Sermon Archives
Jesus Is Human
Luke 1-3The Gospel of Luke Part I - Who is Jesus?
J. Josh Smith
March 22, 2015
Description:
Our church, generally speaking, has a pretty good understanding of the exalted Christ. This, of course, is a good thing. We must see the divinity of Christ; we must see His power, authority, and victory. However, we also must see the full humanity of Christ. There would be no exaltation of Christ without the humiliation of Christ. It’s important to see Jesus as fully human, first of all, because this is Jesus we’re talking about. As we’ve been saying throughout this series: It is good to know Jesus. We must know and worship Jesus for who He truly is. It is also important to see the humanity of Christ because it plays an essential role in our own sanctification. Philippians 2:5-8 demonstrates that Jesus willingly humbled himself and became a servant to all. We have been called to follow His pattern.
Luke’s Gospel highlights Jesus’ humanity. Jesus is NOT half God, half man. He is NOT fully God disguised as a man. He is NOT merely man who was inspired by God. Jesus is both FULLY God and FULLY human. We can see the humanity of Jesus in His birth, childhood, baptism, temptation, ministry, and death. Jesus was and will forever be fully human.
But this is not merely an interesting theological topic. We must respond to the humanity of Jesus Christ. In light of His full humanity, we must first: Go to Jesus. When we walk through the struggles of life (e.g. temptations, suffering, abandonment, pain, betrayal, etc.), we should first go to Jesus. He truly understands what we are going through. He can empathize with us in our sorrow (Heb. 4:14-5:2). How often do we go all types of different places when we are struggling before we go to Jesus?
Second, we must follow Jesus. Jesus’ humiliation provides us a model for how to live. We must not only do the things Jesus did, but embrace His attitude. Jesus always put the needs of others ahead of Himself. He submitted to the Father in everything and lived to serve other people. How is it that we are supposed to have those same attitudes? Walk utilizing the same three resources Jesus utilized: (1) God’s word, (2) God’s Spirit, and (3) prayer. We have the resources to live like Jesus lived. The reason we’re not more like Jesus is not because we are not able to be but because we don’t want to be.
Finally, we must worship Jesus. Jesus left the glory and praise of Heaven and became a servant on earth because he wanted you. Praise Him! We should respond to the humiliation of Jesus with supreme worship. He deserves our best singing, time, attention, energy, resources, and affections. He gave us everything and so often we only give Him our leftovers. Respond in a life of worship.
Keywords:
Discipleship, Trials, Trust, Worship