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When you hear the name Jesus, what comes to mind?
Well, I can tell you what will come to mind.
Depends upon what do you think about him, how much you know about him and what kind of relationship you have with him.
Now, many people have a wonderful relationship with Jesus. He’s their savior, Lord and master many other people.
When they hear his name, they are turned off.
I wonder why anybody would turn off the name of Jesus when he’s the son of God.
When he never made a mistake, he never sinned.
And even the people who just hate his name do not say I hate him because he did this or he did that.
But it’s something deep down inside of them that would cause them not to appreciate and to love the Lord Jesus Christ.
So I’d ask you this. What do you think about? What place does he have in your life?
If somebody should ask you who is this, Jesus, what would you say? Would you say?
Well, uh he’s the savior of the world. He’s the Lord. I trusted him as my personal savior.
I have eternal life and he’s with me every day and he heals me in my sickness and answers my prayers and he’s in heaven.
And that’s who I think he is.
If that’s all you can say, you have a lot to learn this morning.
The primary preference of this message is simply this to give you an understanding of who is this, Jesus.
So when somebody confronts you or when somebody says, you know, I don’t, I don’t believe in him.
And usually I can’t tell you why I wanna give you some reasons why you can tell them why you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the only savior.
There is unlike any and all other religious figures and he is the king of all kings.
And one day we all stand before him as our judge. Why do we believe that?
So I wanna ask you to get your Bible out and if you’re at home, get yourself a pencil or a piece of paper or a pen.
And I want to encourage you to write down the headings of this message and also the scriptures.
Now, I’m not gonna tell you to write down everything you were gonna say about the scriptures, but just jot them down and then be honest enough to ask yourself the question, who is this Jesus that I believe in or who is this Jesus?
I have rejected all of my life.
And first of all, I wanna say that Jesus lived before he was conceived in his mother’s womb.
He lived before he was conceived in his mother’s womb.
He was pre existent that is before his birth, he existed.
So let’s go back to the very first book of the Bible.
And let’s go back to the very first chapter in the Bible and listen to what he says in the 26th verse.
Then God said, having described his creation, let us make man in our image according to our likeness.
And let them rule over the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, over the cattle and over all the earth and over every living thing that creeps on the earth.
Well, let me ask you a question. Who is us? Somebody says, well, angels know angels don’t create anything.
When God said, let us He could not mean.
But one thing, God, the Father God, the Son God, the holy spirit, the three, the three persons that make up the Trinity that is one God, let us make man in our image.
So if you will turn to John chapter one for a moment, and let’s look at what John says about Jesus and notice and I wanna explain a couple of words or so here he says uh verse one of chapter one in the beginning was the word and the way John said this, he said it in a very perfect way when he uses the term word here, it means when he says in the beginning was the word, it doesn’t mean something happened back there.
But in the beginning of time, Jesus was there, he’d been there and he turned it to pass.
He didn’t just start there. Listen to what he says in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God.
Jesus is referred to here as the word and he was with God and he was God.
So the claim here is as John says that he and the father were one and we’ll come to that later.
He was in the beginning with God.
And all things came into being through him and apart from him, nothing came into being that has come into being in Him was life and the life was the light of men.
The light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it.
Listen, when you start with Genesis, 11 right here, Jesus was back then eternity pass with him.
What other religious leader in the world has existed before time ever began?
None whatsoever that puts Jesus in a whole different position than any other religious leader who has ever lived in the beginning was the word not a dot But a present tense, an imperfect tense in the degree he, he, he he was going on before that.
So uh uh the scripture says also in Luke chapter one the 31st verse when Gabriel came to speak to Mary, the Bible says that Jesus was named by the father given to him by the angel Gabriel.
He named Jesus. This son, it is gonna be born to you. His name Jesus.
Then he says, not only that his kingdom would have no end.
And so Jesus was not your normal baby and many people still have Jesus in a crib.
Listen, that’s the living God. His entrance into the world was in the form of a baby.
He never ceased to be God, even though he was in the form of a baby.
Now, one of the things that would stir up the Pharisees and you and make them hate him is something like this.
Look in John chapter eight for a moment and um when Jesus speak is speaking here and um this eighth chapter and notice if you will in this, um let’s start with um verse uh verse 58 listen to what’s happening.
Um He’s talking to the Jewish rabbis and so forth. You.
Verse 56 your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day and he saw it and was glad.
So the Jews said to him, you’re not yet 50 years old. How have you seen Abraham?
Listen to this, Jesus said to them, truly, truly, I said to you before Abraham was born, I am not.
I was but I am because he’s always been and listen to what they did therefore, they picked up stones to throw at him.
But Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.
They could not stand the thought that he said that he lived before Abraham did. But of course he did.
And then in the 17th chapter of John, look there for just a moment, 17th chapter of John.
And the 24th verse, listen to what he says, father is Jesus praying.
I desire that they also whom you have given me be with me where I am so that they see, they see my glory, which you have given me for.
You loved me before the foundation of the world.
You either have to believe that Jesus Christ is who he says is or is not.
So if he’s ever lied about one thing, you could, you could absolutely discredit him.
He says before Abraham was way back in the thousands of years ago, he said I am and he says, you love me.
He says the father loves me before the foundation of the world. So when somebody says, who is this, Jesus?
Well, he’s not just a baby.
So Abraham was back on the thousands of years ago, Jesus was back beyond him and eternity passed.
So when somebody says, well, when did Jesus begin? He had no beginning. Well, how do you understand that?
I don’t claim to understand that.
For the simple reason, the Bible says that God has reserved some things for himself that he will not reveal.
And so therefore, uh put it this way, the Bible is very clear that Jesus existed back before Abraham.
And he, and listen, he and the Father and the Holy Spirit created all of this, all the constellations and everything up that, that go in such perfect order.
So somebody says, well, I don’t, I don’t believe that God created this.
Well, sir, tell me, who do you think created it?
Well, I don’t think anybody created it because you can’t exceed God.
Well, then how do you think it got there?
It just happened, my friend, it takes more faith to believe that all of this just happened than to believe that God created it.
Let me tell you why because it has such absolute perfect design. Everything is perfect about what God created.
And if you study uh science in the skies, you think how in the world, in other words, there’s no way all of this could have just happened because everything is perfectly designed and in order by God.
So we say He was born into a world that he created.
And uh and he said, apart from him, nothing came into being, look if you will in Colossians, one and what Paul said about Him, Colossians one.
And uh just uh just pass Philippians there and notice what he says in this uh first chapter of Colossians.
He says, speaking of Jesus in verse 14, in whom we have redemption, that’s our salvation, the forgiveness of sins.
Now watch this. He is the image of the invisible God, the first born of all creation.
I’m coming back to that. But by him, all things were created both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether Thrones or dominions are rulers or authorities.
All things have been created through him and for him.
Now, what does he mean when he says he was the first born of all creation, the first, what he’s referring to here is simply this in the Hebrew family, the first born son.
Uh he managed, he was the one who received the most.
And so when he says the first born of all creation, Jesus is the manager of this creation.
He is head of it all.
And if you’ll notice also all the way over to uh Hebrews, go to Hebrews for a moment.
And just that first chapter, I want you to look at a verse or two here, verse one of Hebrews chapter one, God after he spoke long ago in the fathers, in the prophets in many portions.
And in many ways, in these last days, he has spoken to us in his son that is in Jesus, whom he appointed heir of all things through whom he made the world.
If you believe the word of God, you have to believe that Jesus Christ was in the process with the God, the Father and the Holy Spirit making this world creating this world which has such absolute design to believe that all of that was by chance has absolutely no whatsoever.
So you have to decide whether you’re gonna believe what men say and cannot prove or what the Bible says.
And all through the scriptures, listen, there are no errors. This is the living word of God.
And so when we say that he was born into a world he created, that’s the way he did it.
And this is a world which expresses the wisdom of God, the power of God, the beauty of God and the presence of God.
The third statement I want to make is this, Jesus was born of an earthly mother and the Heavenly father, earthly mother.
And the Heavenly Father, the scripture says in Luke, that first chapter when Gabriel and Mary were talking because she said, well, how can these things happen since I’m a virgin?
Have not been with man? Because it was the work of the Heavenly Father through the Holy Spirit, which meant that Jesus was born of a virgin.
And some people say, well, I don’t, I don’t think that’s all that important.
Let me tell you why it’s all important.
Jesus came into this world and ordered to forgive us of our sins, to cleanse us of our sins and watch this carefully.
All those sacrifices in the Old Testament were foreshadows of the ultimate sacrifice that would come.
So all that killing of goats and bulls and so forth that didn’t make anybody safe, but it was a foreshadowing and theirs was a faith in the coming Messiah.
And so when you ask the question, well, well, why did, why did Jesus have to die?
Because when Adam and Eve sinned, every single person born after them had an old sin nature, every single one of us has a sin nature that is every single one of us is possessed with a little bit of a or a very strong, strong desire for things that are not right.
Things that don’t fit with God’s plan for our life, things that are sinful and I do and all the rest, everybody was born with it.
This is why your little two year old that you think that God sent you just straight from heaven.
Sometimes he can be as obnoxious as he can be because you say do not touch that base, you turn your head crash.
So what would make a two year old child who doesn’t even know what sin is all about because he has a sinful nature.
Now watch this, watch this carefully.
This is why Jesus had to be born of a virgin, had to be born of a virgin because in being born without manned seed, he had no sin nature.
If Jesus had been born naturally, and normally he would have had a sin nature and therefore he couldn’t die for your sins and mine, he’d had to die for his own sin.
The fact that He was virgin born and absolutely sinless.
And somebody says, well, how do you know it was sinless? Well, let me ask you a question.
What did he do wrong? What sin did he commit? What mistake did he make?
His life was perfect because it was God in human flesh.
That’s how God came to this earth, in human flesh.
Jesus had to be the perfect son of God sinless in order to die for your sins and mine.
God sent him for that purpose. He was the ultimate final divine sacrifice.
Uh that would be taking place at the cross on the cross.
And when he died, he paid your sin debt and mine and the sins of the whole world.
He was the only acceptable sacrifice because he was the only sinless sacrifice. Animals didn’t do it.
It was the life of the Lord Jesus. And remember Jesus is God in the human flesh.
So it was absolutely perfect. He was absolutely sinless.
And therefore that made Him an acceptable sacrifice in the eyes of the Father. And he died crucified.
And we think, well, the Romans did it. No, God did it. God sent him to die.
The Romans were simply the ones who nailed him and who were the tools for crucifying him.
But it was God, the father who crucified him because he came into this world for that specific reason.
So when somebody says, well, I don’t believe in the virgin birth.
Well, you don’t believe in the real Jesus then.
And secondly, you don’t believe in the virgin birth because you don’t believe the word of God.
You don’t believe in the virgin birth. Listen, if there were no virgin birth, you wouldn’t be saved.
The son of God came in order to save us from our sins and the virgin birth was a part of that.
Now, unbelief in the virgin breath, somebody says, is that important?
And you know, you can go to colleges and seminaries and schools. Well, the virgin breath is not important.
Do you remember this? If Jesus Christ was not sinless, he would have had to die for his own sin and he couldn’t die for your sin, my sin and his sin.
He listen, that would have been like sacrificing a sheep that was sick had been sick for six months.
They would never do that. Had to be a perfect animal in those days with a spotless as the Bible says, and Jesus had to be the perfect sacrifice for us.
Very important that he was virgin born.
Now, another thing I want you to notice here is this Jesus was both God and the Son of God.
Now, people say, well, how could that possibly be?
Well, I want you to turn to uh John chapter 10 for a moment.
Look in John chapter 10, let’s go to uh 20 verse 27 Jesus speaking to uh those who are with him, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me, I give eternal life to them and they will never perish and no one will be able to snatch them out of my father’s hand.
Once you’re a child of God, eternally a child of God, the devil can’t take you out of God’s hand.
Nothing and nobody can. Then he says, my father who has given them to me is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them out of my father’s hand.
Look at this next verse, I and the father are one.
You get that I and the father of one, Jesus is the visible living God and notice what happened.
The Jews picked up stones again to stone Him.
They could not stand the idea that Jesus would claim to be uh God. It it was beyond their comprehension.
Then uh moving over to the 12 chapter of John for a moment and I want you to look if you will in um verse 42 nevertheless, many even of the rulers believed in Him.
But because of the Pharisees, they were not confessing him for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue.
Now, let me just say this to you. You should never be ashamed of Jesus Christ.
Never under any condition, be ashamed of Him or deny him.
Listen for they love the approval of men rather than the approval of God watch this.
You go to work tomorrow, you start talking about Jesus or you would like to but you don’t because you’re afraid of being rejected.
What you watch this? Are you listening? Say amen.
You join up with those who love approval of others and the approval of God. That’s exactly what they did.
And Jesus cried out and said He who believes in me does not believe in me but in Him who sent me?
That is I’m representing God. He who sees me, sees the one who sent me.
He who sees me sees the one who sent me.
And if you go over to uh uh let’s see the 14th chapter, look at the 14th chapter for a moment.
And um this is a wonderful chapter about Jesus coming and heaven and so forth.
And then when you come into the seventh verse, he says, if you had known me, you would have known my father also.
And now he says from now on you know Him and have seen Him, Philip said to Him, Lord show us the father and it is enough for us.
And Jesus said to him, have I been so long with you?
And yet you have not come to know me, Philip. He who has seen me has seen the Father.
How can you say? Sure is the Father?
Because listen to this, Jesus is the living God, the living person of the invisible father, the Lord God Almighty whom he sent for that reason, then if you move all the way over to Colossians again, and I want you to just notice a verse here.
Very important. We are talking about who he is and why you ought to believe in Him without any question in your mind.
In this first chapter. Look if you will in the 15th verse because here it says it clearly listen to this.
He Jesus is the image physical living ma uh male image of the invisible God, the first born of all creation.
Now, what does he say, first born of all creation?
Here’s the reason because in the Hebrew family, the firstborn son, for example, uh he was sort of the maintainer.
And so that’s the image that he’s speaking of here, that Jesus is supreme in this life.
He’s, he manages this world and he’s the one to whom we pay allegiance.
And so he is the image of the invisible God.
So when you, when people say, well, I don’t believe in that Jesus, then you don’t believe in almighty God because he and the father are one.
If you’ve seen him, you’ve seen the father. And if you believe in Him, you believe in the father.
And so he says, he’s the image of the invisible God, I think for just a moment how blessed we are that you and I, we could have been born 3000 years ago and all of those saints of God who believed in God and trusted God, they sacrificed animals in the shedding of that blood.
All of that was a foreshadowing of what was to come.
But suppose you took your bible and you turned to Malachi.
The last chapter, the last verse, sliced your bible at that point and threw away the New Testament.
Think about, think about how foreign God would be to you.
But listen, the fact that Jesus came in the living visible presence of a man.
He was still God, but he was man, he was the God man.
God sent him in order to give us a view of the heavenly Father.
Like we would never have known before as wise and as good and as Godly and as natural in many ways as those old Testament, prophets and saints, they were always looking forward to something, looking forward to the coming of the messiah.
You and I have been had the privilege of living in the time when Jesus Christ was born, crucified, resurrected.
And now for these 2000 years, we’ve been sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ that has been transforming lives everywhere.
It’s all wrapped up in the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and his personhood.
He is not just another man, he is God, the living God in visible form.
So we could have even a better relationship with him. Now, Jesus teaching often, often times was perplexing.
People couldn’t figure out well what in the world does that mean?
So let me just give you a few examples.
Um, in the fifth chapter, which is the sermon on the mount of Matthew turn there for just a moment and I wanna look at a couple of things.
He says something right here that even we often times probably have to wrestle with Matthew chapter 5 11 and 12.
And, you know, once in a while I’ll hear somebody say, well, I don’t believe the Bible except I do believe the sermon on the mount.
It’s so beautiful and I believe the 10 commandments. Well, listen, are you listening carefully watch this?
There are no two passages of scripture in the whole Bible that demand the most of us and these two.
So look at this fifth chapter and the 11th and 12th verse.
So these are things that were difficult for those folks to accept and us today verse 11, bless her to you when people insult you persecute you falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me rejoice and be glad for your reward in heaven is great for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Now let me ask you a question.
How many of you just tickle pink when somebody persecutes you, you just love it.
You just can’t wait to get some more of it.
Are you and wanna go home from your job because you’ve had your, your feelings hurt and they don’t appreciate you and they’ve insulted you and they’ve hurt your feelings.
Do you know why you had to rejoice? He, this is what he says.
He says, rejoice, be glad when they do these things to you.
So why would you want to rejoice and be glad? Do you know why?
I’ll tell you why? Because listen to what he says, Paul said, listen, he said, God causes all things to work together for good to those who love him and to the call according to his purpose.
And, and somebody says, well, how can it be good that somebody’s insulted me? I’m gonna tell you why.
Do you wanna know why some of you do it?
Do you want to know why you should rejoice when people abuse you misuse you?
Do you really want to know why? All right, this side wants to know why this time.
Come on, tell me what you do. You want to know or not.
Here’s a reason because when you respond in a joyful way or a forgiving way, here’s what happens.
The Bible says, first of all, God’s going to reward you greatly for it.
And secondly, here’s the other reason, more than likely you’re going to be in the presence of more than one person.
And uh all the people hear about it and when somebody sees you very, very highly insulted, hurt your feelings and just demeans you in all kind of ways.
And you said, well, I appreciate you expressing your opinion. Thank you very much. Here’s what the last person says.
Well, wait a minute. That can’t be true because if they have done that to me, I don’t want to suck them on.
And so what happens? He says, he says we are to rejoice. Why?
Because God has given us the opportunity to be in a position to be a wonderful testimony.
And I can look back at sometimes in my life, I have to admit as a pastor, folks have done certain things to me.
I didn’t rejoice at the moment. I’ll admit that.
But I got a, I got on my knees and I got home.
I said, ok, Lord, you know what I’m thinking and I don’t want that in my life.
I’m asking you to forgive me for that and let’s just move on.
So I, I, I, I like to think I’ve gotten over all of that in my life.
But I think those are the kind of things we have to deal with.
Now, look, if you will in uh verse 4 to 3 of this fifth chapter also, he says, you’ve heard that it was said you should love your neighbor and hate your enemies.
But I say to you love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.
You said now, wait a minute, God doesn’t expect me to love my enemies.
Well, let me tell you how he does. That doesn’t mean I’m like my enemies.
I don’t like anything about them. I don’t like what they do. I don’t like what they believe.
I don’t like what they stand for and I would, I would not like that in my life at all.
I can separate everything they represent from them as a lost person who needs to be saved.
That’s what I love. I don’t love, I don’t love the, maybe the way they dress.
I don’t love what they drink.
I don’t love any of that kind of stuff or their religion or whatever it might be.
I can love the person because here’s somebody who needs Jesus Christ as their savior. Otherwise, what did he mean?
And I’m sure Jesus was dealing with them in a way because the, the Pharisees, they were just obnoxious, putting burdens on people.
And so they had to deal with that. And so that’s why he said it.
Now he says something else here that people have a hard time with in Matthew chapter 20.
And that is, he says, you really wanna be great.
Look in the 20th chapter of Matthew and uh, look if you will in the 27th verse, he says, um, 27th verse, whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave.
It’s interesting. The word he used, used for slave is which means that the, the, the most humble of the slaves.
He’s the, he is the slave who met you at the door and washed your feet.
He says, he that’s greatest among you will be your slave.
And you think about people today gotta be first, gotta be first, gotta have high priority.
You gotta have recognition, gotta have this, gotta have that.
Jesus said, whoever wishes to be first among you should be your He says it’s the attitude.
Listen, those who conquer have the attitude of hum humility and wanting design to be used in a way that pleases an honest God.
And you may have a job, for example, in your industry, whatever that may be.
And you think, well, I will never be a superintendent. I’ll never be the boss. I’ll never be this.
That and the other. Well, you don’t know whether you will or not. It may be.
You change your attitude, change your spirit. No, tell you what God may be with you.
But it’s the attitude that is I’m willing to be a servant. And we think about servants.
We all have negative attitudes. Je Jesus was the servant of all servants.
And he said from his perspective, he wishes to be first among you shall be your slave.
God is honored when you and I submit ourselves to serving other people, whatever that may require of us, then if you will turn to uh mark chapter eight for a moment.
And uh here is another passage that’s demanding of us.
And this is why I say passages of scripture that uh were very difficult for them to accept.
Um Mark chapter eight verse 35 and verse 34 says, he summoned the crowd with his disciples and said to them, if anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.
What does it mean by denying himself?
That simply means this, I deny myself of anything and everything that keeps me from being what God wants me to be.
Uh It doesn’t, it doesn’t work in my life.
And he says, for, listen, for whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake, and the gospels will save it for what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?
And you see, they didn’t understand all that. And people today said, you know what? That’s just gibberish.
No, it’s not. It’s a sense of humility.
It’s a sense of giving ourselves away to the Lord Jesus Christ to use us anyway.
He sees fit to do so.
And uh let’s go back to Matthew the sermon on the mount again, that fifth chapter because here is something that had to be very, very difficult for them to accept in those days.
When he says in Matthew chapter five verse five, blessed are the gentle for they shall inherit the earth, gentle in a Roman Empire where swords was what life was all about and warfare and slavery and poverty and this thing of being gentle for, they shall inherit the earth.
A gentle heart is a humble heart. A gentle heart is an easy heart.
A gentle heart is looking out for someone else. A gentle heart is not rash and defensive, a gentle heart.
And so they didn’t understand that in those days. And I think a lot of people don’t today either.
Blessed are the gentle he says for they shall inherit the earth.
And you see, we think well, uh you, you never get anywhere in life to unless you get tough and just, you know, be it over someone else and lord it over them.
That’s, that’s what the world thinks. That’s not what God thinks. That’s not the way he operates.
Then he says, for example, in, in uh Matthew 10 34 watch this carefully. Do. This is Jesus.
Now, do not think that I came to bring peace.
Oops, what do not think that I came to bring peace?
Don’t we call him the prince of peace? Yes.
Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth.
I did not come to bring peace but a sword.
Now, what in the world could that mean that he’s gonna bring us to?
And when he’s a prince of peace, here’s what it means.
For example, whenever there’s a group and that group is unsafe and somebody gets saved, he says it’s like a sword in their relationship, shut them out.
He says, I came to bring a sword, not peace.
The peace that comes, comes to all of us who trust him as their savior and walk in his spirit.
It does not mean we will not be a weapon or a sword as he says, in somebody else’s life that changes their way of living.
And so he gets the wife saved and, and the, the sword comes in and she lives a Godly life.
Next thing you know, the husband gets saved and the kids get saved.
And I can just tell you a lot of stories of people. That’s exactly what happened. The sword came.
But listen, it was the sword of the world of God dipped in the love of God in the heart of that person who received Christ makes all the difference in the world.
So then let’s look at uh a couple other things, Jesus name is like no other name.
There’s no name like His. And if you look in Philippians two for a moment.
And uh let’s start with verse nine for this reason. Also God highly exalted Him.
That’s Jesus and look bestowed on him.
The name which is of your name that is God, the father gave Jesus his name Jesus God, the father bestowed on him.
The name Jesus Gabriel told Mary that’s to be his name.
Look at this bestowed on him, the name of Jesus, which is above every name.
So that at the name of Jesus, every knee not might, every knee will bow of those who are in heaven on earth and under the earth.
And that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God.
Now, what does that say? You may not like Him, but I’m gonna tell you this, you can mark this down because God said it.
One of these days, you’re gonna confess that Jesus Christ is the Lord, no matter what you’ve said about Him here.
And now one of these days, you will bow your knees before the Lord.
Jesus Christ is your judge, how foolish to live without Him, you will confess.
If you say, well, I’ll die before I confess Him, you’ll die before you confess Him and go to hell on your own choice.
And only be because you chose to deny, you chose to reject the Son of God who is God in the flesh, who came in visible form.
So you and I could understand better who God is and what He’s like.
And all the rest, every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God.
He says, it will happen and indeed it will happen.
And for example, he says, uh when he sent the disciples out uh preaching the gospel, made it very clear what that gospel was about.
And here’s what he said in the 24th chapter of Luke, he said, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in his name Jesus to all the nations beginning from Jerusalem.
And let’s think about this. For example, when you were baptized, how were you baptized?
They baptized in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
You were baptized in the Trinity, baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit.
Listen, the name of Jesus isn’t just the name. It is the name of the living God.
It is the name of the visible God here on earth when you walk this earth.
And so when you think about, for example, when you pray in this uh 14 chapter of John and, and he says, whatever you ask in my name that is you’re asking according to his will according to his purpose, according to what pleases and honors him.
He says he’s going to answer it. So when we pray, he’s there, we give thanks in his name.
Uh we are baptized in his name.
And then in the 18th chapter of Matthew, uh something that’s going on right now.
Uh in this service, he listen to what he says in verse 20 of Matthew 18 for where two or three have gathered together in my name.
I am there in their midst. So you and I can say uh good morning Jesus because he’s here.
How many times is? He’s here? He’s here and every single one of our hearts who’s saved.
This is why we give an invitation.
We give an invitation to invite you to accept Jesus Christ as your personal savior.
So when you step out of this place, Christ is in your heart to be everything He is and will be in the life of a believer now, uh to some people, he, he’s just a, a figure.
What I want you to see is this everything we’ve set up to this point.
He’s not just a figure. He’s God.
He is God in the flesh who died on the cross for our sins, who died and was buried and resurrected.
And I would say to all these other religions who claim this and claim that and claim the other, where is your leader dead in the grave?
Whereas Jesus resurrected seated the father’s right hand making an asce for us.
That is the testimony of the word of God.
Now, he, he reminds us and warns us in this 10th chapter of Matthew.
He warns us of what uh what people’s attitude is gonna be.
He says we will be hated by all men for his sake.
So everything that’s going on these days is just exactly what He said. We do these things will happen.
But you and I to take a stand, listen, if you believe the Son of God, you believe in Jesus Christ as your personal savior, you and I should never be ashamed of him.
And when somebody uses Jesus name as a curse word or phrase, I’m here to tell you they’re in void.
Oh, that’s not who God is. Yes he is. He says he bestowed on him, the name Jesus.
That makes it the number one name with all the high priorities that could be given to Jesus.
He gave it to him. And then he says, uh when his disciples, you will recall in this fourth chapter of acts, his disciples have been preaching the gospel and they heal this man at the temple gate.
And um the scripture says, and he began to ask him about money.
And in this third chapter of Acts, in the 4th 5th verse, Peter along with John fixed his gaze on him and said, look at us and he began to give them his attention expecting to receive some money.
But Peter said, I do not possess silver and gold.
But what I have I give to you in the name of Jesus Christ, the Nazarene walk and seizing him by the right hand, he raised him up, he began to walk to the synagogue and praising the Lord and decided to see and Pharisees but have a fit because they could not do anything about it whatsoever.
And they finally had him arrested at which was a good thing in a way because what it did, it gave them an audience with the leadership.
They wouldn’t have had that otherwise. And So here’s what happens.
They imprison them and they all get together to hear what they’ve got to say.
So they at least gave Peter a moment to speak and here’s what he said.
Let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ, the Nazarene whom you crucified, whom God raised up from the dead by his name.
This man stands here before you in good health.
He is, listen, he Jesus is the stone which was rejected by you, the builders, but which became the chief cornerstone.
And there is salvation in no one else for.
There is only one name, no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.
But the name of Jesus Christ, no other name that will bring salvation.
But the name of Jesus Christ himself, then I’d say the last thing this and that is Jesus came into the world the first time as a baby.
He will return as reigning king and judge of all mankind.
And you can look in the 25th chapter of Matthew that long passage there about Jesus coming and separating the sheep from the goats.
And the fact that he is the judge of all mankind. Now, who is this, Jesus?
This Jesus is everything we’ve said this morning because I’ve given you a text and scripture about every single one of them the next time somebody challenges you about Jesus and says, who do you think he is?
Pull out your notes? And what you ought to do is take these notes home this afternoon, write them in the back of your Bible and sort of abbreviate whatever you wanna to abbreviate, get them in your mind.
And every one of these points is very important because it says this is who Jesus is.
This is the person you accepted. This is the savior, who is your savior.
He is the only savior and by his name and his name alone, we get to heaven and here’s what he said, no one comes to the father, but by me and listen, the same thing that stirred up the sad in those days and made it them wanted to stone him to death.
That very statement stirs up people today. You mean to tell me there’s only one way, only one way.
Well, that’s selfish. That’s a greedy God or that’s a prejudice God. No, it’s not.
He sent his son, the Lord Jesus to down the cross to save you from your sins.
There is no other way, no other place and no other person. You say, well, I’m not so bad.
You need to get no look, you have an old sin nature and that old sin nature is gonna take you straight down and away, separated from God for all eternity.
You have no, the church you say, well, I’m a good person. That’s good in your eyes.
But the Bible says, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, the soul that sin, it shall die.
The wages of sin is death. Every knee shall bow, every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is the Lord.
He is God. It is a point that the man wants to die.
And after this, the judgment think if you don’t trust Jesus, you should save you.
Think what is your alternative when you face death?
If you’re wise, you will ask the Lord to forgive you of your sins, forgive you for demeaning his name and put your life in his hands and you can do that right where you are, you ask him to forgive you of your sins and maybe the things you’ve said about Him sins that you’ve committed in your life, tell him that today you are trusting his death at Calvary as full payment for your sin.
You’re surrendering your life to Jesus, who is God in the flesh, who came for the purpose of saving you, putting your life in his hands.
And from this point on by his help and his guidance and his strength of the Holy Spirit.
You choose to live a Godly life through the last moment of your life.
I pray that you’ll be wise enough to do just that.
And father, how grateful we are today, you sent us the savior and you have made it crystal clear in the word who he is, why he came and why he deserves our allegiance, our submission.
A total surrender. We bless you today, father and we bless Jesus, your son.
Amen.