Session #4 - The Promised Savior

“Have you ever had to wait for something for a really, really long time? Like Christmas… or your food delivery that says ‘on the way’ for like an hour? Maybe an amazon package? Your Birthday?

Now imagine waiting..not for a package…but for a person… for hundreds, even thousands of years.”

The Long Wait for the Messiah

That’s what the people in the old testament of the bible were doing for hundreds of years, and thousands of years… waiting for what was called the Messiah.

Does anyone know what the word Messiah means?

The word “Messiah” means Anointed One -the messiah was this promised Savior who would rescue God’s people from their broken relationship and restore what had been lost.

From the very beginning, God had made it clear that He would send a Redeemer, or a saviour.. someone who would come to save the people or the world from sin, evil, and death.

The whole Old Testament is like a giant arrow, constantly pointing forward to this idea of the Messiah, somoene is going to save God’s people.

Genesis 3:15 NLT

And I will cause hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.”

All the way back in the first book of the Bible, Genesis, after the first humans sinned, God spoke a curse to the serpent (Satan), but also through that curse he gave a glimmer of hope.

In Genesis 3:15, God said someone would come from the woman who would crush the serpent’s head.

this was the first hint about the coming Messiah, the promised Saviour, who would save a doomed humanity

You see Right from the start, God had already won….

And so Tonight we’re answering one big question: Who is Jesus? And we’re going to see three things:

Jesus is the promised Messiah

Jesus is Immanuel - God with us

Jesus is fully God and fully man

And so with that lets pray before we move on..

in Isaiah 7:14 it says

Isaiah 7:14 NLT

All right then, the Lord himself will give you the sign. Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel (which means ‘God is with us’).

A child would be born. Born of a virgin. And He would be called Immanuel…God with us.

Isaiah was pointing to a day when God Himself would step into our world.

Fast forward 700 years, and a young woman named Mary hears from an angel that she will give birth though she is still a virgin. The angel tells her the child will be called Jesus, and that He will save His people from their sins (Matthew 1:21).

Matthew 1:21–23 NLT

And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All of this occurred to fulfill the Lord’s message through his prophet: “Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means ‘God is with us.’ 

The first point to who is Jesus is kinda a two pointer..

Jesus is the Messiah- Jesus is Immanuel

Jesus is Immanuel, Not just a wise man. Not just a miracle worker. Not just a teacher. While he is every single one of those . It is clear that Jesus is God .. Jesus is God with us

Jesus is God in human flesh.

Inciting Incident: and so i want to be clear: Jesus wasn’t a random man who showed up and started a religion.

And so for the rest of tonight, i want to go through this question of…

Who is Jesus?

So who is this man that was born 2000 years ago? and why are we still talking about him to this day?

Was he just a random man? was he a prophet? was he just a teacher? was he a man who just did some amazing miracles?

Well jesus was all of those things, yes but Jesus was more than that..

Jesus made one of the most bold and audacios claims in the history of the world.. Jesus claimed to be God

One example of this is in..

John 10:30 NLT

The Father and I are one.”

Jesus claimed to be completely and fully God.

Which leads us to our 2nd of 3 points on who is Jesus,

2. Jesus Is Fully God

Jesus claimed to be equal with God. People knew exactly what He meant -, that’s why when jesus said again in John 10:30

John 10:30–33 NLT

The Father and I are one.” Once again the people picked up stones to kill him. Jesus said, “At my Father’s direction I have done many good works. For which one are you going to stone me?” They replied, “We’re stoning you not for any good work, but for blasphemy! You, a mere man, claim to be God.”

It says Jew some picked up stones to kill Him… Why ?? Because To the people in that time , it sounded like blasphemy ; claiming to be God.

But it is important to know that Jesus didnt just that he was God, He proved to be fully and completely God.

Some examples of this…

He turned water into wine (John 2:1–11).

He healed the sick , the blind, the lame, the lepers (Mark 1:40–42; John 9:1–7).

He walked on water (Matthew 14:25–27).

He calmed a raging storm with just a word (Mark 4:39).

He raised the dead, like his friend Lazarus (John 11:43–44).

He cast out demons — even a legion of them (Mark 5:1–13).

Those are just some of the many miracles and thing that Jesus did when he was on earth…

Jesus wasn’t just a good teacher. He truly was..and is..fully God.

3. Jesus Is Fully Man

Philippians 2:6–7 NLT

Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form,

So Jesus claimed to be the Son of God, and the Son of man..

Jesus took on human flesh and humility. Think about that, the God who created everything, had to become the very thing that he created,

Not only is that a bold and daring claim.. But friends, that is the key to understanding who he is..And why he alone can be our savior..

And so Why did Jesus have to be fully God and fully man?

I have an illustration that i hope helps a bit.

Jelly and Ants Story

For most of my life i grew up on farm near North Battleford, Saskatchewan, we had a big dry field full of dirt and weeds. It wasn’t good for much..except one thing: ant hills. The field was covered in them, and the ants were everywhere.

Now, like any curious farm kid with time to kill, I grabbed the garden hose one day, turned it on full blast, and flooded one of the anthills. Ants started pouring out of the tunnels, scrambling in every direction. It was kind of fun to watch, so I did it again. And again.

Then one day, while eating a peanut butter and Jam sandwich, some Jam fell onto the ground. Five minutes later, ants had covered it.

That gave me an idea… bait. So I bated the ants with the Jam putting drops in a line… and Sure enough, the ants came swarming toward it. And as they did, I hit them with the hose.

That became my routine: bait the ants with Jam, then blast them. Every day. They never learned. Every time, they fell for the same thing.

Now imagine this, Stick with me here:

What if you wanted to save the ants? What if you cared about them and didn’t want them to be destroyed? You’d want to warn them: “Don’t go near the jelly!!! it’s a trap! Death is coming!”

But if you tried to yell down at them, they wouldn’t understand. You’re too big, too different. They’d just run around, afraid of your voice or the shadow of your foot. They wouldn’t listen.

But if i could somehow become an ant!.. take on their size,to enter their world, speak their language, and show them the truth. that could be diffeernt .

You see, to really save them I would need two things one the perspective and wisdom of a human.. But then secondly i would need the size and the body of an ant

Friends we we are like those ants…chasing after the “Jam or jelly” of sin.

I dont mean that flippantly… But Sin looks good. It promises pleasure. But it guys it leads to death. Romans 6:23 says,

Romans 6:23 NLT

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.

God created us for Himself, but we’ve all gone our own way. We ignore His warnings and keep running toward things that will destroy us.

But friends i want you to hear this… God didn’t leave us in our sin.

He did something greater than becoming an ant. He became man. Jesus Christ!! fully God, fully human… entered our world to rescue us. John 1:14 says

John 1:14 NLT

So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.

God became a human in the flesh, to live like us, to communicate to us in a way that we could unerstand..

The biggest claim that christians make, and the central idea of chirsitianity is that: Jesus is fully God and Jesus is Fully man

Only by being God would he have the power to save us us, and only by being a man would he be in a position to save us.

Closing: Why God Sent His Son

So let’s bring everything together with the picture we’ve been using all week.

GOD |———✖———| US

At the beginning, there was no X.

God created us to know Him. To walk with Him. To be close to Him.

But sin entered the world. Trust was broken. Distance came in.

That’s what this X represents.

And here’s what we’ve learned over the last few nights:

We can’t remove the X ourselves.

Trying harder doesn’t remove it.

Being good doesn’t remove it.

Doing religious things doesn’t remove it.

The problem isn’t effort. The problem is a broken relationship.

So what did God do?

God sent His one and only Son… Jesus…

Jesus stepped into our world.

Fully God…Fully man.

Immanuel - God with us.

And the Bible tells us exactly why God did this.

In John chapter three, verse sixteen, it says:

John 3:16 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.

I want us to focus on the first part of this verse,

“For God so loved the world that He gave his one and Only son…”

God loved the world so much that He sent His Son. Jesus didn’t come because people were good enough. J

Jesus came because God loves us.

Right now, the picture still looks like this:

GOD |———✖———| US

But tomorrow, we’re going to talk about what Jesus did to deal with the X once and for all.

Not what we do for God — but what God did for us. So tonight, I just want you to sit with this truth:

God sent His Son for you.

Let’s pray.