Christmas-Week 2-'Mighty God'

Isaiah 9:6–7 NIV

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.

‘Mighty God’

This one was a BIG thing, and many of the jews missed what it actually meant.

They wanted to stone Jesus for claiming to be equal with God

This prophesy says - they will call him Mighty God. that’s either blasphemy - or the child to be born will actually be God.

Now, it’s one thing to say you have a great leader. It’s another thing to say, your leader is the incarnate presence of the infinitely powerful creator of the universe.

If Jesus is mighty God - there’s absolutely nothing he can’t do! He could save us, make us perfect, do everything for us all at the snap of a finger!

Here’s the thing. As much as Jesus recognized that power in himself - he understood what WE needed to do in response.

EXPLAIN LAZARUS

John 11:21–27 NIV

“Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” “Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”

Jesus says

He says TWO THINGS

FIRST THING:

I AM The power of life and resurrection

This needs to drastically inform how we approach Jesus.

Lots of people have treated eternal life in Jesus like a vending machine - pop over, make our request, accept our gift, and move on.

But Jesus doesn’t say - the one who I give the gift of eternal life to will live, or the one who lives by the power I will use to save them will never die.

The word jesus uses for believe is a present active participle. That means it’s something the person is doing that’s happening at the same time as the main verb.

The man saw a cat while he was walking to the store.

In this case, another way to phrase what Jesus is saying is ‘a person will never die (or, a person will live) while he is believing in me’.

To Jesus, eternal life wasn’t something that he simply did for people.

Eternal life is the state of being in a relationship with Jesus

It’s like having a device that requires a battery. We can’t live without that ‘boost’, that power from jesus to conquer death.

But that doesn’t mean when we pray for God to save us (to charge us), he will hand us a battery and say ‘here you go’.

He’ll say ‘Ok, lets get connected’. And when we’re plugged into him - we have all the power we need.

But notice that this has an expectation on us. It’s not a level of performance.

The Bible doesn’t have a concept of someone having eternal life or salvation apart from being directly connected to Jesus in relationship.

Even one of the most famous verses:

John 3:16–18 NIV

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.

It’s not ‘whoever is given the power of life from jesus’ - it’s ‘whoever believes in him’. And this verb is also a present active participle.

And this verse goes onto say, ‘whoever is in this state of actively believing - they are not condemned.’

And sidebar, it doesn’t say, whoever doesn’t believe in him will be condemned. It says, ‘whoever does not believe in him has already been condemned’ - that is, they have not received that life that has surpassed judgment by the power of the cross.

Now, I want to address a question that could arise here:

‘How perfectly do I have to have a relationship with Jesus to be saved?’

Jesus isn’t looking for perfect, he’s looking for progress

2 Thessalonians 1:3–4 NIV

We ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love all of you have for one another is increasing. Therefore, among God’s churches we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring.

If you have that perspective of, I need to know Christ more and more, I need to get better and better with Him - you’re on the right track.

You’ll never run out of things to learn about Christ.

But if you get to a point where you plateau and say, ‘ya, i’m good enough here, just coasting along’ - that’s a red flag.

SECOND THING THAT JESUS SAYS

If you want this power in your life - you need to be in a relationship with Jesus

He says, ‘I am the resurrection and the life’. And naturally, our question is going to be ‘that’s great Jesus. So....how do I get it?’

Jesus connects it back to relationship.

This isn’t a catch. It’s jesus understanding where eternal life actually comes from

Adam and Eve in the Garden. They took the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil (and so separated themselves from God), so God prevented them from taking the fruit of the tree of life.

Because God knew they needed more than eternal life -

We need eternity paired with an intimate relationship with Jesus

Romans 8:11–14 NIV

And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you. Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live. For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.

So Paul says, the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead, if he’s living in us - He can do the same for us.

It’s not like the Spirit needs to be anywhere near us to actually pull this off. God is all powerful, omnipotent. He can do anything whatsoever. This isn’t a restriction.

The thing is - we have the spirit in us - when we accept Christ.

Ephesians 1:13 NIV

And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit,

So Paul says, when you believe in Jesus - you were marked with a seal - the Holy Spirit. (EXPLAIN SEAL).

Now, because Jesus came back from the dead, and because he’s saved us, and because His spirit lives in us because we believed - we have an obligation.

NOT TO THE FLESH - This word flesh, it’s a big meaty word (pun intended) that can mean a bunch of similar ideas. But the core idea here is, we have two paths in front of us - live according to what we want, and live according to what Jesus wants.

and paul says -the ‘us’ path will kill us.

So paul is suggesting this idea - we have accepted Jesus, he’s in our hearts, the spirit is in our lives. But we ignore him. We put him to the side, and keep doing our own thing.

Notice, this is what WE would call in our own nature the ‘freedom’ path. Free to do whatever we want whenever we want!

I’ve heard some christians that say, God is SO POWERFUL, that I can continue doing absolutely anything I feel like, and his power will just erase all of the sin and death.

But that’s not what Jesus came to do. Jesus didn’t come to just plug back in that ‘eternity’ variable into the equation.

He died on the cross so that we could reconnect with Him with our lives, and in that connection, have eternal life.

So this ‘Jesus and the Spirit’ path will lead us to life.

Press on and Choose Life

Philippians 3:10–12 NIV

I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.

We want to see God’s might and power in our lives.

So we need to press on.

And Jesus took hold of every single one of you here for that very purpose. God wanted before the creation of the world to be in a relationship with every person here. So his motivation is not under question here.

So what will you do?