Eternal God | Christology

Here's the thing, we're gonna today start a new series called Christology. Christology is a word that literally means the study of Christ. So we're gonna be studying the nature, identity, and work of Jesus over the next four weeks. We're gonna end on Christmas Eve. And we just came out of a series where we talked about the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. And so one of the things that we discovered is that the Holy Spirit's primary work is to shine the spotlight on Jesus. And so now that we have examined the work of the Holy Spirit, we're gonna join him in this work. And over the next four weeks, we're gonna learn more about who Christ is and what he came to do in our life. And this is huge for us. This is foundational for us. What you believe about Jesus changes everything about you. What you believe about Jesus changes everything about you. And what I mean by that is is what you truly believe about Jesus. Because listen, what you truly believe about Jesus is not what you affirm with your amens, but how you live in light of what you say you believe. I'm convinced that the church is filled with a lot of what I would call functional atheists. And what I mean functional atheists

is that we come to church and we maybe have some political views or moral positions that are maybe Christian, a Christian nature or value system. But outside of your church attendance and your political positions, there's really no evidence of you having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ outside of the church. So I wanna say to you, listen, what you believe about Jesus is more clearly seen in what you do than it is what you say. Amen or oh me? And so what I'm hoping to do is that we really discover who Christ is because when we discover who he really is, it demands a response. It demands us to live differently in light of that. And so that's what we're gonna unpack over the next several weeks. So if you got your Bibles, grab them and go to John chapter one. John chapter one is where we're gonna be. And today we're gonna specifically look at the divine nature of Jesus, the fact that Jesus is God. And John chapter one is where we're gonna start that. If you're there, say the Bible is true. John says this, John one. He says, in the beginning was the word

and the word was with God and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him and without him was not anything made that was made. Now, John out of the gate begins his gospel by laying out a theological foundation concerning the identity and the nature of Jesus. He says, in the beginning was the word. And so he starts his gospel out like the first book of the Bible starts. Remember in Genesis chapter one says, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. John starts his by saying, in the beginning was the word. Now, the word here is a title or a name. It's capital W-O-R-D and it's a direct reference to Jesus. We're gonna see this very clearly when we get to verse 14 in just a moment. So what John is saying here is that, in the beginning was Jesus. And he says, in the beginning was the word, the word was with God or Jesus was with God. And he says, and the word was God. In other words, Jesus is God, right? That's what he's saying here. And then he says, and all things were made by him. By who? By the word, by Jesus. And without him, Jesus was not anything made that was made. So what John is saying, like out of the gate, is listen, Jesus is God.

Jesus is eternal. Jesus is creator. Like he wants to make it very clear, the identity of Jesus from the very, very beginning. When he says that all things were made by him, scholars kind of give insight to this phrase, all things. And the idea is not all things generally, but all things specifically. In other words, he's like, so there's nothing you can see in all of the universe that Jesus did not make. He's not just saying, hey, Jesus made everything. He's saying, Jesus made the sun. Jesus made the moon. Jesus made the stars. Jesus made you, right? Jesus made everything. So the point is this, that Jesus is eternal God, creator of everything. Now, look at verse 14. We're gonna see this word becoming flesh. Look what happens in verse 14. And the word, this word that he talks about that was the creator, the word became flesh. Now, if you wanna circle or underline a phrase in your Bible, this is a good one. This is, we have a word in theology. It's called the incarnation. So what is incarnation? It is Jesus becoming man or Jesus putting on flesh. And this is the idea.

And this eternal word that is the creator of everything, he actually put on flesh. Listen to this. Jesus is God with skin on. And the word became flesh. Now, the next phrase, two phrases are powerful. And dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as he dwelt among us. is the only son from the Father, full of grace and truth. Now, he says, and the word, this eternal word that was creator was made flesh. So that means that he dwelt among us. This phrase here, dwelt among us, could literally be translated, and he made his tabernacle among us, or he tabernacled among us. Now, why is that so significant? Well, in the Old Testament, we see as God delivered the people from Egypt. So Moses goes into Egypt, God's people are in captivity. He's taking them to the promised land, and as they go, God's presence actually went with the people, his manifest presence. See, what do you mean? Well, God showed up in a cloud and in fire. So there's this cloud by day that leads the people, there's a fire by night that leads the people, and wherever the fire went, wherever the cloud went, the people went, why? Because that was the glory of God hovering over the people,

dwelling among them, leading them, and guiding them. So as long as it moved, they moved. When it stayed, they stayed. They didn't go anywhere where the glory of God was not going. So they wanted to be where God was. So God dwelled among his people, and then he says, I want you to build a tabernacle, a dwelling place for me. Well, this tabernacle eventually becomes the temple when it's established there in Jerusalem, and so here's what you have, God Almighty in a tabernacle dwelling among his people. Now, a little bit more background on the Old Testament. In the tabernacle or in the temple, there was a place called the Holy of Holies, and that is where the glory of God would dwell on earth with his people. So God, watch this, would tabernacle with his people in the tabernacle or in the temple, and his glory would be among them. Even though they couldn't go and see his glory, his glory was there. So watch what's happening here. What John is showing us is this. Go back to verse 14. Is that when the word became flesh, God became a man, God came to once again dwell among his people so that we could this time see his glory. So what John is saying is that in the same way

that God's glory dwelled among the people in the tabernacle or in the temple, now God's presence on earth, his glory can be seen and known not in a place but in a person, and his name is Jesus. That God is once again tabernacling with his people but not in a building, but by putting on flesh himself and living among us so that we could see his glory. The idea of glory here is the glory of God. This type of glory cannot be attributed to a mere man. What he's saying is that the same glory of God the Father that you see in the Old Testament showing up is now personified in the person of Jesus Christ. This is massive here. John is unloading for us an understanding of the nature of Jesus. So let me give you one truth today. I'm gonna give you a couple of other insights, but I'm gonna give you one major truth. I said a one-point sermon is better than a pointless sermon, right? So there's one point to this message. And so, yeah, I didn't get that. Okay, so we give you one point to the message. So who is Jesus? Jesus is the eternal God, creator of all things made flesh. This is who Jesus is. He is the eternal God, creator of all things made flesh.

In other words, he's become a man. We'll actually talk about that aspect of him next week. But this is who Jesus is. He is God in the flesh. And this is, listen, by the way, this is what we're celebrating this holiday season. Like people ask all the time, hey, what is Christmas about? And here's what we do. We kind of miss the point, and we give this answer far too often, probably more than we should. We say things like this. Well, Christmas is about the birth of Jesus. At Christmas, we're celebrating the birthday of Jesus. And I wanna press pause there and just challenge that for a minute. Because understand, we're celebrating something more at the Christmas season than just the birthday of Jesus. What we are celebrating is the incarnation of Jesus. You see, birthday implies beginning. Jesus's birth was not his beginning. You see, in my life, there was a moment of conception where then I was developed in my mother's womb, where then I had a birthday where I was able outside the womb to experience the new life that I was inside the womb. But make no mistake, for every single one of us, that conception in birth is an acknowledgment of the beginning of something that wasn't before.

And that's not what we're celebrating at Christmas. What we're celebrating at Christmas is that God eternal loved us so much that even though we could not get to him, he chose to love us. to come to us by placing himself in human flesh that through his life we might experience the God that we could never experience on our own. This is who Jesus is. And by the way, this puts Jesus in a category all by himself, all by himself. Why is it? Why is it that out of all the religions of the world, every religion gets a pass for Christianity? I'm talking about authentic biblical Christianity. Why is it in all the faith systems, even though, watch this, our faith system is built on the love and the grace and the mercy of God. Like our faith system, Christianity, is built upon not your good works but his. Like the Christian who truly understands Christianity, there should be no self-righteous Christians. If we're a self-righteous Christian, we don't understand Christianity very well. Because Christianity is built upon an outside righteousness that we receive by grace, so that we're nothing in and of ourself. We're just the recipients of a loving God's grace who chose to give us what we don't deserve. That's the heartbeat, which then in turn transforms us

in the same love of God that's been demonstrated for us in Jesus, now through the Holy Spirit, gets to be lived out in our life. That's the basics of Christianity. And despite that being the core of who we are, there is not a religion on the planet that is more scrutinized, criticized, persecuted, or dismissed than Christianity. Not even some of the faith practices that have violence as a core part of their existence. Christianity, why is it? Let me tell you what it has to do with. You say, well, it's because of self-righteous Christians. Yeah, we don't do a great job of representing the one that we say we represent. But by the way, can I just tell you this? That doesn't mean he's not who he is. Like, you could false represent anyone. It doesn't change their nature or character. So you meet a few bad Christians or a lot of bad Christians and say, well, I don't have anything to do with Jesus because of Christians. Listen, but that has no bearings on who Jesus is. But I'm gonna tell you why Christianity is in a category all by itself. It's all because of the nature of Jesus. No one has a problem with historic Jesus. No one has a problem with moral Jesus. No one has a problem with religious teacher Jesus. But everybody has a problem when Jesus says,

I am God in the flesh, and there's no way that you can have heaven without me. That's a game changer. And by the way, every religion has an opinion about Jesus, by the way. Do you know that? Every major religion has a viewpoint on Jesus. But their viewpoint on Jesus is quite different than our viewpoint on Jesus. And if we're gonna be in a world where we can champion, and I truly believe, church, we have the greatest platform in the month of December as of any other time of the year to talk about Jesus. Why? Because everything that we're celebrating at the holiday season for Christians is about the incarnation, God becoming a man. And so if we're gonna engage the culture around us with confidence in the nature of Jesus, let me give you a few insights about what other religions believe about Jesus that differs from ours. When it comes to Islam, Islam has an opinion about Jesus. Their opinion about Jesus is that they believe that Jesus is just another prophet, and explicitly, they reject his deity. He's just another prophet like Muhammad. Maybe not as great as Muhammad, but he's another prophet, and they reject him. When it comes to Judaism, the Jewish faith,

they view Jesus as merely a rabbi and a false messiah. A rabbi and a false messiah. Mormons believe that Jesus is not eternal, but a spirit child of God and the brother of Satan, or Lucifer. Jehovah's Witnesses believe that they teach that Jesus was not God, but a lesser lowercase g, God, as the first son that God created. Now, let me just say this about that. I just wanna say this just emphatically in grace and love. Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses are not Christians. And if you're here, and that's a part of your faith, I'd love a conversation with you when the service is over. You have family members that come from a Mormon or Jehovah's Witness back, and I'm not being ugly and mean, but I have to tell the truth. They're not Christian, why? We don't worship the same Jesus. The Bible explicitly teaches that Jesus is eternal God, creator of all things, made flesh. If he's eternal, he can't have a beginning. If he's the creator, he can't be the created. So there may be the same language that's the same, and we may believe the same things about Jesus, but the nature and identity of Jesus, we're not worshiping the same Jesus. And there's only one. When it comes to. Buddhists, Buddhists view Jesus as merely an enlightened man like Buddha.

And you could go on and on with other world religions. Here's what's amazing about that, watch this. Other religions have a viewpoint of Jesus. Most all religions, if they have any integrity whatsoever, and all the mainstream religions, none of them affirm Jesus, they acknowledge Jesus. Many of them affirm Jesus. In other words, they don't dismiss him as a madman. They just say he was misunderstood, but he really brought some great things to the world. The problem with that is, is that their account of Jesus, their viewpoint of Jesus is built upon information that they wrote about Jesus hundreds of years after Jesus already ascended. But the most reliable source that we have about the person of Jesus was written in the lifetime of eyewitnesses. You see, everybody has a viewpoint about Jesus, but those viewpoint about Jesus was manufactured hundreds of years after his life. But if you'll go back to the Bible, by the way, the Bible is the inspired, infallible, inerrant, living, breathing word of God in the New Testament that tells us the story and builds the foundation about who Jesus is. It was written in the lifetime of eyewitnesses. So when it comes to wanting to discover who the real historic Jesus is, you don't look to secular religions, you look to the word of God,

and it reveals to us who he is. So I don't even know what to believe about the Bible. Well, good news for you, if you go to YouTube, you look up a sermon that I preached a few months ago called The Bible is True, and check that out. It's gonna tell you everything that we believe and why we believe it here at New Beginnings concerning the word of God. And that's not the sermon for the day, but I'll tell you this. I would rather take historically verified, defended scripture that can be dated back to the lifetime of the actual events than some man-made thing that happened hundreds of years later. That's just me. Maybe you're like me. So here's what I wanna do. If we believe this, we gotta have a foundation. Foundation where we don't just say what the Bible says, we know what the Bible says. Does that make sense? It's different, one thing for you to regurgitate what I say about the Bible, it's another thing for you to know what the Bible says. So I'm gonna give you four truths that we see about the identity of Jesus, or four evidences that we find about the identity of Jesus that we see throughout the scriptures. I'm gonna give you four of them.

I'm not gonna hit on all of them very long because of time, but here's the first one. The first evidence of the identity of Jesus that we find through the Bible is the Old Testament sightings of Jesus, the Old Testament sightings of Jesus. There's a word in the world of theology called Christophany, Christophany. Christophany is a word that means an appearance of Jesus, an appearance of Jesus. So there's a number of occasions that you see Jesus appearing after his resurrection. To the disciples, and then after his ascension, Paul on the road to Damascus. He's traveling down the road, and the resurrected Lord stood in front of him. This is a Christophany. This is a Jesus appearing in person to Paul after his ascension. One of the cool things that we're seeing right now in the world, this is amazing, is that in predominantly Muslim countries right now, there are stories of hundreds of Christophanies that are happening every year. Jesus showing up in people's bedroom, Jesus showing up in people's dream, revealing that he is the Messiah, and people literally who are following the Muslim faith converted instantly because they've encountered the resurrected Lord.

But what we also see in the Bible is that there is what we call Old Testament Christophanies. So what does that mean? That's a pre-incarnate. Before Jesus became a man, Jesus is showing up in bodily form in the Old Testament. So he's showing, why is that important? When you see the Old Testament sightings, here's what it's simply saying, is that Jesus' beginning didn't happen in the manger. Is that Jesus was very present in the beginning, and you can see him. This is why when Jesus tells the religious leaders, before Abraham was, I am. Like, I am the I am of the Old Testament. That's what Jesus is saying. So let me give you a couple of examples. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace. That's a Christophany. So we know the story. They didn't bow a knee to worship the false gods. The punishment was to be thrown and put to death in the fiery furnace. They get thrown in there, and the fire is so hot that it consumes and kills the guards that toss them in. All of the ropes singed off of their hands. They're walking around having a casual conversation, and imagine the moment where they're like, they ain't dead yet. Count, count them.

There's one, there's two, there's three. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. There's another one over there. Imagine as they looked in the fiery furnace, and here's what the pagan Babylonians said. There's a fourth man in the fire, and he looks like the son of a god. That is. Jesus Christ, pre-incarnate, showing up in the fire with his followers. Another one is in Isaiah chapter six. Isaiah chapter six begins like this. In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on his throne and the train of his robe filled the temple and above him were seraphims, each having six wings. With two wings they covered their face, with two wings they covered their feet, and with two wings they flew. And they cried out to one another, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The earth is full of his glory. What all scholars agree on is that what Isaiah is witnessing is a Christophany. He is seeing Jesus on his throne before he became a man. And what I love about this imagery is that the king is on the throne and he's robed in glory, and there's gonna be a day 800 years after Isaiah saw him where that same king will stand up

and he will take off the robe of glory and he will put on the flesh of man so that he can become to be the redeemer for us. Amen. There are at least 10 agreed upon Christophanies in the Old Testament where Jesus shows up revealing himself before he ever was born of Mary. The sightings of Jesus verify the deity of Jesus. Here's number two, the testimony of disciples and demons. The testimony of disciples and demons. You see in the gospel story, the disciples recognizing this. When Jesus was resurrected, there was a few gatherings and y'all know Thomas. Thomas was, we call him Doubting Thomas. He was a bit of a skeptic. So he was the guy asking all the questions and are you sure and do we really know this? He was, we would call it the gift of discernment maybe. But he, so he doesn't show up to one of the gatherings where Jesus showed up to meet with his disciples. And I have one pastor friend who uses that reference with his church. He says, you know, when you don't show up to church, Jesus might show up and you might miss him. And so don't miss church. So Thomas isn't there. So the disciples go and say, you'll never believe this, Jesus showed up. He's like, I don't believe it.

All of a sudden, boom, Jesus shows up in the room. And what is Thomas's response to Jesus showing up in the room? Verse 28, and Thomas answered him, my Lord and my God. Thomas, the man that walked with him for three years, sees Jesus post-resurrection and he acknowledges the deity of Jesus. You see this again on display in Matthew 14, verse 33. Remember Jesus calms the storm while he's in the boat. And what do the disciples do when they see this? Matthew 14, 33, and those in the boat, they worshiped him saying, truly you are the son of God. The phrase son of God is a way for them to acknowledge the deity. We know this because other times when Jesus referred to himself as the son of God, the religious leaders wanted to kill Jesus because they understood the son of God was him claiming to be God. How do we know the disciples were understanding it this way? It says they fell to their knees and they worshiped him. These were men who grew up in Judaism. Judaism believes and teaches there is only one God and only one God is worthy of worship. These men would have never bowed a knee to worship someone other than God and yet in the boat with Jesus they do. And watch this, if Jesus was just another religious teacher,

then why in the world did Jesus not rebuke them for it? What does he do? He receives it, why? Because only God is worthy of worship and Jesus understands he is worthy. This is Jesus and the disciples testimony about his nature. We see this in the New Testament, the apostle Paul, Romans chapter nine, verse five. It says to them belong to the patriarchs and from their races according to the flesh, listen to this, is the Christ, who is the Christ, Jesus, who is God over all, blessed forever, amen. Doesn't get more clear than that. Jesus is God. In fact, one of the names of Jesus that you see predominantly through the entire New Testament is Jesus is Lord. That word Lord in the Greek language, and whenever you see that in the English, we read that in the New Testament, referring to Jesus, it's the Greek equivalent to the Old Testament name Jehovah. It was one of the most sacred names for God. So when every time the disciples or someone profess Jesus as Lord, they're saying Jesus is Jehovah from the Old Testament. So what about demons, disciples? And I could give you 100 more of these with the disciples in the New Testament.

What about demons? Luke chapter four, verse 33, it says, and in the synagogue, there was a man who had the spirit of an unclean demon and he cried out with a loud voice. Listen to verse 34. Ha, what have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy? Troias, I know who you are, the Holy One of God. This was a demon declaring the divine nature of Jesus. And he's saying, have you come to destroy us? In other words, the demon is recognizing the authority and the power of Jesus. This happens again in verse 41. And the demons also came out of many, crying. You are the Son of God. Again, a phrase referencing Jesus as God in the flesh. But he rebuked them, he would not allow them to speak because they knew that he was the Christ. In other words, the demons could testify to the divine nature of Jesus, but Jesus wouldn't permit it because he didn't want the testimony of demons. Now, here's the question we gotta ask. How did the demons know who he was? We know who you are. Because Jesus made them. He was their creator. In eternity past, they were in glory with him. When they made the big rebellion,

Jesus was there when they were cast out. They knew exactly who Jesus was. So you have the sightings in the Old Testament, you have the testimony of demons and disciples. Thirdly, you have the claims of Jesus. Because this is one of the big secular arguments, one of the arguments you'll hear in secular society. Okay, yeah, Jesus is a great religious leader, great moral teacher, but he never claimed to be God. And I just wanna look at people and go, have you not read the Bible? Like, it's one thing to have an opinion about something, but when you have an opinion that has no idea what you're talking about, like, you can have an opinion, keep it to yourself. Like, just read the Bible. Look at the gospel account of Jesus. You'll see this very clearly. Let me show you just a couple of examples where Jesus shows his identity. In John chapter 10, verse 33, Jesus makes a claim about himself, and I want you to see the claim, understand it, and then watch the response of the religious leaders. Look what happens in verse 30. Jesus says this, he says, I and the Father are one. Now, this phrase here, I and the Father are one, the word one here is not a word in the original language that means one in agreement. It's not what it means.

It doesn't mean one in unity. It's a word that means one of the same essence. We are one in essence. Me and the Father, we are the same. That's what he's saying there. That's why Jesus could say things like, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father, why? Because we're one, we're the same. Now, you say, well, how do we know that's what Jesus meant? Look at the way it was interpreted. Look at verse 31. Verse 31 says, and the Jews picked up stones again to stone him. So Jesus says, I and the Father are one, and there was something about that phrase that was so strong and so powerful that now they wanna put Jesus to death for what? Verse 32, Jesus answered them, I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of them are you going to stone me? Do you hear the sarcasm there? You wanna kill me? Is it because the blind are seeing and the dead are being raised? Is that why? Now, notice their response. Verse 34. Sorry, verse 33. And the Jews answered him, it is not for your good works that we are going to stone you, but for blasphemy,

because you being a man, make yourself God. So when Jesus says, I and the Father are one, Jesus knows what he means here, and they know what Jesus means here. They recognize when Jesus is saying this is that Jesus is making an explicit claim to deity. I and the Father are the same. And you see this, one of the reasons that we see the religious leaders hate Jesus so much, this idea of blasphemy continues to surface. In fact, one attorney in New York years ago, he was gonna kind of look at the case for Jesus's crucifixion and like the trial that Jesus had. So from a secular worldview, he just is gonna look at this and kind of why did they crucify Jesus? Here was his conclusion. Based upon the trial of Jesus, this attorney concluded that Jesus was punished to death for the sin or the crime of blasphemy because of his claim to be God. Jesus makes this explicitly clear. Let me give you one other example because I don't know that you believe me yet, all right? Mark chapter two, verse six. So here's what's happening in the story. Jesus is having a church service. The house is so packed that no one else can get in, but there are some friends that bring a man that needs to be healed. So their solution was to tear the roof off the place

and lower the man down. I am praying for the day that that happens here at church. It's gonna be expensive, but it's gonna be awesome at the same time. So they lower this man down, and Jesus says to the man, not take up your mat and walk. Jesus looks at the man and says, your sins are forgiven. Now, why does Jesus do that when the man obviously needs to be healed? Jesus is revealing something about his nature here. Notice the response from the religious leaders. It says, now, some of the scribes who were sitting there questioning in their hearts, why does this man speak like this? He is blaspheming. Why are they saying this? Who can forgive sins but God alone? Now, they're asking the right question. They're pressing this here because they're going, wait a second, Jesus, this man in front of us, is telling this man, your sins are forgiven, but only God can forgive sins. And they're right. And that's the point entirely. Only God can forgive sins. Say, what is sin? Sin, fundamentally and primarily, is an offense toward the creator. It's an offense toward God.

And because sin is primarily an offense toward God, only God can ultimately forgive sin because he's the offended one. Make sense? Like, I'm gonna pick on my friend Chris over here. Like, if I do something wrong to Chris, and like, I hurt his feelings, let's say we get into it and I just say something I shouldn't say, and Chris is now mad he's hurt, but you walk over to Chris and say, hey, are you all right? And then you look at me and go, hey, don't worry about it, Todd, your sins are forgiven. Like, I forgive you for that. Like, Chris would be like, hey, can I say something here? He didn't say anything to you. You can't forgive him for me because it was offense toward me. Does that make sense? So when Jesus asserts this offer of forgiveness, the religious leaders say, who does he think he is? Only God can forgive sins. I love how Jesus responds to this because he's gonna verify that they got the point. Look what happens in verse number eight. And immediately Jesus perceiving in his spirit

that they thus question within themselves said to them, why do you question these things in your heart? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, your sins are forgiven, or to say, rise and take up your bed and walk? Now, what Jesus is doing, he's setting them up. By asking a question that they answer it, Jesus is gonna show them up. So Jesus stops and says, hey, why are you questioning if I have the authority to forgive sins? And then he says, what is easier for me to say, your sins are forgiven, or to take up your mat and walk? Now the answer is, it is much easier to say that your sins are forgiven. You know why? It's because there's no visible evidence of whether it is or not. We don't know that you have authority to forgive sins because there's no visible evidence. So it's much easier to say that. Now, if you say, take up your mat and walk, and he doesn't, now all of a sudden, you're busted for being a fraud, right? So what Jesus does is says, listen, so that you may know that I have the authority to forgive sins, I'm gonna tell this man, take up your mat and he walks. So what Jesus is doing, in the same way that I have the authority to tell this man

to no longer be paralyzed, I have the authority to tell this man that his sins are forgiven, why? Because I am God, and I have the authority to forgive sins. I could go on and on with examples. Jesus claims to be God, why? Because he is God. So what about number four? So we have the claims of Jesus. Now this is my favorite, and this is where we're laying the plane, the names of Jesus. The claims of Jesus and the names of Jesus, and I could go through a number of names for Jesus to see the deity, I'm gonna give you two. I'm gonna give you two. The number one name that Jesus refers to himself as throughout the Gospels is the Son of Man, the Son of Man. 80 times, Jesus is called the Son of Man or referred to himself as the Son of Man in the Gospels. A lot of people who don't understand the Bible will say, okay, see, Jesus is saying there, I'm not the Son of God, I'm the Son of Man. He never says he's the Son of God. Everybody else says he's the Son of God. He only says he's the Son of Man. But you gotta understand this phrase, name, Son of Man is more than a name, it's a title. And the Son of Man is a reference to a name or a title that emerges in the Old Testament,

in fact, in the book of Daniel. In the book of Daniel, what you find is is that there is this vision that Daniel has, and he has this vision of the ancient of days. This is the God of glory who shows up and he gives a detailed description. This is what's called a theophany. This is an appearance of God himself. But behind that theophany, there's another Christophany where another character emerges that then engages with the ancient of days, and then there is this declaration from the ancient of days about the Son of Man that comes. The other person that shows up, Daniel refers to him as the Son of Man and reveals him as the Messiah who is God. Now, notice what happens here. Daniel chapter seven, verse number 13. I love this. He says, and I saw in the night vision, and behold, with the clouds of heaven, there came one like the Son of Man, like a Son of Man, and he came to the ancient of days, and he presented him before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all peoples and nations and languages serve him. And his dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed. So he's saying there was the Ancient of Days,

and then there was another one that came down from the clouds, the Son of Man, and when they engaged with one another, there was an equality of power. And the Ancient of Days says to him in this moment, he says this, he says there is this authority and dominion and a kingdom that the Son of Man is gonna have, and he will rule all nations and all people. Notice a couple of things. First of all, he comes down from the clouds, he doesn't come up from the earth. This is Daniel's way of being, the Lord revealing to Daniel that this is not a mere man, this is the God-man. He comes down from the clouds, and he is there in equal position of authority, and he is given dominion and a kingdom and a name above all names. In other words, he is given a position that rightfully and singularly belongs to God and God alone. So watch this. When Jesus says I am the Son of Man, you know what he's saying? I am the one that Daniel saw who was there sitting with the Ancient of Days. I am the one who came down from the clouds. I am the one that has all dominion and all authority, the one that all nations will serve and worship. I am the Messiah, God in the flesh that was prophesied about.

So when Jesus giving himself this name, he is identifying himself as the one prophesied about. Here is my favorite, and it's the most simple, and I could give you a dozen, but I'm not going to. It's the one that Joseph hears about. When the angel shows up to tell him that his soon-to-be wife, his fiancee, his betrothed is with child that does not belong to him, and he is so confused, doesn't know what to do. And so the angel comes, and listen to what the angel says. Matthew chapter one, verse 20. It says, but as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She shall bear a son, and shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. And all this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet. Behold, the virgin will conceive, and will bear a son, and they shall call, he shall be called, listen to this, Emmanuel. His name shall be Emmanuel, which means what? God with us. I believe one of the greatest names that Jesus received is the name Emmanuel. God with us. All of these years of waiting, all of these years of longing,

all of these years of not knowing when is the Messiah gonna show up, and all of a sudden, man, God breaks in in a miraculous way, and there's a virgin who now is pregnant by the Holy Spirit, and there's a confused man, and all of a sudden, we are reminded of what the prophet Isaiah says. Hey, that there's coming a day when God will come to earth. There will be one who is born, and his name shall be called Emmanuel, because he is God in the flesh, God dwelling among his people. The greatest, most beautiful thought ever is that the God of the universe, that we could never bridge the gap between us and him and the void that is there. He said, you don't have to come to me, because you can't. I'm gonna come to you. And God eternal, creator of all things, put on flesh so that he could come and bring us into right relationship with him. This is the distinction between Christianity and every other faith religion. I remember a story by David Platt. David was in another country with several different religions, and there were religions from all types of faith practices, and he tells the story how when he was in this certain village, they walked in a lot of unity,

even though there were so many different religions, and they prided themselves in this. So he says, I'm in this room, and I'm listening to all of these religious leaders from different, from Muslim, from Islam, from Buddhists, to every, all these faith, and they're describing their faith, and then this is what they said. They said, listen, we all get along. We all coexist. He says, well, how do you coexist? And one man stood up and said, because we believe that God is at the top of a mountain, and we all desperately wanna get to the top of the mountain, and that each of us are on different sides of the mountain traveling our own path, but because we believe that God is at the top of the mountain Because we're going to the same place, and we all desperately wanna get to the top of the mountain, we tolerate one another and we embrace one another. we all coexist. We're just the same people pursuing the same God And he said, I'm listening to all these religious leaders from different sides of the mountain. from different religions, and they're describing their faith. And they were just, I guess, waiting for David to affirm that, say, oh, that's amazing. And David just pushed back and says, that's very interesting.

So you're all working so hard to get to the top of the mountain, pursuing on your own. And then David asked the question, he says, what if I told you that the God you're looking for on the mountain actually came down off the mountain so that you didn't have to go to him, he came to you? It says the men, it got silent in the room. And one of the men said, that would be the greatest news ever. David said, let me tell you about Jesus. You know, the truth is, we can look at that and we go, oh, that makes sense. Here's the problem with that. The mountain is an ever-growing mountain. It's an ever-growing mountain because we're so sinful that the disconnect between us and God is so far and the gap is so wide that we could travel for eternity and never reach the peak of the mountain because the mountain is too great. And this is why God in his great love and mercy says, you don't have to come to me, I'm gonna come to you. This makes Christianity the greatest religion on the planet, not even a religion, it's a relationship between the God who says, I will be like you to do for you what you could not do for yourself so that through my work, all of my demands of you would be met, not by you, but by me. Isn't this beautiful? This is the gospel. God says, here's the demands of righteousness,

so what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna do it for you and I'm gonna give it to you so that we can have relationship and from beginning to end, your relationship with me is an expression of my love for you. And how do I know this love? For God so loved the world that he gave us one and only son that whoever would believe in him would not perish but have everlasting life. Jesus Christ, eternal God. Creator of all things. He put on flesh. This is what we celebrate. And this demands a response. It demands a response. I'm gonna ask you to bow your heads and the first response is to surrender to Jesus as Lord. There, listen to me. If Jesus, if all of this is true, you can't just have a religious relationship with Jesus. If all of this is true, you can't have a half foot in, a half foot out relationship with Jesus. And you can't have that. Jesus is Lord of all or he's not Lord at all. And there's some of you that have a Sunday relationship with Jesus. And you have an intellectual acknowledgement but there has not been a moment where you've been born again where Jesus, who is the King of glory, actually became the King of your life.

And for some of you today, you're feeling this stirring in your heart. I've been living with an acknowledgement maybe of who Jesus is but I've never submitted to him in this way. But you're sensing a desire to do that. I'm gonna tell you, that's coming from the Holy Spirit, not from me, not from you. So with every head bowed, if that's where you are, I just want you to tell Jesus what you want him to do. Just something like this, Jesus, I need you who, you're God, I need you to come change me. I want you to live inside of me. I want you to make me new. I believe that you're God, that you died for my sins and that you resurrected to give me life. If you're in this room and you've prayed to receive Christ, I'm gonna ask this unapologetically, just because this is a beginning of a new life for you. We saw people indicate this at the eight o'clock service and I believe there are some in this service as well. You're not alone. But if you prayed to receive Christ, you're saying, I'm going all in with Jesus. I wanna trust him as my Lord and Savior and I wanna receive him today as my Lord and Savior. If you just pray to receive Christ or you want to, I'm gonna ask you to just stand to your feet where you are. If you just pray to receive Christ or you want to receive him, just stand to your feet wherever you are.

As just a testimony of this new relationship that's beginning today. It takes courage, but this is the beginning of a new journey. I promise you standing will be worth it. Praise God, I'm so proud of you. Anyone else? Anyone else? If you're standing this way, I want you to stand with me. I wanna stand on my knees with you. There's gonna be some encouragers that are gonna come by to pray with you I wanna stand on my knees with you. and wanna help you begin this new journey. I wanna stand on my knees with you. Anybody else? I wanna stand on my knees with you. We celebrate what God is doing. I wanna stand on my knees with you. I want everyone to look at me for a second in the room. If you're a believer in Christ this morning, I just wanna say to you, if Jesus Christ is your Lord, here's the second response. Nothing can be off limits in your life. Nothing can be off limits. Like if Jesus is God in the flesh, he's Lord of all, you can't go, you get this part, but not this part. You can't do that. Others of you, listen, if he's your Lord of your life, some of you are living in fear and burdens

and you're carrying on your own. You know, if you belong to Jesus, the King of the universe, you don't have to carry that alone. You can lay that burden before him and you don't have to live in fear. You can have faith and confidence that the one that you follow is the Lord of creation. And because he's with you, listen, you have power and authority to walk in the power that comes with him being your Lord. So for some of you, that's a call to repent and surrender things that you're holding from him. For others of you, it's burdens you're carrying that you've carried alone far too long. Fears that you're walking in, that you've walked in far too long. It's time to surrender those things to the only one in your life who can actually do something about it. So in a moment, we're gonna stand and we're gonna sing, the Susan Couragers are available. I want you to come and pray, come and be prayed for. Surrender what needs to be surrendered, whether it's sin or burdens or fear or anything that you're facing that you know I need Jesus to step in. So I'm asking you to stand. Father, I'm asking as we move into a time of response, Lord, show us what we need to do. Let us not be hearers of the word.

Holy Spirit, make us into doers of the word that we would respond. So God, anything that's being held from you, breakthrough, any burdens that are being carried, God, would you lighten the load. Any fears, would you diminish in light of who you are? God, just.