Jesus is not only…
Day 4
On Sunday I stated, if Jesus was only a teacher, then at best he could offer us wisdom. If Jesus was only a healer, then he could fix our ailments. If Jesus was only a good person, then he could show us how to live. If Jesus was only a prophet, then he could warn us of what is ahead.
But Jesus is not simply a great teacher, or magnificent healer, or sinless man, nor merely a prophet: Jesus is the image of the invisible God in whom the fullness of God dwells.
He is God among us! God with us! God suffering for us. God dying in our place. God defeating death once and for all. God giving us hope, life, and peace.
Big Idea: Jesus is not merely a ________, he is the Son of God sent for us!
Where do you need to expand your understanding of who Jesus is?
Fully God and Fully Man
Day 3
Past Days:
Don’t complicate the simple!
When Jesus is called the Son of God it is a direct repudiation of Caesar who was treated as a god.
Big Idea: Jesus is Fully God and Fully Man.
Philippians 2:5-8: “You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross.”
Jesus existed from the beginning. John’s gospel calls him the Word of God, which, when you connect that concept to Genesis 1’s creation story, leads us to the conclusion that it was through Jesus all things were made. Jesus is fully God!
Yet, through the womb of a virgin in the virgin birth, Jesus is fully man. Jesus started as a helpless infant like me and you. Jesus had a childhood like me and you. Jesus experienced the teenage years and learning adulthood like me and you.
Everything we have experienced on this earth, Jesus experienced something similar. He mourned the loss of friends and family. He was scraped and bled. He hungered and thirsted.
While every other religion requires man to try to attain the divine through perfection and holiness, Christianity shows God stepping into our world as one of us—enduring, suffering, and experiencing all the heartaches of this broken world.
Jesus, the almighty and all-powerful, takes on flesh and dwells among us, dies for us, and defeats death once and for all. As Paul writes in Colossians 1, Jesus is the image of the invisible God, and the fullness of God dwells in him.
Today, I encourage you simply to be overcome by the fact that God became man to suffer and save.
Mark’s Direct Attack
Day 2
Big Idea: When Jesus is called the Son of God it is a direct repudiation of Caesar who was treated as a god.
Mark 1:1 states clearly: “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”
If you lived in Rome at the time, “Son of God” was not a new name. Following the death of Julius Caesar, the fallen emperor was declared divine. His successor, Caesar Augustus, began calling himself Son of a god. Coins were minted with that title. Inscriptions were crafted. Augustus liked this title as it reinforced political loyalty. To confess “Caesar is Lord” was political allegiance. To call him “Son of God” was acknowledging imperial supremacy.
Then Jesus shows up. Mark, in a direct rebuttal of the Roman power of the day, calls Jesus the Son of God! Mark is not just making a theological point; he is making a political point as well.
Jesus is the supreme leader.
Jesus is the great power.
Jesus is the one to follow.
Most of us are not tempted to call a political figure any name of deity, but if we are not careful, we are very tempted to bow down to the ideologies, power, and success of these figures.
If we are not careful, we are tempted to worship gods of comfort, achievement, and accomplishment. We worship the dreams of peace, happiness, and health with our whole heart, mind, and soul.
Jesus, the Son of God, is the only one worthy of our highest attention and affection. Remember back to our series in February on following Jesus and consider the question raised in Luke 9:25: “For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?”
Is there anything in this world that is worthy of our whole heart, mind, and soul?
Jesus makes it clear: nothing else is worthy except me!
Mansplaining and Shelaborating
This week I have 5 simple devotions for you as we consider the FACT that Jesus is the Son of God.
Day 1 Big Idea: Don’t complicate the simple!
There’s a term in our culture called “mansplaining”—when a man over-explains a simple idea in a patronizing way, repeating the same point again and again. We can all be guilty of this (or maybe even “shelaborating”).
The issue that arises when we pile on too many details is that we risk burying the point. We get stuck in the weeds of details. Mark refuses to risk his audience missing the point so he starts his writing as so: Mark 1:1 “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”
Mark gets straight to the point without any filler material or added detail. This writing will be about the good news that Jesus is the Christ and he is the Son of God.
These two descriptors capture everything Mark wants to be heard:
Jesus is the promised Savior.
Jesus is the actual Son of God.
That’s the simple, powerful reality we’re called to believe and share: Jesus isn’t merely a good teacher or moral example. He is God come to die in our place, paying the debt of sin for every man, woman, and child.
It’s tempting to over-explain with all the details we’ve learned—but resist that urge. The gospel doesn’t need embellishment to be profound. Jesus is the Son of God, sent to give his life as the sacrifice for our sins.
This is the good news. This is the gospel. This is what we’ve staked our lives on.
Will You Follow Jesus?
2 Timothy 4:7-8
7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.
Jordan has been teaching us, on Sunday mornings and recapped in the devotionals from this week, how we are called to follow Jesus.
First, we learned about Paul meeting Jesus on the road to Damascus, and how that began a personal relationship with his Savior that would lead Paul to give his life to follow Jesus (both every day and eventually dying for Christ).
Then we learned that following Jesus is personal, but it is not a private or a solo journey. Just as Paul was surrounded by other believers wherever he went, and just as Paul was committed to the churches wherever he went, so should we too always be committed to faithful fellowship with other Christ-followers.
Next we learned that following Jesus is inseparable from telling people about Jesus. It doesn’t have to be too scary, and it doesn’t usually look like going to a different continent, but we must be faithful to Jesus’ commands to share the gospel with others.
Finally, we learned that following Jesus has a very real cost. Following Jesus is not another part of our life or part of who we are, it is our entire life’s focus and the purpose for our entire being. We reveal that we don’t believe this by how we live with Jesus, church, evangelism, prayer, etc as other parts of life that would be nice to add in but aren’t essential.
That is a lot to take in, so I don’t have anything new for you to “learn” today. But I do have a question.
Will you follow Jesus?
Will you strive, every day, to be more obedient to faithfully doing what God has set for you to do. To be a better employee, or boss, husband, wife, son, daughter, friend, neighbor.
Will you treat this life like the fight that it is? The fight against our own sin and the lies of the enemy and the world that would have us treat following Jesus like a somewhat important part of our life, rather than an all-consuming fire.
Will you run this life like a race? With lots of practice and training, taking one step in front of the other even though you can’t see the finish line yet, or will you finish strong if you think the finish line might be getting closer?
Will you keep the faith? Standing firm to what God’s Word teaches and to how it commands you to live?
I cannot answer any of those questions for you, but how you answer those questions is one of the most important things about you.