Jesus in All the Gospels

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JESUS IS MY SALVATION MESSAGE SERIES-2

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Jesus in All the Gospels

JESUS IN ALL THE GOSPELS

The greatest event the world has ever witnessed was the personal visit of God the Son to this earth.

For three and ½ years Jesus lived, walked, and talked to everyone who would listen, explaining the way to God

The record of those words and deeds are the book you hold this morning. We have seen that when God wanted to give His Church a snapshot of Christ’s ministry He wanted to do so from four perspectives. To see and know and understand our Blessed Savior we need all the beauty of four exposures in His four evangelists.

 

Why Four? Because God has inspired the perfect Book the Bible. Have you ever felt the wonder of God’s Word in all its supernatural engineering? Everything about the Revelation of God’s Word points at Jesus.

  1. Jesus in The four colors of the tabernacle
  2. Jesus in The four faces of the cherubim
  3. Jesus in The four promises of the coming branch
  4. Jesus in The four themes of the evangelists

 

From the wonderful words and deeds of Christ in the Gospels we have focused our attention upon one area – the Gospel Christ presented. This we call the Master’s Message. And what is the Master’s Message? It is the marvelous content of the Gospels. It is the message Jesus gave to those who heard Him preach. It is what we are studying this morning.

 

First in our Bibles is Matthew who records no less than 31 different gospel presentations, which took us 4 weeks to look at.

Then the Gospel by Mark has 9 different gospel presentations, which we looked at in 3 weeks.

Then the Gospel by Luke we saw had 23 different gospel presentations, which took us 10 weeks to study,

Now we start the most exciting, extraordinary, and profound of all the Gospels. The final of the Four Gospels the Gospel by John, which contains 26 different gospel presentations

 

John explains Jesus by the seven titles in chapter one

 

  • In a gospel written to the whole world, John presents us with the Divine Jesus. He is the Son of God — his Divinity — the Divine nature of God is very clearly seen. We have already seen John’s incredible introduction of Jesus as the Word, the Dwelling Presence and the Glory of God. John reveals Jesus as God’s unique (“only begotten,” KJV) Son, and refers to God as His Father more than any other book of the Bible.  The Old Testament refers to God as Father only 12 times, John 120 times! But there is one major theme that runs throughout John’s Gospel: Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and if you commit yourself to Him, He will give you eternal life (John 20:31). In this first chapter, John recorded[1] seven names and titles of Jesus that identify Him as eternal God.

 

  • Jesus is The Word (John 1:1–3, 14): Much as our words reveal to others our hearts and minds, so Jesus Christ is God’s “Word” to reveal His heart and mind to us.
  • Jesus is the eternal Word (vv. 1–2). He existed in the beginning, not because He had a beginning as a creature, but because He is eternal. He is God and He was with God. “Before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58).
  • Jesus is the incarnate Word (v. 14). He was not a phantom or a spirit when He ministered on earth, nor was His body a mere illusion.
  • John and the other disciples each had a personal experience that convinced them of the reality of the body of Jesus (1 John 1:1–2).
  • In his Gospel, John points out that Jesus was weary (John 4:6) and thirsty (John 4:7).
  • He groaned within (John 11:33) and openly wept (John 11:35).
  • On the cross, He thirsted (John 19:28), died (John 19:30), and bled (John 19:34).
  • After His resurrection, He proved to Thomas and the other disciples that He still had a real body (John 20:24–29), howbeit, a glorified body.
  • Jesus is the Revealing Word: “He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father” (John 14:9). “The Word of God” is one[2] of the familiar names of our Lord in Scripture (John 1:1–14). Just as we reveal our minds and hearts to others by our words, so the Father reveals Himself to us through His Son, the incarnate Word (Rev. 14:7–11).
  • Jesus is the completing word: A word is composed of letters, and Jesus Christ is “Alpha and Omega” (Rev. 1:11), the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. A word is made up of letters, and Jesus Christ is “Alpha and Omega” (Rev. 21:6; 22:13). He is the “divine alphabet” of God’s revelation to us.
  • Jesus is the final word: According to Hebrews 1:1–3, Jesus Christ is God’s last Word to mankind, for He is the climax of divine revelation. John affirmed Jesus as the “Word” which existed with and as God from eternity. Jesus is the One through whom God expressed Himself. As the Word, Jesus is the creative power that brought the universe into existence, and the prophetic power that reveals and controls the future. Through faith we can have fellowship with the eternal Word of God. See John 1:1–14; 1 John 1:1–2.[3]

 

  • Jesus is The Light (John 1:4–13): Life is a key theme in John’s Gospel; it is used thirty-six times. What are the essentials for human life? There are at least four:
  • Light (if the sun went out, everything would die), air, water, and food.
  • Jesus is all of these!

(i) He is the Light of life and the Light of the world (John 8:12). He is the “Sun of righteousness” (Mal. 4:2).

(ii) By His Holy Spirit, He gives us the “breath of life” (John 3:8; 20:22), as well as

(iii) The Water of life (John 4:10, 13–14; 7:37–39).

(iv) Finally, Jesus is the Living Bread of Life that came down from heaven (John 6:35ff). He not only has life and gives life, but He is life (John 14:6).

John takes up this figure and proceeds to tell us seven things about the divine Word.

  • “In the beginning was the Word” (1:1). Christ is the ETERNAL Word. The Word’s eternity. He had no beginning of his own; when other things began, he—was.
  • “And the Word was with God” (1:1). Christ is the PERSONAL Word. Here is the Word’s personality. The power that fulfills God’s purposes is the power of a distinct personal being, one who stands in an eternal relation to God of active fellowship (this is what the phrase means).
  • “And the Word was God” (1:1). Christ is the DIVINE Word. Here is the Word’s deity. Though personally distinct from the Father, he is not a creature; he is divine in himself, as the Father is. The mystery with which this verse confronts us is thus the mystery of personal distinctions within the unity of the Godhead.
  • “Through him all things were made” (1:3). Christ is the UNIVERSE CreatING Word. Here is the Word creating. He was the Father’s agent in every act of making that the Father has ever performed. All that was made was made through him. (Here, incidentally, is further proof that he, the Maker, does not belong to the class of things made, any more than the Father does.)
  • “In him was life” (1:4). Christ is the LIFE GIVING WORD. Here is the Word animating. There is no physical life in the realm of created things except in and through him. Here is the Bible answer to the problem of the origin and continuance of life, in all its forms: life is given and maintained by the Word. Created things do not have life in themselves, but life in the Word, the second person of the Godhead.
  • “And that life was the light of men” (1:4). Christ is the LIGHT GIVING Word. Here is the Word revealing. In giving life, he gives light too; that is to say, all people receive intimations of God from the very fact of being alive in God’s world, and this, no less than the fact that they are alive, is due to the work of the Word.
  • “The Word became flesh” (1:14). Christ is the INCARNATING Word. Here is the Word incarnate. The baby in the manger at Bethlehem was none other than the eternal Word of God.[4]

 

The Light is still shining! Have you personally received the Light and become a child of God?  “Life” can refer to biological life, but more important it speaks of the vitalizing power of God. We are given God’s life when we believe in Jesus.

 


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