Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / The Identity of Deity Msg 120 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living

Transcript

The Identity of Deity Msg 120 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

0:02
Speaker 1: More than two millennia ago, an ordinary-looking Jewish man began
0:06
Speaker 1: doing some, well, extraordinary things. He taught a form of
0:11
Speaker 1: spirituality that focused more on the heart than the external
0:16
Speaker 1: appearance of righteousness. He healed disabilities and diseases. Moreover, he
0:23
Speaker 1: did something only God could do. He forgave sins. An
0:29
Speaker 1: encounter with the remarkable Jesus of Nazareth typically prompted this question,
0:37
Speaker 1: who is this man? Two thousand years later, people are
0:42
Speaker 1: still asking that same question, who is Jesus? I mean,
0:48
Speaker 1: is he the Son of God, a great teacher? Is
0:52
Speaker 1: he an ordinary man, or is he really a myth?
0:57
Speaker 1: To answer this question, we don't have to waste a
0:59
Speaker 1: lot of time sorting through various human opinions. Why? Because
1:05
Speaker 1: the Bible offers a completely reliable source of information about
1:11
Speaker 1: Jesus of Nazareth, so we can discover his identity for ourselves. Now,
1:18
Speaker 1: with that in mind, turn with me to a passage
1:21
Speaker 1: of primary reference in this completely reliable source of information,
1:26
Speaker 1: the Bible. Let's answer that question. Who is Jesus? The
1:32
Speaker 1: reference I'm referring to is found in the first chapter
1:35
Speaker 1: of the little letter to the Colossians. We'll begin reading
1:39
Speaker 1: at verse 15. Chapter 1 of Colossians, verse 15. He
1:47
Speaker 1: is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of
1:52
Speaker 1: all creation. For by him all things were created, both
1:57
Speaker 1: in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether
2:02
Speaker 1: thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things have
2:07
Speaker 1: been created through him and for him. He is before
2:13
Speaker 1: all things, and in him all things hold together. He
2:18
Speaker 1: is also head of the body, the church, and he
2:23
Speaker 1: is the beginnings, the firstborn from the dead, so that
2:27
Speaker 1: he himself might come to have first place in everything.
2:32
Speaker 1: For it was the Father's good pleasure for all the
2:35
Speaker 1: fullness to dwell in him, and through him to reconcile
2:41
Speaker 1: all things to himself, having made peace through the blood
2:46
Speaker 1: of his cross. Through him, I say, whether things on
2:50
Speaker 1: earth or things in heaven. And although you were formerly
2:56
Speaker 1: alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet
3:02
Speaker 1: He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death,
3:08
Speaker 1: in order to present you before Him holy and blameless
3:13
Speaker 1: and beyond reproach. If indeed you continue in the faith
3:17
Speaker 1: firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the
3:24
Speaker 1: hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was
3:28
Speaker 1: proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul,
3:34
Speaker 1: was made a minister. You may have been watching the
3:38
Speaker 1: Jay Leno show late one evening when he was recognizing
3:42
Speaker 1: the week of the Bible. I don't know if you
3:44
Speaker 1: realize there is such a week. Jay Leno did, and
3:48
Speaker 1: he decided he would do sort of a random survey
3:51
Speaker 1: from people on the street regarding basic Bible knowledge. Did
3:55
Speaker 1: you happen to watch that show when he did that?
3:58
Speaker 1: Here were a number of questions he asked, and these
4:00
Speaker 1: were the true answers that were given by people who
4:03
Speaker 1: thought they were answering correctly. Did Adam and Eve have
4:06
Speaker 1: any children, was one of the questions. And a woman,
4:09
Speaker 1: after a few seconds of deep thought, said, no, no,
4:14
Speaker 1: they never had any kids. Name the two brothers, Cain and...
4:22
Speaker 1: Absolute blank stare. Had no idea. Probably were thinking cane
4:27
Speaker 1: and hurricane or something like that. No answer. Third, what
4:31
Speaker 1: happened to Lot's wife? Zero response. And then one of
4:38
Speaker 1: the people asked that question said, who was Lot? Little hint.
4:43
Speaker 1: She turned into, the person said, an angel. An angel.
4:50
Speaker 1: How many commandments are there? One guy boldly said, three.
4:55
Speaker 1: There are three commandments. Another person said, no, there are 20.
4:58
Speaker 1: 20 commandments. Another one said, no, it's like the disciples.
5:02
Speaker 1: There were 12. 12 commandments. Can you name four of them?
5:06
Speaker 1: Nobody could name four. Can you name one of them?
5:12
Speaker 1: And one fellow said, something about not coveting your neighbor's wife.
5:16
Speaker 1: Interesting he remembered that one. And then Jay said, you
5:20
Speaker 1: mean if she's pretty? And he said, yeah, I think
5:23
Speaker 1: that's it. And he said, is your neighbor's wife pretty?
5:26
Speaker 1: He said, no, she's not pretty. I thought it might
5:29
Speaker 1: have been fun to be watching as the neighbor's wife,
5:32
Speaker 1: as that person was. Who was swallowed by a whale?
5:37
Speaker 1: A whale was asked. This some kind of trick question? No.
5:42
Speaker 1: Let me give you a hint. Joan of Arc was
5:47
Speaker 1: the answer. No. Joe? Joe DiMaggio? No. Which two cities
5:54
Speaker 1: were destroyed according to the book of Genesis? Let me
6:00
Speaker 1: give you a hint. Sodom? And the answer was from
6:04
Speaker 1: this person on the street. Sodom Hussein? While my son
6:10
Speaker 1: Chuck and I were watching that program and chuckling, it
6:14
Speaker 1: dawned on me that there was one question I really
6:17
Speaker 1: wish Jay would have asked, who is Jesus Christ? Wouldn't
6:24
Speaker 1: that be an interesting answer people would give? I really
6:30
Speaker 1: wish he would have asked, who, in your opinion, was
6:32
Speaker 1: Jesus Christ? The common answers given by people on the
6:39
Speaker 1: street are, a great moral teacher who died a martyr's death.
6:47
Speaker 1: He was a man who lived a long time ago
6:49
Speaker 1: and started a religion. He began his life as a
6:54
Speaker 1: baby in Bethlehem, and he thought he was the Son
6:57
Speaker 1: of God. Very common answer. He's like a superpower force
7:06
Speaker 1: who can bring you good luck, but I'm not really
7:09
Speaker 1: sure about that. He loved kids. He did healings. He
7:12
Speaker 1: came down hard on sinners. He started kind of a
7:16
Speaker 1: cult thing. Some would say he's the son of God,
7:21
Speaker 1: but I don't think so. Interesting answers. What is your
7:27
Speaker 1: opinion of Jesus Christ? All of those answers are either
7:33
Speaker 1: weak or incomplete or downright wrong. They remind me, however,
7:40
Speaker 1: of a paragraph out of a book written back in 19...
7:45
Speaker 1: 1958 by a man who was a former professor at
7:50
Speaker 1: Cambridge University and became a lecturer at Oxford University and
7:55
Speaker 1: by 1958 had already been invaded by the life of
8:00
Speaker 1: Jesus Christ and was beginning to write literature among the
8:05
Speaker 1: early Christian writers of our era, his name C.S. Lewis.
8:11
Speaker 1: In a wonderful book that I wish you would read
8:14
Speaker 1: called Mere Christianity, this paragraph appears. I am trying to
8:21
Speaker 1: prevent anyone from saying the really foolish thing that people
8:27
Speaker 1: often say about Jesus. I'm ready to accept Jesus as
8:31
Speaker 1: a great moral teacher, but I don't accept his claim
8:34
Speaker 1: to be God. Lewis says, this is the one thing
8:39
Speaker 1: we must not say. A man who is merely a
8:43
Speaker 1: man and said the sort of things Jesus said would
8:48
Speaker 1: not be a great moral teacher. He would either be
8:52
Speaker 1: a lunatic on a level with the man who says
8:57
Speaker 1: he's a poached egg or else he would be the
9:00
Speaker 1: devil of hell. You must make your choice. Either this
9:07
Speaker 1: man was and is the Son of God Or else
9:12
Speaker 1: a madman. Or something worse. You can shut him up
9:17
Speaker 1: for a fool. You can spit at him and kill
9:21
Speaker 1: him as a demon. Or you can fall at his
9:25
Speaker 1: feet and call him Lord and God. But let us
9:30
Speaker 1: not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a
9:34
Speaker 1: great human teacher. He has not left that open to
9:38
Speaker 1: any of us. He did not intend... to do so.
9:47
Speaker 1: Since Jesus is the object of our worship and the
9:50
Speaker 1: focus of our praise, it seemed appropriate that we spend
9:54
Speaker 1: the first several times we meet focusing our time our
10:00
Speaker 1: attention on him. And we start with the question of
10:06
Speaker 1: his identity. Who is Jesus Christ? Now I think in
10:12
Speaker 1: our gathering, most of our answers would be in tune
10:17
Speaker 1: with what the scriptures teach. But if you go out
10:20
Speaker 1: on the street of the town or city where you
10:22
Speaker 1: work and ask, as Leno did, about other subjects on
10:27
Speaker 1: the Bible, you ask your people as they pass by, who,
10:31
Speaker 1: in your opinion, is Jesus, you would be amazed. It
10:39
Speaker 1: is remarkable in our postmodern era how few people know
10:45
Speaker 1: that answer. Easy for us to assume that's the simplest
10:51
Speaker 1: answer you could expect when in fact they do not know.
10:56
Speaker 1: So it occurred to me that it would be good
10:58
Speaker 1: for us to go back into the New Testament and
11:01
Speaker 1: address that answer. Let's see if people who lived in
11:04
Speaker 1: Jesus' day knew who he was. Luke 5 is a
11:08
Speaker 1: good place to start and we'll look at random at
11:11
Speaker 1: several of these places where Jesus ministered and we will
11:15
Speaker 1: see they didn't know either. Luke 5, beginning at verse,
11:23
Speaker 1: let's go to verse 17. One day that he was teaching,
11:29
Speaker 1: there were some Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting
11:33
Speaker 1: there who had come from every village of Galilee and
11:37
Speaker 1: Judea and from Jerusalem. Remember who we're talking about. These
11:43
Speaker 1: are the religious officials of that day. These were people
11:47
Speaker 1: who knew the law. These were men in touch with
11:51
Speaker 1: their times who were educated and certainly in the religious
11:56
Speaker 1: world respected. They are in the presence of one who,
12:02
Speaker 1: it says at the end of verse 17, experienced the
12:05
Speaker 1: power of the Lord present there. And there was a
12:10
Speaker 1: man who was paralyzed and let down in through the
12:14
Speaker 1: ceiling tiles of this building. where he was teaching, and
12:18
Speaker 1: they placed him right in front of our Lord. Not
12:23
Speaker 1: finding any way to bring him in because of the crowd,
12:26
Speaker 1: they went up on the roof and let him down.
12:28
Speaker 1: Verse 20, seeing their faith, Jesus said, Friend, your sins
12:35
Speaker 1: are forgiven you. Look at that statement. It's a statement
12:39
Speaker 1: not one of us could ever make because we do
12:43
Speaker 1: not know It's a statement that requires deity. You have
12:49
Speaker 1: to be God to make a statement like that. Your
12:53
Speaker 1: sins are forgiven you. And the scribes and the Pharisees
12:57
Speaker 1: immediately realized the impact of that statement. And they began
13:03
Speaker 1: to reason, saying, look at the question, who is this man? Now,
13:08
Speaker 1: you might have thought everyone in the first century, certainly
13:11
Speaker 1: those who were around him, knew who he was. As
13:14
Speaker 1: a matter of fact, most didn't. Most never figured it out.
13:19
Speaker 1: Who is this man? Who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive
13:24
Speaker 1: sins but God alone? And they're right. No one but
13:31
Speaker 1: God has the power to look at another and say,
13:34
Speaker 1: at this moment in time, your sins are forgiven you.
13:37
Speaker 1: I'll take care of that. C.S. Lewis, still writing on
13:41
Speaker 1: the subject of Jesus, says, unless the speaker is God...
13:46
Speaker 1: This is really so preposterous as to be comic. We
13:50
Speaker 1: can all understand how a man forgives offenses against himself.
13:54
Speaker 1: You tread on my toe and I forgive you. You
13:58
Speaker 1: steal my money and I forgive you. But what should
14:02
Speaker 1: we make of himself? What should we make of a
14:05
Speaker 1: man himself unrobbed and untrodden on? Saying something like, you
14:13
Speaker 1: are forgiven. You are forgiven. Asinine fatuity is the kindest
14:20
Speaker 1: description we should give of his conduct. Yet this is
14:24
Speaker 1: what Jesus did. He told people their sins were forgiven
14:29
Speaker 1: and he never waited to consult all the other people
14:35
Speaker 1: whom their sins had undoubtedly injured. He unhesitatingly behaved as
14:41
Speaker 1: if he were the party chiefly concerned, the person concerned.
14:45
Speaker 1: chiefly offended by all offenses. This makes sense only if
14:51
Speaker 1: he really was the God whose laws are broken and
14:56
Speaker 1: whose love is wounded. Who is this man, they asked
15:04
Speaker 1: among themselves. Verse 21. Go from Luke 5 to Luke
15:09
Speaker 1: chapter 7, verse 48. Jesus is looking into the face
15:18
Speaker 1: of a woman who has just washed his feet with
15:21
Speaker 1: her hair and a very expensive ointment. She is a
15:25
Speaker 1: woman from an immoral background, the kind of woman those
15:30
Speaker 1: Pharisees and scribes would have had nothing to do with. Jesus,
15:34
Speaker 1: verse 48 of chapter 7 of Luke, said to her,
15:38
Speaker 1: Your sins have been forgiven. Those who were reclining at
15:43
Speaker 1: the table with him began to say to themselves, Who
15:47
Speaker 1: is this man? Same question, another scene, still a quandary.
15:54
Speaker 1: We don't know who he is. Who can make a
15:57
Speaker 1: statement like this? Who is this man who even forgives sins?
16:02
Speaker 1: And he said to the woman, your faith has saved you,
16:04
Speaker 1: go in peace. Only God could make a statement like that.
16:08
Speaker 1: Only God would know that to be true. Luke chapter
16:11
Speaker 1: 9 is the next place. Verse 7. Luke 9, verse 7.
16:19
Speaker 1: Now Herod the Tetrarch heard of all that was happening,
16:23
Speaker 1: and he was greatly perplexed, because it was said by
16:27
Speaker 1: some that John had risen from the dead, and by
16:30
Speaker 1: some Elijah had appeared, and by others that one of
16:35
Speaker 1: the prophets of old had risen again. And Herod said,
16:40
Speaker 1: I myself had John beheaded. But who is this man
16:48
Speaker 1: about whom I hear such things? And he kept trying
16:52
Speaker 1: to see him. Interesting, isn't it? Even one of the officials,
16:57
Speaker 1: one of the political leaders of that day, was not
16:59
Speaker 1: sure of his identity. Who is this man? What kind
17:04
Speaker 1: of person is this who is doing these things? Well,
17:07
Speaker 1: the word is out. Some people are saying he's one
17:10
Speaker 1: of the prophets. Some are saying he's Elijah. I want
17:13
Speaker 1: to know who he is. I fear that he's John
17:15
Speaker 1: the Baptist miraculously returned from the dead. Herod was probably
17:21
Speaker 1: haunted by that thought. Go back from Luke to Mark's gospel.
17:26
Speaker 1: Mark chapter 4. Mark 4 verse 35. And on that
17:38
Speaker 1: day when evening had come, he said to them, let
17:41
Speaker 1: us go over to the other side. And leaving the multitude,
17:44
Speaker 1: they took him along with them, just as he was
17:47
Speaker 1: in the boat, and other boats were with him. And
17:50
Speaker 1: there arose a fierce gale, a fierce gale of wind,
17:55
Speaker 1: and the waves were breaking over the boat, so much
17:58
Speaker 1: that the boat was already filling up. And he himself
18:01
Speaker 1: was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they
18:04
Speaker 1: awoke him and said to him, Teacher, do you not
18:07
Speaker 1: care that we are perishing? And being aroused, he rebuked
18:11
Speaker 1: the wind and said to the sea, Hush, be still.
18:18
Speaker 1: And the wind died down, and it became perfectly calm.
18:24
Speaker 1: I don't know your background, but having been raised in
18:28
Speaker 1: South Texas and having done a lot of fishing in
18:31
Speaker 1: the little bays around the Gulf of Mexico, I have
18:34
Speaker 1: witnessed what is called by fishermen a slick on the water.
18:40
Speaker 1: That is, when the water is so calm there isn't
18:43
Speaker 1: even a ripple. If you're sailing and you're in the
18:46
Speaker 1: middle of the ocean and you come upon a setting
18:48
Speaker 1: like this, this is often called the doldrums. The doldrums.
18:53
Speaker 1: You're sitting in the boat and your sails are up,
18:56
Speaker 1: but nothing is pushing the boat ahead because there's no wind.
19:00
Speaker 1: There's not even any waves. There's not even a ripple.
19:05
Speaker 1: You can actually flip a coin, if you have one
19:08
Speaker 1: to spare, out into the water and it lands on
19:12
Speaker 1: the water and little ripples surround the place where it
19:16
Speaker 1: goes and it is so slick. It is silent. I
19:22
Speaker 1: have seen water that slick. I've also seen water so
19:27
Speaker 1: stormy you can hardly get to the shore. It's so rough.
19:31
Speaker 1: Now I take it that they were in a storm
19:33
Speaker 1: like that and it quickly became like a slick. I've
19:40
Speaker 1: never seen that. I have certainly never seen anyone stand
19:44
Speaker 1: up in our little boat and say, hush, be still.
19:49
Speaker 1: And it happened. But that's what happened there. And naturally,
19:55
Speaker 1: they are shocked by what happened. And he said to them,
19:59
Speaker 1: why are you so timid? How is it that you
20:01
Speaker 1: have no faith? They became very much afraid. These are
20:06
Speaker 1: his disciples. These are his followers. And they said to
20:11
Speaker 1: one another, Who then is this, that even the wind
20:17
Speaker 1: and the sea obey him? This is a remarkable moment.
20:27
Speaker 1: These men have been sitting around with him, eating with him,
20:30
Speaker 1: sleeping alongside him. They have seen him do his work.
20:35
Speaker 1: Perform his miracles, but at this moment in time, they
20:38
Speaker 1: are a part of the miracle as their boat is rocking,
20:42
Speaker 1: but it's finding itself on slick water. And they're saying
20:45
Speaker 1: to each other, we don't really know who he is.
20:51
Speaker 1: Who is he? How could this kind of thing happen?
20:57
Speaker 1: Who then is this? Look at Mark chapter 6, verse 1.
21:04
Speaker 1: He went out from there and came into his hometown,
21:08
Speaker 1: and his disciples followed him. Now, his hometown would be
21:12
Speaker 1: not Bethlehem. We would call that our hometown, but it
21:15
Speaker 1: was where one was reared in the days of the scriptures,
21:18
Speaker 1: and this would be Nazareth. So he comes to the
21:21
Speaker 1: place where people saw him growing up. And when the
21:26
Speaker 1: Sabbath had come, he began to teach in the synagogue,
21:30
Speaker 1: and the many listeners were astonished, saying... Where did this
21:35
Speaker 1: man get these things? And what is this wisdom given
21:40
Speaker 1: to him? And such miracles as these performed by his hands.
21:45
Speaker 1: They don't know who he is. Even though many of
21:49
Speaker 1: these people were his contemporaries and they grew up with him.
21:53
Speaker 1: They saw him as he grew up in the carpenter shop.
21:56
Speaker 1: They saw him as he was among his peers. Maybe
22:00
Speaker 1: they were some of them. This must have been a
22:03
Speaker 1: remarkable thing. And they look up one day and this
22:06
Speaker 1: same familiar face is back among them, sitting in the synagogue,
22:11
Speaker 1: unrolling the scroll and explaining the meaning of the scriptures
22:16
Speaker 1: with enormous wisdom and great skill. Hometowns are always amazed
22:25
Speaker 1: that hometown boys do good. The hometown where I was
22:31
Speaker 1: raised is Houston. And when I go there to minister,
22:35
Speaker 1: usually I see a few open mouths because they knew
22:39
Speaker 1: me when I was a little kid. I encouraged them
22:41
Speaker 1: to stay real quiet about the things they know. But
22:45
Speaker 1: they remember me. Some of them grew up with me.
22:49
Speaker 1: And they are amazed that I'm even able to speak
22:52
Speaker 1: in public or that I would be able to turn
22:54
Speaker 1: to a passage of Scripture and make sense out of it.
22:58
Speaker 1: And why? Because they saw me growing up. I'm just...
23:02
Speaker 1: One of them. I'm just one of the guys. And
23:06
Speaker 1: I'm not in this league at all among this person
23:09
Speaker 1: of Christ. They say, is not this the carpenter? Isn't
23:14
Speaker 1: this the son of Mary? Verse 3. And the brother
23:17
Speaker 1: of James and Joe and Judas and Simon are not
23:21
Speaker 1: his sisters here with us? They took offense at him.
23:24
Speaker 1: You know why? They were really wondering, who does he
23:26
Speaker 1: think he is? When you handle the scriptures like this,
23:31
Speaker 1: When you do those kind of things, it looks like
23:34
Speaker 1: you're out to prove a point. Who does he think
23:36
Speaker 1: he is? He's just one of us. He's a carpenter.
23:39
Speaker 1: He's a carpenter's son. He's a son of Mary. He
23:45
Speaker 1: ran around with his four brothers and these sisters. By
23:47
Speaker 1: the way, the word is out among a number of
23:51
Speaker 1: people today that Jesus had no brothers and sisters. But
23:55
Speaker 1: a verse like this puts the the acts to that
23:59
Speaker 1: he did he came from a large family he was
24:02
Speaker 1: just the first born and the virgin born but he
24:05
Speaker 1: had other brothers and he had other sisters his sisters
24:08
Speaker 1: are not named but his brothers are I've often thought
24:13
Speaker 1: what it would have been like to have been raised
24:15
Speaker 1: with him as my brother I don't think I would
24:20
Speaker 1: have enjoyed that I don't think it would have been
24:23
Speaker 1: easy to be around someone who never disobeyed Someone who
24:29
Speaker 1: always washed before supper. Who never had to pick his
24:35
Speaker 1: things up, because he probably was neat as a pin.
24:38
Speaker 1: Who was perfect in nature. Who never lost his temper.
24:44
Speaker 1: He was humanity, but he had no sin, did no sin,
24:49
Speaker 1: and knew no sin. Now, his brothers, interestingly enough, And
24:55
Speaker 1: by the way, James, verse 3, mentions James. That's the
24:58
Speaker 1: one whose letter appears toward the end of the New Testament.
25:01
Speaker 1: James is one who was late coming to Christ, and
25:05
Speaker 1: that makes sense. I mean, if you're raised with an
25:08
Speaker 1: older brother who one day announces that he's Messiah, you're
25:14
Speaker 1: not going to jump at that. You're going to think, well,
25:17
Speaker 1: he is really getting strange. He's believing his own stuff.
25:23
Speaker 1: Here is someone who claims to be the promised one.
25:27
Speaker 1: I think some of his brothers said the same thing.
25:30
Speaker 1: Who does he think he is? Who is he? You see,
25:33
Speaker 1: men and women, we have been conditioned by our times.
25:39
Speaker 1: We have been reared knowing or hearing of Jesus as
25:43
Speaker 1: the Son of God. Our mothers, most of us come
25:46
Speaker 1: from families like that, taught us that. Our dads believed that.
25:50
Speaker 1: We were reared hearing of Jesus as As the true Messiah.
25:55
Speaker 1: But these people were reared with him. This was new
25:59
Speaker 1: information to them. And he comes back to his hometown
26:03
Speaker 1: and they don't know who he is. They're not even
26:06
Speaker 1: sure he is who he says he is. Who did
26:11
Speaker 1: they say he was? We read it for ourselves. He's
26:16
Speaker 1: a carpenter. He's the son of Mary. He has these brothers.
26:21
Speaker 1: He has these sisters, and that's all. That's why they
26:25
Speaker 1: took offense at him. Turn from Mark 6 to Matthew 16.
26:31
Speaker 1: Jesus himself wants to know what the word is on
26:34
Speaker 1: the street regarding his identity. Matthew 16. Matthew 16, verse 13.
26:46
Speaker 1: When Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he
26:50
Speaker 1: began asking his disciples, saying, Who do people say the
26:54
Speaker 1: Son of Man is? Isn't that an interesting question? He's
26:57
Speaker 1: now conducting his own random interview. And he's asking his followers,
27:03
Speaker 1: What do you hear on the street? When you're out
27:06
Speaker 1: among the people, who do they say I am? And
27:11
Speaker 1: these men answered exactly what they had heard. Verse 14.
27:16
Speaker 1: Some say, You're John the Baptist.
27:18
Speaker 2: Right?
27:19
Speaker 1: They think you've actually risen from the dead. Herod had
27:22
Speaker 1: you beheaded, but they think miraculously you've come back to earth.
27:27
Speaker 1: And they say you're John the baptizer. Some say you're Elijah.
27:32
Speaker 1: Others say you are Jeremiah or one of the great prophets.
27:38
Speaker 1: They really believe you are back from the dead and
27:42
Speaker 1: you represent something very unusual. But none of them identified
27:48
Speaker 1: him as the messiah. And then he looked at the group,
27:53
Speaker 1: verse 15, and he said to them, but who do
27:58
Speaker 1: you say that I am? The you is plural. Who
28:02
Speaker 1: do y'all say I am, we would say here. Y'all.
28:07
Speaker 1: Who do all y'all say we are? Who do all
28:09
Speaker 1: y'all say I am? When I was in Tennessee visiting
28:13
Speaker 1: our son when he lived there, I had a friend
28:17
Speaker 1: from Tennessee tell me that if you're going to hang
28:19
Speaker 1: around these parts, you need to learn the language. He said,
28:24
Speaker 1: when you talk to one person, it's ye. Ye. Don't
28:30
Speaker 1: even have to move your lips, just ye. And if
28:33
Speaker 1: it's two people, it's y'all. Not y'all. They know you're
28:39
Speaker 1: a Yankee. If you say y'all, you say y'all. And
28:43
Speaker 1: if it's more than two, you say, oh, y'all. So here,
28:47
Speaker 1: to use the Tennessee language, who do all y'all say
28:50
Speaker 1: I am? All of you as a group, tell me,
28:54
Speaker 1: who do you think I am? You know why all
28:55
Speaker 1: of them didn't answer? Because all of them weren't sure.
28:59
Speaker 1: One was. And this is Peter's great moment in life. Now,
29:04
Speaker 1: we often pick on Peter because he's like we are,
29:07
Speaker 1: rash and hurrying to do the wrong thing, jumping to conclusions, acting...
29:17
Speaker 1: before he thinks, but not now. Peter spoke for the group.
29:23
Speaker 1: You are the Christ. The word means anointed one. It's
29:27
Speaker 1: another word for Messiah. If you like marking your Bibles,
29:30
Speaker 1: put a circle around that and put Messiah in the margin.
29:33
Speaker 1: You're Messiah. That's who you are. You are the son
29:39
Speaker 1: of the living God. You are, in fact, from heaven.
29:49
Speaker 1: You are God in the flesh. You are Messiah, the
29:53
Speaker 1: promised king of the Jews. And Jesus said to him,
30:04
Speaker 1: right on. Blessed are you, Simon, son of John. Blessed
30:11
Speaker 1: are you, Simon bar Jonah. Flesh and blood did not
30:16
Speaker 1: reveal this to you, but our Father who is in heaven.
30:18
Speaker 1: You know what I think he was saying to Peter?
30:22
Speaker 1: You've been close to the Lord. The Lord's been talking
30:25
Speaker 1: to you. The Lord's revealed to you my identity. There
30:28
Speaker 1: is no question about That you have put your finger
30:31
Speaker 1: on the right answer. You are the Messiah. You are
30:37
Speaker 1: the son of the living God. Peter gets a 10
30:42
Speaker 1: plus for the answer. I am in fact deity. Now
30:49
Speaker 1: go from Matthew 16 to John chapter 1. You've patiently
30:52
Speaker 1: gone from one section to another. I've wanted you to
30:54
Speaker 1: hear the words from the street. I've wanted you to
30:57
Speaker 1: hear one of the disciples who got it right. And
31:00
Speaker 1: now I want to set the record straight. As we
31:03
Speaker 1: identify the Lord Jesus Christ, let's don't seek the wisdom
31:07
Speaker 1: from the street. There's not much out there. Let's don't
31:11
Speaker 1: listen to the opinions of other people. They usually are
31:14
Speaker 1: not worth the time it takes to listen. Let's hear
31:18
Speaker 1: what scripture says about the identity of the Lord Jesus Christ.
31:24
Speaker 1: When John sat down to write his gospel, it was
31:27
Speaker 1: toward the end of the first century. Mark wrote, and
31:31
Speaker 1: then probably Luke, and then Matthew, and a long period
31:37
Speaker 1: of time passed before John, who knew him well, was
31:42
Speaker 1: as close to him as anyone on earth. In fact,
31:45
Speaker 1: to use human words, I think if you were to
31:47
Speaker 1: ask Jesus who was his closest friend on earth, he
31:51
Speaker 1: would have told you it was John, John the Apostle. John,
31:56
Speaker 1: about 90, 95 A.D., sits down under the inspiration of
32:00
Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit to write the story of Jesus. His
32:05
Speaker 1: purpose is so that people might believe that he is
32:08
Speaker 1: the Christ, the Son of the living God, and that
32:11
Speaker 1: believing they might have life in his name. The last
32:14
Speaker 1: two verses of chapter 20 tell us that. That's why
32:17
Speaker 1: John wrote, So we're not surprised when he begins to
32:21
Speaker 1: write about Jesus. He starts where he does. Now think
32:26
Speaker 1: seriously about for the next few moments. He begins much
32:31
Speaker 1: like the book of Genesis begins. You see it? In
32:35
Speaker 1: the beginning. Now in the book of Genesis it starts,
32:40
Speaker 1: in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
32:45
Speaker 1: Because Genesis is going back to the beginning of creation. John,
32:49
Speaker 1: believe it or not, goes back even further than that.
32:55
Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, without wanting to lose you
32:57
Speaker 1: in some of the details I want to share, there
33:01
Speaker 1: isn't even a definite article before the word beginning. In beginning.
33:09
Speaker 1: Which means you can't pinpoint the moment in time when
33:13
Speaker 1: there was the beginning. Because he's going back into eternity past.
33:19
Speaker 1: He's going back farther than our minds could even imagine.
33:25
Speaker 1: Before there was a world, before there were planets, before
33:30
Speaker 1: there was light or darkness, before there was matter, is
33:35
Speaker 1: that far enough? Before there was anything but the Godhead,
33:41
Speaker 1: the Father, the Son, the Spirit, the triune God, in
33:46
Speaker 1: a beginning that really never had a beginning, we could
33:51
Speaker 1: paraphrase chapter 1, verse 1, Eternally existed the logos. This reads,
33:59
Speaker 1: in the beginning was the word. This term word is
34:04
Speaker 1: translated from the word logos. And in my study preparing
34:09
Speaker 1: for this talk today, it occurred to me that I
34:12
Speaker 1: would risk giving you a suggestion for understanding the meaning
34:16
Speaker 1: of the word logos. Think of it as a Greek nickname.
34:20
Speaker 1: I've never said that in my life. I didn't know
34:22
Speaker 1: if you would gasp or what when I gave you that.
34:24
Speaker 1: But that's a Greek nickname for Jesus. It is a
34:29
Speaker 1: name that means so much not even one word or
34:33
Speaker 1: a multitude of words can fully describe it. It means
34:36
Speaker 1: the mind of God. It means the reasoning of God.
34:39
Speaker 1: It means the truths of God. It means the word
34:42
Speaker 1: of God. It means the character of God. It's L-O-G-O-S
34:48
Speaker 1: is a nickname for all of those things. So in
34:51
Speaker 1: a beginning, which really never had a beginning, there was Lagos.
34:58
Speaker 1: This is John's word for Jesus before he became a
35:01
Speaker 1: baby in Bethlehem's manger. We're getting deep into theology here
35:07
Speaker 1: this morning, aren't we? It's good for you. It won't
35:09
Speaker 1: hurt you. When you go all the way back before
35:12
Speaker 1: there was ever time or matter, substance, any of the planets,
35:16
Speaker 1: before there was anything in the In the misty flats
35:20
Speaker 1: of eternity past, there existed the Father along with the Son,
35:28
Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit. They were co-eternal, they were co-existent, they
35:32
Speaker 1: were co-equal. Not were, but are. John is telling us
35:37
Speaker 1: that's Jesus. He's establishing the fact that Messiah is in
35:43
Speaker 1: fact God, deity, who sends the rain. It's funny, we
35:51
Speaker 1: get to hear rain in here. I hadn't thought about that.
35:55
Speaker 1: That's terrific. Thank you, Lord. That's great. Eternally existed deity.
36:04
Speaker 1: You see how he puts it? He was with God.
36:09
Speaker 1: He was God. I want you to mark that in
36:13
Speaker 1: your Bible because that is one of the few statements
36:16
Speaker 1: where you will read of the Lord Jesus Christ stated here.
36:20
Speaker 1: as being God. This is going to sound funny on
36:24
Speaker 1: a tape someday, isn't it? It just occurred to me.
36:27
Speaker 1: Ray Stedman was one of my mentors when I was
36:30
Speaker 1: growing up in ministry, and therefore a lot of the
36:35
Speaker 1: things he writes have become treasures for me personally. And
36:39
Speaker 1: among them is his study on the whole Bible, from
36:46
Speaker 1: Genesis to Revelations. And I pulled his book off my
36:49
Speaker 1: shelf yesterday afternoon, and I found that he had written
36:53
Speaker 1: something about this setting in John chapter 1. See if
36:57
Speaker 1: you can ignore the rain and listen to Ray Steadman's words, okay?
37:02
Speaker 1: There are times when we find it difficult to comprehend
37:05
Speaker 1: the full intent of those words. In the beginning was
37:08
Speaker 1: the Word. But if we find it difficult, how much
37:13
Speaker 1: more did his own disciples... they of all people would
37:18
Speaker 1: be least likely to believe that he was God. For
37:22
Speaker 1: they lived with him and saw his humanity as none
37:26
Speaker 1: of us ever has or ever will. They must have
37:32
Speaker 1: been confronted again and again with the question that puzzled
37:37
Speaker 1: and troubled them. Who is this man? And then listen
37:41
Speaker 1: to this scene that he pictures. I've often pictured them
37:44
Speaker 1: sleeping out under the stars with our Lord on a
37:49
Speaker 1: summer night by the Sea of Galilee. I can imagine
37:53
Speaker 1: Peter or John or one of the others waking in
37:56
Speaker 1: the night, rising up on an elbow, and as he
38:02
Speaker 1: looked at the Lord Jesus sleeping beside him saying to himself,
38:07
Speaker 1: is it true? Can this man be Eternal God. Isn't
38:15
Speaker 1: that a great thought? For us who love to camp
38:19
Speaker 1: or love to hunt, we've slept out in the open.
38:21
Speaker 1: And think of traveling with Jesus as one of the companions.
38:26
Speaker 1: Usually what wakes us up is the snoring of the other.
38:30
Speaker 1: You know, Jesus probably snored. I never thought about that before.
38:33
Speaker 1: Here he is snoring. And his snoring wakes me up.
38:37
Speaker 1: And I sit up on an elbow and I look
38:40
Speaker 1: at him. And I'm watching God sound asleep. Isn't that
38:45
Speaker 1: a great thought? I'm watching God snore. Next time when
38:51
Speaker 1: we get into the scene of the first Christmas, we're
38:54
Speaker 1: going to see deity in diapers. Isn't that an interesting thought? Mary,
39:03
Speaker 1: when she heard the first gurgles and mumblings of her
39:07
Speaker 1: little infant baby, was listening for the first time in
39:10
Speaker 1: all of the earth. to the voice of God through
39:13
Speaker 1: human vocal cords. Think of it. This is no mere
39:20
Speaker 1: man born of a fine Jewish who meant well and
39:25
Speaker 1: believed right and rose up to tell people how to live.
39:29
Speaker 1: This is God come in the flesh, which is the
39:33
Speaker 1: whole point of John 1. In the beginning, which really
39:37
Speaker 1: never had a beginning, eternally existed Lagos. Lagos was with God.
39:44
Speaker 1: He was, in fact, deity. He was in the beginning
39:48
Speaker 1: with God. Now here's another one that throws people. All
39:53
Speaker 1: things that became, became through him. And apart from him,
40:01
Speaker 1: nothing became that has become. Isn't that an interesting way
40:06
Speaker 1: to put it? It's playing off of the words is
40:09
Speaker 1: and become. He eternally exists as God, but he brought
40:14
Speaker 1: things into being with the touch of his hand. with
40:19
Speaker 1: the fiat word of his mouth, let there be light.
40:23
Speaker 1: You see, the Father planned it, but the Son implemented it,
40:27
Speaker 1: and the Spirit empowered it. Working together, there came to
40:33
Speaker 1: pass the whole created mass of what we know today
40:38
Speaker 1: as our galaxy and millions of others beyond ours. He
40:43
Speaker 1: put it all into place. And he did it all
40:49
Speaker 1: before he was a baby in a manger. Wonderful thought.
40:56
Speaker 1: In him was life, and the life was the light
41:01
Speaker 1: of men. If you want to know the absolute truth
41:07
Speaker 1: regarding deity, he has no birthday. Because there never has
41:13
Speaker 1: been a time when he did not exist. You and
41:19
Speaker 1: I have a birthday that is nine months after our conception.
41:25
Speaker 1: In some countries, they name the time of conception as
41:27
Speaker 1: the birthday. And that's more accurate. That's when we really
41:30
Speaker 1: began to exist. But at the time we came through
41:34
Speaker 1: our mother's womb and were born, we named that day
41:37
Speaker 1: as our birthday. But with the Lord Jesus, he always existed.
41:45
Speaker 1: It just so happened that in that point of time,
41:48
Speaker 1: he was born again. from the Virgin Mary and she
41:52
Speaker 1: deposited him on this earth for the first time in
41:59
Speaker 1: all of time. John 1.11 says, he came to his
42:04
Speaker 1: own things but his own ones did not receive him.
42:12
Speaker 1: Ever thought about that one? When Jesus walked on this earth,
42:15
Speaker 1: he came to the Sea of Galilee And his eyes
42:19
Speaker 1: saw the sea as no one else had ever seen
42:21
Speaker 1: the sea. He looked at it and said, yep, or
42:25
Speaker 1: something like that. That's exactly what I made. He saw
42:29
Speaker 1: the rising of the grass above, the slope that comes
42:32
Speaker 1: up from the Sea of Galilee. Many of you have
42:34
Speaker 1: seen it. And he said, yep, that's the slope I
42:36
Speaker 1: put there. He saw Mount Hermon in the distance, and
42:40
Speaker 1: that's the mountain I fixed that in place. Yeah, that's
42:45
Speaker 1: the wilderness, exactly as I planned it, right there in
42:47
Speaker 1: the southern part of Judea. That's it. That's exactly what
42:52
Speaker 1: I made. All things came into being through him, and
42:55
Speaker 1: apart from him, nothing came into being that came into being.
42:59
Speaker 1: What I want to do is establish in your mind,
43:02
Speaker 1: without a question, that the Lord Jesus Christ is, in fact,
43:08
Speaker 1: very God who became a man among us. Now there's
43:18
Speaker 1: one final part of this that I don't want you
43:20
Speaker 1: to miss. Colossians chapter 2. We read a few minutes
43:26
Speaker 1: ago Colossians 1, but I want to have you look
43:31
Speaker 1: at Colossians 2. We cut to the chase here. Colossians
43:38
Speaker 1: chapter 2, verse 9. In him all... The fullness of
43:46
Speaker 1: deity dwells in bodily form. The hymn is a reference
43:53
Speaker 1: to Christ. You see his name, the last word of
43:56
Speaker 1: the previous eighth verse. In him, that's Christ, all the
44:03
Speaker 1: fullness of deity dwells in bodily form. He always has
44:15
Speaker 1: been deity. When he became a man, the divine nature
44:22
Speaker 1: and the human nature were put together, unmixed, distinct, but together.
44:31
Speaker 1: And in bodily form, he became the God-man. Remarkable thought.
44:43
Speaker 1: This is the object of our affections. This is the
44:45
Speaker 1: subject of our praise. This is the one who, according
44:50
Speaker 1: to chapter 1, is to have first place in everything,
44:54
Speaker 1: verse 18. Now, what's the practical significance of all this?
45:00
Speaker 1: I think three things. Three things. Number one, because he
45:08
Speaker 1: is God, we have a Bible we can trust. The
45:12
Speaker 1: source of this document that we carry and believe and
45:15
Speaker 1: read and rely on is a source that goes all
45:20
Speaker 1: the way to heaven. The scriptures tell us with credibility
45:25
Speaker 1: that he is very God. And if he is less
45:29
Speaker 1: than God, this book has lied to us. But in fact,
45:32
Speaker 1: he is very God. Secondly, look at Colossians 1.16. We
45:38
Speaker 1: have a life he sustains. In him are all things
45:43
Speaker 1: were created and the end of it says all things
45:46
Speaker 1: have been created through him and for him. He is
45:49
Speaker 1: before all things and in him all things hold together.
45:53
Speaker 1: Your life is held together because Jesus is God. Your
45:57
Speaker 1: life is coming together because Jesus is God. We have
46:02
Speaker 1: a life he sustains. All things are held together through him.
46:08
Speaker 1: I think some of you are thinking right now, in
46:10
Speaker 1: light of the last few months of my life, I'm
46:12
Speaker 1: not sure he's hanging on quite as closely as he
46:14
Speaker 1: should have. But no, as a matter of fact, that's
46:17
Speaker 1: all part of his plan. The uncertainty, the uneasiness, the struggle,
46:24
Speaker 1: the disappointments, the difficulties, all part of his sustaining plan.
46:29
Speaker 1: And he is to have first place in everything. He
46:32
Speaker 1: is not second rate. He isn't an afterthought. He is
46:35
Speaker 1: to have first place in everything. We have a Bible
46:39
Speaker 1: we can trust. We have a life that he sustains.
46:44
Speaker 1: And according to verse 19, or verse 18, he is
46:50
Speaker 1: the head of the body, the church, the beginning, the
46:53
Speaker 1: firstborn from the dead. We have a church that he leads.
46:56
Speaker 1: Because he is God, because he is deity, we can
47:00
Speaker 1: count on his leadership in the midst of this church.
47:04
Speaker 1: The formation of the church and the sustaining of the church.
47:11
Speaker 1: Now the question comes, what are you going to do
47:13
Speaker 1: about what you have heard? And I can't believe that
47:18
Speaker 1: in a gathering this size, that every single person in
47:22
Speaker 1: this place has acknowledged that Jesus is Lord. I cannot
47:27
Speaker 1: fully convince myself that every one of you who has
47:30
Speaker 1: sat through this message on the deity of Christ walks
47:34
Speaker 1: away saying, I believe that with all my heart. I
47:37
Speaker 1: believe that he is the one who was promised by God.
47:41
Speaker 1: I believe that his death paid the penalty for my sin.
47:44
Speaker 1: I believe that he was raised so that I might
47:47
Speaker 1: be declared righteous before God. I believe that he's coming
47:50
Speaker 1: again just as the Lord states in his word. And
47:56
Speaker 1: if that is true, this is the best part of
47:58
Speaker 1: the service for you. This is an opportunity for you
48:01
Speaker 1: to say before God, I want to give him my heart.
48:05
Speaker 1: I want to give him first place. I want him
48:08
Speaker 1: to take charge of my life just as he says
48:11
Speaker 1: he is the head of the church. I want him
48:13
Speaker 1: to be the head of my life. To make that happen,
48:16
Speaker 1: I'd like us to bow our heads together for just
48:18
Speaker 1: a few more moments and then we will be on
48:20
Speaker 1: our way. I'd like you to close your eyes. And
48:23
Speaker 1: though you may not know the person sitting in front
48:26
Speaker 1: of you or beside you, I'd like you to pray
48:28
Speaker 1: for that individual. As I talk to you. If you've
48:36
Speaker 1: never acknowledged the Lord Jesus Christ, As your own personal
48:40
Speaker 1: God and Savior. This is a moment to begin. This
48:44
Speaker 1: is the moment. This is the reason God led you
48:46
Speaker 1: to come. This is the opportunity for you. To say yes.
48:52
Speaker 1: I give you my life. Right where you're sitting. Think
49:00
Speaker 1: of it this way. You can turn your lap into
49:02
Speaker 1: your own personal altar. And you bow before him. who
49:08
Speaker 1: is enthroned on that altar, and you say, I give
49:12
Speaker 1: you my life. I give you the sins of my past.
49:18
Speaker 1: I give you the struggles of my present. And I
49:21
Speaker 1: give you the uncertainties of my future. And I acknowledge
49:30
Speaker 1: that you. Lord Jesus Christ have died for me. And
49:38
Speaker 1: I trust you. throughout eternity with my life right now.
49:48
Speaker 1: We would love to hear from you if you have
49:50
Speaker 1: made this decision. We would love to know that you
49:55
Speaker 1: have come from darkness to light, that your life has
49:59
Speaker 1: been turned around through the power of Christ as a
50:03
Speaker 1: result of this presentation today. Let us hear from you. Please.
50:13
Speaker 1: Our Father, today we acknowledge that you are Lord. Your
50:20
Speaker 1: word teaches it, even though those who lived among the
50:24
Speaker 1: days of Jesus didn't even know it. Your word assures us,
50:29
Speaker 1: and we take it by faith today, how grateful we
50:34
Speaker 1: are for the preeminent place of the Lord Jesus Christ
50:39
Speaker 1: and how thankful we are for the privilege of being
50:41
Speaker 1: able to gather together under his authority, and before his throne.
50:50
Speaker 1: Thank you for this opportunity for the worship of his name.
50:58
Speaker 1: We have come and we have adored him, Christ the Lord.
51:05
Speaker 1: Help those who today have decided to give their lives
51:08
Speaker 1: to the Lord Jesus. May it be for them a
51:11
Speaker 1: turning point That will leave them different for the rest
51:15
Speaker 1: of their lives. I ask this in his matchless name. Amen.
51:27
Speaker 2: The preceding message, The Identity of Deity, was copyrighted in 1998, 1999,
51:32
Speaker 2: and 2007. And the sound recording was copyrighted in 2008
51:33
Speaker 2: by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide.
51:44
Speaker 2: Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.