We'll be referring to many scriptures as we
go along, but I just want to set
the scene, if you like, by reading to
you this tremendous statement from Paul in Colossians
chapter 1, from verse 15 to verse 20,
concerning the majesty of Christ's prison.
Colossians 1, 15 to 20.
Many scholars think that these verses were in
fact a hymn, which the early church used
to sing in their worship services.
And Paul borrowed the hymn and put it
here in his writings.
If it was a hymn, then it certainly
must have been a most beautiful one.
Colossians 1, 15.
The Lord Jesus is the image of the
invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.
For in 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.
He is before all things, and in him
all things hold together.
And he is the head of the body,
the church.
He is the beginning and the firstborn from
among the dead, so that in everything he
might have the supremacy.
For God was pleased to have all his
fullness dwell in him, and through him to
reconcile to himself all things, whether things on
earth or things in heaven, by making peace
through his blood shed on the cross.
And then just verses 9 and 10 of
chapter 2.
For in Christ all the fullness of the
deity lives in bodily form, and you have
been given fullness in Christ, who is the
head over every power and authority.
And may God add his blessing to those
wonderful words.
Just before we consider this subject together, we're
going to sing one further hymn.
It's hymn number 86.
Hymns of wisdom, love and power, that mortals
ever knew, that angels ever bore, all are
to me to speak his worth, to me
to set my saviour forth.
Number 86.
Josh McDowell begins his book, More Than a
Carpenter, with the following words.
Almost 2,000 years ago, Jesus entered the
human race in a small Jewish community.
He was a member of a poor family,
a minority group, and resided in one of
the smallest countries in the world.
He lived for approximately 33 years, of which
only the last three comprised his public ministry.
Yet people almost everywhere still remember him.
The date of your morning newspaper, the copyright
date of the book you might now be
reading, bears witness to the fact that Jesus
lived one of the greatest lives which has
ever been lived.
H.G. Wells, the noted historian, was asked
one day which person had left the most
permanent impression upon history.
And this was his reply.
If anyone judges a person's greatness by historical
standards, then by this test, Jesus of Nazareth
must stand first.
Another famous historian, Kenneth Scott LeTourre, wrote the
following.
As the centuries pass, the evidence is accumulating
that measured by his effect on history, Jesus
is the most influential life which has ever
been lived on this planet.
And that influence appears to be ever mounting.
From Ernest Renan, not a Christian, we have
the following observation.
Jesus was the greatest religious genius who has
ever lived.
His beauty is eternal and his reign shall
never end.
Jesus is in every respect unique and nothing
can be compared with him.
All of history is totally incomprehensible without Jesus
Christ.
Who then was this man?
This man who people from all aspects of
society agree has made such a remarkable impact
on history.
Just who was he?
It's very interesting that ever since Jesus stepped
foot on this planet, that's the question people
have been asking.
Who is this man?
When he stilled the storms on the lake
of Galilee, the question rang out, who is
this man?
Even the wind and the sea obeys him.
When he healed the paralyzed man and forgave
his sins, the question rang out again, who
is this man?
Who even forgives sins?
As he went around the shores of Galilee
teaching with immense authority, the question rang out,
who is this man?
He's not like our scribes, he's not like
our Pharisees.
He teaches as one who has authority.
And it's still the question which deep down
people in our generation are asking themselves.
Who is this man?
Jesus.
Of course, in public conversation, they often seek
to evade this question.
People will talk about anything except the person
of Jesus.
They'll talk to you about evolution and creation.
Where did Cain get his wife?
They'll talk to you about any amount of
things, but they evade the great issue.
Who is Jesus Christ?
If you turn to the 22nd chapter of
Matthew's Gospel, you'll see that such people are
doing nothing new.
Even in the days of Jesus, in public
conversation, people tried to dodge the issue.
In the 22nd chapter of Matthew's Gospel, there
are certain people who are questioning the Lord
Jesus Christ.
You can see in verse 15, their design
in doing this.
The Pharisees went out and laid plans to
trap Jesus in his words.
They wanted to trip him up.
So what did they do?
Well, first of all, verse 17, the Pharisees
asked a political question.
Is it right, they say, to pay taxes
to Caesar or not?
A very loaded political question in the days
of Christ.
And then along come the Sadducees, arch enemies
of the Pharisees.
The Pharisees have been unable to trip up
Jesus, so the Sadducees want to get one
better than their enemies.
And verses 23 and 24 show us how
they come with a great theological question concerning
the resurrection of the dead, which they didn't
accept.
Someone once remarked, that's why they were sad,
you see.
But I'll let you work that one out.
Well, they bring that theological question concerning the
resurrection of the dead.
And Jesus calmly answers their question.
So back come the Pharisees, and in verse
36, they bring a moral question, which is
the greatest commandment in the law.
And if you read through the whole passage,
you'll see how with remarkable patience and wonderful
wisdom, Jesus calmly answers each question.
And then the opportunity arises for Jesus to
ask his question, having answered all of theirs.
What question does Jesus ask?
Well, of course, it's that famous question of
verse 42.
What do you think about the Christ?
Whose son is he?
If I can say it reverently, Jesus was
not the kind of man to beat around
the bush.
He always went to the heart of every
matter.
When you are considering Christianity, this is the
heart of the matter.
Our faith does not stand or fall on
vague issues of theology, politics, or even morality.
Our faith stands and falls on the person
of Jesus Christ.
If Jesus is not who he said he
was, if he did not do that which
he said he came to this world to
do, then the whole superstructure of Christianity crumbles
in ruins to the ground.
Well then, who was Jesus?
Let's look first of all at what he
said about himself.
What claims did Christ make for himself?
When you consider the claims which he made,
a very popular notion that Jesus was just
a good man must be immediately discounted.
C.S. Lewis, a Cambridge professor and one
time agnostic, put it like this, I am
trying to prevent anyone from saying the really
foolish thing that people so often say about
Jesus.
That is, I'm ready to accept him as
a great moral teacher, but I don't accept
his claim to be God.
That is, says Lewis, one thing you 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 a man who says he's 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 he's a madman or
something worse.
You can shut him up for a fool.
You can spit at him, kill him as
a demon, or you can fall at his
feet and call him Lord and God.
But let's not come up with any patronizing
nonsense about him being a great human teacher.
He has not left that option open to
us, and he never intended to do so.
Very, very important words from Professor Lewis.
Well, what did Jesus say about himself?
First of all, of course, he directly claimed
to be God.
We know the famous statement of John 10,
verses 30 to 33, where Jesus says, I
and my Father are one.
Opponents of this doctrine of the deity of
Jesus Christ immediately respond by saying, ah, yes,
Jesus said that, I know.
But he meant one in purpose.
I and my Father are one in purpose.
Well, did Jesus mean that?
Those who know the Greek language, and I'm
not at all familiar with it, tell me
that in fact the New Testament Greek will
not allow for that interpretation.
Jesus did not mean we are one in
purpose.
He meant we are one in essence.
And in fact, you can see from the
context that that's what Jesus meant.
Because when Jesus said, I and my Father
are one, what did the Jews do?
They took up stones, Matthew tells us, or
John tells us, to kill the Lord Jesus.
Now, why should they do that?
If a man is merely saying, I and
the Father are one in purpose, why should
they seek to kill him?
Stoning, as we well know, was the prescribed
Jewish punishment for blasphemy.
These Jews knew what Christ meant.
He was saying, I and my Father are
one in essence.
If you turn to John's Gospel, chapter 5,
you will find a very important statement from
Jesus Christ in this context.
John, chapter 5, and verses 23 and 24.
We'll pick up the thread in verse 22.
Moreover the Father, this is Jesus speaking, judges
no one, but has entrusted all judgment to
the Son, that all may honor the Son
just as they honor the Father.
He who does not honor the Son does
not honor the Father who sent him.
What immensely important words they are from the
lips of the Lord Jesus Christ.
You'll find them particularly important if you're dealing
with any of the sects of our generation
who do not believe in the deity of
Jesus Christ.
I always use these verses when I'm talking
to a Jehovah's Witness.
They will of course say that Jesus Christ
is very important.
He's the firstborn son of the Father.
But they would never agree that the Lord
Jesus Christ should be given the same honor
as Jehovah is given.
You turn them to this verse in your
Bible.
Even surprisingly, in their own translation, I think
they must have overlooked something.
But Jesus clearly says all should honor the
Son even as they honor the Father.
Now if you just turn over quickly to
John, chapter 20, you'll see another example of
what I'm saying about Jesus claiming deity.
Here in John, chapter 20, we meet the
risen Christ.
Of course when Jesus appeared for the first
time after his resurrection to his disciples, Thomas
wasn't there.
Verse 24, Thomas called Didymus, one of the
twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus
came.
When the other disciples told him that they'd
seen the Lord, he declared, unless I see
the nail marks in his hands and put
my finger where the nails were and my
hand into his side, I will not believe.
A week later, Jesus appears again.
This time Thomas is present.
Verse 27, he says to Thomas, put your
finger here, see my hands, reach out your
hand and put it into my side, stop
doubting and believe.
And look at Thomas' response.
Verse 28, my Lord and my God.
Here is Thomas worshipping Jesus as God.
Now, what does Jesus do?
Does he remonstrate with Thomas for worshipping him
as God?
Not at all.
He indeed does remonstrate with Thomas, but because
of his unbelief, he calmly accepts the worship
which Thomas gives to him.
The worship which can only be given to
God.
Now if you turn over to Acts chapter
14, you will see a remarkable contrast.
Acts chapter 14.
Here we meet Paul and Barnabas in verses
11 to 18.
They are in Lystra and Derby and they
are worshipped in verse 11 after healing a
man.
When the crowd saw what Paul had done,
they shouted in the Lyconian language, the gods
have come down to us in human form.
And they attribute Barnabas to Zeus and Paul
to Hermes because he was an eloquent speaker.
The priest brings out objects of worship from
the temple.
Now what do Paul and Barnabas do?
Verse 14.
When the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of
this, they tore their clothes, rushed into the
crowd shouting, men, why are you doing this?
We too are only men, human like you.
A remarkable contrast.
Totally unwilling to accept worship which should only
be given to deity.
However, Jesus calmly accepted such worship.
There then are his direct claims to deity.
He made many other startling claims when he
was upon this earth.
For example, he was constantly commanding people to
follow him.
He said they must be willing to deny
themselves.
He said they must be willing even to
lay down their lives for him.
And of course he made that remarkable promise
that one day he would return at the
end of the age to judge the world.
Now once a man has made remarks such
as this, there are only three logical alternatives.
The first alternative is that these words are
true.
That Jesus is the son of God.
That he is the light of the world
and everything else which he claimed to be.
The second alternative is that these words are
not true but Jesus didn't realize that.
He was a deluded man.
The third alternative is that they weren't true
and Jesus knew they weren't true and he
was therefore speaking lies.
Those are the only three logical alternatives which
you have.
Once a man has made remarks such as
this.
So next time someone says to you I
like Jesus.
He was a great man but he's not
the son of God.
You tell them they're being totally illogical.
Jesus does not leave us that option as
C.S. Lewis said to believe that he's
a good man but he's not the God
man.
Well of course many people have made amazing
claims like Jesus makes.
Not so long ago a couple of years
ago now I had a very sad experience.
I visited a home on the day of
a gentleman's 33rd birthday.
When I went into his house I found
that he was crying uncontrollably.
So I said to his wife what's wrong
with your husband?
And he said my husband or she said
my husband is mentally deranged.
He believes he's Jesus Christ and he can't
understand how he has reached the age of
34.
I'm sorry it was his 34th birthday.
He can't understand how he's reached the age
of 34.
He was convinced that he would die when
he was 33.
One of a surprising number of people who
believe they are divine and who will tell
people that they are divine.
Now why does no one listen to them?
And why have so many millions of people
the world over listened to the remarkable claims
of Jesus?
Of course the simple and obvious answer is
that the character of Jesus supports the claims
which he made.
This is what sets him apart from every
other person who has made similar claims.
His life backs up his limb, his lip.
What he is and what he did backs
up what he said.
William Leckie, one of Britain's most noted historians
and a very dedicated opponent of Christianity wrote
the following.
It was reserved for Christianity to present to
the world an ideal character which through all
the changes of 18 centuries has inspired the
hearts of men with an impassioned love.
Has shown itself capable of acting on all
ages, nations, temperaments and conditions as being not
only the highest pattern of virtue but the
strongest incentive to its practice.
This non-Christian then finished his statement with
the following sentence.
This simple record of those three short years
of active life I must say has done
more to regenerate and soften mankind than all
the disquisitions of philosophers and all the exhortations
of moralists.
I wonder what is our explanation for the
character of this man?
First of all, of course, we consider his
sinlessness.
In John chapter 8 and verse 46 he
throws out the challenge.
Which of you will convince me of sin?
This is a very remarkable thing.
Normally people who walk closely with God have
a very sensitive appreciation of their sinfulness.
The closer you walk with God the more
you recognize how utterly sinful you are.
It was very well put by the poet.
They who fame would serve thee best are
conscious most of wrong within.
Now here's a remarkable thing about Jesus.
He was a man who obviously walked closely
with God.
He was very, very sensitive about sin within
other people.
But he never, on one occasion recognized sin
within himself.
What is even more remarkable is that the
people who knew him best who lived most
closely to him failed to recognize sin also.
Even more remarkable is the fact that they
were brought up to believe that every man
ever born was born in sin and practiced
sin.
They were good Jews.
They were brought up with this Jewish theology
and biblical theology firmly in their minds.
But when John gets to write about Jesus
a man who possibly lived more closely to
Jesus than anyone else in his first epistle
after stating that if anyone says he has
not sinned, he's a liar.
He goes on in chapter 3 to show
how Jesus was different and he alone was
perfect and pure.
Peter's the same.
He speaks of Jesus as being without blemish,
without guile sin never being in his lips
or on his lips.
All of these people who lived most closely
to Jesus were astonished by his sinlessness.
Another astonishing aspect of his character is his
humility.
You know, Jesus was a man who was
always talking about himself.
Don't know whether you've ever recognized that.
Now there are people like that in the
world today, aren't there?
And they tend to be very boring people.
But there was nothing boring about Jesus even
though he was always talking about himself.
I am the truth.
I am the way.
I am the life.
No religious teacher on earth has ever spoken
like that.
You read the writings of Muhammad or Buddha
or Confucius, choose whom you may.
And they will say this is truth as
I understand it.
And if you follow that truth you will
find life.
Jesus never ever spoke like that.
He said I am the truth.
Follow me.
Always talking about himself.
Always referring people to himself.
And yet the remarkable thing is that you
never sense pride in this man.
His humility is recognized by all.
His selflessness.
His tireless service.
His poise and his dignity in the most
difficult circumstances.
Think of Christ upon the cross.
Here is a moment of awesome agony for
the Lord Jesus Christ.
And yet he's in perfect control of himself
and of the situation.
His poise and his dignity is quite extraordinary.
Pilate in the judgment hall asks him various
questions.
There's no response.
Pilate says don't you understand?
I have the authority to crucify you or
to release you.
Jesus calmly reacts.
You would have no authority whatsoever unless it
was given to you by God the Father.
There on the cross he looks down and
he sees a weeping mother and a weeping
beloved disciple.
He's in total control of himself.
He's not thinking of himself.
Woman, behold from now on your son.
Son, from now on behold your mother.
The poise and dignity of Christ in the
most extraneous situations is really quite outstanding.
Another thing which so many people recognized about
the life of Christ was his authority.
I've already mentioned the authority of his words.
People were astounded by his teaching.
Never man spake like this man, they said.
If you will just turn to Mark chapter
1 for a moment you will see this
authority in many areas.
Mark chapter 1.
Look first at verse 22.
The people were amazed at his teaching because
he taught them as one who had authority
not as the teachers of the law.
Just then a man in their synagogue who
was possessed by an evil spirit cried out,
What do you want with us, Jesus of
Nazareth?
Have you come to destroy us?
I know who you are, the Holy One
of God.
Be quiet, said Jesus sternly.
Come out of him.
The evil spirit shook the man violently and
came out of him with a shriek.
Just in two or three verses you have
the authority of his teaching.
You have his authority over the demons.
And then later on down the chapter verses
30 to 32 you have his authority over
disease.
Various sick people are brought to him and
he heals them all.
Into chapter 2 if you had time you
would find his authority over sin as he
forgives the sin of the paralytic man in
the first paragraph of that second chapter.
The authority of his life.
Quite remarkable.
All of this caused Lord Tennyson to write
the following.
His character, the character of the Christ is
by far the most remarkable of his miracles.
Of all his miracles his character, his life
stands as the greatest.
So you've got the claims of Christ backed
up by the character of Christ.
But thirdly, what about these miracles?
Now I realize that miracles in themselves do
not prove Jesus to be the Son of
God.
People before Christ and after Christ have performed
miracles.
And it's not always godly men who perform
miracles.
But if you take the miracles of Christ
and you add them to his claims and
his character you have a very powerful picture
being built up.
I'm sure you've noticed that many of these
miracles are closely connected to his claims.
For example, the statement, I am the bread
of life was made soon after Jesus had
fed 5000 people with five loaves and two
fishes.
His statement, I am the resurrection and the
life was immediately followed by raising Lazarus from
the dead, the man who'd been dead for
four days.
Jesus confirming what he says by his deeds.
The statement, I am the light of the
world was immediately followed by Jesus giving sight
to the man who had been born blind.
Of course, we could just say that these
stories are fables.
They're mere fabrications.
But it's very interesting that the people of
his day, even the non-Christians of his
day, did not question the reality of the
miracles.
No historian that I have ever come across
ever questioned that the miracles actually happened.
All that they seek to do is to
find another explanation for them than the fact
that Jesus is the son of God.
The most obvious example would be Celsus, the
principal philosopher and critic of the first century.
And after a long discourse on the miracles
of Christ in his writings, he finally comes
up with the sad and sorry explanation that
Jesus was demon-possessed.
But he doesn't question the reality of the
miracles.
And of course, on top of all of
that, you have the greatest miracle of all,
and the miracle for which we have the
most documentation.
That miracle we'll be looking at in detail
tomorrow night, the miracle of his resurrection.
Let me just give one verse to whet
your appetite for tomorrow evening.
Acts 26 and verse 8.
Paul is defending himself before King Agrippa, and
he asks the king the great question, why
should any of you consider it incredible that
God should raise the dead?
Do we consider that incredible beyond belief?
Well, I tell you, the documented evidence for
the resurrection of Christ, which we'll be looking
at in detail tomorrow night, is quite enormous.
And if you add to his claims, his
character, his miracles, the resurrection, you have a
most powerful picture being constructed.
Now there's just two other areas which we
should look at before we apply this great
truth.
The next area is the area of the
virgin birth.
One thing, of course, is certain.
If God did become man, then we would
expect him to have an unusual entrance into
this life.
That's exactly what the Bible claims for Jesus.
700 years before his birth, Isaiah declared, the
virgin will conceive and will bear a son.
Matthew, in chapter 1 and verse 23 of
his gospel, takes up the prophecy of Isaiah
and claims that it was fulfilled in the
birth of Jesus.
Well, of course, the evidence for the virgin
birth is much more difficult to amount than
for other events in his life.
But there are some questions which every unbeliever
must face.
Question one, how did this concept, this idea
of the virgin birth arise so soon after
the birth of Christ if it wasn't based
on fact?
Immediately, there were thousands of people, immediately, who
accepted it as fact.
And I'll show you that in a few
moments.
Secondly, once again, at the time of Christ,
this is always interesting, what did the people
of the time think?
Well, at the time of Christ, there was
little doubt about the virgin birth.
So little doubt that J.
Gresham Meakin, one of the great theologians of
recent days, recently wrote this, even if there
wasn't a word about this subject in the
New Testament, the second century testimony would show
that the belief in the virgin birth must
have arisen, to say the least, well before
the first century was even over.
Another theologian, James Orr, adds the following, apart
from the Ebonites and a few Gnostic saints,
no body of people in early times is
known to have existed who did not accept
as part of their faith the birth of
Jesus from the Virgin Mary.
While we have the amplest evidence that this
belief was part of the general faith of
the church.
And it's certainly true that the early church
fathers accepted this doctrine.
Ignatius wrote the following, For our God, Jesus
Christ, was conceived in the womb of Mary
by the Holy Ghost.
Justin Matter wrote, Our teacher, Jesus Christ, who
is the first begotten of God the Father,
was not born as a result of sexual
relations.
The power of God descended upon the virgin,
overshadowed her, and caused her while still a
virgin, to conceive.
Certainly very interesting writing, extraordinary in fact, that
even if you look into the Koran, the
religious textbook of the Mohammedans, you will find
this claim being made for the virgin birth
of Jesus.
Let me just quote from the Koranic writings
for you.
This is what the Koran says, When it
was announced to Mary that she would bear
a son, she replied, How can this be?
For I am a virgin, no mortal has
ever touched me.
Later on, the Koran goes on to say,
It is easy for me, that is the
Lord.
He then breathed on her his spirit.
Of course, evidence for the virgin birth, by
its very nature, is difficult to amass.
But there's certainly no evidence against it.
And I suggest, there's no other explanation for
the unique life of Jesus.
W.
H.
Griffith Thomas summed it up like this, The
chief support for this doctrine of the virgin
birth is the utter necessity of accounting for
the uniqueness of his life.
Well that leaves us with one matter, and
it's possibly the most difficult matter of all.
So I ask you to rub your brains
slightly so that you can just concentrate on
this final issue.
As evangelical Bible-believing Christians, we have to
be careful not to put our head into
the sand.
And we have to admit that there are
difficult verses in the New Testament when it
comes to this matter of the deity of
Christ.
For example, the terms such as only begotten,
or firstborn, are used by many as arguments
against Christ's deity.
We read from Colossians 1.15. If you've
ever had Jehovah's Witnesses at your door, you'll
probably realize that they love to talk to
evangelicals, once they know you're an evangelical, about
the Trinity.
They've been taught that this is our weakest
point.
So they'll often take your Bible from you,
you should have your Bible near the front
door of course, they'll always take your Bible
from you, and they'll say, look, how can
you possibly believe in the Trinity when your
own Bible says that Jesus was born?
And this is the phrase they are taught
to turn to, Colossians 1.15, where Jesus
is spoken of as the firstborn over all
creation.
The basic argument is quite simple.
Why should we call Jesus Son, Son of
God, if he is eternal?
The theologians have come up with a very
different, or very difficult doctrine in response.
It's known as the doctrine of the eternal
generation of the Son from the Father.
It's difficult, but it's very important, because it
can really help you to understand some of
the most difficult portions of the New Testament.
These terms, Son, only begotten, firstborn, imply that
the relationship between the Father and the Son,
whilst it's an utterly unique relationship, must be
represented approximately as one of generation and birth.
So the theologians conclude that we must believe
the Father is eternally generating his Son.
He is eternally giving life to his Son.
One theologian sums it up with the following
sentence, which you might like to write down
and meditate upon, because I'm sure you won't
grasp it first time off.
I certainly didn't.
He defines it as follows.
It is a timeless act of the eternal
present, an act which is always continuing, and
yet it's forever completed.
Now there's a play on words, if you
like.
But Jesus is being eternally begotten, eternally generated
by the Father, an action which is always
continuing, and yet in a way which the
human mind cannot grasp, it is forever complete.
Now what's the result of it?
Well the result, quite simply, is that while
there's a quality of nature within the Trinity,
while the Father, the Son, and the Spirit
are equal in nature, there is a priority
of order.
The Son is eternally generated by the Father,
so he's second to the Father in the
order of the Trinity.
And the Holy Spirit is submitted to the
Son in the order of the Trinity.
Now this can help us to understand such
verses as John 5, 19.
The great problem to me is a teenager.
When Jesus said the Son can do nothing
by himself.
He can only do what he sees his
Father doing.
Whatever the Father does, the Son also does.
I had great difficulties with that verse as
an inquiring teenager.
If Jesus is totally equal with the Father,
then why can he do nothing of himself?
Why can he do nothing apart from that
which the Father does?
And this, I think, is the biblical answer.
But whilst they are totally equal, because of
the eternal generation from the Father, he takes
the position of Son, just as within a
marriage, which is often the human illustration of
the Trinity.
There's total equality between male and female.
Yet in the family order, the female is
to be submitted to the male.
It's exactly the same within the Trinity.
However, the Christian claim is plain.
Whilst Jesus is lower than the Father in
the priority of order of the Trinity, he
is totally equal in his position of quality.
The hymn writer put it like this.
Charles Wesley.
Great words, which I always love Christmas to
come round for because I delight in singing
them.
I think they're the greatest words in hymnody.
Veiled in flesh, the Godhead see.
Hail the incarnate deity.
Pleased with men as men to dwell.
Jesus our Emmanuel.
That's who Jesus is.
The Bible reveals it to us.
That's why we believe it.
But the evidence to our minds is also,
I suggest, conclusive.
His claims, his character, his miracles, particularly his
resurrection, his virgin birth, they all add up
to the clear truth that Jesus is the
Son of God.
Well, what should this mean for us tonight?
Very briefly, two things, because I'm going to
try and keep my promise not to speak
as long as I did last night.
C.T. Studd was one of the greatest
missionaries the world has ever known.
He was born into very fortunate circumstances and
he was a very successful young man.
He became an opening batsman for the English
cricket team and he received a fortune in
his day of £25,000 and a mansion
house.
One day he was contemplating the person of
Christ and he came to the conclusion that
Jesus is indeed the Son of God.
And he wrote the following words in his
diary, and in my diary as well.
If Jesus Christ be God and died for
me, then no sacrifice that I make can
be too great for me to make for
him.
Can I just repeat those words?
If Jesus Christ be God and died for
me, then no sacrifice that I make can
be too great for me to make for
him.
That's sheer logic isn't it?
Sheer logic.
If Jesus Christ is God and God in
Christ died for me, then there's no sacrifice
that I can make which will be too
great in response.
People who really believe that Jesus is the
Christ, really believe he's the anointed Son of
the Father will live lives of total commitment
to him.
Final practical application is found there in Colossians
chapter 2.
This time it's the logic of the Apostle
Paul.
Colossians 2 verses 9 and 10.
Paul says, in Christ all the fullness of
the deity lives in bodily form.
That's what we've looked at tonight.
Jesus wasn't just a superstar, wasn't just the
greatest man who ever lived.
We can't possibly say that.
He was the one in whom all the
fullness of God lived.
Now what does Paul conclude?
Verse 10.
And you have been given fullness in Christ.
What's his argument?
If all of God is in Christ and
Christ is in you, then you have all
that a man or woman could ever need.
Have you reached that conclusion in your life
as a Christian?
Have you grasped that simple life revolutionizing fact
that the one in whom all of God
dwells dwells within you?
That's why the theme of Colossians is you
are complete in Christ.
If you have Christ tonight you have everything.
Nothing can be added to your experience if
you have Christ.
Now you might not have grasped all that
is yours in Christ.
There might be new areas which you have
to grasp but it's all there for you.
In Christ, all the fullness of God dwells.
We've seen that tonight.
And Christ dwells within you.
Let's go from this meeting determined to live
in the light of that fact and to
live in the light of the fact that
Jesus, who is God, died for us.
Our closing hymn is number 905.
905.
Once we've realized who Christ is we won't
want to be ashamed of him.
905.
Jesus, and shall it ever be a mortal
man ashamed of thee, ashamed of thee whom
angels praise, whose glories shine through endless days.
That's 905.
Tomorrow night we'll be looking at one of
the most exciting subjects it's possible to preach
on.
It's the subject the early church were constantly
proclaiming.
The subject of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
I said earlier that I don't think there's
any fact of the life of Christ which
has more evidence for its reality than the
resurrection.
And I'll be bringing along tomorrow some of
the human evidence for the resurrection of Christ
and we'll be applying that truth again to
our lives.
Let's pray together.
Thou art the everlasting word, the Father's only
Son, God manifestly seen and heard and Heaven's
beloved one.
Worthy O Lamb of God art thou that
every knee to thee should bow.
Father, tonight we would unitedly bow the knee
before the Lord Jesus Christ.
He is your well beloved Son.
He is the one who is the apple
of your eye, the fairest among ten thousand
to your soul, the altogether lovely one.
We bow before him tonight.
We offer to him our allegiance.
We rededicate our lives to him.
And Lord it just is quite astounding to
us that he should give his life at
Calvary on our behalf.
And that today he, your well beloved Son
is not ashamed to call us brethren.
Lord we do worship you and praise you
for your mercy.
We ask you by your mercy to help
us to be more like you on this
earth.
Help us Lord, you know how weak we
are to walk more closely to you that
our lives and our lips might testify of
his majesty.
Part us now with your blessing we pray
in the name of Jesus Christ.
Amen.