, heard and watched Jesus up close and personal)
Checkout what they said about Him…
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." 34I saw this happen, and I tell you that he is the Son of God… - John 1:29-34
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
The Apostle 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)
20And 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
Thomas
Thomas replied, "You are my Lord and my God!"
Peter
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
The second reason WHY I know that Jesus is God is because of;
What Jesus Said About Himself…
AND LISTEN – despite modern opinion and propaganda Jesus clearly said that He was God… That He and the Father were the same.
I and the Father are one. – John 10:10
Jesus replied, "Philip, don’t you even yet know who I am, even after all the time I have been with you? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father! So why are you asking to see him? - John 14:9 (NLT)
I and the Father are one
Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father!
AND – in John 8 Jesus makes this truth (that he is God) so clear… THAT - the Jewish leaders begin to pick up stones and try to kill Him. NOW - I wish that I had time to really dig into this entire chapter with you…it is sooo awesome! IN – this chapter Jesus tells the people;
• That He is the light of the world
• That if they follow him, they will not have to walk in the darkness any longer
• That he gives life
• That he was from above
• That he forgive sins
• That he is truth and that his truth would set them free
AND – not only that but in this chapter, Jesus makes 4 statements that remove any doubt whatsoever about who Jesus claimed to be… BUT – before I tell you what He said, let me rewind the tape about 1,400 years.
MOSES – is standing before the burning bush… God has called this 80 year man to come out of hiding, to leave the desert, to return to Egypt and deliver HIS people… AND – we read the following in Exodus 3:13,14;
Moses said to God, "Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ’The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ’What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?" 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.’ "
UNDERSTAND - ’I AM… Is the proper name for God in Hebrew (Yahweh…) AND – in Greek it is ‘ego emui’… (ego = I and emui = I am… “I I am”) AND - the only time these 2 words are ever combined in Scripture is when talking about the proper name of God. IN - the Greek bible, the bible that most Jews used during the time of Christ, Exodus 3:14 says – “ego emui has sent you…” That’s the word used in Isaiah 44:6;
"This is what the LORD says- Israel’s King and Redeemer, the LORD Almighty: Ego Emui is first and ego emui I am the last; apart from me there is no God.
WELL - 4 times in John 8 Jesus applies this title of God to Himself. HE FIRST – does it when the Jewish leaders object to Him saying that He was the light of the world… “Hey, we only have your word on this… and who are you… no one, so what you said is not true…”
“I am one who testifies for myself; my other witness is the Father, who sent me.” - John 8:18
I think that is pretty cool… “I’m God and I testify for me” AND – here are the other 3 times… TRY – to picture the reaction of the Jewish leaders to these words.
“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 8:24
So Jesus said, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am the one I claim to be…” – John 8:28
“I tell you the truth,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!”
JESUS – told them 4 times that he was Yahweh…. AND – this is how John says that encounter ended….
At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds.
YES – I know that Jesus is God, because of what other people said about Him and because of what He said about himself… AND LISTEN – as people are faced with these claims about Jesus there are only four possibilities. UNDERSTAND – Jesus was either a liar, a lunatic, a legend or the truth. AND – anyone who says that Jesus is not the truth, is automatically embracing one of the other three alternatives (whether they realize it or not). SO – let’s briefly look at these alternatives that 4 billion plus people around the world have embraced (and see if they hold water).
OKAY – one possibility is that Jesus lied when He said that he was God… He knew he wasn’t God but He deliberately deceived his hearers so that they would believe that He was God (so that His teaching would have more clout). NOW - few if any people seriously hold this position. I MEAN – even those who deny His deity think that Jesus was a great moral teacher. BUT UNDERSTAND - Jesus could hardly be a great moral teacher if, on the most crucial point of His teaching – His identity – he was a deliberate liar. He’d be a hypocrite because He told others to be honest, whatever the cost, while He Himself taught and lived a colossal lie. And, more than he’d be down right evil - because told people to trust Him for their eternal destiny, but he could not back up those claims (no better then David Koresh)
What about the possibility that Jesus was a lunatic… SURE – that could explain someone thinking that they are God. BUT – as we look at the life of Christ, do we see any evidence of Him being a lunatic. NO – we don’t, instead we see a someone who seems to always be in control of himself… Someone who can handle incredibly stressful situations with great composure… AND – we see someone who spoke more rational, powerful and undeniable truth then anyone who has ever lived…
OKAY - that leaves us with the possibility that Jesus claiming to be God was just a legend…
HEY – I am sure we have all heard the popular theory… SURE - Jesus lived and was a great guy… BUT - His followers got a little carried away and in the 3rd and 4th century… AND – sitting around campfires put words into His mouth that he would have been shocked to hear…
BUT LISTEN – this legend theory holds no water… BECAUSE – it is a proven fact that the Gospels were not written in the 3rd or 4th century but a mere 20-30 years after the cross. THEREFORE – people who knew Jesus were alive at the time these accounts were written… AND – if he never claimed to be God, those claims would have quickly died out.
QUESTION – how successful do you think anyone would be today who claimed that JFK said that He was God, before he was killed in 1962…? WHY – would that claim never take hold?
SO – if Jesus was not a liar, nor a lunatic or a legend… That leaves just one option… Jesus was the truth… I love how CS Lewis puts it…
"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)
AND – the 3rd reason that I know that Jesus is God is because of;
What Jesus Did…
NOW - I need to hit these pretty quick… BUT [Tim…] – Jesus did some pretty huge things! Some ego emui, Yahweh things!
1) Accepted Worship
REMEMBER – in the wilderness when satan tries to get Jesus to worship Him….AND REMEMBER – what Jesus says in response… “No way for it is written, worship the Lord your God and serve Him only…” YET – in Matthew 14 when Jesus climbs into the boat after walking on water… the storm calms and Matthew who was there writes; Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”
2) Performed miracles
IN – the N.T. we see Jesus performing all kinds of 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 Prophecies
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
NOW - 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.
Charles Colson, the former counsel of President Nixon, convicted conspirator in the Watergate scandal, writes that the Watergate cover up convinced him that Jesus rose from the dead. He said,
"THERE WERE ONLY 8 OR 10 OF US IN THE INNER CIRCLE AROUND THE PRESIDENT WHO REALLY KNEW WHAT WAS GOING ON." HE SAID, "ALL WE HAD TO DO WAS STONEWALL FOR A COUPLE OF MONTHS AND THE WATERGATE SCANDAL WOULD BE OVER. WE HAD ALL THE POWER AND PRESTIGE OF THE PRESIDENCY AT OUR FINGERTIPS. AND IF THE TRUTH BROKE THERE WOULD BE EMBARRASSMENT AND PERHAPS A PRISON SENTENCE. THERE WAS NO GRAVE DANGER. OUR LIVES WERE NOT THREATENED, BUT WE COULD NOT HOLD THE CONSPIRACY TOGETHER FOR MORE THAN 2 WEEKS. WE COULD NOT CONTAIN THE LIE. ONCE PROSECUTION WAS POSSIBLE THE NATURAL INSTINCTS OF SELF PRESERVATION WAS SO OVERWHELMING THAT THE CONSPIRATORS ONE BY ONE DESERTED THEIR LEADERS. THEY CAVED IN AND THEY STOOD IN LINE AT THE PROSECUTORS OFFICE TO ESCAPE JAIL."
COLSON CONCLUDES, "I KNOW THAT THE DISCIPLES COULD NOT PERPETUATE A LIE LIKE THE RESURRECTION, BECAUSE IT WAS NOT JUST THEIR REPUTATIONS THAT WERE AT STAKE, THEIR LIVES WERE IN DANGER. THEY HAD NO CLOUT, THEY HAD NOTHING TO GAIN BY THE LIE AND YET EVERYONE OF THEM STOOD FAST IN THE CONVICTION THAT JESUS IS ALIVE. TAKE IT FROM ONE WHO SAW FIRST HAND HOW VULNERABLE A COVER UP IS: NOTHING LESS THAN A WITNESS AS AWESOME AS THE RESURRECTED CHRIST COULD HAVE CAUSED THOSE MEN TO MAINTAIN TO THEIR DYING WHISPERS THAT JESUS IS ALIVE AND HE IS LORD!"
The tomb is empty;
“I am telling you this now before it happens, so that when it happens you will believe that I am (ego emui) He” – John 13:19
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
LISTEN – 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)… I MEAN – 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…? QUESTION – 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.”
Jesus is God! Now for the second point in your notes… AND - don’t worry it isn’t nearly as long… BUT – it is going to be fun!
What Difference Does It Make?
Whether or not Jesus is God… IT – makes all the difference in the world…
If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men. – 1 Cor 15:19
UNDRSTAND - What Paul is saying… IS - that IF Jesus is not who He claimed to be… IF – he was not God then all of it is just a huge waste of time… It’s all a lie… your sins are not forgiven… you are not going to heaven. Your prayer, worship and service are meaningless… If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men. – 1 Cor 15:19
BUT – it is not a lie… Jesus is God… HOWEVER – if I could be straight with you for a moment… EVEN THOUGH – Jesus is God, even though He did raise from the dead… Many believers are still living pitiful lives… WHY? BECAUSE – they have allowed this world to place doubts in their minds about who Jesus really is…
LOOK UP - what I am saying is, that a lot of believers (and maybe you are one of them) are NOT living like the one they; Love, Follow, Serve, Sing to and worship is God! THEY – are not living like their Jesus is the same Mighty God who caused Isaiah to fall to His knees and angels to shout, “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come! AND INSTEAD - they are living their lives as though Jesus was just a nice guy, who did nice things 2,000 years ago but is not around today to do anything significant.… I MEAN – there is no bounce in their step, no strut in their stride, no life in their hope, no confidence in their future, no security in their true identity.
BUT GUYS – it is my prayer that our time together today has removed any doubts that this world has put in your mind about who Jesus is.. [Tim…] – the Jesus that you; Love, Follow, Serve, Sing to and worship… the Jesus who said that He is your savior, your friend, that He loves you and will always be with you - is God!
• Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega… HE – is both the beginning and the end.
• He is the mighty God
• He is the everlasting Father
• He is Creator of all that we see
• He is the light of the world
• He is holy, mighty, all-powerful, all-knowing
• Jesus always has been and He always will be
• He is the eternal Rock, the Rock of ages
• He is our mighty fortress
• He is that strong tower that we can run into
• He is the Lion of Judah
• The Kings of King & Lord of Lords..
• He is uncontrollable, unstoppable and dangerous
• Jesus holds the world together…
• And he can hold our lives together…
He is huge
He is holy
He is mighty
He is God
AND – because he is God this means….that He
• Has all the answers
• Can deliver what he promised
• Provide all that we need
• Will forgive all your sins
• Can keep you from falling
• Protect you from those who seek to harm you
• He can bring peace to any conflict
• Conquer any problem
• Calm any storm
• Defeat any enemy
• What He said is true
• What He said He would do…he will
• He is faithful
• He can be trusted
• Will come back to take you to be with him forever
CHURCH
• It’s time to put some bounce in our steps
• Some strut in our stride
• Some life in our hope
• Some confidence in our future
• Some security in our true worth and identity
OUR - Jesus is God…!
AND – He is indescribable, uncontainable, Incomparable, unchangeable, all powerful and untamable…
Jesus is our amazing God!
Then we sing Christ Tomlins’ new song ‘Indescribable’
It was an awesome day!!!
