Is Jesus Really God?

I'd like to think Jesus is a great person. I just—it's just—to me, it's a silly story. It's idolization, basically, the idea that there is a human being that can be viewed as a god. I believe that the teachings of Jesus, they ring true to me. It makes sense to live that way. I think I grow more curious about that every day and how I can be a better person maybe by following his teachings. And maybe it will be a fit for me, and maybe it won't. But I have a lifetime to figure that out.

Well, Explore God is our current series. Hello, my name is Mark. And I want to say good morning. Good morning to the balcony. Thank you. And how about Adrian Moreno? My goodness. He's backstage breathing oxygen right now. Someone came up to him—we were talking about it in the lobby. And someone came up to him after the first service and said, I've heard you preach. I didn't know you could do that. That's why Kyle and I let the air out of his tires every so often. But I want to welcome all of you. We are so glad you're with us here live on our live stream. And it's just a good morning.

You know, in the series, we've been asking foundational questions like, what is the meaning of life? Is there a God? Why is there pain and suffering and the like? And that particular question is relevant today as our world is just continuing to spiral into war and bloodshed. And so I would like to ask if you would join me in prayer for the situation in Ukraine and Israel and Gaza, a number of countries in Africa, and other places around the world. So let's come before the Lord.

Heavenly Father, with heavy hearts, we come before you and say, Lord, have mercy. Be with those grieving the barbaric deaths of their loved ones. Be with families and children caught in the crossfire. Oppose evil doers and protect innocent lives. Bring justice and an end to the wars now raging. For Lord, we rely on your Holy Spirit, who intercedes with groanings too deep for words, and our hearts do the same. So may your kingdom come. May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, and all God's people say, amen, amen, indeed.

It's times like this that we are confronted with the question, can Jesus really transform this world? Or is he just a product of Christian imagination? If he is who he said he is, he has also promised to eventually make all things right and new, a world of peace and new creation and goodness. But if he is not who he said he is, then, well, in my opinion, good luck. We're going to need it. In short, is Jesus a myth or is Jesus really God?

For starters, I would like to acknowledge that most of us in this room watching on the live stream probably believe in the divinity of Jesus, but some of us may be on the fence when it comes to that issue. Some may be even offended by the idea itself, the claim. And I just want to say, whatever you believe, I'm glad you're here. Glad that you joined us. You are welcome. And what I would like to share today is just a fraction of how I see the Bible affirming that Jesus is God. And I'm going to use the Bible as the authority, the source. And if you wonder why we should even trust the Bible, join us next week because we're going to be talking about that.

But for today, I want to be clear. My authority is scripture because the more you delve into the Bible, the more you will see arrow after arrow after arrow pointing to Jesus, pointing to Jesus, in fact, as God in human flesh, something that Jesus affirmed himself in the gospels. And so before we dive into these scriptures, I want to kind of set the table because I want to address the main theme of scripture. And it may surprise you to hear me say that the Bible is not primarily about how you or I can go to heaven. It talks about that. But it's not primarily about how you or I might go to heaven. The Bible is about how heaven has come to us.

Follow me here. It begins in a garden where God has created humankind to reflect his image, to be about his good purposes, his good intentions for his good creation. And we see the picture of God walking in the cool of the day with these first humans. And he's talking with them. He's with them. That's his intention. But at some point, the humans rebel, and that goes sideways. Paradise is lost, you might say. But God never gives up on his intention to dwell with his image bearers.

And so some years later, we don't know how many, but we see God befriending a guy named Abraham. And he also walks, and he talks with Abraham, as friends do. And in one of those conversations, he makes a promise to Abraham. He says, through your descendants, I am going to bless and redeem the world. So again, he hasn't given up. He has not abandoned ship, if you will. And then fast forward to a guy named Moses. And we see Moses on a mountaintop talking with God. And then we see him later talking in a tent, what they call the tabernacle, or the tent of meeting. And what is God doing? He is forming a nation. And he is saying, this is part of my redemptive purposes that I want to see fulfilled in you, you who are the descendants of Abraham.

The story continues to unfold till we reach a guy named Solomon. Solomon upgrades this tent and builds the temple in Jerusalem, where God's presence would dwell. And all of this sets the stage for what John says will happen, or did happen, in the beginning of his gospel when this very same God became flesh and tabernacled, or made his dwelling among us. And in view of all of this, the apostle Paul says this about the Son, Jesus. He says, the Son is the image of the invisible God, for God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him.

You can see the trajectory from the garden to the birth of Christ, God coming more and more near. And libraries have been filled with this idea that God would do this. But what really blows me away is how small God would become in order to accomplish it, in order to reach us. Because if you think about it, the whole idea that God would take on human flesh, it really only makes sense within the context of his love. Why else would he do this? But because of his love, his desire to reach us to the point where he would become a human embryo that small.

And so today, I want to take you to a very familiar passage in Scripture, among others. But this story in particular, I pray that we will see it with new eyes, because sometimes we see this through the lens, the gazey lens of Hallmark cards or nativity scenes. But the story is not intended to be cute. It's intended to be clear that God has come to earth in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. That's the bold claim that it makes.

We're going to be in Luke's Gospel, chapter 1. And I'm going to make three observations about how I see this passage affirming the deity of Jesus Christ. And along the way, this will bring rise to a call for a response from each of us, if not already, in terms of these claims about Jesus. But first—and I also, by the way, have some additional resources for you. But let's just start in Luke, chapter 1, starting at verse 26. Please follow along as I read.

God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin's name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, greetings you who are highly favored. The Lord is with you. Now, we've got to hit the pause button there for a second, because Nazareth is this backwater village in Galilee. Luke seems to feel like he needs to tell you where it is, as if everyone wouldn't already know that. But it's in Galilee, which is also a backwater region in northern Israel, at least in the eyes of the folks that live down in the south, down in Judea.

But even so, God sends Gabriel there to bring a message to a teenage girl. Greetings you who are highly favored. And before she can even begin to respond, he says the Lord is with you. Now, again, hold on, Gabriel, because there is nothing in her surroundings that would suggest that she is favored by God or anyone else. First of all, she's poor. And we know that, because later in the story, after Jesus is born, she and Joseph will go to the temple to present their offering. And what they offer are two turtle doves. That was the prescribed offering for poor people. Like if you could give nothing else, this is what you gave. So she's poor. She's young. She may as well have very easily, commonly, been engaged at 13. And she's a woman. Three strikes against her in her culture, her world. But Gabriel tells her, no, you are highly favored. Literally, God's abiding grace is on you.

Because for starters, God identifies with the poor and the downtrodden, which is good news in our world today. But even so, this is not really sinking in for her. And at verse 29, it says, "Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, do not be afraid, Mary. You have found favor with God." There it is again. "You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus." You may know Jesus means God saves. And the first thing, the first promise, if you will, of this story is that Jesus is God with us. If you're taking notes, you might want to write that down. God with us.

And he doesn't come in some sort of dazzling display so that we'd be so overwhelmed we could do nothing but worship him. If he were to display his glory to us, you would fall on your face. You would have no choice. You would be overwhelmed. But if he did, you'd have no choice. And so in order to love him, you have to be free to love him. Sometimes people will ask, how come God doesn't just kind of like make his existence just crystal clear? Well, he could do that. But again, you would have no choice in the matter. God, he does reveal himself in creation, the awe that you feel when you're looking at a mountain or, you know, a waterfall or something like that. He reveals himself even more so in Scripture. And he reveals himself supremely in Jesus Christ.

So he gives us reasons to believe, but he maintains our freedom to believe. You following me? So that we can choose to love the God who loves us so much, he gave his son to us. And like I said, Jesus did not come with a halo floating above his head. He came in humility. As the Apostle Paul says in Philippians 2, speaking of Jesus Christ, who being in very nature, God did not consider equality with God something to be used for his own advantage. It's not saying he's not equal. It's saying he didn't use it to his advantage. In other words, he did not use divinity to compel our worship. Rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant being made in human likeness and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross.

And this is why we are compelled to love him, because of the love that he first demonstrated to us, that he would even sacrifice himself on our behalf. And it's the same love, by the way, that compels us to love others, to serve others, right? We've been focusing on these acts of kindness, but that's just a reflection of what God has initiated on our behalf. And here's the thing, and you know this already, people need more than just answers, right? They need more than whatever answers we might have. They need more, but the saying goes like this. Nobody cares what you know until they know how much you care. And this is true, especially in the midst of suffering.

And don't get me wrong. I'm all for seeking answers. That's why we're doing this series. But like I said, sometimes you need more than just, you know, the reason why. The reason why may be very clear. There was an accident or the disease one or whatever the case, someone did something wrong. Why doesn't always cut it? Sometimes you need more than that. You need someone who understands, someone who will be with you in the thick of it, which is amazing when you think about this claim that God is with us. Brought into this world by a teenage mother who for a time was an unwed mother, a scandal in her age, not to be treated kindly as a result. And yet even when Jesus was a small child, King Herod was hunting him. He wanted to kill him. And so his parents have to flee in the middle of the night to Egypt where they live as refugees.

Think if you're a refugee in this world today, to know that Jesus was also a refugee because he is God with us. And then of course, there's what he would ultimately suffer through his arrest, his trial, and his crucifixion. So to say that God is with us is to say that God is no stranger to suffering. Whatever else you may think about Jesus, he gets it. Whatever you may have suffered, whatever you may suffer in this life, he gets it. He gets you. Because he is God with you, God with us.

And not only does scripture present Jesus as God with us, but he is also God over us. As Gabriel tells Mary, he, that's Jesus, will be great and will be called the son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever. His kingdom will never end. Now we all need to put on our thinking caps, okay? Got those on there? Because what Gabriel is saying in this description of Jesus is that he is the Messiah. He's the anointed one. That's what Christ means. It's not Jesus' last name. It means the anointed one, the Messiah.

And I mentioned the temple in Jerusalem, but there came a time when the worship became so corrupt, so offensive that God, after warning the nation over and over again, he actually withdraws his presence from the temple, which sets off centuries of just angst and longing and hoping that God would return to his people at some point. There's a biblical scholar and theologian named N.T. Wright, and he talks about this culminating, any kind of fomenting in the years just before Christ was born, and it says, "It was a time when almost all Jews of any description looked for God to inaugurate his kingdom, his sovereign rule, and to vindicate their cause in fulfillment of his ancient promise."

Okay, what kind of promise was that? Well, there's many promises in the Old Testament in this regard, but I want to just take you to one that's very vivid. You've heard of Daniel, you know, like in Daniel in the lion's den. Daniel was in exile in Babylon, about six centuries before Jesus, and Daniel has a dream one night, and he records what that dream is in chapter seven of Daniel, and it says this starting at verse 13, he says, "In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man," that means human, "coming with the clouds of heaven." I want you to remember that. "Coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the ancient of days and was led into his presence." The son of man, you may know, was the most common way that Jesus referred to himself in the Gospels, and there's a reason for that. There's a context.

Stay with me here, and by the way, this ancient of days mentioned here is Yahweh, Israel's God, and so you have this picture, this vision, and in verse 14 it continues, "He, the son of man, was given authority, glory, and sovereign power. All peoples, nations, and men of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed," or as Gabriel put it, "His kingdom will never end." And you can see these dots being connected in this story because all of these expectations, they started to focus on, even back in Isaiah, they will call him Emmanuel, which means what? God with us, that ultimately this Messiah would be this God-man, this King, who would restore the nation. In fact, he would rule over the entire world, and his kingdom would never end, and it is Jesus who says, "I'm not a son of man. I am the son of man."

In fact, he said a lot about himself, so I encourage you to flip over your notes to the very backside there where it says, "What Jesus claimed about himself." And this is just a partial list, but among other things, he claimed that he was Lord of the Sabbath. Well, who instigated the Sabbath? God did, and yet Jesus says, "I'm Lord of the Sabbath. I have authority over it." That's a huge claim. He took the divine name, I am, for himself. You can read about that in Exodus three. That's the name that God gives to Moses when Moses says, "What's your name?" He said that the way to the Father is through him, and the list goes on and on, and if you don't have a copy of the notes, there may be some out in the lobby after the service, or you can go to our sermons page online and download them or download them through our sermon app because I've also have some additional scriptures for you there, as well as a podcast that talks about the historicity of Jesus and the validity of the gospels because there's going to be someone probably at Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner that's going to go, "Oh, come on now." We all know that the followers of Jesus just kind of made all that stuff up. So how do we know that what Luke is telling us here is actually reliable and trustworthy? All that's there.

But here's the thing. Jesus did not go around saying, "Hi, I'm God. You ought to worship me." No, what he did, as I've listed here and elsewhere, is that he says and does things that only God can. And were he to just go right out of the gates and go, "Hi, I'm God," first of all, they would say, "Yo, you're possessed, you're crazy." In fact, some of them accused him of being those very same things, and then they would also likely convict him of blasphemy, which was a capital offense. Ultimately, he was killed, but not until he was able to accomplish everything that he came to do. The final straw comes at his trial. When the high priest says, "I charge you under oath by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God," notice they already had put those two together, but the Christ is the Son of God. Yes, it is as you say, Jesus replied, "But I say to all of you in the future, you will see," here it is, "the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the mighty one," and what, let me hear it, church, "coming on the clouds of heaven." Well, where did we see that? Way back in Daniel 7.

So you see what Jesus is doing here? Guess what? So did they. So did they. And so in response, the high priest tears his robe and he says, "This man has committed blasphemy. We need no further witnesses." And their verdict was that he claimed to be the Son of God, making himself equal with him. What's your verdict? What's your verdict on Jesus? And if you don't already have this confidence, imagine, imagine, especially in this current context, knowing there is a righteous, almighty King over us who's still very much in control, who has promised to bring perfect justice, peace, new creation, when heaven and earth finally and fully come together. This is all part of what we call the good news.

And it's also, it's how the Bible ends, by the way. Second to last chapter, Revelation 21, verses three and four says this. This is the picture of this all culminating. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Look, God's dwelling is now among people, and He will dwell with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them, and be their God." And then such a beautiful promise. Hear this. "He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death, or mourning, or crying, or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." Wow, God may have brought you here today just to hear those words. Because you're grieving loss. You're grieving an issue in your life that's so beyond your ability to address. You're wondering how will things sort themselves out in any way that we can call good. It'll happen through Jesus Christ, who is God over us. And man, this is our comfort, this is our hope.

And even if you can't really find yourself actually believing this, I bet there's at least a part of you that wants to, to be able to rest and trust that Jesus will fulfill all His promises. I mean, not even death gets the last word. Jesus does. Because He has risen from the dead. That is the central claim of our faith. And as Tim Keller said, "The resurrection means that everything sad is going to eventually come untrue, and it will somehow be greater for once being broken and lost." And it's all because Jesus is God with us, God over us, and third, God in us. Final point, God in us.

I was thinking this week, we all are kind of like Mary in the sense that the Spirit of God, as Christians, lives in us. God is in us producing new life. We are the temple of God's Spirit. And knowing this doesn't magically erase all uncertainty or confusion in our lives. I mean, you need only look at Mary again. Because after Gabriel kind of spells out God's plan for her life, she says, "Well, how will this be?" Since I'm a virgin, like this does not compute. You ever find yourself in life where it's like, "Lord, I guess you're working in my life, but everything in my circumstances argues against it." Like, how in the world is this going to work? Or in her case, how will this be?

How will he bring something beautiful out of the ashes of my life? Nothing is impossible with God. That's how. And he will make things that were sad, unsaid in His amazing provision. Mary answers, "I am the Lord's servant. May it be done to me as you have said, or as the Beatles translation put it, let it be." Let it be. There's a saying that with every interruption there comes an invitation. It's happened for Mary right here. Invitation to say let it be. An invitation to trust. To step out. To move forward into the uncertainty of that interruption and yet know that God will be working in me and even through me.

And many of you have experienced this firsthand. It was in fact in the most disruptive points of life that you found God nonetheless working in some of the most powerful ways He ever has. Right? And maybe for some of you, you're either in the thick of it right now and you don't know where's this all gonna go. Is it possible that right now the Spirit of God in you is saying, "Just trust me. I got this." Something, someone, God is laying on your heart. He said, "Everything, nothing's impossible with God. Nothing." And there's something about this that prompts Mary because when Gabriel mentions Elizabeth, that's Mary's older cousin. It prompts Mary to go on a road trip. I don't know that she was planning this. Doesn't say she was. But it says in verse 39, at that time, Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea where she entered Zechariah's home and greeted Elizabeth.

When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed, "Blessed are you among women and blessed is the child you will bear, but why am I so favored that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" Now don't miss this. Because filled with the Holy Spirit, Elizabeth asks, "Why am I so favored that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" Amen, in a tightly monotheistic culture, that's a mouthful right there. How is it that my Lord in your womb should favor me so much that he would come to me in this moment? Wow.

You can't get around it in this story. You can't get around it elsewhere in scripture because when it comes to the identity of Jesus, he is God with us. He is God over us. And he is God in us. So here's the bottom line. If Jesus was merely a good teacher, the pioneer of a religious tradition, if that's all Jesus was, I want to tell you today, he is not worthy of your faith and your devotion. Because if that were all true, he'd still be in the ground. And what good to us is a dead Messiah. But if he is who scripture affirms him to be, who he affirmed himself to be, that he is the incarnate God who overcame on the cross the curse of sin and death and was buried in a tomb but rose three days later to show that he is over and above all of that. If he's all that, then he is the ultimate game changer that he is worthy of your faith, your trust, your life, your everything because he is King of kings and Lord of lords. Amen and amen.

And again, this is a church. So I can safely assume that many if not most of us have already affirmed this in our own lives. But there may be some of us here today or you're watching on our live stream or you're watching this in a distant future on our website. And in this moment, God's spirit is tugging on your heart, knocking on the door, if you will, and saying, will you let me in? Or maybe it feels more like Jesus is just getting in your face, right? Because you can't seem to escape or dodge the question, who do you say I am? Who do you say I am? And just like Mary, you may not understand it all. She did not understand it all but she came to the point when she said, I'm your servant, let your will be done in my life. And maybe that's what you would say today.

Maybe you would say the same. I first did this when I was nine years old. That was a few years ago. I don't remember much about being nine, but I remember sitting in a church service at a church that's now called Santa Cruz Community Church, right off of Roxas Street in Santa Cruz, the church that I grew up in as a boy. And sitting there in, this is the building, this is the inside, and this is a recent picture, but it looks identical to what it looked like when I was nine years old. These pipes here for the organ, my grandmother was the worship director there and she had these pipes installed. They were her pride and joy. She would be so glad to know that they are still there. And I have to think that whoever's leading worship there now may not be as thrilled. 'Cause they are clearly a fixture. Do not touch the pipes.

But I was sitting right back here, about halfway back, right side of the aisle with my family, just like I had so many Sundays. And if you look right up here in the middle, where the cross is, all this tile here is there because the baptistry is right there under the cross. And two girls in my Sunday school class were being baptized that day. And as I watched them being baptized, light bulb went on. And I got it. My little nine year old brain understood that when they went under the water, that was a picture being buried with Christ and then raised up into newness of life. And I wanted it. And I wanted Jesus in my life. And so now they're playing the last song. And there's no invitation that day. I don't know if the Niners were playing or what. Pastor's happy to just kind of conclude the service. And I was just compelled. I can't explain it. It wasn't like I was prone to doing something like this, but I get up out of this pew here, and I make my way to the aisle, and up I go, my family, my cousins are looking, "Where's Mark going? What's he doing?" And I went up there and I told the pastor, "I wanna receive Jesus." Now, I've done it a few more times since then, so some of you. But it was in this moment that I know my life changed forever. And by forever, I mean forever.

And so if that's your desire today, I wanna lead you in a simple prayer. Let's bow our heads together as we come before the Lord. And with our heads bowed, and in the privacy of your own heart, if you would like to invite Jesus into your life, you can just repeat after me silently as I pray. Lord Jesus, thank you for loving me more than I can imagine. Thank you for coming into this world, and now into my world. I realize I need your grace. Forgive me of all the ways I have rebelled against you. I believe you died for my sins on the cross, and then rose from the dead, sealing your promise to give eternal life to all who trust in you. Lead me from this day forward, and until the day I see you with my own eyes. Lord, thank you for hearing us. Thank you for being with us. Now bless us and keep us, we pray, in the name of Jesus Christ, and all God's people said, Amen, Amen.