The Man Who Claimed to be God - Josh Buice

it is so good to be with you today as We Gather for this Chapel service I invite you to take your Bibles and open to Luke's gospel chapter 5. Luke's gospel chapter number five we're going to be looking at a story here uh it's actually a true story an event that happened in the life and Ministry of Jesus and we're going to begin to read in verse 17. I must say that it is always a privilege to be here at this University it is an honor to partner with what tmu stands for and for what this institution stands for what the faculty of this institution stands for so it is a privilege and an honor to worship with you here in this Chapel service Luke's gospel chapter number five beginning in verse number 17 you follow along with me as I read aloud this is the word of the Living God and it reads as follows on one of those days as he was teaching Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem and the power of the Lord was with him to heal and behold some men were bringing on a bed a man who was paralyzed and they were seeking to bring him in and lay him before Jesus but finding no way to bring him in because of the crowd they went up on the roof and let him down with his bed through the tiles into the midst before Jesus and when he saw their faith he said man your sins are forgiven you and the scribes and Pharisees began to question saying who is this who speaks blasphemies who can forgive sins but God Alone when Jesus perceived their thoughts he answered them why do you question in your hearts which is easier to say your sins are forgiven you or to say rise and walk but that you may know that the son of man has Authority on Earth to forgive sins he said to the man who was paralyzed I say to you rise pick up your bed and go home and immediately he rose up before them and picked up what he had been lying on and went home glorifying God and amazement seized them all and they were and they glorified God and were filled with awe saying we have seen extraordinary things today and I'm preaching on the subject the man who claimed to be God if you would join me in prayer father we do ask now your blessings on our time and your word we ask that you would strengthen us and encourage us equip us and help us and we pray that you would raise up from this room faithful men and women who would not only take the faith seriously but would live out their faith in the eyes of a Godless culture and would refuse to give up would refuse to give one inch to this present evil age but they would persevere in the faith and now we ask all of this in Christ's name amen you might remember the name if you have heard this name before David koresh he was the leader of a group a cult group years ago and before there was a reality show in Waco Texas and a thing called The Magnolia Market there was a cult that met there in Waco Texas and this man David koresh he claimed to be God he claimed to be God and as he let as he led this cult obviously we see as we read the story that he was responsible for the deaths of some 75 people in a standoff with the FBI if you go throughout history you will hear other stories and you will learn of other individuals like Jim Jones who himself claimed to be God and he was responsible for the Jonestown Massacre In 1978 where a total of 918 people died because they followed Jim Jones many people throughout history have made the audacious claim to be God in fact there was an individual named Alexandra Barnes who on April 24 2013 in Daytona Beach Florida drove her vehicle in to the gas pump took the gas pump and doused her entire vehicle with gasoline walked into the store reached behind the counter grabbed a lighter and made her way back out into the parking lot the store clerk ran after her tackled her to the ground and she was successfully able to escape and then she lit the gasoline and her car erupted into flames the authorities were called the scene was chaotic she was screaming that her babies were in the car an onlooker ran to the aid of her babies in the car only to discover that they were her dogs they pulled the dogs from the Flaming vehicle she was on her knees in the middle of the interstate when the authorities arrived claiming to be God Time and Time and Time throughout history people make these sorts of claims they claim to be God they claim to be God and that people should listen to them and one of the things that you will learn as you grow is that every Mainline cult has one Central teaching that is common among them as they overlap in these various different points here's the point that brings all of these Mainline Cults together it's this that they reject the deity of Jesus Christ Islam rejects that Jesus is God Mormonism rejects the truth that Jesus is God the Jehovah's Witnesses will reject the claim that Jesus is God and you must just ask yourself this honest question why is it that crazy people will actually say that they are God and then why is it that Mainline cults will join together in a force if you will to attack the very deity of Jesus one of the things that you're going to have to settle early on in your Christian walk is this Central reality that Jesus actually not only claimed to be God but is presently God has always been God and will never cease to be God the Nicene Creed says the following that Jesus is God of God light of light very God of very God begotten not made being of one substance with the father of whom all things were made I want us to examine this story here this scene if you will in Jesus's Earthly Ministry and I want us to see a couple of very important things first of all I want us to see that Jesus taught the scriptures he held to the authority and the sufficiency of God's word but also what you will notice in this scene is that Jesus also taught through extraordinary events Miracles and signs and wonders accompanied Jesus's Earthly Ministry give your attention now to verse 17 and notice that Jesus taught the Scriptures it says that Jesus was there what was he doing there he was teaching if you look at verse number 17 it says on on one of those days as he was teaching the Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem and the power of the Lord was with him to heal Jesus was teaching if you go to Mark's account of this very scene Mark says that he was preaching the idea is that Jesus was standing there in a posture of authority he was standing there declaring the word of God teaching and preaching although distinct they overlap and Jesus was the greatest teacher and the greatest preacher that the world has ever seen Jesus is standing there in the presence of these these people this great crowd and he's teaching the word Jesus taught the scriptures what you must understand is that you can have confidence in the word of God the word of God preached to you the word of God taught to you and that you yourself should go out and teach the very word of God stand upon the authority and the sufficiency of God's word Jesus stood upon the word of God he had confidence in the word of God the 1689 London Baptist confession in Article 1 paragraph 4 on the scripture States the following the authority of the Holy scripture for which it ought to be believed depends not on the testimony of any man or church but holy upon God it's author who is truth itself therefore it is to be received because it is the word of God the Bible is under assault in our culture we see it all around us do we not time and time and time again we hear voice after voice after voice and opinion after opinion in our culture whether it be in the sphere of politics or whether it be in the sphere of the academy it seems that everyone is attacking the very word of God I remember my time on the University campus I was a student at the the University of West Georgia and I remember one of my early classes walking in that first semester into a large lecture hall with several hundred students in this theater style a lecture hall and and the professor walking out introducing himself and then immediately engaging in attacks upon the veracity and the sufficiency and the reliability of God's word so much so that I started looking at my syllabus to see if I was in the wrong class he would ask questions and he would ask for students to raise their hand if you're a Christian raise your hand and hands would go up over the room and then he would start asking them pointed questions like do you really believe that the things that are written in this book this book that you say that you believe do you really believe that that a large fish swallowed a disobedient preacher and then spit them out on a beach do you really believe that do you really believe that your God created everything that is and the great expanse of the universe created everything out of nothing do you really believe that he would point at the students and ask and then you could see that the pressure was mounting in the room as the unbelievers were chuckling and laughing at the student body those who claimed to be Christians do you really believe that this Jesus walked up to the side of a tomb and then cried out Lazarus come forth and a dead man actually was raised from the dead do you believe that do you really believe that Jesus who claimed to be the son of the Living God was put to death on a Roman cross and then buried in a tomb and on the third day was raised from the dead do you really believe that and I thought I was there to learn about Western Civilization and the professor was mocking Christianity and he was mocking the very authority of God's word what you must understand today is you are given a privilege to study at this institution that has a high view of scripture but that is not normal across America so you should you should cherish this opportunity that's given to you but you should also challenge yourself to be very much aware of the fact that there is a a god-hating civilization and a god-hating world all around you that when you leave this campus and you go out into the work place or you go out into the culture they will mock you they will challenge the very Authority and sufficiency of God's word politicians will do it presidents will do it professors will do it friends and family and family members may do it but what you must see is that as we look at this text we see that Jesus himself held to the authority of scripture he was teaching the word of God if you go all throughout the New Testament and Jesus's Earthly Ministry we see that Jesus actually believed the Bible when he was being attacked by the Sadducees on the very doctrine of the Resurrection in Matthew's gospel chapter number 22 he responds and says you are wrong because you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God Jesus spoke back to the individuals that attacked him as he stood on the very word of God and he challenged him and he told them no you actually are ignorant you yourselves have not known the scripture when he was being attacked by Satan in the wilderness in his Earthly Ministry time and time and time again how did Jesus respond did he respond with doubt no he responded and he he was quoting consistently as it is written and then he would quote the scripture he would quote the scripture Jesus quoted Jonah as an illustration of his own death burial and Resurrection in Matthew chapter number 12. when they were asking for a sign to be given this is what he said he says well they were saying to him teacher we would wish to see a sign from you and he says and evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish so will the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth so you see time and time again Jesus when asked questions or they they set a trap for Jesus he would drive them to the word of God he would teach them the word of God he quoted extensively from the Psalms even in his dying moment he is quoting from the Psalms needless to say Jesus believed the Bible he believed the Old Testament scriptures that he would have been teaching at this very moment and that's exactly what we must do as well in life whether it be in discipleship of children or whether it be in the workplace or whether it be in vocational ministry as some of you will be called to preach the word you must stand without blushing upon the word of the Living God second of all in this text in verses 17 and following down to verse number 26 not only did Jesus teach and not only did he stand upon the reliability of scripture but he also taught through Miracles he would use miracles to demonstrate that he in fact is God notice the scene if you look at this text and you see at the end of verse number 17 you see the the power of the Lord was with him to heal and then you notice the scene it says that there were some men who were bringing on a bed this man who was paralyzed and they were they were seeking to get this man to Jesus because you see Jesus's popularity had been growing extensively as Jesus in his Earthly Ministry was going from City and town and Village to Village he was preaching and he was performing miracles and the Word was spreading rapidly about Jesus so much so that people wanted to just flock to hear the man preach and to see what he might do and there were so many people in this house that the the crowd was overflowing and spilling outside of the doors of this house where Jesus was gathered in verse number 19 you see the word crowd if you go back to verse number one of chapter five you see the word crowd and again it's repeated in verse number 16. the point is is that wherever Jesus went there were crowds gathered because he was preaching the word and he was performing Miracles and signs and wonders and people could not explain it and as his popularity grew everyone wanted to come and see for themselves these friends were here with this man that was paralyzed and they wanted to get him into the very presence of Jesus the Pharisees were there again the Pharisees were were individuals who were the teachers of the law they were the the elites if you will in the religious community of of of Israel of the Jewish people and unlike the Sadducees who did not believe in miracles the Pharisees did believe in miracles they did believe and embrace the resurrection of the Dead they did believe in an afterlife they did believe and embrace what they consider to be the sovereignty of God they were monotheistic and they also claimed to believe in the doctrine of predestination they seem to be rather orthodox But as time would progress there's Zeal for the law would cause them to build a great fits around God's law and then add things to God's law so as to pervert it the teachers of the law here referenced in verse number 17. we see they are the scribes the scribes and notice in verse number 18 and following this scene unfolds with with these individuals who are bringing this man on a bed paralyzed there could not move and Jesus notices their faith you see the word faith in verse number 20. and when he saw their faith he said man your sins are forgiven you interestingly enough these individuals are bringing their friend to Jesus they had heard of Jesus's power to heal they had heard about the Miracles they had heard about the signs and wonders and they knew that their friend was in a very desperate State and a massive need and so they flocked to where they heard that Jesus was with the man carrying him on this bed they wanted him to be in the very presence of Jesus they saw and felt that Jesus was their hope they were determined they acted with urgency we can learn a lot from this in this in this scene Jesus points out their faith not just talking about the man on the bed but also the friends the whole group and because they could not get inside notice what happens there if you if you look it says in verse number 19 finding no way to bring him in because of the great crowd they went up on top of the house now in this culture the the rooftops would have been flat and they would not have had the the pitch roof like we see in our culture today and the tile the clay tiles they would start to take apart and create this hole big enough to let a man down on this bed and interestingly enough as you see Jesus respond in verse number 20 You Don't See Jesus talking about the fact that you know these guys are just disrupting everything no and in fact he points out that they had great faith and as the whole scene unfolds as the man comes down on this bed in front of everyone in the crowd you can just picture everyone looking over the top trying to stand up trying to get a glimpse trying to see what was happening they could hear the commotion the teaching had now come to a standstill the man comes down on this bed in front of Jesus and everyone is starting you can just feel the intensity you can just imagine being in that very room especially if you had traveled from great distances because you were curious as to Great Miracles and signs and wonders yeah okay he's teaching the word okay when's he going to do something that's extraordinary when's he going to do something that's really going to be powerful when is a miracle going to take place and suddenly the moment happened he stops teaching it's quiet in the room except for the commotion of the the roof being taken apart from from on top of the house and now here comes this bed down with this paralyzed man and his friends there trying to get the man in the very presence of Jesus now you can just imagine what the intensity growing to a fever pitch they're thinking okay here it is here's the great moment here's the moment where we're going to get to see it for ourselves now you've got to remember this is a primitive time there was no Tick Tock there was no internet there was no social media there was no Facebook there was no Instagram there was no opportunity to spread the the Miracles around by just the snap of a phone and then sending it out with a couple of hashtags so that everyone could see it know us by Word of Mouth they would talk about it in their Village then friends would spread it to another Village and they would spread around and suddenly everyone's traveling to see this man named Jesus at that very moment they're thinking here it is and Jesus does the unthinkable Jesus does something that's very strange instead of continuing to teach he stopped and instead of saying what they thought at that very moment when Jesus started to speak he's going to say stand up and walk rise up and walk but Jesus doesn't do that he does something that is very unique in fact he does the unthinkable he actually says man your sins are forgiven that you can just imagine at that very moment first of all you have a response from the people in the room with the great fever pitch of intensity or wanting to see a miracle and now Jesus just looks at the man and says your sins are forgiven you well that's not really extraordinary but then the teachers of the law the Pharisees and the scribes that were sitting perhaps on the very front row in a place of honor and Prestige or standing there at the front watching they're offended they're offended in fact they even started to reason within themselves they started to question you see this controversy now as as they were there you just noticed in the text here it says when this happens they started to to question Jesus inwardly accusing him of blasphemy how dare this man actually say your sins are forgiven you because only God can do that and they were actually correct about that if you go all the way back through the Old Testament scriptures you see in the scene with the Lord coming before Moses on the Mountainside in Exodus chapter 34 verses 6 and 7. it says the Lord passed before him and proclaimed the Lord the Lord this is Yahweh Yahweh a god merciful and gracious slow to anger and abounding and steadfast love and faithfulness keeping steadfast love for thousands forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin it goes on and says much more about himself but the fact is this is what the Lord was proclaiming about himself to Moses that he is The God Who forgives sin in Nehemiah chapter 9 when you have Israel standing and confessing and then reading the law for a quarter of the day just reading the law of God they're reading testimonies about Israel and they get to a place where they learn about their forefathers that they refuse to obey and then it says this but you are a god ready to forgive gracious and merciful slow to anger and abounding and steadfast love and did not forsake them so in Exodus 34 we see God is The God Who forgives sin in Nehemiah chapter 9 we see the the testimony that God is a God who is gracious and merciful and forgive sin and the Psalms in Psalm 103 verse 12 we learned that our God forgives our sin and he removes our transgressions as far as the East is from the West in Isaiah 55 verse 7 we see that our God will abundantly pardon the point is is that our God is a God who forgives God is the one who possesses the authority to forgive sins who is it that would have the the audacious desire to stand in a posture of authority and dare say to a man your sins be forgiven you but that's exactly what Jesus did that's exactly what happened and we live in a culture that hates that very truth in recent days my Twitter account has been hijacked by many trolls who it doesn't matter what I say they come after me with vicious vile hatred so I was in Brazil recently with a staff member and I was preaching there and on our travels back I said you know what I'm just going to test when I get home tomorrow I'm just going to Tweet out something simple like Jesus Is God and then just see what the response is and so I did and it was unbelievable they just went bananas it's a simple tweet three words filled with absolute truth and the Godless culture hates it In This Very scene as as this crowd was interested in seeing a miracle done Jesus does the unthinkable and says your sins are forgiven you what is he doing this is what Jesus was doing mark it down Jesus was was making it abundantly clear he is claiming to be God that's what he was doing and all throughout the scriptures we see that Jesus makes these claims to be God if you go back to Exodus you have the Lord speaking to Moses and telling Moses to go before his people and to command them to follow and he was a bit nervous and so he asked he said well when I go and I stand before the people and I speak these words to them they're going to ask me who sent you and then I'm going to have to give them an answer and so this is how the Lord responded he said you tell them that I am that I am has sent you the I am who spoke to Moses is the very God who protected Israel the I am who spoke to Moses is the very God who shamed Egypt the very I am who spoke to Moses is the one who parted the Red Sea and he's the one who saved Israel alive and so that very scene was passed down from generation to generation to generation to generation as the people of God would disciple their families to learn about who God is and then you come to the New Testament and you see that time and time and time again Jesus in his Earthly Ministry would make powerful statements such as in John chapter number eight where he would say before Abraham was I am or in John chapter 6 I am the bread of life or in John chapter 8 I am the light of the world or in John chapter 10 I am the door to the sheep or in John chapter 10 I am the Good Shepherd or in John chapter 14 I am the way the truth and the life and no man comes unto the father but by me or in John 15 I am the True Vine Time and Time and Time Again Jesus would make these statements claiming to be God but in this scene he doesn't use that same exact phrase but what he does when he says your sins are forgiven he is claiming to possess the authority of God it is one thing to perform some sort of Miracle they could they could try to explain that away but when Jesus possessed the authority to actually forgive sin stepped across the line according to the Pharisees and the scribes but Jesus proved his deity further if you look in your text here you'll see in verse number 22 when they questioned him and they asked questions like how in the world is this possible who is this who speaks blasphemies who can forgive sins but God Alone notice how Jesus responds in verse 22 when Jesus perceived their thoughts he answered them why do you question in your hearts now they're standing there Furious these Pharisees and scribes they're furious with Jesus and then Jesus looks at them and start speaking the things that they're thinking in their mind and their heart they're making accusations against Jesus without a spoken word and he reads their minds and then speaks to them and confronts them this is just another means by which Jesus was proving his deity right in their very presence and then the scene turns in verse number 24 he says but that you may know that the son of man speaking of himself has Authority on Earth to forgive sins he said to the man who is paralyzed I say to you rise and pick up your bed and go home and immediately he rose up before them and picked up what he had been lying on and went home glorifying God and amazement sees them all and they glorified God and were filled with awe saying we have seen extraordinary things today Jesus proved his his deity he proved the fact that he is indeed not just a teacher not just a Rabbi not just a prophet but he in fact is God very God of very God light of light one with the father God in human flesh it was a massive miracle it was in fact a double miracle the first miracle was that he forgave the man's sins the second miracle was a physical miracle that Illustrated what happened in the first miracle and both served to prove the fact that Jesus is God this is powerful this is this is an unbelievable scene and you can imagine the scene now with the house there many scholars believe that this might have actually been Peter's home it's just filled with all of these people who are just seeing this whole thing play out right before them and when this happens when Jesus not only not only speaks with authority and the posture of deity and says to the man that his sins are forgiven but then speaks back to the actual teachers of the law the Guardians of the law the Pharisees and shuts their mouths they were brought to a standstill the whole room you could have cut the tension with a knife it was so thick it says an amazement seized them all amazement how do we use the word awesome or that was amazing we just kind of throw these words around and they don't really have the the weight if you think about how we use words like that just this week my family's with me we arrived here Monday morning we took our rental car we went out through the coast we went out to Malibu spent the day at the beach walked around looked at cars my son and I have a have a an affection for like really nice cars and so we're looking at all these cars we spotted a Ferrari a Lamborghini a Rolls Royce all these cars and then we we walked on the beach and at every turn the cars were amazing the sand was amazing the weather in Southern California is amazing the food we ate was amazing there's a lobster roll there at the end of the the pier in Malibu that I highly recommend it was amazing and we use that language it's so common to us but this specific word that's being used here amazement means to be struck with profound astonishment to be just speechless astonished at what had just happened like they could not speak their that their lips would not move they're silent it says that they were seized Martin Lloyd Jones a great preacher from church history made this statement he said if you do not believe in the unique deity of the Lord Jesus Christ you are not a Christian whatever else you may be if you're in this room today and you think that you're a Christian but you reject the deity of Christ you're not a Christian whatever else you may be you may possess good morals you may be an upstanding individual in the sense of what the world says is right and good but if you reject that Jesus is God you can't be a Christian that's why it's so important to understand when you're dealing with these other false religions like when Islam wants to throw a bone to Jesus and say that Jesus is a A Gifted teacher or a gifted Prophet or something of that nature if you have these false religions that want to talk like that about Jesus like the the Mormons or the Jehovah's Witnesses do what you have to recognize is that if Jesus claimed to be God and he did not do this just one time he did it numerous times and he wasn't truly God then he should not be a man that celebrated as a gifted teacher he should be rejected as a crazy false prophet to be avoided so you can't have it both ways and that's the contradiction of these false religions that will say that Jesus was this or he was that or he was this this this Angelic being or that he was a gifted Rabbi or whatever it might be you can't have it both ways either he is Lord God and you must bow before him submit your entire life to him and follow after him or he's a crazy man and you should reject him and if you reject the deity of Christ you cannot be a Christian In This Very scene they were smitten with amazement seized with astonishment and they responded in glorifying God the Believers responded in glorifying God saying we have seen extraordinary things today I'll leave you with this I want you to remember that what we see played out in this very scene is extraordinary because Christianity is extraordinary the very God that we are learning about in this text of scripture did not just come into being at the beginning of the New Testament at the end of Malachi in the beginning of Matthew this very God has always been and he created the entire world and right now he holds your very next breath and he orders the universe and every Star and every planet is ordered by him and he is indeed very God a very God I want to urge you to think critically about Christ and I want you to remember that Jesus is not just any teacher or any man but he in fact is the god the god that deserves worship BBC interviewed in the UK they interviewed leading historians years ago and asked the question who is the greatest leader that has impacted world history and they as they interviewed these historians they asked this question and then they provided all of the answers and they they numbered them according to the answers it was striking the results as you look at the results you see individuals like an African Freedom Fighter or Winston Churchill or Abraham Lincoln made the top five and Queen Elizabeth made the top five but Jesus was nowhere close to the top of the list not even close we live in a world that wants to throw a bone to Jesus at Christmas they want to unpack him right like the day after Thanksgiving take them out of the attic decorate their living rooms and then write about New Year's pack Jesus back away until the fall that's the world that we live in that's the best case scenario of our god-hating culture and what you need to recognize is that Jesus can't be packed away in an attic space Jesus is God and the unique deity of Christ must be embraced as we follow after Christ so I want to encourage you today young men and young women in this room you're going to go out into this world and you're going to be challenged the very truth of this Bible is going to be challenged before you and the reality of who Jesus is is going to be challenged before you and I want to encourage you to not give up don't throw in the white towel don't give one inch to this god-hating world that surrounds you be steadfast in the faith and always remember that that Christ is King and one of these days he's going to return and the whole world shall know that on that very day that he is indeed very God of very God and every knee shall bow before him and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the father so remain steadfast in the faith don't give up don't shut up don't back up and always remember that Jesus is King Jesus is not just a great teacher from world history Jesus is indeed God and if you're in this room today and you're not truly saved I know that I'm preaching in Chapel at a very respected Evangelical Christian University but as I stand before you I know personally from first-hand experience what it's like to sit under the preaching of the word as an unconverted young man I grew up in the church made a profession of faith when I was a young boy was baptized as a follower of Jesus but I sat under sermon after sermon after sermon after sermon and I wasn't a Christian until I was 25. I'd graduated college and I'm working at my desk at work and I was listening to a sermon on the internet when the Lord saved me I want you to know that it is quite probable that in this room today that I am addressing some of you who are not yet saved I want to urge you even under the sound of the Gospel of Jesus Christ that this very one in this very text today not only did he do that but he went further in his Earthly Ministry and he went to a cross and he died in a substitutionary death and he was buried in a tomb and then this is the validation the crowning proof of his deity was that he himself was raised from the dead on the third day Christ is coming life is short and Jesus is God and I would urge you if you're in this room as an unbeliever that you would cast yourself upon the mercy of God that you would cry out for salvation for any and all who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved to the Christians in this room remain steadfast immovable always abounding in the work of the Lord knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain may God bless you

Channel: The Master's University

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Length: 44min 33sec (2673 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 28 2022