I Beleive, One Lord, Jesus Christ

I Believe

One Lord, Jesus Christ

Series Slide

Good morning and welcome to worship on this day that the Lord has made! I told you all we were having a cold front… We had a day where it didn’t get over 100*… and it was in the 60’s 2 mornings! I bet I am not alone in saying that I look forward to Fall!

We are in our second week of our series considering our Catechism… our statement of beliefs as a church. I am calling this series, I Believe, because it is a statement of what I believe and I hope you believe it too… The portion we are focusing on is all taken from the Nicene Creed that we read just a moment ago… a statement of faith that goes back to 381 AD. Last week, we looked at God the Father Almighty.

Today, we are looking at Jesus, that

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the father, through Him all things were made.

And, I could think of no better verse to start with than Jesus own words. Turn with me to John 3. Yes, it is 3:16… but there is more to Jesus’ encounter with Nicodemus than just that one verse. There’s more than the 4 verses we will read together, but it is at least a start.

John 3:14-17

<Prayer>

Who is Jesus Christ? That is one of the questions of the Catechism, but it is also a question that we have been pondering for some 2000 years.

Well, according to CS Lewis and others, Jesus is either who he says he is, or he is a lunatic, or he is a liar. There is no other option. The claims Jesus makes are so profound, so drastic, so amazing… or crazy… that there is no other option in viewing Jesus.

So people say Jesus was a great teacher.

Jesus was a great moral leader.

They say that he was the founder of a movement.

But nothing more.

Well, Jesus own words contradict these statements.

Yes, Jesus was a great teacher. Read Matthew 5 – 7 and the Sermon on the Mount.

That passage passes as a great moral lesson too.

But, then we get to passages like John 3:16… and make no mistake, read the entire discourse and there is no misunderstanding it… Jesus is claiming to be God incarnate, the Son of God, The Savior of the World to be lifted up on a tree.

He claims more than that… Flip over to chapter 14.

John 14:1-7

Jesus is the Way…

The way to where? The Father.

When I was in Seminary, I had a student arguing with me that Jesus never claimed to be the only way to heaven or to God, and that there are many ways that lead to God… I know, yes, that is how several denominations have gotten into the mess we are all in, but I digress…

I quoted this passage to here as proof of Jesus own words, And her response, “Well, yes, he said he is the way to the Father, not God.” I started to respond, but then realized that Oxygen is too valuable to waste in a debate when we could not even agree on the foundational beliefs of the faith. I think we clearly established last week as we looked at God, the Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth, of all things, seen and unseen… that God is the Father… that Jesus referenced God as Father, even using the term of endearment, Abba, Daddy. Jesus clearly claimed that he is THE WAY to God the Father… who resides where? In heaven.

Jesus is the Truth…

What truth? We talked about Truth a couple of weeks ago when we were looking at the collision of our faith and our culture. We talked about the fact that Truth is Jesus Christ… that Truth is found in the Word of God…

And here’s the thing… I know it’s all hip and cool to argue that truth is relative to the individual, and that there is no foundational truth other than what we have constructed.

Well, to kill someone is wrong. But then the relativist will bring in self-defense, or war as just killing. Let’s talk to our Law Enforcement personnel who have had to use lethal force. Let’s talk to our soldiers who came back from combat having numerous ‘just’ kills. Actually, don’t talk to them about it unless you have the proper training, or they open up and offer to share with you. Why? Because of the guilt and the pain that they feel having taken a life. And for those of you in here today that are still dealing with that reality, know that you are loved… God does not see you as you think you are… shame and guilt are not of God, they have tarnished your own view of yourself… God doesn’t look on you and see what you did, God looks on you and sees who you are, His child, a child that Jesus came to redeem. Jesus came to replace that shame and guilt with love, his love. That is truth!

We can relativize the truth all we want, but in the end, there are certain truths that stand regardless of our relativity.

The fact is, Jesus is truth incarnate and he has impacted more lives than any other person to ever have lived… and yes, he lived, there is too much evidence to say otherwise.

Not only is Jesus true, he claimed to be the ultimate truth.

And, Jesus said, “I am the Life.” John 14 is clear, Jesus says, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life… Not a way, and a truth, and a life. Jesus is life. Not only is he life, John 10:10 reminds us that Jesus came that we may have life, abundant life, full life, a complete life that we were created for!

But wait, there’s more!

Turn back to John 1. I tried to pick a verse, but decided I would just read the entire prologue of John.

John 1:1-18

I’m not going into the exegesis of the Greek here, and I ask you to trust me when I say, John is using a literary technique here to teach against the onslaught of Gnostic thought and defend the faith… in that defense, he uses the Logos – the Word – as Jesus. And, in verse 3-4 he tells us that the Word was present at creation and life itself exists in Him. You don’t believe John, Let’s hear what Paul had to say about it:

Colossians 1:16-17

Jesus, God the Son, was present at creation and it is through Jesus Christ that all things were created. Our very existence is dependent upon Jesus!

OK, that’s just part of our understanding of Jesus. That is just scratching the surface of Jesus being The Way, The Truth, and The Life.

Do you want to get into the story of his birth?

A virgin birth…

Miraculous in every way…

You do know that there is a place you can go, where people have been gathering for 2000 years to remember the miraculous birth of Jesus. It is in Bethlehem. The faithful built a church over it some 1800 years ago. It is the longest lasting continuously meeting church in the world. The original church was built over the cave in 339 AD and then rebuilt in around 1500.

Here’s an idea, why don’t we go see it? Next March? Yes, I was just given the opportunity for us to join a pilgrimage to the Holy Land again, March 1 – 10… but that’s an aside.

The fact that we can go to the place of Jesus Birth… We can go to the place where Jesus taught on the hills of Galilee and the steps of the Temple… that we can go to the seashore where Jesus met privately with Peter… that we can go to the hometown… to see the ruins of Mary’s home… to see the ruins of Cana of Galilee and see where Jesus turned water into wine…

And that we can go to the places of Jesus death, burial, and resurrection…

Jesus lived and Jesus died. There is no disputing that… Oh, you can dispute it I guess, but to do so would mean that you are willing to ignore the facts. There are numerous people who have set out to disprove the existence of Jesus and the reality of his miraculous birth, life, death, burial, and resurrection. C. S. Lewis, James Dobson, Lee Stroble are just a few who have set out through different techniques, from Journalistic approaches, to Legal approaches, and intellectual pursuits. Do you know what happened to all three of those atheists and many others? They realize, not only could they NOT disprove the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, they actually came to believe for themselves. They became apologetics of the faith and evangelists, leading others to the faith.

And that is where we are going to land this plane. There is so much more that could and should be said about Jesus. As John put it at the end of his story of the life of Jesus,

John 21:25

Jesus also did many other things. If they were all written down, I suppose the whole world could not contain the books that would be written.

So, all that is left is for you to decide what you believe. Are you going to follow the facts that lead to faith, or follow your own relativized version of truth that leaves you looking for the truth… the truth that is right in front of you the entire time.

Jesus came that you might have life, a beautiful full life, a life you were created for. A life given by God, redeemed by Jesus through his life, death and resurrection, and a life filled and sustained through the Holy Spirit…. Well, the Holy spirit is a story for another week, next week.

But today is the day of salvation. Today is the day to accept the free gift Jesus offered on the Cross. The gift of the life you were created for…

Would you pray with me?