Thank you, please be seated.
Would you open your Bible with me please to the Gospel of Luke as we look at a question
which Jesus asked his disciples.
In Luke 9 and verse 18 it says, and it came about that while he was praying alone, the
disciples were with him and he questioned them, saying, Who do the multitudes say that
I am?
And they answered and said, John the Baptist, and others say Elijah, but others that one
of the prophets of old has risen again.
And he said to them, but who do you say that I am?
And Peter answered and said, the Christ of God.
Let's pray.
Lord as we have focused in our singing tonight on your birth, we marvel with awe at the miracle
of the incarnation.
And tonight as we think about your person, as we seek to understand what the word teaches
about you, open our hearts.
Oh may the Spirit of the Lord be our teacher and draw us in even deeper worship of yourself.
Amen.
Seems to me that this is an important question especially in the day in which we live.
Who is it?
What the people say Jesus is.
You'll get a variety of answers to that question.
I think it's important for us to understand who Jesus Christ is and to be able to prove
it.
Someone came to me after the message a few weeks ago when I spoke about my confrontation
with the Jehovah's Witness missionary and he said, you know I believe that Jesus Christ
is God but I don't know how to argue that.
I don't know how to prove that to somebody.
Therefore I just stay away from Jehovah's Witnesses and people who might question the
deity of Christ because I'm not sure how to answer someone who denies his deity.
Well I'm not so sure that it's not good advice to stay away from those particular
missionaries because they are very clever in being able to wrap even a well grounded
Christian up in his own words.
But nonetheless all of us need to be able to understand that Jesus Christ is God and
to prove to our own satisfaction and to others, if that be possible, that in fact Jesus Christ
is God incarnate.
There are of course theologians who deny that.
I referred some weeks ago to the Jesus Seminar that was held on a local seminary campus in
St. Paul.
A hundred plus scholars who gathered together and their main theme is that Jesus Christ
never claimed to be God.
Is that so?
What does the Word of the Lord say?
No sensible person can deny the historicity of Christ.
Someone has said there is more evidence that Jesus Christ lived than there is that Augustus
Caesar lived.
I mean there is more documented evidence in the world that there was a man Jesus of Nazareth
than there was one of the greatest Caesars of the Roman Empire.
No sensible person can deny that he is a figure of history.
And no reasonable person can deny his unusual life and the influence that he has had.
In a day when people were widely scattered and not often brought together, he was able
to amass multitudes of thousands of people who wanted to come simply to hear him speak.
He changed the course of history.
Our very calendar is divided around the birth of this one.
But is he God incarnate?
That's another question.
Influential?
Historical?
But is he God come in the flesh?
Well tonight and for next Sunday and maybe a time after that as well, I want us to look
at the evidences that Jesus Christ is in fact God come in the flesh.
There is undeniable evidence that he is deity.
Tonight I'd like for you to think with me regarding the claims that he himself made.
Now I hope that you will take notes on this because some of us are going to have opportunities
to speak with people who are not sure about the deity of Christ.
And I hope that what I'm able to share with you in this brief series will give you some
evidence to use so that you can show someone what the Scriptures say regarding Jesus Christ.
Say, well, what if they don't believe the Bible?
Then that's another problem.
But we're going to make the assumption tonight that the Bible tells us accurately and truthfully
regarding Jesus Christ.
What are the evidences of his deity?
Well let's think first regarding the claims that he himself made.
Let's begin here in the Gospel of Luke by turning back to chapter 2 and verse 49.
Jesus is speaking here to Joseph and Mary in that incident when he was left behind in
Jerusalem and they found him eventually in the temple.
And his statement in verse 49 says, why is it that you are looking for me?
Did you not know that I had to be in my Father's house?
You will notice the word house is in italics or things should be in italics if that is
your translation, about my Father's things, my Father's business.
The point is here Jesus is saying, didn't you know that my priorities are those of my
Father?
That's really what he's saying to Mary and Joseph.
Now the thing that I want to point out is that Jesus claimed, number one, that God was
his Father.
Jesus made the claim that God was his Father.
I'd like you to turn over to the Gospel of John in the fifth chapter where we see some
more words regarding our Lord about this matter.
In fact there are many, many verses here where Jesus refers to God as his Father.
But let's look at verse 17.
But he answered them, John 5 17, my Father is working until now and I myself am working.
So once again Jesus asserts that God is his Father.
You say, well so what?
Well it makes a big difference.
It may not come through to us 2,000 years later as clearly as it did in that day.
But notice in verse 18 what the response of the crowd was.
For this cause therefore the Jews, here's the Jewish leaders, the Jews were seeking
all the more to kill him because he not only was breaking the Sabbath but also was calling
God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
You see the Jews of that day understood that when Jesus asserted that God was his Father
it was a claim to be equal with God.
Now if people want to argue with you about what it really means for him to call God his
Father all you have to do is point them to the crowd of that day.
If people today are confused about it be sure that the Jews in that day were not confused.
They understood exactly what Jesus was claiming, equality with God.
Now someone may say yes but you know Jesus said we could all call God our Father.
Well it is true that Jesus said that when we pray we may say our Father.
It's important as you read the New Testament to see that Jesus distinguishes between the
way you and I can call God Father and the way in which he called God Father.
Indeed when he said when you pray say our Father he was not saying your Father in mine.
When he said you may pray by saying our Father it's your Father and your Father and your
Father and your Father in that sense.
An example is found here in the Gospel of John in the twentieth chapter in verse seventeen.
Here we see it seems to me a clear example of where Jesus is drawing the line between
calling God his Father in one sense and others calling God Father in another sense.
In John twenty we have the record of his resurrection from the dead.
Notice in verse nineteen that it says, excuse me back up to verse sixteen where it says
Jesus said to her Mary and she turned and said to him in Hebrew rabboni which means
teacher Jesus said to her stop clinging to me for I have not yet ascended to the Father
but go to my brethren and say to them I ascend to my Father and your Father and my God and
your God.
Notice he does not say I am ascending to our Father and our God but he draws the distinction
your Father my Father your God my God.
You say what's the point here?
The point is that you and I today can indeed address God with this wonderful term Father
because he has caused us to be born again.
We find the source of our spiritual life in him and so we may rightly call him our Father.
He is corporately our Father, the Father of all believers.
But when that term is used of the Lord Jesus Christ it does not mean that the Son finds
his source in the Father.
The term Father and Son when applied to the first and second persons of the Godhead are
terms which describe their eternal relationship.
It is a term that describes the equality of God as Father, as Son, and as the Holy Spirit.
But it does not mean that the Son somehow finds his source in the Father.
Indeed he is equal with the Father, co-equal with the Father, and of the same substance
and essence he is God.
And this term Father clearly says that as the Jews of that day understood.
So he claimed God as his Father.
That's one thing you can point out to someone and show them that it was understood in that
day that when he made that claim he was claiming to be equal with God.
A second claim, Jesus claimed to be sinless.
We're in the Gospel of John.
Go back to the eighth chapter and look at verse 29.
John 8 and verse 29 where Jesus says, and he who sent me is with me, and he has not
left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him.
Now we would like to be able to make that statement, wouldn't we?
We long as God's born again children to be able to say I always do the things that please
God but none of us can say that.
Not the most saintly of us can say that we always do the things that please God because
we don't always.
But the Lord Jesus was able to say accurately of himself, I always do those things that
please God.
Not once in all of his life did he do one thing that displeased the Lord.
Here is a clear claim to sinlessness.
Now this is made even more clear in verse 46 where he says to this crowd, which of you
convicts me of sin?
Now what is he saying?
Well in one sense it's a rhetorical question.
He knew that there was no answer to it but he is challenging anyone there to be able
to prove some sin in his life.
He says which of you is able to convince me of sin?
The Lord Jesus Christ had no sin within him.
Now the point is that only God is sinless.
Only he has no sin.
Now turn back a few more pages in the Gospel of John to the fourteenth chapter.
And notice another claim our Lord makes along this same line in verse 30.
John 14.30, I will not speak much more with you for the ruler of this world is coming.
Who is that?
That's right, it's Satan.
Satan was coming in the people who were coming to arrest Jesus.
He says the prince or the ruler of this world is coming, and notice, and he has nothing
in me.
What does he mean?
He means that Satan has no claim on him.
There was nothing in the Lord Jesus Christ which Satan could use as an ally.
There was no part of Jesus that would cooperate with Satan.
In other words, there was no sin in him.
Not only was there no sinful action that proceeded from his life, but there was nothing of sin
in his nature.
Satan, the ruler of this world, had nothing in him.
The Lord Jesus Christ claimed to be sinless.
And that can only be said of God of deity.
Now a third claim of the Lord Jesus, and again we stay in the Gospel of John.
And we'll turn back to the fifth chapter.
I want you to notice with me that he claimed the worship of men.
John 5 and verse 22.
For not even the Father judges anyone, but he has given all judgment to the Son, in order
that all may honor the Son.
To honor, to worship, adore, revere, that's what he is saying.
And then notice he says, even as they honor the Father.
Notice that he says that.
He is here claiming the worship of men.
And he is saying, I may be adored and worshiped, indeed I should be adored and worshiped and
revered and honored, just like God the Father.
Here he is claiming the worship of human beings.
You say, well did he actually receive that in his life?
Yes indeed he did.
Turn back to the ninth chapter of the Gospel of John and see an example of that.
Verse 35.
Here we have Jesus now coming back to the man who was blind and was healed.
He had been thrown out of the Jewish faith because of what had happened to him.
And Jesus heard that they had put him out, it says in verse 35.
In finding him he said, do you believe in the Son of man?
Now perhaps next week we'll look at that title and show that that is a title of deity
as Jesus used it of himself.
That's what he means here.
Do you believe in me as the Son of man?
And he answered and said, who is he Lord that I may believe in him?
Jesus said to him, you have both seen him.
Now when was this man blinded?
From birth right?
Who was the first person he saw?
Whose was the first face that he saw?
Jesus says you have both seen him and he says, to make it even more clear, he is the one
who is talking with you.
And he said, Lord I believe.
And he worshiped him.
And notice that Jesus does not rebuke him for worshiping him.
In the book of the Revelation there are occasions when John falls down before the angels and
he is rebuked.
The angels say worship God.
They do not want worship.
If Jesus were but the angel Michael as the Jehovah's Witnesses teach, how inappropriate
it would be for him as an angel then to receive worship.
But here the Lord Jesus Christ does not rebuke this man.
He does not say, oh no, no, please get up.
Don't worship me.
But rather he fully acknowledges that in fact he is the Son of Man and he receives the worship
of this man of himself.
He claimed the worship of men for himself as God.
Another example of this is the familiar occasion when Thomas came back to that Sunday evening
service.
He missed the first Sunday evening service and came the second week.
That shows how important it is to make Sunday night services.
The second week Jesus appeared again to Thomas and to the disciples.
And Jesus invited him to stretch forth his hands and touch him.
Thomas fell on his face and he said, my Lord and my God.
But Jesus didn't rebuke him.
Jesus acknowledged, yes Thomas, you're right.
You have seen and believe, but blessed are those that have never seen and yet believe
who know who I am and worship me.
A third claim, or rather a fourth claim of the Lord Jesus Christ showing his deity.
For this we have to go to the Gospel of Matthew and the twelfth chapter.
I want to show you that Jesus claimed absolute authority over the laws and the institutions
of God.
The fourth claim of the Lord Jesus Christ which proves his deity is that he claimed
absolute authority over the laws of God and the institutions of God.
Notice Matthew 12 verse 1, at that time Jesus went on the Sabbath through the grain fields
and his disciples became hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat.
And when the Pharisees saw it they said to him, behold your disciples do what is not
lawful to do on the Sabbath.
And he said to them, have you not read what David did when he became hungry, he and his
companions, how he entered into the house of God.
And they ate the consecrated bread, that is the show bread, the bread of the presence
which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those with him, but for the priests alone.
That is what the law states.
But Jesus does not condemn David, indeed he approves what David did.
Or have you not read, he says, in the law that on the Sabbath the priests and the temple
break the Sabbath and are innocent?
On the Sabbath no one was to work, but the priests worked, they worked.
That's what Jesus is pointing out here, and yet they were declared innocent.
But I say to you that something or someone, is another possible understanding of this,
although it's neuter, the word is not masculine, something or someone greater than the temple
is here.
But if you had known what it means, what this means, I desire compassion and not sacrifice,
you would have not condemned the innocent.
For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.
My friend, the temple, the tabernacle, the bread of the presence, the Sabbath with the
laws that were associated with it, those were the institutions of God, and Jesus Christ
claims here to be the Lord of those things.
He says that he is the final authority in how those things are interpreted and applied.
This is a strong assertion of who he is as God.
He is the one who instituted these things, in other words, in the Old Testament.
And therefore he has the right to interpret them and to apply them.
And he does, and he calls himself, in the strongest terms, the Son of Man is Lord of
the Sabbath.
There are other examples of this, and I remind you just in passing of those occasions in
Matthew chapter 5, where Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount, you have heard it said,
but I say unto you.
You've heard those occasions, and he referred back to the law.
You've heard it said, you shall not kill, but I say to you.
What is he doing?
He is interpreting the law.
He is broadening the meaning of it.
And six or seven times, time after time, Jesus says, here's what the law says, but here's
what I say.
And he applies and interprets the law.
Another example of him being the Lord of the law, the one with the authority to say what
the law actually means.
He claims that for himself.
He claims it.
And then finally, I'd like for you to turn to the Gospel of John once more and the eighth
chapter.
We have here a dialogue between Jesus and the multitudes and Jesus and the Jewish leaders.
And we have a most amazing verse.
Rather than take the time to read more of the context, let me simply point to you what
verse 58 says of John 8.
Jesus said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, what?
I am.
Jesus is not merely claiming here to have existed before Abraham.
Now if he were an angel, as some of the cults say, he could have existed before Abraham.
So it's not merely enough to say that he was alive or existed before Abraham was born.
But our Lord is making an astounding claim here.
By using those two words, I am, he is associating himself, I should say he is identifying himself
as the Yahweh, Jehovah of the Old Testament, who identified himself to Moses.
I am.
Has sent you, Moses.
This is the name of God.
And Jesus is here claiming to be the I am.
And as you undoubtedly know, in the Gospel of John he elaborates on this.
I am the bread of life.
I am the way, the truth, and the life.
I am the resurrection and the life and so on.
But here he says to these Jews, I am.
Did they understand that?
Verse 59, therefore they picked up stones to throw at him.
Why?
Because in their unbelieving eyes he had just committed blasphemy, saying he was God.
And so once again if there are people who say to you, well this doesn't prove his
deity, simply point out to them that to his contemporaries, to the people who stood there
in that day and heard him say these words, indeed he was claiming to be God.
And that is my fifth point.
Jesus Christ claimed to be God.
Another example of this is found just a page or two over in the tenth chapter where he
says in verse 30, I and the Father are one.
The Jews took up stones again to stone him.
Jesus answered them, I showed you many good works from the Father, for which of them are
you stoning me?
The Jews answered him, for a good work we do not stone you, but for blasphemy, because
you being a man make yourself out to be God.
They got the point.
They didn't believe it, they rejected it, but they understood exactly what Jesus meant
when he said, I and the Father are one.
It doesn't simply mean that they agree on what's happening.
I and the Father are one of mind, no, no.
But Jesus is here saying the Father and I are of one essence.
We are one.
There is an essential unity between us.
And they understood that he was claiming to be God.
This could be asserted again and again from other texts.
Let's just turn to one more here in the Gospel of John in the nineteenth chapter.
We're talking about the claims of Jesus Christ.
Well that's not really the one I wanted.
Let's go back to Mark 14.
I think it's clearer there.
It's the same occasion, but Mark records some additional language.
Mark 14, and look here at verse, yes, verse 61.
You remember that Jesus was largely silent in the trials before his crucifixion?
In fact, verse 61 begins by saying, he kept silent and made no answer.
Again the high priest was questioning him and saying to him, are you the Christ, the
Son of the Blessed?
And Jesus said, I am.
Notice that same construction we just looked at in the Gospel of John.
I am.
And you, he says, shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of power and coming
with the clouds of heaven.
And tearing his clothes, the high priest said, what further need do we have of witnesses?
What did he mean?
He says, you've heard the blasphemy.
Tore his clothes because in the opinion of that unbelieving high priest, Jesus had just
committed blasphemy by claiming to be God.
And so the claims of Jesus Christ are these.
He claimed God as his Father.
He claimed to be sinless.
He claimed the worship of men.
He claimed absolute authority over the laws and the institutions of God.
And he claimed to be God come in the flesh.
Josh McDowell has rightly pointed out there can be only three possible explanations to
what Jesus Christ is claiming.
Either he is a liar, he is a lunatic, or he is Lord.
Those are the only options that we have.
Either Jesus Christ is absolutely a liar and is willfully deceiving us today as well as
his followers in that day, or he's telling the truth and he's God.
Now the fact is if he was a liar and he is not worthy even to be what some claim him
to be only, that is a good moral teacher.
They say that's all he is.
But my friend, if he was not truthful in saying he was God, he's not a good moral teacher
or example for anybody.
Is he a lunatic?
There's no evidence at all in the gospel record or in secular record, as little as there be,
of any abnormality or imbalance regarding Jesus Christ.
You see in fact a man who is in complete control, not only of himself, but of his circumstances.
He is not crazy.
The only other conclusion is that he is in fact Lord.
William Beterwolf said, a man who can read the New Testament and not see that Christ
claims to be more than man can look all over the sky at high noon on a cloudless day and
not see the sun.
That's right.
Jesus Christ clearly claims to be God.
And because he does, your life and mine can never be the same.
If in fact he is God as he claims to be, he is worthy of all of our worship.
There is nothing that he can ask of us that is too great.
Because he as God came into this world and went to a cross and sacrificed himself for
our sake.
When you behold the love of this God come in the flesh, you cannot withhold anything
from him.
For he is worthy, he is worthy of all.
Let's bow together.
All hail the power of Jesus' name.
Let angels prostrate fall.
Bring forth the royal diadem and crown him Lord of all.
Our Savior, our Lord, and our God.
We acknowledge that what you claimed is true.
And with Thomas of old we fall before you as it were on our faces and we exclaim, my
Lord and my God.
With that blind man who was healed, we bow down and we worship you.
And we would not withhold any area of life.
We lay aside the fussing and the feuding and the grumbling and complaining of our circumstances.
And we acknowledge that because you are God, you are able to control all of our circumstances
and where we are tonight in our lives is what you have ordained and what is best because
you are God.
We yield ourselves to you afresh and we worship you.
Amen.