Seeing and Accepting Christ as He is

Announcements:

$75 deposit fee due on Feb. 17th for Student Life Camp

No students need to go into the gym before 7:30

Meeting in the Student Center Sunday Night for discipleship at 6:15 in the book of James

Scripture:

Who is Jesus?

Discuss our culture’s various ways of perceiving Jesus

Our modern culture reduces Jesus to merely being a great teacher, prophet, or guru

We see Jesus as more of a friend to call upon when we need him: he helps us during our hard times but is irrelevant during the good.

We see Jesus in terms not of his actual being, but in terms of psychological and personal terms. We may simply prefer Jesus over other belief systems because we like his teachings more than others, or his teachings make the most sense to us.

The True Identity of Jesus: God Incarnate

Read in explaining the true nature of Jesus as God incarnate. We cannot abandon this definition of Jesus.

Read : “Truly, truly I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” This echoes YHWH’s words at the burning bush to Moses: “Tell them ‘I Am’ sent you”

The Jews at the time of Jesus also had incorrect understandings of who Jesus was and what he was there to do.

They thought Jesus would be their political messiah: he had come by edict of God to free the Jews from Roman rule and establish the new Davidic throne- most notably Jesus’ own disciples

English Standard Version Chapter 18

At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”

Read . Upon Jesus’ arrival into Jerusalem, many of the crowds celebrated Jesus’ messianic entry because they thought he would be their earthly savior.

They, as do many today, celebrated Jesus not for who he truly was, but for what he could do for them.

Jesus’ arrival into Jerusalem changed everything: Jesus fulfilled the prophecy of by riding into Jerusalem on a donkey-proclaiming his messianic prerogative.

Jesus’ Triumphal Entry is the turning point of the Jews’ opinion on him from largely good to largely bad.

Cleansing of the Temple

Jesus arrives with authority and cleanses the temple of its economic abuses.

Jesus thought it unfit, according to the Scripture in , to sell sacrificial offerings in the temple. Rather, the temple was to be a place of worship alone for YHWH.

Jesus’ actions would later expose the sins of the Israelites and turn their hearts away from Jesus.

Over this time beginning at the cleansing of the Temple, Jesus revealed his true identity and corrected the misunderstandings of the crowds and of the disciples.

Just as Jesus cleansed the Temple, are we willing to allow the real Jesus to enter our lives and cleanse our hearts? To cleanse our bodily temples? (: “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”)

A challenge to see Jesus not as a semi-relevant teacher or “buddy,” to solve your problems, but as God incarnate. By understanding precisely WHO Jesus is, we are left with two options: to accept Christ as God incarnate, or to reject him as a liar.

If we accept Jesus’ identity as God incarnate with all authority in our lives, are we willing to actually encounter him as that God-made-flesh? Are we willing to allow Jesus to step into our lives and cleanse our temple?

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

C.S. Lewis made the great quote that sums up how we may respond to the claims of Jesus: based on Jesus’ sayings, we must either respond to him as a liar, a lunatic, or as Lord.