Sermon Tone Analysis

WHO IS JESUS

*Part Two – Behold God*

*Central United Church*

*Jan.

19,2003*

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Text:    “For in Him (Jesus Christ) the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily…”

                                                                                                                        Colossians 2:9

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At almost every funeral service I have ever conducted, I’ve used the familiar words of Jesus “Let not your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in me.

In My Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?” (John 14:2)

 

Who is this Jesus, who made such a bold statement?

If He wasn’t God, what right; what authority did He have to utter such words of prophecy?

If Jesus was merely a man, these words are pure hypocrisy.

But, if He was God, then His words are the most comforting, reassuring words that have ever been spoken!

So which is it?

Is He God, or is He Man?

Last week, we examined Jesus, the Man.

We saw that the Gospels are clear in stating that Jesus was truly a human being.

One who shared the same emotions, the same weaknesses and strengths, the same joys and sorrows that we all know.

He was a human being surrounded by mystery, yes, most certainly; but a human being nevertheless.

But if He was a human being, how could He also be God?

It seems a contradiction!

 

Surely this is the ultimate mystery surrounding Jesus.

A mystery with which scholars have wrested since the Christian Church was first established.

It’s a mystery - that seems to defy explanation, for it contradicts everything  we know about God and human beings.

God is:

Ø      the Creator;

Ø      the power that propels life;

Ø      the One who has set in motion the boundless universe with all its diversity & expanse.

God is:

Ø      infinite,

Ø      all powerful;

Ø      boundless,

Ø      timeless.

Human beings, (on the other hand) are weak, finite creatures.

We may have been formed in the image of God, (a fact demonstrated by our ability to manipulate the elements of creation); but we have limits.

We’re definable.

We have a beginning and an end; a birth & a death.

So how could Jesus be both man and God?

In wrestling with this, I thought back to my days as an undergraduate in philosophy at McMaster University.

I remember the long arguments we used to have in class.

One group arguing that we have freedom of choice; the other arguing just as convincingly that all actions are predetermined.

And  no matter how elegant our defense, we could never win over our opponents.

If one side said  ‘we have freedom of choice.

The other side would argue just as convincingly that everything, including the argument we had just made, was pre-determined.

So we were deadlocked.

There was no way to resolve the dilemma.

So it always ended in a truce.

We had our opinion.

They had theirs.

There was no winner!

In a way, we’re confronted with that same dilemma here.

If we’re talking to someone who doesn’t believe in Jesus, there’s absolutely no way to prove Jesus is God in human form.

But if we’ve experienced the power of the risen Christ’ in our life, then there is no question about it.

We know we’ve encounter God in Jesus.

So the only thing we can hope to do in a dialogue with a non-believer, is to invite him~/her to come to know Jesus personally, through reading Scripture, through prayer and meditation,  and through worship.

So, accepting this limitation, let’s examine what it is within our Christian experience that leads us to believe God is in Christ.

I           THE CLAIMS HE MADE

 

If we compare Jesus with other great teachers of the past, we find one distinct difference.

Consider Plato, Buddha, Confucius, even Mohammed, without exception they all focus upon the message, not upon themselves.

They saw themselves as messengers, or prophets, but not God.

“I am nothing”, they would say.

“It’s the message that’s important.”

But with Jesus its utterly different!

Jesus said: “I and the Father are one”.

(John 10:30)

 

Jesus deliberately placed Himself at the Center of His own message.

He didn’t claim to have found the answer to life, He claimed to BE the answer!

“Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest,”  What other prophet dared to make such a bold claim?

When talking about caring for others, Jesus said:  “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me!”  (Matt.

25:40 & 45) 

 

How dare He make such bold assertions, unless He and God are One!

Either Jesus is an insane meg-alo-mania, or else what He said is true.

God is in Christ.

We can’t have it both ways.

His words are either preposterous, or they are the most profound and significant words ever uttered by a living person.

So our first indication that  God & Christ are One, comes from Jesus’ own claims about Himself.

II           HE WAS SINLESS

 

The second indication that Jesus was more than just a man, comes from his moral life.

The first letter of Peter tells us:  “He committed no sin; no guile (or deceit) was found on His lips.” (I Peter 2:22)   And the Apostle Paul tells us: “For our sake, He (God) made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”  (II Cor.

5:21)

 

The modern world doesn’t like the word ‘sin’ in reference to human  weakness or error.

‘Sin’, by its very nature implies a Divine Order, a Creator, a God behind the universe.

And that goes against the grain of conventional wisdom.

But call it what you like, the fact remains the Gospels tell us Jesus lived without committing the kind of errors and wrongs that plague the rest of us.

He lived a pure and perfect life.

And the evidence of this comes, not from Jesus’ words, but from the testimony of others.

Never  once, is Jesus heard confessing sin!

This man who spent so much of His time working and redeeming sinners, never had to ask forgiveness for His own misdeeds.

This fact is startling!

It’s all the more startling when you compare Jesus with any other saintly people who have ever lived; for saintly people have been, without exception, very conscious of their own sins.

There are countless examples of this awareness; from the Apostle Paul, to Thomas a Kempis, (in the Middle Ages), to Mother Teresa in our own day.

People who live in close communion with God, are more aware of their own sins, - than anyone else.

Yet here is Jesus, a man constantly in prayer, yet never once do we hear Him confess His sins.

So Jesus’ sinlessness  is our second indication that Jesus and God are one and the same.

III          JESUS DID FOR OTHERS WHAT ONLY GOD COULD DO

 

The third indication comes from what He did for others.

Listen to His words to a paralytic man, brought to Him for healing:  “Take heart, my son;  your sins are forgiven.”

Jesus actually forgave the man’s sins!

By what authority could He do something like that, if God & He were not One?  (Matt.

9:2)

 

Yet this wasn’t an isolated occurrence it happened over and over again.

Remember the story of lame man lowered down through the roof into the room where Jesus was teaching?

What did Jesus say to Him.     “My son, your sins are forgiven.”

(Mark 2:5-9)