Monday 15 December 2008

Sermon - Who is Jesus?


Who is Jesus?
John 1:1-18
14/12/08

Introduction

As we approach Christmas we are continuing to look at Jesus’ entry into this world. Last week we focussed on the way that the King of Glory arrived as a humble peasant babe! So when we think of Jesus we must remember both His glory and His humility, and realise that both are true of us also. Even as He entered the world Jesus was setting for us an example of how we should enter our world – as people who possess an eternal glory but who desire to serve others for their salvation.

Today we are going to spend a bit of time thinking more carefully about the nature of Jesus – what it means for God to become a Man. As we go through we will discover some of the reasons why being clear about exactly who Jesus is is so important for us.

Read: John 1:1-18

Prayer

We are going to look at how the Apostle John introduces the person of Jesus in his Gospel. But before we begin we need to understand why John is writing his gospel. In chapter 20:31 he writes: these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

John is writing because he wants people to be very clear about who Jesus is, so that they may believe in Him and receive eternal life.

Read: John 1:1-3

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning.
3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
[1]

What is the first thing that John wants us to know about Jesus?

1. Jesus is the Word (v.1)

As he writes an account of Jesus in order to demonstrate that Jesus is the Saviour-King, the Son of God; why does he start by calling Him “the Word”?

The answer is found in verse 18: No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.

Jesus is the revelation of God. He is God come down to us. That’s why the story of the Virgin Birth is so important to Christianity. Some people claim that the stories surrounding Jesus’ birth were actually written to give support to His claims to be the Messiah. Things like the visits by angels, the immaculate conception, the journey to Bethlehem, the visit of the Shepherds and Magi were all made up stories intended to show that Jesus was someone special and that He was the fulfilment of Old Testament prophecies.

It can also be pointed out that stories of virgin births were very common in the pagan religions of the ancient world. They occur in the religions of ancient Egypt, Greece, Persia and elsewhere – all places that have had an influence on the thought of early Christians. Many people have suggested that these stories were incorporated into Christianity as people from those religions converted and carried some of their old beliefs into their new faith, or even that Christians invented the virgin birth story to appeal to those from a pagan background.

According to John, it is essential that we understand that Jesus is God, and has come into our world in order to reveal God to us. He is the message, the Word. That is why in verse 14 he writes: 14 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.

What should we say about these other theories?

1) The Bible clearly teaches the Virgin Birth
If you are already convinced of the Inspiration, Authority and Reliability of the Scriptures this carries great weight. The Bible unquestionably teaches the existence of Jesus before His incarnation, and that Mary was impregnated according to God’s power not through natural means.

2) Christianity was not afraid of being different to Paganism
Christianity was so completely different from paganism in so many ways, and it’s adherents were so committed to steadfastly clinging to the gospel, that the idea of “borrowing” from other religions or “marketing” itself to people from other worldviews is not feasible. The lie would have to have been present from the beginning – taught by Jesus Himself. His life, death and resurrection proved that He was not a liar, but God with us.

3) The best lies contain some truth
There is a Deceiver who’s intent is to prevent people from believing in the One True God, as argued by Justin Martyr in the 2nd century. The best lies contain enough truth to be easily confused with truth (or to make the truth easily confused with the lie). The other favoured technique of liars is to get in first, so that when the truth is revealed it appears to be a distortion of the lie, instead of being the truth.

4) The Virgin Birth is essential to the whole package of who Jesus is
His life, message, death and resurrection do not make sense apart from the virgin birth. If we discard it we must discard all that it means for Him to be the Saviour of the World and the Lord over all creation.

Jesus must be God, and He must be from God in order to be the Word. He came not bearing a message, but being the message. He was not a prophet who received revelation, He is the revelation.

As we’ve been talking about, the fact that Jesus is the Word goes hand in hand with the fact that…

2. Jesus is God (v.1)

John becomes more specific though, and says that…

3. Jesus is the Creator, not Created (vv.2-3)

There are some that would argue that matter gave birth to life, that our universe contained all of the raw materials that eventually combined in the right way in the right environment for life to begin and continue and evolve to higher and higher orders, eventually leading to humans who would be able to make sense of it all!

The Bible says that it was life that gave birth to matter! Before the universe existed there was life, and that life was in God.

You need to know that you are not an accident, but that you have a Creator. This Creator has entered our world to let us know who He is and how we can be part of His eternal family.

However there are some who are confused on whether Jesus Himself was created. Hearing of Jesus as the Son of God makes people think that there was a time before He existed, but that at some point He was born or made. There is also a key passage that is often poorly understood and which has been used by many cults to lead people astray.

We looked at the passage last week: Colossians 1:15-16:
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.

What does it mean that Jesus is the firstborn over all creation? Surely it means that He was made first, then everything else was made afterward?

This doesn’t make sense, however, because in the very next verse it says that “by him all things were created…”

The grammar here makes it impossible to conclude that Jesus was made first and then made everything else. If that was the intended meaning, different or additional greek words would have been used. Of course this echoes the teaching of John 1:3 - Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

What Colossians is actually saying is that Jesus has the position of pre-eminence over all creation. Being the firstborn in ancient cultures was an issue of status, and it wasn’t always conferred on the child born first. Remember Jacob and Esau? Jacob was not the firstborn, but he became so when Esau sold him the birthright and he obtained Isaac’s blessing through deception. Jacob did not rewrite history and become the first born, but he did obtain the status of being the firstborn. He achieved pre-eminence over Esau.

In the same way Jesus is pre-eminent over everything that has been created, whether visible or invisible. He is pre-eminent because He is the Creator. He is pre-eminent because He is God Incarnate. He is pre-eminent because He is the Redeemer of Humanity and the Head of the Church.

Do not be confused. John says that the Word was God and was with God in the Beginning, and He made everything that has been made. That’s who Jesus is.

Don’t swallow the lie that Jesus was just a good man, a revolutionary, a prophet or miracle worker. He cannot be dismissed so easily. He is God or He is nothing, the Bible allows no middle ground.


[1]All Scriptures taken from The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (Jn 1:1). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.