Jesus IS God

Jesus IS God

Jesus IS God…Or We Are In Deep Trouble!

By Pastor Dan Kennedy
© January 27, 2013
www.pastorkennedy.com

Everybody Reaches Out to a God Sometime
Everyone in the history of the world, at some time in his or her life, has reached out for a supernatural source beyond himself or herself. Review the historical human record from the dawn of time…there is always some form of “religion” in every tribe, nation, or culture. Always.

Even in our “enlightened” generation – the most progressive in the history of the world, the majority of people in our world believe in and worship some form of godlike deity. The majority of people in the most progressive nation in the world believe in some form of “Higher Power”… only about 1½ to 4% in the US are die-hard atheists.

Because there are many “spiritual sources” in the world – most people see these spiritual dynamics as originators of either “good” or “evil” – these are also seen as the originators of “spiritual worship” – which we call “religions” in the world. That is why there are so many diverse forms of worship around us, with such a variety of “gods”, with worship ranging from contemptible practices, such as fetish bondage and human sacrifice, to the commendable practices of giving of alms to the poor.

How Does Fallen Mankind Reach Out to God?
If most people believe in god, most people also know, down deep, that the imperfect struggles we have in our lives are probably not acceptable to this “god”.

How then do we pacify all the potential demands of this Supernatural Being?

• Requirements of Religions
Following specific Traditions of Religions are the human way to feel good about one’s self and to ‘hopefully’ be acceptable to whatever god in whom we choose to believe.

If the religion teaches we should work harder to please this god –

o To do more good things,
o To give more money,
o To sacrifice more time,
o Or to spend greater effort in worship…

Then we have a choice:

o To either back off from believing in the power and punishment of the god,
o Or, to work more feverously to hopefully please the demands of the spiritual entity.

The Devastating Human Problem:
The Completely Unstable and Totally Despicable Condition of our Human Heart

The Deceptive Human Solution:
To Work harder, to be more faithful, be more giving and more sacrificial in every way – while meticulously following the religious laws of the god gives our human effort a feeling of accomplishment about offsetting our failures, and maybe…just maybe, the deity will be happy with our hard work and dedication.

One God – One Triune God of whom we cannot make an Likeness…

When the first of the 10 Commandments says, “You shall have no other Gods before Me” (Exodus 20:4), and it is obvious that all of the other gods in the world are totally different from our God – the Triune God, how can we worship only our Creator God and give equal credence to all the others at the same time?

Our God is Unique; He is not a “works” god, but a Redeeming God. He is a God who forgives our sin through His Sacrifice, not through our “hard work”.

Jesus Faced these Dangerous and Deceptive Religious Hypocrisies with the Pharisees of His Day

Mark 7:5–23 Deceptive Religious Traditions
5 So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with ‘unclean’ hands?”
6 He replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written:
“ ‘These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
7 They worship me in vain;
their teachings are but rules taught by men.’
8 You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men.”
9 And he said to them: “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions! 10 For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.’ 11 But you say that if a man says to his father or mother: ‘Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is Corban’ (that is, a gift devoted to God), 12 then you no longer let him do anything for his father or mother. 13 Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that.”
14 Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. 15 Nothing outside a man can make him ‘unclean’ by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him ‘unclean.’”
17 After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable. 18 “Are you so dull?” he asked. “Don’t you see that nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him ‘unclean’? 19 For it doesn’t go into his heart but into his stomach, and then out of his body.” (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods “clean.”)
20 He went on: “What comes out of a man is what makes him ‘unclean.’ 21 For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. 23 All these evils come from inside and make a man ‘unclean.’”

What the Human Solution does not factor into its equation, is the origination and progressive revelation of depravity coming out of each human heart.

The God Solution:

The Messiah must meet the qualifications of One who has been prophesied throughout the generations (through Spirit empowered messengers), as One coming to deliver mankind from their sin.
The Messiah must be powerful enough to forgive sins.
The Messiah must be sinless so He can judicially bear the sins of others.
The Messiah must be the Son of God (or, God the Son), as prophesied.
The Messiah must allow Himself to be sacrificed to take on Himself the death penalty that sin requires.
The Messiah must rise again in triumph over sin and death.
The Messiah, through His Resurrection, confirms the validity of the Hope of Eternal Life.
The Messiah must return at the End of Days to bring Justice and Reward to the world; to set up His Millennial Kingdom, then finally to establish His Eternal Kingdom with those who have put their faith in His Redemption and Salvation.

Jesus Christ IS God, The Messiah, The Savior from Sin

• Jesus Christ’s Messianic Deity is Revealed through the fulfillment of His Prophetic Virgin Birth (Isaiah 7:14; Luke 1:28-35).
• Jesus Christ’s Messianic Deity is Revealed through the miracles of healing he accomplished and through His forgiveness of sin.

The Forgiveness of Sin for the Paralytic Man

Matthew 9:1–8
9 Jesus stepped into a boat, crossed over and came to his own town. 2 Some men brought to him a paralytic, lying on a mat. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.”
3 At this, some of the teachers of the law said to themselves, “This fellow is blaspheming!”
4 Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, “Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts? 5 Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? 6 But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins….” Then he said to the paralytic, “Get up, take your mat and go home.” 7 And the man got up and went home. 8 When the crowd saw this, they were filled with awe; and they praised God, who had given such authority to men.

The Forgiveness of Sin for the Adulterous Woman

Luke 7:36–50
36 Now one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, so he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. 37 When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume, 38 and as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.
39 When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner.”
40 Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.”
“Tell me, teacher,” he said.
41 “Two men owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42 Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he canceled the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?”
43 Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt canceled.”
“You have judged correctly,” Jesus said.
44 Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45 You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. 46 You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. 47 Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little.”
48 Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”
49 The other guests began to say among themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?”
50 Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

• Jesus Christ’s Messianic Deity is Revealed through His fulfilling the Prophesied Sacrifice for Sin.

Isaiah 53:4–6 (written some 500 years before Christ’s Birth)
4 Surely he took up our infirmities
and carried our sorrows,
yet we considered him stricken by God,
smitten by him, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.

• Jesus Christ’s Messianic Deity is Revealed through the basic teaching of Christianity, that Jesus Christ Can Forgive Our Sins, because of His Power and Sacrifice for Sin.

1 John 2:12
12 I write to you, dear children,
because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name.

o Jesus Appears and Teaches His Disciples following His Resurrection

Luke 24:36–49 (see vs. 46-47)
36 While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
37 They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. 38 He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? 39 Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.”
40 When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet. 41 And while they still did not believe it because of joy and amazement, he asked them, “Do you have anything here to eat?” 42 They gave him a piece of broiled fish, 43 and he took it and ate it in their presence.
44 He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.”
45 Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. 46 He told them, “This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, 47 and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things. 49 I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”

o Peter Shares with Cornelius (a “Gentile”) the Gospel of Salvation and Forgiveness of Sin through Jesus Christ

Acts 10:38-43
38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.
39 “We are witnesses of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a tree, 40 but God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen. 41 He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had already chosen—by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. 42 He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead. 43 All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

o Paul’s Sabbath Day Message to those in Antioch, and written declaration in 1 Peter

Acts 13:38–39 Following the body of the message, this conclusion is given.
38 “Therefore, my brothers, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. 39 Through him everyone who believes is justified from everything you could not be justified from by the law of Moses.
1 Peter 2:24
24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.

David sums up the Blessing of this Redemption from Sins by the Messiah

Psalm 103:11–12
11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his love for those who fear him;
12 as far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

Conclusion

• God IS
Creation around us reveals to everyone who will acknowledge it, that there is an All-Powerful God who Created us, who loves us, and who sent His Son to Redeem us.

• There are Many Religions:
There are many “spirits” in the world, good and evil, of which there are fallen angels who are God’s enemies – but who seek to deceive us and long for worship as god.

• The Devastating Human Problem:
The Condition of Our Human Heart is Completely Unstable and Totally Despicable!

• The Deceptive Human Solution:
To Work harder, to be more faithful, be more giving and more sacrificial in every way – while meticulously following the religious laws of the god we follow and worship.

• The God Solution:
It is not by works of righteousness that we are made right in the sight of God, but by faith in the redeeming and sacrificial blood of Christ, given as a free gift to those who receive it and are transformed by the power of His Spirit.

Jesus Christ came, as prophesied and was born into the world through a virgin. He lived a sinless life and during His ministry demonstrated that He was God the Son through the miracles of healing and Power to forgiven sin. He took upon Himself the sin of the world when He willingly gave Himself to justly pay for the condemnation and penalty of sin through His death on the Cross. Jesus Christ, God the Son, the Messiah is the only Redeemer from sin.

Jesus revealed His Deity by rising again from the dead.

Jesus Christ will return, as prophesied and bring those home to be with Himself, who by faith have believed His Word in faith and have received His gift of Eternal Life, being born again by His Holy Spirit.

At the end of Satan’s domination of this world and the conclusion of the kingdoms of this world, Jesus Christ will establish His Eternal Kingdom and His Bride will be with Him for Eternity.

The Blood of Christ is that which Cleanses Us from Sin

Hebrews 9:24–28

For Christ did not enter a man-made sanctuary
that was only a copy of the true one;
He entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence.
Nor did He enter heaven to offer Himself again and again,
the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year
with blood that is not his own.
Then Christ would have had to suffer many times
since the creation of the world.
But now He has appeared once for all at the end of the ages
to do away with sin by the sacrifice of Himself.
Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment,
so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people;
and He will appear a second time, not to bear sin,
but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for Him.