THE PERSON OF JESUS

Series: The Person of JesusLesson #1

Jn. 8:46 Which of you convinceth me of sin? And if I say the truth, why do ye not believe me?

I. This Is A Truth Beyond Our Capacity.

1. We will consider some facts about Christ Jesus that I believe will produce a faith in your heart to enable you to move beyond where you are.

2. This is not school in the ordinary since of the word. This will be a very intense time

of study, not only to know truth, but to become the truth, to know by the Spirit the things that we are taught.

3. You must come to know this Christ that we are presenting in these lessons in a very intimate way. Only this kind of relationship will produce a faith that will move beyond the boundaries of human reason and proclaim Christ with a boldness that will convince.

4. Before we look at these facts, we have to ask ourselves, “Who has ever issued the following challenge to his enemies, ‘Which of you convinceth me of sin?’” (Jn. 8:46)

5. This is the challenge of the Lord Jesus, and we cannot say for one minute that He was conceited, that He exaggerated, or that He did not fully know Himself.

6. He talked more about Himself than about any other thing or person. He wasn’t conceited; He was simply stating fact.

7. These were the words of the Man whose sincere consciousness was revealed in the claim, “I and the Father are one” (Jn. 10:30).

8. It was as though the Lord said:

a. I do not know what it is to feel guilty.

b. I have no consciousness of any accusation in my conscience.

c. I have nothing to regret.

d. There is not one word that I need to retract.

e. There is not one person that I need to ask forgiveness, or to whom I need to apologize.

9. We are not able to appreciate such claims, for none of us has a corresponding experience, nor have we ever met a person who has had such an experience!

10. Most of us are so superficial that we accept sin as inevitable and excusable.

11. We need the Holy Spirit to convince us that in the Person of Jesus Christ there is one man who could claim to be sinless.

12. This one thing was enough to make sinful man send Him to the cross. The world cannot tolerate such a man.

13. If He were here today the world would reject Him - His was a transparent purity confirmed from Heaven.

14. With all of that in the beginning, let us consider again the truth, that the ultimate objective of God is to conform us to the image of that Person, the Person of Jesus Christ.

15. We are new creatures. He was the firstborn of a whole new race.

16. We are not dealing with Him as God, we are dealing with Him now as the Person, Jesus Christ. He who came by the will of God, born of the virgin, was the firstborn of a new race. This statement was made of Him.

17. As God, we all accept the fact there was no sin in Jesus. But here He stands, the man Christ Jesus, making this claim in John 8:46.

18. When the Bible talks of conforming us to the image of Christ, it is the reproducing of the moral character of Jesus Christ in us.

19. His claim to sinlessness, was what brought sinful man’s hatred upon Him. When that character is reproduced in us to the degree that men once more see Him, I promise you that that hatred is still there and it will manifest itself.

20. Jesus could stand in the very presence of God and claim to be sinless.

21. This consciousness is part of the mystery of godliness, for it was the word who became flesh.

22. He did not merely put on flesh, He became flesh. He became a real and proper man. You and I must know that these words of Jesus, speaking of Himself in John 8:46, are about the man Christ Jesus. That man who is glorified at the right hand of the Father was God, very God, but He was also man.

23. In Him we are able to see the type of man (that is a generic term) that God wants every one of us to be.

II. We Come Now To Look At His Words That We Might Know This One To Whom We Are To Be Conformed To.

Jn. 12:49 For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak.

Jn. 12:50 And I know that his commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak.

1. The words of Jesus were simple, yet were of infinite depth.

2. There was nothing dramatic about Him. We need to note this. He never behaved like an actor or orator. He never wore a special kind of garment to distinguish Him from other people. He never spoke with frowns or gesticulations.

3. Jesus never used difficult words, yet He said more than any other man could say.

4. His words were spirit and life. In John 6:63 He said, “…the words I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.”

5. The common people heard Him gladly.

6. He never tried to make an impression by oratory, or poetry, yet His words are so beautiful, we never tire of hearing them.

7. Without an official status He spoke with an authority which no one before or after has ever possessed.

8. He spoke often of Himself, yet in no sense could you ever say He was self-occupied. He could affirm, “I am the bread of life.” “I am the light of this world.” “I am the truth.”

9. When He spoke about life, it was life speaking, even though it was a man speaking.

10. We must always keep the above truth in mind, because it is only as we behold this Christ in the Spirit are we able to be conformed to His image. We cannot be changed beyond our vision of Him.

11. It is imperative that we know when He is speaking what He is saying, with what authority He is speaking, and that He is speaking as a man.

12. He said, “The words I speak are not mine but the Father’s.” For this reason not one word can be added or taken away from what Jesus said.

13. His was not an attempt to say something right or something that could perhaps point someone in the right direction, but He spoke the words of life in human language. “I say unto you.”

14. As I come to know Him and His words, I know His words were from God. His words were God’s words. His words are the answer to every human problem.

15. The answer to everything is in this Christ that we are talking about. He needs no help. He is what He says He is. And, as we come to know this, then our faith can rest in who He is.

16. “And they that know thy name (character) will put their trust in thee…” (Psalms 9:10). As we come to know and believe that, when God looks at us individually and collectively God sees nothing but Christ. Therefore all of His working with us is to rid us of all that is not Christ.

17. As we come to know Christ, and He removes all that is not Christ, then we are being conformed to His image. This is the process the Bible calls sanctification, and is the answer to everything.

18. It is the nature of this experience, as we move toward His image, to accumulate the power of God. You must understand this, for it will deliver you from the useless struggle of the flesh.

19. It is Jesus Christ who has been given all power. Consider where He was when He made the statement “…All power is given unto Me in Heaven and in earth” (Mat. 28:18). He appeared to His disciples after His resurrection, and gave them instructions. Now He is talking to them for the last time. He is about to ascend back into Heaven, and He is talking to them now as a glorified man.

20. All power has been given to Him as a glorified man. That simply says, as we move toward that place of being conformed to His image, then power accumulates in this Christian experience.

21. All along the line from the new birth to our own glorification, this is the working of God within us. Therefore it is imperative that we know the person of Jesus Christ.

III. From His Words We Turn To His Works.

Jn. 5:19 Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.

Jn. 5:30 I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.

Jn. 14:31 But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence.

1. “…who went about doing good, healing all that were oppressed of the devil…” (Acts 10:38). In this short sentence His life among men is summed up. He did good and only good.

2. He never, by word or deed wronged one person. This does not mean that He was soft, it does not mean that He was an inoffensive person who accommodated Himself to His surroundings.

3. He was utterly true as well as loving. He went about doing good but He was not a mere advisor or social worker.

4. He was not comparatively good, He was absolutely good. “The works are not mine but the Father’s.”

5. He never hurried, rushing from one task to another. He was always at rest, yet He was a man.

6. It was a man that did good; therefore He needed to spend nights in prayer, being completely dependent upon the Father. Oh, that you and I could truly get a hold of this.

7. God’s purpose in conforming us to Christ is that we will live like Him, act like Him, and work like Him.

8. His submission to the Father is one of the great principle secrets of the Bible. “I do nothing but what I see My Father do.” He was allowing the Father to totally control His life. “He went about doing good.” “How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost.” That’s the key.

9. He went about doing good. That simply means, as a man, He was always totally, absolutely under the Lordship of the Father, by the Holy Spirit.

10. He moved, He lived, He walked in the Spirit of God. He never one time acted independent of the Father. His subjection to the Father put Him in a position that made demons and darkness subject to Him.

11. Peter wrote, “…leaving us an example, that we should follow in His steps” (1 Pet. 2:21). Being full of the Holy Spirit, becoming absolutely subservient to Christ. When He is absolute Lord, we will find that the darkness is subject to us.

12. His works were wonderful, yet He did them in such a way that they formed a natural part of His life.

13. He was not struggling to do good, it is what He was. The imitation of Christ that is so common in the church today is not what God is looking for. What God is after is a people like you and I, so conformed to His image that they can say with the Apostle Paul, “…for me to live is Christ.”

14. He did not have to work Himself up for special efforts.

a. When 5,000 needed feeding, He did not have to call a council. He never had to have a committee meeting to try to figure out some program as to how they could take care of so many. He moved in the Spirit of God. He did only what He saw His Father do.

15. It is the nature of families, when the father is gone, that oldest son is to be responsible for the family. If the son knew what the father would do when problems arose, he could simply do what he knew the father would do.

16. When I became a Christian and realized God was my Father, then I knew that through this Book I could always know what my Father would do, and as I acted accordingly, it would always work and I would always be right.

17. That was the secret of the life and power of Jesus Christ. He did only that which He saw the Father do. He knew the Father, so He knew exactly what the Father would do in every situation, therefore it always worked for Him.

18. Being conformed to Christ encompasses that. The will Of God is that we so live and walk with Him that we know at all times what the Father would do, and never act independently. It is all in the choices that we make.

19. Jesus, in the wilderness temptation shows us the way of victory. The devil was trying to get Him as a man, to act independent of the Father.

20. In His baptism, by going down into the watery grave, He was saying, “I will never act according to My mind. I will only do that which the Father says.” His life was lived that way totally and completely.

21. That’s the reason sickness moved when He touched it. Demons came out when He spoke. That is the place to which God wants to bring us. That you and I so walk with God, so know Him that we would do nothing but what we know He do.

22. Jesus never moved outside of the mind of the Father. The temptation of the devil was to get Him to act independent of the Father. The temptation is always the same with you and I, no matter how it comes, whether it be lust, covetousness, or whatever.

23. In the temptation we must always make a choice, “Am I going to stay in myself, or am I going to stay in God?” If we choose to stay in God He will enforce the choosing.

24. The more we are conformed to His image, where that character, and disposition, and obedience of Christ is lived through us, we will discover we can work the works of God.

25. Jesus raised the dead with a word. Just as none ever spoke like Him, none ever acted like Him.

26. He never had to tell Himself it was important to believe. His relationship with the Father was so intimate that they acted together.

27. We are not greatly impressed by this, because we are so different. Our service consists of efforts we hope will lead to something, but if they fail we will try something else.

28. That is never the way it was with Christ. If we allow Him to work His will in our life, so that we can say with the Apostle Paul, “For me to live is Christ…” we will discover that it is not an effort of the flesh, but a simple trust in Him working His will through us.

29. We will not struggle and sweat we will not have to hold demon possessed on the ground, we will speak the words of God, and the thing will work.

30. Jesus never began a work then had to say He made a mistake.

31. Today much is made of so-called “humanism,” and yet the pattern of fallen man is making Him inhuman.

32. The Lord Jesus is the only true man. Everything properly human is in Him, the Lord Jesus Christ.

33. He is the firstborn of a new race. When I was born again I became a member of the same race. He is the head and I am a member of His body.

34. God said Jesus would bring many sons to glory. In the new birth, we became what He is as a man. It is the development of this new creation that brings about the conformity to Christ, the transition from one life to another.

35. In His words and in His works we see the greatness of Christ.

IV. Now We Look At His Voluntary Death.

Jn. 10:18 No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.

Jn. 10:19 There was a division therefore again among the Jews for these sayings.

Jn. 10:20 And many of them said, He hath a devil, and is mad; why hear ye him?

Jn. 10:21 Others said, These are not the words of him that hath a devil. Can a devil open the eyes of the blind?

Jn. 10:22 And it was at Jerusalem the feast of the dedication, and it was winter.

Jn. 10:23 And Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon’s porch.

Jn. 10:24 Then came the Jews round about him, and said unto him, How long dost thou make us to doubt?

Jn. 10:25 Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believed not; the works that I do in my Fathers name, they bear witness of me.

Jn. 10:26 But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you.

Jn. 10:27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:

Jn. 10:28 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.

1. This man was executed! Then, as now, the cry was “away with Him!”

2. No one, however, took away His life. He laid it down Himself.

3. We must remember though, that He was a man, not a superman, but a man just like you and I who have been born of the Spirit of God.

4. Though He laid down His life voluntarily, it did not relieve Him of the agony of it all. He suffered. His visage was so marred that He wasn’t recognizable.

5. It was agony, but it was done out of His love for lost humanity and for the purpose of God that He cam to restore.

6. His death was not an isolated historical event forced upon Him, but it was all in the eternal plan of redemption. “Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures” (1Cor. 15:3).

V. We Look At His Resurrection In Acts 2:24. We Read Here From The Message Of The Apostle Peter:

Acts 2:24 Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.

1. A further fact though, is that it was impossible that death should hold Him, for death is in the result of sin, and He knew no sin.

2. He prayed for His enemies, “Father forgive them.” He never once said, “Father forgive me.” At the moment of His death He had no sense of guilt.

3. Even on the cross He felt no sense of sin, for He had no faults.

4. It was impossible for sin and its consequence to hold Him.

VI. Who Is He, This Person That We Are Talking About, This One To Whom We Are To Be Conformed? Who Is This Jesus?

1. He was born of a woman. His birth was like any other birth.

2. He was born in very poor circumstances, though He came from God.

3. No man can intellectually understand that He was conceived of the Holy Ghost. Yet if you believe in the new birth, you know that is exactly what happened.

4. He is called: “The man Christ Jesus” (1Tim. 2:5).

5. He was very man and very God. He is the mystery of God. No one is able of himself to understand Him. “…no man knoweth who the Son is, but the Father” (Lk. 10:22).

6. The Lord Jesus is a man, yet He is the Son of God. These two things may seem incompatible, but John unites them with the statement, “…the word was made flesh…” (Jn. 1:14).

7. We must avoid the mistaken notion that the word merely clothed Himself in flesh, as though it were only a body. He was human, and inwardly He was divine.

8. Jesus was fully and completely a true human as we are. He developed as an ordinary human being.

a. He was helpless as a baby. Mary nursed Him. Mary diapered Him.

b. He grew and learned.

c. He increased in wisdom as He lived through adolescence. He was a carpenter.

d. He knew what it was to be hungry, thirsty, and tired.

9. When He was “tempted in all things,” they were real temptations. He didn’t just imagine, He felt the same as you feel.

10. He was the Son of God, and so described Himself, but He was also the Son of Mary, and He had a human name, Jesus.

11. He called Himself the “Son of Man,” which meant He accepted man’s total helplessness.

12. That is what God meant when He addressed Ezekiel as the “son of man.”

13. At the same time, it describes man’s true destiny, for we read in Daniel that one day all the kingdoms of this world will be subject to One “who is like the Son of Man.”

14. The Son of Man is Jesus the man, the one who calls us brother.

VII. His Name Was A Common Name, But He Alone Gives That Name Meaning Of “One Who Saves From Sin.”

Mat. 1:21 And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.

1. For our part we must be careful to give Him His titles; “God hath made Him both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36).

2. The disciples never called Him Jesus. Those who got to know Him were only too glad to call Him, Lord.

3. It is not possible to explain who Jesus is. “For in Him dwelleth the fullness of the Godhead bodily” (Col. 2:9).

4. This is the person of Jesus Christ, the one to whose image God has determined to conform you. It is this Jesus in whom God has His special delight, and with whom He will fill the universe in the ages to come.