God in the Flesh

The humanity of Jesus

We are going to begin a new series on Jesus. What a surprise… but we are going to look at multiple misconceptions that have been adopted with the birth and life of Jesus! A fun little twist that this series is going to take on though is comparing these misconceptions with well know superheroes. We all know that Jesus was God in the flesh but so often we neglect his Humanity. We often want to look at Jesus as if he is like Superman. We look at Jesus as being completely God and just imitating a human. This is a massive misconception that we deal with and this misconception is completely wrong. We are going to look at a couple of verses in Scripture tonight looking at the humanity of Jesus and the importance of Him being fully Human.

When we look at Christmas so often we look at the birth of Jesus and think how special it must of been and it was. But we so often forget about the significance throughout the year!

We know that Jesus is God in the flesh but we so often neglect the humanity of Jesus.

1. The prophesy

Multiple times in the Old Testament the birth of a Savior is prophesied as a baby born of a virgin. So for 700 years plus the idea of God coming down as a human has been prophesied.

Isaiah 7:14 NLT

14 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’).

Jesus had always been promised to be born of a virgin which is the miraculous part of the birth, however every other part of Jesus’s birth was completely ordinary. Jesus was in Mary’s Womb for 40 weeks. She probably had the same discomforts and pains of labor. When Jesus was born he cried like every new born baby. Jesus was completely human!

Jeremiah 23:5–6 NLT

5 “For the time is coming,” says the Lord, “when I will raise up a righteous descendant from King David’s line. He will be a King who rules with wisdom. He will do what is just and right throughout the land. 6 And this will be his name: ‘The Lord Is Our Righteousness.’ In that day Judah will be saved, and Israel will live in safety.

Jesus did not descend from heaven as an angel at the age of 31. Jesus was born as a human and Jesus grew up as a human. The prophesy included being in the normal genealogy of David but instead of Jesus’s reign being cut short He reigns forever and ever. Jesus is human but he is perfectly human meaning that he never gave into sin! We will talk more about that next week!

Jesus however is unlike Clark Kent in the way that Jesus did not have Super Strength and Unlimited wisdom as a child! Jesus grew in both as he aged!

There is not much at all written about Jesus in his childhood years except his birth and that he learned and grew up.

Luke 2:52 NLT

52 Jesus grew in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and all the people.

Jesus dealt with all the struggles we deal with today. He dealt with people with growing up as a person! He dealt with learning… He dealt with the awkwardness of being a middle schooler! He was 100% human! He was not God in a human disguise but completely human.

This is not just some story either were multiple witnesses to the Humanity of Christ.

2. The witnesses

1 John 1:1–3 NLT

1 We proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and seen. We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands. He is the Word of life. 2 This one who is life itself was revealed to us, and we have seen him. And now we testify and proclaim to you that he is the one who is eternal life. He was with the Father, and then he was revealed to us. 3 We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.

John is proclaiming to the people that he legitimately saw Jesus walking around on the earth! He heard him speaking. He touched him with his own hands. If this is the case than Jesus was 100% a real human being walking among us!

This would be a hard stance to deny that Jesus walked on the earth. But so many times we look at Jesus as being only a shell that is veiling God similar to how Clark Kent is completely Superman at all times but his secret identity is a nerd name Clark Kent.

Jesus was fully human which should encourage us because he dealt with everything that we deal with. He dealt with temptations, sin, circumstances, pain, and hurt. Jesus was human. He felt the pain of betrayal, He felt the pain of being pinned to the cross! He felt the pain of the whip across his back.

Jesus also dealt with issues we deal with like hunger, thirst, sleep, time management. But when dealing with these issues he continually pointed people to salvation!

John 4:1–8 NLT

1 Jesus knew the Pharisees had heard that he was baptizing and making more disciples than John 2 (though Jesus himself didn’t baptize them—his disciples did). 3 So he left Judea and returned to Galilee. 4 He had to go through Samaria on the way. 5 Eventually he came to the Samaritan village of Sychar, near the field that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there; and Jesus, tired from the long walk, sat wearily beside the well about noontime. 7 Soon a Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Please give me a drink.” 8 He was alone at the time because his disciples had gone into the village to buy some food.

Jesus in this story is thirsty, hungry, and tired but he is ministering to a woman who does not at all fit the idea of a good person! Jesus continually searched for those who were searching for a savior even when he himself was struggling with his humanity. I would say that most people in here agree that Jesus was a human. But how many people truly grasp that concept?

Don’t we all live our lives and when something happens we may say to ourselves how would Jesus respond in this situation? Then we quickly come with the answer Jesus was God so of course he acted perfectly.

And you aren’t wrong but Jesus was also completely human.

He still overcame all of the struggles and temptations that we deal with but still cared for people. And people all over the country were talking about and legitimately seeing him with their own eyes.

Jesus was unlike Clark Kent in the sense where he was faking his weaknesses. He was completely superman at all times! Remember that clark would run in the face of danger to the nearest phone booth to rip off his suit and come out as Superman. So if you ever ran into a phone booth and saw an abandoned suit then that means what about Clark Kent?

That means that Clark Kent never existed because Clark Kent was completely superman!

What is the significance of Jesus being completely human?

3. The importance

So what is the big deal about Jesus being human can we not just pretend that Jesus was God in disguise? ABSOLUTELY NOT! Salvation hinges on Jesus being a human! Jesus didn’t just happen to be human… Jesus had to be human!

The reason Jesus had to be human is that sin entered the world through humans. Let’s quickly go back to Genesis.

Genesis 1:26–28 NLT

26 Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.” 27 So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. 28 Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.”

Genesis 3:20–24 NLT

20 Then the man—Adam—named his wife Eve, because she would be the mother of all who live. 21 And the Lord God made clothing from animal skins for Adam and his wife. 22 Then the Lord God said, “Look, the human beings have become like us, knowing both good and evil. What if they reach out, take fruit from the tree of life, and eat it? Then they will live forever!” 23 So the Lord God banished them from the Garden of Eden, and he sent Adam out to cultivate the ground from which he had been made. 24 After sending them out, the Lord God stationed mighty cherubim to the east of the Garden of Eden. And he placed a flaming sword that flashed back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.

Sin entered into the world through humans. When looking at this sin though it looks as if the punishment was way worse than the actual sin! Doesn’t it?

But what exactly was the sin? Adam and Eve were charged with ruling over God’s creation. They were God’s caretakers on the earth. They were given authority over everything except the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Their sin was rebellion, treachery, and betrayal against the Holy God. The Creator of the universe!

Humanity brought the calamity that corrupted the world! Humanity must save the world!

Genesis 3:15 NLT

15 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.”

Genesis references the Human Christ fixing the issue!

Throughout all of the Old Testament Humans tried to fix their sin issue. They worked hard at trying to follow the Law of God. They tried to make themselves righteous but all humans failed!

We can even look at the Old Testament to who salvation belongs too.

Jonah 2:9 NLT

9 But I will offer sacrifices to you with songs of praise, and I will fulfill all my vows. For my salvation comes from the Lord alone.”

Jonah in the middle of a fish because he was running away from God knew that salvation only comes form the Lord. There is no one able to obtain it except through the Lord.

Other places in the Old testament were when they would take a Lamb as a family once per year as a sacrifice to atone for their sins. But that lamb alone did not make them righteous because it was a yearly occurrence. The sacrifice did not atone for their sins but rather was just a covering until the Lamb God sent became the complete sacrifice.

So if sin is a human problem that requires a human solution and salvation belongs to the Lord , how can anybody be saved?

The answer is through the Son of God.

Jesus

Immanuel

God with us

A human like us!

He could offer himself as a sacrifice for humans because he was human. He took on the punishment that humans deserved in order to save humanity!

If Jesus was not truly and fully human, unlike Clark Kent, then he could not die for our sin.

If he only seemed to be human, then there is no gospel, no good news.

If Jesus is just “God in disquise,” like Superman, we all stand hopelessly condemned.

Superman can’t save you but Jesus can redeem us because he is like us!