Studies in Identity - Jesus: Who Do the Prophets Say He Is 04-14-24

Overview: Pastor Williams discusses the questions of "What is truth?" and "Who is Jesus?" He emphasizes that Jesus is the Truth and that understanding His identity is crucial. He mentions a conversation with someone who questioned whether Jesus could really do everything claimed by others. He explains that Jesus is the Son of God who lived a perfect life and died for our sins. He emphasizes the importance of understanding Jesus' identity, using Scripture to support his points. He discusses how some people in Jesus' time saw Him as a prophet or a good moral teacher, but they missed the true identity of Jesus as Immanuel (God with us) and the Messiah. Pastor Williams then encourages listeners to deepen their understanding of Scripture and to recognize the closeness of God in their lives. Transcription: Matthew 16, verses 13 and 14. And I think there are two questions that are in Scripture that are very profound questions that we need to wrestle with, we need to identify, and we really need to come to a conclusion on. One of them comes from the mouth of Pilate when he says, What is truth? Well, Jesus answers that when He says, I am the truth. And so we must wrestle that. What is truth? In fact, I had the opportunity to sit down with a young man earlier this week and grew up in church, but at some point experienced some hurt and heartache in the church as maybe many of you have experienced. And he began to wrestle and began to question and began to struggle with his faith. And at this point, he even said, I'm just not sure that one man could do everything that they claim that Jesus did. I understand that. Because what we have to realize is what the Gospel is. It's that Jesus, the very Son of God, was born of a virgin, lived a perfect life, and died a substitutionary death. He died not because of anything that He did, but because of what we've done. He died for us. He died for our sins so that a holy and just God could look at you and me and cleanse us from all unrighteousness so that He sees us as holy and right and just. And if we really kind of step back and get outside of this thing that we have grown up with and been under the teachings of and all this stuff, and we get back and look at it with a new lens, we can kind of see that's a lot. That is a lot. And so because of that, I think it's ever more important that we push into this identity of Jesus. We finished up with the beginning of this study talking about who is God, and we looked through the Old Testament about what the Bible says that God the Father is. And so now we're moving to God the Son, the identity of Jesus. And we began here in Matthew 16, verses 13 and 14, where Jesus is having a conversation with His disciples. They're overlooking this city that has a plethora of other gods that they're worshiping. It's known for its idol worship. And He says in Matthew 16, verse 13, when Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples saying, Who do men say that I the Son of Man am? So they said, some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah, or one of the prophets. Now we have to understand a little bit about this culture to really kind of understand the underlying thought behind these identities that are applied to Jesus. You see, He's talking to a group of Jewish men. He's living in a time of religiosity where young men, especially of the Jewish faith, are brought up memorizing the Torah, memorizing the laws of God, memorizing the prophets, memorizing what we have come to know as a portion of the Old Testament. And they would have known these things. They would have seen that's why some said He was Elijah, some said He was Jeremiah, because they saw the similarities between their ministry and Jesus. But then they get down to this very last identity that they give Him right here in verse 14. One of the prophets, and that's a very generic belief. Well, He was a good moral teacher. He lived a good life for us to follow. He was just a good teacher. We need to consider and understand how ludicrous that accusation is. These men would have known the Scriptures. These men would have known the words and the lives of these prophets. These people that were applying this identity to Jesus, and yet they missed it. And so we're going to look this morning, the identity of Jesus. Who do men say I am? And we're going to look at what the prophets said about Jesus. I want us to keep this in mind, because when we understand and we try to apply in some ways this identity ourselves, that, oh, He is one of the prophets, He was a good moral teacher. C.S. Lewis writes in his book, Mere Christianity, I'm trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him. I'm ready to accept Jesus as a good moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God. That is the one thing that we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things that Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg, or else he would be the devil of hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was and is the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon, or you can 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 has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. Now, it seems to me obvious that He was neither a lunatic nor a fiend, and consequently, however strange or terrifying or unlikely it may seem, I have to accept the view that He was and is God. That's where Jesus leaves it. That's what we will push into next week when we look at who does Jesus say that He is. But that's exactly what some of these people were saying. Oh, He's one of the prophets. He's a good moral teacher. And yet these men who claim to know Scripture, this culture who claim to be the very children of God because we are Abraham's seed, they miss even what the prophets said about Jesus. So who do the prophets say I am? First of all, the prophets say that He is Immanuel. He is Immanuel in Isaiah 7.14, therefore, the Lord Himself will give you a son. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call His name Immanuel. What does Immanuel mean? It means this, God with us. And so even the prophet Isaiah said that Jesus would be God with us. He even said that Jesus is God. Why? Because a virgin shall conceive. Now the Scriptures are full of miraculous births. The Scriptures are full of miraculous births. Sarah was well beyond childbearing years. Elizabeth, who's mother John the Baptist, well beyond childbearing years. So over and over we read in Scripture that ladies who had passed the childbearing years gave birth. But there was only one that was a virgin. There was only one that never knew a man. There was only one that was before her time to give birth to a child. And her name was Mary. And she was the mother of Jesus. And so this Scripture could only be talking about one person, one child that was born that would be God with us. And that is Jesus. We cannot be confused about that. And yet, these men who said Jesus was nothing more than a prophet were confused. They neglected to understand the Scriptures that they claimed to know. Beloved, let me tell you something. Most of our problems in our understanding of who Jesus is and what He calls us to do comes from our lack of understanding about the Scriptures. It doesn't mean that God has changed. It doesn't mean that He is somebody He didn't say He was or somebody He didn't claim to be. But we don't fully understand the words that we are reading. So what does that challenge us to do? To know these more. To push into this. To pray, God, give me understanding. Give me wisdom. Give me knowledge concerning Your Word so that I can know You more. So that I can understand You more. So that I can follow You more. Because if these men, these people who proclaim that Jesus was one of the prophets truly understood what they were reading, that a virgin shall conceive and they'll call His name Emmanuel, God, with us, they would not have questioned who Jesus is. God with us. Close enough to touch. Imagine that for just a second. We sing it around Christmas time, don't we? That song, Mary, did you know that this baby that you were holding, that face that you looked upon, was the very face of God. What an immense truth. That when people walked with Jesus, they were walking with God. When Jesus hugged them, they were hugging God Himself. And we think this is kind of gross, right? Jesus healed a blind man by spitting in the mud, making clay out of it. Oh, He put His spit on him? In human terms, yeah, that's gross, but think about that. That's the very spit of a holy God. When Jesus prayed for them, laid hands on them, the very voice of God. What an amazing thing to have experienced. But you know what, beloved? You have within you, if you put your faith and trust in Christ right now, you have within you the Holy Spirit of God. 100% God. Living inside of you. I've said this and I'll say it again. God is as close to you as you want Him to be. That makes some of us uncomfortable. We like to keep God at an arm's length until we need Him. Until that doctor's report comes. Until that diagnosis comes. Until that heartache comes. Oh, God, draw closer. Here's the good thing, He will. But what blessing and presence are we missing out on the rest of the time? God is as close to us as we want Him to be because He is Immanuel. But not only is He Immanuel, the prophet Daniel says He is Messiah. Know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince, there shall be seven weeks and 62 weeks. I read behind one guy who did the math and he looked at all the prophecy here and it apparently lines up with a triumphal entry into Jerusalem, the 70 weeks and the 62 weeks. But I want us to focus more on understanding if Jesus is the Messiah, what does that mean He does? What were they expecting of the Messiah? Well, they expected Him to gather. When the Messiah comes, He was going to gather all of Israel back together. Now, they were expecting a physical gathering. A physical uniting of all of those that were Israelites. Well, beloved, I want you now to understand that the Scriptures say when we put our faith and trust in Christ, we are grafted into Israel. We are brothers and sisters in Christ. Now, you and I have brothers and sisters all over this nation and all over this world that are united in faith. God has gathered us together in Christ. Not in a physical location, but in a spiritual condition that we are united into the family of God. That we should love one another and care for one another and worship with one another and gather together for His glory and for His honor because He has gathered us into the family of God. And people did not see that. The ones that say, oh, He's just a prophet because He didn't gather us together. That you and I can go to the coffee shop over here in Seneca and sit down beside a man who belongs to a Church of God and we can worship together and we can pray together and we can study Scripture together and I can go to a wedding and I can meet a Lutheran and I can meet an Independent Baptist and I can meet an Episcopal and I can meet all kinds of people who belong to all of these churches, but we are united under the banner of Christ. We are gathered together. He is the Messiah. The Messiah they expected to gather. They expected to free the captives. They found themselves under the Roman government. They were in bondage. They were put down. They were captive to them. And so they expected this great governmental freedom of removing that oversight, removing that oppression from them. But what they didn't see, the freedom that Christ offered was more important and more freeing than any government could ever offer. It was a freedom from the bondage of sin. No government authority has oppressed anybody more than sin has oppressed us. Sin has filled our heart with hate. Sin has filled our heart with pride and judgment and self-righteousness and thinking that we can do it on our own and we've got it all under control. Sin has made us look in the mirror and say, I am the master of my own domain. I am the captain of my own ship. I can do it my way, right away, how I want. And it is all about me. And sin has pressed that so deep into us that even the church follows that thought. You say, no, preacher, we don't do that. Really? Let us play a song in a different style than what you like. I ain't going there. They just play all that music that I don't like. I'm going somewhere else. That's because it's about you. I can't believe that preacher told me how I should parent, that the most important thing in my life should be teaching my children about Jesus, not some sport or some instrument or some event. It should be about how dare He push into my life. That's because it's about you and not about Jesus. And pride and arrogance and self-centeredness has sunk so deep into our hearts that we can't root it out. And we don't have to. What we have to do is push into Jesus. And what Jesus says is my Word will be a light unto your feet and a lamp unto your path. His Word will show us, oh, that's not right in my life. I better get that right. I don't have to stand up here and give you ten ways to be a better parent. What I tell you is provoke not your child unto wrath. What I tell you is to love your children and guide them in the ways of the Lord. And what the ways of the Lord will do will teach you to be a better parent. So we've got too many churches that are preaching self-help and self-motivation messages instead of preaching the Word of God. The only thing that the Word of God says will not return void is the Word of God. I can give you ten steps to be a better you, but that's going to let you down. That's going to get old real quick. Listen, y'all know I've been on this keto diet for a little while, right? I've slimmed down some. I'm feeling good. I've got a little more energy. Y'all say, you need to put the weight back on. Calm down a little bit, preacher. I'm feeling good. But you know what? Sometimes that diet gets old. That chocolate bar looks at me a little too long. And I just have to give in. And that's what these self-help and self-motivation messages will do. They might feel good and last for a little time, but that sin and that pride and that arrogance will look at you a little bit too long, and we'll start giving in to it. But if we stare into the Word of God and allow the Word of God to stare into us and start lining my life up with this and start to change my mindset, my attitude, and my vision on life, then the actions will change. Then the change will come from the power of the Holy Spirit inside of me. And then we will begin to understand the freedom that Jesus offers from our sin. He came to free captives because He is Messiah. He came to give peace. Peace with God and peace with man. And we'll push into that in just a few moments as we move on to the next. He is Emmanuel. He is Messiah. He is the Redeemer. Isaiah 59-20, the Redeemer will come to Zion and to those who turn from transgression. What does a Redeemer do? A Redeemer places the value. You get a coupon at the bottom of it. It'll say 50 cents off a loaf of bread or whatever. But at the very bottom, it'll say redeemed for one-tenth of a cent or one-one-hundredth of a cent. So you can either say 50 cents on the bread or you can get 10 of those coupons, turn it in and get a penny. That's the thought. Now, which one are you going to choose? The 50 cents, right? More value. But what determined that value? What was placed on it. What was placed on it. What was written on it. Jesus, as our Redeemer, places the value on us. What value does He place on you? Beloved, it's more than one-tenth of a cent. It's more than 50 cents. He said, you are so valuable that I am willing to die for you. That I am willing to buy you back from the sin that you so easily choose. I'm willing to put so much value on you that I will lay down my life, willingly turn myself over to be arrested and beaten and abused and hung on a cross till I'm barely recognizable as a man. I'm willing to die, be put in a tomb and stay there for three days. And I'm willing to show my power over death, hell and the grave because I love you that much because you are that valuable. Beloved, this world may look at you at some point in your life and say you're worthless. But I'm here to tell you that Jesus looks at you and says, I love you and you're worth my life. You're valuable. He places the value on you and then He pays the value for you. His redemption cost everything. Not only did it cost Him His life, He left His home in glory for us. He left perfection to come into a thin, stained, fallen world full of people that He knew would reject Him. That would hear about His love for them and look at His face and spit on it. He knew that He would come to a world that wanted nothing to do with Him. He says, I'll go anyway. He healed people that never came back and said, thank you. He walked with people that would betray Him. He dined with people that would ridicule Him. He ate with people that didn't live up to the commands that He had given them all while claiming to be His children. He did all of that knowing what He was stepping into. But even in His deepest, darkest hour, as He hung there on the cross, bleeding from His hands and His feet and His back being whipped with a cat of nine tails, the crown of thorns placed on His head, in the middle of that, He cried out, My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? For the first time and the only time in all of eternity, the fellowship between Him and God the Father was broken. He did that for you. He paid the value for you to be able to come back to Him. He is Redeemer. Zechariah 9 verse 9 tells us that He is King. Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion. Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, your King is coming to you. He is just and having salvation, lowly and riding on a donkey, a colt of a donkey. We know this speaks of Him riding into Jerusalem just days before His crucifixion. And at this time, the people are crying, Hosanna! Hosanna! And just a few days later would cry, Crucify! Crucify! But He is King. In fact, Pilate even nailed over His head on the cross, King of the Jews. Whether there's coming a day where He will come with the name written on His thigh, King of kings and Lord of lords. Because that's who He is. He's not just King of the Jews. He is King of the world. He is King of it all. And what does a king do? A king rules. A king rules. A king has ultimate authority. That's what it means when we title Him Lord. It means we're acknowledging that He has the ultimate authority, that He is King even over my life. Jesus is King and rules for all of eternity and He reigns. There will be no one that knocks Him off His throne. Beloved, listen, what makes Him King is not your faith in Him. Your faith in Him is simply this, acknowledging Him as King. He is King whether you believe it or not. He is King whether He rules in your life or not. He is King because of who He is, not because we make Him King. Now, I understand what they're trying to say. You need to make Jesus King and Lord of your life. No, you don't make Him anything. You acknowledge Him as that. You come to an understanding of who He is. And in that, we submit ourselves to His rule and to His reign. Why? Because He is King. Now, given all of that, that He is Emmanuel, that He is Messiah, that He is Redeemer, that He is King, it really helps us to understand the verse that we often turn to at Christmastime. The verse that we often turn to when we come to understand who Christ is. Isaiah 9.6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given, and the government shall be upon His shoulder, and His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. He's Emmanuel. He's Messiah. He's Redeemer. He's King. And He holds all of those positions. And it makes sense that He's wonderful, doesn't it? He's wonderful. What's that word mean? It means full of wonder. It means causes curiosity and admiration. When we fully understand that God is with us, and He is with us to break us free from the bondage of sin, that He is so willing to do that, that He will be our Redeemer and pay the price for us, and that because of that, He sits as a place of authority. When we see all of that, then we can't help to stand back and say, wow, why would you do that for me? Why would you do that for a people that so easily turn their back on you? That when you don't act the way that we think you should act, we get mad. We're studying the book of Numbers. Went through Exodus and all that. Israel on our Sunday night and Wednesday night. And so many times we see Israel coming and complaining. Well, there's no food. There's no water. God didn't do this. We thought He would do this. He didn't. We're mad. We look at Israel and we're like, man, what's He got to do for you for you to see Him for who He is? For the Provider? What's He got to do for you? But beloved, we're the same way. Christ has done everything for us. And oftentimes we look at Him. Well, I thought you would make me popular. Well, I thought I would have filet mignons and halibut in the fridge every night for dinner. I thought I'd be eating good. High on the hog. I thought I'd be the cream of the crop. God, You didn't make me that way. Instead, I'm struggling with this. Instead, I'm facing this hurt. Or that heartache. I'm dealing with this relationship. I'm having a hard time. God, You must not be real. Because if You're real, I wouldn't be. When He doesn't act the way we think He should act, we get mad. But when we begin to understand Him as all of these things, and we begin to understand who we are, it should create in us a sense of wonder. The God of this universe who spoke everything into existence sees you, knows you, listens to you, loves you, and He came to die for you. Our response can only be this. You're wonderful. And when we get there, what that does is create in us, God, I want to know more. I want to know more about who You are. I want to know more about what You've done for me. I want to know more about why You thought I was valuable enough to do that for. It's wonderful. He's a counselor. Isaiah 9, 6. Wonderful counselor. What does a counselor do? Well, he heals. He heals. You've been through trauma and you've had to meet with a counselor. You understand what they can do for you. You understand how they can help you. You understand the advice that they can give you on steps to take for recovery. You understand that they can bring healing to that trauma. And they are earthly counselors. How much more can our heavenly counselor do for us? The Word says He heals the brokenhearted. Are you brokenhearted? Run to the counselor. Have you faced trauma? Run to the counselor. Are you struggling with some situation or circumstances in your life and you need healing and you need guidance? Run to the counselor. He's wonderful. He's a counselor. He's a mighty God. He's a mighty God. He is all-powerful. He brings things from life unto death. We see this in Christ who was raised from death to life. We saw this in the Old Testament with Aaron who put his dead rod before the Ark of the Covenant in the very presence of God. And this rod that had been cut off from the tree for years that he had used for walking and all these things, he placed it in the presence of God and all of a sudden, it flourished and it budded and it grew fruit. Life was brought from death and that's what our life needs. We are dead in our trespasses and sins. What we need is life. And God offers life and life more abundant. He is a mighty God. He is an everlasting Father. He always will be. Everlasting. There's never a time where He wasn't. There'll never be a time where He isn't. He always will be. And beloved as Father, He will always be there. Always be there. Again, He's as close as you want Him to be. Cry out to Him. God, I need You. I need the presence of my Father. I need the help of my Father. Lastly, He is the Prince of Peace. He gives us complete peace. Again, this is what I spoke about earlier. We're at peace with Him. Our sin puts us at odds with Him. We can't be in a relationship because of my sin. And He offers His peace. That I made the righteousness of God, and so now I can live in that relationship with Him. But He also gives us peace with one another. When we begin to understand all these things in connection with one another, we're all sinners in need of a Savior, and Jesus is that Savior. None of us are perfect. Then we can see each other as that. And when we begin to see each other as that, what that offers for us is forgiveness. I don't expect you to be perfect. Why? Because I'm not perfect. And so when you're imperfect and your imperfectness in some way caused me hurt and heartache, I can look at that and say, oh man, that stings. But you know what? I understand because you're not perfect. And neither am I. Let's move through this together. Because we know the One who offers forgiveness and creates in us a right relationship with Him. He gives us peace. In fact, John 14, 27 says, Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Why can we not let our heart be troubled? Why can we not let us be afraid? Because we know Emmanuel. Because we know the Messiah. Because we know the Redeemer. Because we know the King. And when we begin to grasp that, I'm fully convinced of this. Y'all remember the woman with the issue of blood? She tried to push to Jesus. And the great crowd was there. Her faith was this, if I can just touch the hem of His garment. That's how much faith. Just the hem of His garment. Not even Him. Just the hem of His garment. I'll be healed. Well, but I believe if we just touch the hem of His garment on who He is, it will help a lot of the division, a lot of the hurt, a lot of the heartache that we face when we begin to understand who He is. So the question for you this morning is who do you say He is? Who do you say He is? Is He Emmanuel? Is He Messiah? Is He Redeemer? Is He King? Have you acknowledged Him as your personal Lord and Savior today?