Sermon Tone Analysis

By Pastor Glenn Pease

Superman has always been popular as a comic book character, and I can remember racing across the snow in a blizzard to trade comic books with a friend in order to get some new adventures of this heaven-like hero of humanity.

In our day now the movies of superman have made millions because they appeal to the universal human fantasy that man can be God-like, and fly on his own power, be invincible as he fights the forces of evil.

We love to have our super heroes.

This is true in every culture.

Some of the early Christians exalted Jesus to the level of a superman.

It is understandable why they did, but the majority of Christians got together and declared these Christians heretics by making Jesus a superman.

They were guilty of thinking too highly of the deity of our Lord.

This seems very strange to us, but the world is full of strange things.

There is a rare metal called gallium which melts at 86 degrees, so that if you held it in your hand for awhile it would begin to melt.

That does not fit our image of a metal, but it is a fact.

It seems equally unlikely that anyone could think too highly of Christ's deity.

How could this be possible?

The Christians who were called heretical were saying that Jesus was so divine than he could never be truly human.

They so exalted the deity of Christ that they denied his humanity.

They said he could not have been a real man for human nature is evil, and a holy God could never take on a human nature.

These people were called Docetists from the Greek word meaning to seem.

They said Jesus only seemed to be human.

Their theology has come down to us in the Acts of John which was written in the second century.

In it Jesus does come down from the cross and does not suffer at all.

That would be totally unworthy of the Son of God.

The people saw him suffer on the cross, but that was only an illusion.

Jesus appears to John and reveals to him that he is really not suffering at all.

It is all a trick, and it is like superman acting weak when he is not.

This superman image of Jesus became popular, and we have Gnostic documents from the third and fourth century that tell us Jesus did not really die.

It was all an illusion and Jesus was really laughing as he watched them nailing him to the cross, for it was not real.

The church declared these writings heretical for they rejected the real humanity of Jesus.

The New Testament does not give us this superman concept at all.

The Jesus of the New Testament could not stop bullets, for he could not even stop whip on his back.

It cut through his skin and made him bleed, as did the crown of thorns on his head.

The spear went through his side and the nails through his hands.

He had to endure the pain a suffering of a fully human body.

The battle raged for centuries between the two groups with one saying it was all illusion and the other saying the pain was real in a real human body.

Orthodox Christianity said Jesus was not a fake man, but he was totally real as a man.

One heresy after another tried to deny the full humanity of Christ, but the church stuck to the Scripture and said he was fully real in his humanity.

The battle goes on yet today, for many believe Jesus was fully God, but not fully man.

They say his humanity was only a disguise.

Charles Colson in The Struggle For Men's Hearts and Minds tells of a survey by Christianity Today in which people were asked if they believed Jesus was fully God and fully man.

Among the general public only 26 percent said yes.

Among evangelical Christians only 43 percent said yes.

That means that the majority of believers are still rejecting one of the major doctrines of orthodox Christianity.

They do not realize that they are heretical in their beliefs.

All of this brings us again to the introductory paragraph of Paul's letter to the Romans.

In it he spells out the essence of the Gospel which centers in the two characteristics of Jesus, which are his humanity and his deity.

Like the two ends of shoelaces, these two realities tie up the Gospel package.

If you cut one side off you lose it all.

Paul says in v. 3 that the Gospel regards God's Son as to his human nature and then in v.4 he says it regards God's Son as to his divine nature.

Only a man could come from the seed of David.

The word used here is spermatos.

Jesus had a human nature that came from the very sperm of David.

He is called the son of David because he was a physical product of David's body.

But then in v. 4 Paul says Jesus was declared to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead.

Only one who was God could raise himself from the dead.

So we have here in these two verses the basis for the two main Christian holidays of the year, which are Christmas and Easter.

On Christmas we celebrate the humanity of Jesus, for he was God come in the flesh.

He was totally human and had to grow in wisdom and knowledge and stature.

On Easter we celebrate his deity, for he did what no man can do, as he defeated death and rose from the grave.

The full Gospel is Christmas and Easter, and that Jesus was fully man and fully God.

He was the God-Man.

If you take either one out of the church year you have destroyed it, and if you take either of the natures of Jesus out of him you have destroyed the Gospel and the Jesus of the New Testament.

It can be hard to grasp how Jesus could be both God and man, but this is the clear revelation of the New Testament.

Paul could not have made it clearer than he does in Rom.

9:5 where he writes of the Jews and says, "...from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised."

There are numerous examples of the dual nature of Jesus.

God does not sleep, but Jesus did.

God does not get tempted, but Jesus did.

God does not pray, but Jesus did.

God did not die, but Jesus did.

The list could go on and on because Jesus was fully man and experienced life as all humans do.

He was one with us and felt all of the human emotions.

A little girl said to her mother, "I just love Marjorie more than anybody else."

The mother asked why she loved her more than her other friends and she replied, "Because when I cry she cries with me."

That was the kind of friend Jesus was.

He wept with those who wept.

He could feel what they felt, and he still does have these human feelings so that he can identify with all who call upon him.

Paul says in I Tim.

2:5, "For there is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus."

His present and eternal manhood is one of the major teachings of the book of Hebrews.

If we did not have a human Savior and mediator how could we have any confidence that he can really understand where we are coming from in our weakness?

He says in Heb.

4:15-16, "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are-yet without sin.

Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need."

Some poet has written-

O glorious truth that my High Priest

Who bids me tell him all my need

Is sympathetic with my plight

For He's the Son of Man indeed!

If Jesus is just a fake man and never really felt the power of temptation, and never really felt the weakness of the flesh, and never felt the pain and limitations of the body, then he could never really understand us.

We could never identify with his example, for it would be meaningless to have an example of one who was God only, and had no limitations.

He would be no more an example for us than superman flying an explosive device into outer space where it can explode harmlessly.

This is no meaningful example for our behavior in dealing with the forces of evil.

The only reason we can follow Jesus and go about doing good, loving people where they are, and sharing the good news is because these are all things that people can do.

His deity would be no example at all, but his humanity is powerful example that we can follow.

We cannot walk on water or turn water into wine, but we can do those things he did in his humanity, for we can love and serve and encourage.

William L. Stidger said it in poetry.

My Master was a man who knew

The rush of rain, the drip of due;

The Gentle kiss of midnight air

Upon his face upraised in prayer.

He was a man of lakes and stars;