WHO DO YOU SAY THAT I AM?

Sermon Summary, Jan 31, 2016, “Who Do You Say That I Am?”

In my adult quest of Faith, I said to my new pastor, “I believe in God, but I’m no sure what to think about this Jesus.”  As I reflect about it, I’m amazed he didn’t challenge me, but I guess he knew that I would wrestle with it.  Does it matter what we believe about the resurrection?  Is Jesus really divine?  Does it matter?  Jesus asks of every person in every generation, “Who do you say that I am?”

A few weeks later, I was listening to Christian radio on a California business trip, and was directed to CS Lewis’ Mere Christianity.  Amazingly, the airport bookstore had a single copy. “One thing you must not say is ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim as God.’ He does not leave you that choice. You can shut him up as a fool, spit at him, kill him; or fall at his feet and call Him lord and God.  But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher.  He does not leave that open to us.”  (page 41, paraphrased.)  I accepted Jesus as the divine Son of God and never looked back.

Do you have doubts?  You are not the first.  Jesus’ disciples, the Mary’s, Thomas, Peter, Paul, all had doubts.  Yet they came to believe and to proclaim the resurrection; then to die for their beliefs.  The changed lives leave no doubt.  Paul turned from persecutor to proclaimer.  Peter overnight became the greatest preacher in the Bible (Acts 2).  Paul tells us (1 Corinthians 15) that hundreds of eye-witnesses to the risen Christ were still alive to refute or substantiate the witness of the disciples whose lives were changed as none before or after. They either saw the risen Christ or not, were witnesses or not, but almost all died for their testimony. And folks, nobody dies for what they know to be a lie!  Nobody.

Jesus divinity.  Many assert that Jesus never claimed to be divine, that it was made up hundreds of years later by the church.  Yet in Mark 2 (early in Jesus’ ministry), the Pharisee’s accuse Jesus of taking the role of God by forgiving sins.  Jesus does not refute them but says, “So that you may know that the Son of Man has the authority to forgive sins, (he says to the paralytic) take up your matt and walk.”  No one can forgive sins but God alone.  Indeed!  In John, Jesus says, “I and the Father are one”; and “If you have seen me, you have seen the father.” (CS Lewis says he is either a lunatic or the Son of God. He leaves us no other choice.)

Who do you say that I am?  Peter called him Messiah (the anointed)—King.  Jesus laid down his life for us—Savior.  Thomas proclaimed, “My Lord and my God”—Jesus is Lord.  The latter is the earliest Christian creed.  We have allegiance to him as King, gratitude to him as Savior, and as Lord he is master and sovereign of our lives.  Jesus is Lord.  Amen.