Meeting with Christ

Have you ever questioned God about a situation in your life?  Have you wrestled with Him over why you must endure a particular trial or sorrow or face a seemingly insurmountable obstacle?  Are there times where you cry out to God, “it’s just not fair”?  I know I have.  There have been days, weeks, even years, during which I have constantly questioned my circumstances and doubted that any good could ever come of them.  Can you relate?
            I bet the blind man, whose story is found in John 9, could relate.  Not only was he blind, but he was born that way.  That means that until he met Jesus, this man never experienced a sunset, the beauty of a smile, or the freedom of exploring a new part of town.  He was limited by his circumstances, stuck.  And perhaps worst of all, his disability carried with it a stigma.  People assumed his blindness pointed to a dark family past, that it was the consequence for a sin he or his parents had committed.
            But here is the interesting part: Jesus knew God’s plan for this man’s life.  And it had nothing to do with living down a sin.  Instead, it had everything to do with the transformational power of an encounter with the Messiah.  Jesus, in John 9:4 explained to His disciples, “he was born blind so the power of God could be seen in him.”  And then, Jesus spit on the ground, made mud, placed it on the blind man’s eyes, and changed his life.
            This story carries with it a difficult lesson to embrace, but a critically important one nonetheless.  Because of sin in this world, we deal with tragic and unfair circumstances on a daily basis.  However, God, the Creator of the Universe, our All-Powerful Protector, stands ready to transform the tragedies of our lives into a witness that binds us to Him and reveals His love.  Do you think the blind man lamented his former blindness after meeting Jesus?  Not a chance!  In fact, he immediately took a stand for his Healer when questioned by the Pharisees.  His encounter with Jesus healed him physically, but it also empowered him spiritually.
            We serve a God who, by very definition, is Love.  He wants only good for us.  He wants to wrap us in His arms and hold us during the storms of our lives.  This knowledge does not make the tragedies of this life any less difficult.  But, in the midst of our struggles, the story of the man born blind demonstrates God’s faithfulness and desire to draw us to Him, the Source of hope and life.

Who Is This Jesus?

Church Sign:  THE WISE STILL SEEK HIM!  

WE SAW HIS STAR & WE CAME!  Matt. 2:2

                       

Scripture Lesson: Luke 9:18-23

This sermon is based in part on the book

The Next-Door Savior- Near Enough to Touch, Strong Enough to Trust by Max Lucado.

Related Scriptures for reference and further study:

John 1:1-3

1 John  1:1-4

Heb. 1:1-3

Col. 1:3, 14-20

Col. 1:27 Christ in you , the hope of glory!

Heb. 4:14-16  Jesus – touched by our infirmities

1 Peter 2:24 NCV  Christ carried our sins in his body on the cross so we would stop living for sin and start living for what is right. 

Why did Jesus come to earth at all?

 Because he loved us so much! 

            Story told by Dr. Maxwell Maltz, plastic surgeon:

            Man injured trying to rescue parents trapped in a burning building.  Failed, they perished.  Man burned, face totally disfigured.  Punishment from God?   Too much pain, too big a failure, too horrible to be seen.  Isolation.  100%  Nobody to see him, not even his wife.  Barred himself in his room never to come out.  Wife went to Dr. Maltz.  I can restore his face!  No, he will not permit it.  That's not why I came.  But then why did you come?   If you can you make my face like his. . .  If I can share his pain then maybe he will let me back in his life again. 

The prophet Isaiah again (52:14)  His visage, [his face] was marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men.

Dr. Maltz refused the woman's request, but he was so impressed by her love and desire for her husband to be restored that he went to her home hoping to help.  Through the bedroom door he called to the man.  No response.  He offered his services.  No response.  Then he told the man still through the closed door what his wife had asked him to do.  Slowly, silently, the knob began to turn. . .

Jesus not only offered to become like us, he took our face, our disfigurement, the cumulative results of scores of generations of sin.  Why?  Because he loved us.  And he not only looked like us.  He came, and looked for us where we are – in the stable, in borrowed accommodations, in a carpentry shop, in the wilderness, at the wedding, in the tax collector's booth, by the sea smelly with fish, in the valley, on the mountain, in Samaria, in the cemetery, in the synagogue, by the pool, in the temple, in the upper room, in the Garden, in the judgment hall. Outside by the warming fire.  He will find you.  He stands at the door, knocking.  He loves you so much!

Why did Jesus come as a baby rather than just showing up as a Messiah figure with no known human parentage?  Why a humble birth.  Why inconvenience human parents with an awkward situation?  Why take on the stigma of questionable parentage?  Because he was to be truly one of us – yet without sin!  He was God but also he was man.  The one and only God-man.  His DNA had the faults from countless generations of sinners built into it.  Alcohol addition, sexual perversion, deceit, murder, covetousness, adultery, dishonesty, wife stealing, false religion.   However these human tendencies mark and change the human DNA, the marks were there in the DNA with which he was born.  He was not to run the race with advantages over you and me. 

Incarnate Christ was 100% human and at the same time 100% divine

At the time prophesied, Jesus began his public ministry.  Daniel chapter 9 we believe pinpoints the year his public ministry would begin . 

Following his baptism he went to the wilderness to be tempted by the devil – not just one day after 40 days, but for the 40 days.

Growing up Jesus was where the people were.  In his public ministry he went were the people were, all kinds of people!  He was the next-door Savior.

He lived a normal childhood and young adulthood – people later exclaimed in Nazareth – "Is not this the carpenter's son?"  (Matt 13:54, 55) His stories reflect a simple existence – the sawdust in the eye (compared with a timber), the seed that grows in the path, in the stony ground, that is choked out by weeds, the maker of yokes who says "my yoke is easy."   The boy who grew up not far from the village of Safed, a town perched on the top of one of the wood-crowned hills of Napthali.  Was he thinking of Safed when he later referred to "the city set on a hill that cannot be hidden?"

Jesus' up-bring in common circumstances, and his common work in a carpenter shop prepared him for an uncommon life.  Is your life boring, common, mundane?  Remember Jesus.  God may be preparing you for something big!  You too, were sent into the world, ,just as Jesus was.   Once you start living your life with that conviction, you will soon know what you were sent to do.

Jesus is our example in gaining victory over the devil. 

In the wilderness strange things can happen.  You see mirages, your imagination can play tricks.  You may think unthinkable thoughts.  The forty days Jesus spent in the wilderness were not easy.  He had temptations – teaming up with Satan could make life a lot easier! 

Have you experienced any of these temptations?  He did but he didn't yield. 

And how was he victorious where even the first Adam failed?   It is written, it is written, it is written. . . always, only, the Scriptures, God's word, God's promises, God the answer -- never self!  What an example for self-sufficient post-modern man!

Jesus is our example of living for others. 

He spent more time ministering to physical needs than preaching.  His miracles included whole villages being healed.  The range of ills he treated was not limited – congenital defects, the results of bad lifestyles, leprosy, demon possession, you name it, -- even death itself.  The one who created the human body could restore it to perfect working order, even after it had lay decaying in the grave for four days. 

But more than physical healing he offered spiritual healing.  When he preached, his sermons attracted the attention of everyone from children to the highly educated.  His critics were stymied, his enemies dumbfounded.   Those who sought to judge him found themselves condemned by their own words.  But those who responded to him with self-sacrificing love discovered what life was all about.  The inspiration of those few years together with Jesus propelled the eleven disciples and energized them for a lifetime of dedicated ministry.  

Jesus in death bore our sins – our public sins as well as our secret sins.  He has already suffered the penalty for our transgressions. 

1 Peter 2:24 NCV  Christ carried our sins in his body on the cross so we would stop living for sin and start living for what is right. 

How can we begin to comprehend this? 

Even though Jesus took on human form, as a human he still was in close communion with His Heavenly Father.  Remember in the upper room he explained it with the words, "I and may Father are one."  He spent entire nights in prayer to his Father.  Even at age twelve he told his parents, " I must be about my Father's business!"  We have lost the fellowship with God that our original parents experienced and that sustained Christ during His sojourn on earth because of our sin and the sinfulness of the human race.  The amazing thing about sin is that when Jesus suffered the penalty for our sin he experienced the separation from God that sin causes.  Only because he suffered the penalty we deserve, can we experience the fellowship with him that he intended for his children.  This fellowship, if we are willing, will bring victory over sin!

On the cross Christ experienced being abandoned by His Father and the experience was so horrendous that it became the direct cause of his death.

An interesting example of a prophecy related to the crucifixion is found in Amos 8:9.

"And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day.  

This darkness surrounding the cross and the city that Friday in addition to being the subject of prophecy was recorded by the contemporary author Dionysius in Egypt who wrote regarding that Friday afternoon, quote: "Either the God of nature is suffering, or the machine of the world is tumbling into ruin."

His followers, although totally perplexed by the death of Jesus, were elated by His resurrection.

 Jesus status as the "Next-door Savior" was retained even as he ascended to his Father:  I go to prepare a place for you, he promised.  He ever liveth to make intercession for us (Heb. 7:25).  As our high priest, He is touched by our infirmities.  He can sympathize with us because of his likeness to us. (Heb. 4:15 KJV and NEB).  Even though he has ascended to reunite with his Father he still retains His human form and will do so forever.  "This same Jesus , , , will so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven (Acts 1:11)."

He will return as King of Kings and Lord of Lords to claim the righteous as His own.  Revelation 19:11-21

He will resurrect the righteous who have died since Adam using his creative power to restore them.  1 Cor. 14 and  1 Thes. 4

He will create a new heavens and a new earth wherein righteousness dwells forever.  Rev. 21, especially verse 5. 

Christ's claims regarding his divinity are  either true or the fabrication of the devil.  He wasn't just a good man because then claiming to be God's Son would have constituted a lie and he could not on that basis have been a "good man"!

God the Father's testimony – This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased – hear ye him!

Writer's conference – Moses, Peter, James, John (Elijah) One only who should be praised --- not three temples!

Fulfillment of Jesus' own prophecies also demonstrates the truth of his claims – these prophecies include:  Judas' betrayal, Peter's denial, all to be offended by the events that overtook Jesus, the fall of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. (see Matt. 24 and Luke 21 including escape for those who heeded warnings. 

So who is this "Jesus" – the Next-Door Savior?

Abraham         The one whom the Lord provided as a sacrifice

Jacob               He's the one who blesses you at dawn after you have wrestled with him all night

Moses              The rock from which the water flows

Joshua The captain of the Lord's army, the Lord of hosts!

David              He is my shepherd.  The Lord is my light and salvation, whom shall I fear, the Lord is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid?  Ps. 23 and 27

Isaiah               The one whose visage was marred more than that of any man (Isa 52:14)

Jeremiah          The righteous branch, the Lord OUR righteousness.  Jer. 23:5,6

Daniel's friends           the one who stands with you in the fire

Daniel              The one who closes the lions' mouths, the Messiah, the anointed one, Michael,

Malachi           The sun of righteousness who will arise with healing in his wings.

Gabriel            He is the son of the Highest!  Luke 1:32

Ask John the Baptist   The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world

Jesus' Heavenly Father           This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye Him.  Matt. 17:5

Lazarus            The one who speaks and the dead hear his voice! 

Ask Jesus Himself      

I am the bread of life (John 6:48)

            I am the light of the world. (John 8:12)

            I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. (John 10:9 NIV)

            I am the good shepherd" (John 10:11)

            I am God's Son  (John 10:326 NCV)

            I am the resurrection and the life (John 11:25)

            I am the way the truth the life"  (John 14:6)

            I am the true vine (John 15:1)

            I am that I am.  (Exodus 3:14) 

            I am he that liveth, and was dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore, and I have the

keys of death and hell.  Revelation 1:18

The devils who possessed the demoniacs of Gadara      "Jesus thou Son of God"

What about those in high positions?

What did Jesus' human enemies say about him?

Officers of the Scribes and Pharisees sent to arrest Jesus:  Never man spake like this man.  John 7:46

Ask those who commented that Friday when Jesus only rarely spoke

Caiaphas the high priest:  "It is better for one man to die for the people that for the whole nation to be destroyed" (John 11:50 NCV);  "Caiaphas did not think of this himself.  As high priest that year, he was really prophesying that Jesus would die for [the Jewish] nation and for God's scattered children to bring them all together and make them one."  (John 11:51, 52NCV)

Herod The one man in whom there is no fault

Pilate               This just person of whose blood I am innocent.

Then there is that one line sermon preached by the Pharisees:

            He saved others; himself he cannot save.  Matt. 27:42

Pilate  "What I have written I have written," he said when challenged by the Jews:

            In three languages he had it written and attached to the central cross:

            "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews," in Hebrew, Greek and Latin. (John 19:19 NLT)

The Centurion, on duty at the crucifixion      "Truly this was the Son of God."

The angel at the tomb             He is not here for he is risen!

Doubting Thomas       My Lord and My God (John 20:28)

Peter the Apostle        This Jesus whom God raised up from the dead

John     The one whom our hands touched the eternally living one, who was with the Father before coming here, who was with us in absolute reality, with whom we have fellowship yet today!

John the Revelator

            He is Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last, Beginning and Ending  Rev. 1:8

The Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, The Lamb of God that was slain.  Rev. 5:5-6

The Lamb, who before the foundations of the world were laid, had a book with His chosen one's names written it!  Rev. 13:8

Is your name still written there?

WHO DO YOU SAY THIS JESUS IS?