Who is Jesus The Christ?

Hebrews 1:3 "Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;"

First of all let’s clear up one gross mistake that may people have about Jesus the Christ, His name is not Jesus Christ, His name is Jesus and He is The Christ. It is very important to understand this because the two names carry two different but equally important meanings. The name Jesus was not an uncommon name in those days and neither is it today. In fact we will find many in Mexico who name their children Jesus. But God went on to call His name “Emmanuel” which comes from the Hebrew word (immânû'êl) which means “…which being interpreted is, God with us.” Matthew 1:23 Now we turn our attention to the gospel of John which tells us that this same Jesus was also called “the Word” "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." John 1:1 So John tells us that the word was not only in the beginning of creation with God but that this word was in fact God. In verse 14 of John 1 we see “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us…” in the person of Jesus the Christ. This would certainly have separated this Jesus from all others. Secondly we call Him Christ but in reality He is “The Christ” which means – anointed – and while it does mean to – smear with oil it also means - to consecrate to an office or religious service – Jesus was the anointed on of God to be the Saviour of mankind. Acts 10:38 “How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.” Not only was God with him but He himself was God. Therefore the title Christ tells us that He was anointed of God to save us from our sins. "And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins." Matthew 1:21. This made Him very special because while He was a man He was no ordinary man.

“Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person…” while Adam was created in the image of God Jesus The Christ was born with the brightness of Gods glory unlike Adam. This means that He was Divine in nature because He was “…the express image of God himself in nature. This means His nature was the express image of God. Adam was created with attributes like unto God but lost them in the fall. The words express image means and exact copy or He was just like God in every way in nature. Jesus described it this way to Philip - John 14:9 - 10 "Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father? (10.) Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works."

“…and upholding all things by the word of his power…” That is He had the power of word just as God did in creation when He spoke the earth and the heavens in to existence. Jesus the Christ had this very same power of words which we see an example of in John 11:43 “And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth." Jesus could have done any thing he had chosen just by the speaking of His voice.
“…when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;" Did they kill Him; no, He gave His life for our sins. He chose to die for our sins and afterword the Christ set down on Gods right hand. 1 John 3:5 “And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin.” What a wonderful Saviour and God we indeed have and His name is Jesus and He is the Christ.

You Must Be Born Again!

John 3:7 “Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.”

Man seems to want to make there own rules concerning salvation. God said that one must be born again if they are going to enter the kingdom of God when they die. This is the rules that God has set down and they will be followed. This poor ignorant Jewish ruler named Nicodemus had no idea what the new birth consisted of or how that it was accomplished, but Jesus with much grace and mercy explained in detail how it was accomplished. John 3:5 "Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." The two births mentioned are (1.) The natural birth “Except a man be born of water” and (2.) and the spiritual birth “and of the Spirit” and without the second birth one cannot enter the kingdom of God. I know there are some out there that believe there must be other ways to heaven without the new birth or at least without being born again by the Holy Spirit and through Jesus Christ but there is none other way. God said in John 10:1 "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber." And thieves and robbers are not welcome in Gods kingdom. There is one way to God and that is through Jesus Christ and those that try another way will fail in their attempt. God went on to say in John 10:9 “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.” If you enter by the door then you are welcome, and this makes a lot of sense because if you come to my house you are always welcome but please enter through the door and not the windows.

Now some may be confused as to what God meant by “and of the Spirit” John 3:5 so please allow me to explain. Salvation is not by our will or our choice or our decision but it is by the Holy Spirit of God. It is not by our “turning over a new leaf” or by “works which we have done” but rather it is by the Holy Spirit. God said in John 6:61 - 63 "When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Doth this offend you? (62.) What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before? (63.) It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." It is the Holy Spirit that make one alive spiritually; man cannot wake himself from the dead no more than a man in a grave can make himself alive. God also tells us in John 1:12 - 13 "But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: (13.) Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." I know many men will have their own opinions to what I am saying but they are wrong and God is right. One must hear the scriptures and then obey them and when God says that we are born of God and by God then that is the way it is regardless of other opinions. God concluded in John 5:39 "Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me." The scriptures are the final authority and they conclude that salvation is thru Jesus Christ and by the Holy Spirit. Therefore we will conclude with this verse: 1 Corinthians 2:12 “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.” Thank you Lord for my salvation!

The Wonders of God.

Colossians 1:16, 17 “For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: (17.) And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.”

Rarely do we think of the true wonders of God and even when we do it is only a drop of water in a large bucket of what the wonders of God truly are. We learn in here Colossians that God is the creator of “all things” then it proceeds to give us some of the things that God has created and they are; visible and invisible things - not some but all things, thrones this includes thrones that kings and world leaders set on, dominions this is governments that would include all governments of the world, principalities this would include various applications of order i.e. time, place, or rank of everything in creation, and powers which includes anything that has power i.e. kings, the sun, the solar system, all the way down to your boss at work to the governing power of His churches. The wonders of God are that not only did He create all these things but He also eternally controls them and knows every detail of them. We sometimes forget what all this details but if the heavens has hundreds of billions of galaxies and each of those galaxies has hundreds of billions of stars then how Wondrous is God Who not only has them all counted but also all named. We must understand and be reminded often that God controls all things and that includes from the smallest to the largest of all things created. Oh the Wonders of God; how wonderful indeed they are.

God went on to say “…all things were created by him, and for him…” not that He created them all but everything created was created for His own glory. Now this one is sometimes troublesome for us as Christians because we must attempt sometimes answer why God does certain thing certain ways. For example if God truly created and maintains all things in creation whether visible and invisible then why does He allow horrible things to happen such as hurricanes, tornados, and even death? Why did He allow 911 to happen and why does He allow war. Well the truth is we do not have all the answers because we do not know the mind of God. Unless God reveals why He has done something or allowed another power (for example Satan) to do something then we may never know why He allowed something bad to happen, but this is for sure; God has a reason for everything that happens. Let us use Job as an example. Job is a revealed example by that I mean God let us know what happened and why it happened but this is not always the case. When Job suffered his persecution Job and everyone connected thought God was punishing Job for something he done wrong to God; but God in His word revealed they that was not the case, God simply wanted to prove His glory to Satan through Job. We sometimes have to look at events and happenings in our lives and ask “to what glory did God get from that” but know that He did. God’s wonderful mind is so that He knows every detail of every thing.

The Lord concluded that “…by him all things consist.” The word “consist” means - to set together – that is not only set up in a certain order but constantly holds it together. Without God holding things together we would die, for example it the sun was to change then we could burn up or freeze to death. If the oxygen level or any other gases in the atmosphere was to change we would die. The reason we survive is because God continually controls everything and every detail of every thing and beloved this is why we have a God of Wonders. Everything was created for His glory and no matter what happens God will get glory from it even if we consider it a natural disaster. Psalms 97:6 “The heavens declare his righteousness, and all the people see his glory.”

The Wickedness of Mankind.

Romans 1:17 - 21 "For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith. (18.) For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; (19.) Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. (20.) For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: (21.) Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened."

As a minister and especially as a pastor my main concern is the lost and dying souls of mankind. We like to think of mankind as being good but as we dig deeper and deeper into the souls of mankind we see that there is none righteous no not even one single person. "As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:" Romans 3:10 We may see good in them but what God sees is only evil. One of mans biggest issues is understanding God; not just one single issue about God but He as a whole. Certain people will understand this about God and another will understand that about God; but understanding God as a whole is impossible. Let us use this example; there are hundreds of billions of stars in each galaxy and there are hundred’s of billion galaxies in the entire universe and God has them numbered exactly and has them all named. God created the world and all that is within it, he created man and all that is within him. God created the seas and all that is within them, and He created all creeping things and all that is within them. The bible concludes in Psalms "I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well." Psalms 139:14 God created man in His own image and created him as a servant to Him, just as He did with the angels but mankind was given a gift that no other created being was given and that is, he was adopted as a “son of God”. "Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will," Ephesians 1:5 this is a blessing that of all Gods creation has not received not even the angels in heaven. Michael the archangel while such a blessed angel and wonderful servant of God will never be anything more than a mere servant of God. But mankind; the single most awful of His creation will one day be the “sons of God” or at least a remnant of us will be. Mankind is the one single creature of creation that will curse God, belittle God, mock God, refuse and reject God, and simply refuse to believe that He even exist. Mankind would rather believe that life and all that exist came from nothing than to believe that God is the creator of it all. Mankind is sadly mistaken and that mistake will cost them eternal damnation in the lake of fire.

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men” That is the anger of God has been and will continue to be revealed from heaven against mans ignorance. We think that things happen by accident or happenstance but God controls all things including disasters. There is nothing out of Gods absolute control. When disasters happens we may need to look and see what we have done wrong and correct it before God gets more angry, but being the creature that we are we will not.

“For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen…so that they are without excuse:” one thing is for sure mankind will stand before God “without excuse” while they will attempt to explain things away there will be no excuses. Any single person on earth except the retarded among us can look at creation and clearly see Gods handy work. Mankind simply refuses to recognize a Superior Being. "If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloke for their sin." John 15:22