Explore God | Is Jesus Really God?

This is the question of the ages, isn’t it? Is Jesus really God? Of the four Gospels that recorded Jesus’ life, the entirety of John’s Gospel seeks to answer this single question.

As the youngest disciple, the Apostle John witnessed Jesus’ life up close and personal. And then about 45 years later, John wrote his Gospel to Jews and non-Jews alike, but most of his original audience lived in the heavily influenced Greek region of Asia Minor near Ephesus and worshipped a pantheon of gods, while upholding Greek philosophical thought. Far from Jewish tradition.

This is why John’s Gospel doesn’t contain any genealogies, record of Jesus’ birth, childhood, temptation, transfiguration, appointment of the disciples, nor any account of Jesus’ parables, ascension, or great commission. We need to rely on the other gospels for those parts of Jesus’ life and ministry.

Instead, the Apostle John gave us a great gift: Jesus in his own words. More than the other three gospels - Matthew, Mark, and Luke - John recorded long discussions by Jesus and showed us through his life, ministry, death, and resurrection that he is, indeed, who Jesus said he is.

John began his Gospel, writing:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. John 1:1-3

John’s opening words “In the beginning,” immediately linked his gospel with the opening words of Genesis, “ In the beginning, God.” In his gospel, John makes the same claim: In the beginning, God.

Yet, different from Genesis, John’s Gospel opens with “In the beginning was the word, and the word was God.” The word means Jesus. Whereas Genesis opens with God as creator, John opens with God as the word, the one through whom God created and established his presence in the world.

Before the world ever came into being, God existed as one God expressed in three distinct persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who together enjoy perfect love fellowship with one another. Think of the Trinity like steam, water, and ice - three distinct expressions of the same molecule. The father, son, and Holy Spirit are three distinct expressions of one God. From God’s abundant love, God spoke the Word and creation formed into existence.

In Genesis chapter one, the pinnacle of creation was humanity, made in God’s image.

In John chapter one, the pinnacle of life was God himself who came as a human being to save the world.

God’s Word was made flesh through Jesus of Nazareth, who once lived and died, fully human and fully God. Nothing came into being without first being made through the word.

Likewise, Jesus will make all things new. In the Book of Revelation, a letter traditionally attributed also to the Apostle John, God showed John a vision of Jesus sitting on his throne, governing from his seat of righteousness, saying, ***“I am making everything new.” Revelation 21:5

In the opening phrases of his Gospel, John used an interesting Greek term in reference to Jesus. Notice that he didn’t call Jesus by his first name. Rather, John called Jesus the word, which translates from the Greek term: *** the ‘logos,’ which literally means the ‘word,’ but can be further translated to mean “a communication whereby the mind finds its expression.” In Greek philosophy, the ‘word’ can also be defined as ‘the principal reason that governed the world.’

I find this particular understanding of Jesus meaningful for us, especially in our Explore God series.

We know Jesus as God in part by applying our mind to critical thought and nurturing a faith that seeks understanding, but we also know Jesus as God through revelation.

Jesus said to his core twelve disciples: “No one can come to me unless the Father has enabled them.” John 6:65 After Jesus said this, many people turned away from him because they followed him for all of the wrong reasons - some liked his miracles, others liked his teaching - but the ones who understood with their mind and whom God revealed in their Spirit, stayed with Jesus because they knew him as God in the flesh.

***“You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve.

Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.” John 6:67-69

Both Genesis chapters one and two and John chapter one affirm that God created you in his image with a mind to know and believe him. Thus why God entered into our world as the logos: that we may know God and believe in him for new life.

Hence whyGod came to us as a person, not as a spirit or a book or a cloud or spirit animal, but as a man in order that we may know and believe God as one who is with us. Jesus was the word made flesh, and...

In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. John 1:4-5

Nor will the darkness ever overcome it. Whatever darkness may be present in your life, it cannot overcome the burning light of Jesus’ life in you.

In Jesus is life, and all who find their lives in Jesus find life.

Is Jesus really God? Who else can make that kind of promise?

Religion fails to make good on the promise of life and satisfaction.

Instead, religion says, if you do these certain things, then you will have access to God.

Ironically, however, if you read through the wide sweeping history of Israel in the Old Testament, God never intended for the elements that would later become the accoutrements of religion to be the final expression for how God related to the world.

Rather, all of what those elements represented, such as the temple, the sacrificial system, and the law - they all foreshadowed God’s desire to live in the fullness of his love with us.

In the temple, God brought his presence from heaven to earth. In Jesus, God’s presence was made fully known and now his Spirit dwells within every believing heart.

In the law, God gave us his truth about how we ought to live in the world, but in Jesus, God showed us that his law is love and his burden is light.

In the sacrificial system, God forgave the sins of the people through their continual and specific sacrifices. In Jesus, God made the final sacrifice for the sins of all people forever, as the Apostle Paul wrote:

“For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them.” 2 Corinthians 5:19

That’s always been God’s endgame: to live into the fullness of his love with us. Our sin has prevented that reality from becoming fully realized, but God’s vision has never wavered.

The Psalmist sang:

May your ways be known throughout the earth,

your saving power among people everywhere.

May the nations praise you, O God.

Yes, may all the nations praise you.

Let the whole world sing for joy,

because you govern the nations with justice

and guide the people of the whole world. Psalm 67:2-4

God’s heart has always been and always will be for the whole world.

In another passage from Isaiah, he wrote:

The Lord has honored me,

and my God has given me strength.

He says, “You will do more than restore the people of Israel to me.

I will make you a light to the Gentiles,

and you will bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.” Isaiah 49:5-6

The pronoun “YOU” that Isaiah used in this passage refers to the messiah, the one who would bring salvation not by means of religion, but through the power of God who saves.

Ultimately, the temple, the sacrificial system, and the law all served as signposts to Jesus Christ until the long awaited day came when...

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14

Here again, John chose another interesting Greek term from which we derive the English word ‘dwelling.’ A closer translation is the verb ‘to tent,’ which is a direct allusion to the tabernacle in Exodus. Perhaps a different way to read this passage could be: the word became flesh and ‘tabernacled’ among us.

In the book of Exodus, the tabernacle served as the precursor to the temple. It was a tent that traveled from place to place with the people of God, and wherever they set up the tabernacle, God’s presence would dwell with them. In the person of Jesus, God incarnated the Word, dwelt with us, established his presence with us, put on flesh - so to speak - and did for us what we could not do for ourselves: which was to reconcile ourselves to God and free us from what feels like bondage to sin.

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I once heard a story about prisoners of war at a Vietnam prison camp who faced unspeakable physical and psychological torture. Their guards would fake raids and open their cells in order to give them the impression of being rescued only to dash their hopes and crush their spirits.

One day, a team of US Marines invaded the camp and found the prisoners lying in the fetal position dazed and hopeless. Their starved, brutalized bodies and minds dotted the floor of the camp.

The Marines asked them to stand, but none of them would. Do you know why? The prisoners didn’t trust them. After so many fake rescues, the prisoners had become conditioned to believe that this was just another blow to their hope.

Yet, in a stroke of genius and compassion, one Marine took off his uniform, put on the prisoner’s clothes, kneeled down and crawled in the fetal position, looked at them in the eyes, and said “we’re going home.” Only then did the prisoners trust the Marines as one of them and follow them into rescue.

This story represents exactly what God in Jesus did for us.

Since the moment that sin came into our world, God has been making ways for us to come back to him, which, like the marine, ultimately demanded that God come to us as one of us in order to meet us in our broken, irreparable state and say to us I see you, I am with you, I don’t count your sins against you, I love you, and I am here to lead you home.

That’s what is meant by the phrase: “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” Jesus set aside all of his rights, power, and control as God, and instead made himself a servant so that we might trust him and follow him.

Who can we trust? Who won’t let us down? We even let ourselves down.

We're desperate to be known, we're desperate to be loved, we're desperate to matter, we're desperate to live a life of meaning, but who can we trust to satisfy these desires?

Jesus says, you can trust me. I won’t let you down and he showed us that he wouldn't by going all the way to the cross and giving his life for us. He proved the way to life by raising from the grave.

Is Jesus really God? Who else could do this? Who else would do this? Who else has done this? No one but Jesus.

Have you ever wondered what differentiates Christianity from the other 4200 world religions? The answer is not a single one of the other 4199 religions in the world would ever claim that their god or philosophy did for the world what God did in Jesus.

In fact, it’s quite the opposite. In Islam, the great prophet Mohammad supposedly received the Koran from Allah but mediated through an angel because, according to Islam, no human being, not even Mohammad, can come into contact with a holy god.

In Christianity, however, rather than forcing human beings to work up to unreachable heights, our God came all the way down to us, made his dwelling among us, lived and loved among us, healed and restored among us, showed us his kingdom and righteousness as one with us, was betrayed by one of us, went to the cross because of us… for us… to save us… in order to free us… and then raised from the dead on the third day so that we may have life and life eternal!

In his own words, Jesus said “I am the Messiah.” John 4:26 The one who came to explain everything to us.

Later, in response to a group of people who wanted to stay with Jesus because he fed them, he told them to believe in the one who God sent to them, saying:

“The true bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

“Sir,” they said, “give us that bread every day.”

Jesus replied, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” John 6:33-35

Jesus is life because Jesus is God.

A couple of chapters later, in Jesus’ own words, he says, “I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.” John 8:12

And that life is for all people. God doesn’t exclude anyone. People exclude God. Religions exclude people. But God loves the whole world. As Jesus followers, we need to love what God loves. Jesus is the light showing the way to God through himself as God and gives life to all who believe.

Jesus said about himself: ”Truly, before Abraham was, I am.” John 8:58

...which directly refers to how God revealed himself to Moses as “I am.” Here, Jesus is stating that he is the “I am.” In the flesh and fully revealed. Jesus is the same God who saved his people from captivity to slavery in Egypt. Now, that same God has come to us in Jesus to save the world from our captivity to sin.

On the last evening of his life, as he gathered with his disciples for supper in the upper room for what would be the last time, Jesus said once more:

“Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. There is more than enough room in my Father’s home.

In fact, there is room for everyone who believes.

If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am. And you know the way to where I am going.”

“No, we don’t know, Lord,” Thomas said. “We have no idea where you are going, so how can we know the way?”

And thank You God for giving us Thomas’ question. This is the question that everyone wants to know. How can we know the way? This is not only Thomas’ question. This is everyone’s question.

Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. If you had really known me, you would know who my Father is. From now on, you do know him and have seen him!” John 14:1-7

Jesus said, “Believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Or at least believe because of the work you have seen me do.” John 14:11

Is Jesus really God? His words tell the truth, and his actions show it.

If Jesus’ life showed God’s mind, heart, and character and his death atoned for the forgiveness of our sins, then Jesus’ resurrection demonstrates God’s power over death, which proves him as the God of life.

But how do we know that Jesus really raised from the dead?

In addition to the hundreds of people who saw Jesus alive, perhaps the greatest evidence of his resurrection is how people understood his death.

According to each one of the four Gospels, not a single one of them viewed Jesus’ death as a victory. They all thought Jesus’ work was over. In fact, in John’s Gospel, on the evening after his resurrection, the risen Jesus found the disciples locked in a room by themselves for fear of death by the same Jewish leaders who killed Jesus.

They thought they were next.

Why would they be in a locked room hunkered down for their lives if they had believed what Jesus said in the beginning of his ministry:

““All right,” Jesus replied. “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”

“What!” they exclaimed. “It has taken forty-six years to build this Temple, and you can rebuild it in three days?”

But when Jesus said “this temple,” he meant his own body.

John gave us much commentary on the conversation and then said the following about his disciples:

After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered he had said this, and they believed both the Scriptures and what Jesus had said.” ‭‭John‬ ‭2:19-22‬

Not until after some time passed, however, did the disciples understand.

Later, in John’s Gospel, Thomas refused to believe that the other disciples saw him alive. A full week later after Jesus’ resurrection, Jesus appeared to Thomas and told him to place his fingers in his wounds and feel his presence. Only then did Thomas believe.

Even after seeing Jesus alive, Peter returned to his old day job as a fisherman, which makes me think that he either still wasn’t convinced or he didn’t understand what he saw.

Either way, we can assume that he thought the mission was over because he returned to his old day job.

Why else would he return to fishing?

Without Peter knowing, Jesus shouted at him from the shore and told him to cast his net on the other side of his boat. After doing so, he reeled in a haul of 153 fish. Afterward, he recognized Jesus on the shore and his life was never the same.

Most scholars agree that the 153 fish represented the 153 known people groups of the day. Thus, this scene also serves as a metaphor for all of Jesus’ disciples everywhere, including you and me, to listen for Jesus’ voice, and be fishers of men.

Finally, and perhaps most intriguing, all four of the Gospels record that women made the first discovery of the empty tomb and saw the first glimpse of Jesus’ resurrection.

At the end of John, the women, in fact, mistook Jesus for the gardener, which also signals to Jesus as the one who makes all things new.

As Roman citizens, the Gospel writers could have much more easily written a victory narrative, but they chose to tell their honest truth about what actually happened. They documented their fear and fright, their doubts, their return to life before Jesus, and also the prominence of women, whose testimonies would have been disregarded in a Roman court of law, but whose lives Jesus upholds with honor.

All of these details, along with the hundreds of eyewitnesses, and then further evidence in Paul’s writings, all confirm for me, along with billions of others, that Jesus is God who came to us so that we may have life and life everlasting.

Is Jesus really God? I hope that after this message you feel more confident to say: yes, I believe based on the evidence and how I now understand the person of Jesus Christ.

If you asked me, Is Jesus really God, then I would answer: I’m staking my life on it… because there was a time in my life when I felt alone and completely lost, but then I met Jesus - the very embodiment of God with us… the word of God… the Son of God who made God known to us - and I invited him to take the lead on my life, and now I am known and have purpose to live out everyday of my life. Do you have a story like that? If not, then let me introduce you to Jesus, who is God.