Who is Jesus

People who were confronted with the presence of Jesus were confronted with someone they'd never met like this before, and they were constantly asking, who is this man Jesus? They could see a human being, but Jesus claimed to be far more than that, and that was difficult for them. Things have changed in our time, and it's hard for anyone around that you meet to see that Jesus was not indeed the Son of God, God living on earth. All we have a great deal of difficulty about is accepting the fact that Jesus really was a man living on this earth exactly as we, as human beings, live on this earth. The Bible does make clear that both of those are great issues, and that it addresses them. I want to read a passage from John chapter 1, you'd find that in your Bibles, to begin this morning. In this book, John is giving his version of the Christmas story. It doesn't have to do with Mary and Joseph and the shepherds, it has to do instead with Jesus himself, just him. He said in verse 1 of chapter 1 of the book of John, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made. Without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. Then I want to skip down to a little further down where he says, verse 10, He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. John says two things about Jesus. One pretty widely accepted for most people, and that was that Jesus, he calls him here the Word, because he was the one who brought the message of God to people. He was the Word from God to us, and that's why John uses this term for Jesus. In the very beginning, before anything was made, Jesus the Christ was there. He was there before anything was made. Then he says he was with God, that God the Father and the Word were together. And then he said the Word was God. Three very powerful statements he makes about the Christ who came. He wants to identify without any question before he begins the story of Jesus' life that this was indeed God who came to earth. Then he says that everything in the world that was made was made through him. All the creation, Jesus participated in that. And then he says without him, nothing was made that has been made. All the creative activity flowed through Jesus. And then he says in him was life, and that life was the light of man. He means that the human nature we have, the ability to think and reason and to make choices, our human capacities were originally in Christ himself. Remember in the book of Genesis it says let us make man in our own image. We are a constant reflection of the very nature and character of Christ who made all of the world. That's how critical his work before the creation of the world really was. Fundamental for everything we believe and everything that we do. And then John said he was in the world. And though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. So he makes that second affirmation. Jesus not only came into the world, the creator of the world, but that the world failed to recognize him as the creator. They saw him as a human being, but they did not recognize his divine nature. I think we're more inclined to be able to see the divine nature of Jesus than we are as humanity in our time. Because the divine nature of Jesus is so much part of our thinking that we kind of overlook that. Paul went on to describe exactly what this was in Philippians chapter 2, if you'd like to find that in your Bibles. Here he's dealing with this very unusual set of circumstances. What is it that this man God has come into the world? What does it mean and what is it like? How could a man be God? How could someone who lived before this world come into the world and still live here as God? And in chapter 2 of the book of Philippians, he writes a powerful passage about the nature of Christ. He actually holds this up for us as the characteristic that our life ought to have. I use this passage quite often with weddings because it describes a relationship of how one person lives and another lives with another in love. He tells that this is the quality that Christ has that he shows it in us. Chapter 2, I want to begin reading at verse 5. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus, who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped. You see, he starts this in the same way that John does. Being in his very nature God. Christ, before he came into this earth, was God. After he came into this earth, he was God. It was hard for people to recognize that. I noticed in the gospels, as I tried to keep count of that, that 29 times people who were listening to Jesus, who were watching what he was doing, the scripture says they were amazed. They could see he was a human being. They could touch him and they could listen to him and they had all the characteristics of a human life. But there was something about him that said a human being cannot be like this. They didn't quite know what it was and it was hard for them to accept. We know now what it was. He had the very nature of God in him. Jesus didn't go around saying, I'm God. He didn't have a sign on him saying, I'm God. He wanted us to be able to determine from his nature and character that he was not a normal person, that there was something different about him. And Paul caught that. And what he did on this earth, he had the very nature of God before he came and he didn't consider this equality, that's a powerful word, that Christ was equal with God, as something to be grasped. Have you ever noticed that it's easier to live with a pay raise than it is a pay cut? Have you ever noticed it's easier for people to move into a larger house than it is to move from a larger house to a smaller one? It's hard for someone who's been a very important person to give up the position of authority and power that that position has. And what the Bible says is that Christ came from being the creator of the world and the one who ruled everything to living in a human body, restricting himself to the place of one human being. He did this not by force. He didn't try to hold on to his divine position and place. He didn't grasp it in his hands till the knuckles turned white. He instead freely gave it up. Verse 7 of chapter 2 says, He made himself nothing. Now the phrase here that he used, to make nothing, in the Greek language is used to describe someone who takes a cup and turns it upside down so that what's in it is no longer there, or to take a bucket and turn it upside down so that whatever's in it is no longer there. There's nothing in it anymore. He took his godly life and nature and turned it upside down so he poured himself out so he was no longer the one in heaven who like he had been before his time on earth. He poured himself out. He emptied himself of all those things that he did before he came into this world. And he took on his life the nature of a servant. Now, when Jesus was born as a human being, he was born like all babies. We can turn and say to you, shut up, and you listen to that, but you can't say that to a baby. And when the baby's ready to eat, the baby lets you know they're ready to eat and you can't say in another hour. They have to learn and grow. Jesus was born in this world as a human being, as a baby. He came into this world nothing. No language skills, no motor skills. He poured out from being the divine ruler and creator of the universe to being a helpless baby in the arms of an adult. Poured himself out so that he was nothing. This great act of Jesus becoming a person, a human, is overwhelming when we think about it. How could he do that? But this was Paul's great picture of what had taken place. He became human, taking the very nature of a servant. And so when a child begins to grow, what do you have to tell them? Don't do that. Do this. And Jesus grew up in the family of his parents being told what to do, how to be able to live, how to be able to act. As a servant, as a child would be in that culture, he became a servant to adults all around him, not only parents but everyone else. Because he was being made in human likeness and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on the cross. He became a human who lived in this world and died. Now in the book of Luke, Luke is telling us something about the nature of what this life of Jesus was like when he came into the world. He wants us to see that Jesus was indeed, while he had been God creating the world, was on earth as God but changed in a way different than he was before. His human nature was here the same as yours and the same as mine. In Luke chapter 2, he writes in verse 52 of chapter 2, this is after Jesus had gone to Jerusalem and been in with the teachers of the law. His parents found him and brought him back home and he told them he had to be about his father's business. In this passage, Luke says, And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men. Jesus grew. We don't think of God as growing. We think of God as complete and full and everything that he has. But Jesus took on this human nature so that he grew. He grew from one size to another. From a boy who couldn't walk to a boy who could walk to a boy who could run to a boy who could play who could go to school. He developed and grew just like any normal human being would do. People around him didn't perceive anything particularly different about Jesus. When he came back to preach in his hometown after years of being away, people came to listen to him and they were really infuriated at Jesus. Because the rabbis taught and said, Well, here this passage of Scripture in the book of Isaiah. We have this rabbi that tells us what it means and this rabbi that tells us the meaning and this one that tells us the meaning. I've read all the rabbis' comments and I choose to agree with this rabbi. But Jesus didn't do that. He simply read the Scripture and said to the people, Today this prophecy is being fulfilled before your very eyes. Who in the world gave you the authority as the little snot-nosed kid who grew up in this town to stand and tell us that the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled in you? It so infuriated his people. They said, We know this kid. He grew up here. His brothers and sisters are here. We know his mother and his dad. Who does he think he is saying today the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled before you? They could not accept the reality that Jesus was more than a man. Now, let me tell you why that's important. He grew up there. They saw him. They were so convinced of his humanity that they could not accept the idea that he was anything more than another person living among them. It infuriated them so badly. You know, it's a terrible thing to say something that's blaspheming about God. And they thought he was blaspheming God. They wanted to kill him. Jesus was a human being. So human that the people who knew him best knew him as a man. But Jesus did things that made people say that there is something different about this man. And Jesus did things and said things that caused people to be amazed and say, We've never seen or heard anything like this in our lives. What the Bible wants us to understand is that the humanity of Jesus is very important to the mission that he had when he came to earth. It means that you won't face any circumstance in your life that Jesus hasn't faced. People make you mad? Yes. They made Jesus mad too. Your family not cooperate with you? His family thought Jesus was crazy and tried to divert his attention from his ministry. The people not like you? People tried to kill Jesus. Do you face trials where people are unfair to you? Jesus was killed because of lies told about him. You won't face anything in this human world that Jesus did not face himself. What Jesus came to do was to live in this world and say, I will face every circumstance that human beings face and show what great power and authority that God can do to help me go through those. Do you know what we see in Jesus that causes us to think of him not as a person? We see the divine, miraculous things that he did. Turned water into wine. Calmed the seas. Walked on the water. And we think that the qualities that Jesus displayed would indicate that he was really divine. We had a meeting some time ago or a couple of weeks ago where we sat in a group and talked about the qualities that God would have. He's all-knowing and all-powerful. And it's true that Jesus had those qualities before he came to earth. But when he came to earth, something changed. He was placed in human form and suddenly he didn't have the same qualities of godliness that he had before he came. I'll give you an example. You can go here and pray to God. And there'd be someone in Africa, the locks today, at the same time we're here, can be talking to God and he's in Africa and he's here. When Jesus came and took human form, he could only be in one place. He couldn't be like he was before everywhere in the world. He was limited in his ability to do things on this earth too. We don't know that he couldn't do them or that he chose to do them, but he never used his divine power for anything other than the kingdom of God. We don't know if he could have done everything that he did before he came to this world. But you'll notice that the temptation Satan gave to him was, use your divine power the way I think you should. You're hungry? Look at this stuff here, this food. Turn the rocks into food. Jesus refused to use his power, this great power that he had to create the world, even to make bread for himself. This divine ability in human nature was restricted in some way. Now that's hard for us to see. How is it that Jesus was not divine by all these miraculous things that he did? Well, part of the reason why we don't get that is we don't read the Old Testament very much. But when you look at the Old Testament, I found a list of miracles performed by the prophets Elijah and Elisha. And they were kind of long. There were like 24 of them that listed in the Bible. He parted the water of the Jordan River. Elisha did. A woman came to him and she was in poverty and her husband died. And he said, Go and fill your pots full of oil and water and it will turn into olive oil and you can sell them and get enough money to pay your house off and live on. Turned the water into oil, not wine, but oil. Told the woman who was not fertile she'd have a child. Raised the child from the dead. Both Elisha and Elijah raised the dead. Jesus walked on water but Elisha's man came to him and said, We were cutting wood here to build a house and I barred this axe and the head flew off and fell in the water and it fell to the ground in the water and I can't find it. Elisha told him what to do and the metal floated to the top of the water. You see, Elisha didn't do those miracles. God did. Elijah didn't do those miracles. God did. And Jesus explains in John chapter 8 exactly what his relationship with the Father really was. In chapter 5, Jesus had just gone to the pool of Bethesda and there at the pool of Bethesda there was a man who couldn't walk. Jesus goes up to the man and tells him to pick up his cot and leave. And he does. Perfectly strong. It's the Sabbath day and the religious leaders are critical of Jesus for doing this. So they start examining why Jesus did this and what He was doing. In John chapter 5, beginning with verse 19, Jesus says, I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by Himself. Let that soak into your mind. The Son can do nothing by Himself. What Jesus was saying was, it's not my human ability to create this miracle that you see, but this is something that God Himself has done. He can do, the Son can do only what He sees the Father doing. Because whatever the Father does, the Son also does. The Father loves the Son and shows Him all that He does. Jesus gives us a clear picture about how He did this work. I walked into the pool of Bethesda and the Father said, here's what I want to do, Son. I want to heal this man right here. He didn't heal all of them, but this man right here. Jesus went over to him and the Father told him what to do. And He did it. And the man was healed. You see, Jesus' miraculous actions were the very same as they were with Elisha and Elijah. It was men who listened to God and did what He told them to do. And divine power came from God to that action and did something no one else could ever do. If you skip to the last of that section where Jesus is talking to verse 30, He said after He concluded all of this discussion, By Myself, I can do nothing. Jesus started with that and He ended with it. When He says it twice, you better listen. By Myself, in My human nature, I can do nothing. Does that sound familiar to you? In My human nature, I can't administer. In My human nature, I can't teach. In My human nature, I can't witness. In My human nature, I can't whatever. What Jesus said was, My human nature does not allow me to complete and do the work of God. What I do, I judge only as I hear. What I hear coming into my head, then I decide what I need to do. And my judgment is just. It's right because I always hear what the Father tells me. For I seek not to please Myself, but Him who sent me. So I hear God say, I want you to administer the children's work. And I say to God, that's not my thing. I don't like it. I don't want to do it. And He says, you do it. And you start doing it. And miraculous things take place. That's how God works in the world. That's how He worked in Elisha. How He worked in Elijah. And how He worked through Jesus. In the story that I've been using in the book of Matthew, Jesus is telling the people about the end of time and when it's going to take place. He's talking to them about what's going to happen when the world ends. They ask Jesus to tell them when this is all going to take place. Jesus says in that story something rather astonishing. He says to them, No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Of the qualities that Jesus had, it seems as if He is saying to us, there are some things in my human form that I do not know. See, we're inclined to look at Jesus as He lived on earth and say He could walk out and do whatever He wanted to do. He tells us He couldn't. He could only do what the Father told Him to do. We tend to think of Jesus on earth as being all-knowing. He walked into a situation. He knew what was going to happen. He knew what the people were going to do. He knew that the storm was going to come up. But Jesus tells us there were things that He did not know the Father had not told Him. You see, Jesus lived a human life like you and I live. What we look at as divine things as a result of Jesus' obedience and openness to the Father. The Father is willing to tell you all the things that He wants to do around you too, if you'll just listen. He's willing to tell you the things He wants to do if you'd be willing to do them. But if you're not listening to God and you're not willing to do what He tells you, why would He want to talk to you? Jesus, you see, said, I'm willing to listen to what the Father has to tell me and I'm willing to do whatever He asks. I don't know how hard it was for Him to say when the Father said... We don't know the conversation between Jesus and His Father when He said, the guys out there are in trouble in that boat. I want you to walk out there and save them. We don't know if Jesus had been practicing walking on water or not. My guess is He hadn't. But when the Father told Him to take His step on the water, He trusted Him so much that He just started walking. And because the Father had told Him that's what He wanted Him to do, He gave Him in that moment the ability to do something beyond any capacity that a human being could ever do. You see, what you see in Jesus' life is a man completely surrendered to the authority and power of God. And because he was listening to God and living in obedience to God, he heard what God wanted him to do. And because when he heard that, he did it, the power of God came and created things that happened in his life that no human being could ever do. It wasn't unique to Jesus. If you look at all the stories about Jesus' life, you will discover in the Old Testament almost every one of the miracles that was performed by Jesus was performed by someone else in the Old Testament. Why? Because the same God in the Old Testament is in the New Testament. Now, let me tell you this. And the same God that was in the Old Testament and in the New Testament is here. What's missing? A man of the devotion of Elisha and Elijah and a man of the devotion of Jesus. For the power of God is not limited by God, but the willingness of people to trust Him. I have heard what you've asked of me and I will do it no matter how stupid or how foolish or how much I'm afraid I'm going to fail. And then when you start, take that first step, you realize the water is solid and your foot is secure. But who wants to walk off the end of the dock with people looking around and see you go under? How will you explain your stupidity? So who wants to go out and talk to someone about Jesus and how He can change their life and look stupid and foolish and be embarrassed? Even though it's come to your mind ten or fifteen times that you should go talk to this person, but each time you think, oh no, I mean I can't do that, I mean I'll call Doyle, he'll do that, you know. And so no miracles occur. You see what Jesus did when He came into this world was He lived the same life that you and I live. Guys, Jesus was tempted with lust just like you are. He was lonely growing up. He had no woman in His life. He had no family. He had no home. But He didn't let that stop Him in His faithfulness and obedience to the Father. What Jesus did was come and live in this world and say to all of us, you can do it too. The writer of Hebrews was reflecting on who Jesus was and what He did when He wrote this for us to explain exactly how important it was. He said, For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses. If you've done something extraordinary, I mean really difficult, it may be as an athlete that you've done something that no one else has ever been able to accomplish. Or maybe as a human being in some other field you've done something that no one else has been able to achieve. You are the only one who knows exactly how hard it is to do that. You think you know how hard it is to resist sin? No, you don't. Because there's not one of us who's ever resisted it completely. You want to find out how hard it is to resist sin, talk to somebody who's never given in to it. And then you'll find out how hard it is. So we have a high priest in Christ who is now in heaven who knows exactly how difficult it is for you to live in this world. He knows how hard it is for you to turn the other cheek. He knows how hard it is to pray for your enemies. He knows how hard it is to forgive people who are killing you. He knows how hard it is to be misunderstood. He knows how hard it is to work hard to make your life and your ministry and then when it's over and you're hanging on the cross, look out there and there's not a single person who's standing there with you but your own mother. He knows what it's like to be abandoned. He knows what it's like to be a loser in the world's eyes. There's not a single thing in the world God will ever ask any of us to do that Jesus hadn't done it. The only difference is he succeeded in doing it. I don't mean he was successful in the world's terms but he succeeded in doing exactly what the Father told him to do. We explain our sin away so simply. Well, it's too hard or I can't do it or I can't figure it out. It doesn't make sense. We have all these reasons why we sin. There's only one. Only one. I do not trust God. For if I do what I know God wants me to do, I can project with my own brilliance the disaster that will come. So I just have to say, Lord, I've read this and I'm in Scripture and I know you're a good person and I know you meant well but you're wrong. And I'm going to go ahead and do what seems right to me. That's what Jesus was talking about. I do not do what seems right to me. I do not do what seems good to me. I do what the Father tells me to do. And Jesus knows what it takes to do that. So you're living your life. You won't run up against anything. You can't sit down and say to God, Okay, here's one I can't do. What should I do? And he will tell you and you can do it. We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses but we have one who has been tempted in every way just as we are yet without sin. He knows what it's like to win those sinful battles. He faced them just like you and I do and he won every single one of them. He's the only one in the history of the world who's won every single battle with the devil. Every trick he could throw at him, every turn that he could give him, he won every one of them. What the Bible tells us is that God made the world and that Jesus was right there with him when it was created. He had all the power and authority to do that. He knew all the things that the Father knew but he came in a human form and had to leave behind many of those qualities of God. And he became a helpless human being on this earth who could do nothing except depending on the power of the Father to give him wisdom and to give him power. And he trusted the Father so much in his human form that he changed the entire course of human history. Why did he do this? Two things. One is he wants to help us to know that we're not in this deal alone. If you try to live a life of righteousness and holiness, every place you step will be the footprints of Jesus himself. He's already been there. If you run against something you can't figure out, all you have to do is stop and say, see now he's everywhere, Lord, I don't know what to do about this one. And he'll tell you. Now it won't always be the answer you want but he'll tell you. And if you have the courage to just do it instead of explaining to him why you can't, you will discover the miraculous power of God in your life. Elisha found it. Elijah found it. Jesus found it. And Paul found it. And you can find it. That's why Jesus came in human form to show us how to be able to live. Another thing, all of us are sinners and someone has to pay for our rebellion. And he came with this perfect life and he said to the Father, I know the consequences for sin and I lived in this world without it. I give my life in place of Doyle's. And he was killed for no reason except that I should have been and you should have been. And if you will receive me as your Lord and Redeemer, I will make you my child and I will say to the Father all the sins that Doyle has, I paid for. I want you to write beside his name paid in full. I couldn't do that. I never could. But only Jesus, the sinless man, could do it. The Bible tells us something powerful and strong that Jesus came and lived in this world in the same way we do. He didn't know everything and he didn't have all power but he trusted the Father completely and totally. And what looked like a man who had miracle power in his hands was only a man who had the very presence of the Father completely in control of his life. And you know what he said? If any of you want this, you come and follow me. Deny yourself. Take up your cross and do what I tell you. And you will discover the same life that I had. Would you bow your heads please for a moment? What Jesus comes to offer us is the life he had in this world. The life that had victory over sin, over temptation. A life of victory that only God can give. But there's one thing that is required. You must trust God so much that you will do whatever he tells you. If you've been living your life believing in God but doing the things that you read in the Scripture that you think will work or that you think won't embarrass you or that will be convenient to your own mind and your own choices, then you need to stop and say, I need to live a life of complete devotion to God to get this right. I'm sure all of you believe in God. But with Jesus, have you given him your full entire life? That's what he asks. And you're never going to find the life that you know is possible by reading the story of Jesus' life until you do what Jesus did Without him, I'm nothing. Without him, I can do nothing. But with him, everything is possible. And the only way you can have him is to completely surrender your life to his authority. So I'm begging you today, if you've never said that to God, I give you everything in my life. I'm asking you to do that right now. We will help you know how to begin to grow in your own spiritual life just as Jesus grew. Scripture said he grew in favor with God and man. How do you grow in favor with somebody? You make mistakes and you improve. We'll teach you that. But you have to want it. There may be something God is asking you to do. I want you to say to him, OK. Lord Jesus, you're the only one that knows what you're saying to the people in this room. But I want you to make your voice clear and plain. And I want to ask you to give the people in this room the confidence to trust you instead of themselves. As we sing this invitation hymn, I want you to say to the people you're talking to, here's what I want you to do. So they know it. And I want to ask that they'd be ready to do whatever you've asked. If you want them to come and publicly say I give my life to you, let them know that. This is your time, Lord. You speak to us. In the name of Jesus we ask it. Amen. Would you stand please as we sing. I'll be here at the front if you want to come and share a promise you want to make to God. Debbie will be here. Carl will be here. You let God control this moment of your life. Lord Jesus, I long to be perfectly whole. I want Thee forever to live in my soul. Break down every idol, cast out every foe. Now wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. Whiter than snow, yes, whiter than snow. Now wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. Lord Jesus, for this I most humbly entreat. I wait, blessed Lord, at Thy crucified feet. I faint for Thy cleansing, I see Thy blood flow. Now wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. Whiter than snow, yes, whiter than snow. Now wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. Oh, Lord Jesus, we trust You that because of our willingness to do what You've asked that everything in our life will be changed, the sin will be taken away, and the life of fullness will come. I ask, Father, if there are any of us who have resisted what You've said to us today, that You'd be patient with us. We are learning, and sometimes we need to think these things through. But don't leave us. Keep telling us the truth that we might know the way of life. In the name of Jesus Christ, we ask this. Amen. I say yes, Lord, yes, to Your will and to Your way. I say yes, Lord, yes, I will trust You and obey. When the Spirit speaks to me, with my whole heart I'll agree, and my answer will be, Lord, yes.