Jesus Christ Is God

On one of my recent visits, we talked about the evening service, we talked about whether it is necessary to study the creeds and the confessions. It is a good question. These sermons are different. They have more of a teaching, lecture style, less of an expository style. Sometimes it can feel like we’re making much ado about nothing, or that we’re trying to do too much.

It might be helpful to think of sermons like food. Recently I read about a guy who said, “I can’t remember a single sermon, or even a point of a sermon I’ve heard in my life. It has been a waste of my time and a waste of my pastor’s time.” The fellow he was talking to said, “I can’t remember all the meals my wife prepared for me in the years we’ve been married. I might be able to remember one course, but not the whole meal. I tell you though, even though I can’t remember them, I needed them. Without them, I’d have starved. They nourished me, they gave me what I needed when I needed it. Sermons are the same. They nourish us, they feed us, they give us what we need, when we need it.”

A theological sermon, a teaching sermon, should be viewed as a good meat and potatoes kind of meal. It isn’t as flashy as a fancy restaurant meal. But it gives you the kind of knowledge that sticks to you, and that might not always be in the forefront of your mind, but the Holy Spirit will bring it to mind when you need it.

This evening, we’re looking at the deity of Christ. Is Jesus God. Let me give you a quick reason why this is important, and why we need to learn it.

No Creed But Christ

Have you ever seen or heard the phrase, “No creed but Christ?” It sounds good, doesn’t it? It sounds simple, it sounds like there are times when we can get bogged down with all kinds of unimportant things.

But can you think what could be wrong with the statement, “No creed but Christ?” By the way, the word creed is from the Latin word credo which means I believe. When you say, “no creed but Christ,” you need to state which Christ you’re talking about. Is it the Christ of the Jewish people who are still longingly waiting for his first coming? Is it the Christ of Islam which says that he is just a great prophet? Is it the Christ of the Jehovah’s Witnesses? Which Christ is it? So we need a creed that explains who Jesus is.

I’m grateful to Richard who did an excellent job last week explaining the various difficulties that arose in the early church concerning the Trinity. He explained that a theologian named Arius put forward the idea that Jesus was the first created being. This theology, which we call Arianism, is what Jehovah’s Witnesses believe. In fact, you could say that most people, if they accept that Jesus is a real person in history, accept him as a mere man. They might acknowledge that he’s a good teacher. But they won’t accept his divinity.

Jesus’ Divinity

You see, the difficulty is that Jesus isn’t a mere man. The Bible is full of Christ’s divinity. In Isaiah 7:14, we read, “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: the virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.” In this statement, we have a miraculous birth, that is a virgin will be with child. Humanly speaking, this is impossible. There are not spontaneous pregnancies. The child born of the woman was conceived by the Holy Spirit, just as the angel told Mary. Furthermore, Jesus is given the name, Immanuel, which means God with us. In his case, it is really absolutely true, Jesus is God, he is with us.

What about Isaiah 9:6, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time one and forever. The Zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this. These word, though they clearly describe Jesus, were written 700 years before he was born.

If we had time, we could look at Psalms 8, 89, 110, and 118 which describe the Son as highly exalted and equal in majesty and glory. When the apostles set out to write down the truth concerning Jesus Christ, they turned to these passages to show that the man known as Jesus of Nazareth really is the Messiah.

The New Testament goes to great lengths to show that Jesus is divine, Jesus is God. We’ll get to John’s gospel, but first consider Matthew 17:5, “while he was still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice [the Father] from the cloud said, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him.’” Do you remember what the cloud represents? It represents God’s presence. The pillar of cloud led the Israelites by day. The cloud of the Lord’s presence covered the mountain when Moses met with the Lord God Almighty there. And now the cloud of the Lord’s presence appeared at Jesus’ transfiguration. And what covered Jesus when he ascended into heaven? The cloud, which showed, not that he went up into space, but that he went back into his Father’s presence.

When we look at John 1:1-18, John goes to great lengths to prove Jesus’ divinity. He states, the Word [Jesus] was God, always, he was God. There never was a time when Jesus wasn’t God. This is in contrast to the teachings of Arius and of the Jehovah’s Witnesses who claim that Jesus was the first created thing.

Proof: Creation

Article 10 goes on to reinforce the divinity of Jesus by highlighting what Jesus did, which prove his divinity. Take, for example, the creation of the universe. God Almighty is the creator, that’s what we learn from Genesis 1. John 1 says the world was created by Jesus. He says in verse 14 that “the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” Then in verse 18 it says, “No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only which is at the Father’s side, has made him known.”

By equating Jesus with God Almighty’s creative action in the formation of the entire universe, what is visible and invisible, John is clearly identifying Jesus as God. Only Jesus has seen God. Look in the New Testament and see how many times Jesus talks about his Father. Jesus is speaking as one with authority, as one who knows the truth.

Proof: Son of the Father

I’ve read a few books by David Baldacci that take place in Washington D.C. From the books, I can describe certain monuments, and famous landmarks. But the knowledge gained by learning about them in books, pales in comparison to learning about it in person. The disciples knew Jesus. They learned from him, as one who came from the Father, and demonstrated what the Father is like, by being like the Father. You’ve heard the phrase, “He’s a chip off the old block.” That is Jesus to a T. If you’ve seen Jesus, you’ve seen the Father. If you know Jesus, you know the Father. That’s what John says in chapter 10:30, “I and the Father are one.”

What was it about Jesus that made the leaders most upset? It was his not so subtle claims to be God. When Jesus healed a man on the Sabbath, the Jews wanted to hill him. Not only was he breaking the Sabbath, he called God his own father, making himself equal to God.” When the brought charges against him, the charges that convicted him was the charge of blasphemy.

On seven occasions, John records Jesus as saying the same phrase God Almighty used when he talked to Moses from the Burning Bush. He said it when he was talking about Abraham, “Before Abraham was, I am.” Or consider Thomas’ reaction when he finally saw and touched Jesus, “My Lord and my God!” In every case when people call Jesus God, such as when Jesus asked the disciples, “Who do you say I am?” Jesus never corrects them. Peter said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” Jesus didn’t correct him, because he was stating the truth.

John concludes his gospel by saying, “These things are written down, so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” We find references to Jesus’ divinity in the rest of the New Testament also. It is clear that Jesus is God by the way Christians worship him. We invoke, worship and serve Jesus. We pray in his name. We ask for things for his sake. We worship and serve him in the same way we worship and serve the Father.

If Jesus isn’t who the Bible makes him out to be, then consider this, if Jesus isn’t God, then we’re guilty of breaking the first three commandments. Jesus is God, and he is worthy of our worship.

Jesus Can’t Be Anything Else

So, when people say things like Jesus is a good teacher, ask them what they mean by that. Ask them if they know that Jesus is God. Ask them if they can believe Jesus is a good teacher if he also claims to be divine. C.S. Lewis comments on this desire to have Jesus as merely a good teacher putting it this way, in his book “Mere Christianity”:

I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronising nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. ... Now it seems to me obvious that He was neither a lunatic nor a fiend: and consequently, however strange or terrifying or unlikely it may seem, I have to accept the view that He was and is God.

Challenge their thinking. Ask what they mean when they are talking about Jesus. If they claim, no creed but Christ, ask them to define Christ. If necessary, show them the true Jesus, as revealed in Scripture, Amen.