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The Person of Jesus - Lesson 4 · HBCWestminster

• 0:00
  So we are going to be doing lesson four. Jesus, the person of Jesus Christ. There are... This is just a handout I put together. This is not my study that made this for you guys. The person who receives credit is on the bottom in the footnote. But this is some... If you...
• 0:29
  talk to anybody about the person of Jesus as a historical figure, often people will ask, is there any evidence outside the Bible? Right? There's plenty of conversation about Christ in the Bible, but people, somebody who is not a believer, somebody who doesn't believe in the historicity of Christ, will often ask,
• 1:01
  Is there any evidence outside? Is there any evidence that he existed? And the work that he did, the things that the Bible say he did, is there evidence outside of it? There are some. There is a lot more, but so that it wasn't 10 pages, I cut it down to some of the portions. These are secular historians.
• 1:26
  the time frame when they would have been writing the information about Christ and excerpts from their writing, specifically talking about and referencing Christ. And so I thought that would be a handy handout for you as we talk about this. One of the reasons why it is important for us to have this conversation about who Christ is, specifically around his deity,
• 1:56
  Many people will often accept the fact that Jesus existed. Whether or not he was fully God is one of the key elements of the conversation that we're going to have tonight. And part of the reason why this is important is recently, and I say recently within the last 15 years, there was a seminar, there was a group of historians that gathered together, and they are called the Jesus Seminars.
• 2:25
  The Jesus Seminars. A group of guys got together and they met and they discussed whether we could believe, whether or not we could believe specifically the miracles in the Gospels as well as Jesus as God. Now, they had these meetings and talked about this. These were naturalistic men. They have that bent towards science.
• 2:53
  And so they came to a conclusion that the Gospels, and specifically four different things that they came to, should be considered myths. The resurrection of Jesus from the dead, the virgin birth, all Gospel miracles, all accounts in the Gospels that account for miracles.
• 3:23
  should be rejected, and that a full over 80% of the teachings normally attributed to Jesus should be rejected. Some of the key reasons why they came to this understanding was that they make some assumptions, some assumptions based on their naturalistic view. Essentially, the Gospels record occurrences of miracles.
• 3:53
  And we know that miracles can't happen. So, since miracles can't happen, we can't trust the New Testament writings and the Gospels specifically, and thus they are not historical documents. That is essentially what this group of men gathered and discussed. It's also where they started to rediscuss the validity of some of the heretical Gospels, as the Gospel of Judas.
• 4:22
  and stuff like that. And so this is the time frame that we find ourselves, where again, Jesus' deity is under attack. The trustworthiness of the Gospels is under attack. This is not new, though. Back in early church, as early as 325 A.D. and 451 A.D., the church confronted very similar conversations about...
• 4:54
  the trustworthiness of the Gospels and specifically about the deity of Christ. So this is not a new problem for us. This is not a new conversation. It's simply a regurgitation and a reassessment of something that has been discussed for a long time. One book that I want to recommend to you guys as we get started tonight is a book by J.I. Packer called Concise Theology.
• 5:22
  Every week I'm trying to give you guys some extra stuff that you guys can be looking at, like the handout in terms of the historicity of Jesus, as well as some book recommendations. This is a fantastic book. Each chapter is like three to five pages long, has mainly scripture, but it's really, really fantastic in terms of conversations around and building a basic understanding around theology.
• 5:49
  And I want to read you guys an excerpt as we get started from this book. As he's talking about these two different councils that met, Council of Nicaea and the Council of Chalcedon in 451, he says they had swallowed up Christ's humanity, rejecting both, but these councils rejected both.
• 6:18
  The council, their affirmation that Christ was not actually human, they rejected that. And the council affirmed that Jesus is one divine human person in two natures with two sets of capacities for experience, expression, reaction, and action. And that the two natures are united in his personal being without mixture, confusion, separation, or division.
• 6:47
  and that each nature retained its own attributes. This is the key part I want you guys to hear. In other words, all the qualities and powers that are in us as humans, Jesus had. All the infirmities, all of those things, he experienced as he was fully human. As we get started tonight, if you guys have done your study,
• 7:19
  We are going to look at the person of Jesus. He was full God, full man, full Savior, and full King. Those four things we are going to look at. Those are bullet points in your book. And I want to read a fairly lengthy C.S. Lewis quote because that is very famous in terms of his opinion of Christ and his deity. He says,
• 7:49
  saying the really foolish thing that people often say about him, that's Christ or Jesus. I'm ready to accept, this is the foolish thing that people say, I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a good moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic,
• 8:19
  on the level of a man who says he's a poached egg, or else he would be the devil of hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was and is the Son of God, or else a madman, or something much worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon, or you can fall at his feast and call him Lord and God.
• 8:44
  Let us not come up with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us, and he did not intend to. The reality of Christ's deity, specifically, is one of the key pieces that people will often deny. It's a thing that people will often debate, and they will come after. Because, yeah.
• 9:15
  Nope. His name is C.S. Lewis. He actually was an atheist, studied and became a Christian. So he's saying, basically, Jesus gave us three choices about his identity, about who he was. He was either a lunatic, a liar, or he was Lord. Yep. Exactly. Exactly.
• 9:45
  His point is he makes claims like I am the resurrection and the life. He makes claims that no one can get to heaven except through him. These are statements that if he's calling people to trust in him and he was not actually Lord, he'd be a pretty messed up person. So the God who became man, that's your letter one, right? I'm sure you guys have done your homework. So we're not going to hit all of these different areas.
• 10:18
  on this, but we want to talk about the God who became man. The quintessential passage of this is obviously, I'm sure you guys read it, it's in the part of the study notes here, Philippians 2, 6, and 7. Philippians 2, 6, and 7. If you guys want to move over to that, we are going to read those two verses.
• 10:45
  One of the times when I was teaching, I didn't realize that not everybody had heard this before, but if you're ever wondering where Philippians is in those four short letters, God's eternal power company. Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians. And somebody was like, I've never heard of that. I was like, how could you not have heard that? All right, Philippians chapter 2, verses 6 and 7 say this. Who, and you jump two words over, Christ Jesus is the who.
• 11:16
  Though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. Now this word form that Paul uses does not mean a type closely resembling. Like we might say of a tennis player, right? Their swing is close.
• 11:47
  to what it's supposed to be that closely resembles the ideal or what it should look like. Where a baseball player, their swing is closely resembling that of a professional athlete, but it's not quite there. This is not the word that means that. It's not something that means close to the ideal, but not exact. So that's not what it means when it says form. This word used here has in its meaning nature.
• 12:15
  used means native disposition. So, what that means, when Paul says that he was in the form, and that this form was the native disposition of Christ, he's saying that Christ was a form, he's not saying that Christ was a form or close to being God, but that he was the exact same in nature as God, that that is his native disposition.
• 12:41
  That is what the word form holds in this passage. Next in the passage, it tells us that Christ emptied himself. And the words used here means to divest oneself of rightful dignity by taking on an inferior position. So what it means is that Christ is God in heaven.
• 13:10
  And he takes on, he lets go of his independent use of his deity and comes down and takes on the form or likeness of man. It would be like, if you can think about somebody in our church that I thought of in this was William Daniels. William Daniels is a man who oversees over 500 employees across multiple states and heads up a...
• 13:40
  very large team and employees and travels across to do so. For him, it would be like him becoming a janitor for the company he works for, setting aside his title and his rights to order around those employees and come down and become a janitor and occupy that position and take on that role.
• 14:08
  The identity of a janitor. That's the closest example I have to explain what those words are telling us when it says that Christ emptied himself. This statement does not tell us, though, that he ceased being God. Right? It says that he emptied himself, but it doesn't say that he ceased to be in the form of God. Right? So he was still God. What did he empty himself of?
• 14:42
  Christ emptied himself, as I said just a second ago, of the independent use or exercise of some of his divine attributes. Verse 7 tells us that he became obedient, even obedient to death on a cross. Christ set aside his glory. John 17, 5 says, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world.
• 15:14
  Let me read that again. Not only did Christ set aside his, he emptied himself of and became obedient and took on the form of a man, but he also emptied himself of his glory. If you guys are familiar with Exodus, when Moses goes up.
• 15:43
  to the mountain and spends time with God. Exodus 33. Moses begs God. This is one of my favorite passages in the Old Testament. He begs God. He says, show me your glory. Right? In chapter 33 of Exodus, he says, show me your glory. God says, you can't see my full glory, but you hide in the cleft of this rock and my glory will pass behind you. Right?
• 16:13
  And so God's glory passes behind Moses and then he spends days talking with the Lord and then he comes down. And the effect that just God's glory passing behind him has on Moses is when he comes down to see Israel, his face is shining so bright that they actually get freaked out. They actually get scared. So when Christ says that he...
• 16:43
  He asked the Father to glorify me in your presence with the glory I had before the world existed. He had this same glory. And if you read through the Gospels, as the disciples hang out with Christ and spend time with Him, none of their faces shine to a point where people are scared of them, right? So His glory is veiled. His glory is set aside as well. So not only does Christ take on the form of man, not only does He set aside His...
• 17:13
  His independent use of his divine attributes. And not only does he become obedient even to death on a cross, but he also veils his glory. In Jesus becoming man, he set aside this glory. He veiled it for over 30 years. He took on our form, our infirmities. The God who was infinite became finite man.
• 17:51
  For over 30 years, he became fully man. Several passages that it lists in there where it shows us that Christ took on humanity. Luke tells us that he grew and he became strong. Mark 4.38 tells us that he slept. There are verses that talk about Christ becoming hungry, that he became weary at times.
• 18:26
  that he wept at times, that he was in agony at times. The Gospels record all of these things. These are all human experiences that verify that the God, Jesus, became man, that he took on full form, human form. The man who is God. So he was fully God and he was fully man. The man who is God.
• 18:58
  There is, I don't remember, I don't know if you guys have this list, but we're going to look at a list of IMs. Sure.
• 19:29
  I'm saying it wrong, but I have nothing to wear it with. 80%, 85% would be gone. I wouldn't say he parted the Red Sea. He built the boats with all the animals. It never rained for a hundred and some years, but he built the boat in the middle of the desert. It's stupid. Yes, yes. So if I had any upcoming years, I'd love to get a comedy skit that just has it all. And then you have people drinking and gathering your comic.
• 20:00
  And in the end, it comes down to real, you know, the real deal. You know what I mean? Like, you kind of need them. Uh-huh. And then you kind of, it kind of light goes off with everybody and says, wow. You know what I mean? One of the, when we, when we started, we started talking about scripture and one of the things, and the believability of scripture and one of the things that is unique about,
• 20:30
  the way scripture is written, when you were talking about Gene, is that it records its heroes' failures. Most places, like if you read a biography, a lot of biographies don't record some of those things none of us want people to know about, right? A lot of times when you actually sign on to write a biography for somebody, they will actually make you sign an agreement that you will not write certain things about them because they don't want those things recorded.
• 21:00
  The scripture does the exact opposite. And the whole point and the reason why scripture does that is one of the things that I love about it is, and it does point to its believability because it records the failures of those that it speaks of as heroes of the faith. We're going to look at the I am's of Christ. If someone wants to look up Matthew 27, 43, someone wants to look up John.
• 21:30
  8, 12. Someone wants to look up John 10, 11. John 11, 25. I'm trying to think. 1, 2, 3, 4. We can get them all. John 14, 6. John 15, 5. We'll start with Matthew 27, 43. Whoever grabbed that, if you could read that. Matthew 27, 43.
• 22:19
  I am the Son of God. Okay, the next one is John. So Jesus claims to be the Son of God. Next we see John 8, 12. Claims to be the light of the world. John 10, 11. Christ claims to be the good shepherd. John 11, 25.
• 23:07
  Claims to be the resurrection and the life. John 14, 6. He claims to be the way, the truth, the life. Again, in several of these, claiming to be the access to heaven, to the Father. John 15, 5.
• 23:42
  For without me you could be nothing. 15.5, he claims to be the vine and the source of life for bearing fruit. John 18.37 Jesus claims to be king. A couple other passages.
• 24:22
  We're going to go back to John 8, 58, but a couple other passages in Revelation. The first chapter of Revelation, there are a couple of verses where it speaks, Christ claims to be the Alpha and the Omega. He claims to be the first and the last, the living one, alive forever. Revelation 1, 17 through 18. And then John 8, 58. John 8, 58 says,
• 24:51
  Jesus said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am. John 8.58 specifically speaks to Christ's eternal existence as the I am statement refers to his existence without beginning or end. Those words, I am, are preexistent, eternal.
• 25:25
  in their meaning. Christ demonstrates his deity also in showing his dominion and power over things like creation. We see that in Matthew 8, verses 23-27. We see him demonstrate his power over sickness as he heals the sick. Specifically, one instance is the sick and the diseased, Luke 4.40.
• 25:53
  Mark 3 recounts Christ healing the man with the withered hand. He heals the paralytic man in Mark 2. He cleanses the leper at the end of Mark 1. Jesus shows he is Lord over the Sabbath and the law in Mark 2, verses 23-28. And he shows dominion and power over the spiritual realm over and over and over again as he shows power over the demons as he casts them out.
• 26:23
  He shows his power over death when he raises Lazarus from the dead and when he raises the young girl from the dead in Matthew. A few passages outside of the Gospels where Christ's deity is clearly claimed. Colossians chapter 2 verse 9. That should be in your notes. Colossians chapter 2 when it says the statements of deity under C.
• 26:56
  Colossians 2.9 says this, For in Him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily. It doesn't get any clearer than that, right? The fullness of God dwelled in Christ in bodily form. Hebrews 1.1-3
• 27:42
  Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by prophets, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, who is Jesus, right? As we learned earlier, Christ claims to be the Son of God. His Son, whom He appointed the heir of all things, through whom He created the world. He, in verse 3, He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact...
• 28:10
  imprint of his nature, that is God's nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. Our verses that we were to memorize for this week, we didn't do the memorization just because we got a late start, but John 1.1, in the beginning was the word, the word was with God, and the word was God. And then John 14, 1.14, 1.14, and the word became flesh.
• 28:56
  Christ's deity is claimed over and over and over again by himself, as well as those who wrote in Scripture, such as Paul and Colossians, the Hebrews author, whomever you assign that to, whether that's Paul or Barnabas or somebody else.
• 29:17
  So Christ's deity, the man who is God, is clearly seen in Christ's claims, in the claims of others about him in Colossians and Hebrews and the Gospel writers. And we see both his humanity and his deity depicted over and over again in many of these passages.
• 29:52
  So Jesus is God. Jesus is man. Fully God, fully man. And Jesus is our Savior. That's the third bullet point. Christ is Savior. The reality is, and why we start with Christ is man and Christ is God, is because if those two things aren't true, He had no way to pay the penalty for our sin. He had no way to become our Savior, did He?
• 30:25
  If he was not fully man, he couldn't have died, right? Could not have died. If he was not fully God, he could not have lived perfectly, right? Could not have lived a perfect life. So we start with those two things, fully man, fully God, because they are foundational for him to be our Savior. Christ had to be man to die in our place.
• 30:58
  Let's look at a couple of these. If someone wants to look up Matthew 20, verse 28. If someone wants to look up Isaiah 53, 10. Isaiah 53, 10. And John 10, 15. And then one person wants to look up Galatians 1, 3-4. Whoever has Matthew, go ahead. Isaiah 53, 10.
• 31:56
  John 10, 15. That comes right after him. He was claiming to be the good shepherd. I'm going to read Romans 4, verse 25. It says this.
• 32:27
  Who, if you go one verse earlier, is Jesus our Lord. And then Galatians 1, 3-4. Grace and peace to you from God our Father, and to you from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father. Grace and peace, the Lord Jesus Christ who gave himself for our sins. Christ, and the Bible claims clearly,
• 33:02
  Christ is our Savior. He is our Savior through His humanity and through His deity. He also had to be the perfect sacrifice. As I said, He needed to be God in order to live the perfect life. One thing I want to state, there's a statement we can make about Christ, which is true, but not a saving statement.
• 33:36
  We can say Christ who is the Savior, right? We can admit Christ as the Savior, or we can say Christ who is my Savior. These are very different things. One is a confession of truth. One is a confession of personal belief. It's important as we talk with people, as we understand ourselves, that there is a difference.
• 34:07
  One is, as I said, a statement of truth. The other is personalizing, making Him my Savior. Because Christ was and is fully man and fully God, He made His sacrifice possible and perfect. There was no other path or possible solution to our plight, to our eternal condition of separation from God.
• 34:34
  of our born sin nature. Christ filled the gap with His grace by His great love. Romans 5.8, the famous passage, right? While we were still sinners, Christ demonstrates His love for us in this. I'm butchering that one. I got it all reversed. I've been memorizing verses that I've had in NIV for years and doing it in ESV and it's messing me up.
• 35:03
  But God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. God demonstrates His love for us. We were sinners. We had nothing lovable about us, yet Christ offered Himself for us as our Savior. Some other passages to consider as we look at Christ as our Savior. John 1.29, Jesus is the Lamb of God.
• 35:35
  John 6.35, Jesus is the bread of life. John 14.6, Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. Those are also closely connected with some of the I.M.s that Christ stated about Himself. Jesus the Christ is Savior. And I pray that He is our Savior. Fully God, fully man, full Savior.
• 36:06
  and full king. The king will come to rule. As some of those verses talked about Christ coming to give himself, to be a servant and to give himself, and the Philippians passage talked about Christ coming down to earth and becoming obedient, even to death on a cross. Christ's first descension on earth, he comes as a servant. He comes to suffer and to save.
• 36:37
  His second coming is not going to be like that. He will come back as king. And this, if you are a believer, should get you excited. Christ will come to rule. That's our fourth topic. The four headings there, A, B, C, D, there's several passages. When you guys looked at...
• 37:09
  Daniel chapter 7 and verse 14. What were the three things that Christ was given? What does Christ have? That's right. That fits under one of them, which is dominion. He has dominion. He has glory. And he has a kingdom. In order to have a kingdom, you've got to be a king. Matthew 25, 31 to 32. What are some things that Christ...
• 37:47
  told his followers in that passage about his second coming. When he comes back. Yep. Going to come with all his angels too. He's coming with an army. He's not coming back in a manger this time. Looking at Acts 1.11 when Christ ascended into heaven. What were his apostles told at that time?
• 38:24
  What did Christ say? What were they told? So he's going to come from heaven and then surrounded by clouds. And then this one should have been pretty familiar because Danny just preached on this one. 2 Thessalonians 1, verses 7-10 describe Christ's return. What are some of the things you guys gleaned from that? What did you guys see in that passage?
• 39:04
  from 2 Thessalonians. Yep, yep. The things I saw was Christ is not coming back in meekness. He will return as the mighty conquering King. And that's also connected with Revelation 1, verses 12-18. He is coming back. He's coming back for His kingdom. He's coming back to show His dominion.
• 39:48
  and His rule. He's not coming back in meekness. As we end, I want to look at three passages. I want to look at 2 Peter 3. Verse 14 says this, Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by Him without spot or blemish.
• 40:29
  And at peace. Since we are waiting for Christ's return. The challenge Peter gives us is to be diligent. To be found without spot or blemish. To be sanctified. Revelation chapter 5. Just flip over a couple pages. Revelation chapter 5. Verses 11 through 14. Then I looked and I heard around the throne the living creatures.
• 40:58
  And the elders, the voice of many angels, numbering myriads and myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing. And I have heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea and all that is in them, saying to him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb, Be blessing and honor and glory and might forever.
• 41:26
  Four living creatures said amen and the elders fell down and worshipped. He gives us those two at the end of the chapter in way of application. He asks how should we prepare ourselves, 2 Peter 3.14, that we would be at peace with each other and that we would be diligent. In Revelation, he has...
• 41:52
  several things that he lists out in our notes, but one of the things that I looked as I read that is I want to be found worshiping. I want to be found worshiping our Lord. I want to be found giving honor and glory to Him, not to myself. And then the last one I want to look at is Hebrews 12, verse 28. And this one I felt like put a good cap on.
• 42:23
  this whole thing is we talk about the God who became man, the man who was God, who is our Savior, who emptied himself, who took on all of our infirmities. And I read this and I thought, man, this just feels like a good cap to this conversation about the person of Christ. Therefore,
• 42:48
  In view of that, in view of this reality, right? That Christ is our Savior, that Christ came down from heaven, died an agonizing death on the cross. Therefore, let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken. And thus, let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe. As we consider...
• 43:16
  who our Savior is, who Christ is, fully God, fully man, full Savior and King. I believe it ought to invoke in us a gratitude for what we have received, a future that is stamped with all certainty that cannot be shaken, and that we should offer ourselves, our lives, our talents, our abilities to God in worship.
• 43:48
  out of reverence and awe for who He is. Let's pray. Father in Heaven, Lord, thank You for this brief time in this. Lord, thank You for the truth of who Your Son, Jesus Christ, is. Lord, thank You that You did not leave anything to question. Lord, that we must identify You as Lord, Savior, God, King.
• 44:18
  Because that is who you are. Thank you for this. Thank you for your word. I pray that it would really, truly invoke in us a response of gratitude and reverence for you. In your name, amen.