I would like to share with you this morning a message called, “The divine message of Christ”.
Can we please turn in our bibles to Philippians 2:5-11
Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus,
6who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped,
7but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.
8Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
9For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name,
10so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
This passage could sum up all i need to say about the divine nature of Christ, it shows exactly what the early Christians believed about the divine nature of the pre – existent Jesus.
Paul wrote, “Instead he gave up his divine privilege, he took the humble position of a slave and was born a human being.
If he gave up his right and was born a human he must have been with the Father previously and this is backed up in the Old Testament when in Genesis It says “Let us make man in our image” and in Isaiah we hear “whom shall we send for us”
In Colossians 1:15-16a it says, “Christ is the visible image of the invisible God, he existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation. For through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see – then verse 17 says he existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together.
Catch the fire of what Paul is saying to you “For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body.”
The word never leaves us any interpretation to say, “I believe Jesus was a great man or the Jesus was just another prophet. The writer of Hebrews right at the start of his letter sums it up like this, “And now in these final days he has spoken through his Son. God promised everything to the Son as an inheritance, and through the son he created the universe. The son radiates Gods own glory and expresses the very character of God and sustains everything by the mighty power of his command.
John the beloved sums it up like this,
En arche en ho logos
Kai ho logos en pros ton theon
Kai theos enho logos
John is saying Jesus is the word of life itself.
He was with God, he was God, all things were created through him and nothing was made without him
And he became flesh and dwelt amongst us.
Nowhere do the early disciples and apostles give any other understanding other than Jesus is God in the flesh.
So what does Jesus say about himself.
By his actions, through miraculous healings the dead were raised, the blind could see, all who were brought to Jesus were healed.
But let us look a bit deeper than human relationships,
How many of us can walk on water unaided, we would havew been the same as Peter stepped out of the boat the water hit our faces and the fear set in and we would have sank.
How many can fill 6 water jugs with water and seconds later it became the best wine ever tasted.
How many can appear behind a locked door and tell you all that had been said the week before?
How many can feed five thousand men plus women and children with 5 loaves and 2 fish?
How many can be in the middle of a supernatural storm with seasoned fishermen who are fearing for their life, stand up and say be still and the wind stops
Only one
The one who rode into Jerusalem on a donkey’s colt,
Not to overthrow the Romans
Not to come in power
But to come to serve.
This is the divine nature of Jesus Christ
The demons knew who he was, why couldn’t other see, why today even though we have the whole truth
Do people demote him to just a good man or just another prophet.
It lies heavy on my heart, that people walk away from the one who is the way the truth and the life, they are blinded there is a veil over their eyes.
I cry out to you Lord to lift their veils, to let them see your son for who he really is.
I want to ask the same question that Jesus asked, “ Who do you say i am”
Do you believe he is who he claimed to be
Who the disciples claimed he was, “You are the messiah, the son of the living God”, “My Lord my God”.
Who did Jesus say he was,
To the blind man he was the son of man who had given him his sight
To the woman at the well he said he was the long awaited Messiah.
The demons knew he was the son of God
To the Pharisees he said he was the great I AM, the voice fro the burning bush.
There is no other option in scripture than to believe his word in faith
The Messiah, the Son of God, the Word of Life, God in the flesh.
Our hearts need to praise him, for the truth of his words.
He said what he meant, he meant what he said.
This is the divine nature of Christ.
The Father brought us into this relationship through his amazing son, at the transfiguration we hear the Father say, “This is my beloved son listen to him.
The word shows us his love, Philippians 2:8 tells us he died a criminals death on the cross, Paul tells us in Romans 5 that our relationship was restored by the death of his son.
For God so loved the world so much that he gave his one and only son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
The divine nature of Christ is to bring us back into a relationship with the Father, he did that through his death upon the cross, but Folks we cant leave it their.
How many people do you know or have read about in the history books that died on a cross and then accomplished everything that he spoke, destroy this temple and in three days i will raise it again. Seen by over 500 people
How can we even think of Putting Jesus as a mere human or just another prophet.
Remember what Luke said in the 24th Chapter, “The women were terrified and bowed with their faces to the ground. Then the men asked, “Why are you looking among the dead for someone who is alive?
He isn’t here!
He is risen from the dead!
Listen to this folks
Remember what he told you back in Galilee, that the son of Man, must be betrayed into the hands of sinful men and crucified, and then he would rise again on the third day.
Dont let anyone remove you vision and draw you into a false vision of anything other than who Jesus really is
He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world
Take that vision from Revelation
“Then i saw a lam that looked as if it had been slaughtered, but it was now standing between the throne and the four living beings and among the 24 elders.
Enlarge your vision
Who do you say that Jesus Christ is?
Your heart should be screaming, My Lord, My saviour.
Take the vision of the Lamb who was slaughtered
One day folks you will see those wounds, you will feel the love of the king when his eyes meet yours
This is when we will see the truth of the divine nature of Christ face to face
And what God has done for you
Glory, give him glory
Praise our divine Christ Amen
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