Sermon Tone Analysis

Preaching Christ (2): The Supremacy of Christ

(Acts 2:22-24)

June 13, 2021

Read Acts 2:22-24 – Twins named Kimberly and Jessica attended a pre-school.

One day the teacher was showing one of them how to write her name.

She got to KIM and asked, “Does your mom call you Kim or Kimberly?”

The girls answered, “My mother calls me Jessica.”

Mistaken identity.

But nothing like missing the ID of the most pivotal person in history.

That’s why at the heart of this first sermon of the new era, Peter preaches Jesus Christ – the one who has been at the core of every credible sermon since.

We must have no mistaken identity there.

We must preach Christ.

But that’s not the name Peter uses.

He starts with, “Jesus of Nazareth.”

Nothing he might have said could have stimulated more incredulity!

The crowd would have thought: “Jesus of Nazareth?

That Nazarene carpenter turned miracle-working rabbi, turned raving blasphemer.

We got rid of him seven weeks ago.

Why bring him up again?”

Why indeed?

Peter’s answer is, “Bc you got Him all wrong.

The one you killed, “God has made both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36).

“You mistook Him – badly.

Who was He really?

He was the long-awaited Messiah.

More than that, He was God in the flesh who died to pay for the sins of the world, including your sin of killing Him.”

With that, Peter gives a breathtaking presentation of the supremacy of the greatest life ever lived.

Today we’ll look at His supremacy; next week the proof.

Simple carpenter?

Yes – but infinitely more than that.

The Supremacy of Jesus’ Person

A. Jesus is Man – It was easy to mistake Jesus’ identity.

He looked like anyone else.

Like the woman in a face who asked the hostess to watch for her husband.

She said, “He has gray hair, eyeglasses, and has a hearing aid.”

The hostess said, “Honey, today is senior day.

They all look like that!”

That was Jesus’ humanity – nothing abnormal in His appearance.

Lu 2:52: “And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.”

He grew physically like we do; learned, like we do, learned social graces and spiritual disciplines, like we do.

He got tired, thirsty, sweaty, and dusty.

When cut, He bled.

When ill, He got fevers.

He walked and talked and ate and slept and eventually died, like any normal human being.

He wasn’t even the most handsome guy around.

Isa 53:2b: “He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.”

He was so normal, when He preached His first sermon in His hometown, the people said in Mt 13:54b, “Where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works?

55) Is not this the carpenter’s son?

Is not his mother called Mary?

And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas?

56) And are not all his sisters with us?

Where did this man get all these things?”

So normal was He that when He applied Isaiah’s description of Messiah to Himself: “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing,” (Lu 4:21b), they were so angry they tried to throw Him off a cliff outside of town (4:29).

Jesus was every inch a man which caused most to miss the infinite worth of His person.

They should have dug deeper.

The Bible assures us that Jesus “committed no sin” (I Pet 2:22).

But despite tangible evidence of His greatness, most gave a casual glance and missed the supremacy of His person.

B. Jesus is God – But being fully man, He was also fully God – two natures in one person.

Hard for us, but harder for the Jews of Jesus’ time.

They were strict monotheists – believers in one God.

So when Jesus began to refer to God as His Father, they began to seek to kill Him bc “he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God” (Jn 5:18b).

Tho there are hints of God as Trinity in the OT, the Jews had no such concept.

A God in heaven and another claiming deity on earth – didn’t compute.

Yet, over time, the disciples began to get it.

Thus, Mt 16:13: “Now, Jesus asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” 14) And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”

15) He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16) Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” [That was an astounding conclusion for the disciples.

Not understanding, yet believing – and Jesus knows why] 17) And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah!

For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.”

God revealed it, so they got it.

They had ample evidence of Jesus’ humanity.

But He was also God and therein lay the supreme nature of His being.

He was like no one else – ever!

So Peter says in v. 24b: “it was not possible for him to be held by [death].”

In His humanity, He could die; but bc of His divine nature, death could never hold Him.

And Peter seals the deal that Jesus is both Messiah and God in v. 36: “Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him [shown Him to be] both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”

They thought they knew Jesus -- enough to judge Him worthy of death.

But they didn’t know Jesus.

Until you know Him as God, you don’t know Him.

How serious is it to deny the deity of Jesus of Nazareth?

It is to condemn oneself.

I Jn 5:1: “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God.”

But everyone who denies this is subject to God’s judgment.

Jn 3:36: “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”

To miss the supremacy of Christ in His person as God is to miss eternal life.

Someone once asked the great statesman, Daniel Webster, “Mr.

Webster, can you comprehend how JC can be both God and man?” Webster said, “No, sir, I cannot understand it, and I would be ashamed to acknowledge Christ as my Savior if I could comprehend it.

He could be no greater than myself, and such is my conviction of my accountability to God, my sense of sinfulness before Him, and my knowledge of my own incapacity to recover myself, that I feel I need a superhuman Savior.”

We all need a supernatural Savior.

Thankfully, there is one, but only one.

Jesus is supreme in His person.

II.

The Supremacy of Jesus’ Passion

I was 15 years old, eating lunch at school, when a friend rushed up and said, “Kennedy’s been shot!”

Our reaction was, “No – that’s not possible.

This is the 20th century.

Presidents don’t get shot anymore.”

Such was the innocence of the time.

But, he’d not only been shot, but killed.

It was a tragedy, given his age, position and potential, a death that changed history -- a death like that of Lincoln or Caesar.

And most people view Jesus’ death in the same light – an unfortunate tragedy of history – a talented man who died much too young.