People, when confronted by Jesus Christ, have always asked
in startled bewilderment, “Who is this man called Jesus?”
The blind man, sent by Jesus to the pool of Siloam to be
healed, afterward wondered, “Who is he…?” (John 9:36.) The throngs at the
Passover Feast asked upon Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem to be crucified, “..Who is this?”. (Matthew
21:9-11.) Saul of Tarsus, the leader of
the opposition to Jesus, crossed the Arabian desert at noontime to persecute
Christians in Damascus.
When Jesus, from heaven, called Saul by name, Saul exclaimed in wonder, “Who
are you, Lord?” (Acts 26:15.)
I was invited in Bangkok,
Thailand by a
Buddhist monk named Prasawandat to visit his temple. Two Thai brothers in Jesus
and I were received with courtesy by him the following day. After a few words
of conversation, Prasawandat inquired, “Who is this man called Jesus?” From
secular historians, Old Testament prophets, and the New Testament apostle
eye-witnesses, we declared the message of Jesus Christ, the Son of the living
God. The apostle Matthew begins his
inspired gospel of Jesus – and the New Testament writings, with just eight words
in his Greek manuscript. Translated into English for us, Matthew writes, “A
record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” (Matthew
1:1.) In the 25 verses in Matthew 1, four significant truthsabout the identity
of Jesus are declared.
1.
JESUS, THE MAN OF HUMANITY AND HISTORY.
Beginning with Abraham the Father of the Jewish race (Genesis
12:1ff.), the genealogy of Jesus is traced to David, to the exile in Babylon, to the birth of
the Christ. (Matthew 1:1-17.) The gospel writer Luke was a physician, well
acquainted with careful research and detail. He begins his gospel explaining
how “…I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning…most
excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things you have
been taught.” (Luke 1:1-4.) Matthew traces Jesus’ ancestry from Abraham through
the lineage of Abraham,
Judah, and
David, to “…Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called
Christ.” (Matthew 1:14.) Luke adds the complementary genealogy of Jesus through
the lineage of Mary, writing, “…He was the son, so it was thought, of Joseph…”
tracing Jesus’ fleshly ancestors all the way back to “…Adam, the son of God”.
(Luke 3:21-37.) Jesus has roots in humanity, as the names of his fleshly
ancestors are thus listed.
The Holy Spirit through Paul the apostle writes to the Roman
saints of Jesus, “…who as to his human nature was a descendant of David, and
who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God
by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 1:1-4.) Paul urged young Timothy, “Remember Jesus
Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David…” (2 Timothy 2:8.)
Secular historians agree in affirming the historical reality
of Jesus. H.G. Wells, in his Outline of
History, p. 497, observes, “About Jesus we have to write not
theology, but history. Almost our only sources
about the personality of Jesus are derived from the four gospels, all of which
were certainly in existence a few decades after his death…all four agree in
giving us a picture of a very definite personality…In spite of miraculous and
incredible additions, one is obliged to say, ‘Here was a man. This part of the
tale could not have been invented.’” (Dr. Wells was not a believer in the Deity
of Jesus, TK)
Dr. Will Durant, philosopher and historian, with his wife,
Ariel, invested ten years in writing an
eleven volume Story of Civilization. Their work was awarded
the Pulitzer Prize in 1968, and the
Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977. In Vol. 3, Caesar and
Christ, Durant concluded, “No one
reading these scenes can doubt the reality of the figure
behind them. That a few simple men should in one generation have invented so
powerful and appealing a personality, so lofty an ethic and so inspiring a vision
of human brotherhood would be a miracle far more incredible than any recorded
in the gospels…A denial of the existence of Jesus seems never to have occurred
even to the bitterest Gentile or Jewish opponent of Christianity….”(p. 557.)
Jesus was a man-child, born of a woman (Galatians 4:4), a
child of History and Humanity. George MacDonald wrote in his couplet, You Can Say That Again:
“They were all looking for a
king to slay their foes and lift them high;
Thou cam’st a little baby thing,
that made a woman cry.”
2.
JESUS, THE MAN OF PROPHECY.
Fifteen times in his gospel Matthew speaks of an Old
Testament prophecy that was fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Approximately 200 such
prophecies, written hundreds of years before Jesus’ birth, are recorded in the
Bible, such as the one recorded in Matthew 1:22: “All this took place to
fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ‘The virgin will be with
child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel’ – which
means, ‘God with us’.” (Written by the prophet Isaiah 750 years before the
birth of Jesus of Mary.) In his book, Science Speaks (Moody Press,1963), Peter Stoner describes the inescapable conclusion to
which his study of Old Testament prophesies led him. Stoner was not a theologian. He was a
mathematician devoted to the study of mathematical probability – the same science used by
insurance companies in compiling their actuarial tables which leads to their
rates for a policy, and their expected profit from it.
Stoner studied 48 of 60 major prophecies pointing to the
coming, and the character, of the
future Messiah. He then narrowed his focus to just eight –
1) Genesis 3:15/Matthew 1:20 & Galatians 4:4; 2) Isaiah 40:3/Matthew 3:1-3
& Luke 1:17; 3) Zechariah 9:9/Matthew 21:6-11 & Luke 19:35-37; 4) Psalm
41:9 & 22:16/Matthew 10:4; 26:49, 50 & Luke 23:33; 5) Zechariah
11:12/Matthew 26:15 & 27:3; 6) Zechariah 11:13/Matthew 27:5; Zechariah
11:13/Matthew 27:7; 7) Isaiah 53:7/Matthew 27:12-19; 8) Psalm 22:16 &
Isaiah 53:12/Luke 23:33 & Matthew 27:38. From this study Stoner wrote, “…we
find that the chance that any man might have lived down to the present time and
fulfilled all eight prophecies is …1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000.” In order to
help us comprehend this staggering probability, Stoner illustrates it by
supposing that “we take 100,000,000,000,000,000 silver dollars and lay them on
the face of Texas.
They will cover all of the state two feet deep. Now mark one of these silver
dollars and stir the whole mass thoroughly, all over the state. Blindfold a man
and tell him that he can travel as far as he wishes, but he must pick up one
silver dollar and say that this is the right one.
What chance would he have of getting the right one? Just the
same chance that the prophets would have had of writing these eight prophecies
and having them all come true in any one man, from their day to the present
time, providing they wrote them in their own wisdom. (Josh McDowell, Evidence
That Demands a Verdict, Campus Crusade for Christ Int’l, 1972, p.175.)
Jesus confronted the unbelieving Jews, saying, “You
diligently study the Scriptures because you
think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the
Scriptures that testify about me, yet you
refuse to come to me to have life.” (John 5:39, 40.) After
his resurrection Jesus reminded his apostles, “…’How foolish you are, and how
slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Christ
have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?’ And beginning with Moses
and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures
concerning himself…This is what I told you while I was still with you:
Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the
Prophets and the Psalms’ Then he opened their minds so they could understand
the Scriptures…”(Luke 24:25-27, 44, 45.)
Indeed, Jesus was the Man of Prophecy, prophecies written
hundreds of years before his birth.
3.
JESUS, THE MAN OF DEITY.
Matthew records the struggle of Joseph upon learning that
his betrothed Mary was pregnant. He knew that it was not his child that she was
carrying . “Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to
expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.” (Matthew
1: 19.) “But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph son of David, do not be
afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from
the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name
Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.’ All this took place to
fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ‘The virgin will be with
child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel’ – which
means, ‘God with us.’”(vs. 20-23)
Luke writes of Mary’s surprise at the angel’s message to
her. “…God sent the angel Gabriel to
Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named
Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to
her and said, ‘Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.’
Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this
might be. But the angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found
favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to
give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the
Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he
will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.’ ‘How
will this be,’Mary asked the angel, ‘since I am a virgin?’ The angel answered,
‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will
overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God…for
nothing is impossible with God.’”(Luke 1:26-35.) God’s angel having spoken to
both Mary and to Joseph, Matthew concludes, “When Joseph woke up, he
did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him, and took Mary home as his
wife. But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave
him the name Jesus.” (Matthew 1:24, 25.)
The critical question for all men of all time is, “Whose Son
is Jesus?” Mary knew. Joseph knew.
Jesus knew. (Cf. Luke 2:41-50.) Even the demons confessed
Him to be the “Son of God” (Matthew 8:28ff.) But “…even his own brothers did
not believe in him”. (John 7:5.) Were we there in that time, would we have
believed? When Jesus had healed a lame man He was criticized for performing
this miracle on a Sabbath. (John 5:1-15.) “So because Jesus was doing these
things on the Sabbath, the Jews persecuted him. Jesus said to them, ‘My Father
is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working;.’ For this
reason the Jews tried all the harder to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath,
but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.”
(John 5:16-18.) This was the question
posed to his apostles, seeking to prepare them for his imminent crucifixion.
“…he asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say the Son of Man is?...who do you
say I am?’ Simon Peter answered, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living
God’”(Matthew 16:13-16.) It is upon this rock, this truth, that Jesus promised
“…I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.”(v. 18.) When the storm of opposition led by Judas,
the traitor, by the elders of the Jews, chief priests and scribes, along with a
mob, seized Jesus they sought false witnesses to accuse him of treason against Caesar. Failing to establish their charges,
“..the high priest said to him, ‘I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God;
‘Yes, it is as you say,’ Jesus replied. ‘But I say to all of you: In the future
you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming
on the clouds of heaven.’” The high priest charged Jesus with blasphemy, asked
for a verdict, and “...’He is worthy of death’, they answered.”(Matthew
26:63-66.)
As Jesus hung between heaven and earth on the cross for six
agonizing hours, He “…saw his mother there, …he said to his mother, ‘Dear
woman, here is your son’…”(John 19:26.) In his poignant words Jesus declared
that both his mother, and He, her Son, knew that God was his Father. The
apostle Paul would write to the Roman saints that Jesus, “…through the Sprit of
holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from
the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 1:1-4.) Jesus, the Man of Deity,
fully human, fully God.
4.
JESUS, THE SAVIOR OF LOST SINNERS.
God’s angel revealed to Joseph that his betrothed virgin,
Mary, nevertheless pregnant by God’s Spirit and power, “…will give birth to a
son, and you are to give him the name of Jesus, because he will save his people
from their sins.”(Matthew 1:20, 21.) “Jesus…is a transliteration of the Heb.
‘Joshua’, meaning ‘Jehovah is salvation,’ i.e. ‘…” (W.E. Vine, Expository Dictionary
of New Testament Words, Fleming H. Revell Company, II, 274.) “Jesus” – the Name
given by his Father to his “one and only Son”, the Savior of lost
sinners.
The Holy Spirit rehearsed to the Philippian saints how
Jesus, “…being in very nature God…being found in appearance as a man…humbled
himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross! Therefore God
exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and
under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the
glory of God the Father.”Philippians 2:5-11.) Paul wrote to Timothy, “Here is a trustworthy
saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save
sinners – of whom I am the worst.”(1 Timothy 1:15.) He continued, “…This is good,
and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a
knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and
men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men…”(2:3-6.)
To the Corinthians the apostle said, “We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be
reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us that in him we might
become the righteousness of God.:”(2 Corinthians 5:20, 21.)
To the Romans Paul declared, “But now a righteousness from
God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets
testify. The righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all
who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the
glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that
came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through
faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his
forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished – he did it to
demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who
justifies the man who has faith in Jesus.”(Romans 3:21-26.) He calls to their
minds, “Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized unto Christ Jesus
were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism
into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the
glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. If we have been united with
him in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his
resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body
of sin might be rendered powerless, that we should no longer be slaves to sin –
because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.”(Romans 6:3-7.)
This is the message Christ Jesus commissioned his apostles
to preach in every nation, in all the
world, to every creature. (Matthew 28:18-20; Mark 16: 15,
16; Luke 24:44-47.) Thereby “…people from among all the Gentiles” were called
“to the obedience that comes by faith.” (Romans 1:6.) Thousands heard the message of Jesus the
first time the apostles declared it – in the very city where He had been
crucified just fifty days earlier. About 3,000 gladly accepted God’s offer of
forgiveness through penitent faith in Jesus, and were baptized upon the name of
Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sins. They received the gift of the
Holy Spirit, and were by the Lord added together in his church (Acts 2:1-47.) The message was always the same in its
essentials. (Cf. Acts 8:1-13, 26-39; 9:1-20; 10:1-48; 11:19-26; 16:11-15,
16-34; 18:1-8; 19:1-12.) Jesus, God’s Son, atoned for our sins. We must accept
God’s grace “in the obedience of faith”. Jesus said it simply, and powerfully,
“Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe
will be condemned.”(Mark 16:16)
Jesus’ gospel is indeed “good news”. Though all are sinners,
condemned by God’s righteous law and guilty before Him, “… God demonstrates his own love for
us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now
been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath
through him.”(Romans 5:8, 9.)
God’s saved church is urged to “grow in the grace and
knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18; 1:5-11; “…to build yourselves up in
your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in God’s love
as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal
life.” Learning Who “this man Jesus” truly is – the only Saving Name (Acts 4:11-12),
the only Way to the Father (John 14:6), and the only Mediator “between God and
men (1 Timothy 2:5) only in Jesus can anyone find a reason for hope in this
life, and into life eternal. (Hebrews 6:16-20.)
No person is good enough not to need God’s saving grace and
power in Jesus, nor is any too wicked to be beyond Jesus’ grace and power to
save. JESUS – THE MAN OF HISTORY AND HUMANITY, THE MAN OF PROIPHECY, THE MAN OF
DEITY, and THE SAVIOR OF LOST MEN. This is WHO this man Jesus is. “…the same
yesterday and today and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8.)
Have you made your hope sure by trusting in Jesus as God’s
Son, and walking in obedience to his truth?
Ted Kell
Brownwood, Texas
I listened as a fellow-minister bared his soul. Years of struggle, hurt and disappointment had woven anguish and disillusionment into his once beautiful and sweet spirit. As he pieced together the story of a recent ministry experience, my heart ached for him and for the church that sat in the sound-proof room largely ignorant of what was happening behind closed doors. I also ached because he described a scene that many of us in ministry - teachers, elders, ministry leaders and ministers - have experienced on more than one occasion. In fact it’s something that too many Christians can relate to in some respect. 
Simple…right? “It shall not be so among you,” Jesus said. If you want to be heard…if you want to lead…if you want to speak a convincing word about the kingdom whether it be outside or inside the body of Christ, you must be a servant. A slave! That’s what the Son of Man came to do. God in the flesh washed feet. He got low. He laid his life – literally! – on the line. 
