Did Jesus Claim to be God

Adam Bowman

The Problem of Jesus • Sermon • Submitted 2 years ago

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I told Jenn she had to start embracing her mistakes, so she hugged me.

One of the ants on my ant farm dresses up as a clown to cheer up his friends. Hes an anti depressed ant.

Did he ever claim to be God and what does that mean for our lives…and this is another thing people will say when they say they cant believe what we are trying to tell them about scripture...

John 1:14 ESV

14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John 1:18 ESV

18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.

Dog trainer… KY.. and there was this connection between us about something we wrapped around..

And here is what Christianity claims.. that God himself came into our world and made himself known, he came down the mountain to us and the word became flesh and dwelt among us. And if that is true shouldnt we want to learn from the one that understands what it is like to be human like us… and this is getting ahead of myself...

And this is one of the most debatable claims that Jesus never said he was God…people claim that Jesus was an enlightened teacher… Mormons and JW dont believe he claimed to be God...

The issue for most is not whether or not Jesus existed its his divinity did he claim to be God? Skeptics claim that people in the early church just made up the idea that Jesus was God.

Until the council of Nicea.... Jesus was viewed by his followers as a great and powerful man, but a man nonetheless but he was voted on as the sound on GOd as the council

IF CHristianity has it wrong about God becoming human then we have it very wrong.... if we are right thoiugh… it changes for everyone else.

Evidence 1 Jesus as God in the early church.... In his earliest letters Paul that were dated before the Gospels… Colopssians 1 All the fullness of God was pleased to dwell in Jesus. In Colossians chapter 2 he says in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.

He says in Phil 2:6-8

Philippians 2:6–8 ESV

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.

Creational Monotheism… was important… doctorine there was one God, he was creator and he shared Glory with no one./…

There is no doubt says one Scholar that the usage of the title Lord in the NT is the same as the usage of the title of God in the Old

The early church worshipped Jesus as God and saw him as fully diving and fully human… as early as mid 50s AD… its not when Dan Brown says…

Evidence 2 Jesus as God in the Gospels himself

WHy shoud I believe if he never said I am God in that Order… and the thing is that is how we would say things… and that is not How they would have talked… he never said those three words… but he said it in more ways than that… he said it in a way that first century Jews would have understood it.

John 5:18 ESV

18 This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

Let me take you through a bunch of stuff he said....

HE claimed he invented the Sabbath and he could update the rules about observing it

He put his knowledge on par with God

He claimed that if you saw him you saw the father

Claimed he prexisted

Claimed to be older than Abraham

Claimed to share glory with God

Claimed he would send his angels

Claimed he could forgive sins

Claimed he could judge the world.

Claimed to be perfectly sinless

HE took the divine name I Am on himself… and there are so many more

He was CLAIMING to be divine

What about what he DID

He taught people to pray to him....and stephen prays and john and paul all pray to him

He did nature miracles.... who is this that the wind and waves obey him

he received worship from people

He lived into his name Immanuel… god with us

There are typicallly two reasons that people dont accept Jesus as God… the either have an idea of who God is and cant fit Jesus into that, or they have an idea of who Jesus is and cant fit GOD into that

WHen we study the life of Jesus and NT letters… he pushes against that… he shows a totally different picture of himself and GOd and this claim to be God incarnate is not made by any other religion ever… we may need to rethink our idea of the word God in light of Jesus… and one of his central aims was to teach the world about God...

One scholar.... “Jesus primary and ultimate idea, the thought with which he began and conducting all his thinking, was the idea of God.”

Jesus is inviting his listeners to rethink about God in relation to what he says and what he does and what he says about God… and we want to rethink Jesus and he is saying no rethink God and his relationship with you in light of me...

The cross wasn’t just about our salvation from sin, its what he did to save the world… its about God and his very nature… let me illustrate this...

Church in Manhattan … Sunday after 9/11 people streaming in.... and this guy you know what he preached… John 11.... Jesus rising from the dead… why does Jesus weep, when he knows he will rise him from the dead… he weeps because he draws himself into the human experience… he enteres into the pain of the world… it wasnt just about God’s will or his plan… the entering in shows and tells us who he is and who he has always been…God hears the cry of his people and enters in… all to be in and with them.... what we get in our vision… he comes in and shares it with you and no other religion has that.... and we wonder if we ever really knew what God meant before Jesus and it forces us to change what we think about God

The early disciples one writer said “Have discovered the crucified risen and enthroned Jesus the Lord of the world and in so doing had filled the meaning of the word God with new content or rather discovered what its true content always was” see this is what we have to let rattle us...

GB Caird “It is the contention of the NT writers that with the coming of Jesus the whole situation of mankind has so altered as to change the semantic content of the word God.”

The NT is doing more than we often feel it doing… its not just letters and writings… it is inviting an new worldview and concept of God… only Jesus and Buddha impressed audiences so much that they were asked not only who are you, but what are you?”

Buddha said he was not a god, or angelic being… but Jesus took the exact opposite approach… he claimed tobe the creator of the univers.... what does it mean if he had said yes I am God… that means so many things in different words… but he said it in a way that resonated and pointed out exactly who he was...

Cornelius Van Til once said that Jesus was not just revealing a part of God, but he is the way in which we know God, “There is much in the scriptures about Christ. He is the only way through whom God can be known…Christ work is a means to an end. Even if we think of the fact that Christ is the second preson of the Trinity, we ought still to remember that it is the full Godhead with whom we ultimately have to do and about whom, in the last analysis we wish to know. Hence, theology is primarily God centered rather than Christ centered.”

Jesus taught he is the one and only lacking nothing.. eternally one eternally distinct… Jesus says not only does God exist, but he is knowable… you can know him… he challenges atheism by saying God exist… he challenges hinduism by saying there is one god… no matter what your theology Jesus wont let you fit him into your way of thinking...

SO what does Jesus say about God… one of the most beautiful things he says is that God is love… he doesnt just run up the mountain but God comes down the mountain to you...

Mind playing tricks… What your view God growing up… angry mad vindictive.... God is love and loves us.... you may be missing that God is love and he loves us… and he said he realized where the veil seemed to open for a quick second… hes amazed to know that God actually loves me....

What are the implications when we look at this and realize that God is love.... the ultimate way to get joy and pleasure is to fulfill our longing in him… could the way of Jesus lead us to ultimate happiness…by following a God that gave himself up in love for you and for me… and it is essential that we learn about God and who he is through the life of Jesus changes us… and anythign we believe about God that is not centered on the life of Christ is a wrong view on God...

and here is the other implication… Jesus says he is the ONLY way....

The only thing more scandolous to a skeptic that Jesus is God is he is the only way to heaven… that he is the right way and every other way is wrong… and our culture repels that...

John 14:6 ESV

6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Its not that he is pointing us down the right path… not that he is saying go get on that ship… but he is saying that I AM the bus, I am the path, I am the ship… I am the only way for you to get there...

Matthew 7:14 ESV

14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.

Thats the exact opposite of the idea of what the world teaches today.. what the world wants to happen… they want us to have many ways, just live your own truth… and there is this gate that leads to life and it is easy… whatever you want of feel and everyone finds it… the gospel of self fulfillment in our culture… this is why so few people find the path… we aren’t willing to get over the hurdel of our own pride and self sufficiency… it is too high a price to pay...

Martin Buber wrote over 50 years ago that there was a destructive tragectory coming within society, “This new religion could be detected inan increasing obsession with self, with personal development and the preference of spirituality over religion, and with therapy over communion with a transcendent God, It was the elevation of self above God.”

The counter cultural revolution would be discovering self over God… and we cant save ourselves only God can,

and one writer so profoundly put it, “the most counter cultural act one can commit in our culture is to commit self disobedience” Have you ever thought about what that would like in your own life wahtever one might say about the question of whether its true or not… we cant argue taht Jesus and the Bible has one argument… that no one can save us other than Jesus…because he is the only one that deals with the problem we actuallyt have… sin and death… and he doesnt just deal with it through his teachings… he deals with it through his death and thats how we are saved… the problem of our disconnect with God is ONLY fixed through the life of JEsus

So he is the only way to what… to God and the eternal life that he provides...

I am going to prepare a room for you and take you back and take to it… he is talking about heaven sure… but the historical Jesus study has done a great job showing that he meant a new heaven and new earth and embodiment of it and delight in the presence of God himself…

IF we can find in ourselves a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.”

Jesus is saying I am going to take you home… and this is showing us that we have longing in ourselves that nothing in this world can touch.... naturalism cant justify or longing and desires… it makes no sense that we want a perfect world… if we are just animals we wouldnt be longing for that.... and the biblical answer is that heaven is that place we seek and what keeps us from that… sin.... and Jesus is the only one that can save us from where sin will lead us.... nothing in this world will satisfy that need

So where does this land us, most religions have some salvatory message… Vinoth Ramachandra notes the uniqueness of the Christian vision of salvation. The Christian promise is not just the rescue of individual souls from earth or a vague hope to make things better or free the self or experience of a state of enlightenment. Its not even the hope of going to heaven when one dies, tho that is part of it. The final goal is the restoration of all creation and the affirmation that God is commited to the material world he has made.... Our salvation lies not in the an escape from this world but in the transformation of the world… the biblical vision is unique. Thaat is why when someone says there is salvation in other faiths I ask them, ‘What salvation are you talking about?’ No fiath hholds out a promise of ETERNAL salvation for the world the way the cross and resurrection of Jesus do.”