There are many that deny the deity of Christ and have only His humanity to accept, they change the one who made the heavens and the earth, the one who was sent from heaven to become man to die for their sins, into a mere creature.
In Mal.3:1: “Behold, I will send My messenger, and he shall prepare the way before Me: and the Lord, whom you seek, shall suddenly come to His temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom you delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts.” Malachi speaks of two messengers- one that will prepare the way for the Lord, this is none other than John the Baptizer who is foretold in Isa.40:3-4. He is, “The voice crying out in the wilderness: prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” Mt. 11:10 quotes this as a confirmation of John the Baptizer, the herald of Jesus Christ. “For this is he of whom it is written: 'Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, who will prepare Your way before You.'
Notice that Malachi tells us that the Lord himself, the one who made covenant with Israel in the Old Testament will come to visit his temple personally. Matthew states to prepare the Lord's way-Isaiah says God will come to them. When did this happen? In Jesus’ ministry many times He came and did ministry on the steps of the temple, Jesus even healed the people in the temple (Mt.21:23;26:55).
At the end of his ministry he went into the temple to drive out the merchandising. He said, “It is written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer,' but you have made it a 'den of thieves.’”(Mt 21:12; Mark 11:17; Luke 14:23; Mk.11:11). The Temple was His own possession and he had a personal interest in what was taking place.
At one point in Jesus ministry he said to the Pharisees challenging him, “Yet I say to you that in this place there is One greater than the temple” (Mt 12:6). The temple was Israel’s greatest achievement, it stood for everything in their religion and was their greatest accomplishment (Mt.23:16-21) for it was where God's presence would be found. Jesus was that presence that had left the temple in Ezekiels day only return and find it in the state it was in.
Jesus often pointed to the Scriptures, the fact that “it is written” of his life and the events surrounding Him (Mark 14:27; Luke 24:45-47). That what He did was prophesied. He began His ministry by revealing himself in the Scripture- Luke 4:21 And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing”
Jesus said in John 5:39 the Scriptures testify of Me. Verses 46-47 “For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me. “But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?” Could Jesus be an angel? Does the whole Bible points to an angel like the Jehovah’s Witnesses state? Equally absurd is that He is only a man.
Jesus further states in John 15:26 that the Holy Spirit when sent- “the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me.” Can the Spirit of God testify to the world of a man (can only a man be the savior of the world?) Does not the Old Testament tell us whom the savior is? “For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior” (Isa.43:11).
“I, even I, am the LORD, and besides Me there is no Savior” (Isa.45:17). The New Testament makes it clear 1 Jn.4:14: “That the Father sent the Son as the Savior of the world.” Angels are not Saviors, nor can an ordinary man save mankind from our sins, “For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord” (Lk.2:11).
At his arrest Mt. 26:52-54 But Jesus said to him, “Put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword. “Or do you think that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He will provide Me with more than twelve legions of angels? “How then could the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must happen thus?”
Psalm 40:6-7 “Sacrifice and offering You did not desire; my ears You have opened; burnt offering and sin offering You did not require. Then I said, "Behold, I come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me.” This quoted and applied to Jesus in Hebrews 10:7: Then I said, 'Behold, I have come-- in the volume of the book it is written of Me-- to do Your will, O God.’” Again to deny Jesus is God is to deny what Scripture says of Him.
On the road to Emmaus with two disciples “Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?” And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself” (Luke 24:26-27). Yes, the Scripture speaks of Jesus and it tells us who He would be in flesh, not just a man, not just a prophet but one who was sent from heaven by the Father- the Son of God.
The Spirit who is attributed to being the author of Holy Scripture writes, Jn. 16:5-7: “…if I go away I will send him to you.” Jn.15:26: “But when He the comforter (the Spirit) comes, whom I (the Son) shall send to you from the Father.” Jesus goes on to say the Spirit of truth proceeds from the Father and will testify of Me” Jesus tells us the Spirit “He shall glorify me: for He shall receive of mine, and shall of what is mine and declare it unto you.”
1 Jn.5:6: “And it is the Spirit that bears witness, because He is the truth.”
Matt 16:28: “Assuredly, I say to you, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.” Whose kingdom would this be if it is not the same as God’s kingdom? Jesus said, “I will build MY church.” He is the head of the Church and has ownership of it, if the church has the confession of Peter (thou are the Son of the Living God Mt.16 - Ephesians 5:23; Colossians 1:18). Yet the Church is called “the Church of God,” (1 Cor.1:2, 10:32; 1 Tim. 3:5). The Church is called, “the house of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Tim 3:15). But you are not the church if you deny Jesus is God in the flesh.
Jesus says in Rev. 2:23: “and all the Churches shall know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts. And I will give to each one of you according to your works.” Only God is able to search the heart and give rewards. This is a quote from Jer. 17:10: “I, the LORD, search the heart,” I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.” As the psalmist writes, “For He knows the secrets of the heart” (Ps. 44:21; Ps. 139:23).
Jesus says he is coming back and He gives us insight into what he means in the book of Revelation which is the unveiling of none other than Jesus Christ. Rev.1:8 Jesus says, “I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end,” says the Lord, who is and who was and who is to come the Almighty.” This phrase Alpha and Omega through the book of Revelation correlates to this fact. The title alpha and omega means he is the beginner and end of all things. The word Alpha means he is eternal, he pre-existed and is before all things as in Jn.1:2 “He was in the beginning” with God.
Rev.22:12 tells us that the one who is coming is the alpha and omega. Rev.1:17-18 shows John falling down at the feet of “the first and last,”
Rev 1:17-18 And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. But He laid His right hand on me, saying to me, "Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last. “I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death.
When did the one called the Alpha and Omega die? Isaiah 63:8-9 For He said, “… So He became their Savior. In all their affliction He was afflicted, and the messenger of His Presence saved them; in His love and in His pity He redeemed them; and He bore them and carried them all the days of old”(Isa. 53). Zech. 12:10 It is “then they will look on Me whom they have pierced; they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn.”
Rev 1:7-8 “Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen. “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,” says the Lord, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”
It is Jesus who is coming, He is the same one who says “And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work. "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last." (Rev 22:12-13, the root and offspring of David- Rev.22:216) “Surely I am coming quickly." Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!” (Rev. 22:20)
John 10:30-33 when Jesus said “I and My Father are one” (In Greek We are one). Then the Jews took up stones again to stone Him. Jesus answered them, “Many good works I have shown you from My Father. For which of those works do you stone Me?” The Jews answered Him, saying, “For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy, and because You, being a Man, make Yourself God.”
“You, being a Man, make Yourself God.” The Pharisees did not acknowledge what He was saying about himself but they did understand whom Jesus claimed to be, they rejected it.
This is not the first time they picked up stones (Jn.10). Previously in John 8:58-59 when Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.” Then they took up stones to throw at Him.”
No wonder He later said to them, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to them” (Matt 23:37).
Those who do not believe who He said He is, continue to pick up stones today though (not physically) because they cannot accept that Jesus said He was God in their own language and genre. They understood what He was claiming back then; today they ignore the Bible and do not understand His words. Surely the same people who deny His deity when faced with His claims will try to kill him and His representatives. In the end they will be part of those armies who will fight this one who is coming back, the only God revealed in human flesh at the Battle of Meggido, (known as Armageddon). Jesus said- you are either for me or against me. Today you have that choice.
Isa. 53:1: “Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?”
Let Us Reason
No comments:
Post a Comment