It is the truth of His being, the Christ, the Son of the living God.
And it is that doctrine of the deity of Jesus Christ that we have been looking at on some
Sunday evenings here recently, and tonight we're going to continue that for the minutes
that we have left in our service time tonight.
I invite you to turn with me to Mark chapter 1.
How do we know that Jesus Christ is God?
If He is not God, then our faith is in vain, however sincere our faith may be.
However large our anchor may be, if Jesus Christ is not God, He is unable to save us.
For our Savior must be God as well as man.
Of course, the truth that the Bible teaches us that He is both God and man.
How do we know He's God?
Well, we've looked at some of the claims of Christ.
We've talked about His character, and we've just begun speaking about the works of our
Lord that show that He is God.
We've talked about His forgiving sin.
Only God can forgive sin because sin primarily is against God, not against others.
Now, it is against others indirectly.
And what it impacts others, obviously there are some consequences of that.
Sinfulness can be broken.
We need to be reconciled.
There needs to be forgiveness.
But the basic direction of sin is against God, and only God can forgive it ultimately.
The Lord Jesus Christ said that He forgave the sin of people.
The apostles never did that because they could not forgive sin.
But Jesus did forgive sin, and He proved that He forgave sin by then performing miracles
to back up His claim that He could forgive.
He said it's easy to forgive sin or to say that, but it's not so easy to tell those who
are lame to take up their bed and walk.
And to the one whose sins He had forgiven, He said, take up your bed and walk, and the
man did it.
Now we want to look again in the Gospel of Mark in the first chapter.
And I want you to notice that not only did He forgive sin, but we see here that He had
power over demons.
Look in verse 21.
They went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath He entered the synagogue and
began to teach.
And they were amazed at His teaching, for He was teaching them as one having authority
and not as the scribes.
And just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried
out saying, What have we to do with you, Jesus of Nazareth?
Have you come to destroy us?
I know who you are, the Holy One of God.
And Jesus rebuked him saying, Be quiet and come out of him.
And throwing him into convulsions, the unclean spirit cried out with a loud voice and came
out of him.
And they were all amazed, so that they debated among themselves saying, What is this?
A new teaching with authority.
He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey Him.
Our Lord Jesus Christ has authority over demonic powers, here called unclean spirits.
Here is a man who was in a synagogue, he was undoubtedly a religious man, that's probably
why he was there.
But he was a man who was possessed, he was demonized.
Spirits of darkness, the powers of Satan had overcome him, so much so that they controlled
his personality, his expressions, etc.
And notice that they cried out, they initiated this confrontation by recognizing him not
only as Jesus of Nazareth, but calling him the Holy One of God.
These spirits said, We know who you are, the Holy One of God.
That is not an accidental title, that is a purpose title, an understood title among those
people in that day in particular, comes directly out of the Old Testament, it was a name for
Jehovah God.
Those spirits said to him, We know who you are, the Holy One of God.
That was premature for that to be announced, Jesus said to them, Be quiet.
And then He said, Come out of him.
And they had no choice but to obey Him, because of who He was, He was their Creator.
Their Creator, He created them righteous, but they fell with Satan.
And so now, unrighteous, unclean, unholy spirits, they perform wicked acts through the body
of this man.
And Jesus says to them, and there was apparently a group of them, not just one, He said, Come
out of him, and with convulsive signs and a scream, the spirits departed from the man.
Of course, those who were there recognized this was something unusual.
This didn't happen every day in the synagogue.
You could go to a lot of Sabbath meetings and never see something like this, because
God is there, you see.
Jesus Christ is there, He delivers a man.
He has power over demons.
Now that is repeated a number of times in the Gospels.
I point out one example of it.
We see other examples of that, but another step, beginning in verse 29, where we see
He has power over disease.
Immediately after they had come out of the synagogue, they came into the house of Simon
and Andrew with James and John.
This Simon, of course, is Simon Peter and Andrew, his brother, who led him to Christ.
And James and John, another set of brothers, were there.
Now Simon's mother-in-law, what does that tell you about Simon?
It may tell you a lot, but it tells you one thing.
He's married.
It says Simon's mother-in-law was lying sick with a fever, and immediately they spoke
to him about her.
And he came to her and raised her up, taking her by the hand, and the fever left her, and
she waited on them.
And when evening had come, after the sun had set, they began bringing to him all who were
ill and those who were demon-possessed.
And the whole city had gathered at the door, and he healed many who were ill with various
diseases and cast out many demons.
So here we see that our Lord not only has power over demons, because He is their Creator,
He has power over disease.
He is able to deliver from disease.
Jesus did not heal every sick person in that day.
He did not do that.
He does not heal every sick person today.
But He can heal, and He does heal, yet today, because He has power over disease.
Disease is present in the world because of mankind's sin.
Our fallenness in sin has produced disease as part of it, part of the curse, the judgment
upon sin.
God has the power to deliver from that judgment, from disease.
And He does it here, and of course, many other examples of it as well.
But not only disease, He has power as well over death.
Turn over to chapter 5.
Look in verse 22, and one of the synagogue officials named Jairus came up, and upon seeing
him fell at his feet and entreated him earnestly, saying, My little daughter is at the point
of death.
Please come and lay your hands on her, that she may get well and live.
And he went off with him.
And then they were interrupted.
We won't take time to read that, but there was a woman who trusted for a healing.
As she touched with the hem of his garment, she was healed.
And then it says in verse 38, And they came to the house of the synagogue official, ultimately,
and he beheld a commotion and people loudly weeping and wailing, which was a typical external
means of indicating sorrow and grief.
And they began laughing, and entering in, he said to them, Why make a commotion and
weep?
The child has not died, but is asleep.
And they began laughing at him.
But putting them all out, he took along the child's father and mother and his own companions
and entered the room where the child was.
You say, Well, was she really asleep?
Well, as far as our Lord was concerned, yes.
As far as the medical facts were concerned, she was dead.
But in our Lord's presence, death cannot exist really as death, can it?
And so he uses a picture or a metaphor of death.
He calls her but asleep.
And taking the child by the hand, verse 41, he said to her, Talatha koum, which translated
means little girl, I say to you arise.
And immediately the girl rose and began to walk, for she was twelve years old.
And immediately they were completely astounded.
You can imagine.
Suppose you had been there.
Wouldn't it have been thrilling to have been in that room?
And to see Jesus take that little girl's hand and speak to her in a very loving and tender
way, little girl, I say to you get up.
There are a few things that get to me as deeply and as quickly as the death of a child.
I remember several years ago when I was serving as a police chaplain on a volunteer basis
down in Kentucky.
I received a call that there was a family that was in the emergency room at Booth Hospital.
And there was a need for my presence immediately.
And so I went down to the hospital and the nurses explained to me that a little girl,
eight years old, had fallen into the Ohio River and had drowned.
And they had been able to get her out of the water.
They brought her to the hospital.
They attempted to revive her but she died.
And they said her body is in the next room and beyond that in another room is her family
and they need comforting.
So I walked through the first room and as I did there was this little eight year old
girl laying there on the table.
Beautiful blonde little girl who was dead.
And I tell you as I walked past her body how I wished that it would have been possible
to take her by the hand and say little girl get up.
I want to take you into your family.
But of course I couldn't do that.
What a thrill it would have been to have been there in that day with that little girl who
was dead too, twelve years old, was there in the room.
Everybody knew she was dead.
They were mourning.
And Jesus entered in and He manifested His power over death.
Now He did that several times in His life.
There were many people who died in that day.
He did not choose to resuscitate them to bring them back to life.
He only did that on a few occasions.
But He did it to manifest His power over death.
My friend, only God has that power.
Only God can do that.
The devil cannot do that.
Man cannot do that.
When the door of death slams shut it stays shut.
It's sealed to man.
You say, what happened in Columbus, Ohio the other day with that man who was seventy-some
years old and was dead thirty minutes and hiccuped.
And they decided that maybe he wasn't dead after all and began to work on him again.
I don't understand that.
I don't know all the details surrounding that.
But this much I know that if the door of death had shut on him, he would not have hiccuped.
And he would not be alive today.
But this little girl was dead.
Jesus raised her from the dead.
He's God, my friend.
Only God can raise the dead.
He has power over disease.
He has power over demons.
He has power over death.
He has power over nature.
Just turn back a page to chapter four and look at this familiar story of Jesus being
out there in the boat with his disciples on the Sea of Galilee.
And the storm comes up and the boat is filling up with water.
They're afraid it's going to sink.
Jesus was asleep in the stern of the boat.
And they went to him and awakened him and said, teacher, do you not care that we're
perishing?
And verse thirty-nine says, I'm being aroused.
Can you imagine being asleep in that storm?
If I'm out fishing and there's a little wave that starts hitting the boat, I'm practically
at the side of the boat.
And I'm ready for some calmness.
I do not like to be on rough water.
Here is Jesus in the middle of a storm that's filling up the boat.
He's asleep in the stern.
It shows what complete confidence that he had in the providential sovereign care of
God.
And he said, hush.
By the way, that's the very same word that he used earlier to the demon.
Hush.
Be quiet.
Be silent.
And he says, be still.
Literally the word there is be muzzled.
This suggests to us, the language that he uses that is, that this storm was not a mere
storm but that it was a storm that was whipped up and aroused by demonic powers.
And so in speaking to the storm, he spoke just as he did to the demons earlier.
Hush.
Be still.
And the wind died down and it became perfectly calm.
And he said to them, why are you so timid?
How is it that you have no faith?
And they became very much afraid and said to one another, who then is this that even
the wind and the sea obey him?
Of course the answer is he is God.
He has power over nature.
We've only looked at a few examples.
John tells us in his gospel that the whole world itself could not contain the books that
could be written of the miracles that Jesus did in his ministry.
But these are written for us that we might believe that he is the son of God, that he
is deity come in flesh.
Then we notice also that he is God because he prophesied events that literally took place.
Let me suggest a couple to you and we'll look at one just briefly and then we'll be on our
way.
One of them is the coming of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus said on that night before he was crucified, I am going away but I will send to you the
Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, the Holy Spirit.
Forty days later the Holy Spirit came.
On the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came in fulfillment of Jesus' word.
He prophesied something that literally took place.
He also spoke in his ministry about the destruction of Jerusalem.
We don't have time to look at the language Jesus used but it was language like this,
there will not be one stone left upon another.
He said there will be armies surrounding this city.
That literally took place some forty years later when Titus attacked Jerusalem.
His armies surrounded the city, laid siege to it.
When they ultimately conquered it, they destroyed the city, pulling down the stones so that
not even one stone stood upon another.
What he foretold literally came to pass.
But surely the most significant one of all is the prophecy of his own death and resurrection.
I invite you to look back with me at Matthew 16 as we look at one of the examples of Jesus'
prophecy regarding his own death.
He says in Matthew 16, verse 21, from that time Jesus Christ began to show his disciples
that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and
scribes and be killed and be raised up on the third day.
But Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him saying, God forbid it Lord, this has never
happened to you.
He turned and said to Peter, get behind me Satan, you're a stumbling block to me.
You are not setting your mind on God's interest but man's.
Jesus here tells of his own suffering, his death and resurrection.
Notice the details that Jesus reveals to them.
He says it's going to happen in Jerusalem.
He says he is going to suffer many things and from whom?
The religious leaders, the elders, the chief priests, the scribes.
Not only is he going to suffer, he predicts he will be killed.
But he also says he will be raised up from the dead.
And he tells when?
On the third day.
Notice the specifics about this.
And as we know, each detail was fulfilled.
So Lord Jesus Christ prophesied events that literally took place.
He is God my friend.
This is the greatest of all, the crowning proofs of his deity, his resurrection from
the dead.
He said in John, destroy this temple, speaking about his body, and in three days I will raise
it up.
They thought he was talking about the temple in Jerusalem.
But they came later to understand he was talking about his own physical body to be destroyed
by death, but which would be raised from the dead.
Henry Morris said the fact of his resurrection is the most important event of history and
therefore appropriately is one of the most certain facts in all of history.
You say well there are people who deny that he rose from the dead.
Of course there are.
Because if it is true that he rose from the dead, then the way that they're living will
be judged.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is the crowning proof that he was who
he claimed to be.
Josh McDowell said if God became man, then you would expect him to one, have an unusual
entrance into life.
Two, be without sin.
Three, manifest the supernatural in the form of miracles.
Four, have an acute sense of difference.
Five, speak the greatest words ever spoken.
Six, have a lasting and universal influence.
Number seven, satisfy the spiritual hunger in man.
And number eight, exercise power over death.
In every respect, he showed that he was God come in humanity.
He claimed to be deity and he proved it.
The point of application is what difference does that make in our lives?
What difference does it make in your life tonight that he is God and not merely an imposter
or a good moral teacher only or an example to be followed merely?
But the fact that he is God, how should that impact you in what you believe and how you
live your lifestyle?
You see this is not a doctrine that is just for theologians.
It's not a doctrine of Christology, be stuck away in a theology book somewhere.
We are talking about the heart, we are talking about the essence and the basics of Christianity
in the deity of Jesus Christ.
And we're talking about the rock, the foundation of the Christian life.
Because if he is who he claimed to be, then he has the right not only to save us from
our sin, but the right to demand lordship in our lives.
Let's bow together in prayer.
Sing with me the chorus.
He is Lord, he is Lord.
He is risen from the dead and he is Lord.
Every knee shall bow, every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
My friend, if he is in fact Lord as we have sung, as the Bible proclaims, I may ask you
if your faith is in him for the saving of your soul.
Remember the words of this one who is God, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
No one comes to the Father but through me.
We don't do it through our good works, we don't do it through the church, we don't
do it through baptism, we do it through Jesus Christ.
That's how we come to the Father.
He claimed exclusive right to the title of Savior.
We can't save ourselves.
Would you tonight acknowledge your need of him and trust in him within your heart?
Would you at this moment, recognizing who he is, receive him and trust in him to save
your soul from sin?
Whatever you've trusted in before you lay aside, but tonight your faith is in Jesus
Christ, if so, tell him right now, right where you're seated.
He hears your prayer.
He's God.
Those of us who've done that, let us remember who it is that we serve and the rights that
he has because who he is.
Our Lord, tonight we hail the power of your name, a name at which disease is healed, a
name at which the ocean waves are stilled, a name that causes the dead to come back to
life, a name that causes demons to scream and flee.
We acknowledge you as Jesus Christ the Lord and we worship you.
We worship you as the eternal Son of God.
We give ourselves afresh to you.
Thank you for showing us who you are and calling us to yourself for giving us the privilege
of walking with you.
Lord, this week, strengthen us, teach us, draw us after yourself that we may come to
know you more intimately and personally and see your power expressed in our lives as we
represent you as your ambassadors here on this earth.
Bless I pray the families, bless those who will be working tomorrow in difficult places,
the students who will be going to school.
May we represent you well at our assigned places.
This we pray in your blessed name, the name of which every knee shall bow.
Amen.