Integrity Church Pastor Tony Balsamo October 14, 2018 Sunday Worship Service

Transcription

1 Series: CREED Title: Article Four; Jesus Christ This morning we return back to our series entitled, Creed, a study through our statement of faith, the essential beliefs of our church! We began our discipleship class this week and I asked the group what thoughts come to their mind when they hear the word Theology many agreed that the thoughts of heady, stuffy, unattainable even intimidating and unable to be understood My hope, is that I can change the way you think about theology by pointing out that theology (the study of God) is simply an invitation to understand, appreciate and love this God who has chosen to reveal himself to us in the pages of the scripture. Theology is simply a lens by which we see God clearer and more accurately!! A proper understanding of theology helps us to understand and embrace the truth of scripture as well as recognize false truths heresies Truth about God and man that doesn t find its source in the Scriptures is not a truth at all and that s what we ve unpacking these past few weeks together what do we believe what is our CREED here at Integrity Church! We come to Article Four of our statement of Faith which addresses the subject of Jesus Christ and if you haven t noticed already there are many opinions out there on just who and what Jesus is One of the greatest thinkers and intellectual minds of the 20th century, C.S. Lewis is quoted as saying: I m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher but I don t accept his claim to be God.. this is the One Thing we MUST NOT SAY. You see if Jesus was nothing more than a good moral teacher that merely taught us all how to play nicely in the sandbox of life, then people would t have an issue with Jesus it wasn t his moral teaching that people took issue with, it is His declaration of being God and if He is God, then everything else that Jesus taught must be accepted as truth and Jesus didn t just come to change the way think he came to radically change our hearts us from the inside out! At Integrity Church, here s what we believe about Jesus Christ: We believe that Jesus Christ is God incarnate, fully God and fully man, one Person in two natures. Jesus- Israel s promised Messiah was conceived through the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. He lived a sinless life, was crucified under Pontius Pilate, arose bodily from the dead, ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father as our High Priest and Advocate. I ve got to be honest, as I look at this statement and the challenge before me to communicate somewhat intelligently about it in the time we re given, I shudder Page 1 of 5

2 Let s begin to unpack this: We believe that Jesus Christ is God Incarnate In other words, there was never a time that Jesus wasn t God He didn t become God when he arrived in Bethlehem he always was, always is and always will be God! And let me be very clear, Jesus declared himself to be God it wasn t something he was vague about! I love this scene that took place in the ministry of Jesus: John 8:54 59 (ESV) 54 Jesus answered, If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say, He is our God. 55 But you have not known him. I know him. If I were to say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and I keep his word. 56 Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad. 57 So the Jews said to him, You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham? 58 Jesus said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am. 59 So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple. We believe Jesus Christ is God incarnate fully God and fully man, one Person in two natures! It was theologians refer to as the God-man. The dual nature of Jesus is presented before us in such a way that he is 100% God and 100% man and in no way do either of these natures conflict or take away from the other! When Jesus put on our skin and became a man and walked amongst us, he willingly put on the same limitations that you and I experience! Ultimately, Jesus lived the perfect life that the first Adam failed at! Hebrews 4:15 (ESV) 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. When Jesus walked the earth, while he was fully God, he willingly chose to lay aside his rights to exercise his attributes as God and willingly assumed the limits of man thats why we d see Jesus often say John 5:19 (ESV) 19 So Jesus said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing John 5:30 (ESV) 30 I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me. Page 2 of 5

3 It s not that Jesus was limited, but that he chose not to exercise his deity Philippians 2:5 9 (ESV) 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, We believe that Jesus Christ is God incarnate, fully God and fully man, one Person in two natures. Jesus- Israel s promised Messiah Israel s promised Messiah, all that the Old Testament pointed to, every system and type in the Old Testament found its fulfillment in the person of Jesus Christ! The promised one who would come and crush the head of the devil and redeem man back to God, the hope of Israel and all mankind, is found in the Son! The promised Messiah! This promised Messiah was conceived through the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. Isaiah 7:14 (ESV) 14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. We find the fulfillment of this 750 years later! Luke 1:26 35 (ESV) 26 In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, 27 to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin s name was Mary. 28 And he came to her and said, Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you! 29 But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. 30 And the angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end. 34 And Mary said to the angel, How will this be, since I am a virgin? 35 And the angel answered her, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy the Son of God. Immanuel! God with us! Jesus arrived on the scene of our dark days and said: Page 3 of 5

4 John 8:12 (ESV) 12 Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. and he lived a sinless life that s very important to point out because he lived the life of obedience that Adam was supposed to live, but didn t! He lived a sinless life, was crucified under Pontius Pilate, arose bodily from the dead, ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father as our High Priest and Advocate. Adam was our first representative and he blew Jesus is our second Adam and he nailed it! He fulfilled every point of the law! He lived a sinless life, the only ONE capable of satisfying every part of law of God and yet, he came not just to fulfill the law of God. He came to be punished under the law of God WHAT could he possibly be punished for??? Nothing He did however, he would come and take the punishment for you and for me that we rightly deserve because we are born sinners under the wrath of God But God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosover believes on Him would not perish but have ever lasting life! We re going to cover that a little more in depth next week, however what we need to remember is that a sinless innocent Savior went to the cross for a sinful guilty humanity! And he was put to death, but He rose bodily from the dead! Not mystically, not theorhetically the physical, resurrected body of our Savior sits at the Right Hand of God, the position of favor and power as our High Priest and Advocate! He is our High Priest in that he presented the sacrifice of Himself as the means by which you and I can be forgiven! If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness! Our sacrifice, was our priest and our priest is also our advocate! 1 John 2:1 2 (ESV) 2 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 2 He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. Propitiation the picture if of our Savior on the cross taking the full punishment for our sins and in that act, he absorbed all the wrath of God that was rightly directed towards us as sinners into favor and blessing! Page 4 of 5

5 If Jesus wasn t God, there is no forgiveness, there is no sacrifice, we are still lost and under the wrath of Almighty God but God stepped out of eternity and into time in the person of Jesus and paved the only way for man to be redeemed back to God! Nothing boring about that theology! Page 5 of 5