Show Notes

At times, the world has a lot of fun at our expense-here’s an example:
Bill Maher:
“I mean, come on, God had a son. God had a son? He’s powerful beyond all imagination, He exists in a realm above time and space, but He has kids? God had a Son. And He said to Him, Jesus, I’m sending you down to earth on a suicide mission – but don’t worry, they can’t kill you, because you’re really me.”
We can acknowledge Maher’s funny–and we can acknowledge that his humor hurts. On the one hand, the world’s always going to mock and shake its fist at God in literal and metaphorical ways, but we should look at why.
First, we all develop some picture of God from childhood. Parents, teachers, schooling, general culture all teach us something about who God is.
One of the challenges of the western culture today is, if we believe in Christ, knowing what we believe about Him.
If we’re trusting Him for eternal life, do we understand who He is?
The person and work of Jesus Christ is a fathomless subject.
When we study theology and the doctrine of Christology, it’s a great beginning–and it’s really a life-long journey.
In recent decades it seems to be, as a follower of Christ, the stakes are getting hotter and hotter.
When persecution begins some people can step up to the plate in boldness, and we’re thankful for them and say, “go for it!” And the rest of us may be shy or skittish, or move to the corners.
Perhaps that’s why, when criticism comes, some of us back off of the message.
One of the issues we face is that, when we’re pushed so hard by so many voices, we can become more concerned about tolerance than the truth of Christ.
More attention is paid to success in ministry than in significance and substance as a follower of Christ.
We spend more attention on the media than the message.
When there’s more interest in marketing and strategic thinking and production than in maturity in Jesus Christ, this is an indicator of how Jesus is doing through us.
How do you talk about Jesus Christ in a few moments and do any justice to the Doctrine of Christology? You can’t, so I won’t, but we will begin a beginning.
Why we believe what we believe about Christology is not important, it is crucial.
To know the person and work of Jesus Christ through your pores begins doctrinally, moves emotionally, and becomes part of who you are.

All that I think, all that I hope, and all that I write, and all that I live for is based upon the divinity of Jesus Christ, the central joy of my poor and wayward life. – William Gladstone

I hope you never recover from your sinfulness. Not that you dwell there in perpetual guilt and agony, but that you are in tune enough with your own sinfulness to begin to understand the thimble of His grace and mercy to call you to Himself.
When I’m prone to discouragement and guilt of conviction of things I did decades ago, I just cling to the base of calvary – because I’ve nowhere else to go.
You’ve been forgiven much. It’s a good thing to be humble, to be broken quickly by your sin and guilt. Not to dwell there and become depressed, not to become a theological Eeyore – but nobody likes Tigger. He’s just totally annoying theologically, right?

How would you explain Jesus Christ if you were asked an unassuming question from a person that didn’t know Him?

Where would you begin? Experience? Theology? How Jesus has changed your life through a before, during, and after? Would you begin to explain key verses?
Would you use a little booklet?
How would you begin if someone threw you a softball and said, “tell me about this Jesus!”?
How do you develop a Christology?
The comprehensive Christ deserves study.
No matter where we are in our Christianity, we can study Christ.

“Jesus Christ is the image of the invisible God, which is to say, He is Himself very God; He took upon Him our nature, being conceived by the Holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Mary; He died upon the cross as a substitutionary sacrifice for the sin of the world; He arose from the dead in the body in which He was crucified; He ascended into heaven in that body glorified, where He is now, our interceding High Priest; He will come again personally and visibly to set up His kingdom and to judge the quick and the dead.”
(Colossians 1:15; Philippians 2:5-8; Matthew 1:18-25; 1 Peter 2:24-25; Luke 24; Hebrews 4:14-16; Acts 1:9-11; 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18; Matthew 25:31-46; Revelation 11:15-17;20:4-6, 11-15) – Article III, Moody Bible Institute Statement of Beliefs

A few names of Jesus Christ:

Son of Man.

This is the most frequent way Jesus described Himself. It speaks to His humanity. He represents mankind. He’s born and grows to adulthood, He’s a man who identifies as a son. As a man, He suffered.
Some of our sanctified imaginations put Jesus in an unfortunate light–He suffered in the ways we suffer. He was hungry, tired, lonely, angry, grieved, sick, sad. He was fully man in that sense, He identifies with our weaknesses.
When you see your suffering savior, know that He must suffer to go to glory.
Mark 8:31, Mark 9:12
Unique authority granted by God the Father. Acts 7:56
The right hand: the place of inheritance, reign, sonship.
Jesus stands there, He’s not dead – He’s in heaven. No one is at the right hand of God but God.
For this statement, Stephen was stoned.

Messiah.

We use this quite casually in our Christianese. Interesting observation: Matthew 26, Mark 14, Luke 22 – when the high priest presses Jesus and asks him, “Are you the Messiah?” Jesus basically says, “yes, I am.”
To the Jewish hearer, this was the One who would be King and would reinstate the fortunes of Israel never to be taken away.
Jesus belongs to the Davidic family and this statement would be frightening to a Jew who wasn’t ready to meet Him.
Matthew 16:13-20
He said to them, but who do you say I am?
Who do you say Jesus is? When the softball’s thrown your way, who do you say He is?
When we think about a Jewish person whose not willing to accept the Messiah, we need to go back in time.
Jesus was Jewish and born of the royal line. For the three years of Christ’s life when he’s going around in public ministry, hes primarily interacting with Jewish communities. The message of a Jew to a Jewish group.
Not many received Him. Many denied Him. Leaders hated Him, He was a threat to all they were.
At the same time, there were many looking for hope. They wanted help with the persecution of the government. Some of the pious Jews living a good, quiet Jewish life didn’t like what had happened to Judaism and the overreach of the scribes and pharisees who were a force to be reckoned with. Religion and law were one body.
For the First Century Jew, their hope was in the Davidic King, and they expected a literal person to come and take over and resume a kingdom. They expected Jesus, in our language, to be “elected president” and run the country. But He’s not just a president, He’s a monarch – a King – and He’s to sit on the throne of David.
Jesus wasn’t the kind of savior they were looking for. They wanted politics and power and grandeur, and Christ came to die. The King that was born to die, so we could live.
Bill Maher can call it a suicide mission, but it wasn’t. It was a sacrificial mission.
No one can be good enough to get to God, but God was good enough to come to us in the person and work of Jesus Christ.
At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what he [Maher] thinks about Jesus Christ.
It matters what you think about Jesus Christ, and if you’ve placed your trust in Him.