Who is this Jesus?

Luke 9:18–21 (NASB95) And it happened that while He was praying alone, the disciples were with Him, and He questioned them, saying, “Who do the people say that I am?” 19 They answered and said, “John the Baptist, and others say Elijah; but others, that one of the prophets of old has risen again.” 20 And He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” And Peter answered and said, “The Christ of God.” 21 But He warned them and instructed them not to tell this to anyone,

I don’t know about all of you, but I want more of Jesus.

I Want More Of Jesus More And More And More. I Want More Of Jesus Than I’ve Ever Had Before. I Want More Of His Great Love So Rich, So Full And Free. I Want More Of Jesus, So I’ll Give Him More Of Me.

I don’t want more of this world’s Jesus, but more of the Bible’s Jesus.

I only really know who Jesus is through the Word of God.

Not myths

Not children’s bed-time stories

Not even preachers’ opinions

And certainly not lies made up by the demonic spirit of antichrist

I want the Jesus the Word of God reveals.

Because the world’s view of Jesus is a horror story.

The world’s view of Jesus:

In an article entitled:

Jesus in the Modern World

Posted on December 15, 2013 by [someone using the pseudonym] Jettboy

https://www.millennialstar.org/jesus-in-the-modern-world/

Jettboy wrote:

Who do men say that Jesus is? Today the question is no different than when Jesus and his Disciples walked the dusty road of Jerusalem. What might be surprising is the answers.

They go from the mundane of “lucky preacher” who gained literate followers

to the traditionally religious grandiose God and Savior of the world.

Like the days of his life and death, he is both mocked and praised. It could even be said that while there is a sizable world wide number of believers in his Divinity, he is slowly becoming obscure or irrelevant. This is opposite the rival religion of Islam and some other Eastern faiths. The Western views that kept Jesus “alive” have changed over the last few centuries. He is in metaphorical fragments…

There ARE believers in the Divinity of Jesus Christ in large, but shrinking, numbers.

The political and news reporting class call them fundamentalists like some sociological category.

They plead and beg us to take Jesus Christ seriously again, but Western society has for the most part abandoned the foundational faith all Christians used to hold.

Pop culture and politics have replaced God and Eternal Salvation.

Shrinking mainstream churches, including may Catholics, lean toward Jefferson than St. Paul.

Side note: Jettboy is referring to how Thomas Jefferson took several Bibles and cut out Jesus’ teaching and philosophy creating his own Bible that he called: "The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth." Yet he rejected the miracles of the NT that supported Jesus’ divinity.

As C.S. Lewis would later write in his book Mere Christianity (which I would encourage you to read):

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 a 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.

Anyway, Jettboy goes on to write:

His status as Son of God and Savior is defended by a few brave souls that can’t get along with each other. This bickering and infighting helps critics question why Jesus is any use in a large and connected world. Protestants, Catholics, and yes Mormons need to develop a united front no matter other differences if they don’t want the watered down Jesus to prevail…

Many who leave the orthodoxy of faith don’t cling to newer versions of a Savior figure, but reject any divinity.

He becomes a wise man and homily speaker rather than serious religious authority.

Even then the majority who lose faith in the Christian denominations simply reject Jesus as of any importance, or perhaps an impedance to them.

In this modern world, asking who Jesus is has become a serious issue with no sure outcome save it be to the faithful.

In research done in (2015), Barna Research asked:

… what do Americans believe about Jesus? Who do they say he is? Here are five popular American perceptions of Jesus, based on recent Barna Group research.

1. The Vast Majority of Americans Believe Jesus Was a Real Person

2. Younger Generations Are Increasingly Less Likely to Believe Jesus Was God

The historicity of Jesus may not be in question for most Americans, but people are much less confident in the divinity of Jesus. Most adults—not quite six in 10—believe Jesus was God (56%), while about one-quarter say he was only a religious or spiritual leader like Mohammed or the Buddha (26%). The remaining one in six say they aren’t sure whether Jesus was divine (18%).

Millennials are the only generation among whom fewer than half believe Jesus was God (48%). About one-third of young adults (35%) say instead that Jesus was merely a religious or spiritual leader, while 17 percent aren’t sure what he was.

In each older generation, the belief in Jesus as divine is more common—55 percent of Gen-Xers, 58 percent of Boomers and nearly two-thirds of Elders (62%) believe Jesus was God.

3. Americans Are Divided on Whether Jesus Was Sinless

Perhaps reflective of their questions about Jesus’ divinity, Americans are conflicted on whether Jesus committed sins during his earthly life. About half of Americans agree, either strongly or somewhat, that while he lived on earth, Jesus Christ was human and committed sins like other people (52%). Just less than half disagree, either strongly or somewhat, that Jesus committed sins while on earth (46%), and 2 percent aren’t sure.

Similar to other trends in perceptions of Jesus, Millennials are more likely to believe Jesus committed sins while he was on earth—56% of Millennials believe so.

The Bible declares without ambiguity that Jesus is the SINLESS Savior of the world:

2 Corinthians 5:21 (NASB95) He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

1 John 3:5 (NASB95) You know that He [Jesus] appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin.

4. Most Americans Say They Have Made a Commitment to Jesus Christ

On the whole, America is still committed to Jesus. The act of making a personal commitment to Jesus—often seen as the “first step” in becoming a Christian—is a step that more than six in 10 Americans say they have taken and, moreover, that commitment is still important in their life today.

5. People Are Conflicted between “Jesus” and “Good Deeds” as the Way to Heaven

Among adults who have made a personal commitment to Jesus, most also believe that Jesus is the way to heaven.

When given several beliefs about the afterlife to choose from, nearly two-thirds of those who have made a personal commitment to Jesus say they believe that after they die they will go to heaven because they have confessed their sins and accepted Jesus Christ as their savior (63%).

Only 2 percent of adults who report a personal commitment to Jesus say they will not go to heaven.

About one in seven admit they don’t know what will happen after they die (15%).

Many adults believe, however, that they will go to heaven as a result of their good works. Broadly speaking, this is the most common perception among Americans who have never made a commitment to Jesus—and it is also quite common among self-identified Christians. In this category, people believe they will go to heaven because they have tried to obey the Ten Commandments (5%), as a result of being basically a good person (8%), or on the grounds that God loves all people and will not let them perish (7%).

David Kinnaman, president of Barna Group, who directed the national study and says,

“There isn’t much argument about whether Jesus Christ actually was a historical person, but nearly everything else about his life generates enormous, and sometimes rancorous, debate.”

Kinnaman also says,

“Many of the institutional, cultural and familial tendons that connect young adults to life in Christ are stretching. Much has been made about whether Millennials will get more serious about church and faith as they age, but the fact is younger Americans are not as connected as older generations are to Christ. Jesus is a friend of sinners, but many Millennials are ‘unfriending’ him at a time when their lives are being shaped and their trajectories set toward the future.”

In light of a world who is increasing confused about who Jesus is, what I said last week about the Bible is also true about Jesus.

Whereas, last week I reminded us that:

We may be the only Bible some people see or hear.

In the same way …

MOST of the world sees and knows Jesus THROUGH us.

Did you hear Jettboy?

His status as Son of God and Savior is defended by a few brave souls that can’t get along with each other. This bickering and infighting helps critics question why Jesus is any use in a large and connected world.

That ought to sober us right up.

WHO do we SHOW Jesus to be through our lives?

Do we bring the glory due Him or are we bringing a reproach upon His Name?

For more than a year, on Sunday nights I have been consistently pointing to the Bible’s revelation of Jesus.

I have used the Bible to help us see what it says about Jesus.

And I have only scratched the surface.

But I have encouraged us to see Jesus as:

The Amen in Revelation 3:14

The Arm of the Lord in Isaiah 59:1

The One Who Is True in Revelation 3:7

The Author of our faith in Hebrews 12:2

Beloved of the Father Matthew 3:17

The prophesied Defender and Refuge Psalm 9:7-10

The Bright Morning Star Revelation 22:16

Our Hope Set before Us Hebrews 6:11-20

The Lion of the Tribe of Judah Revelation 5:1-5

Our Mediator & High Priest 1 Timothy 2:5 and Hebrews 4:14-15

The Chief Cornerstone 1 Peter 2:6

All in All Ephesians 1:23

The Altogether Lovely Song of Solomon 5:16

The Bread of God John 6:35

Jesus is the Balm of Gilead asked for in Jeremiah 8:22

Spirit-Sender John 16:7–15

Baptizer in the Holy Spirit Matthew 3:11

Bridegroom of John 3:29 for whom we eagerly await

Philippians 3:20–21 (NASB95) For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; 21 who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.

Blessed And Only Potentate 1 Timothy 6:15

The Captain of Our Salvation Hebrews 2:10

Chief among Ten-Thousand Song of Solomon 5:10

Awesome Colossians 1:15-18

Wonderful Counselor Isaiah 9:6

The Quickener (He makes us alive) John 5:21

For 6 weeks we looked at Jesus being the Lamb of God

Prophesied as the crushed and beaten Lamb in Isaiah 52-53

Declared “the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world) by John the Baptist in John 1:29

The Victorious Lamb revealed in Revelation 5:6

And the Lamb who hosts the Marriage Supper of the Lamb Revelation 19:7

The King in Matthew 21:5 and the King of kings in Revelation 19:16

The Chief Shepherd of 1 Peter 5:4

The Dayspring from on High Luke 1:78

Creator of All in Colossians 1:15–17

The One who not only baptized but was Himself Baptized (To be manifested to Israel) John 1:31–34

Desire of Nations Haggai 2:7

Intercessor Hebrews 7:25

Bishop (Overseer) of our souls

Tonight we will see Him as our Redeemer.

Listen for a moment as a much better preacher than I talks about who Jesus is:

Lockridge Video

As Dr. Lockeridge asked:

Do you know Him?

Call for Salvation

Repent of sins

Surrender to Him as Lord, Master of your life

If you SAY you know Him, but are not living for Him, IN Him in such a way as to show who He TRULY is, then you too need to pray.

And here I stand — I KNOW I fall short

Anyone else want to stand and ask for God’s help to live for Him?

The Lord’s Supper

Then, when we know who He is and what He has done

We do what He told us to do.

We remember His sacrifice:

Sermon Tie-in

This morning hope is here in the Person of Jesus.

He died for our sins.

But He isn’t dead.

He rose from the dead and defeated death.

He wants us to remember what He did.

To lean on Him.

So, He gave us a “supper.”

A way of remembering His sacrifice for us.

A sacrifice that gives us victory.

Preparation

Jesus invites you to open the door of your heart and invite Him in to share this “meal” with Him.

Revelation 3:20 NASB 2020

20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.

Before we partake of this meal we need to examine ourselves.

We don’t partake lightly or flippantly or just out of habit.

We prepare:

2 Corinthians 13:5 (NCV)

5 Look closely at yourselves. Test yourselves to see if you are living in the faith. …

Prayer

Receive Elements

All invited - you don’t have to be a member

Take a piece of the Bread and one of the cups and hold it until we all partake together

Hymn: You Are My King

Bread

Matthew 26:26 NASB 2020

26 Now while they were eating, Jesus took some bread, and after a blessing, He broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.”

Prayer

I. End prayer with prayer from Seder:

A. Blessed are you, O Lord our God, who brings forth bread from the earth.

Cup

Matthew 26:27–28 NASB 2020

27 And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you; 28 for this is My blood of the covenant, which is being poured out for many for forgiveness of sins.

Prayer

I. End prayer with prayer from Seder:

A. Blessed are you, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who creates the fruit of the vine.

Jesus is Coming

This meal reminds us that Jesus is coming soon. Jesus told us in:

Revelation 22:12 NASB 2020

12 “Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to reward each one as his work deserves.

Hymn: Soon and Very Soon