The Greatest of All Time

“and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; he descended to the dead; on the third day he rose again from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from there he shall come to judge the living and the dead”

Who is the G.O.A.T?

MJ vs Lebron

Brady vs Montana

Messi vs Ronaldo

If you’re the GOAT, that means that not only are you the best to have ever done it, but you also change/alter the way it will be done after you.

“Regardless of what anyone may personally think or believe about Him, Jesus of Nazareth has been the dominant figure in the history of Western culture for almost 20 centuries”

-Jaroslav Pelikan qtd in New York Times in 1985

I want to make the case that Jesus is the Greatest of All Time because of his Identity.

Read Colossians 1:15-20 (NLT)

Identity

Each of us has an identity. Your identity is what makes you , you and not someone else. You each have a personality, strengths, gifts, callings, passions, and roles that contribute to form an identity.

The hard part about identity is that we so often get it wrong. We move the pieces around so they’re out of place and out of order. Our identities are often inconsistent because our priorities are out of whack.

What I love about this passage in Colossians is that Paul recognizes that for the church he’s writing to, they started off so strong! They believed the Gospel, they were loving people, but they started to drift a little bit as times got tough and challenges popped up. In order to reset their identity, Paul reminds them of Jesus’ identity. And we see really quickly that Jesus’ identity makes him the G.O.A.T.

#1 in All Things (vv.15-18)

creation (phyical) - Jesus is over and above physical creation

creation (spiritual) - Jesus is over and above spiritual creation

the Church - Jesus is the leader of the Church

resurrection - Jesus is the leader of those who rise from the dead

In our world, we see lots of people who are number one in certain areas.

Politicians lead countries

CEOs lead businesses

Athletes might be the best at their position

Musicians might have a #1 song for a couple weeks

But nobody is tops in every single area.

Except Jesus.

The bible translation I’m using calls Jesus “supreme” your bible might say that he was the “firstborn”

In the first century, being the firstborn in a family was a huge responsibility. How many of you are the oldest kid in your family? The oldest kid in the family was the future leader of the household. They recieved double the inheritance from their parents compared to their siblings, they were giving a leadership role that would become the head of the family when your dad passed away, if you were royalty, the first born would become the next king.

Jesus is the G.O.A.T. because he is the firstborn in relation to all areas of life. There is nobody that can compare to Jesus.

100% God, 100% Man (v.19)

The second piece of Jesus identity that Paul talks about here is in verse 19.

God in all his fullness was in Christ.

This is a vital component to the identity of Jesus.

Anyone familiar with Greek Mythology? or Disney movies? One of my favorite Disney movies growing up was Hercules. I had it on VHS, which some of you have no idea what that even means. It was a time before DVDs and BlueRay, you had the movie in a plastic rectangle…

Hercules according to the Greek Mythology and the Disney movie was the son of Zeus and a human mother. And because of that, he was part god and part human. He had divine strength, he was nearly invincible, he slayed monsters and beasts. He was greater than any human being, but less than any of the greek gods.

That is NOT what Paul is saying about Jesus. That is NOT what Christians believe about Jesus.

Jesus was 100% God, not part God. The fullness of God was in Jesus. Jesus is God made flesh. The only way you can talk about Jesus being both God and human without being wrong is to say that Jesus was 100% God and 100% human 100% of the time. Now I know that there is tension there; it’s hard to wrap our mind around it, but it’s true. Jesus didn’t switch back and forth between being God one minute but then human the next, he didn’t give up his Godness to be human, he wasn’t an Arnold Palmer of half God and half human. He was 100% God and 100% human 100% of the time.

This is why the Apostle’s Creed talks about Jesus being born from a virgin.

Matthew 1:18–23 ESV

Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).

It shows us that God doesn’t operate like we do, he is supernatural. He works miracles.

It shows us that Jesus can be both 100% God and 100% human at the same time.

It shows us that Jesus wasn’t born under the curse of sin like we are and was able to love a life free from sin even though he was tempted in every way. So he could save us from our sins.

That is his identity. That’s why Jesus is the greatest of all time. There is no one else that has been or will be like Jesus.

Agent of Reconciliation (v.20)

reconciled to God and reconciled to each other

Last piece of Jesus identity that makes him the G.O.A.T. is in verse 20.

Jesus is God’s agent of reconciliation.

Reconciliation is a big word. It’s an important word. I want you to add this to your vocabulary and use it all the time. Reconciliation means to restore the relationship. To bring peace where there has been conflict.

When we talk about Jesus we always say that Jesus reconciled us to God - he restored the relationship between humans and God so that we could be in relationship with God. This is our great need, that we would be in relationship with God the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth. If you missed last week, go listen to it on YouTube.

But this verse points out that Jesus did something else too.

Jesus reconciled us to each other. This is a key implication of the Gospel.

I don’t know about you, but I see a huge need for this right now in our country.

Because Jesus died on the cross, it is possible for black and brown people and white people to be in a restored relationship where confession and healing and forgiveness takes places.

Because Jesus died on the cross it is possible for republicans and democrats to be in a restored relationship where confession and healing and forgiveness takes place.

Because Jesus died on the cross it is possible for you and your mom to be in a restored relationship where confession and healing and forgiveness takes places.

Because Jesus died on the cross it is possible for you and you ex-best friend to be in a restored relationship where confession and healing and forgiveness takes place.

And what is so crazy, is that everything that Jesus did and everything who Jesus is was prophesied thousands and hundreds of years before Jesus was even born.

We already looked at one, in Matthew 1 about Jesus being born of a virgin. That was prophesied by Isaiah 700 years before Jesus.

Here’s another one:

Malachi 4:6 ESV

And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”

Jesus is prophesied to be the Agent of Reconciliation almost 500 years before Jesus was born.

Now, I don’t condone gambling, but when someone bets on sports there’s a type of bet called a parlay.

A parlay bet has multiple pieces to the bet that all have to work out for you to win the bet.

The more specific the bet, the less likely it is, and the higher the payout will be.

So if I bet that The Browns will make the Superbowl, and the Bucs will make the Superbowl, and the Bucs will win, and Antoine Winfield Jr. will be named MVP of the game, a LOT of things have to happen in a specific way for me to win the bet.

The odds that 8 prophecies about the Messiah from the Old Testament would be fulfilled in one person would 1x10^17

That would be like someone taking a silver dollar, marking an x on it with a sharpie, then covering the state of Texas 2 feet deep with silver dollars and you picking the silver dollar with the x on it at random.

That is an unlikely parlay bet.

In the Old Testament there are over 300 prophesies about the Messiah and all of them are fulfilled in Jesus.

Those odds are so crazy, there’s no way it’s random.

The only possible explanation is that Jesus is who the bible says he is.

He’s the G.O.A.T

He’s #1 in every category

He’s 100% God and 100% Human

His birth was miraculous

He’s the Agent of Reconciliation

He’s the one the prophets told us was coming.

And because of all of this and more, he is worthy of your worship.

in C.S. Lewis book Mere Christianity, Lewis presents three options for you to consider about Jesus.

1. He’s a liar. Everything he said, everything he did, was untrue and he has deceived billions of people over the last 2000 years.

2. He’s a lunatic. He’s literally insane and actually believed he was God but he’s nothing more than a crazy man.

3. He really is Lord.