Three in One
06/02/2002 - God the Son
For Hindus he is a guru, one of many gods. For Buddhists he is an enlightened man. For Jews he is a profound teacher. For Muslims he is a great prophet. For New Age followers he's god, just like you are god and I am god. For Mormons he is the firstborn son of God. For Jehovah's Witnesses he is Michael the archangel. For followers of Christian Science he is the way shower, but not the Way.
Who is Jesus Christ? Everybody has an opinion. Everybody makes a place for Jesus. But who's right? Jesus himself was curious to find out what people thought about him and so he asked that same question to his followers in Matthew 16. If you have your Bible turn with me to Matthew 16:13-16.
When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?" They replied, "Some say John the Baptist. Others say Elijah. And still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets." But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?" Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."
In Matthew 16, Jesus takes his twelve disciples on a getaway retreat about 100 miles north of the hostile streets of Jerusalem. He takes them out of the city where his life is being threatened to a beautiful resort like setting at the base of majestic Mount Hermon, a 9,000-foot snow capped peak. And there in a very safe place, away from the maddening crowd, he asks his twelve best friends a very dangerous question.
"You guys hear the chatter on the street. What are people saying about me? Who do they think I am?" One of them says, "John the Baptist," probably because he preached about repentance and the kingdom of God. Another one says, "Elijah," because he did mighty miracles like Elijah did. Another one says, "Jeremiah," because he was so full of love and compassion like the weeping prophet.
And then he says, "Forget the crowd. What about you? What's your verdict? Who do you say that I am?"
And the apostle Peter grabs a bat, steps up to the plate and hits the ball right out of the park when he says, "You're not just a great man or a prophet of God, Jesus. You're the Christ, the Messiah, the son of the living God."
And Jesus says, "Home run! You nailed it." That's in the original Greek. In English it looks like verse 17, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven."
Who is Jesus Christ? What's your verdict? That's the question we want to answer today as we continue our three part series on God called Three in One. Last week we introduced the first person of the Trinity, God the Father, God our Heavenly Daddy. This week we want to look at God the Son and next week at God the Holy Spirit.
We said that "what comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us." And what came into our minds last week was the wonderful truth that God exists as a loving, relational community of three co-equal, eternal persons who talk to each other, listen to each other, love each other, serve each other, enjoy each other, work together, create things together, have fun together. We said imagine the best times you've ever enjoyed in your life with another person, that's just a taste of what God enjoys within himself 24/7, 365 days a year, for all eternity. God has a great thing going.
At the center of the universe is this love filled, happy home where God lives in perfect harmony and community with himself. No arguments. No conflict. No disagreements. Just love. It's the loving home we've always longed to be a part of. God is love.
And God created us not because he needed someone to love. He experiences perfect love within himself. Instead, he created us so that one day we could be part of his home, we could enjoy him forever. And we will if we take the right way home.
I love how Jesus put it in John 14:1-3, 6 when he said, In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going ... I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Jesus is the way home. He's the only way home. Do you believe that? Who do you say the Son of Man is? During our What's the Difference? series week after week we saw that what makes the Christian faith unique is Jesus. And what makes Jesus unique is his claim to be more than just a man. He's the God-man, 100% God and 100% human. And there has never been nor ever will be anyone like Jesus.
The evidence for Jesus as a historical figure is overwhelming, not just in the Bible, but in other sources as well. Josephus was a Roman historian who lived shortly after the time of Christ. And in one of his volumes he writes, "Now there was about this time, Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man, for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews, and many of the Gentiles. He was the Christ. And when Pilate, at the suggestion of principal men amongst us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at first did not forsake him, for he appeared to them alive again the third day, as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him. And the tribe of Christians so named after him, are not extinct at this day (Antiquities, XVIII, 63f)."
That's the opinion of a secular historian, a man with no axe to grind and no agenda to advance. Jesus, he says, is the Christ.
Not many people would deny the fact that Jesus was fully human. He had a human body. He got tired, he got thirsty, he got hungry, he got killed. He had human emotions. He got sad. He got angry. He laughed. He loved. H e had human experiences. He was tempted. He learned. He grew. He worked. He suffered.
Jesus' favorite term for himself was "Son of Man." He loved to identify himself with the human race. Who do people say the Son of Man is? The term is used 86 times in the New Testament, twice as many as "Son of God." Jesus was fully human except for one thing. He never did anything wrong. He never thought an evil thought. He never said an evil word. He never did an evil thing. He was perfect. He was sinless.
Hebrews 4:15 puts it this way, For we do not have a high priest (referring to Jesus) 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.
It's interesting to imagine what Jesus might have looked like. He certainly wasn't a blond haired, blue-eyed all American boy. He was Jewish, from a poor Middle Eastern family, living in a small Israeli town. Most likely he was short by today's standards anyway. He probably had thick dark hair and deep set brown eyes. He was a carpenter who worked long hours outdoors with heavy stones and splintered timbers. His shoulders were most likely broad and his arms were strong and his hands were calloused. He face was tanned and lined from exposure to the sun and the wind and the pain and the strain of his work. He wasn't superman. In fact, you probably wouldn't notice him walking down the street, just another contractor. But he was a perfect man.
Yet he was more than just a perfect man, if you can be more than just perfect. He was the perfect Son of God. He was God come in the flesh, the second person of the Trinity. His best friend on earth, the apostle John, said this about him in John 1:18, No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father's side, has made him known. "You want to know what God is like?" John says. "Then look at Jesus. He makes God known to us, because he is God the One and Only."
But how do we know that Jesus is God? That's the dividing line. That's the step that all the cults and all the other world religions refuse to take. They'll say Jesus is a great man, great teacher, great prophet, but he's not God. Let me give you four reasons, why I think it makes good sense to believe that Jesus is God. And I'll make it easy for you, because each reason begins with the letter "A."
First, his assertions. Jesus claimed to be equal with God. Turn to John 10:24-33. The Jews gathered around him, saying, "How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly?" Jesus answered, "I did tell you, but you do not believe. The miracles I do in my Father's name speak for me, but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. My sheep listen to my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all. No one can snatch them out of my Father's hand. I and the Father are one. Again the Jews picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus said to them "I have shown you many great miracles from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?" "We are not stoning you for any of these," replied the Jews, "but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God?"
Some people say that Jesus never claimed to be God. That's just not true. When he said, I and the Father are one, the Jews knew exactly what he was saying and that's why they wanted to kill him. Stoning was the death penalty for blasphemy, for anyone who claimed to be God. And Jesus was guilty of making that claim.
At his trial, before his crucifixion, he was asked point blank if he was the Messiah. Mark 14:61-62, Again the high priest asked him, "Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?" "I am," said Jesus, "And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven." Jesus claimed to be God.
Second, his actions show that he's God. Jesus did miracles, thousands of documented supernatural works that left people jumping for joy and scratching their heads. Some people think that being a Christian is boring. That's a shame because hanging around Jesus was never boring. He'd go to a party and turn water into wine. He'd go to a picnic and feed 15,000 people from a little boy's lunch pail. He'd calm the sea, he'd walk on water, he'd make the blind to see and the deaf to hear and the lame to walk, he'd set people free from years of bondage to evil that dominated their lives, he'd break up funerals and open graves and call the dead back to life. That's Jesus, not boring, instead, the most fully alive person who ever walked the planet. You want to be fully alive as a person give Jesus you're life. It will never be boring. Religion's boring, church can be boring, but not Jesus! That's one thing he could never be accused of.
Jesus did miracles. Of course, his greatest miracle was his own resurrection from the dead. He came back to life and that validated everything he claimed to be. Jesus is the only spiritual leader who has a resurrection on his resume! Moses doesn't. Buddha doesn't. Muhammad doesn't. Joseph Smith doesn't. Only Jesus.
His assertions show that he's God. His actions show that he's God. Third, his attributes show that he's God. Jesus made some outrageous claims.
In Matthew 18:20 he said, Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. Jesus claimed to be omnipresent, present at more than one place at a time.
Jesus claimed to be omnipotent, all-powerful. In Matthew 28:18, 20, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me ... and surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.
Jesus claimed to be eternal. In John 8:58 he says, I tell you the truth, before Abraham was born, I am!
Many people believe that Jesus was a great moral teacher, but not God. But great moral teachers don't get away with saying the things that Jesus said. How ridiculous it would be for me as a teacher to say, "For where two or three come together in Bruce's name, there am I in the midst of them." Or "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Bruce ... and surely I, Bruce, am with you always, to the very end of the age." Or "I tell you the truth, before Abraham was born, I am!" Or "I, Bruce, and the Father are one." Good moral teachers can't get away with saying stuff like that. Only God can.
Which is why I love the insight of C.S. Lewis who said this about Jesus, "I'm trying to prevent anyone from saying the really silly thing that people often say about Jesus, 'I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept his claim to be God.' That's the one thing we mustn't 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 the 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 a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But don't let us come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He hasn't left that open to us."
His assertions, his action, his attributes and finally, his ascriptions point to the fact that he is God. Ascriptions mean what other people said about him.
Turn to John 20:24-31. John 20 is a chapter for all of us who struggle with doubt. It's the story of doubting Thomas, the one disciple of Jesus who held out and refused to believe until he saw with his own eyes the resurrected Christ. For him seeing was believing. Look at verse 24, "Now Thomas (called Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord!" But he said to them, "Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it." A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!" Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here, see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe." Thomas said to him, "My Lord and my God!" Then Jesus told him, "Because you have seen me, you have believed, blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
God knows that we all wrestle with doubt. That's why Thomas stood in our place and did what most of us would have had to do to believe. He was our proxy. His touch was our touch. He saw Jesus and he believed. And from his lips this good Jewish boy who was brought up to believe in the great Shema, that there was only one God, says, "Jesus you are that God."
All this has led Josh McDowell to conclude in his best selling book More Than a Carpenter, "For anyone to read the New Testament and not conclude that Jesus claimed to be Divine, he would have to be as blind as a man standing outdoors on a clear day and saying he can't see the sun."
You only have three options. Jesus is either a con man or a mad man or the God Man. To me the evidence is clear.
Is your heart hungry for love, for security, for significance? Jesus said, I am the bread of life. If you want your hunger satisfied, come to me. Are you depressed, disillusioned, in despair? Jesus said, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. Are stressed out and anxious, afraid or weighed down with guilt? Jesus said, Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Do you have a problem being content and always wanting to be like somebody else? Jesus said, Follow me. Are you afraid of dying and wonder what's going to happen to you? Jesus said, I am the resurrection and the life, those who believe in me will live, even though they die. And those who live and believe in me will never die.
Let me close with the words of this anonymous piece called One Solitary Life. "Here was a man who was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another town, worked as a carpenter until he was 30, then for three and one-half years was an itinerant preacher. He never wrote a book, never owned a home, never had a family, never went to college, never held an office, never went more than two hundred miles from the place where he was born. He never did one of the things we usually attribute to greatness. He had no credentials, but himself. And while he was still a young man the tide of popular opinion turned against him, his friends ran away, one of them denied him, he was turned over to his enemies, went through the mockery of a trial and was hung upon a cross between two thieves. His executioners gambled for the only piece of property he had on earth while he was alive, and that was his coat. And when he was dead, he was taken down from that cross and laid in a borrowed tomb through the pity of a friend. Twenty wide centuries have come and gone and today he is the centerpiece of the human race, the leader of the column of progress. And I stand far within the mark when I say that all the armies that have ever marched, all the navies that have ever been built and sailed, all the parliaments that have ever sat, and all the kings that have ever reigned put together, have not affected the life of man upon this earth as that one solitary life."
So what's your verdict? Who do you say the Son of Man is?