Back to Bootcamp

 Who is Jesus?

 Its time to go back to the basics, basic training. Don’t worry I’m not talking about anything as hard as Billy’s Boot camp. What I am talking about is the basics of our faith. In the English Worship Services we have broached some difficult topics, we have received some great revelation, we have sunk our teeth into the meat of God’s Word. But as protein is important for building the muscles we need to become great warriors in the Spiritual battles of life, calcium is just as important for keeping the frames of our body, our, bones, our skeleton, from becoming weak and brittle. And so we turn our next few sessions to what some will call milk. I hope that through this we can restore or basic foundation “Faith” For we are not saved by great teachings or revelation,our deed, our work but we are saved by faith alone. So we are going to move from the omega back to the alpha in order to refresh that simple faith that saves. Return to the simple, return to the Lord’s feet as Mary did.

To take us back I’m going to be following the basic design of the Alpha course. Alpha was started by Rev. Charles Marnham, a curate at Holy Trinity Brompton Church, a Church of England church in London. It started as a course for church members on the basics of the Christian faith, but then began to be used as an introduction for those interested in the faith

In 2006, over 33,500 courses were offered in more than 160 countries, and in many Christian denominations. By 2006 it was reported that over 10 million people worldwide had attended an Alpha course.

  So the course is designed  to introduce or reintroduce Christianity to people. But why would we need to reintroduce Christianity. Well, You might be surprised and amazed at how many people sit in the pews never knew or have forgotten the basic tenets of faith

 Throughout the world people are hungry for the meaning of life. Without meaning they drift like wood in the waves and are blown like grass in the wind. More and more as the great thoughts and philosophies of the world are being replaced by humanism and nowism. The idea of life actually having meaning is being eliminated asnd it is no longer being talked about or discussed. After all we have many much more interesting things to talk about like sorts or tv or fashion. And in many cases people are growing up never considering that their life has meaning and purpose.

In this country in particular, we are seeing an increase in random irrational violence and general dysfunction, more and more children and adults are becoming house-bound refusing to go to school or even leave the house because of irrational fear. While experts discuss these problems, it seems that the answer is as simple as the fact that living a meaningless life or worse off never knowing that there is a purpose for each and everyone of us, When there is meaning or even in the search for meaning, we have hope and when we realize that each of us, yes the means each of you, was put here on this earth for a special reason that hope grows and grows. So many though, are living in a void, for they do not even know that there is meaning to be obtained by those who seek and so the nothingness invades their hearts and minds, blocking out the light of God’s love. The result despair. I was reading about depression the older day and I cant forget, one of the quotes was by a woman in Tokyo she was quoted” My hobby, and what I like to do most is sleep. For only when I sleep can I push the thoughts of wanting to die” This is the despair I am speaking about, they are left in utter darkness.

What is the point of life?

Where am I heading?

What is my purpose?

Jesus said,

“I have come to give life…             and life in all of it’s fullness.”

Christianity is more about a person than a religion.

I am the way , rhe truth and the life (John 14:6)

So who was Jesus or more accurately who is JesusMost may think that all we know about Jesus is biased because the information comes from only one source but in fact Jesus is mentioned by many sources that lived in the time of Christ and after. We must also remember that in historical terms the bible in particular the new testament is considered to be a most reliable and verifiable source due to the number of copies of the original transcript and the proximity in which it was written in terms of years after the event actually occurred

Jesus was fully Human

We know that Jesus was fully human because of what the bible tells us. Why is this important. Well because if he wasn’t he could not have been a sustitue for our sins.

just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned--

13  for before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account when there is no law.

14  Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come.

Jesus became both tired and hungry.

John 4:6

Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.

After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.

He had emotions

Anger- Mark 11:15-17

15  On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple area and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves,

16  and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts.

17  And as he taught them, he said, "Is it not written: "'My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations' ? But you have made it 'a den of robbers.'"

Love

Mark 10:21

21       Jesus looked at him and loved him.

Sadness

John 11:32-36

32  When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died."

33  When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled.

34  "Where have you laid him?" he asked. "Come and see, Lord," they replied.

35  Jesus wept.

36  Then the Jews said, "See how he loved him!" 

Temptation
 Mark 1:13

he was in the desert forty days, being tempted by Satan.

Learning
Luke 2:46-52

46  After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.

47  Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers.

48  When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, "Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you."

49  "Why were you searching for me?" he asked. "Didn't you know I had to be in my Father's house?"

50  But they did not understand what he was saying to them.

51  Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But his mother treasured all these things in her heart.

Work
 Mark 6:3

3  Isn't this the carpenter? Isn't this Mary's son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren't his sisters here with us?" And they took offense at him.

Obedience
Luke 2;51

Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them.

“A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things that Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be insane or the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice, he writes. Either Jesus was and is the Son of God or else he was insane or evil but…let us not come up with any patronising nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to”

To find out what Lewis was taking about lets look at what Jesus said about himself

I am

John 6:35

I am the bread of Life

John 8:12

John 1:25,26

John 14:6

Iam the way the truth and the life

He spoke of his kingdom

Luke 22:29,30

29  And I confer on you a kingdom, just as my Father conferred one on me,

30  so that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

He said

Matthew 11:28,29

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

Follow me

Mark 1:17

"Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men."

Receive me

Matthew 10:40

"He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives the one who sent me.

Welcome Me- Welcome God

Mark 9:37

"Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me."

To have seen me is to have seen God

John 14:9

 Jesus answered: "Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'?

Claims Mans supreme love

Matthew 10:37,38

37  "Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me;

38  and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.

let us not come up with any patronising nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to” “We are faced then with a frightening alternative. Either Jesus was (and is) exactly what he said or else he was insane or something worse…however strange or terrifying or unlikely it may seem, I have to accept the view that he was and is God”.

To forgive sins

Mark 2:5

When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven."

6  Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves,

7  "Why does this fellow talk like that? He's blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?"

8  Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, "Why are you thinking these things?

9  Which is easier: to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up, take your mat and walk'?

10  But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins . . . ."

To judge the World

Matthew 25: 31,32,40,45

31  "When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory.

32  All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.

40 "The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

45  "He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'

He tells us plainly and directly

He is the Messiah

Mark 14:61,62

61  But Jesus remained silent and gave no answer. Again the high priest asked him, "Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?"

62  "I am," said Jesus. "And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven."

He is the Son of God

"Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?"

He is God the Son

John 8:58

58       "I tell you the truth," Jesus answered, "before Abraham was born, I am!"

John 20:28,29

28  Thomas said to him, "My Lord and my God!"

29  Then Jesus told him, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."

John 10:33-28

33  "We are not stoning you for any of these," replied the Jews, "but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God."

34  Jesus answered them, "Is it not written in your Law, 'I have said you are gods'?

35  If he called them 'gods,' to whom the word of God came--and the Scripture cannot be broken--

36  what about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world? Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said, 'I am God's Son'?

37  Do not believe me unless I do what my Father does.

38  But if I do it, even though you do not believe me, believe the miracles, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father."

Jesus is Lord Messiah Savior and God

There is no doubt

Let us pray