Who Is Jesus? | The Fullness of Jesus

A New Beginning presents a book about the greatest evangelist of the 20th century, Billy Graham, written by his friend, Pastor Greg Laurie. I bring insights that maybe other books have not really touched on. I also weave in a lot of my personal experiences, one-on-one with Billy, things he said to me, and things I gleaned by watching him. So if you want to learn more about this man that changed the world, get your copy of Billy Graham, The Man I Knew.

Yours for a gift of any amount at Harvest.org. Jesus was and is God. Some think of him as a prophet or just a great moral teacher.

Coming up today, Pastor Greg Laurie says that's missing the mark by a country mile. When Jesus entered our world, God was not walking among us. He breathed our air.

He shared our pain. He could not have identified with us any more closely than he did. Jesus became human without ceasing to be God. We could call the sun a source of warmth, but that misses the enormity.

We could call a nuclear explosion a big flash of light, but that says nothing of the phenomenal power. So many times, people miss the enormity of who Jesus is. He walked among us, but he created the universe. He died, but he rose again. And today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie helps us sense the full scope of who Jesus is.

It's a part of a series called Timeless. How many of you like superhero movies? Raise your hand if you like superhero movies. So there's different characters that have different superpowers. Wolverine, of course, can heal rapidly from an injury.

He has a manicurous worst nightmare, however. Then there's the Hulk. He has superhuman power.

You just have to get him mad and very green before anything happens. Aquaman can breathe underwater. Spider-Man can climb walls. Wonder Woman has superhuman strength and can speak every language. And, of course, Superman can fly. But these superheroes are all fictional.

They're not real. But yet there was a man who walked our planet, who had unlimited power. He did not need to breathe underwater. He created the water, and he walked on the water. And, yes, he could fly.

I don't know what else you would call the ascension of Christ. Then Jesus flying, and he didn't even need a cape to do so. And, of course, I am talking about Jesus, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. He wasn't merely a good man. He was literally the God-man.

So let's read a little bit now together. John chapter 1. I'm going to read verses 1 to 5. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him, nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men, and the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. We'll stop there.

Here's point number one if you're taking notes. Jesus Christ was and is God. Jesus was and is God. Before there was a world, before there were planets, before there was light or darkness, before there was matter, before there was anything, there was the Godhead. Then there was Jesus, co-equal, co-eternal, co-existent. According to this verse we just read, He was with God. He was God.

So when Jesus entered our world, God was now walking among us. He breathed our air. He shared our pain. He carried our sorrows.

He squeezed His infinite presence into a container the size of an average man. He walked in our shoes and then some. He lived our life and then He died our death. He could not have identified with us any more closely than He did. In fact, it was total identification with us without the loss of identity.

He became one of us without ceasing to be Himself. Jesus became human without ceasing to be God. This is really hard to wrap your mind around because He was fully God and He was fully man at the same time. There is an interesting statement here in verse 1. The Word was with God. The Word was continually toward God is one way to translate it. That implies that the Father and Son were continually face to face.

The preposition with bears the idea of nearness with a sense of movement toward God. Meaning there has always existed the deepest equality and intimacy in the Trinity. Jesus in John 17 in His beautiful prayer said this to His Father, Now O Father glorify Me with Your own self with the glory which I had with You before the world began.

Here is something we may not understand. Jesus as a member of the Trinity, this is point number 2, was there hands on at the creation of everything. Now we read that God said, Let there be light.

But then we also read the Spirit of God brooded over the waters. Now here we are reading that Jesus Christ was hands on in the creation. Verse 3, All things were made through Him. Without Him nothing was made.

That was made. This verse is showing us that Jesus was the Creator. Colossians 1 16 says, For by Him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers, rulers or authorities. All things were created by Him and for Him. In fact we read God said, Let us make man in our image. Who was God talking to? Angels?

No. Because we are not made in the image of angels. We are made in the image of God. It was a conversation with the Trinity speaking to each other. Jesus was and is God. Number 3, Jesus who was God became a man. Now we celebrate that every Christmas. We call it the Incarnation. When Christ left the glory of heaven and descended to this lowly planet we call earth and was born as a little helpless infant there in the manger of Bethlehem. And Chesterton wrote of that, The hands that made the sun and the stars were too small to reach the huge heads of the cattle that surrounded Him, too small to change His own clothing or to put food in His own mouth, amazing God in infant helplessness. I mean to come to our earth is one thing.

He could have come down an array of light. A full grown man. Here I am.

I am here to save the world. But He comes as a baby dependent on a very young woman to take care of Him. And you know how helpless babies are. Have you ever held a newborn in your arms?

You have to cradle their little head and support their back and hold them oh so gently. And here is God in human form entering our planet as this little infant. An infant yet eternal.

It is so hard to even wrap our minds around. And it is really summed up perfectly in Isaiah 9.6 when it says, Unto us a child is born. Unto us a son is given.

The government will be upon his shoulder. His name will be called Wonderful Counselor. The Mighty God, the Everlasting Father. That shows you the birth of Jesus from both the heavenly and earthly perspective. From our perspective a child was born. From heaven's perspective a son was given. And even there in His birth His deity is described. You will call His name Mighty God, Everlasting Father and Counselor and so forth. So in the incarnation did Jesus lay aside His deity?

Absolutely not. In fact that brings me to point number four. Jesus veiled His deity but He never voided it. Jesus veiled His deity but He never voided it. This brings us to Philippians 2 where it says, Jesus being in the form of God did not consider it robbery to be equal with God.

He made Himself of no reputation taking the form of a bondservant and coming in the likeness of men and being obedient to the point of death even the death of the cross. Wow. God in human form. How awesome would that have been?

To just know that you're walking with God Himself. You know it's interesting when you follow celebrities maybe online or you see them in movies and then you meet a celebrity in person. How many of you have met a celebrity in person?

You say, wow there they are. They're usually different than you expected. While they're taller usually they're shorter. I've had people say to me, they meet me for the first time, why you're a lot smaller than I thought you would be.

Okay thank you for that whatever that means. But you meet a certain celebrity I remember years ago. I've told you this story before when I met George Harrison one of the Beatles. I've always been a big Beatles fan. How many of you are Beatles fans? How many of you don't like the Beatles?

Get out. I've always been a fan of the Beatles from my childhood. So here I'm talking to a living breathing Beatle.

And he sounded just like he did in the movies with that thick Liverpudlian accent. And I was sitting on a beach and he came and sat behind me. And to let you know how long ago it was I looked on my backpack and I had a Beatles cassette. Cassette. That marks it in time.

I don't even think you can find cassettes anymore. So I pulled out my little cassette and I turned around and said, he thinks for all the great music you've made over the years. And he just looked at me. He didn't say a single word. And I thought that didn't go so well. He's a little elusive. And then later I was reading a little article about George Harrison and it said, the one thing he hates is when people walk up to him and talk about the Beatles.

I thought perfect. Okay there you go. But you know you get nervous when you're around a celebrity. I don't know a more powerful person than someone who has been the president of the United States. That's the most famous person and the most powerful person especially when they're in office.

Years ago Billy Graham was dedicating his library in Charlotte, North Carolina. And so a number of people came. George H.W. Bush was there and Jimmy Carter showed up and President Clinton was there as well. So these are powerful people.

They carry a lot of weight. But the most impressive person I've ever met who's very famous is Billy Graham. And actually I was more impressed with Billy Graham and getting to know him than any president or any celebrity I've met. And he handled his fame so well. He was such a humble man. When you sat down at a table with Billy Graham he would never talk about himself. He always wanted to know about you.

Tell me about yourself. And he was interested and he would listen. And so to me he was a great example of what it was to be a Christian. Well listen there was no more powerful and yet more accessible person that walked this planet than Jesus. The right people were drawn to him.

The religious leaders couldn't stand him. But the sinners were drawn to him. And even the children were drawn to him.

I think kids are a pretty good judge of character don't you? And the children wanted to be around Jesus. He was more than a force of nature.

He was the creator of nature. Walking among us. Pastor Greg Laurie will have the second half of his message in just a moment. Pastor Greg we're excited about your new project, the Greg Laurie podcast. How is that different than what we do every day here on A New Beginning? Well Dave when you listen to A New Beginning you're listening to my messages that I share from the pulpit. In my podcast I'm not preaching. I'm just talking. I'm talking about life.

I'm talking about culture. There's a lot of interviews with people I've gotten to know over the years like Michael Franzese and Darryl Strawberry and Alice Cooper and J. Warner Wallace and Joel Rosenberg and Levi Lusko. And the list just goes on and on. Insightful conversations and just thoughts on life from a biblical perspective. So the best place to see or listen to my new podcast is go to Harvest Plus. Now that is our new app that has all kinds of resources on it. Our radio broadcast, our TV show, the movies we've produced over the years and much much more. And now we have my new long form podcast that you can watch on demand and I hope you'll enjoy it. And again you'll find the Greg Laurie podcast on the Harvest Plus app. Well we're digging into scripture today as Pastor Greg helps us discover the answer to the question, who is Jesus?

Let's continue. On the Mount of Transfiguration we get a glimpse of who he really was. You remember the story there stood Jesus. On one side was Moses.

On the other side was Elijah. And the Bible says Jesus shined like the sun. And so the miracle of the Transfiguration was not that Jesus shined like the sun. The miracle of the transformation was he didn't shine all the time. He sort of shrouded his glory. That is what I mean when I say he veiled it.

He didn't void it. He didn't stop being God. There in Philippians when it says he made himself of no reputation it is the Greek word kenosis and it means to empty oneself. Christ did not empty himself of his divine attributes even when he walked among us. He was omniscient. He knew all things.

And he was all powerful. He even said all power is given to me in heaven and earth. But yet he shrouded this glory but it was God walking among us.

1 John 1 says that which is from the beginning which we heard which we have seen with our eyes which we have looked upon and our hands have handled. I wonder sometimes if Jesus would be asleep and he would wake up in the morning and all the disciples are just standing there looking at him. It is like God. God is here.

Like God is sleeping right next to us. I mean how incredible that was to walk with Jesus in that way. And we wonder what did Jesus look like? You know we have this image of Jesus that has been reinforced by a lot of religious art and Hollywood films and so forth. What did Jesus look like? Could not one of the apostles have given us a description of him?

And all the things that they wrote about him but they did not. But it would appear from a number of passages that Jesus was rather ordinary in appearance. You remember when Mary was in the garden looking for the body of Christ the gardener starts talking to her.

She doesn't realize she is talking with Jesus. Judas Iscariot when he betrayed our Lord said he is the one that I will kiss. Because they didn't know what Jesus looked like.

They didn't have his profile on social media to look like. Well which one is he? Well he is the guy with long hair and a beard.

Everyone has long hair and a beard. He is the one that I will kiss. Now if Jesus looked like religious art depicts him he would have been so easy to spot. What does he look like? Well he usually has a blue sash on his robe. He is the one with a lamb wrapped around his neck.

Right. How many times have you seen that? He is the guy walking around with a staff.

He is the guy doing this. It is not quite a peace sign. It is just sort of this thing.

A little Jesus peace out moment. What is it? I don't know. Some artist came up with it and it keeps being repeated. Or he is the one with the halo.

That would be easy to pick out. Who is Jesus? He is the guy with the halo over his head. Or he is the guy that glows in the dark.

No. He was not of the ordinary. Isaiah said he was such an ordinary man that we would not even desire him. There was one occasion when people wanted to push Jesus off a cliff. Basically he said, not today boys.

My time has not yet come. And he walked right through the crowd and disappeared into the crowd. How is that even possible? I think he was very ordinary in appearance.

So that is about all we really know. But how is it possible that Jesus could be both God and man at the same time? A good way to illustrate this is the occasion when the disciples got on the boat and they went out to the Sea of Galilee. And a storm came. And it was such a bad storm that the sailors thought they were going to drown. Christ was exhausted from a hard day of ministry. And he was asleep in the lower part of the boat.

And they woke him up. And he comes up on the deck of the boat and he looks at the raging storm and he says, peace be still. And suddenly the storm stops. What could be more divine than stopping a storm? What could be more human than being exhausted from a day of hard work? And the disciples said, what kind of man is this that even the wind and the sea obey him?

Answer. He was the God-man. He had all the limitations that we face without the sinful nature. Jesus became tired.

Like we get tired. Remember that we read with him at the woman at the well. He was weary. He experienced physical thirst. When he hung on the cross of Calvary one of his seven statements was, I thirst. He experienced physical hunger during the temptation in the wilderness. After 40 days Jesus of course was hungry.

And the devil even tempted him to turn a rock into a piece of bread. He experienced physical weakness. He fell beneath the weight of his cross after his back had been ripped open. By Pontius Pilate and a very fortunate man named Simon of Cyrene had the privilege of relieving the pain of Jesus for a few moments as he carried the cross of Christ. But he experienced that physical weakness like we do. Jesus knew anger. We read of him overturning the tables of the money changers. But he was never angry with sinners per se. He saved his most scathing words for the religious hypocrites of the day. But here is the big question now. Why did Jesus come to this earth?

Why? And people think Jesus was the greatest moral teacher. Or he came to provide the ultimate example for humanity.

Not at all. Jesus came to this earth specifically to die for the sin of the world. That is why he came. The Bible is so clear on this point. In fact in Revelation 13 we read he was slain from the foundation of the world.

What does that mean? That means long before there was a planet called earth or a garden called Eden or a couple named Adam and Eve a decision was made in heaven. That God would send his son Jesus Christ on a rescue operation to redeem mankind because God knew that Adam and Eve would eat of the forbidden fruit. And sin would spread like a horrible virus across the planet. And the only solution was Jesus coming to die for the sin of the world. We are told in Romans 5-8 while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. And at some moment while he hung on the cross of Calvary the sin of the world was placed upon him. It is believed by many including myself that it was at the moment that he said, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And he was bearing your sin and my sin and all of humanity's sin.

In some mysterious way which we can never fully comprehend. During those awful hours on the cross the father was pouring out the full measure of his wrath against sin. And the recipient of that wrath was God's beloved son.

Listen to this. God was punishing Jesus as if he had personally committed every wicked deed committed by every wicked sinner. And in doing so he could forgive and treat those redeemed ones as if they had lived Christ's perfect life of righteousness.

So Jesus came to die for the sin of the world. And also he came to absorb God's wrath. You see if God were not just there would be no demand for his son to suffer and die. But if God were not loving there would be no willingness for his son to suffer and die. But God was both just and willing. And he came and laid his life down for us. He absorbed God's wrath and my place. The judgment that you should have faced.

And this is very important. Because I think when we sin we feel we have to sort of atone for it. And beat ourselves up for it. And I think we need to remember it's already been atoned for.

He was already beaten up for you. That doesn't mean that I sin with abandon. It doesn't mean that I should not feel guilt or remorse when I have sinned. But it does mean that once I have sinned and if I have confessed it to God I should believe he has forgiven me. And I should not walk in guilt but I should walk in forgiveness.

This is very important. Because Christ already absorbed the wrath of God. Jesus also died on the cross to show his love for us. Ephesians 5 25 says Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. Jesus himself said for God so loved the world he gave his only begotten son. Paul said he loved me and he gave himself for me. Sometimes you may wonder does God really love me? Take a long look at the cross. Imagine for a moment Christ hanging there for you. And remember it was the nails that held him to that cross 2,000 years ago.

It was love. Today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie with important insight on who Jesus is and what he's done for you and me. Pastor Greg, maybe there's somebody listening who understands that Jesus died for them.

But they've never come to him and asked him to forgive their sins. What would you say to them? I'd say that's the most important decision you're ever going to make in your life. Would you like to know that you will go to heaven when you die? Would you like to fill that big hole deep inside of you? Listen, it's about a relationship with God and here's the good news. God loved you so much that 2,000 years ago he sent his son Jesus Christ to die on the cross for your sins and then to rise again from the dead. And now Jesus, who died and rose, is standing at the door of your life and he is knocking. And he says, if you'll hear my voice and open the door, I'll come in. Would you like Jesus Christ to come into your life? Would you like your sin forgiven?

Would you like to fill the hole in your soul? Would you like to go to heaven when you die? If so, just stop what you're doing and pray this prayer with me. You can pray it out loud if you like, you can pray it in the quietness of your heart if you choose, but pray this prayer. This is a prayer of asking Jesus Christ to come into your life. Pray these words.

Lord Jesus, I know that I'm a sinner, but I know that you're the Savior who died on the cross for my sin and rose again from the dead. I turn from that sin now and I choose to follow you from this moment forward. Thank you for hearing this prayer and answering this prayer. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Hey, did you just pray that prayer? If so, I want to congratulate you and be the first to say welcome to the family of God.

Yeah, yeah, that's right. And we want to help you get started living for the Lord. Let us send you Pastor Greg's New Believers Bible with the text and the easy-to-understand new living translation, and lots of extras new believers find helpful. We'll send it free of charge when you call 1-800-821-3300, dial any time 1-800-821-3300, or write A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, CA 92514, or go online to harvest.org and click Know God. And Pastor Greg, we're so thankful for the work God is doing through this ministry. We're touching lives for eternity, and we're really thankful for our friends who see the fruit of this ministry and invest so this work can reach even further.

Isn't that right? Absolutely. When you invest in Harvest Ministries, you're investing in the souls of men and women, boys and girls. And what is the value of a soul?

Well, let me personalize it. What's the value of your soul? What's the value of the soul of your husband, your wife, your son, or your daughter, or your mom or your dad, or your best friend?

Well, I would say you probably couldn't put a price tag on it. It's so valuable. Well, listen, God says all souls are mine. God loves us and sent His Son to die on the cross to pay the price for all of our sins so we could be forgiven and come into a relationship with Him. I can't think of a better investment of my resources, of my money, than in the work of the kingdom of God. So we would ask you to prayerfully consider investing in Harvest Ministries as we continue on to fulfill the Great Commission. Well, next time, Pastor Greg has even more insights on the nature and person of Jesus Christ from a series called Timeless. Join us here on A New Beginning with Pastor and Bible Teacher, Greg Lauren.