Who Is Jesus Christ?

I know, we say we know. But let's remember again who Jesus is.

No one denies that Jesus was a man. No one denies that He was born & that He walked this earth & that He was crucified. That's not a big deal. That's not something that's hard to come to terms with, it's the OTHER part of who Jesus is that raises all the trouble.

It's not just that He's Jesus but that He's Jesus Christ. That's not just His last name. It's actually His PLACE as Messiah & Anointed One over everything. THAT'S the part that people get upset about.

Who is He? He is unlike anyone that has ever lived before.

His story is shockingly amazing. Another amazing thing I want you to consider is that all of these letters in the Bible are from eyewitnesses. I think one of the things we forget is that they were written to people who actually SAW these things. At any point someone could have stood up & said, "LISTEN! None of this is true, I was THERE!" Amazingly, no one has. Amazingly, historians have searched desperately all these years in an attempt to disprove any factual part of the Bible & have been unable to. It's shocking, but that's because He actually was who He said He was.

Look at His birth - it's not the normal kind of birth is it? Paul states it this way, he says in 2 Timothy, "...The Gospel, that has now been revealed by the APPEARING of Jesus Christ." Has anybody ever talked about their birth as an appearing? You know, "Oh, I appeared in this world in the year..." We don't "appear." It's actually the word "epiphany." He just APPEARED. No one talks about someone this way, this isn't someone who was born, who came into existence, He existed before & now He's suddenly appeared on the scene. When time had reached its fullness, He appeared. In fact, all of history had been building to His appearance! We don't speak that way, but this is the way it's spoken about Jesus because He's unlike anyone else. This is what He said about Himself: "Before Abraham was, I AM." People don't talk that way! He said, "I come to you," not, "I came," not "I was born," but, "I existed before, & I have come down here. I actually was before any of this was seen here, & now I have come to this place that you guys call earth, & I have come here to do something." Look at His birth! An angel comes & announces to a virgin that she's going to have a child! Again, that is BIZARRE. Would you have made that up in a religion? It wouldn't have even occurred to me..."Oh yeah, that makes sense, let's have a virgin give birth to GOD. That makes sense." I mean, that's not anything that anyone would ever think of! He would just show up I'd think with some grand entrance, not by a virgin. I mean, that's a pretty big claim. She's going around telling everybody she's a virgin who is pregnant. That's a pretty big claim! If anyone knew otherwise I think they would've stepped up & said, "Yeah, I realize you're making a big deal about this Jesus guy, but we had sex." There's not a single person that can come forward & deny this.

Whatever else you say about Jesus, you can't just say He was a good teacher. You can't just say He was a good guy & a good leader & a really moral, upstanding guy. He was INSANE if He's not God. I mean, the kind of things that He claims throughout His entire life, there's no other way He could handle it! Look at His words...His words were shocking to people. He was not a learned scribe, not a Pharisee, He didn't go to any kind of school...He was a carpenter. He's not the kind of guy you'd think would be arresting when He speaks. This was a time period in which you had Aristotle & Plato & Socrates, in which you'd go to performances to hear great speakers. And they heard all of this all around them, but the fact is they couldn't find anyone that spoke like this man, Jesus Christ. They said He was unlike anyone they had ever heard before. Even trained students in public speaking were stumped by Him every single time, by such simplicity. Even soldiers sent to arrest Him came back & said, "We couldn't arrest Him...no one's ever spoken like Him before." That's your reason?! I don't know if that's going to go over very well to the head person, but His very speaking changed everything. If you read His words yourself, there's nothing like it, is there? I mean even today when you hear His words, it just reaches inside of you & you just want to come to Him. He is shocking in His responses. Every time you think you can predict what He's going to say He says something else. No one has ever spoken like this guy. He commanded people to follow Him. This stuff isn't normal! He walks up to some fishermen, says, "Leave your boats & follow me" & walks on! That's it! He doesn't sit down with their mothers for a 5-year plan of how He's going to take care of their lives, how this is a good career option & it's going to work out well for you. He does none of these things, He just says, "Follow me," & He moves. If you don't want to follow Him, don't. But they DO follow Him! That's the other part that's amazing! If some guy walked past me & said to follow him I'd be like, "No. I don't know who you think you are." But they drop EVERYTHING, their whole lives, just by His word & they follow this man. Again...this is unlike anyone who has ever existed.

The things He said about Himself..."I am the bread of life." You can't fake this teaching! That is some strange teaching! It isn't just good happy morality, is it? This is some strange, all-in stuff that He's proclaiming. But He believed it to be true because IT IS TRUE. Look at His miracles. ANYONE could have denied these things, & no one denied them. They're not just normal healings - He healed EVERYBODY that came to Him. He dealt with demons in two seconds, He didn't have to have all night exorcisms battling with demons coming out bruised. He walked in & said, "Listen, go." That was it. There was a storm on the boat while He's down sleeping...while the disciples are freaking out. And He comes up - in a Godly annoyance, I guess, because He doesn't sin - but He says, "Honestly, don't you have any faith?" And He just says a word to the storm & it stops & He goes back down to go to sleep. If I spoke to a storm I think I would be jumping all over the place or calling the news, or something. But it's not like that with Him because He expects nature to just respond. That's just what it does. He just says things & they happen because this is the miracle power that He walked in. He lived like the Lord of Lords.

Look at His compassion - people that other people would reject, He instantly takes them in. The alabaster jar story we all know - He says, "I'm going to make sure everyone knows about this." This woman, her WHOLE life has been about sin & He wants the whole world to know her. He has compassion like no other because He lived a sinless life. He NEVER sinned. Again, these disciples LIVED with Him - they would know if He messed up just one early morning before He had His coffee. They would know if He snapped at them even one time. And yet at the end of His life they can't point out anything. For three years the Pharisees are TRYING to find things wrong with Him. I mean, you don't even have to try & you'll easily see things wrong with me. People were investigating His life, trying to dig up ANY kind of dirt, & they couldn't come up with anything. He lived perfectly.

And then, look at His death. Oh, HERE'S the issue, God can't die, right? But He didn't die like a normal man, did He? He was beaten beyond measure, He was persecuted more than anything we know, but then, when He was crucified, the whole sky turned to darkness. ANYBODY who was there could have said, "No it didn't." This Gospel was written when those people were still alive. Anyone could have said it! But the whole sky turned to darkness & there was an earthquake when He died. That doesn't happen when normal people die! And THEN, He rose from the dead - not something we're used to happening after someone dies. And it CHANGED the disciples, to the point that when they stood up on Pentecost, shortly after His death, they said, "TRY to find a body." Peter stood up to the very people that crucified Christ & said, "Do your best, because you won't be able to find it." In fact, look at His followers, it completely changed them. Nobody changes people like this to the point that every one of them suffered a martyr's death for His sake. If they had stolen the body, don't you think one of them, when they were being sawn in two, might have been a whistle-blower? "Really quickly, before you boil me in oil...my bad, big joke, we stole the body." But none of them did that because they knew He had risen, they had seen Him. They suffered & died for His name's sake. He's not a normal man. I mean, I like you guys, but I'm not so sure I'd be boiled in oil for you. All of them, without fail, refused to deny Him, & gave their lives to Him.

This is who Jesus is.

This is why Paul says, "I'm not afraid of anything I'm facing because I KNOW HIM." Remember who Jesus Christ is. THIS is what Christianity is about, more than anything else, it's remembering that He is God...that He has changed everything...that our life is about who HE is. We should be remembering all of these things about Him to the degree that we constantly have assurance, that we constantly have peace, that we are constantly settled. This person was both God & man, born of a virgin, & He lived perfectly, & He suffered & died for what I've done. He took the wrath of God that should have been poured out on me. He lived perfectly & therefore gave me righteousness.

It's all about Him. My goal is that those of us who know Him would remember Him every day of our lives. Tomorrow morning, when you wake up, remember Jesus Christ. When you go to work tomorrow, remember Jesus Christ - your day at work tomorrow is all about Him. We gather together to glorify & remember Him.