Wrestling with the Identity of Jesus

We want to thank Eddie for leading our singing, and all of those who served this morning. We appreciate each and every one. Like Jacob of old, we have been wrestling with God on the first Sunday of the month for this year, and of course, we have wrestled with God throughout our lives.

But today, as we think about this topic, wrestling with God, we want to remember that this is part of God’s plan. 1 Corinthians 9, verse 25 says, Everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. This word compete here is our Greek word agonizomai, which means to wrestle or struggle or agonize.

And it is something that we do every day as we seek to put God within our life, and we seek to exemplify the life of Jesus Christ within us. And Paul tells us in Philippians 3, verses 12 through 14, that this is something that is ongoing.

He says, “…not that I have already attained or am already perfected, but I press on that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended, but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward toward those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

And that’s what we’re doing, pressing toward the goal, wrestling toward the goal, if you will, as we seek to live this life. And this morning, we are going to discuss wrestling with the identity of Jesus. And you know, this is something that many undertake in this life, and it’s something that we need to consider carefully As we think about how to interact with those who don’t know Jesus and how do we then present Him to them.

In Matthew chapter 27 and verses 20 through 23, there as the chief priests and elders were wrestling with the identity of Jesus, They thought they knew. They thought they had won the battle as they put Him before Pilate and asked for Barabbas to be released and Jesus to be destroyed. And then Pilate, the governor, answered and said to them, which of the two do you want me to release to you? They said, Barabbas. Pilate said to them, what then shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?

And that is the question that is put before us today. They all said, let Him be crucified. Then the governor said, why? What evil has he done? But they cried out all the more, let Him be crucified. What will we do with Jesus? Wrestling with the identity of Jesus. That’s something that we need to do each and every day as we seek to identify with Him and to let Him live within us.

In Matthew 16 and verses 13 through 16, Jesus set forth His identity as He asked this series of questions to His disciples. Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? What do men say about me? And they answer, some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, others Jeremiah, one of the prophets.

But then he turned the question to them, Who do you say that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. What will our answer be as we wrestle with the identity of Jesus?

Well, let’s look at this question this morning. First of all, wrestling with the identity of Jesus, some reject Jesus, and we see, as Jesus pointed out in Matthew 16, verses 13 through 16, He is the Son of Man, but then, as Peter confessed, He is also the Son of God. He is both man and God.

And as we wrestle with the identity of Jesus, we’ve got to come to terms with that truth, that He is both 100% man and 100% God. It’s a puzzler for sure to our small human minds, but that is nevertheless what Scripture teaches.

And some reject Jesus. They reject that He was even a real person in some cases. But as we think about Jesus being a historical figure, we ask the question, by what standard do humans judge Jesus? You know, there are over a dozen extra-biblical sources that Jesus was a historical figure. There is the witness of Josephus, Tacitus, Suetonius, Pliny, Trajan, Hadrian, And many more, and that’s not even to mention the New Testament writers and what they witness about Jesus being a real person.

But the question of whether He was a real person or not has largely been resolved, and it’s only the fringe few who say that He wasn’t. But really, the question that needs to be asked and struggled with and wrestled with was, what do we make of what He taught?

And some reject Jesus. They reject His teaching. And by what standard do they do that? And you think, well, there’s only one standard by which man can judge things without God, and that is, of course, the standard of man.

But that standard is largely inadequate. Because by the same standard that you reject Jesus, you may accept some other philosopher or thinker or human being. And in that case, you’ve just rejected one human over another. And why would that be any different than accepting one human over another? And so you see, the standard of man, judging man by man, is not going to cut it.

And so some reject Jesus because they think that their standard, that is, their own mind, their own judgment faculties is superior, when in fact they are not. Some say the standard is all are equal, and they will cry out for moral equivalence between Jesus and all the other world religions that are out there.

Maybe you’ve seen the bumper sticker coexist on some people’s vehicles. Is Christianity just like all the other religions in the world? Of course not. Jesus was superior. And once you get to look at the details of all the other world religions, you see that to be the case very clearly.

But then some say the standard is relative. It just depends on what society you live in and what people decide. Well, if the standard is relative, then why are some nations, such as Nazi Germany of the 1930s and 40s, judged to be wrong?

If the standard is just relative, then it should just be whatever society dictates in that particular country or that particular culture. But you know the standard is not relative. There are some things that are right and some things that are wrong, and we must uphold what is right. And Jesus upheld what was right. Nevertheless, some people reject Jesus’ humanity, and many people reject Jesus’ divinity. Some of them don’t even believe in the existence of God.

Maybe they believe in something else. Some believe in that God is everything. They certainly don’t believe in the God of the Bible. But what about the standard of Jesus? Who was He? C.S. Lewis said this, and I think it’s a great evaluation tool for those who do not believe. I think it’s a great challenge to those who do not believe, and I think that’s how we ought to use this tool.

But he said this, a man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic, on the same level with a man who says he is a poached egg, or else he would be the devil of hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was and is the Son of God, or else a madman, or something worse. This is what some refer to as C.S. Lewis’ famous liar, lunatic, or lord dilemma.

And the question is simply this. If Jesus was a lunatic, we certainly shouldn’t follow Him, because then He would be crazy. If He was a liar, we certainly shouldn’t follow Him, because then He is someone who is trying to deceive the multitudes.

But if what he said was true, then he is indeed the Lord. And we can’t simply go about the business of saying, well, he was a good man only. Nope. You’ve got to weigh the claims that he made and the deeds that he did.

And once one does this, one will come to faith and belief in Jesus as the Son of God. Nevertheless, when wrestling with the identity of Jesus, we find that there are some who reject Jesus completely. But then, when we wrestle with the identity of Jesus, there are some who accept Jesus partially.

They may accept His humanity, but reject His divinity. Or, on the other hand, they may accept His divinity and reject His humanity. And we’ll talk about what that means in a moment. But let’s talk about those who accept His humanity, but they think that He wasn’t defined. Was Jesus just a good man?

When we turn to Matthew chapter 19, verses 16 and 17, Jesus Himself addresses that issue. When one came to Him and said, Good teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life? And what was Jesus’ response? He said to him, Why do you call me good? No one is good but one, that is God.

Right there, Jesus puts the hammer to the nail, to the head of the nail, and He makes it clear that if you’re going to call Him good in the ultimate sense, then you’ve got to deal with His teaching that He is the Son of God.

It’s not enough to simply come to Jesus and say, well, He was a good man. Well, He was a good teacher. No, that’s not enough. We’ve got to wrestle with more than just that. And so, Jesus’ ethics were good if they were right. Why would He judge His other teachings to be false? If His standard was high, then why shouldn’t we accept what He says about Himself as being the Son of God?

You know, Islam has this problem, and we see that when we look at the teaching of Jesus, the moral teaching of Jesus, such as in the Beatitudes, it is such a high moral standard, and yet when we say, well, Jesus was a good person, or like the Koran says, that Jesus was a prophet, here’s the dilemma.

If Jesus was a prophet, then what He said was true. But Jesus also said in John 14, verse 6, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. Well, if this is true, because Jesus was a prophet, then one cannot get to the Father through Muhammad, because Jesus said He He was the only one to go through. But if this is false, then you’ve got to conclude that the Quran is false for calling Jesus a prophet. So you see the dilemma there for those who believe in Islam and those who believe in the Quran. You can’t say that Jesus was just a prophet without saying that His prophecies were true.

You can’t say that Jesus was just a good man without saying that what he said about himself was also good. And so this is the dilemma. Was Jesus God in the flesh? And this is where some say, oh, yes, Jesus was a good man. Some say he wasn’t God in the flesh, and they’re skeptical of that.

2 Peter tells us about that in chapter 3, verses 3 through 4, “…knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.”

And yes, there will be some scoffers in the divinity of Jesus, But, there are also those who accept the divinity of Jesus, but reject His humanity. Maybe you’re familiar with this sign that many people hold up at football games, wanting others to believe in the divinity of Jesus.

John 3, 16, “…for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever would believe in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” And from some, we would think, well, that was the only verse in the Bible. It’s a good verse. It’s an important verse. I’m not saying we shouldn’t study it and learn from it, but it is not the only verse in the Bible.

The truth of the divinity of Jesus is not the only truth in the Bible. It’s an important truth. It’s a necessary truth. It’s something that we must confess. But there is more to the Bible than just the divinity of Jesus. There is also the humanity of Jesus. And what does that mean? That Jesus was human.

His humanity means that we’ve got to do the things that He taught, that we’ve got to follow His example. And there are so many, Jesus said, who will not do that, but who will say, Lord, Lord, and not do the things that He says, Luke 6 and verse 46.

And we see that so much around us in the religious world today. So many call out, Lord, Lord, especially on today, of all days, they will come out and say such, thinking that just that one pronouncement will get them by. Just confessing the divinity of Jesus, that’s all you’ve got to do. No, that’s not the case. Even Jesus said that wasn’t the case.

And if we believe that what Jesus said was true, then we’ve got to accept not only His divinity, but also His humanity, which means we must do the things that He says. This is perhaps the most important criticism of those who are Christians, namely, or those who claim to be Christians, namely, That we cannot just sit back, confess Jesus Christ, and expect good things to happen. There must be on our part a walking that is correct in the eyes of the Lord.

James tells us, it’s like the one who hears the word and goes and he’s like looking at himself in a mirror and he sees that there’s a problem, but then he doesn’t make the correction. There are so many people like that in this world today who just want to have that emotional high, There are a guy who just want to have that own personal Jesus in the terms of the song of Depeche Mode of the 1980s, and yet they don’t want anything else. They don’t want correction. They don’t want to change. They don’t want to make their lives better. They just want that feeling, and that’s it.

But the Bible teaches us against that in so many places, not only here, but Jesus also said it in Matthew 7, verses 21 through 23. Not everyone that says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven.

Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, cast out demons in your name, and done many wonders in your name? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.

Who are these people? They are people who confess that Jesus is Lord. They are people who claim even to prophesy, to cast out demons, to do many wonders, and to do them all while calling upon the name of Jesus Christ. So many people do this in the religious world today. And yet, Jesus says they are just serving themselves. That’s all they’re doing.

What does He say? Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. Because you see, it’s not their intention to obey Jesus. It’s not their intention to follow Jesus. It’s not their intention to do what Jesus says, but rather just to serve themselves.

And they deceive themselves in so doing that, which is why we need to sound the alarm on the religious world today and the problems that are associated therewith. Oh, I know that there are those who want to feel good about themselves and about their relationship with God, but when we search the Scriptures, we see that God isn’t interested in us feeling good, per se.

What He’s interested in us doing is serving Him, whether it feels good or not. And that’s something we need to wrestle with as we wrestle with the identity of Jesus. Jesus said in John 15 and verse 14, You are my friends if you do whatsoever I command you. Not everyone is a friend of Jesus.

Even those who claim to be friends of Jesus are not friends of Jesus because they don’t do what He commands. We are His friends when we do what He commands. And so some accept the divinity of Jesus, but they reject His humanity by rejecting His lordship over their lives.

But then finally, when wrestling with the identity of Jesus, some accept Jesus completely. And that’s where we want to be. We want to accept both His divinity and His humanity, both of those things. Let’s think about that for just a moment.

In 1 Peter chapter 2, verses 21 through 24, Peter tells us what it means to accept the humanity of Jesus. He says, For even hereunto were you called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps, who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth, who, when He was reviled, reviled not.

When He suffered, He threatened not, but committed Himself to Him that Judges righteously, who His own self bear our sins, and His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness, by whose stripes you were healed.

Peter, what do you think about following Jesus? Is it something that we do to feel good? Oh, no. You’ve got to embrace the sufferings of Jesus Christ. That’s the example that Jesus left for us. He did no sin, and so God is calling upon you to do no sin.

He didn’t revile when He was spoken against. And so God is calling upon you not to revile when you are spoken against. He sacrificed Himself on the cross. And so God is calling upon you to be a living sacrifice. Romans 12, verses 1 and 2.

He was dead to sin and lived to righteousness, and so God is calling upon you to be dead to sin and to live unto righteousness. Does that sound like a feel-good religion? It is not. But yet this is what Peter tells us we must do to follow Jesus.

In Luke 9, verse 23, Jesus said this, If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. Jesus wants us to take up our cross. That’s not a feel-good religion. That’s not just saying, Lord, Lord.

That’s letting Jesus live within our lives. As the Apostle Paul said in the book of Philippians, What a bold statement. And yet, this is what Christians are called upon to be, to accept the humanity of Jesus. In Colossians 1, verses 16 through 18, we see what it means to accept His divinity as well.

“‘For by Him were all things created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things created by Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and by Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He might have preeminence.”

Does Jesus Christ have preeminence in all things in your life? This is what it means for us to confess that Jesus is the Son of God, to believe that, to know that, to practice that, to live that each and every day, to recognize that He is in control of all things, and most importantly, that He is in control of us.

Those who believe in the divinity of Jesus believe that one day He will come back and judge the world in righteousness, and that’s what Acts chapter 17 and verse 31 teaches, that He will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom He has ordained, whereof He has given assurance unto all men in that He has raised Him from the dead on this Sunday, Easter Sunday, when most people are thinking about the resurrection Are they thinking about the Judgment Day? Because that’s what the resurrection teaches, that one day we will all be judged by Him.

Where do we stand in our relationship to Jesus Christ? What are we wrestling with? John chapter 20 and verses 30 and 31 boils it all down for us when he says this, Many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book, but these are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you might have life in His name.

Would you believe in Jesus this morning? Not only His humanity, but also His divinity. Not only His divinity, but also His humanity. To completely believe in Him means to accept both His humanity and His divinity. And this is the struggle. This is what we wrestle with as we wrestle with the identity of Jesus every day, understanding how He may live within our lives and we can submit ourselves You can accept Jesus today by hearing His Word, for faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God, Romans 10, verse 17.

By believing that He is the Christ, the Son of the living God. For without faith it’s impossible to be pleasing to God, but he that comes to Him must believe that He is, and that He’s a rewarder of them who diligently seek Him, Hebrews 11, 6. By repenting of sins, godly sorrow works repentance to salvation, not to be repented of, but the sorrow of the world works death. 2 Corinthians 7, 10. By confessing that Jesus is the Son of God.

Matthew 10, verses 32 and 33. Whosoever confesses my name before men, him will I also confess before my Father, which is in heaven, Jesus says, and be baptized to identify with Christ, to have those sins buried, cast off, and to be resurrected with Him to a new life.

And that’s what baptism is all about, identifying with the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Christ. Jesus said, He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be condemned. Mark 16 and verse 16.

Do you need to become a Christian this morning? We urge you to do so while together we stand and while we sing.

End of transcript. Thank you for reading along!