The 200% Factor

             I.      2 Corinthians 5:16-21

          II.      100% + 100% = 200%

A.    HOW CAN GOD IN CHRIST BE 100% HUMAN & ALSO BE 100% GOD?  DOESN’T THAT ADD UP TO 200%?

B.     THIS SUNDAY MARKS THE BEGINNING OF HOLY WEEK

1.      How We Answer this Question Will Determine Just How Important this Week Is!

2.      If We Are Going to Believe the Stories of Holy Week, then We Need to Understand that Jesus Is All God & All Human At the Same Time

3.      Before We Can Accept Jesus for Who He Is … We Need to Understand Who He Is!

4.      Before We Can Be Like Jesus We Need to Recognize What that Means.

       III.      JESUS IS ALL HUMAN

A.    WHEN OUR SON DOUG WAS GROWING UP HE WAS ALL BOY

1.      He Played Hard

2.      He Jumped In Mud Puddles When He Wasn’t Supposed to!

B.     WE NEED TO LET JESUS BE ALL BOY …

1.      Precocious

2.      Curious

3.      He Never Sinned But He Was All Boy!

C.     HE ENJOYED LIFE

1.      Matthew’s Party

2.      The Pharisees Called Jesus a “Glutton & a Wine-Bibber”

3.      Does that Contradict the O. T. (“…a man of sorrows…”) (Isaiah 53:3) … NO!

D.    COUNCIL OF CHALCEDON (ad 451)

1.      Two Wild Ideas

a.       Nestorian – Jesus was schizophrenic (2 personalities)

b.      Eutychian (His Godliness so overpowered His humanity that it was, essentially lost)

2.      The Council’s Answer

3.      Jesus Was All Human!!!

       IV.      JESUS WAS ALL GOD!

A.    COUNCIL OF NICAEA (325 ad)

1.      Wacky Idea --- (Jesus was God’s 1st & Noblest creature)

2.      Council’s Response

3.      Jesus Was All God!

          V.      WHY SHOULD WE BELIEVE THESE IDEAS

A.    CONSIDER WHO WROTE THE N. T.

1.      8 of the 9 Were Jews

2.      They Were Taught Differently

a.       There is only 1 God

b.      No human is divine

                                                                                                        i.            Roman gov’t

                                                                                                      ii.            Greek culture

B.     FOR JEWS TO BELIEVE THAT GOD COULD HAVE A SON BORN OF A WOMAN IT WOULD HAVE HAD TO HAVE BEEN TRUE!

C.     THEIR TEACHINGS

1.      Jesus Is God’s Savior, the Spirit-Anointed Descendant of David

2.      Jesus Has a 3-Fold Role:

a.       Teacher/Prophet

b.      Sin-Bearer/Priest

c.       Ruler/King

D.    DIFFERENT WRITERS SAY IT IN VERY DIFFERENT WAYS

1.      John – “I am…” statements

a.       Bread of Life

b.      Light of the world

c.       Gate for the sheep

d.      Good Shepherd

e.       Resurrection & Life

f.       Way, Truth, Life

g.      True Vine

2.      Paul

a.       The Image of God the Father

b.      Lord

c.       “God over all”

d.      “God & Savior”

e.       Source of divine grace

f.       Prays to Jesus personally

       VI.      WHAT IT MEANS TO YOU

A.    BECAUSE HE WAS JUST LIKE YOU AND ME … HE CAN TAKE OUR PLACE

B.     BECAUSE HE WAS JUST LIKE GOD … HE COULD BE THE FULL PAYMENT FOR ALL OUR SINS

C.     BECAUSE GOD HIMSELF WALKED AMONG US …

1.      He Understands Us

2.      We Have An Example to Follow