Title: The Incomparable Christ
Text: Luke 1:30-33
Date: 3-22-07.am
30 And the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found favor with God.
31 "And behold, you will conceive in your womb, and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus.
32 "He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David;
33 and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever; and His kingdom will have no end." Luke 1:30-33 NASB
Introduction: This morning I want to talk about the incomparable Christ.
JESUS IS THE CENTRAL FIGURE IN HISTORY
16 For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities — all things have been created by Him and for Him. 17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. 18 He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the first-born from the dead; so that He Himself might come to have first place in everything. Col 1:16-19 NASB
No matter what you believe about Him, Jesus Christ is, without a doubt, the most prominent person in of all history. There’s also little doubt He is the most controversial person in all of history. No other figure in history has been discussed, studied, analyzed and debated more than that of Jesus of Nazareth. He is and has been certainly the most dominant figure in Western civilization and culture for 2000 years. The Poem This man Jesus sums up the truth of His centrality in history. I don’t know who wrote it I thought it was written by Phillips Brooks
More than 1900 years ago there was a man born contrary to the laws of life.
The man lived in poverty and was raised in obscurity. Only once did he cross the boundary of the country in which he was raised and that was during his exile in childhood.
In infancy he startled a King; in childhood he puzzled doctors; in manhood he ruled the course of nature - walked upon the sea as if on pavement and hushed the storm to sleep. He never wrote a book, and yet all the libraries of the country could not hold the volumes of books that have been written about him. He never wrote a song, yet he has furnished the theme for more songs than all other topics combined. He never founded a college, but all the schools put together cannot boast of having as many students.
The names of the past proven statesmen of Greece and Rome have come and gone. The names of the past scientists and philosophers and theologians have come and gone; but the name of this man abounds more and more. Though time has spread many years between the people of this generation and the scene of his death, yet he still lives! Herod could not destroy him and the grave could not hold him.
He stands forth upon the highest pinnacle of Heavenly glory, proclaimed of God, acknowledged by angels, adorned by saints and feared by devils as the living, personal Christ, our Lord and Savior – and our God!
Two thousand years later His significance, His influence, His impact on the world is still clearly evident. In the year 2000 it was estimated that nearly 1/3 of the earth’s population claimed to be followers of Jesus. We divide history by His birth B.C. (Before Christ) A. D. (Anno Domini In the Year of the Lord). Today people are still trying to prove he wasn’t God in the flesh and deny His existence. The move to change how we divide history BCE (Before Common Era) and CE (Common Era) The Devinci Code, the reported finding of supposedly secret gospels and the gospel of Judas, the recent publicity around the finding of the supposed family tomb of Jesus, Mary Magdalene and their family, which by the way was discovered in 1980. All attempting to disprove and discredit Jesus and the Bible.
Believe in Him, hate Him, deny Him even deny He existed as some try to do, the truth is He can not be ignored. And, the fact still remains that within the history of the world Jesus of Nazareth, who was the Christ, who is God in the flesh, is incomparable. No other religious leader, no philosopher, no politician, no military commander, no scientist, no other person in all the world past or present has had the impact or can compare with the person or the influence of Jesus Christ.
JESUS IS THE FOCUS OF THE BIBLE
Jesus is the focus of not just the New Testament but the Old Testament as well. Often Christians relegate the Old Testament to sort of a 2nd class status. Preachers, and that includes me, don’t preach very often from the Old Testament. But from beginning to end the Bible is a unified book about Jesus. It’s true, it is the story of the nation of Israel, but the story of Israel is the story of Jesus.
Beginning in Gen chapter three (v. 15) where God promised a son to Adam and Eve, continuing with the covenant He made with Abraham and with David. The Bible explains how humanities relationship with God was broken by sin and how God’s plan to restore that relationsip has been worked out throughout history.
When we get to the New Testament we find it is the fulfillment of the Old all the promises, the anticipation and the expectations, fulfilled in the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. The Old Testament refers to the Messiah more than 300 times and all are fulfilled in Jesus.
According to Lev 12 after the birth of a male child Mary was considered unclean for 7 days. On the 8th day Jesus was circumcised according to the Law then 40 days after His birth He was taken to Jerusalem to be presented to God and redeemed as the first born.
In lk chapter 2 beginning with verse 25 the Bible records their encounter with two individuals at the temple which emphasize this fulfillment. The first is Simeon. We pickup his revelation in verse 28:
28 then he took Him into his arms, and blessed God, and said,
29 "Now Lord, Thou dost let Thy bond-servant depart In peace, according to Thy word;
30 For my eyes have seen Thy salvation,
31 Which Thou hast prepared in the presence of all peoples,
32 A light of revelation to the Gentiles, And the glory of Thy people Israel." NASB
The other is Anna in verse 36 and we read in verse 38
38 And at that very moment she came up and began giving thanks to God, and continued to speak of Him to all those who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem. NASB
Later in Luke chapter 4 Luke records Jesus Himself confirming the fulfillment of the Old Testament as He read a passage from Isa 61:1-2
Luke 4:18-21
18 "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, And recovery of sight to the blind, To set free those who are downtrodden,
19 To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord."
20 And He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant, and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed upon Him.
21 And He began to say to them, "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." NASB
From birth to death, from resurrection to ascension and to the hope of His glorious return the New Testament is the story of Jesus OF Nazareth who was the Christ.
Each book of the New Testament presents a different picture of the incomparable Christ.
Matthew’s gospel emphasizes His fulfillment of Scripture.
Mark presents Him as the suffering servant
In Luke and Acts He is the Savior of the world
In John’s gospel and letters He is the Word made flesh
In Galatians He is the Liberator
In 1& 2 Thess He is the coming Judge
In Rom 1 & 2 Cor He is the Savior
In the Prison epistles he is the Supreme Lord
In the Pastoral Epistles He is the Head of the church
In James He is the moral teacher
In Hebrews He is the great high priest
In Peter He is the example of suffering
In Rev He is the Eternal Jesus
Jesus is the central figure of history and The Bible is clearly the book of Jesus. Jesus is also incomparable in another way.
JESUS IS THE HEART OF MISSIONS
In the Bible we find Christ described as Prophet, Priest and King but clearly Jesus was also the first missionary. A missionary is one who is sent on an assignment. Jesus was sent by God on a assignment. “He has sent Me,” Jesus said, “to proclaim release to the captives, And recovery of sight to the blind, To set free those who are downtrodden, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.” (Lk 4:18-19)
What was Jesus talking about? He was claiming to be the promised Messiah who could bring the kingdom of God which had been promised. The favorable year of the Lord refers to the time when God is willing to accept or to receive sinners coming to him. The gospel assures us that the guilty "may" return, and that God will graciously receive them. This is an allusion to the year of jubilee-the fiftieth year, when the trumpets were blown, and through the whole land a proclamation of liberty. Lev 25:8-13. The main purpose of this special year was the balancing of the economic system: slaves were set free and returned to their families, property that was sold reverted to the original owners, and a debts were canceled. The land lay fallow as man and beast rested and rejoiced in the Lord.
Jesus applied all of this to His own ministry, not in a political or economic sense, but in a physical and spiritual sense. He had certainly brought Good News of salvation to bankrupt sinners and healing to brokenhearted and rejected people. He had delivered many from physical blindness and from bondage to demons and disease. He had also delivered many from spiritual blindness and bondage as well. It was a spiritual "Year of Jubilee" for the nation of Israel and for the world.
Early in His ministry Jesus made it clear He had been sent first to the lost sheep of the nation of Israel. God had made a covenant with Israel and Jesus came first to the people of the covenant. But His mission was not just to the nation of Israel. When Simeon saw Jesus in the temple in Lk 2:30-32 He said: For my eyes have seen Thy salvation, Which Thou hast prepared in the presence of all peoples, A light of revelation to the Gentiles, And the glory of Thy people Israel." NASB. The covenant with Abraham promised blessing to all people.
Isa 49:6 The Servant of the Lord says: "It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant To raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also make You a light of the nations So that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth." NASB
Paul in defense before Festus in Acts 26:22-23 "And so, having obtained help from God, I stand to this day testifying both to small and great, stating nothing but what the Prophets and Moses said was going to take place; that the Christ was to suffer, and that by reason of His resurrection from the dead He should be the first to proclaim light both to the Jewish people and to the Gentiles." NASB
Jesus mission was to be the light of the world. Paul wrote: (Rom 1:16) For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. NASB
Jesus was the first, but not the last. Jesus said to the disciples in the upper room on his first visit with them after the resurrection as I was sent so I send you. He issues that same call to all believers to follow Him in missions. The “Great Commission” says, "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, Matt 28:19 NASB.
Since the time of His earthly ministry, men and women have braved hardships, faced hostility, opposition, disease and death to travel to distant lands, not for wealth or fame but to share with the world the Name above all names. I have good friends who have planted their lives and raised their families in places like Indonesia, Niger, Brazil, Bolivia the Middle East. They have answered the call to share with the world the incomparable Jesus. Not all of us can go to distant lands, but today the world may be across the street or across town. We have people from all over the world right here in our town who need to know Jesus and there are people just like us who also need to know Jesus.
We can’t all go, but we can share the gospel where we are, we can pray for those who go and we can give that others may be able to go as well.
The incomparable Jesus is the Central figure of History, He is the focus of the Bible, He is the heart of Missions. Do you know Him? Do you love Him? Do you serve Him? Do you share Him? Will you let Him take you life and lead you?