THE DEITY OF JESUS CHRIST
George E. Crumbly Humphrey UMC
Sunday May 21, 2006 AM
JOHN 1
I have been getting a lot of emails lately about this Da Vinci Code. I really don’t pay a whole of attention to Hollywood. The one thing I have figured out about Hollywood. Generally they are for what God is against & they are against what God is for.
(When I was a chaplain with the Alabama State Troopers I had the opportunity to visit with former Alabama Governor George Wallace the last 5 months of his life. It was always neat to visit with him. He had a notebook full of very special photographs that he loved to share with you. One of the things I found neat was a 6 page letter he wrote to Hollywood regarding the TV movie “Wallace” that starred Gary Sinese. He let Hollywood know that he did not agree with the movie as it was not correct. Most of things we saw never happened. Hollywood responded by saying they were making a movie not a documentary. However Governor Wallace enjoyed the way Gary Sinese portrayed himself.)
It is truly sad but Hollywood is not concerned about the truth.
JOHN 1: Verses 1-12
Josh McDowell makes a great case when he describes the insidious nature of the Da Vinci Code. He states, "It’s not that the majority of our churched young people aren’t interested in spiritual things and don’t want a relationship with God. They do. But they hold distorted views about God, truth, the Bible, and what it actually means to be a true follower of Christ. Consider, for example, what our churched kids do and do not believe:
*63% don’t believe Jesus is the Son of the one true God;
*81% believe all truth is relative to the individual and his/her circumstances;
*51% don’t believe Jesus rose from the dead;
*65% don’t believe Satan is a real entity.
And when they are exposed to the distortions about Christ and the Bible from The Da Vinci Code movie, their already distorted views will go from bad to worse."
This book gives the church the OPPORTUNITY to share the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. I remember back in the early 1980’s I went to my first community Easter sunrise service in Horatio Arkansas, the preacher was a young man & I remember what he said to the many different denominations that had gathered that morning. He said that the one thing we all had in common that bound us as a church was our belief in the Deity of Jesus Christ.
Today you can join a church, attend a church, pick out the songs & make arrangements for your funeral service, give to the church or do just whatever BUT if you want to spend eternity in Heaven you must accept Jesus Christ as your Saviour & you must believe in the DEITY of Jesus.
Look at what Tom Hanks had to say about this movie:
Says Da Vinci Code Movie Will Help the Church and that the movie version of Dan Brown’s best selling book The Da Vinci Code will have people flocking to the church. He say’s “I think the movie may end up helping churches do their job,” says Tom Hanks telling US magazine Entertainment Weekly. “If they put up a sign saying” ‘This Wednesday we’re discussing the gospel’ 12 people show up. But if a sign says: ‘This Wednesday we’re discussing The Da Vinci Code,’ 800 people show up”.
This film gives the church the opportunity to talk about Jesus. Nearly every newscast and radio talk program is giving heavy coverage to The Da Vinci Code. We have the opportunity to clarify some misconceptions that the film exposes. I guess the one I read that stirred me up the most & caused me to think was this one stated on page 235, "Almost everything our father taught us about Christ is false"
If you notice they aren’t denying or even taking away from God, they are tempting people to deny or even water down the DEITY of Jesus Christ. They aren’t working to keep you from believing in God THEY ARE WORKING BY DISTORTING THE TRUTH. Jesus was God in the Flesh!!
Any church that does not recognize the DEITY of JESUS CHRIST is a CULT.
JOHN 10: verses
23 And Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon’s porch. 24 Then came the Jews round about him, and said unto him, How long dost thou make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly.
25 Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believed not: the works that I do in my Father’s name, they bear witness of me. 26 But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. 27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: 28 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. 29 My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand. 30 I AND MY FATHER ARE ONE. 36 Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God? 37 If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. 38 But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him.
Again………The one thing that ties us as churches together is Jesus Christ. We may have some doctrine different, our Government maybe different but Jesus Christ is the substance that binds us together. We hear folks on TV that “Thank God” for success in their lives & we think this is neat but we should be thanking God & Jesus Christ. Many profess to know God yet they won’t have anything to do with Christ. God & Jesus are ONE.
(I saw on line the other day a pastor friend of mine doing a funeral. Usually the obit has “he was a member of such-n-such church”. But this obit did not have anything to do with the church)
This world has a lot of folks that are not associated or affiliated with a church. Just to make it from BIRTH to DEATH we don’t have to believe in Jesus Christ. You can go all the way thru life & never believe and you can possibly make it (many do). But….But…If you want to make it thru this life into Eternity the only way is thru the Blood of Jesus Christ.
Satan works now DISTORTING the truth.
