We welcome all of you to the service tonight, especially those of you who may be visiting. We're pleased you've come during this Christmas season and we hope that you'll come and see us again and often. Jesus posed a question to his disciples on an occasion when he said to them, whom do men say that I am? Peter responded on behalf of the whole group and he said, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus acknowledged that Peter's answer was accurate.
When I ask you a question, who do the people at your office, your place of employment, those in your neighborhood, who do they say that Jesus Christ is? If that question were literally posed to them, I'm sure you would get a variety of answers as to who he is. We believe that Jesus Christ is indeed the Messiah, the Son of God, deity come in flesh. We believe that. We've been taught that most of us from our earliest years, but how do we show that to someone else?
How do we open our Bible and take it as a means of undergirding and supporting and proving this doctrine which is essential to biblical Christianity, the deity of Jesus Christ? Last week we talked about the claims of Christ, claims which he himself made. First of all, his claim that God was his father, uniquely so. Secondly, his claim to sinlessness. Third, the claim of worship from men. Fourth, he claimed absolute authority over the laws and the institutions of God.
And finally, he claimed that he was God. And we concluded that either he was a liar, a lunatic, or he was in fact the Lord of glory. And we know the answer to that, that he was the Lord, is the Lord, ever shall be the Lord. Tonight I want to move us to another thought regarding the proving of the deity of Jesus Christ and think about his character. Last week his claims, tonight his character. What was Jesus like which would indicate to us that he was more than a mere man?
My first answer to that question is this. He never once sinned. Obviously none of us would dare make such a claim that we never sinned. But it is true about Jesus Christ that he never once sinned. Now we said last week that he claimed that for himself. But let's think of those who were closest to him. Those who would tell the real truth if the truth were other than what Jesus claimed. For example, let's think of Peter.
One of those to whom Jesus had said, follow me and I will make you a fisher of men. Peter walked with Jesus for the most part of three years. What was his conclusion regarding Jesus Christ? He gives it in one place, Acts 3, 14. We will not take time to turn there. But he says to that great crowd that was before him on that occasion that Jesus Christ is the holy and righteous one. Peter knew exactly what he was doing there.
He was referring back to Old Testament statements regarding Jehovah God when he was called the holy one, the righteous one. Places like Isaiah 48, 17, Hosea 11, 9, and many other places. Peter's conclusion after knowing Jesus intimately for three years was he is the holy and righteous one. And he was willing to publicly testify to that fact. Even in so saying, indicated that Jesus Christ was sinless as far as he was concerned.
When he wrote his epistle that we call 1 Peter, he said regarding him, Jesus Christ, who did no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. Think of all the conversations, think of all of the sermons that Peter heard. Peter said not once did he uncover deceit from the Lord Jesus Christ. He watched him deal with people. He watched him react in pressure situations. And Peter's conclusion was he did no sin. Now that's from somebody who knew him and knew him well. Let's think then of John.
John says about him in his Gospel, chapter 1, verse 14, and we beheld his glory. That glory includes sinlessness. John is saying he observed Jesus, observed him closely. As of all the disciples, it was John who was humanly the closest to Jesus. And John says regarding him, we beheld his glory. The glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. There was no shadow of untruthfulness with the Lord Jesus, says John. It was full of grace and truth.
He says further regarding him in 1 John 3 and verse 5, in him, in Christ, is no sin. And so John's testimony comes across loud and clear, no sin in Jesus. But I'd like you to turn with me to the book of Hebrews for a moment where we have another writer of Holy Scripture saying more regarding the character of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look in chapter 4 of Hebrews and the fourteenth verse.
Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. He urges them to faithfulness, to holding fast what they professed. He says for we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses. Putting it the other way, we have a high priest who can sympathize with our weaknesses. He says, but one who has been tempted in all things as we, yet without sin.
So there is the strong affirmation in the book of Hebrews that though the Lord Jesus Christ was tempted by sin, sorely tempted by sin, he never once yielded to temptation. Not once in all of his life, not in the wilderness, not in all the many temptations that followed that until the cross. Not once did he yield to temptation though he knew every temptation that is known to man. Never once did Jesus ask for forgiveness.
You examine all of his prayers, never once did he come to his heavenly Father and begin with a confession of sin before he proceeded further, not once. He was tempted but without sin. Indeed, he could not sin. He could not sin because he was God and God cannot sin. He was tempted to sin but he could not sin because he was God. That means he is unlike the angels. Someone asked me that after the service last week and it was a good question.
Jesus did not sin but the angels haven't sinned either and that's true. Some of the angels, some have sinned, the demons, fallen angels, but there are many holy angels that have never sinned. But you see the difference between the angels, in this respect at least, is that the angels could sin. They could sin, many didn't, but they could sin. The Lord Jesus Christ, because he is God, could not have sinned. That does not mean that his temptations were false, that they were without meaning.
Quite the contrary, in fact, if you stop to think about it. Because he could not sin, temptation was able to do its fullest on him. It gave him everything it had and could not cause him to yield. Turn over a page to Hebrews chapter 7. Look at these words in verse 26.
It was fitting that we should have such a high priest as the one he's just described, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens, who does not need daily like those high priests, that is of Israel, to offer up sacrifices first for his own sins and then for the sins of the people. He did not have to offer up sacrifice for his sins. He was able to offer up himself as a sacrifice for our sins.
Look at the words used, holy, set apart by God for unique and special mission and purpose, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners. He identified with sinners. Thank God for that. We couldn't be saved if he hadn't. But he was separated from us. A great chasm between us and Jesus Christ in one sense, in that he was without sin and could not sin, and we have sin and do sin. The Lord Jesus Christ never sinned.
This was underscored by those who knew him best, but it was underscored as well by his enemies. Pilate, for example, concluded, I find no fault in this man. The soldier at the cross who helped crucify him said, truly this man was the Son of God, recognizing they had crucified an innocent man. Neither could the high priests and the religious leaders of that day, who were bent on destroying him, prove any sin upon him.
At last they concocted the crime of blasphemy against him, of which he was not truly guilty, and for that they nailed him to the cross. It was underscored by those who knew him best. It was underscored by his enemies, but his sinlessness was also underscored by one of his greatest persecutors of all time, Saul of Tarsus, who became one of his most loyal followers to be sure, but who early on was one of his greatest persecutors. Jesus said to him, Why do you persecute me, Saul?
What did Saul write about the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, he wrote a number of things, but included 2 Corinthians 5.21, where it says, For God has made him who knew no sin to be made sin for us. Paul's conclusion was that Jesus Christ knew no sin. That means more than the fact that he did not sin in action. It means that there was no sin in him. There was no nature in him to sin.
Though temptation could come to him and do its best, there was nothing within the Lord Jesus Christ to respond to that temptation, because he was sinless and he had no sin nature. Who knew no sin, says the Apostle Paul. So of this one Jesus Christ, if we come to the Bible, there's one thing that we see clearly. He was a man without sin. That makes him unique in the annals of history. The only one who could live without sin and be without sin is God, who came in flesh.
There's a second aspect of this character I want to talk about. The Lord Jesus Christ never feared death. Have you ever thought about that? It is normal for a human to fear death. It's normal for Christians to fear death. We don't fear its result. We know what is going to happen when we die. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord, and we're not afraid of the Lord. We're not afraid of being present with him. But it is perfectly normal for every human being to fear death.
We don't want to die. That's why we go to doctors. That's why we have operations. That's why we take care of our bodies, because we want to live. God has made us with that drive, that desire to live and not want to die. But never do you find the Lord Jesus Christ afraid of death. Whereas most people run from death, Jesus actually stalked death until finally he cornered it and allowed death to do its best against him in putting him on the cross. Then Jesus came back to destroy the power of death.
Death today is only a gatekeeper. That's all he is. The authority of death has been wrested from him by our victorious Savior. Jesus Christ was not afraid of death. As someone says, but didn't he say in the garden, pray to the Father, if it be possible let this cup pass from me. Doesn't that indicate he was afraid to die? Not at all. If we understand what the cup was, the cup was not the experience of dying. The cup was becoming sin.
The cup was identifying himself with your sin in mind and all of its vileness, all of its degradation and filthiness. He the pure and holy innocent Son of God realized in the garden that that was about to come upon him. It was that which he prayed about as he spoke of the cup. But it was not that Jesus was afraid of death. We see this underscored a number of times in the gospels, but would you turn with me to the gospel of Luke, for example, in the ninth chapter.
Let's look first at Luke 9 in verse 51, where it says, and it came about when the days were approaching for his ascension, that he resolutely set his face to go to Jerusalem. Look at verse 53, and they did not receive him because he was journeying with his face toward Jerusalem. The picture is very graphic here. His face is set with determination like a rock. He is determined to go to Jerusalem. Ah, but does he know what Jerusalem holds for him?
Does he understand what awaits him when he arrives in Jerusalem? Ah, yes. Look back earlier in the chapter, for example, at verse 22. Jesus says to his followers, the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised up on the third day. Did he know what was going to happen in Jerusalem? Absolutely. Look at the details that he knew about. He knew that he was going to suffer.
He knew he was going to be rejected by the religious leaders. He knew he was going to be killed. He knew he was going to be raised. He knew that that resurrection was going to be on the third day. Look again at verse 31. Here he is seen speaking with Moses and Elijah, and it says, Who appearing in glory were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. What I'm saying to you is that the Lord Jesus Christ was determined to go to Jerusalem. Why?
So that there he might face death head on and conquer it. He was not afraid of dying. We see this yet again in the Gospel of John the very night before he went to the cross. Turn to John chapter 13. In the Gospel of John you see several times the phrase, His hour had not yet come. Jesus knew that his hour had not yet come. Now his hour had come. His appointment, his mission was about to be accomplished.
Verse 1 of chapter 13, now before the feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that his hour had come, that he should depart out of this world to the Father. Notice that. He knew that now was the time. Look at verse 3, Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hand and that he had come forth from God and was going back to God. How? Through the portal of death. He knew this. And yet look in chapter 14 verse 27. See what he says to his disciples knowing what he does.
Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. My peace he says. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful. Now friends he is hours from what he knows is coming. He knows he is about to experience death, cruel death, suffering that was horrible. And yet he speaks to them regarding peace. And you see this happen again in the conversation I will not take time to point it out tonight. But Jesus Christ did not fear death.
That is supra-human because human beings naturally fear death. He did not. Why? He was more than a man. He was God. And then I want you to consider with me the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ, thirdly, was the perfectly balanced person. We're talking about his character now, what he was like. He was perfectly balanced. We see this suggested, for example, in Luke once more in the second chapter in what Luke says regarding his development. Do you remember these words in verse 52?
And Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men. Notice the balance here in this word regarding his growth and maturity as a human being. He kept increasing, it says, in wisdom. That is in his learning, his intellect, his knowledge. He kept increasing in stature. That's the physical aspect of him. And in favor with God, spiritually he was developing from a human standpoint. And with men, socially, he was developing, increasing in favor with men as well.
The Lord Jesus Christ was the perfectly balanced human. Bernard Graham writes these words, If God were a man, we would expect his personality to be true humanity. Only God could tell us what a true man should be like. Only there are anticipations of the perfect man in the piety of the Old Testament. Foremost must be a complete God-consciousness, coupled with a complete dedication and consecration of life to God.
Then ranked below this are the other virtues, graces, and attributes that characterize perfect humanity. Intelligence must not stifle piety, and prayer must not be a substitute for work, and zeal must not be irrational fanaticism, and reserve must not become stolidity. In Christ we have the perfect blend of personality traits, because as God incarnate, he is perfect humanity. Now obviously in our congregation we have some people who are very close to being wonderfully balanced people, right?
Yourself included. But if we take an honest look at ourselves in the mirror, if we do a thorough self-evaluation, or even better, if we ask our wives to do it, or our husbands to do it, or our children to do it, we find that all of us come short of being balanced. We all have our quirks, our strange side, that part of us that we really don't like to show in public. We're all that way, but not the Lord Jesus Christ. You can look at him from any angle you want to. He was perfect.
As he was, that is evidence that he was more than a man. He was God come in the flesh. He was in his personality, in his character traits. He was perfectly balanced. He was all that we would expect God to be in true humanity. So as you think about the deity of Jesus Christ, you can approach it from the aspect of his character. You can show from what the Bible says about him that he had to be more than a man. There's another aspect that I want to talk about tonight, and that is his works as well.
The Lord Jesus Christ did works that can only be attributed to God. For example, turn with me to Mark, the second chapter. This one will close tonight, but it's important to see this. Mark chapter 2, beginning in verse 5. Here we have the account of the paralyzed man who was let down from the roof into the presence of Jesus. Do you remember that? One of the favorite Sunday school stories of boys and girls.
And Jesus, seeing their faith, chapter 2 verse 5, said to the paralytic, my son, your sins are forgiven. He suggests here that this man's condition may have been because of sin in his life. Not always, for sure, is illness because of sin. The Jews believed that in that day, but in this case Jesus sees this man and the condition he is and immediately goes to what must be the heart of the problem, the man's life. And he says to him, your sins are forgiven.
But there were some of the scribes sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, why does this man speak that way? He is blaspheming. Who can forgive sins but God alone? Now it is true that we are to ask forgiveness of other people and when we do that in sincerity, we are to be forgiven by those people. So we forgive on that human basis. But Jesus is here forgiving sins as God and those people recognize that.
His sin against God, his offense against the Lord, and that is the basic direction of all sin. What he deals with here, and these people reason within themselves saying who can do that but God. And immediately Jesus, aware in his spirit that they were reasoning that way within themselves. That in itself is evidence of something, isn't it? He read their thoughts. And he said to them, why are you reasoning about these things in your hearts?
Which is easier to say to the paralytic, your sins are forgiven? Or to say arise and take up your pallet and walk. Well you answer me, which is easier? It's much easier to say your sins are forgiven, right? Because who knows whether they're forgiven or not, but you've said it. But if you say take up your bed and walk, it's going to be apparent pretty quickly whether you can work miracles or not.
But in order that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins, he said to the paralytic, I say to you, rise, take up your pallet and go home. And he rose and immediately took up the pallet and went out in the sight of all. So that they were all amazed and were glorifying God saying we have never seen anything like this. The Lord Jesus Christ performs a miracle here. He does it to underscore his authority to forgive sins.
Jesus said it's easy to speak those words, your sins are forgiven. But to show you that those words mean something, he said to the man, get up, take your bed and go home. And the man did it. The Lord Jesus Christ had the authority to forgive sins and he still does today. He forgives sins. He does that not because he is man, but because he is God. For only God can forgive sins. Isn't it wonderful to know that he's forgiven us based upon his own sacrifice for our sake of the cross.
And that whatever the sins of our lives may be, that he is able to deal with those sins in a cleansing and forgiving way. For if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another and his blood cleanses us from all sin. Praise the Lord tonight that because he is God, you and I have a savior who can forgive our sins. Let's pray. My friend, are your sins forgiven? We're talking about the one alone who can deal with them and deal with them thoroughly.
Will you come to him now? Will you understand his work of love for you? That he as eternal God came into the world taking upon himself the likeness of our humanity that he might save you from your sins. We thank you tonight for who you are and for giving us understanding of that by the Spirit. There are many who ask that question that you ask your disciples and they have all kinds of wrong answers.
But you have led us to know, just as you led Peter to know, that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. And we worship you. O come, let us adore him. Amen.