DO YOU KNOW THE REAL JESUS CHRIST?

Do you know the real Jesus Christ? I am talking about the Jesus Christ that said this.

John 14:6 “Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Do you have a personal knowledge, a personal relationship, of and with Jesus Christ, the way, the truth, and the life?

I am talking about the Jesus Christ that is the Son of God who is fully God and fully human. I am talking about the Jesus Christ born in a manger that lived a sinless life, died for your sins, and is alive today because God raised Him from the dead.

Acts 1:3 “To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God:”

Jesus Christ showed Himself resurrected to over 500 witnesses by many infallible, undeniable proofs. Do you know that Jesus? I am talking about a personal knowledge and relationship. I am talking about knowing without a shadow of doubt knowledge.

Who is the real Jesus Christ?

He never led an army, but millions have died for Him. He never penned His name to a book, but countless volumes have been written about Him. Do you know the real Jesus Christ? Not the Jesus Christ of pop culture who would lead you to believe that Jesus Christ condones everything. I am talking about the Jesus Christ of the Bible.

The Bible tells us about the true Jesus Christ.

Any knowledge of Jesus Christ must always be grounded and come from God’s Word.

Isaiah 40:8 “The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: But the word of our God shall stand forever.”

The grass dies. Flowers fade away. What people say about Jesus Christ changes, but the Word of God does not change. It shall stand forever, and that is where you will find the truth about the real Jesus.

John 20:30–31 “And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.”

It is the Bible that tells all we need to know so that we can believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who gives eternal life.

Have you ever noticed how squirrly some of the ideas and conversations around Jesus are? Most of the time, conversations about Jesus center around things that cannot be proven either way, but what is written in the Bible is the real truth, and I promise you that if you want to go to heaven, it is the Bible that shows you why Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life.

Briefly, this morning, I am going to tell you why Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. This is a very simple message. Statistics tell us that in a crowd this large, more than likely, there are people here today that do not know the real Jesus Christ.

There may be some here that have come to church their entire lives, yet they do not know the real Jesus Christ. They may have trusted in their knowledge of Jesus instead of Jesus. They may have had some kind of experience because they knew that’s what their parents or grandparents wanted them to do, but that is not knowing the real Jesus either.

The greatest decision you will ever make is the decision to enter into a relationship with the Jesus Christ of the Bible. He is the way. He is the truth, and He is the life.

A. The Bible establishes His deity .

Jesus Christ is God .

Undeniably, Jesus is God. He is fully God.

Colossians 1:15 “Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:”

Colossians 2:9 “For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.”

Hebrews 1:3 “Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;”

Jesus Christ is God. He has always been God, and He always will be God.

He was in the beginning .

John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”

1 John 1:1 “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;”

He will be the ending.

Revelation 1:8 “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.”

Jesus Christ is God.

Look at Colossians 2:9 again.

Colossians 2:9 “For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.”

Him = Jesus Christ. In Him, God is. That is why Jesus Christ could say this.

John 8:58“Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.”

The I AM who spoke to Moses was Jesus Christ because Jesus Christ is God. He is the Word. He was the Word in the beginning. As the Word, He was with God and was God.

On earth, Jesus Christ was God. He could never cease being God if He ever was God, but while on earth, He humbled Himself and made himself of no reputation, so He could link God to man.

B. The Bible establishes His humanity . (Phil. 2:5-8)

Philippians 2:5–8 “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:

And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”

God did not force anything on Jesus. The Word says that Jesus humbled Himself to be made in the likeness of men.

John 17:5 “And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.”

One of the great passages in the Bible that explains why Jesus had to come to earth is found in the Book of Job.

Job 9:32–33 “For he is not a man, as I am, that I should answer him, And we should come together in judgment. Neither is there any daysman betwixt us, That might lay his hand upon us both.”

A daysman is a mediator. Jesus Christ is the mediator that links God to man. To do that, Jesus Christ had to be mankind, but He also had to be God. Jesus was not half-man and half-God. He was man, and He was God.

Jesus gave up His glory, He humbled Himself, to be man, but He never ceased being God. Jesus is God as Colossians 2:9 says, and Jesus is man as Philippians 2:5-8 says. He was and is God, and He became man and is man to die for mankind.

Jesus Christ, as established by the Bible, faced all the temptations that you and I face; yet He faced them without sinning . (Heb. 4:15)

Hebrews 4:15 “For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.”

When the Bible says that Jesus Christ can save you to the uttermost, it is telling you that Jesus Christ knows what you are. He knows what you are experiencing because He humbled Himself to come to earth as man so He could help you overcome any temptation.

Jesus Christ gave up His glory to be born in a lowly manger in Bethlehem. Do you think if there had been another way that God would have let His Son be born and placed into a cattle-feeding trough. Jesus humbled Himself and experienced everything that you have experienced and are experiencing, and I mean everything from birth to the grave, but Jesus Christ was also God. He was not stained by Adam’s genetics because Jesus did not have a human father.

If Jesus Christ had a human father, He would be no different than you and I. He would be in Adam’s likeness as you and I are, but praise God, He is different, and the Word establishes that fact. (Luke 1:34-35, 37)

Luke 1:34–35 “Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.”

Luke 1:37 “For with God nothing shall be impossible.”

Mary, the virgin mother of Jesus, gave Christ His humanity, and the power of God overshadowed her impregnating he with the Son of God. What happened to Mary is very similar to what happened at Creation.

Genesis 1:1–2 “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.”

Jesus had to be man to die for man, but as a man only, He would have been no different than you and me. Yes, He was man, and yes, He is God. He had to be sinless. The only way He could be sinless was to be born without a human father.

C. The Bible establishes His purpose .

John 3:16–18 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”

John 14:6“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”

The Word establishes the absolute fact that the purpose for Jesus on earth was to link man with God.

God and man could never coexist because God is holy, and man is sinful. God is light. Sin puts man in the dark. Where light is, darkness cannot exist. Where darkness is, there is no light. The purpose for Jesus Christ coming to earth as a lowly servant born in a manger was to eliminate what separated man from God, and that is exactly what He did.

Colossians 2:13–14 “And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;”

Here is the bottom line.

Muhammad said do. Buddha said do. Jim Jones said do. Charles Manson said do. Adolf Hitler said do. Dear friend, Jesus Christ did because you and I cannot do. He made peace between God and me, and that was His purpose as established in the word.

Dear friend, you and I are sinners. We could do good from can to can’t and split Hell wide open when we die. We can be church members from beginning to end and split Hell wide open when we die. We can never be righteous or holy in ourselves. God would always know us as what we are, and that is as the sinners that we are, but God did not want that.

2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”

Romans 8:32 “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?”

Because God is not willing that any should perish, He allowed His Son to be born in a lowly manger in Bethlehem in about 4 BC. That baby was named Jesus, and He had a life on planet earth in which He experienced many highs and many lows, yet He faced those without sinning.

He died as an innocent victim as He became Billy Binkley, Jimmy Clendenin, Terry Uselton, and you. You see Jesus Christ died for you and as you that day on that dreaded Cross. He did not just die for sin. He died for your sin. It was an agonizing death, but God allowed His Son to experience it so that you would not have to experience it.

Jesus Christ lived and died so you can die and live. Do you know why you can live after you die? Because Jesus Christ is alive today. His Father would not allow Him to suffer corruption as God brought Jesus out of that tomb on the 3rd day.

But, just because Jesus did that does not mean that you are automatically saved. To be saved, you have to admit that you are a sinner. Repent of your sins, and believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who came in the flesh to die for your sins and is living today. If you do that, you need to confess it before man by following through in believer’s baptism and join a local church.

DO you know what the Bible says if you do what I just said?

1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Ephesians 2:8–9 “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.”

If you confess your sins and call on Jesus Christ to save you, He is going to save you. Salvation is a gift from God that is based on your faith in the true Jesus Christ.

Do you know the real Jesus? Do you know the way, the truth, and the life? There is no better decision that you will ever make.